Movie Review - The Nice Guys (2016)

I had been itching to see The Nice Guys since I saw the trailer in front of The Hateful Eight, so at 5 months, it's been a long time coming. While I've been aware of Writer/Director Shane Black for a long time, having written 80's Action Comedy staples Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout and Last Action Hero, I really came to know him for his directorial debut, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a movie I absolutely adore. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang really pulled back the curtain on Black as a creative mind, showing us a lot of what he likes to write and direct, which amounts to Noir-styled buddy-cop detective movies with a dark and irreverent sense of humor. He followed it up with an entry into the Marvel universe, Iron Man 3, a film that Disney-fy's Black's sensibilities, but keeps them true at the core of the film. With The Nice Guys, Black has put out another foray into the Noir-styled buddy-cop detective movie with a streak of irreverent humor, this time with the style twist of it being set in the late 70's in L.A.

So without mincing words, I totally loved this movie. I'm sure some people will find flaws with it, but as a creative entity, Shane Black is a man who I share many similarities with. I'm inherently drawn to what this guy likes to make. The Nice Guys does an excellent job of matching and inter-playing beats. What I mean by that is that generally the action and comedy go very well hand in hand, without overpowering each other, as well as putting comedy in the action scenes, and putting action in the comedic scenes. You never go too long in the movie without getting an action beat or a comedy beat without getting the other, which really helps keep you invested.

Crowe and Gosling do a great job and have fantastic chemistry together, and both of them play common trope detectives that you would find in a typical Noir. I think a special shout-out has to go to Angourie Rice, who plays Gosling's daughter. She does an excellent job of not only acting her age, but also acting like someone stuck in the situation she is in. She doesn't steal the show, I think Gosling is doing that throughout the movie, but she keeps up with adults and has fun interplay with both of them.

I think the only real gripe I had with the film is that it runs a little long, clocking in at just under two hours. It feels like our detectives start just two-threads too far behind where they need to go, meaning I think they have to connect just one or two clues too many to piece everything together. This means that when it comes time to wrap-up the movie, they still have a couple things they have to tie up before the story can resolve itself. Like I said before, I absolutely loved the movie and it is incredibly watchable, but if they had just somehow got the jump on the first couple clues and cut the run time by about 15 minutes it would have been just the amount of tightness needed to take this from a good movie to a great movie.

The Nice Guys is a movie I will buy when it comes out, and I would turn on whenever I'm not sure what to watch when I don't know what else to watch. Not every movie has to be Citizen Kane, but it doesn't have to be mindless drivel either. The Nice Guys is a movie that is an excellent exercise in genre work that delivers a fun and interesting story with characters you just want to spend time watching, which is why I really hope this movie ends up doing well enough to warrant a sequel. I would be there on opening night for a sequel, that's for damn sure.


Check out the trailer below, and if that seems like a fun time, that's because it is. Go see it.

Backlog Burnout Review of Lost Odyssey: Making Memories

Title: Lost Odyssey
System(s): Xbox 360
Release Year(s): 2008
Rating: Teen
Current Amazon Price: $88.88 (New) $13.75 (Used Like New)

The Skinny:

A beautiful return to form for Hironobu Sakaguchi and Mistwalker studios, Lost Odyssey is a shining testament to the power of a well told story and old school JRPG mechanics. Its gripping story, solid gameplay, immaculate presentation, and wonderful characters make this one Xbox 360 exclusive that should not be missed.

The Meat:

Has a video game ever made you cry? That may sound like a silly question to some, but those people have obviously never played Lost Odyssey. This game tells a tale of love, loss, and the pain of memory that will make you feel feels that you didn't even know you had. The mastermind behind this work, Hironobu Sakaguchi, is a name you're seen mentioned in my reviews before. He was the visionary behind the Final Fantasy series, and after his departure from Square Enix following Final Fantasy X, he formed his own game studio called Mistwalker. After their disappointing first outing called Blue Dragon, which was a formulaic, bland RPG with little to offer, I was worried that Sakaguchi had lost his touch and that Mistwalker was going to fade into obscurity. However, this game assuaged all my doubts and reminded me why I'm a Sakaguchi fanboy. Lost Odyssey is the tale of one Kaim Argonar, a man who cannot die. It is a tale about the pain of immortality, the importance of memory, and the toll that 1000 years of life can have on a person.

