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Persona is very big on symbology and imagery.

The idea behind the gun to the head is that the Persona which you summon is an aspect of yourself, an archetype which represents your inner self (which is why everybody except you can summon only one persona and a specific one which, if you know your mythology, kind of reflects that character's personality). The shooting in the head then is the act of expelling that aspect from the checkered room in your head, releasing it into the world so that it can alter your surroundings.

I wish that "kotodama" was carried on past Persona 2. Mechanically it wasn't a very interesting system but thematically and plot wise it was a crazy awesome plot device. The way it was worked in is fabulous too, and had a huge synergy with the concept of Persona themselves. Being able to influence the world through belief, which in turn is spread by word, so that great things can happen and history itself can be altered is such a sublime concept.

Just think about it, if enough people believe in something then it is as good as fact. Now imagine if you and the enemy are manipulating that power to try to reach your outcome. Consider that people will only believe so much so that the changes you make have to be minor, like spreading a rumor that a sketchy bar also discreetly sells guns under the counter so you can arm yourself, but profound enough that they can give you an advantage. Absolutely fabulous.

That said, I freely admit that my interest in the Persona series is entirely plot and concept based. I'm not a huge fan of turn-based RPGs or random-dungeons.

Heeeeeeeeeey, you. heart

I need to make more time for games that aren't Pokemon.

*snugs*

Make sure you break Stream's knees before your wedding! Don't want him going anywhere now, right?

So "Kotodama" is the rumor thing? I've been playing the English Innocent Sin patch a bit (although my computer borked so I have to start from the beginning again ughgghghg) and it is really awesome.

I wish they would remake the Persona 2 games, I have a hard time getting into playing console games on my computer.

Yeah. Kotodama literally translates into "the power of words," or something like that anyways. Traditionally it's kind of like magic, but in Persona, it's the influencing of belief through words. Since a lot of Persona deals with materializing abstracts, the pairing of kotodama, which brings form to the formless, and the Personas, which are form to archetypes, is just awesome. You'll find that a lot of what happens in Persona, and why things are possible, is due to the fact that people believe it to be that way as influenced by kotodama. At first the influence is relatively minor, but the further into the game, the more minor rumours and beliefs begin to escalate to insanity.

Oh, and the art for Persona is awesome too. Some of the Persona? Wickedly twisted yet so very fitting considering their namesakes.

WJJJJJJ

Did you see my seester this weekend? I haven't gotten the chance to talk to her much since she got back.

Also, while I'm really exited for the Gatorpocalypse, after this weekend there will have been five weddings in the past four weeks of people I know, and 4/5 of them are people my age (20-22 range). Augh. WHAT IS THIS.

I'm still a fan of turn based RPGs and some random dungeon games, but the story and characters are the big draw. Once you took all that out (I'm looking at you, Persona 3 FES: The Answer), it just was nowhere near as compelling to play.

I actually like how they modified it for Persona 4 as well. It has the whole "inner self/inner demon" thing brought even more to the fore, since you [small P4 spoiler for those who haven't played]actually have to go and let the characters confront their personal Shadow Archetypes before they actually can use the power that would come from them. I thought it was an interesting contrast to Persona 3, which used a shocking event (fake suicide) to bring that inner self out. It fit very well with the larger themes of each game and with the general tones of the story (despair and trying to solve a problem as opposed to discovery and searching for the truth).

I'm pretty curious to see if/how they modify it for the inevitable Persona 5. Maybe they'll bring back Kotodama there. Since I just picked up Persona 2: Eternal Punishment and haven't played yet, I haven't actually seen that system in action yet, but I'm pretty curious to see how it might interact with the rest of the story. I also wonder which mythology will get its turn as the main one for the characters. We've had Greek and Japanese get games where the other characters have personae predominantly from those mythologies, so next game might have some others, which I'd be really interested to see how they're represented.

I do wonder what they could do with the Kotodama system, from how you describe it, with all the power and space that they'd have available to them on a next-gen system. It seems like they could really expand on what you could do and build it into something that would really change gameplay and possibly the path of the story. I wonder how they might weave in with social links, like you choosing to spread specific rumors would change how a social link would work out as the rumor impacts that person and their decisions and personalities. That, I think, would be a really interesting way to take it.

As much as I like the Social Link system and mechanics (so we can explore all the side characters and hear their own little stories), I was a little disappointed that the social links really didn't impact the main story as much as I might hope. This was particularly notable in 4, where all party members get a social link, but they never act differently in the cut scenes, like if you help them resolve their big issues or at festival time when the girl(s) you are dating don't all try and ask you out, leading to either some explosion or wacky hijinx as you try to go out with all 2-6 of them at the same time. XD