Tiger & Bunny: On-Air Jack Introduction Guide

Pros: Let's you relive the stories from Tiger & Bunny anime, beautiful visuals and voice recordings (mostly from the anime)
Cons: very bad (and fixed) camera angle, missions relatively easy after first try

Contents
A. Introduction
B. Navigation
C. Controls
D. Missions Walkthrough *incomplete*
E. Conclusion

A.Introduction
Tiger & Bunny has 2 games on PSP, one being this and another called HERO's Day, which is more of a sim game I think. Unfortunately, both games are in Japanese and since I can't read Japanese, I figured out this game by trial-and-error. To ease the pain for other T&B fans who want a piece of T&B action, feel free to use this guide as a starting point to your adventures as Wild Tiger!

In this game you're in control of Kotetsu T. Kaburagi, in his Wild Tiger hero suit, and experiencing mostly the stories from the anime. There are fights against Lunatic, the showdown against Jake, and even chasing the creepy Blue Rose stalker. There are times you can switch between your partner during the mission, which is by default Barnaby Brooks Jr. unless you recently trained another hero in the gym (I'll get to that later).

On-Air Jack definitely brings back nostalgia for T&B fans who are in need of more T&B material after watching the anime and 2 movies countless times. Voice actors are still the same, considering how most audio clips are taken from the anime. The characters look decent enough in-game, and you can use their powers (albeit for a very limited time). Being Wild Tiger, your Hundred Power is only 5 minutes long, so every mission has a time limit of 5 minutes. And Hero TV is present in this game too; your successes in story quests will affect your hero points, hence affecting your hero rank.

While this game is something fans will enjoy, players must learn to accept that the camera angle for this game is very poorly done. The camera is fixed, and different areas will cause the camera to move to a different angle, making you disoriented. This can be frustrating during battles, such as my initial battle with Lunatic, who kept flying around the fighting space and hurling fire bolts at my Wild Tiger. Another problem is how the game can be easily won most of the time. Fighting requires you to mostly block until the enemy stops attacking, before you beat the crap out of them.

A hardcore gamer would probably discard this game within minutes, but if you're a Tiger & Bunny fan, I definitely recommend you to give this game a try, while tolerating its cons.


B.Navigation
When you first launch the game, there's only 2 options in the main menu: 1) new game, or 2) load game. Pretty straight forward there.

Once you enter the game, this is how your screen will be. I'll run through each option thoroughly,with their sub-contents.

1) Hero Rank

Hero Rank is your (Kotetsu's) hero rank, similar to the anime. The rank is based on your performances during missions and your audience rate at end of missions (I'll cover them in the next section). Hero Rank is actually important, as certain missions require a minimum Hero Rank or you cannot do that mission.

2) Lloyds' Office

Llyod's office is mainly to check: 1) Wild Tiger's stats,and 2) Hero Rank(as shown previously). Nothing much here, really.

3) Saito's Lab
In Saito's lab there are 3 options: 1) Unlock stuff, 2) Give the Gashapon machine a try, and 3) Check your Gashapon collection. I have yet to really understand the stuff you can unlock in the first option, but I do know that you need to spend PP (see further down) to unlock them, and that you can unlock special missions such as fighting the android Cis.

Gashapon machine uses 300PP per try, and you get figurines of various characters. Characters have multiple versions to collect apparently, and there are rarity to them. The second option seen in this screenshot simply brings you back to previous menu.

When you check your collection, you can zoom in on them and rotate them or whatever. Doesn't have much to do other that ogle at them. For some weird reason, they are sideways when you want to look at them.

4) Options
I didn't actually look into it, as I didn't have anything to change. First 3 options (green) are to adjust the audio, followed by the Save and Load options, and I don't know what the last 2 do. Probably reset the game? Will update this section. Eventually...

5) PP
Simply to show how much PP you get. PP is earned when you do missions, be it story mode or replay missions. PP is earned through audience rate attained at the end of the mission, along with taking down criminals or rescuing civilians while in the mission. These PP are used to train your characters and to unlock stuff at Saito's lab.