Saying too much more about the story would be a disservice to the player. It is a tale well worth experiencing, simple in its structure, complex in its ideas, and beautiful in its poignancy. The Thousand Years of Dreams feature, which involves Kaim remembering snippets of forgotten memories from his past in the form of beautiful flowing text and images representative of his dreams, features some of the most impressive writing I've ever seen from a game. These tails of tragedy, love, laughter, despair, and hope are emotionally evocative on a level many people would not think possible from this medium and it really is a treat to unlock each one.

Now what about the nuts and bolts of what makes a video game great: the presentation and the gameplay? From a presentation standpoint Lost Odyssey is a feast for the senses. The ever talented Nobuo Uematsu has once again created a musical score that perfectly fits each situation, from the brooding urban city themes to the expansive and whimsical world map flutes. While not as iconic or immediately memorable as some of his Final Fantasy works, each piece really does help set the mood and create an atmosphere for each location and event experienced. Graphically Lost Odyssey makes excellent use of the Xbox 360 hardware with impressive areas and detailed character models for both NPCs and enemies. It must be noted however that every now and then a texture will pop up that is downright ugly and wouldn't have looked out of place on the Nintendo 64. These moments are rare, but noticeable and they are largely background or ground textures. While overall the visual presentation is superb, these occasional hiccups are rather glaring. That being said, the visual style and art direction more than make up for any short comings on the presentation front. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the load times. There are extremely long load times for battles in particular. While the encounter rate is thankfully low, the 10-15 second load time for each one can really start to add up. While not a huge negative, this could be off putting for some players as it does tend to drag the pace of things down now and then.

Speaking of encounters this is a JRPG in the truest of fashions. Gameplay consists of exploring areas for treasure, getting into random encounters with groups of enemies at regular intervals, and choosing combat options from menus for each of your characters. While this is par for the course for the genre, Lost Odyssey does do a few things to shake things up. For example, as mentioned above Kaim is immortal. In most video games this would be simply a "story device" and Kaim would still be able to die like any other character. Not so in Lost Odyssey. If Kaim's hit points reach zero he will collapse for a couple of turns and then revive. Game over only arrives if all party members are incapacitated at the same time. Non-immortal party members behave just as characters normally would in an RPG, becoming unconscious and/or dead when their energy is spent. While it's a small change, wrinkles such as the immortality aspect of battles really help freshen up the gameplay and keep it engaging and interesting for veterans of the genre. Furthermore, this game has a robust and interesting skill mechanic that once again draws from the game's thematic ideas. The mortal members of your party learn skills as they level up. This makes sense as they are growing and changing as people. However, after 1000 years Kaim is pretty set in who he is. As such he does not gain skills from experience and combat. Instead, he learns from the people around him and the items he finds. Immortal party members link themselves to mortal party members and their equipment, either slowly learning the ability attached to the piece of equipment or the skills of the person they are linked to. This helps to create a literal bond among the party members and adds a sense of cohesion and shared experience to the proceedings.

Similar to the above ideas, the elemental affinity system present in so many RPGs can be found here as well. At first it seems pretty standard, with enemies that have an affinity with fire taking more damage from water based attacks and so on with a rock, paper, scissors style across the elements. However, again Lost Odyssey manages to perfect and old system and tweak it just enough to be fresh and interesting. You can change your equipment mid battle at any time, and the game has an extensive ring crafting system. Using drops from monsters and items purchased or found the player can craft a wide variety of rings that add additional effects to attacks, from changing their element to causing status effects or bonus damage against specific enemy types like insects or mechanical types. The power of these effects is triggered by an extremely precise quick time overlapping ring system in battle. It keeps the player engaged and adds a whole new level of engagement over the top of the simple battle system.

Enough about the combat, let's discuss the people. Lost Odyssey is a game filled with incredible characters, from the mysterious nature of our immortal protagonist, to the wacky personality of Jansen, the party's resident drunk, womanizing mage. From the heroes to the villains the characters of this tale are well written and engaging, with understandable motivations and often times relatable experiences. Rooting for these characters, or actively rooting against some of them, allows the player to feel a great sense of engagement with the world, and go off the beaten path to find tidbits of information about their mysterious pasts or possible futures. I laughed at Jansen's antics more than once, and I felt great sorrow for the misfortunes of some of the souls who find themselves accompanying Kaim on his long journey.


