The PokéCommunity Forums

If you're looking for a PC rhythm game to play I'd just recommend osu, since there's a few different modes you can play and since the beatmaps are community made you can probably find whatever song you're looking to play if you look hard enough.
I think there's a big appeal to the solos, especially if you're specifically a fan of one or two characters and want to hear them sing a specific part of a group song that they didn't get to sing in the group version. I usually don't hear them talked about too often though, so I'm glad you seem to really be drawn to them!
I guess it's too general to assume that's just the case for everyone, but it seems like a lot of people especially around my age growing up with Gens 4 or 5 seem to feel that way. It's nice to see everyone get nostalgic for each generation as their time comes around.

I relate to a lot of what Ayumu goes through in her character development and her personality. She starts off a little shy and isn't fully honest about what she loves and what she wants, and as she becomes an idol she opens up and begins to explore what she wants and what her dream is. She's incredibly attached to her childhood friend and she only becomes an idol because they're supporting each other, and she's always on an equal level with her fans despite performing for them. A lot of her stories or songs are about slowly growing with the support of other people or how meaningful those bonds are for her and since LL has always been about sharing my love for something and connecting with people it's always felt really relatable to me. She's the reason why (or has influenced why) I'm so passionate about this kind of thing, I guess. ;;
I do really think those themes in P3 are the best part about it, I just figured the time limit really fit into what you were describing haha.
I don't mind the late response, this one is really late (I just haven't been on PC lately because I'm too invested in playing Persona 4 whoops) but that's really kind of you! I typically do like to hunt my own shinies but something about the shiny hunting methods in SV just really don't sit well with me. If you really have no interest in keeping it yourself I wouldn't mind?

To mark a quick response about the shiny, (will get to a more proper one later or tomorrow depending on how long the PM response takes me) I hunted it specifically for you, so I don't mind at all if you have it. :p I happen to love the shiny hunting style of SV, and even more so now that I'm trying (and failing absolutely miserably) at shiny breeding a specific Pokemon in Shield... 0_0 *Deep sigh* Anyway... Just let me know if/when you want it! ^^

I haven't had a chance to look it over yet, but I made a note of the name so I don't forget! I honestly kind of prefer the solos to the large groups, (also like the duos and trios a lot as well) they help me find who has the best sounding voice for a specific song. (also the program I have to let me turn pretty much any group of singles into a group lol) Odd that more people don't talk about them as much, I think they're great personally. I suppose it is? Not really sure honestly. But I also didn't grow up with Pokemon. I only really started getting into it when I was like 14 or some such, and only because I loved playing turn based RPGs a lot. I'd say I got lucky with having my first 'real' playthrough be of Fire Red, because if I'd started later, it might not have stuck with me as much. But I've since moved along to other games in the series, and have put in much more time with them for gameplay reasons.

That's a very beautiful reason to relate to a character! Who is her friend that gets her into idoling? It sounds like she and that American idol girl have similar fondness for treating their fans well, that sort of thing is always really nice to see. I'm really happy that she was able to help spark your passion about the things you love! ^^
I do like the timed aspect of P3 as well, just not as much as some other games that have it. Honestly it's just because of how stunning the story was, that the 'time pressure' aspect wasn't as important to me. It's awesome to know you're enjoying P4 so much! Take as much time as you need away lol, I'm in no position to expect a quick response. :p

It's surprising to hear you didn't grow up with Pokemon, I guess most of the time I'm under the assumption people grew up with it and stayed lifetime fans of it because it's been hard for a few of my friends to get into Pokemon at our current age. I think starting near the beginning and working your way up to the newer stuff is a great way to experience a game series but sometimes it's hard for me to be able to do that. Unless I'm already a fan of a series playing older games with less quality of life improvements can be tough and I think I can burn out quicker. Honestly if I spent a big amount of time on any Pokemon games nowadays it would probably be Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon mainly because of how they look and feel to play.

The reasons I relate to Ayumu have definitely helped me over the years, things like being more open about myself and deciding to start writing. I can happily say I'm better because of her. That friend would be Yuu, she's the manager girl for Nijigasaki I've mentioned before. Ayumu becomes an idol because Yuu supports her and they promise to follow their dreams together, which eventually turns into Ayumu accepting she can make her dreams come true even if she's separated from Yuu and Yuu following her dream of composing music and supporting every member of Nijigasaki.
Do you have any plans to play Persona 3 Reload? My bf's been playing it every so often and I've been watching him play it and mentioning things about the original that were changed or updated. It's been really cool getting to re-experience it again and I think it's really solid. I imagine it'd be really impressive for someone who loves P3 but hasn't played something like P5.

Oddly I'm sorta the opposite. I try to go out of my way to play a series in order of release if I try one and like it. There are some exceptions of course, but that tends to be how I am lol. I personally really didn't like Gen 7 at all. The one thing I can say was a really cool idea was only done in the originals with finding the Zygard pieces around. I haven't 'done everything' in them, but I did become champ in Sun and Ultra Sun, and that was far more than enough for me.