6) Story Mission
When you see a purple icon with an exclamation mark, that indicates a story mission. Sometimes a story mission requires a minimum Hero Rank, and you have no choice but to skip them. At times multiple story missions appear, and choosing one may make you miss the other (i recently chose 1 mission where I met Rotwang's androids, but missed the mission involving Sky High meeting Cis apparently). These missions contribute to the Hero Rank, and can be replayed.

7) Hero TV Command Centre
There are 2 options here: 1) See, and 2) Listen to BGM??!! Honestly haven't unlock anything for BGM, so I can't help much there. As for the first option, apparently all you get to do is see a screenshot of your story mission. Press Circle to view it, Triangle to share it on Facebook or Twitter, and Square is to delete it.

8) Gym

Here is where you train your heroes. The first option is to train just Kotetsu, while the second option lets you train the rest of the heroes. Training different station for Kotetsu increases a certain stat of Wild Tiger, with max level of 3 for each stat. I don't understand most of them, although I know 1 of them is attack power. These stats can be seen in Lloyds' office. Training Kotetsu requires PP.

Like Kotetsu, these heroes require PP to train. But training would level them up in general, without the increase of individual stats. This is understandable as you'll be using Wild Tiger most of the time. The higher the level, the more time you can control these characters when you switch to them while in-mission. Trust me, the initial time limit for using each hero partner is very short. Each time you come here from a mission or training Kotetsu, the present heroes in the gym would change. You can unlock more gym equipment for a huge amount of PP, and I have yet to figure out why we should. I am guessing unlocking more gym equipment allows more heroes to be shown in the gym each time (to increase chance of seeing a certain hero you want to train). Max level for all these heroes is 3. Also, if your mission has a hero partner involved, your partner would be Barnaby by default, or the hero you trained just before the mission (this pattern seems likely, although i cannot 100% confirm it).

9) Replay Missions
Here you can replay story missions to earn PP to spend, but they do not affect your Hero Rank. Also, special missions unlocked at Saito's lab can be played here. I've unlocked 1 so far, which involves fighting Cis in a train. You can choose to use Wild Tiger or Barnaby, and select your own partner for the mission.

Missions unlocked from Saito's lab would allow you to choose your main hero between: Wild Tiger (default hero suit), Barnaby (default hero suit), Wild Tiger ("crap suit"), Barnaby (Darkness Bunny suit). Using anything other than the default Wild Tiger suit as your main hero will not have tag team options during the finishing blow sequence.

C. Controls
The controls are mainly explained in the first mission, but I'll run through them for us non-Jap reading people.

Not too sure what they're saying here, but basically each mission requires you to finish the objectives within 5 minutes, while garnering audience rate (the % value at the bottom right of the screen). Appeal goes up when you defeat criminals, complete the finishing blow sequence, rescue civilians, do those close shaves (on missions involving riding the Double Chaser), or step into the On-Air Jack spotlight. Audience rate goes down when you get hit (unless you blocked it). Doesn't make sense? Read on!

The controls:
Analog/D-Pad: move
Square: light attack
Triangle: heavy attack
X: jump
O: grab/grappling hook (for Wild Tiger. Varies according to hero)/interact
R-button: block

Things to note:
-camera angle is fixed, making movement a hassle at times.
- O button is used for various things: activate On-Air Jack/rescue civilians/capture criminals. You can grab objects or criminals with this button too.
- O button varies for every hero when not used for interaction with other things. While Wild Tiger will shoot his grappling hook, Barnaby would perform a quick dash forward instead.
- Like any fighting game, you can mix and match the light and heavy attack buttons for combos. Jump+attack buttons are also possible.
- Blocking will block away most attacks (hence preventing criminals' hits from reducing your Audience rate). However, there has been attacks that are shown to ignore blocks.
- Certain attacks do not need blocking initially. For instance, normal rifles being shot at you do not reduce your audience rate until a certain threshold (probably due to your hero suit's armor). But nonetheless, blocking is good.

