What I Want In…Persona 5

I Freaking Love the “Persona” games. While they are only one part of the “Shin Megami Tensei” mega-seires (that includes the “Persona”, “Devil Survive” and other game sires with in it), this is a franchise I can;t get enough of. Hell, as of right now i’m replaying P3 (to be reviewed soon…ish) and am going to buy P4 when I finally get paid. So naturally, when I heard about Atlus making a new game, I got excited. So here is what I want in this newest installment.
Combine the best parts of P3 and P4.
Persona 4 had a much better story that Persona 3 did, however, as it was made to introduce new gamers to the franchise, the gameplay and RPG mechanics were a little more laxed. So for P5, I want the whole package. I want the more in depth RPG that Persona 3 had, but with a more gripping story like P4.

The Ability to Skip School.
For those who haven’t played the game, the major draw is that half your time in spent in school or with friends, and the other half in spent fighting monsters. In your downtime you increase stats like “Intelligence” “Courage” and “Charm” or increase your “social links” with friends that give you benefits when using certain personas. You only have a certain amount of time each day however, so you have to choose between fighting and level grinding, getting closer with friends or increasing stats. However, in both P3 and P4, you had to go to school. I think it would be interesting if Atlus gave us the ability to skip class, and maybe add in a new social link that could only be advanced by doing so? Or maybe just give us a third time slot to upgrade out stats. Either way, the option alone would be nice.

The Ability to Romance Anyone.
While the Romances in each game haven’t been too important, I still think it would be nice if Atlus would remember that there are gamers in the LGBT community, so some recognition for them would be nice. Hell, P4 had an openly gay character (unless you played the American version in which this was downplayed in fear of losing sells due to the contraries rapid homophobia) but you still couldn’t romance him. So yeah, bite the bullet and give us the option. And for those who are going to whine about playing as a homo or bisexual character like you did when Mass Effect gave us the same choose, my out look is the same: you don;t want to play the character that way, fine. That doesn’t mean others shouldn’t have the opportunity to play him the way they want too.

Those are the major things i’d like to see in Persona 5. What about you? Are you a fan of the franchise and if so what would you like too see? Leave a comment below and let me know!

What I want In…Marvels Spider-Man Movie

Now that it is confirmed that Spider-Man will be joining the MCU, i have a list of Demands i want fulfilled. Or at the very lest, here as some things that i think would be cool.

1) No Origin Story.

By now i’m pretty sure Spider-man is as well known to pop culture as Superman is. We have had two big budget spider man series, each with their own origin story. By now you either know how spider-man became spider-man or you just don’t care. So skip this part and just give us a good story and good action.

2) Donald Glover as Spider Man

And no, i don’t want him playing the crappy Ultimate Universe Spider-man, Miles Morales. I want him playing the original and iconic Peter Parker. Why? For four reasons. The first is Marvels nearly unbearable lack of diversity. Giving a role this iconic to an actor of color wouldn’t solve all their problems, but it would be a start. Secondly Donald Glover is awesome and needs more love. It’s that simple. third, it’ll help audiences understand better that this is in no way connected to the crappy “amazing spider-man” movies. Fourth, for why he has to be Peter parker: i really just hate the Marvel Ultimate Universe and don’t want it getting any more creditability or attention than it has already. Childish? Yeah, but true none the less.

3) One villein at a time.

While i think a super hero movie with more villeins could work, they haven’t for Spider-man so far, so lets just keep it simple for right now, yeah?

4) Show us the Marvel Difference.

I know i personally have had fun making fun of how badly Fox and Sony have done with their Marvel licenses lately (when i’m not busy being sad over how badly Fox and Sony have done with their Marvel licenses lately) but now Marvel needs to prove this is where there hero’s belong. If we waited this long and the movie sucks i’d ratter just see the silver-screen version of this character die.

And for right right now that’s what i want to see. How about you? What do you want to see from this next Spider-man movie? Leave a comment Below and let me know.

What i Want In…The Avengers: Age of Ultron

HOW DID I NOT ALREADY DO THIS?????? I have failed. I failed you, i failed myself, i failed my country. Dishonor on me, dishonor on my family, dishonor on my cow….okay…i’ll calm down now.

