persona – The Wandering NPCs

Games of Endless Enjoyment

Sep 5, 2019Sep 6, 2019 Kaylee

As a certified woman, I love Animal Crossing, but not just because of the bright colours and the cutesy characters (although that does help) but also the category it fits into. I’m not quite sure the name of the category but to generalise is games which have no end goal.
Having nothing to work towards makes the game more fun in my opinion. You’re not pressured to do anything, no time limits and no restrictions. You can just run around and do nothing and it won’t matter since nothing is consequential.

They’re easy to jump in and out, so when you forget about it for a while and come back there’s no confusion of where you are out what you’re doing, and even if there is, like say you played Minecraft one time three months ago. You turn on the game and you’re stuck in a mine. It really doesn’t matter. You could continue further, you could turn around and find your bearings. There’s nothing in control and it’s so liberating. Exiting quickly is always easy too, you can’t get stuck in a level trying to defeat a boss for half an hour (Okumura boss fight I’m looking at you) when you need to leave for work in 10 minutes and everything is a disaster and you’ve wasted the last 2 hours because you forgot to save. Not talking from experience of course.

Another thing about these games is that they fill in a void for people in their late teens/early adulthood. As the economy is destroyed by baby boomers it’s harder to imagine a good life, so in animal crossing when you pay off a home loan or even your whole mortgage, it gives you a sense of accomplishment that seems unrealistic in real life. It also makes you feel like you have friends who love to spend time with you and also this super cute my melody backpack, which could never happen for real.

They keep you creative. Plenty of times during childhood I’ve felt like I’ve been forced to fit into a box, but with endless possibilities, there’s no box to fit in, your imagination can go wild. Games like Minecraft and Happy Home Designer give you the freedom to make things how you want (with limited supplies of course) even if they’re super weird and time-consuming.

An honourable mention would also be Persona 5. Yes there is a story and Morgana constantly makes you sleep, but there are small sections between palaces where you can just go out and increase social ranks (AKA go on a date with Ryuji, let a girl dream) and just do random semi-open world things like go fishing (Because every game needs fishing, apparently).

Gaming

Destiny 2, and the Satisfaction in Statistics

Aug 30, 2019Aug 30, 2019 Matthew

Leveling up. Getting that new piece of powerful gear. Unlocking a new section of the map. Video games are a medium uniquely suited to a particular sort of satisfaction which, while seemingly very boring, is very adept at creating a time vacuum. Let’s look at some examples, my dudes…

As the title suggests, Destiny 2 and games of a similar ilk (Diablo, Borderlands, The Division, not Anthem etc.) are prime examples of this systemic absorption of your attention. And yet, it creates this gloriously addictive feedback loop in the simplest possible manner, with a number. The light level of the first game and the power level of the second essentially act as a summary of your dedication to acquiring dat juicy loot, be it weapons or armour pieces.

This not only facilitates build diversity but also the most important aspect of the series. Fashion. Let’s be real my gamer brethren, no one actually plays Destiny for the various stat bonuses and unique abilities that come with each piece of exotic armour, apart from fuckin’ nerds that is. But us Chad gamers spend hours tuning our look to be as cool and as ostentatious as is humanly possible. And for this, power level serves as a means of making your freshest garments feel even more exceptional.

Furthermore, legendary designer Koji Igarashi’s latest romp, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, offers this same kind of power fantasy, but it’s complemented by an exploration system that makes it feel both daunting and wholesomely rewarding to uncover every hidden passage and mark every key location you come across. The game is very good at prodding your squishy brain and making you want to continue your adventure by showing you its spider’s web of blue tiles, representing the gloriously interwoven map.

Further compounding this encouragement to push on is the subtle but effective inclusion of a percentage which tells you how much of the sprawling map you’ve charted. Well done Igarashi-san, you are a masterful game designer and you have earned a biscuit from me should we ever meet.

And finally, we come to a game which I have somehow never mentioned on this blog, Persona 5 (AKA objectively the greatest game ever made and you can fight me to the death if you think otherwise). The Persona series has always boasted some stylish ass UI, but P5 takes the cake in respect of showing you just how far you’ve come over your 100-hour journey. The little musical notes that drift and dance above characters with whom you’ve just shared a meaningful reaction, as well as the utterly ingenious star diagram that effectively conveys all of your social stats solidify P5 as a masterclass in how to deliver information to the player with style.

