Gripped

Lately, I haven't been posting much. I had a valid reason all last week (vacation, duh), but this time the reason may not be so... obvious.

Okay, so it might be a tad obvious if you've been following me lately. To the rest of you, this might be new news for you - especially if you're just noticing the somewhat-tarnished quality of the past entries of late. However, I think I have a valid point to defend just why this is happening.

Persona 4's title screen. Cue the music!

I've been playing Persona 4 a whole lot lately, and it's gotten my gamer side to start wondering just why it's gripped me so. Just ask Tales of the Abyss and World of Warcraft how much love I've been showing them lately. That's right: none. =/

It's rare for me to encounter a game that grips me to the point of (near-)obsession. I'm known for having an addictive personality. Certain things just get me going crazy and wanting more - sushi, driving (fast), writing a new idea that pops in my head. Video games are no exception. In the past, games have sucked me in to the point where life looked like "eat, sleep, breathe, and video games." (Just ask my friends what happened in my early World of Warcraft days...) While I've gotten better at controlling this aspect of my gaming side, every once in a while I pick up a game where I almost revert because I'm so enthralled.

The Shadow Yosuke fight as seen in the anime adaptation.

And it's not just because everyone's going for it and it's a sort-of cash cow franchise, either. While I knew the game was pretty good (between what I witnessed from Persona 3 and the history Atlus has with its games, it was a given), I'm not particularly fond of JRPGs (or any role-playing game, for that matter). Like I said before, I was inspired to get this game so I could do some in-depth research on that paper I want to write. What I didn't know was that I'd actually be wanting to play more and more with each passing minute I have the PlayStation 2 on.

Do I regret this? No. Not in the slightest. True; my blogs lately are bland as all hell, but I think I'm going to get more out playing the game than if I didn't decide to drop down the money for it. (Which reminds me to thank the poor sap who was dumb enough to return it - you're surely missing out.)

Back to playing! Kanji's not going to be rescuing himself, is he? *picks up the PS2 controller*