I'm glad to hear you're doing better in your life, and it's really cool that a character in a show was able to help you overcome some of the troubles you were having.
I take it she was very close to her friend Yuu before they started in the idol group... Does that mean the season ends with the two parting ways?
I'm undecided about P3R at the moment. Not sure I'm fond of the idea of anything being changed in that story... Not sure what changes there all are, but I was waiting for a definitive list before making a final decision on if I'm going to try it.

Oh jeez I thought I responded to this earlier, sorry!
I think it depends on the series, if I try to play it in order or not. With something like Persona, I started with 5 and then went back to 3 and played 4 after, and I'm planning to replay 5 in a year or two to really appreciate how much it pushed the series forward. If it's something like Zelda though, I'll just pick up a game I'm interested in at the time, and only play current games in order because I just wanna play them once they come out. Funnily enough I never really got into the Zygarde cell hunt, I think I just wasn't interested in them using a Pokemon from Gen VI for it, and by the time I would've tried to collect all of them, the Ultra games were out and I'd have rather played those.

Thank you, I appreciate that! I tend to feel that way about a decent chunk of characters I love, they all mean something to me in some way and have helped me. That's one of the best parts of really getting into something new.
The two of them have been friends since childhood and live right next door to each other, usually spending every day after school together. By the end of the second season, they don't part ways completely, but Ayumu goes overseas to London to help a fan of hers, and Yuu stays in Japan to participate in a music composition competition. Near the end they start to worry if they can still be close to each other even if they aren't side by side, and another member of the club helps them realize that. Ayumu's trip to London is only temporary though, and the series continues with them together.
From what I've seen from our playthrough nothing has really changed in the story. There's a couple extra scenes with Takaya to flesh out his motives, but everything seems to be pretty accurate to the male character's route. It's mainly a lot of updated gameplay, such as additional attacks for characters or some quality of life improvements to Tartarus. It's felt very faithful and there hasn't been a change I've disagreed with.

Hey, that's quite alright! I had just thought you were taking a break since we've gone back and forth for a while now lol. Goodness knows I needed one after that super long PM I sent you last. :p
That's actually a really good point. With Persona, I started and ended with 3 because the story was perfect and I knew nothing in 4 would come close for me. Plus, when in the timeline it takes place didn't help. I do have a lot of interest in 5 though. And I sort of tried to do it with Zelda games at one point, then decided the idea of them having a 'timeline' was just kinda stupid, so now I play them however I feel like lol. But for stuff like Mass Effect, the Sly series, or games like that, I try to play them in order if I can. (doesn't always work out that way though...) For me, it was the idea of letting the player effectively 'earn' a Legendary, rather than have them be either some static (probably post-game) encounter or one that's forced on you for story reasons like the ones from the 2 previous Gens. Not to mention that it would also be a very early Legendary to get for a game, and one that you'd be 'building' yourself. I truly wish they'd bring that back in a future Pokemon game... Getting to play with a story intertwined with a Legendary like that would be really awesome to me. And no, I don't count the Gen 9 bike lol, but it did at least come closer to what I'm looking for.

The only character I can think of at the moment that has had a direct impact on my general daily life is Starscream, but there are a ton of characters that have been great creative inspirations for me. A great example of this is the Mass Effect character Mordin Solus, and how he chooses to sacrifice himself to save an entire planet of people. I loved his death (and the motives leading to it) so much, that in one of my previous stories, I wanted to have something like it happen to a character as a reference to it. After I had the basic idea down, I wanted to work on the character himself to try and find a good reason for why he was doing it, and after a lot of work, I ended up taking that character in a completely different direction, turning him from just a random soldier in the lead character's team, into a co-main character who ends up *surviving* long past the point I had originally designed him to die. And I have even used him in other projects as well. He's one of my favorite characters I've made myself, and the idea that spawned him came from Mordin's death lol.
I like that plot point a lot. The show doesn't pretend like there won't be things in their lives that might cause them to have to part, but does the viewers the kindness of ending the show with them together so it doesn't feel especially bittersweet. How many seasons of that group are there?

Youtube randomly recommended a vid showing pretty much all the changes. I'm not sure I liked them all, but not enough that I would 'never' play the new one. But I have decided to play my copy of FES first. I think part of that is the changing of the voice cast personally. Especially for moments like Chidori's death and how Junpei reacts to it.
(very long post lol :p)

Yeah, after playing P4 I don't think the story would appeal to you nearly as much if you're a fan of 3. I think the big reason to play 4 would be if you're curious about gameplay improvements. Maybe it's because I had a big twist spoiled for me but I wasn't as engaged in the plot as I was with P3. I absolutely think P5 is worth playing though, and I wouldn't say any of the three aren't worth the time.
That makes sense, like you have to go through a lot more of an actual process to earn it. Makes me think of stuff like obtaining the Regis in Hoenn, deciphering the puzzles and everything. If I'm being honest it's hard for me to consider the bike legendaries in Gen IX to be... legendaries? They're sorta just the companion Pokemon and I never consider using them for battles or that sort of thing. Because they were around for the whole game I never considered them anything special.

