Originally Posted: March 6th, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJhnyVZMUsY
Sorry, just had to get that one out of the way.
Wow. Sheesh. All my close friends know that for the past 1 1/2 months of my life, I've been playing and talking about Persona 3 nonstop. I got the game at Christmas, but held off on playing it because I heard how frickin' long it was, and wanted to kind of get things out of the way, first. And I'm glad I did, because I put over 100 hours into this thing. 100 damn hours. I thought Tales of the Abyss was too long, and that game was only 45 hours. Most of the shooters I've been playing on the Xbox 360 lasted only a couple hours. Chrono Trigger was a solid 20, but that game's old-school. But the length doesn't matter; Persona 3 is one of the most creative, engrossing games I've ever played, with an interesting storyline, well-developed characters, a wonderful soundtrack, a battle system that puts most RPGs to shame, and way, way more anime cutscenes than you would expect.
That's not to say that the game is perfect. Far from it, actually; I can name tons of problems with it. The graphics are outdated, even among PS2 games, though I'm not sure how to feel about that. On one hand, it makes the cutscenes kind of boring to watch, compared to Final Fantasy X or Shadow Hearts: Covenant. But because of the graphics style, they probably allowed the developers to focus so much more on the other aspects of the game, specifically the immersive high-school-dating-sim bit. In fact, that's probably why I found such an interest in the game; we never get those here in the States. Dating sims are Japanese games, why would western gamers want them? Well, just for the sake of something different, I guess.
Already I can see this turning into incoherent rambling, so let me try to get my thoughts back on track. Persona 3's features include:
A minigame where you walk around on the beach trying to pick up chicks
A minigame where you try to avoid being spotted in a hot spring by chicks
Dating creepy women from an alternate dimension
Hanging out with some girl in an MMORPG within the game
You're probably thinking "That sounds awesome, I should play this now!" But if you happen to be a girl, you're probably thinking "What does this game have besides breasts?" Well, to start out, the main character is some blue-haired guy with an emo haircut. Unlike most silent protagonists, though, the player can shape this character however he wants. There's no good/evil bit, since there's still a main storyline to follow, but you do have the option to be a jackass if you want. Or a suckup. Hell, you could spend every day in the arcade playing video games, though that's not a good way to make friends. The whole point behind talking to people and helping them is that with each new social link you establish, your Persona get stronger.
Wait, what's a Persona? Well...it's a Pokemon. Sort of. I did accidentally call one a pokemon before, so I guess they're similar enough. Pretty much collectible spirits that aid you in battle. Speaking of battles, Persona 3 has a battle system that kicks the ass of every other RPG out there. You know how in most RPGs, you can hammer the "attack" command over and over and eventually get the result you want? Yeah, that won't fly here. Instead, Persona 3 has a battle system that relies heavily on exploiting enemy's weaknesses to certain elements, and your random encounters are much more difficult than in most games. It's all about killing them before they get a chance to attack. Yeah, the game's turn-based, but you can switch between your Persona once per turn, so as long as you're paying attention, you should have the right monster for the job. One thing that's odd is that the only character you can control is the main character. Yeah, a turn-based RPG with partner AI. Thought that was reserved for the action RPGs, huh? Well, the AI in the game is...sadly, one of the game's weaker aspects. Most of the time, it isn't an issue; while they might be more wasteful with their spells than you would like, they're typically smart enough to not screw you over in most fights, and you can give them general tactics to follow as well. However, during a select few boss fights, I DESPISED the AI for not being able to catch on to enemy attack patterns and ended up fighting a boss for an hour when I could have beaten him in 20 minutes if not for my retarded teammembers. In Persona 4 they fixed this problem by allowing you to control your entire party if you wanted, which could have saved me a lot of frustration.
Speaking of which, there's quite a lot of bit to do concerning your collectible Persona. There are some that you can obtain after battles, in the form of little cards, but other Persona you can only get by fusing other Persona together.
http://www.youtube.com/wat
Sorry, just had to get that one out of the way.
Wow. Sheesh. All my close friends know that for the past 1 1/2 months of my life, I've been playing and talking about Persona 3 nonstop. I got the game at Christmas, but held off on playing it because I heard how frickin' long it was, and wanted to kind of get things out of the way, first. And I'm glad I did, because I put over 100 hours into this thing. 100 damn hours. I thought Tales of the Abyss was too long, and that game was only 45 hours. Most of the shooters I've been playing on the Xbox 360 lasted only a couple hours. Chrono Trigger was a solid 20, but that game's old-school. But the length doesn't matter; Persona 3 is one of the most creative, engrossing games I've ever played, with an interesting storyline, well-developed characters, a wonderful soundtrack, a battle system that puts most RPGs to shame, and way, way more anime cutscenes than you would expect.