The Bottom Line:

Lost Odyssey is an incredible game that any fan of JRPGs or a good story should really experience if they can. It's ruminations on the nature of memory and experiences that are accrued over a lifetime are thought provoking and make playing the game an unusual exercise in self reflection. Its system exclusivity, and on a system not known for its wealth of quality RPGs, could be a sticking point for some. Furthermore, the game is fairly difficult as far as turn based RPGs go and has a distinct old school mentality. That being said, its masterful writing, familiar but fresh gameplay, deliberate pacing, fantastic presentation, and wonderful cast of characters really make it a memorable and worthy journey that is well worth taking.  This game receives a firm recommendation from me with very few reservations, with only a couple minor graphical hiccups and some unfortunate load times holding it back from being a truly immaculate experience.

Reviewed by Grant Nielsen

Movie Review - Captain America: Civil War

So this is about a week late, but I saw Captain America: Civil War and I loved it. After a bit of  a rocky Phase II for Marvel, Civil War starts off Phase III with pretty much everything we were missing from Avengers: Age of Ultron and builds upon that in many satisfying ways.

I'm not going to talk spoilers here so this will be a more general review, but let's just say I really enjoyed the plot of this movie. Before seeing Civil War, I insist that you have seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. While it isn't a direct copy of the comic from which the name comes, the writers give a good interpretation that fits the Marvel Cinematic Universe way more than the comic storyline would have. So in the movie, The Avengers are pretty much running missions without an organization, acting on their own, and in the first encounter we see in the film, Scarlet Witch happens to make a choice while using her powers that saves everyone directly next to her from getting blown up, but instead a section of a building gets blown up. This starts the main plot of the movie, as the government insists this kind of thing cannot happen and wants all the heroes to sign this agreement that says they'd operate on the decision of the U.N. alone and not by themselves. This sets up a divide between our heroes, as Tony Stark is at the forefront of signing this agreement, and Captain America is on the opposing side, insisting on being able to freely act as he sees fit.

Both Iron Man and Captain America have good, valid points Although I do feel like since it's a Captain America movie they spend a little more time showing you Captain America's stance, but they do give Iron Man time to explain his side as well. Along with this main plot line we have several others, but the other big one has to do with Bucky and what should be done with him. Protected because he was brainwashed as The Winter Soldier, or kept as a prisoner because while he was The Winter Soldier he did many, many bad things. These two story lines are excellently divisive. Both have arguments that you feel like you can agree with, especially as the movie goes on.

The action choreography, the superhero team up fights, and even the dialog in general is a step-up from Avengers: Age of Ultron. Now while I don't hate Age of Ultron, it drops the ball several times in order to set-up some other movie, this one especially. While Age of Ultron ultimately ends up trying to serve too many masters instead of accomplishing anything on it's own, Civil War sets out to tell it's own story, and while it does take time to set up other movies in the universe, it is first and foremost telling the story contained within, which I think is it's greatest achievement. Everyone gets something to do in this movie. Some smaller than others, but still, everyone has something to do, big or ant-sized.

Before I wrap it up here, I gotta totally admit that as much as I enjoy the main characters of this movie, it's the set-up of Black Panther and Spider-Man and how they exist in this universe that really stole the show for me. Black Panther is a lot of fun, and they set him up to be the badass that he should be, and make him an integral part of the future of the cinematic universe. This Spider-Man is seriously the best representation of Spidey that we've gotten in movie form. I love Spider-Man 2, and there are things to like about both Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man and Andrew Garfield's Amazing Spider-Man, but neither of them get the character as right as this movie does. Civil War is an incredibly enjoyable movie in it's own right, but what it did best for me was actively make me excited for Black Panther's and Spider-Man's movies that come out in the next couple years.

I actively enjoyed Civil War, and I am going to be seeing it at least one more time in theaters, something I can't say I've done with an MCU movie since Guardians of the Galaxy. I just cannot wait until a home video release to see it again, I need to see this on the big screen, and so should you!

