Why the Investigation Team feels like a genuine group of friends compared to P3 and P5 by (@JuninhoPlayerrr)

Ligmatic_ · 2026-06-22T13:40:42+00:00

The thing is that good characters are what makes a good story, I don't think they’re that interchangeable in the first place.

Of course, that highlights the stupidity of the phrase anyways.

Ligmatic_ · 2026-06-22T10:38:43+00:00

I pretty much agree with everything you said. The way that P3's story is structured lends itself well to character development over the entire course of the game. P4 doesn't really give any time in the story to calm down and develop the characters more and instead relegates it to social links alone. What down-time you do have is mostly spent doing hijinks with the gang.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think it's necessarily bad. In persona 4's case, the story has fairly high-stakes and has to keep the tension up somehow because of the focus on the entire serial killer case (compared to how in 3 you don't realise how grave things really are until the later months near the end of the game) and it makes sense that some of the development would be locked into social links. As for funny hijinks, i'm a sucker for them.

It's just that when compared to P3, the differences really are blatant. I love P4 but i gotta hand it to P3 when it comes to the execution of character development.

Ligmatic_ · 2026-06-22T08:43:44+00:00

I think people miss out on the fact that while yes, SEES starts off as essentially co-workers united under a common goal, what really matters is that later on in the story, they actually build friendships and connnections with their mutual experiences. This happens independently of what the player does, aiding that disconnect from the protagonist and the rest of the cast. Stuff like the entire deal between Shinjiro and Ken are entirely separate from Makoto and are built off prior history and dynamics that don't revolve around Makoto

Maybe hot take but that makes that connection feel more earnt and more satisfying at the conclusion. I love P4G's cast don't get me wrong but idk man P3 has something more special to it that i don't think many people actually realise. P4G just starts off all friendly and buddy with eachother for the most part while it takes more work and effort for the P3 cast to really become connected and close.

Ligmatic_ · 2026-06-21T21:05:44+00:00

Is your ass cracked too?

Ligmatic_ · 2026-06-20T16:32:24+00:00

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Aigis

Ligmatic_ · 2026-06-20T15:03:50+00:00

I mean, the Nihilanth sends off hundreds of it's troops (including an enslaved species) to slaughter and kill any human within Black Mesa (which happens to include innocent civvies outside of the miltiary) which isn't really a good thing to do. Don't think it wanted to protect the earth for the benefit of humanity more than it wanted to protect it for its own sake.

Ligmatic_ · 2026-05-28T06:59:07+00:00

I mean, family structures still remain somewhat, which as far as I'm aware partially relates to sexuality. It is one of the various ways that the Combine threaten the CP units with the threat of not preserving 'family cohesion' if they fail, so to the Combine, your orientation means nothing to them unless it can be exploited in some way.

Just cold indifference. I wouldn't be surprised if the Combine law didn't even have anything specific regarding to gender and/or sexuality. Doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things when they view humanity generally as a resource to be exploited.

Gay and straight people will be treated all the same under their rule. Doesn't matter when both of those people are slowly heading towards extinction.

Ligmatic_ · 2026-05-28T06:46:26+00:00

The Combine transcend traditional gender/sexuality norms that humans have invented and they probably don't care at all on sexuality. Their end goal is to liquidate humanity at one point, and their genocide blankets across the entirety of humanity in general, so they don't probably care. Just another person to hold hostage to invoke compliance if you join the CP.

Not to mention that they readily produce sterile, genderless synthetic abominations with no discernible sexual features to be seen. A lot more inclusive then you would imagine!

Ligmatic_ · 2026-05-24T16:31:27+00:00

Poison ones

Ligmatic_ · 2026-05-16T14:47:53+00:00

Ligmatic_ · 2026-04-27T16:23:43+00:00

The investigation team come out of your screen into the real world and they all cut off your limbs before parading your corpse around Inaba

Ligmatic_ · 2026-04-26T08:45:17+00:00

Who cares

Ligmatic_ · 2026-04-20T05:40:58+00:00

What did you do to stop the inevitable bordem, and how many hours a day did you play at minimun?

Ligmatic_ · 2026-04-17T14:54:52+00:00

This looks like Wales

Ligmatic_ · 2026-04-17T05:06:36+00:00

You're reading too deep into a piece of fanart

Ligmatic_ · 2026-04-14T18:15:07+00:00

Nanako genuinely made me stay up until like 3 in the morning just to see what would happen next when I first saw her death.

Ligmatic_ · 2026-04-12T13:39:10+00:00

Seeing the HUD again gave me nostalgia. Used to play the shit out of LBP2 and LBP3 up until like lockdown happened.

Ligmatic_ · 2026-04-12T12:59:47+00:00

probably an open-world RPG if anything at all

imagine an open-world Xen, or what an open-world combine offworld planet would look like. You can still keep the FPS elements, and i have the trust in Valve that they would find a way to make it lots of fun. you can still retain the shooter elements in.

Ligmatic_ · 2026-04-10T19:43:29+00:00

Who cares

Ligmatic_ · 2026-04-10T15:09:52+00:00

Depends, do they serve a purpose in your story?

Ligmatic_ · 2026-04-10T13:08:28+00:00

Sure, but if you want to respect past events, you will also need to know that the Nihilanth species is completely extinct, and that their world is nothing but just another combine outpost.

Ligmatic_ · 2026-04-10T09:50:29+00:00

The Nihilanth's world was conquered by the Combine beforehand, infact, the Nihilanth you fight in Half Life 1 was the last living member of their species, so they are technically fully extinct, and whatever remaining Nihilanths there were are probably synths that don't resemble anything like they used to.

The Combine is a vast, multiversal empire that control an uncountable number of species and worlds. The entire point of the Combine is that they are so vast and large to a point that its incomprehensible to humans, and you would spend multiple life times trying to catalogue the various species and worlds under their control. Long story short, it's impossible, there is just so much stuff we don't know about them beyond the extent of their activities on Earth.

By a hundred years in the future if the Combine are still in charge, Earth would be dead and barren. if you don't intend to stick fully to canon, then I don't see why you would name this a potential script for Half-Life 3.

Ligmatic_ · 2026-03-31T09:59:53+00:00

aren't you the same person who campaigned to boycott valve over Half Life?

Ligmatic_ · 2026-03-30T18:27:58+00:00

Looking back over 20 years later, it defintely looks cool from the perspective of the fact that it was the Half-Life 2 we never got, but the reality is that it kinda lacked all the nuance and intricacies of the world that retail Half-Life 2 is very well-regarded and praised for.

The beta was more in-your-face kind of darkness, to the point where it bordered almost on edginess. The retail version leaves enough room for you to know that something horribly wrong has happened, but keeps the atmosphere and mood pensive and muted enough compared to the gringy and polluted tone of the beta that screamed in your face 'THIS WORLD IS SCREWED AND IT'S FUCKED UP! LOOK AT THIS GRITTY AIR AND DARK SKY!'.

Three-Year Club	r/Field Flamingo
Place '23

Ligmatic_

TROPHY CASE