Persona 4 Endurance Run

[ethanThomas]

So Giant Bomb's play-through of Persona 4 wrapped up today. Did anyone else here follow it? What did you think of it? (either the game or GB's presentation of it)

I thought the story was pretty neat-o, even if there are some points where everything grinds to a halt in order either beat you over the head with the game's themes or to provide yet another unnecessary reiteration of the plot so far.

Well that and I think the 'everything is beautiful forever and we'll be best friends for eternity' tone of the ending smacked of the willful naivete that the characters aggressively refuted over the course of the final boss fight

[Sombre]

The game is good, but I hate Jeff Gerstmann, so I didn't watch much of it.

After the 30th episode of "HAHAHA JAPANESE RPG GAMES GET IT, FOR JERKS AND GUYZ WHO LOVE ANIME", it just got old.

Yeah, JRPGS are clichéd, we get it. If you haven't played it but watched the run, it kinda loses all its fidelity.

[Irishjohn]

I really enjoyed the Endurance Run, though my watching became erratic after about episode 90 or so. I liked it, but I like the Giant Bomb presentation in general.

[Irishjohn]

The game is good, but I hate Jeff Gerstmann, so I didn't watch much of it.

After the 30th episode of "HAHAHA JAPANESE RPG GAMES GET IT, FOR JERKS AND GUYZ WHO LOVE ANIME", it just got old.

Yeah, JRPGS are clichéd, we get it. If you haven't played it but watched the run, it kinda loses all its fidelity.

I get what you're saying; I did find that funny and it didn't really get old for me!

Why hate Jeff Gerstmann though? I can understand being a bit nonplussed with people who use a picture of him as their profile pic on giantbomb, but he seems to just be a dude that likes video games.

[Sombre]

I get what you're saying; I did find that funny and it didn't really get old for me!

Why hate Jeff Gerstmann though? I can understand being a bit nonplussed with people who use a picture of him as their profile pic on giantbomb, but he seems to just be a dude that likes video games.

I don't think I hate him persay, he actually comes across as a pretty standup dude. I think it's his fanbase moreso than the man himself. The amoutn of times I have said on giantbomb something to the effect of "I don't agree with Jeff" and to have my inbox fill up is somewhat disheartening. That and sometimes he thinks he's a rapper

[toblix]

I started watching this last night, and it's pretty fun. I've only watched about ten episodes, but this is one of those typical epic undertakings that I initiate, and then do nothing but watch this for another fifty episodes and then burn and crash at five in the morning and lose my job.

[Irishjohn]

I don't think I hate him persay, he actually comes across as a pretty standup dude. I think it's his fanbase moreso than the man himself. The amoutn of times I have said on giantbomb something to the effect of "I don't agree with Jeff" and to have my inbox fill up is somewhat disheartening. That and sometimes he thinks he's a rapper

Yes, I'm definitely with you on the "fanbase" thing. The Giant Bomb dudes are running a cool site, but they're still just dudes. There are definitely users at Giantbomb.com that have this weird loyalty/cult thing going on. Jeff got screwed at Gamespot, and I don't use that site any more for that reason, but it was more to do with the gradual slide of the site than any kind of martyr complex around Gerstmann.

[James]

a) I watched and enjoyed the entire run, albeit to fluctuating degrees. Before long I was almost always doing something else too, because it can be quite time-consuming and repetitive, but I've absorbed it all in some respect.

I've liked the Giant Bomb guys since their days at GameSpot, but I've never been an active member of either community. Large Internet forums are generally depressing places, and throwing gaming fandom into the mix doesn't really help things.

c) I don't like that I've ever used the word "fandom".

[Irishjohn]

a) I watched and enjoyed the entire run, albeit to fluctuating degrees. Before long I was almost always doing something else too, because it can be quite time-consuming and repetitive, but I've absorbed it all in some respect.

Yup, I agree fully with the time-consuming thing. I would have liked to have watched more often, but work and real life kept getting in the way!

And fandom is a great word!

[Shakesbeard]

I started watching the ER a couple months ago and enjoyed it quite a bit, heard about it through the Bombcast, seemed like a cool thing.

Fast forward several months later sitting on the couch with my girlfriend, arguing over which Personas we were going to fuse and whether we should spend the evening (in the game) reading a book, folding paper cranes, hanging out with a little girl or going to bed early in the hopes of having a weird dream about being our friend's parent or wrestling with luchador masks on.