TV Review - Bosch Season 2

So if you haven't checked out Amazon's original video content, you've been missing out on some good TV. It's not as vast as Netflix's array, but with Amazon recently opening up their video service to subscription instead of just an add-on to Amazon Prime, I think it's only going to get better and better. I have so much faith in them because of a couple shows, but mostly the one I'm praising today, Bosch.

I was intrigued by the pilot when it originally aired through Amazon's Pilot Program (they put out a bunch of pilots and the subscribers vote for which ones they should make into shows) in 2014, and had totally forgot about it when the first season went up last year. I might have mentioned it here once or twice in some way or another, but one of my favorite things to consume is good detective work. Anything that showcases a detective working a case, starting from the bare facts to solving the crime captures my imagination in a way many things don't. My favorite movie is Brick, and my favorite TV show is The Wire. If you have a solid piece of content with a detective solving a case from just the bare facts to figuring out who did it, I'm your guy.

While I admit that Bosch doesn't play out much differently than an episode of CSI or NCIS, it's the delivery that sets it apart. The world of Detective Harry Bosch is shown as this pulpy, noir-tinged crime center, where our lovable tough guy ace detective is showing us the seedy underbelly of LA. It's not new, none of it is, but it's delivered in this absolute, confident manner. A kind of manner you can really only have if your source material spans something as concrete as 20 novels, as Harry Bosch has. So when I went into the first season, I was immediately hooked.

A show that from minute one of episode one knows exactly what it's doing and where it's going is amazing in this day and age, and this is exactly what you get. Since the source material is derived from books and it's a TV show, the episodes are perfectly serialized like a book. Each one gives you a payoff for the one before it while setting up the next episode, often leading you to a cliffhanger. In the first season, I absolutely loved the confidence the show had with the story it was telling, as well as how the story played out. It felt like this complete experience. And then a year later, the second season came out.

I immensely enjoyed Season Two of Bosch, and honestly it's because it's very much like Season One. And I don't mean that as an insult. Often with TV shows, the seasons will vary in quality in the beginning and the end, as they struggle to find their voice while the show is airing. Often you'll see a show start a little rocky but with promise, get really awesome for two-to-four seasons, and then falter as they struggle with the moral quandary of designing the show to go on forever and ever, and somehow finding a way to end the show in a satisfying manner. This isn't even a problem just limited to broadcast television, as Netflix has been struggling with this since the beginning of House of Cards and to an even larger degree Orange is the New Black. Both of which are "adaptations" of books themselves, but have struggled to find exactly what is appealing from the source material and delivering that to the audience. With Season Two of Bosch, I think the apparent quality of it is really a testament to the creators, as their vision is so strong of what they want the show to be that they nailed it not once, but now twice on delivering the exact visual medium of what those books should be.

Now, I haven't read a single Michael Connelly book let alone one of the twenty Harry Bosch novels (believe me I will)  but I could swear up and down watching Season One and now Two that they were perfect adaptations of the books they were from. Except Season Two actually draws inspiration from three different books, but it is so seamless in the show I never would have suspected it. Much like Season One, Season Two is a slow burn, but I never found myself anything less than enthralled with the characters. It is such an enjoyable world for me to be in that I have no problem with the way the story is told, especially as a narrative it is perfectly paced episode to episode. If there was one complaint I had about Season Two, it would be without giving anything away, the way the plot connects the dots in the case. In Season One I really liked the way the plot connected the dots for Harry Bosch and thought it made a lot of sense for the world we were in. In Season Two the plot connects the dots for Harry in an equally similar manner. I still really enjoyed it, and as a stand alone season it would have worked for me just fine, but having the case start coming together in such a similar fashion feels a little too convenient when something similar came in the previous season.

I feel a little odd discussing so little about the actual material of the show, but I genuinely feel that it is so well told that I don't want to unveil anything before the show does if you were to watch it. Is this the Citizen Cane of detective stories? No. Is this on the same level as my favorite police procedural, The Wire? No it is not. But what this is is a perfect recreation of what it's like to read a well crafted detective story. The characters and performances are solid. Titus Welliver delivers this fantastic performance as the Noir detective. Wire Alumni Lance Reddick delivers an expected fantastic performance as the Deputy Chief. I think the only actor that waivers for me is the girl who plays Bosch's daughter, and I don't really blame her for it. When the majority of the cast consists of fantastic character actors, it can be difficult to just be average. The story is enthralling and the show is shot excellently. While it's not pushing any storytelling boundaries, it is decidedly so, in a way where the creators feel the material can speak for itself without trying anything flashy.