I guess I just think of a lot of characters like that. I get really attached to them and associate them with that kind of thing. That's a super neat idea! I remember you mentioning taking inspiration or referencing something like that is a great help for character writing. It's neat to see just what you can make from something like that, like how far you can go with it.
It's a really pleasant ending, seeing the two of them be able to follow their dreams but not have to be apart from each other. The previous series typically ended with a bittersweet farewell so having something more heartwarming is really nice. There's two seasons of the Nijigasaki anime, plus an OVA/special episode, and there's a movie coming out later this year. So that isn't really the final moment of their story.

I've been surprised by how much I like the new voice cast. I believe almost all the original VAs are in Reload (just voicing different characters, Akihiko's old VA voices Officer Kurosawa, for example) with the exception of Elizabeth who still has the same VA. I felt the cast was still very accurate, and the only real change I noticed was Ken, who I think sounds a lot better.

From the bits and pieces I was able to get from your review of it, I'd say P4 sounds like it has an interesting story. I think the biggest reason I didn't have any interest in it was that it was meant to be happening at the (or around the) same time as P3, and a lot of the spinoff material featured the protag from 3, so that put me even further off for a pretty glaring reason. I wasn't a fan of them milking P3's success, and P4 being so closely associated with it really didn't do the game any favors for my interest... I didn't know 4 even had a 'twist' in it, I probably would have had more interest in it if I'd known about it, but I still don't think I'd have played it back then. I do for sure want to play 5R at some point.
I agree with you, the bike Pokemon were neat, but I have a very hard time logging them in my mind as 'Legendary Pokemon'. I think the reason that is for me, is because they are no more special than the rest of the Paradox Pokemon, just the fact that you get them early doesn't make them any more special to me like the idea of, say, earning all of Zygard or getting to catch Giratina in platinum. Hell, even the 'Legendary birds' in Kanto fit the bill better than Kor'Mir did for me...

Indeed! That's part of the reason character work is one of my greatest passions.
Oh no... That means there's still a chance for that bittersweet ending to show up... (much like the final episode of another of my favorite old cartoons... >_>)
But I certainly hope that's not the case, it's nice that Nijigasaki's current ending is different from the groups before it, and it would be unfortunate for them to change that now...
What's the OVA about?
I haven't heard any specific comparisons between the old and the new VAs, so I can't really judge which set I like better overall. But I do know that I am very attached to the voices of the original characters, and the thought that they won't sound the same bothers me more than it would for most other series for some reason.

P4 mainly centers around a murder mystery. Your party is trying to both find out who the killer is and how to save the people they're targeting. I had the identity of the killer spoiled for me before I played the game, but it still had a few moments where it really surprised me. I think the big twists in P4 are related to that murder mystery, such as who gets killed next or who the actual killer is. When I viewed it less about "Who is the killer?" and more about "How is the killer accomplishing this?" it got a lot more interesting for me, and I really like how each Persona game explains how Personas work and where they come from differently. Instead of P3's explanation where they're either born from overcoming death or a result of the Kirijo experiments, they're more like a different personality of the person in P4. The shadow versions of the cast are born from the feelings they want to keep hidden from the world or deny to themselves to avoid being judged by society, and they become Personas when that person accepts those feelings and recognizes them as part of their own personality. The Personas in P4 are based more on Japanese creation myths, rather than the greek mythology of P3. They're also all legendary thieves in literature in P5, and that's such a cool theming.

If it helps, I didn't think for a second that P4 was simply trying to be another P3 or be successful in the same way. It takes place 2 years after P3, but the story is entirely disconnected besides a couple easter eggs. The only time I can think of the P3 characters ever being involved is in P4 Arena, the fighting game, where they're playable characters along with the P4 cast.
The idea that Koraidon or Miraidon are Paradox Pokemon is pretty much completely forgotten in my head. I've never viewed them as special, but frequently forget that they're even part of that group. For other legendaries like Zygarde or the birds, I can easily view them as part of their own group of legendaries. I guess Koraidon and Miraidon lack that stand-out identity for me?

Something about how pleasant Nijigasaki has been makes me feel like there won't really be a bittersweet ending to it like Sunshine, and I think I'd probably prefer it that way. I don't mind a simple happy ending to it because I think it fits the series so well, and I guess a part of me just never really wants to consider it ending.
I haven't watched the OVA yet and strangely enough I can't find a plot synopsis for it online. I've been meaning to watch it and just been distracted with other stuff but I'll probably get back to you on that!
I've always felt the VA change was welcome and I think the new cast does incredibly well. I think it's a really pleasant upgrade, and they don't sound that different from their original voices, besides what I mentioned with Ken's.