I think it's kinda funny given my favourite games you would fully expect Persona 3 to be my favourite Persona game just based on its themes and ideas, so why is the stupid rural town one with questionable queer representation my favourite?

A lot of elements play into why. For one was the personal experience I was going through at the time of playing, when I was at a super low part of my life and the upbeat happy vibes with this game really solidly helped with that, as well as the extremely loveable cast (which I still think is easily the best in the modern Persona trilogy) and the best Persona soundtrack by a landslide.

But, as ironic as it is given how admittedly poorly aged parts of Naoto's writing is, this games whole ideal on who you truly are is what set me out on the path to coming out as transgender, and its ideas of being true to yourself have stuck with me for all the years that have past since initially playing.

I obviously cant ignore a ton of the issues present, especially given Yosuke's treatment of Kanji and how his whole internalised homophobia arc was literally removed from the final release of the game, and there's obviously some silly pacing thats present in all Persona games, but for me all of the positives really save this game and I still cry to myself listening to this games soundtrack. This game truly was what led me to become the woman I am today and for that I really am grateful, even if I want to sock Yosuke down a staircase.

lowkey took me 2 years to beat with a relatively short playthrough....

finishing the final dungeons vastly changed my perspective on p4g, as the entire game wants you to believe that the murder mystery pushing the plot forward is what truly matters, until that mystery unfolds into a purposefully disappointing mess that's more laughable than surprising or climactic. the entirety of the winter and (short) spring portion that follows accentuates the importance of what the game was hiding under and in between the murders the entire time, which, in my opinion, brings way more power into the message delivered by the actions of the investigation team. super special story delivered in a purposefully deceiving way.

outside of the main story and plot elements, p4g boasts a great cast with an iconic soundtrack and setting, perfectly fitted with its unique visual aesthetic. the vibe of this game is incredible, and genuinely is enough to carry a large portion of the slower months and dungeons. this game actually can't work like at all if the audio/visual experience wasn't as top tier as it is

the middle portion of this game is slow and genuinely boring at points though. certain dungeons are unfun and drag, and the mystery staggers for far too long (even though the mystery dosent actually matter...). boss design is also uninteresting, as most are just uber sponges that one shot and are only susceptible to stat debuffs and physical attacks. i also dont care to grind or meta-game persona crafting, so part of this is just me being stubborn. SL's are a very mixed bag as well, with chie's likely being the worse, and the best to either kanji, dojima or rise. I felt the SL's actually underplayed how great the characters were, as some of the individual story lines were really really lame (chie, yosuke)

favorite cast members: kanji, rise, yukiko, dojima, nanako, yosuke when he had that insane skiing outfit, athlete bros

kill teddie