When you see criminals having stars on their head, you have limited time to go near them and hit the O button to initiate the finishing blow sequence. If not, they will just disappear, and you get the "criminal captured" basic points only. This sequence requires you to press a series of buttons accordingly. This series may branch out in the middle (for Wild Tiger, usually a branch would appear after the 1st 3 buttons), hence allowing a variety of possible takedowns. More can be unlocked as you train the other heroes, unlocking level 2 and level 3 tag team takedowns. Depending on which sequence you choose, it may be an individual takedown,or duo takedown. Most of them are familiar, like Wild Tiger using his Good Luck Mode, or his accidental falling kick that was used on Jake Martinez. Missing the cue or pressing the wrong button will result in a "No Good", and another hero will come in to steal the spotlight! This would mean the finishing blow failed, and you don't get the points for it. The longer the finishing blow sequence that you choose, the more points you can get out of it (along with audience rate).

When you see that orange circle on the ground, run to it and stand within it (you will know by the enlarging of the circle). Pressing the O button would activate it, and there will be a short video of Wild Tiger (or him and  Barnaby if he's tagging along for the mission) doing a pose or promoting his sponsors. These don't count in the Time Limit, but boosts audience rate. Let's call them On-Air Jack spots.

Pressing the O button will,by default, make Wild Tiger shoot his grappling hook, unless he is standing near an object or a criminal that isn't holding a shield, in which he would grab them instead.

-If the hook hits a criminal with a shield, Wild Tiger would yank away the shield. This is necessary as the shield blocks all of Wild Tiger's attacks.
-If the hook hits a criminal (not all), it will pull him to Wild Tiger, who will grab him. Pressing either the Triangle, X- or O-button will cause Wild Tiger to throw the target. The square button one will throw him directly in front of you, while the triangle button will throw him further with greater force. I can vouch that the triangle button throw damages the criminal, as I used only that move to defeat Lunatic in my first encounter with him.
-When you hook on a fence-like wall with red borders, Wild Tiger would pull himself to it and cling on. This skill is useful for reaching certain objectives, and is a necessary skill throughout the game.
-The hook cannot work on certain criminals, such as the big robots Kriem controlled.

Remember how the orange circle means an On-Air Jack spot? Well, a green circle would mean there is a civilian that needs rescuing. When you are close enough, the circle becomes yellow, and that is where you press the O-button to interact. This will open up a series of buttons you need to press in sequence, and doing so will rescue the civilians, giving you points and also boosting audience rate. Getting hit while rescuing cancels the rescue, so be sure that there are no criminals assaulting you while you are rescuing.

Take note that while some missions have the objective of eliminating criminals, there may be civilians lying around (or vice versa), which provides bonus points, similar to the On-Air Jack spots. Optional, yet helps your audience rate.

D. Missions Walkthrough *potential spoilers*
I will split this section to two parts, the first part giving the basic objectives only (for people who want a challenge and not get spoilers), while the second part tells people things they need to note or do/don't do during each mission.

Mission objective:
No. 1: Defeat tall criminals, rescue civilians.
No. 2: Defeat the statue
No. 3: Chase down the statue
No. 4: Unknown
No. 5: Unknown
No. 6: Rescue all civilians
No. 7: Defuse all bombs
No. 8: Defeat all criminals
No. 9: 1) Defeat the 2 jet-pack henchmen, 2) Defeat Pauly
No. 10: Defeat all criminals
No. 11: Defeat all criminals
No. 12: Unknown
No. 13: Defeat the Myers sisters
No. 14: Defeat all robots (2 stages)
No. 15: 1) Defeat all robots, 2) Defeat Jake
No. 16: Defeat Jake (2 times)
No. 17: Eliminate all criminals
No. 18: Rescue all civilians
No. 19: Chase down Lionel Hawke
No. 20: Unknown
No. 21: Unknown
No. 22: Defeat all androids
No. 23: Chase down the robot
No. 24: Unknown
No. 25: 1) Defeat the Mr. Hopper, 2) Defeat Lunatic
No. 26: Defeat the robots
No. 27:


Mission guide:
No. 1: Walkthrough mission, which is more or less my entire "Controls" section above.
No. 2: Defeat the moving statue. Simply stand near it, block until the you are prompted to attack (by pressing a designated button), and you will knock it down. While it's down, unleash your attacks on it.