1) More comic book  weirdness.

like i said before, the first phase of Marvel movies did what comic book movies always do: tear away as much of the comic-book-y ness as they can to make the characters more palatable for an audiences that hasn’t memorized and internalized nearly 60 years of continuous and interconnected history. However, in Phase two it seemed like Marvel wanted to add in as much as they could, a decision i appreciate. So now that Phase two is coming to an end i want them to really commit to this and add in as much of it as they can.

2) A damn good explanation for what Hawk Eye has been up too.

Does this need explaining? Jeremy Renner was under-used in The Avengers, spending most of his on screen time under Loki’s control, and out side of “The Avengers” he’s had no real screen time in any of the other movies. What was he doing when SHIELD was under attack? Was he on a mission? Was he being tortured for information? Was he feeling like crap for attacking his own people? Or was he sitting on his ass at the farm of his not doing much of anything? I wanna know.

3) A world Ruled by Ultron

Number 2 is the dark one. In almost every trilogy that rule holds up. So what could be darker that The Avengers losing half way in, seeing the devastation caused by their failure. Sure the hero’s will come out on top, but this needs to show way we need them to begin with.

4) The Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver being more than extended cameo’s

I don’t exactly care about either of these characters, but with how much they’ve played a part in the advertising and hype for the movie, if i watch the movie and come out of it saying they could have been removed from the movie and nothing would have changed, I’m going to feel a bit cheated.

5) A real Death

So far you can summarize most of the Marvel movies by saying “A Character dies, but not really”. That needs to end. Some One needs to die and be gone forever. maybe Marvel is saving the “their really dead” card for when Robert Down Jr gets t be too expensive but This is where i feel it needs to happen.

So, what about you? What do you want in the next Avengers film? Leave a comment below and let me know.

What I Want In…Jurassic World.

I was not expecting much from Jurassic World. When 2/3 of a franchise is crap, it gets hard to care. But now after the first trailer and this Super Bowl teaser, i can honestly say i’m getting kind of excited. So, here’s what i want to see when the film is released June 12.

1) A slightly darker, but not too dark, tone.

With a line like “you have 20,000 people here with no where to go” and then the image of a woman being taken by pterodactyl, it’s pretty clear this isn’t going to be the most light-heated movie. And i want them to explore this idea. Just how bad could it get when you have that many people on an island with Dinos chasing after them? But i don’t want this to be the “hard-boiled” version of Jurassic Park. I want the tone to reinforce the fact that this isn’t pleasant, without taking the fun out of the movie. You know, kind of like in the first Jurassic Park.

2) A good long look at the park before all hell breaks lose.

Even though this entire franchise has been saying that a park full of Dinosaurs would be a bad idea, i’d still go if they were real. Sadly, this is probably as close as i’ll ever get. So, before people start becoming Dino chow, i’d like it if the movie spent some time really letting us see the park the way it’s meant to be seen, while every thing is normal. If done right, this could also help build up the suspense too.

3) Chris Pratt and is Army of trained Velociraptors.

This is kind of a cheat as i know it’s going to be in the movie but…damn…this is just awesome. I think i like this in part due to the fact that it helps establish the idea that you can just go and build a new dinosaur. i mean, if you can breed raptors or genetically alter them to behave, then it makes a little more sense that you could do the same and create a new dino. I mean, breeding is how most dog species came to be, but that’s not quite the same thing. At least from what i understand about the movies new super-dino thing.

4) no “you shouldn’t play god” message mongering.

While i love the first Jurassic Park, i hate that the one guy who thought that science was this big bad thing was the guy who ended up being right. In fact that is one trend i just hate all together: anti-science scifi. yes, in the wrong hands anything can be used as a weapon and that includes science. And if the movie wants to make a statement about the miss use of power, fine, so long as that doesn’t mean demonizing intelligent people outright.

5) practical effects.

The T-Rex from Jurassic Park still looks great. The first time we see a chest burster in Alien still looks great. The guys head blowing up in Scanners still looks great. Why? Practical effects. While i’m ok with CGI, and in fact i don’t know how they’d even pull of a movie like this without it, i want to see plenty of real, physical effects used.

Well, that’s it for me. What about you? what do you want to see in the film? leave a comment below and let me know!

What i want in “Batman: Arkham Knight”

So, this bit of pre-order news found it’s way onto my facebook feed…

…and i thought this would be a good time to give you my two cents on what i want in the game.

