kokeefe - 2016-02-01 03:03:09

These movies are bad. They're cashgrabs that try to condense the game's plot into four films without actually thinking of how to make an entertaining or well written set of films out of that plot. Now, some of the shortcomings of these films aren't entirely their fault - the story is badly written when you take out the gameplay. But does the film try to take this plot and make express it in interesting ways only film can? No. It doesn't even try.

The film opens up with a rather nicely animated fight scene. Enjoy it while you can, because that's where all of the budget was dumped. You'll be retroactively hating this scene as you see many off-model frames, stilted character movements and boring pans of the unmoving statues called characters throughout the film. At times Falling Down looks decent, with colorful backgrounds, good CGI, and the occasional character close up, yet these times are few and far between.

The story and pacing is where the film truly falls apart. It depicts a time in the game where the 12th shadow boss has been defeated and the party believes they've saved the day (spoiler: they didn't.) This means no cool japanese folk-lore inspired monster battle scenes to break up the slice of life scenes. Instead, prepare to be constantly emotionally pan-handled as the movie ties together various unrelated subplots from the previous films at random points in the overarching plot, one that tries to humanize the main character with themes of isolation and loneliness but fails miserably. 

The same wrongs with this film were in the other films and I assume the next as well. It refuses to abridge the game's main plot and so completely shuts out the far more interesting parts of the original game, the Social Links. It attempts to take the silent protagonist of the game and give a personality with problems and traumas, and yet still gets little to no lines so that other characters can wax about his problems for him.Since the original plot was interspersed with gameplay segments the pacing comes across as jarring and unnatural, going from dramatic flashbacks to cooky slice of life without much transition. The music is nothing remarkable except for the exceptional tracks taken from the game, which is odd considering Shogi Mogiumor's usual signature style.

It's odd that P3 had to get this kind of treatment when Persona 4 had an excellent anime adaptation that adapts to it's medium and explores the universe in ways the game didn't. Go watch that, or play the games instead. Don't waste your time or money on projects like this.