That's not to say that the game is perfect. Far from it, actually; I can name tons of problems with it. The graphics are outdated, even among PS2 games, though I'm not sure how to feel about that. On one hand, it makes the cutscenes kind of boring to watch, compared to Final Fantasy X or Shadow Hearts: Covenant. But because of the graphics style, they probably allowed the developers to focus so much more on the other aspects of the game, specifically the immersive high-school-dating-sim bit. In fact, that's probably why I found such an interest in the game; we never get those here in the States. Dating sims are Japanese games, why would western gamers want them? Well, just for the sake of something different, I guess.
Already I can see this turning into incoherent rambling, so let me try to get my thoughts back on track. Persona 3's features include:
A minigame where you walk around on the beach trying to pick up chicks
A minigame where you try to avoid being spotted in a hot spring by chicks
Dating creepy women from an alternate dimension
Hanging out with some girl in an MMORPG within the game
You're probably thinking "That sounds awesome, I should play this now!" But if you happen to be a girl, you're probably thinking "What does this game have besides breasts?" Well, to start out, the main character is some blue-haired guy with an emo haircut. Unlike most silent protagonists, though, the player can shape this character however he wants. There's no good/evil bit, since there's still a main storyline to follow, but you do have the option to be a jackass if you want. Or a suckup. Hell, you could spend every day in the arcade playing video games, though that's not a good way to make friends. The whole point behind talking to people and helping them is that with each new social link you establish, your Persona get stronger.
Wait, what's a Persona? Well...it's a Pokemon. Sort of. I did accidentally call one a pokemon before, so I guess they're similar enough. Pretty much collectible spirits that aid you in battle. Speaking of battles, Persona 3 has a battle system that kicks the ass of every other RPG out there. You know how in most RPGs, you can hammer the "attack" command over and over and eventually get the result you want? Yeah, that won't fly here. Instead, Persona 3 has a battle system that relies heavily on exploiting enemy's weaknesses to certain elements, and your random encounters are much more difficult than in most games. It's all about killing them before they get a chance to attack. Yeah, the game's turn-based, but you can switch between your Persona once per turn, so as long as you're paying attention, you should have the right monster for the job. One thing that's odd is that the only character you can control is the main character. Yeah, a turn-based RPG with partner AI. Thought that was reserved for the action RPGs, huh? Well, the AI in the game is...sadly, one of the game's weaker aspects. Most of the time, it isn't an issue; while they might be more wasteful with their spells than you would like, they're typically smart enough to not screw you over in most fights, and you can give them general tactics to follow as well. However, during a select few boss fights, I DESPISED the AI for not being able to catch on to enemy attack patterns and ended up fighting a boss for an hour when I could have beaten him in 20 minutes if not for my retarded teammembers. In Persona 4 they fixed this problem by allowing you to control your entire party if you wanted, which could have saved me a lot of frustration.
Speaking of which, there's quite a lot of bit to do concerning your collectible Persona. There are some that you can obtain after battles, in the form of little cards, but other Persona you can only get by fusing other Persona together.
When you fuse, not only can you gain unique Persona, but certain skills can only be transferred over in the process, so it's worth it to build up your original Persona so the new one can come with lots of unique spells. However, the amount of spells a Persona can hold is limited, and sometimes it feels like you're fusing your best Personas only to get a worthless one instead.
So I've talked about the social and battle aspects of the game, but I think the reason it stands above and beyond the rest of gaming is the fact that Persona 3 has one of the strongest casts of characters I've ever seen in a game. All the characters are likeable yet very humanly flawed, and experience well-developed growth throughout the game. There's a bit of emo in there, but unlike, say, Tales of the Abyss's Luke, who spends half the game whining about how everything wrong in the world is his fault, these characters behave much how normal people would in response to their problems. It makes for a believable cast of characters who still have their little quirks and jokes that remind you that not everything in life is about dealing with your inner demons. The character who stood out to me most was Junpei; at the beginning of the game, I thought he was annoying and was sad to find out he was a main character. However, I felt he had the most well-developed growth of all the characters, and by the end of the game he was the most endearing to me.
So, saying "Persona 3 is the best game ever" is probably an overstatement; it's not for everyone; the game may be well-paced, but the length is still probably a turn-off for those without much free time. The Japanese nature of the game, where everybody has names like Yukari and Mitsuru, and use formalities like -senpai and -kun may be offputting to some people. However, fans of RPGs owe it to themselves to check Persona 3 out, because there really isn't anything like it.
Oh, and the extra epilogue chapter isn't nearly as good as the main game, but it's worth playing through anyway. Just be prepared to do nothing but grind.
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