No. 3: Chasing the second moving statue. This is the first of a handful of chase missions you will encounter. Distance and speed gauges are given to you at the top left, and as usual these missions have 5 minutes to be completed. The way to rake up audience rate is to follow behind obstructions (eg. cars) until the last few seconds when a "!" appears and steer clear. You have a speed boost that regenerates constantly, and its gauge length depends on the level of Barnaby. When you are close enough to the statue, an attack prompt is given, which after pressed will mean mission accomplished.
No. 4: Unknown
No. 5: Unknown
No. 6: This missions is just rescuing civilians, but the fixed camera angles make it a pain in the ass. Try to move fast, because some civilians are rather far. And keep a keen eye for On-Air Jack spots.
No. 7: The main mission is to defuse all bombs, but there are civilians and criminals scattered around the map. You are not obliged to rescue and defeat them respectively. You will need to use your Wild Shoot to reach some of the bombs, which can be rather frustrating for first-timers due to camera angle. If you want to jump over the fence after Wild Shoot-ing yourself to it, simply press the jump button and move the analog in the direction a bit, so that Wild Tiger won't move too much and maybe end up falling back down.
No. 8: Simply defeat all the criminals. You may want to take out the one in the middle with the bazooka first, since his range is rather long. Other than that, quite a straightforward mission.
No. 9: For the first part, you need to defeat Pauly's henchmen. They will fly around with their jet-packs, so simply use Wild Shoot to snag them and throw them around. Pauly comes in after you defeat his henchmen, and you just need to block his array of attacks before attacking him. Highly recommended to do a short attack combo (I use Wild Tiger's uppercut combo of Square+Triangle) to rinse and repeat. Using a longer combo might prevent you from blocking Pauly's incoming attack since he won't flinch when attacked upon. You cannot Wild Shoot him.
No. 10: Quite straight forward; take down the criminals, rescue the civilians and get On-Air Jack spots if you want. Look out for grenadiers; their grenades explosion will hurl you away and also reduce the audience rate.
No. 11: Again, defeat all criminals. Considering how near they are, the middle guy with the bazooka might keep harassing you while you take out his allies, so feel free to take him down ASAP with extreme prejudice.
No. 12: Unknown
No. 13: These sisters are annoying when together; divide and conquer. Use your Wild Shoot to snag one and throw her far away from her sisters, making it easier to apprehend her. The blue one has shoots an electric ball that does not move too fast. The yellow sister shoots a bullet that splits into 3 and converge to the point she aims at. The red one (with green hair) shoots multiple fast purple balls at once. Also, don't stand near them when they recover (in fact, this applies to most bosses), because they attack upon recovering. This can be easily resolved by blocking though.
No. 14: Defeat all robots. First time would be solo, second time with Barnaby for back up.
No. 15: For the first part, defeat all robots, but this time you're using Barnaby. He can still grip onto the fences by pressing the Circle button, but instead of Wild Shoot he uses a quick dash. The second part involves using Wild Tiger to fight Jake. If you've seen the anime, you know that Jake can read people's minds. In this game, your attacks are always blocked. If you try to do an attack combo, he would probably counter you. For me, I tend to block until he attacks, before using Triangle to do 1 punch charge at him, before blocking again. Rinse and repeat. You can use your Wild Shoot on him; it won't snag him, but it can cancel his attack (this applies to several bosses actually). This is useful if you want to be more aggressive.
No. 16: You need to defeat Jake, once with Wild Tiger and once with Barnaby. As before, he cannot be defeated as he'll block all your attacks. You just need to keep hammering him until your mission is considered accomplished. For Wild Tiger I just did the Wild Shoot+Triangle attack to ensure Jake could not attack. Sometimes if your hero end up too close to Jake he would do this barrier attack that throws you back. For Barnaby it's much easier: keep using the Triangle attack on Jake (don't spam it because you don't want to do an attack combo, which Jake can and will counter). It forces Jake to block. Assuming Jake has a chance to attack, he would do an attack where he leaps into the air, and send a hurl of projectiles on your location, before landing there. Simply run around to avoid this, but not too far off. Getting the On-Air Jack spots are good if you want audience rate.
No. 17: Really straight forward. Wipe the floor with those criminals, and get OAJ spots and civilians for extra ratings/points.
No. 18: Well, rescuing all civilians doesn't need explanation.
No. 19: Chase down Lionel Hawke. I'd recommend using the speed boost only when he is visible, or his smoke obstruction might appear too fast for you to avoid.
No. 20: Unknown
No. 21: Unknown
No. 22: Simply eliminate the androids. They are more resilient than normal criminals, but still manageable.
No. 23: A standard chase, just avoid the robot's fire.
No. 24: Unknown
No. 25: Mr. Hopper loves to hop, so use your Wild Shoot to snag him and throw him around. You can run to him after that, block his recovery attack, and quickly do a short attack combo. Rinse and repeat and you'll have him down in no time. Do note that the camera angle kinda sucks, so moving between roofs might be a chore. Next is Lunatic. After defeating him the first time you should know his moves. Snagging and throwing is the safest option, because he will hop away whenever he recovers.

