Gifts I’ve Been Given

This December is shaping up to be quite a good one for me.

For one, I got these gifts last Friday:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.

And a bunch of bags from a beach resort with a name I can’t remember.

I had both books on my wishlist for the company party that took place last Friday. I wanted Oscar Wao because one of my friends told me that it’s about a Dungeon and Dragons fanatic who wants to write a Fantasy novel. Given that geeks are usually subject to very unflattering comments by the public, I’m curious about how this book got the Pulitzer Prize. So I’m going to start reading that once I’m finished with the book I’m progressing with now (one that, despite being a winner of the Booker Prize, I’m not liking very much.).

I wanted Inkheart because I heard of it regarded as “The Harry Potter of Germany”. Because I’m weary of the overly literary stuff, I want something for children for a change.  Inkheart is about a bunch of magical creatures that can leap straight off of the eponymous book when said book is read. As an aside, the author and I have the same birthday (of course I’m from a different year; younger, to be exact). Go figure when.

Speaking of children’s book, I hope you have checked out the brilliant Bartimaeus Trilogy by now.

Persona 4

Guys, dust off your PlayStation 2’s. Tomorrow, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is coming to town!

Forget your PSP and Xbox 360! All you need is a PS2 and a Persona 4 to tide you over in the entire holiday season. Who says PS2 is dead?

Persona 4 (P4 henceforth) is the spiritual successor of Persona 3 (P3) in more than just the namesake. If you don’t know what that means, I’ll draw the Final Fantasy games for analogy. Persona 2 and 3 have nothing much in common the same way as Final Fantasy V and VI are radically different games. P4, on the other hand, is to P3 what Final Fantasy VII is to VI (though I may say P4 > P3, while FFVII < FFVI); sure, the sequels have stories, characters and settings different to their prior games, but they play alike.

In most cases, I don’t like it when sequels of a game are not much different to their forerunners. P4 is an exception to me because P3 is a darn good game anyway, and I’ve never tire of it - even if it took me 90+ hours to finish P3 I clamored for more. If you’ve missed the P3 boat though, fret not, because you’re every bit as eligible to like P4 as those who are already veteran players of the series.

P4 draws itself apart from other role-playing games by being role-playing to the core. That may sound like juju-PR talk to some, but believe me, P4 (and P3) immerses you in ways that can only be wishful thinking for other games: what else lets you play a high school student who actually has to study, take exams, join clubs, befriend classmates and teachers, all while saving the world? And if you’re thinking, “Well gosh, that’s a lot of stuff. I bet it gets really crazy!” trust me, it does. Saving the world also gets frighteningly hard because the in-game battles will wipe you out if you just sit back and mash a button thinking the game will play itself this way. Without strategizing, and especially without exposing your opponents’ weaknesses, you won’t go far.

So go get Persona 4. It’s fun, challenging, and it tells a gripping tale too. Watch the opening video and gawk at the art style.

 EDIT: Okay, there was a mistake. I posted Persona 3: FES’s opening video. You can see that too if you like, because it also has a great art style. Here’s the real stuff:

And now here are some spoiler-free bullet points of stuff P4 improves from P3:

• Befriending people feels less of a chore now because your skills also increase while your relationships become stronger.
• Also, there are times when someone else will tag along with the person you’re hanging out with, making the interactions livelier.
•  The spells of the Shin Megami Tensei games always have names that nobody can memorize. They’re not called by simple names like “fire” or “ice”; they’re called “agi” or “bufu”. P4 is the first game of the series where, even when battling, you can read the spells’ description to know what they do. I’m really really really really really really really really glad that this game finally allows that. I don’t know why it took so long for the game’s developers to realize that it’s so hard to remember the spells - who the hell knows what Rakakuja does?
• Unlike P3, where you only have direct control of the main character, in P4 you have direct control of every member of your party.
• There are now five skills to develop: Understanding, Knowledge, Courage, Diligence, and Expression. Yikes!