Persona is really fun, especially when you can tackle it in a similar fashion to the GB guys, with someone beside you to laugh at the silliness or get nervous when things go awry.

(I've also got some issues with Jeff, I find it really awkward whenever he says something like "watch out though, this game is CRAZY japanese" or "the story is really japanese" on the podcast or ER. It just seems lazy. Oh and there's also that "sss" sound he makes, the first time someone pointed it out I didn't know what they were talking about, but oh my god, I can't UN-hear it and it's like nails on a chalkboard now. If you don't know what I mean, try making a scoffing sound like "psh, whatever", but lose the p and the h, so it's more of just a "tss" sound. ALL THE TIME)

[Garple]

(I've also got some issues with Jeff, I find it really awkward whenever he says something like "watch out though, this game is CRAZY japanese" or "the story is really japanese" on the podcast or ER. It just seems lazy.

It's verbal shorthand, and I think it's effective. You know exactly what he means don't you? There's like a whole paradigm in place for popular Japanese genre fiction. It's almost like Tarrantino films, you know, how he has so many characteristic tropes that he's like a genre unto himself? Or, it's like when you say, "Russian PC Game" most people (gamers anyway) have a whole set of bullet points in their mind as to what that means without you having to go into further explanations. Plus, they're talking as they're playing, so they're trying to be "Snappy Gamers" and keep the banter fluid. They can't talk about any one thing for too long because things are constantly going on on the screen. And the ER and quicklooks are supposed to be informal, jokey and fun; I don't really need them to be busting out highbrow analysis...

[Shakesbeard]

It's verbal shorthand, and I think it's effective. You know exactly what he means don't you? There's like a whole paradigm in place for popular Japanese genre fiction. It's almost like Tarrantino films, you know, how he has so many characteristic tropes that he's like a genre unto himself? Or, it's like when you say, "Russian PC Game" most people (gamers anyway) have a whole set of bullet points in their mind as to what that means without you having to go into further explanations. Plus, they're talking as they're playing, so they're trying to be "Snappy Gamers" and keep the banter fluid. They can't talk about any one thing for too long because things are constantly going on on the screen. And the ER and quicklooks are supposed to be informal, jokey and fun; I don't really need them to be busting out highbrow analysis...

Eh, I see what you're saying, I just don't think saying something like "Muramasa has a really japanese story" holds any more water than saying "Gears of War 2 or Mass Effect have really western stories". I never asked for poetry or "highbrow analysis" from a Video game podcast that also taste tests candy and drinks, but a little less "lol those wacky japanese" and a little more clarity has never hurt anyone.

For the record, I agree with what you're putting down, just not in this context.

[Garple]

Eh, I see what you're saying, I just don't think saying something like "Muramasa has a really japanese story" holds any more water than saying "Gears of War 2 or Mass Effect have really western stories". I never asked for poetry or "highbrow analysis" from a Video game podcast that also taste tests candy and drinks, but a little less "lol those wacky japanese" and a little more clarity has never hurt anyone.

For the record, I agree with what you're putting down, just not in this context.

Ok. Agree to disagree. I can understand why it would bother you. In the instances in which I've heard them use that type of phrase though, they do explain, to a degree, what makes the subject "mad Japanese", but I'm new to Giantbomb in general, so I haven't heard/seen nearly everything.

[Shakesbeard]

Hearing them talk about the end of the ER on this week's Bombcast makes me worried about finishing P4 myself. Here's hoping I can stretch it out to last until the PSP Persona 3 release.

Until then...I'm off to the meat dimension.

[toblix]

Jesus Christ. I'm at episode 64 of this thing, and it's dawning on me that I'm spending my time watching these guys play through these tedious grinding sessions, and it's quite boring. For some reason, though, I keep watching it. For those of you who have "completed" this, will the pattern of recurring hours of grinding sessions be the same throughout the whole thing? I'm sort of interested in where this all goes -- the story is fun, the commentary is funny at times and the enemy design is crazy awesome... but I'm just about 25% through...

[miffy495]

I haven't watched any, but I thought there were only 150 episodes?

[ethanThomas]

Personally I just loaded up the whole segment before I started watching, this allowed me to easily skip over the grindy bits.

[James]

It's definitely something to watch while you have something else to occupy part of your attention. There are parts of it where it picks up, due to story points or crazy enemies. Towards the end it gets a bit more interesting. I was disappointed that they didn't fuse more of the really elaborate personas, though.