Plain and to the point, it's excellent television if you like detective procedurals. Have you enjoyed CSI, NCIS or Law and Order? Bosch is the older, more refined version of those shows. If you have seen any of those shows, nothing here will be surprising about the characters or the story, but it's a masterclass in displaying how the story should be told. No filler, no wavering, just pure pulpy entertainment about a dude solving crimes and the problems he struggles with.

Movie Review - Nightcrawler (2014)

  
    While I wish I was reviewing a movie about the X-Men character of the same name, 2014's Nightcrawler is in fact a much more disturbing tale than that of my favorite teleporting blue mutant. Nightcrawler has us following Louis Bloom, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, as he navigates and rises through the ranks of news journalism. Specifically, Bloom wants to take on the task of a "Nightcrawler", someone who rolls around town late at night with a video camera, waiting for some sort of event to come through on the police scanner to video tape it, and then sells it to a news station for use in their broadcast. This can include car accidents, fires, murder and various other crimes.

Describing the tone of this movie is hard to exactly nail. I catch myself calling it something like charmingly disturbing. Nightcrawler is an excellent foray into the genre of thrillers, something writer/director Dan Gilroy is pretty well-versed in, having helped make two of my favorite recent thrillers, as his brother writer/director Tony Gilroy made Michael Clayton and Duplicity, and wrote the Bourne series. This family knows the thriller genre, and it shows. What we get here in Nightcrawler is an excellent turn from Jake Gyllenhaal as this...oddly likable sociopath who's goal is to start at the bottom rung and efficiently work his way to the top.

This movie lives and dies on Gyllenhaal's performance. He is in every scene of this movie, and he makes this character come alive. Someone less skillful would have teetered the movie to either too dramatic or too funny, but Gyllenhaal does an amazing job making Bloom a character who's not only amiable, but also downright terrifying. I keep stating that Bloom is charming and that he could be played too funny, and the truth is that Bloom as a character is absolutely terrifying, he's a sociopathic monster who we watch slide into increasingly dark pathways throughout the run time of this movie.

However, Bloom as a character is written in this odd, stilted way. He's this guy who presents himself as a super personable dude to the outside world, someone who is non-stop goal oriented and who endears himself to "business-like" codes of conduct in everything he says and believes. It's humorous to watch the way he talks. It comes across as incredibly uncomfortable and awkward, but the performance is so earnest, you have a hard time not believing that he believes what he says to be true. And that I think is the key to Gyllenhaal's performance. He plays Bloom so earnestly that you have a hard time not liking him on some level for being so dead-on goal oriented. Knowing exactly what he wants and figuring out exactly how to get it.

As uncomfortable and horrifying it is to see Bloom do these increasingly worse things in order to be the best Nightcrawler in town, it's also on some level hard not to respect that each calculated move he makes indeed rises him up the ladder of success to exactly where he wants to be. It seems that he learns something in every scene, and he's applying it to the next scene. It's utterly fascinating to watch. I absolutely love this movie. It's excellently shot and composed, the entire cast does a great job and the story is entirely watchable. Much like any good thriller, it's a slow burn, but at no point in time did I ever feel like turning it off, it had me hooked from the beginning with it's interesting subject matter, and watching our main character delve deeper into that world was enough to keep me on the line for the just under two hour run time.

If you like thrillers or movies that get under your skin, check out Nightcrawler.

Welcome Back

So it's been awhile. Over a year and a half since the last time I wrote anything. For awhile I was really in a creative rut, thinking I had nothing to say anymore. But since the fall I've been recording a movie podcast with some friends of mine (which I'm going to figure out how to integrate into here) and it made me realize reviewing and sharing the things I enjoy is what makes me the most happy. I want to be able to share that with you all once again. I'm not doing this for the views, (because I don't get any) I'm doing it because it makes me feel good to be able to share my experiences with all of you...whoever you are.


