P4A: My Personal Tribulations, Entry 2

[This entry is a follow-up to my 8 October 2012 entry regarding my personal experiences regarding Persona 4 Arena, where I’ll pick up my personal thoughts from that date to now.]

My personal ride with Persona 4 Arena has its share of ups and downs. I’ve had my share of highs and more than my share of lows. I tend to take things from a glass half-empty perspective and do not always recognize the progress that I have made in this game. I know that I don’t play Chie as well as the experts play her, but I do my best to put forth a good fight. Though I probably could have used part of the time I spent sparring against GB folks in player lobbies and ranked to possibly train to play a better Chie game, it’s hard for me to be to not only carve time, but be in the right mindset to do so. I don’t have much time during the weekdays and starting to lose time on the weekends due to work. Part of me is always kicking myself that I can’t spend the time to get potentially better, but looking back with a clearer mind, I did what I could under the circumstances.

Before the Giant Bomb vs. GameFAQs tournament, I used to play a very defensive Chie, which is the opposite of what her character is supposed to be played, rushdown style. I would always block and wait for an opening to attack, or wait for the opportune time to use Chie’s DP. I pretty much played that style going into GB P4A Tourney #4 and Team Tourney #2, where FluxWaveZ pretty much carried me through that team tourney. I did get my lone GB tournament win in that fourth tournament against TheFakePsychic, before losing badly to both FluxWaveZ and gravitypenguin. Shortly after the completion of the fourth tournament, yuut came to Giant Bomb issuing a P4A team tournament challenge from GameFAQs. Flux accepted and thus started recruitment and frequent sparring. I put my name in, in part to provide some sparring practice with fellow GB-ers. I thought there’d be a more entrants representing Giant Bomb’s side, but when it came down to it from the list of people who signed up, I was enlisted to my surprise.

Once the lineup was set, the Giant Bomb team got serious. I was advised by Flux and others to step up my game by playing more aggressive. And so my transition from being totally passive to aggressive began and I guess I was doing alright. It was bad at first because I was going in recklessly and was getting beat good. I finally got some of my defense back and for a time being, felt like I was going somewhere for once. One of my highlights was the night where I somehow (and I still don’t know how I managed to do this) won six straight matches. Another night, I managed to defeat Flux for my lone victory against him. [The group also had a surreal experience that night I beat Flux when the mysterious stage appeared, at midnight EST no less.]

The Giant Bomb vs. GameFAQs tournament came to much fanfare. Flux got the Giant Bomb team a huge lead, knocking down GameFAQs’s team one by one until Nard stopped him. Then Nard’s Liz/Shadow Labrys ran through Giant Bomb’s team, including myself. Aside from the two rounds I won against him using God Hand, I got my butt whooped. Nard’s reign on Giant Bomb ended when aznjon came up to bat. Aznjon battled TSK in an exciting anchor battle. Unfortunately, GameFAQs won the tournament. I felt bad that I couldn’t contribute more on Giant Bomb’s behalf, though I was honored that I got to fight on the website’s behalf.

After the exciting team battle tournament, the momentum that the GB community had with Persona 4 Arena started to fade a bit. In one final hurrah, Flux quickly announced the GB P4A season. We got around twenty people signed up for it and most people did show up each week to play in each session. I had a decent time with the season, although the second session was a mess for the group I was in due to Spikes unable to be in the IRC chat and the severe lag that haunted all matches. I was also slightly disappointed that I didn’t get to battle against some of the other participants during the season, such as aznjon, Xomero, and others. I also felt like my eighth place finish in the season was skewed due to the fact that the groups I was in had numerous no shows, giving me points that I probably wouldn’t have earned if those folks showed up and battled me.

Through all the time, I started to hang out more with a few regulars in the IRC GB_P4A chat room. When the game came out, it was Soki, Servantey, and Keystone that I hung out from time to time in the chat room. Since my previous entry, it’s been Brodehouse, FluxWaveZ, gravitypenguin, IrrelevantJohn, LiquidRob, MakeMeMad, and TheFakePsychic. Most nights I don’t even chat, but I love reading what the fellow folks in the chat room are talking about in a wide range of topics. I tend to be the guy who’s there but mostly looks around and listens in. I’ll chime in from time to time, but not often. I didn’t think I’d get a shoutout from Brodehouse and others on that thread on favorite GB users.

However, after playing some ranked and sparring matches against the GB folks still around so far in 2013, I feel like I’m back to where I was at the beginning of this entry. Unfortunately, work has clamped up significantly in the past couple of months and I knew from the start of the P4A season I wasn’t playing at my peak. I had a few moments this month, I ranked up in ranked matches up to a B+ grade at one point, and I think I held my own over a long sparring session with TFP, MMM, John, and Brode two weekends ago. But I’ve had my rough patches too. Two nights ago, I went against my better judgment and played a long ranked session where I lost a lot of matches where I was downgraded back down to a C. In the meantime, I see the fellow P4A who have stuck around see their games stay strong or improve dramatically. TFP’s Naoto has improved significantly, John’s still pretty good with Yu, gravity’s Yukiko is amazing, MMM’s Kanji is good as well as Brode’s Teddie, and Flux’s Shadow Labrys is still as powerful as it always was. As of late, I’ve seen SeriousSam0 beef up, going up to a B+ grade himself. Commisar, Bloo, and MDYu are still at it too. I wonder if the others from the season are still playing this game.

It’s been hard for me to see my personal accomplishments in this game. I guess it’s an accomplishment that I’ve been able to change my gameplay style, as well as slightly increase on my win percentage in both player and ranked matches. There have been nights as of late where I feel like I should finally let go, but there’s a part of me that somehow wants me to stick around with it more. I guess that’s where the social links kick in. I’m still down for sparring with the folks that are sticking around if I’m in the right mood. I would enter into gravitypenguin’s King of the Hill tournament if it wasn’t for work this Saturday. I’ll still keep at it and at least put up a good fight. That was my goal all along when I started to go deep into this game, so I hope to others that I’m providing a decent fight.

Thanks for reading.

P.S.: I would like to thank everyone whom I sparred against in P4A. Though some bowed out early (phatmac, InfiniteGeass, davidwitten, TheOtherBelmont), some down the road (Soki, Keystone), and recently after the season ended (Vashyron, YI-Orange?, Servantey?), all of you have brought an amazing experience that I will definitely cherish.

I also hope P4A gets good showings in the upcoming FGC majors as well as its inclusion in EVO this year!