Hint: Assuming you're on the lowest of the 4 roofs. The one to the left of the screen (second lowest roof) would require you to make one big round to reach it, ie. you need to jump from roof to roof just to make 1 round. If you're on the lowest roof and the villain is on that second lowest roof, you can save yourself the trouble by trying to Wild Shoot him while jumping; you should be able to snag him and throw him elsewhere.
No. 26: these robots are a pain to take out when they are clustered together. You can't do a combo without getting interrupted by their assaults. If possible, try to get the attention of one and pull him to one side to take out.

E. Conclusion

When you complete the story mode, you will have a credit scene of the dynamic duo riding along the expressway, where there is nothing much. You can steer them though, which removes some boredom of the credits. Never tried crashing cars here... Anyway, once the credits are finished and you load your saved game, you will restart the story mode, resetting your hero rank and the levels of all other heroes. However, things you've unlocked and Wild Tiger's stats will be retained. Previously unlocked missions will remain unlocked in the  "Replay Missions" section.

With that, I have more or less run through the basics for this game. I hope that this guide has helped you! It's not the best game out there, but this game is definitely one worth playing if you're a Tiger & Bunny fan, even if you cannot understand the Japanese. You get to experience the plots again, and team up with other heroes. I'm not sure where you can find the game (legally or illegally), but I'm pretty sure you can find it!

Alan Wake

I've just finished Alan Wake, a psychological thriller game, on my PC. And I must say, it was a rather interesting game! Sure, it was not as scary as Silent Hill or F.E.A.R., but it had its moments. The game, I feel, is more played for it's storyline rather than for the action. I find the plot quite impressive, reminding me of the plots in movies like Shutter Island.

The story begins with you, Alan Wake, going on a vacation with your wife to a place called Bright Falls. There, you wind up in a cabin where your wife disappears and you wake up 7 days later, trying to piece together what was going on and finding your wife. Through the game you'll interact with people, learn about the history of Bright Falls, and face the dangers of the Dark Presence in the night.

The gameplay is not too difficult. You're equipped with a torchlight and a pistol to fight the Taken, who are actually people taken over by the Dark Presence to stop you. Your arsenal would soon expand to include things like flare guns and flash grenades, in your battle of light versus dark. In the day, things are pretty standard; you go around talking to people. It is the night time that I dread. Because that is when the Dark Presence comes out to disturb you.

You'll spend time running around forested areas, encountering shadowy figures holding sickles and axes that look like they just stepped out of a horror movie. You need to either kill them or escape in order to progress through the story. Trust me, in this game, you'd be very thankful to find a huge light source such as a street lamp in the middle of the night.

Characters in the game are well-developed, so to speak. Their different personalities in the game make them feel unique and real. I'm always glad to see Barry, as he made a good partner and helped liven things up in the dark, sad world.