So welcome to Discovery Machine, your blog for movie, TV and music reviews and recommendations. While I will be reviewing current stuff, I want this blog to be about recommending things that are less common, giving less popular or overlooked stuff a chance. This has pretty much always been my mission statement, but I feel like it's needed now more than ever in a pop culture world where everything is about moving on to the next newest thing. So in the next few weeks expect to see new content from this blog. I am extremely excited to be bringing the ol' Machine back online.

Until next transmission,
Raymond

Backlog Burnout Review of Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3 FES: Face Yourself

System(s): PS2, PSP
Release Year(s): 2007, 2008, 2010
Rating: Mature
Current Amazon Price: $98.70 (PS2 original), $15.16 (PS2 FES), $34.99 (PSP)

The Skinny:

A shining testament to the powerhouse that is the bizarre Shin Megami Tensei JRPG series from Atlus, Persona 3: FES is a lengthy, meaty, dark experience that is chock full of fun, personality, story, and enjoyment. This is a game with a unique idea pouring out of every orifice and its all wrapped up in a super stylized world that needs to be experienced.

The Meat:

Final Fantasy meets The Sims meets Silent Hill meets Pokemon. This is how I would describe Persona 3 to someone who is not familiar with it. If that sounds really bizarre to you that's because it is. It should also sound extremely fun and intriguing which would also be a correct assessment. Persona 3 is one of the most eclectic, strange, and stylish games ever made. Its mash up of genres and ideas should leave it a jumbled mess but instead it comes together to form an exquisite gaming experience that really needs to be played to be understood and appreciated.

Persona 3: FES is an updated version of the original Persona 3. There are several gameplay enhancements, as well as new story content. The entirety of the original Persona 3 is contained in a mode called The Journey, while the new 20ish hour mode called The Answer continues where The Journey left off. The basic story is that you take on the role of a new exchange student who has just arrived in the fictional Iwatodai/Port Island station of Japan to attend Gekkoukan High School. Everything seems normal when you get off the train and begin walking to your dorm, however soon everything takes on a green sheen, pools of blood appear on the ground, and all the people around you transform into coffins. Hurrying into your dorm you are met by a creepy little boy who asks you to sign a contract before disappearing into thin air. Then several other students come down the stairs with guns and begin questioning you. From this strange beginning your character embarks on an adventure that unlocks his ability to use personas, or physical manifestations of his personality. He uses these to battle monsters in the mysterious time known as The Dark Hour, an hour of lost time that exists between 12 and 12:01 AM that is only experienced by those who have unlocked their personas. i won't say any more, as the story of Persona 3: FES is excellent and one of the games many strong aspects.

From a gameplay perspective Persona 3:FES has two distinct styles that it switches between. The first of these is the exploration, persona collection, and combat that takes place around town and in the mysterious tower Tartarus that appears during the dark hour. You explore the tower floor by floor, constantly questing upwards. The tower is populated by Shadows, which are many armed black blobs wandering the floors. If they spot you they will aggressively and quickly charge at you. If you can manage to hit them with your weapon before they reach you then a turn based battle will begin on even footing. However, if they catch you by surprise or you miss then every enemy in the fight will get an extra turn to act before your party. This can be devastating and easily instantly wipe your team because the enemy AI is smart, brutal, and takes no prisoners. On the flip side if you can sneak up on a Shadow without being seen you get the same advantage. Once in battle your character can switch between the personas you have collected or created. Each different persona has different abilities, weaknesses, and stats, much like Pokemon. Magical abilities cost SP whereas powerful physical abilities cost your own HP to cast. This creates an interesting risk/reward system where to damage your opponent you must damage yourself. There are three different kinds of physical attacks (slash, pierce, and strike) as well as a full elemental system. Learning enemies weaknesses and keeping track of your own is key. If you hit an enemy's weakness it will be knocked to the ground and you will be granted another turn. Knocking down all enemies will give your party access to an all out attack where they jump on the downed party in a comic book style dust cloud of dirt and smacking sounds, dealing massive AOE damage. Care must be taken however because the enemy enjoys the same benefits as you. Get hit by an element you're weak to and you lose a turn and the enemy gains another. After battle you gain experience as well as occasionally gaining access to shuffle time. This mini game consists of cards ranging from experience boosts to additional personas. The cards rapidly switch around and it's up to you to track the one you want.

