Something tells me that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Persona 4 Revival wasn’t ready for a proper reveal. Following years of rumours that this remake was in the works, voice actor Yuri Lowenthal and others from the or🐼iginal cast made it clear on social media they wouldn’t be returning for Reviva🉐l. Thisꦦ was a shocking revelation in itself, which was made even m𒆙ore so because the mysterious remake all of them had been ousted from was yet to be announced.
Atlus either had this laughably brief reveal planned all along, or pivoted to make its existence public in response to more and more high-profile names who likely didn’t sign NDAs doing its job instead. Either way, the reaction to its debut trailer at the Xbox Showcase last week feels like a warning sign of where the series is right now, and that it perhaps needs to stop relying on nostalgia and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:embrace the future.
Showcases like this are planned months in ♛advance, so all the leaks confirming its existence and this brief trailer following in its footsteps mig𒆙ht just be a happy coincidence.
Persona 4 Revival Is Going To Be Incredible, But It Also Feels Unnecessary
I’d argue that Persona 4 was the game that put this Shin Megami Tensei spin-off on the map. Persona 3 and its subsequent re🌜leases had a hardcore yet niche audience, but it was thanks to the fourth entry that the series finally attracted a mainstream base of players who would carry it far into the future. Persona 4 was more ambitious and approachable in its gameplay, and shifted its narrative and characters to a place where dark and contemplative themes were shared by a killer sense of humour and a comforting vibe that made you want to sink into the rural town of Inaba and never leave. It introduced the balance that would become Persona’s bread and butter.
But at the same time, the original visuals remained stylised in a way that leveraged the c🌞onsole technology of the PS2 while encouraging our imaginations to fill in the gaps. The results are magical, and established foundations for the next two decades of Persona. There’s a worthy reason why we’re still talking about it today, and why Atlus is producing its second remake in the same number of years instead of providing news about Persona 6. I’m conflicted since I know I’ll play and enjoy Revival even if it loses so much of the original’s heart and soul.
When I think about exploring the rural mountain town of Inaba, I remember the perpet🐠ual fog that constantly looms overhead, or the daily walks to and from school accompanied by biking through puddles or making sure I always had an umbrella on hand to avoid being soaked by the rain. Greeting friends by the river to talk about the coming classes and whether we would brave the Midnight Channel later that day. It was undeniably charming, but came with a baseline level of constant anxiety. I was running out of time as a stranger in a strange land that the understated PS2 visuals did a wonderful job of expressing.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Persona 4 Golden is an incredibly colourful experience with its rainbow aesthetic made to reflect its diverse cast, but even this Vita remake understood where the line was.
Atlus Needs To Change Either Too Much Or Nothing At All
Revival, much like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Persona 3 Reload before it, appears to be pushing bursts of colour over the otherwise understated palette of the original. I have no doubt it will look the part and do amazing work when it comes to depicting familiar loca﷽tions and characters, but it is already making the same mistakes as Reload. Everything about it feels clean, sanitised, like Atlus is scared of depicting Inaba in the same light as it did so many years ago. I find it quite ironic that CRT televisions are the central means of accessing the metaverse across the narrative, where pivotal events are depicted𓄧 through grainy static and harsh noise, only for the actual game to appear pristine to a fault.
As my headline notes, it feels like an Unreal Engine 5 fan project you’d see attract loads of views on Yo🐠uTube. Sure, it looks pretty, but the idea of playing oft-recreated games like Super Mario 64 or Ocarina of Time in this way sounds like the most unpleasant experience imaginable. Lovely visuals tha🎉t look and feel clear aren’t conducive to aesthetics that stay with us. Games like Persona 4 and its numbered siblings struck gold because there is nothing else like them either visually or narratively. Now, these remakes serve to make them look like everything else out there.
Persona 4 Revival will introduce more people to this stellar game than ever before, but at the same time there’s a worry it might be presented in an imperfect form with fresh visuals, new actors b🏅ringing iconic characters to life, and a take on it𝕴s source material that takes away far more than it adds.
Ma⭕ybe I’m being too precious about things, but aftꦆer Persona 3 Reload came and changed so much, my fears feel justified. I hope Atlus gets this one right.
