Rules for a Transformative Summer

Hello, Brendon here. Just wanted to share about ten minutes or so of a conversation we had with Chris Plant recently on his show Post Games which He is declaring this summer personersa summer and ask Stehen and I to come on to talk about what makes a persona summer. What games should you be playing? What should you be getting out of a persona summer What kind of person will you be by the time Persona summer is over? Big questions and very grateful that he asked us on to figure all of this out. So here's about ten minutes of that conversation. You can go listen to the rest on post games. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. You'll hear from us again on Wednesday for a regular episode and you might even hear from us again after the Nintendo direct, depending on what happens because it's very possible that Pona summer and Fire Emblem summer could come into conflict. We'll find out Hey, Stephven Brendan, a happppy personona summer. to both. Happy P persona suummer. Same to you. It's an honor to be here for the inaugural personersona summer I am so glad that you mentioned the word inaugural because the problem we have that we're here today to solve is defining what the hell personersa summer is cast out into the world that Pona Summer is here. And I think there's a general vague idea of you're going to play persona games during the summer That immediately gets really complicated if you know anything about persona games And Their legacy and their spinoffs and their expansions, I've gotten roughly a trillion questions So I thought we would just We would get it all knocked out here. I can just send a link to people whenever they ask. How in your heads would you define persona summer when you hear that phrase? How would I define personona summer? I feel like it's got to start with being yourself First and foremost, I think that's the most important thing. And I think it's worth acknowledging that we don't all know ourselves completely. So you need to start by finding who you are and ripping that mask off your face so you can find the actual you beneath it I think I just think personas obviously you should be playing a persona game But I think you need to internalize the values of persona and what they're trying to do. And I'm not exactly talking about what is happening in any of the individual games. So I think the overarching theme persona of Being true to yourself but finding out who that is along the way, I think has got to be first this should be the summer that changes your life. I guess is the point that I'm trying to make. Like this you should look back at the first ever persona summer and be like, that was the year everything changed for me. I became a different person. And I think that that rocks for you in advance I got it. So what I'm hearing is you need to play a persona game and you need to Follow the tenantets of that game in order to become a trur version of who you are. That seems simple enough. I do think we need some rules to ensure that people actually achieve that hereere's the problem that I'm running into and what I'm getting a lot of feedback on For soon a summer. be persona three, four and five and it's remakes I' say reontaso ose It could be Yeah. metaphor Re Fontasio The most recent pseudo spinoff made by the director of three four and five and other people obviously. it could be the full series, one, two, it could be any of the dancing singing spinoffs. and it could be Shin Megami Tensei, which is the kind of meta series that Persa finds self within, where would you put the boundaries on this When you play your first persona game It does tend to reshape kind of what you come to expect in an RPG or in a video game in general, like For me at least, when I played five for the first time think think the closest parallel played was mass effect in terms of a game that sort of like had these offbeats of like, there's the main story and then it gives you this time to just sort of like Hang out with your friends. So I think a good rule for personersa suummer would be that regardless of which one you play, even if maybe And this may be controversial, but even if it's not one of the main three, four and five I think it has to have a social part of it So I don't know if I would include most of the SMT games in that. I think it has to have you mean social in the video game, but not social outside of the video game. I think it should be both ideally. I think if we're defining persona summer, I think it should have I think the real world should reflect the digital world Yeah and you should have social places I like this by this rule That would mean persona three, four and five And we're the metaphor Reontasio would be part of persona sci. Even some of the more persona SMG games, like Tokyo and Mara Sessions, I feel like could also potentiallyokyo Marau Sessions is a great poull for this. in some ways, maybe as summer as it gets. it's maybe the most summer But it's a very summer game. Yeah Can I pitch some things that are not related to actually playing the video games? Please, I would love that I'm I'm thinking like If you are going to have the perfect personersona summer I think you need to do yourself a favor however you can and it doesn't need to be literal, but I do think you need to give yourself a going to the beach arc at some point. I think you need a moment where you and your friends go to a beach of some sort. Yeah. and that could be your local pool That could just be throwing a water balloon at your friend or getting a water balloon thrown at you. I do think in some way you need to give yourself a beach vacation arc. I also think there has to be some kind of element of leveling up your own stats, which sounds like I'm creating a workout routine for gamers that you would see on like an Instagram real Sure. But I do I do very literally in some way mean like Pick up a new hobby learearn it good at it, maybe do that with friends too And I think if you walk away from personersa summer applying yourself in some way, shape or form to like expanding the boundaries of what you do on a daily basis. that will probably also be transformative in some way, shape, or form I like that. I like that So we have we have the basic g here. U you need to play a persona game. It could be three, four, five. any of their spin offs metaphor Re Fontasio, Tokyo Mirage sessions, or any other Shin Megami Tensei related game with social links. We will have to provide a list in the show notes for I'll get to. I'm realizing that. We'll take care of it. Yeah. Do you think you should always say yes to your friends when they call you to hang out Not if you have better things to do. This is the problem. Like I want it to be an inherently social experience, but I'm thinking about my actual. gototta take care of number one, baby, you gotta level up some other stats before you It's raining and you want me to go hang out with you? No, I'm gonna study in the library and get double the knowledge point. I think this connects to your first prompt of be true to yourself you sometimes making space for everyone is not the right move, even if you otherwise care about them, you know? I love that. Yeah Yeah I think that's perfect