This game is not scary in the sense of ghosts and stuff, but more of the dark atmosphere and a bit of paranormal stuff(like flying objects that attempt to bludgeon you to death). The sudden appearance of the Taken, especially when you're in the forest, does not help sooth your soul at all. I always felt a sense of dread whenever the forest turns very foggy, as I took that as a sign that danger was looming.

Everything about this game was impressive. The graphics was good, the plot really reeled me in, and the action ensured that the game was not dull. If there is one thing I would complain about, it would be the "final boss fight". I expected a big, tough battle at the end of the whole game, but in the end, the "fight" was rather simple. I'm not saying that it sucked; I just don't want people to play this game expecting the amount of action to be on par with its focus on storyline. This game is really fun to play, and I'd recommend it to people who enjoys such games!

The Walking Dead: The Game

While I was logging out after playing Dota 2, I noticed Steam was showing some The Walking Dead video, and realised it was a game. Now, I tend to be a fan of zombie games, because of the hack-and-slash action you get (such as Left 4 Dead). Yet, I enjoy zombie games that actually have an element of suspense and storyline, which L4D lacks. And The Walking Dead: The Game, is the answer to all prayers.

This game, it seems, is released by "episodes", a total of five. I've only played the first episode, and I must say, it is really good. Better than the television show, in fact. There are moments in the game where you make the tough choices like who to save and what to say, which apparently affects the outcome of your story. And the game is related to the show, as you see familiar faces such as Glenn.

You control Lee, and you are on the way out of Atlanta in a police car for a crime which subtly gets revealed as you progress. Just as things were getting dull in the police car, it runs into a person. A dead one. And that's when all hell breaks loose. You wake up from the crash, only to find your policeman turned into a zombie, and the run begins. You meet people, lose people; make friends, make enemies. The story for the first episode was pretty solid, and everything feels so realistic.

Gameplay-wise, it is not as fast and enjoyable if you like Left 4 Dead, where you run around and spam bullets on zombies just to feel good. This game is slower, with things like mashing the Q button to stop a zombie from feasting on you, and a simple way to attack zombies. Sure, you don't get to use a gun and shoot the crap out of a zombie, but you do get to use tools like a screwdriver or hammer to crack open a skull. I guess it is good to keep out guns as much as possible, as we do not want this game to be just another L4D game. This game balances the elements of story-telling and suspense to keep players thinking, instead of running around and shoot anything that moves. Honestly, there were times I was on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what would happen next.

My only problem is that you must pay to download this game, and I'm not so rich. So I downloaded the game. But there is only 1 problem I fear: when the next episode comes out, will it be able to read my saved data from the first episode (which is pirated)? I hope so.

And Carley is pretty hot! Probably the reason why I chose to save her and not Doug. Heh.

I think that for around 500MB of download, this game is worth the time. It really pulls you in and feels realistic. Zombie fans can really enjoy this game, and I honestly cannot wait for the next episode to arrive!

All About Weiss Schwarz

It's funny. I saw this card game around since STGCC this year, and I was wondering what was so fascinating of playing a card game involving all the anime girls. Sounds like some... fetish to me. Because all the cards seemed to be just the little girls from anime, posing and being cute and what-not.

Then I saw some card game involving Persona 3 recently, and I just had to buy it. I didn't know what card game it was, nor how to play it. It's just... PERSONA 3. Buy first, ask questions later. And I did. Turns out it was the same Japansese TCG as the one I have seen many people play.

So I went home, tried to understand the 30-page long manual, and search for translations for all the Japanese cards, but I still understood nothing. So yesterday I dropped by the shop at Dhoby Ghaut card shop and asked two guys there to teach me! And wow suddenly the game seemed much simpler! In fact, I'm enjoying the game more than Yu-Gi-Oh!, mostly because this is a balanced game and you get to form your deck around specific characters you like!

I decided to download the PSP game for it, Weiss Schwarz Portable, and give it a whirl even though it was Japanese. Unfortunately, after 5 minutes of trial and error, I still can't seem to play a single card battle. Just loads of talking that made no sense to me.