Speaking of acquiring personas through shuffle time, in classic Shin Megami Tensei fashion this game contains a robust fusing system. You can take two personas and fuse them together into a new, more powerful one, providing your character is equal or higher to the resulting persona's level. Mastery of this system is key to beating the game, as your power is directly related to your personas. There is an inheritance system in play for abilities known by the base personas as well, so careful fusing can result in powerful, custom made fighters. As the game progresses your fusion options open up to fusing 3,4,5, and even 6 personas into one powerful new force. Collecting all the available personas in the game is a similar feeling one gets from collecting Pokemon. It's fun, functional, and experimentation with different personas can reveal some fun new strategies.

One thing that may turn some players off is the lack of direct control of your teammates. They are controlled by the AI and you can give them general instructions like focus on healing or focus on knocking down the enemy. Overall the AI does a very good job and makes fairly good decisions. I actually like this system because to me it feels like you're really playing as this one character, and your party members are your friends, acting on their own to help you instead of just being mindless meat puppets tied to your whims.

Aside from the slick and smooth combat that can be found during the dark hour, there is another side of the game. This one involves time management and building of relationships in the normal world. This is an extremely strange and wonderful addition to the game. Aside from being this demon fighting bad-ass by night, your character, along with his friends, attends school and lives a fairly normal life by day. Aside from your combat stats you have social stats as well. These are charm, courage, and academics. These are raised by doing things like studying, standing up to bullies, or helping your friends with homework. These determine things like who you can ask out on dates or what activities you can take part in. The relationships you form with people, be it through dating, hanging out after school, or taking part in music club determine the strength of your social links. Each relationship you have has a specific tie to one of the arcana of the tarot cards (i.e. the magician, death, the hanged man, etc). These act as the class system for your personas. The stronger your social link is with that particular arcana, the more bonus experience it will get when you fuse it. For example, lets say you start dating a girl and your relationship with her is associated with the strength arcana. When you fuse a strength persona it will gain one bonus level. Now lets say you've been dating her for months of in game time and your relationship is pretty serious. Now when you fuse a new strength persona it will gain 6 bonus levels. This system is great because it requires decisions to be made. Do I go hang out with my girlfriend to raise the strength social link or do I go to practice with the swim team to raise the chariot link? And what about the exams coming up? I could either go to Tartarus tonight to fight some shadows and increase my combat stats, or I could spend the night studying to increase my academics stat to do well on the exams. This interaction between your social world and the combat world is the meat of the game and it meshes unbelievably well. It creates choice, tension, risk, and reward perfectly, all while giving the events of the game real meat and gravitas, all while telling a plethora of extremely interesting, interconnected sub stories.

A few final notes about the nature of the game in general and the differences between versions. One thing that must be mentioned is that this game is hard. Like really hard. The enemies are powerful, dangerous, and smart. Oftentimes elaborate strategies need to be planned out to deal with certain bosses. I personally enjoy this sort of challenge but it may turn some gamers off. This is only emphasized in The Answer mode which is significantly more difficult than the main part of the game. The game is incredibly long as well (hence the long delay since my last review). My final game clock, after completing both The Journey and The Answer was 110 hours. If that length of game is intimidating to you then I would recommend you steer clear because once you start playing you won't want to stop.

 Furthermore, there is a PSP port of this game. The graphics of the game were significantly downgraded for this version, however there were several gameplay changes. The option to play the entire game as a female was added which is a nice change of perspective. The story is the same but new character interactions and social links can take place. Also, in the PSP version it is possible to directly control your party members. So if letting the AI do its thing doesn't appeal to you then the PSP version is the way to go. However, this version does not contain The Answer, and neither does the original PS2 version.

The Bottom Line:

Perfectly fusing a multitude of disparate styles and designs, Persona 3: FES is a beautiful, bizarre, dark, wonderful game that I highly recommend. If you've got the time and the desire this game will provide you with an experience unlike any other and one I bet you will enjoy thoroughly from beginning to end. Also the soundtrack is one of the best in the business. All around an extremely solid game, and one I think any fan of JRPGs should play.

Grant Nielsen