#1) The BatFamily.
In “Arkham City” we meet Tim Drake, aka, the Third Robin. And as this pre order incentive tells us, the “Red Hood” does exist in this universe. So, i want to meet the rest of the family. Nightwing, Batwoman, even Red Robin, if this game takes place far enough into the future. And This also means i want at least 1 missions were Robin is with you.

#2) At least a mention of some other DC characters. Sure, keep the focus on Batman. This is DC we’re talking about, so that is a given. But at least name drop Superman or Green Arrow or The Flash or something. I love the shared universe in mainstream comics, so i’d like to see a bot of that in the game as well.

#3) Better Boss Fights. Remember the fight against Mr. Freeze? For those who don’t, go watch it on youtube, then come back. AWESEOM, RIGHT.  Yeah, i want more fights like that, more bosses who learn and adapt.

#4) NO MORE JOKER. Let him stay dead. Yes, as this is based on comics, it is 100% possible for The Joker to return, but i don’t want him too. I like what it meant to the story and what it did to Batman. This was probably the single most interesting bit of character development Batman has ever got, so don’t let it go to wast.

#5) NO MULTILAYER. No one wants it, no one asked for it and from what i remember, no one played it. Don’t take away time and resources from the main game to make another crappy multilayer mode.

What i want in “The Last of Us 2”

What you see before you is art work done by freelance artist Marek Okon, who did most (if not all, i’m not quite sure) of the concept art for “The Last of Us”. This piece was recently shown, leading many to think that it is concept art for a second game; but with a PS4 re-release and developer Naughty Dog soon to publish a book of concept art (i’m not sure if this is only for the “The Last of Us”, or of all their games), no one knows for sure. But, if a second game is coming, here is what i want too see. If you haven’t played the game, be warned, there will be spoilers.
1: I want Ellie to be the Main Protagonist.
In one section of the game (Winter) and the “Left Behind” DLC, we got to play as Ellie a little bit. In “Winter” we switched back and forth between her and Joel, witch was fine, but in a new game i want to play as Ellie. if there is a section like “Winter”, were we play as another character, that’s fine, but i want to spend most of the game in here shoes.
2: A Better Story.
If you read my review, you know that i love the story telling, but found the story itself to be paper thin. And for the first game, that worked out fine. However, with the the way the game ended, with Joel saving Ellie’s life instead of sacrificing her so that the Fireflys could find a cure for the infection, there are a lot of places a future story could go.
3: More moral complexity.
The first game had people who were in your way, and people who weren’t. In the end, no one was really “evil” not even the crazed cannibal cult. Everyone was just looking to survive however they could. This needs to be a staple of this franchise. Don’t dumb things down to sell more copy’s, don’t be scared of losing fans for not showing “the hero’s” as immoral or “the bad guys” as likeable humans, people are much more than “good or bad” life is lived in a grey area, and i hope that we see more of that in the second game.
4: Don’t “hard boil” the franchise.
Too many games now, even those who’s past installments were “m-rated”, have gone to extremes to hard boil the newest installment (I’m looking at you “Max Payne 3” and all you nihilistic “look how much i drink and hate myself” glory). Don’t do that here. Part of what made “The Last of Us” feel so mature is that while it never sugar coated it’s own darkness and brutality, it also remembered to smile.
5: More diversity.
Half or so of the main cast was not strait white men. That is something i don’t think any other game, ever, can say for itself. Better yet, everyone felt human, and not like caricatures. I want to see more of that.
6: At lest one line about the rest of the world.
Everyone says this, but it’s true: in dystopian story set in America, why does no one talk about the rest of the world. Like, is England just sitting down to a cup of tea saying “Hummm….should we help the American’s with this “infection” they’re having such and issue with?” “No, they call us socialist and refuse any help” Honestly, give me something, even if it’s just a throwaway line, about the state of the world.
7: More verity in Infected.
In one of the pics i saw for the PS4 re-release there was something that looked like in Infected rhino. That would be awesome. But yeah, even though i was never really bothered by the verity of Infected throughout the game, some more enemy types wouldn’t hurt.

So, that it for me. What about you? What do you want to see in the next game (if there is one)? A different cast altogether? A New location (maybe having Joel and Ellie in another part of the world)? Leave a comment and let me know.