I started watching Guilty Crown, and I actually enjoy it! I think the main reason why I got hooked to it is the fact that the main character is actually pretty flawed. He is cowardly, lost, and plain noob. But as the main character, and with a wicked cool sword, I'm sure watching him transform into a real hero will be interesting. Been catching up with a lot of anime too! Like Bakuman season 2!

And somehow the screen of my phone is spoiled. It's like, one moment it was fine, next moment it's screwed. I had the phone in my hand the whole time, and I didn't drop it or anything, yet it became like that. Nokia, you disappoint me.

Persona 3 Portable: The Review

Firstly, all the photos shown here are taken from my gameplay. None of them are taken from websites or anything.

Secondly, this post is merely a review done by me, my honest opinion of the game, and may hold spoilers for those who never played to the end of the game.

Thirdly, this review is done recently after finishing the female main character (FeMC) route.

Enjoy this photo-filled review!

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First Impression

I'm not too sure how I ended up playing this game. As in, the particular reason of why I even put this game into my PSP to try. It was last year, during my second year serving NS. I saw one of my friends playing this game, and I remember the screen being something like that:

I asked him what kind of game that was. He said it was some RPG game, and honestly I was never really a big fan of RPG games, especially on PSP. I played Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth a long time ago, and I did not like it. And that kind of made all RPG games an instant turn-off for me. So there I was, looking at the screen of the classroom, and wondered what kind of lame game that was. I mean, you are not even controlling a character in there. Moving your analog merely moved your cursor around the screen. What kind of stupid game was that? My friend told me there would be fights and stuff, but I didn't stay long enough to even check it out.

And I think I ended up taking the game from him. Or maybe I downloaded it myself. Either way, I put it into my PSP, gave it a try, and I never stopped until I reached the end. Because I realized that this game was really, really awesome(for lack of a better term). It was just...perfection. No flaws I could possibly think of.

The Story

I recall the first cutscene. It showed a girl pointing a gun at her head, probably trying to commit suicide. And the first thing that came across my mind was, this game has a suicidal bitch? What kind of twisted game is this? Is everyone going to start committing suicide? But I persevered. And played on.

The game starts with your character reaching Iwatodai, some town in Japan. The clock strikes midnight, and suddenly the world turns creepy. Then you head to your new dormitory to bump into the suicide girl and the other tenants. Soon, you are thrown into the world of Persona, learning about the Dark Hour and shadows. Basically, there are 25 hours in one day, the Dark Hour being that extra hour after midnight that only you and certain people remain awake in. You go to school, meeting new friends, yet trying to take out the 12 big shadows that appear, one at every full moon. You learn about the origins of the Dark Hour and that tall, weird building called Tartarus that appears only during that time.

I have to admit, the game has a pretty flexible and interesting storyline. While most of the fun tends to lie in the gameplay in games, the story in this game is just as good. You experience romance, friendship, death, school life... and of course there are unexpected plot twists that really impressed me. The story is really rich, and it keeps you going, not wanting to stop. And like all games, this game has a rather happy ending!

Gameplay

It's interesting how this game brings you through almost every single day of your main character for one whole year, which is how many days? That's a lot of days. Which is pretty cool. And since you're a school student, there are exam periods and holidays too. You even get to celebrate Christmas in-game.

This game is kind of divided into two. By day, you are just a student who has to worry about everyday stuff like exams and friends. By night, you are part of the S.E.E.S. team, exploring Tartarus and killing shadows. So, in a way, this game is like a simulation and dungeon-crawling game. Two-in-one, huh?

During the day, you attend school 6 days a week, going for CCA activities and hanging out with people to maximize your social links(I'll cover that later). There is one for each of 22 Arcana. There are days when everyone wants to find you, and a few days when you have nobody to hang out with. By hanging out with people, you get to learn more about them and, in a way, go through a mini-story regarding them. One example is a student who is in love with a teacher in school, and by hanging out with him you kind of see how it all turns out in the end.