Moreover, in terms of statistics-based mechanics that incite an emotional reaction, there’s nothing quite like studying your little anime arse off in the run-up to exams, only to tip over into the next level of knowledge the day before it all kicks off and you’re met with questions covering the most obscure topics possible. Similarly, in the other half of the game, which sees the player scouring intricate dungeons looking for a scrap, the post-battle graphics pop and weave across the screen in perfect harmony with the God-tier soundtrack, making you feel as though you’ve become stronger, even if it’s just by an increment.

So yeah, numbers are nerdy for the most part, but they’re a vital component of video games, and it should be applauded when developers use them in just the right way, to get your dopamine flowing and your fingers itching for another hit of XP. That’s pretty much the only conclusion I can draw from this semi-coherent ramble, so thank you for reading if you’ve gotten this far. Hopefully next week, I will actually manage to get my post out on time.

Travel

Shibuya & Harajuku

Aug 8, 2019Aug 8, 2019 Kaylee

Shibuya crossing was slightly smaller than I’d imagined but still proved how incredibly accurate Persona 5 was at mapping out Tokyo correctly. I genuinely felt immersed in the game and it made me want to play it again. The subway station also felt surreal; It was so busy all of the time and it was easy to get lost trying to find the exit never mind the connecting subway. Just outside the subway was the Hachiko memorial statue which was always far too crowded, and I don’t think I ever got a good picture of it. This area, in particular, made reality feel hazy because I could just imagine Yoshida making speeches in front of the tourism center.

Speaking of Shiba Inus, we also went to a Shiba cafe in Harajuku. Being from England, Shibas are something we only see on the internet and cry over because they’re so cute, but in Japan, they are everywhere. I’m not sure if I ever saw another breed. In the cafe you got a free drink included with the price so I thought I would try melon soda. Best decision of my life. Melon soda is the only drink that matters and I hate England for not letting me have it sooner.

But anyway, the dogs were unbelievably adorable, like, I’m not a dog person but I need one. There was one sitting under the TV next to us the whole time and would not move so I claimed it as mine (even though she wouldn’t come out to me either) and another small white one which kept running around who also did not love me. Most of the time they just lay there because they know they’re better than us and don’t need to do anything to keep us brainless humans entertained, but every now and then they would bark at each other or run around.

While we were there, a special Persona event was on so we went there as soon as we could so that we wouldn’t miss out on anything. It was only small so we didn’t buy much and I’m also not very fond of buying keyrings, or mystery character things which was what most of the store consisted of. We haven’t finished Persona 5: The Animation yet but photos I assume came from it lined the walls which I had never seen before. Side note: Baby Yusuke stole my heart.

Tower Records was something I really looked forward to, even after we had been several times I would still look forward to going back. As a fan of K-POP, I knew it would be a lot easier to get hold of physical albums in Asia. Tower Records held nine stories of music, and a whole floor was dedicated to exactly what I was looking for. Within several trips here I bought about half the collection of NCT albums, but sadly the trip was not quite long enough (and suitcases not quite big enough) to buy any more. What also shook me was that there was a signed NCT 127 poster so, like, me and Haechan have been in the same room… Maybe not at the same time but it still counts.

Another favourite shop was the LINE FRIENDS store. Again, as a fan of K-POP, I was attracted here by the BT21 collaboration and quite shamefully nothing else. Walking in I had to pretend to know who Brown and friends were when really I had no clue and I was there for RJ and RJ only. We took several trips here and they rotated the stock so we ended up buying quite a bit. And by ‘quite a bit’, I mean around £150 worth of RJ merch. Not my proudest moment, but as a Jin stan it’s my duty to support his son. Of course I’m not the only guilty party as Matthew has an infatuation with Mang, however, he’s not as obsessed.

Off the beaten track we found an animal cafe with a range of different animals. There were hedgehogs, otters, chinchillas and some other rodent which I’m still not sure what it was; Maybe some sort of squirrel? It was advertised as a hedgehog cafe but, in all honesty, we only went there for the otters, who did not disappoint. They had a small bag they kept hiding in which melted my heart, and their little squeaks are the cutest things ever. I’m not sure if I was supposed to but I stuck my finger through the hole in the glass and held an otter’s hand, but if anyone reading wants to get me in trouble another girl did it first I was just copying her and it’s not my fault.

All in all, I would rate Shibuya and Harajuku a 4 out of 5 partly because Matthew has yet to draw artwork for 5 out of 5 stars, but mostly because Akihabara exists and nothing can beat that.