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Reviews
Persona 2: Batsu (2000)
The most engrossing game I've played...
Persona 2: Batsu, is my favorite of the Persona series from Atlus. The games are extremely popular in Japan, but in America, they are barely known. It's unfortunate, because everything about the Persona RPG series is top-notch. The plot, the characters, the battle system, the demons, the setting...I was swept in completely.
Although I like Final Fantasy, I found Persona to be much more enthralling. However, it is also much longer, and moves more slowly than most RPGs. Persona's greatest strength is its characters. Especially in Batsu, the characters feel very real and easy to relate to.
The game starts out like a murder mystery, but soon it turns into something much deeper, living in the realms of mythology, religion, science fiction, and technology.
Aside from the elements of story, the battle and rumor systems are unlike any other game. Each character draws on various Personae for their powers, and these Personae can be improved through battle. Although not as key to the game as I would have liked, rumors that the player chooses can be spread that change the course of the game.
All in all, Persona is a very fun game. It moves a little slowly, is very time-consuming, and some battles are just MURDER, but the characters and plot make it completely worth the effort.
Batoru rowaiaru (2000)
A satirical mess...
Just some quick notes to add another perspective. This film is incredibly violent, but it is more the background that makes it disturbing. But upon taking another look, the film is clearly flawed and comes off more as the Director showing how he hates teenagers. All of the students are extremely stupid, and had they not been stupid, nearly all of them would have lived. The adults aren't likeable either. Above all, the film is missing several things, and most importantly, it lacks a purpose. The Battle Royale system of the film accomplishes nothing rather than knock off one class of many, rewarding potentially, the most violent of all the children. Clearly, last year's smiling winner hasn't learned a lesson about not being a delinquent. The director of this film is a paradox - he is stuck in the past of thinking that adults control children and in the future of pushing films to be more violent. The film, overall, is flawed and ends up being just a slasher to me.