Of course, when school's out you actually get to explore Iwatodai. You can choose to head to the police station to claim your rewards for saving people and purchase cool weapons and gear, go to the shrine and pray for good fortune, or simply head down to the karaoke to sing your heart out and boost your confidence.

As you go through your year in Gekkoukan High,  you also need to build up your character. Studying helps increase your intelligence, you need to work up your courage in order to do certain stuff, and a certain "someone" needs you to be charming enough to hang out with her.

When the clock strikes midnight, you enter the Dark Hour. The shadows come out and play, and so do you. You will head down to your school, which is now the really tall Tartarus building, and that's where your dungeon-crawling begins. In a team of four, you and your allies explore the building, constantly going higher to reach the top. Along the way you meet small shadows and some bigger ones that are like "mini-bosses". That's where the fighting begins.

Now, you fight shadows with two things: your weapon and your persona. Think of it as Pokemon, just that Ash can choose to use his Pikachu or the weapon he is holding(maybe a Pokedex?) to attack the wild pokemon. Your choice of attack depends on your enemies' weaknesses. Each shadow and ally have their own weakness and strength elements. For instance, some enemies have a weakness for fire attacks which I can exploit, while some actually can absorb your fire attacks and use the damage to heal instead.

Because your character is "special", he has a total of around 170 different personas open to him. But new personas can only be obtained either through shuffle time or fusing multiple personas that you have. This is where your social links actually come in. By progressing in a particular social link, you are able to make more personas of that Arcana. In this game, Arcana is a "category", like Fool, Empress, Strength, Fortune, Hanged Man, etc. As mentioned earlier, there are 22 different types Arcana. Fusing your lower level personas will bring about bigger, stronger ones to do your bidding.

I have to admit, I initially did not like the personas. They didn't really look cool or anything, and some looked quite revolting. One even looks like a giant penis. Like, seriously. But I got used to them eventually... by using those that looked nicer.

You can teach your personas new skills, and make them wield the right skills you want. Each persona can carry 10 skills with them each time, so learning a new one required replacing a current one. Which reminds me of Pokemon... In fact, while you can carry 6 Pokemon with you each time, you can carry up to 10 personas each time in this game. But have some space available in case you pick up some personas while exploring Tartarus.

With you and your allies being able to reach a maximum level of 99, it is up to you whether you want to grind you way to that level, or simply play to the end of the game without caring about that. You don't actually need to be level 99 to complete the game, but at level 99 your health and stamina bar will be 999! Compared to the prior highest of 500(?) at lvl 98.

Oh, and there are really funny costumes you can equip your characters with! Maid outfits, swimwear, tuxedos... equip them to your team and chat with them in Tartarus for some amusement! Heck, even the team you choose has some funny conversations!

While this game can be action-packed and fun, some of the fun lies in the daytime storyline itself. One instance is the hot spring incident, which you players would enjoy. You can also have romance, if you decide on who you want to chase. I ended up chasing Yukari, who was that suicide girl in the beginning. Who would have guessed? But there are at least 3 other romance options I know of in the game, which means it is up to you who you want your character to get into a relationship with.

The End?

When you complete the game, you can choose to start a new game using your completed game, which means your equipment and personas would be brought over. You can choose to tackle the game at a higher difficulty, or try the female main character route. The FeMC is a new feature only for Persona 3 Portable, and there are various changes in the gameplay and storyline itself which makes it worth playing for people who completed the male route and want to experience new characters and possible storylines.

After completing the game the first time, I wanted to play the game again using the FeMC, but I ended up playing another game that came out at that time: Valkyria Chronicles II. And that is another f***ing awesome game that I shall do a long review in future, because it deserves it. It was only this year that I decided to play the FeMC route, probably because of the Persona 4: The Animation and also I missed the game. Played it, got level 99, went to unlock as many new personas as possible, and trained my members to all be level 99 too. Hardcore, yes. So?

If you ever have a PSP, or PS2, do grab this game if you like RPG, dungeon-crawling, or dating simulation games. Or if you simply want a really good game. Play this, and you won't regret it.