All the way back in 2017, I played Persona 5. I picked it up on a whim the day after it released, because my friend loves the Persona series and recommended I get into it, and not too long after I was hooked. That same friend also gave me SMT4 around that same time and I didn't really get into at all. But it did get me more interested in Megaten as a whole. Fast forward to the Summer, I go to TooManyGames 2017. I remember seeing the Persona 5 collectors edition, man good times. Ah anyways, I also stumbled upon Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 inside a glass cabinet along with some other Megaten games. Naturally of them all, I was most interested in P3 and P4 seeing as I was a huge fan of 5. Knowing the price of the Raidou games, I wish I picked those up then since they were only $30 but in the end I bought both FES and P4. Oh, not at the convention btw. I bought them off eBay the day after cuz I realized you could get them for cheaper there. Anyways, to this day I still haven't touched vanilla P4 since I played Golden. But FES, I picked up and dropped several times over the years. I really don't know why it wasn't grabbing me but the furthest I ever until this most recent playthrough was the first full moon operation on the subway. Either way, I can say I've finally beaten Persona 3 FES and I'm happy to say I ended up enjoying it overall.

Let's start with the story. I think overall, it's good and has some really fantastic moments. The beginning scene where the MC awakens to his Persona, to the whole turning point in Junpei's arc near the end of the game (if you know you know) to the whole last hour or two. There's some super good moments throughout the game, I just wish the story's pacing was better. After the MC's awakening in the beginning, I found the story to be super slow up until the middle of the game where it starts picking up again. Then near the end before the grand finale I found it dragged a bit. Pacing-wise, I thought it was the worst of the nusona games but specific moment-wise it's some of the best in the series. I do think the whole theme of facing death head on and not being afraid of it and making the most of life is super strong though, especially in the end-game. They really hammer that theme into you by the end but it works really well.

The main cast is solid overall but it can be a mixed bag. I really liked Akihiko, Yukari, Junpei and Aigis by the end of the game. They all felt really fleshed out and I just liked them the most. Mitsuru is decent but I expected her to be better, idk why I found her somewhat bland. Fuuka and Ken are the definitely the weakest party members imo and a big part of that, besides just not caring about their characters as much, was their voice acting. This game has really solid voice acting (the 4 characters I listed at the beginning) and then it has some really awful voice acting (Fuuka, Ken, Shinjiro, the chairman). Fuuka especially man, she sounded more robotic than Aigis it's crazy. This no doubt took me out of the story a bit just cuz those 4 are so prominent. Oh and can't forget Koromaru, interesting that he's the only normal animal sidekick in which he doesnt actually speak but he's a good boy nonetheless.

Going into more of the game's characters, let's talk about the social links. They're a bit more hit or miss in this game compared to 4 and 5. Akinari may be the best social link in the entire series with how good it is. I was tearing up in literally every rank, no doubt due to the music that plays during it. Yukari, Maiko and Chihiro were probably my favorites then after Akinari. I didn't even think Gourmet King's was bad like some people say considering his whole backstory and everything making me sympathize with him. However, a lot of the others I just thought were decent, very meh or just straight up bad. The worst by far was Kenji's, one of the worst in the series imo and just such a nothing Social Link. Same with Bebe, just did absolutely nothing for me. I didn't love 4's social links either but I think overall they're better in that game, especially since there's no male party member SL in 3. Yeah that's a weird omission, along with being forced to romance all the school girl social links, just overall the weakest of the nusona social links imo. It's not a terrible first try at the social aspect tho, but it's clear it's the first game to try to tackle it. 5 definitely has the best social links I think even if there are a couple duds in that game as well.

Something I actually dissed on stupidly was the game's soundtrack. Idk what was wrong with me but I originally just thought it was out right bad (besides battle for everyone's souls) but have since realized it's actually a super great ost, liking it so much now I think I like it more than 4's soundtrack. 5 is still easily my favorite but never did I think I'd like 3's ost more than 4's. Some of my favorite songs were the aforementioned Battle For Everyone's Souls, Joy, Living With Determination, Memories of the City and many more. Honestly, absolutely insane how much my opinion on the OST changed but I'm super glad I can see now why people love it so much.

Just a couple of random things I liked before I get into the combat. I really like that in part with the theme of death, every single party member experiences the loss of a friend or relative throughout the story. It really makes the dorm's friendship more believable since they can all relate to each other. The 2nd awakenings are easily the best in the nusona games simply because they aren't tied to the social links and are apart of the main story. Really felt impactful, especially Junpei's goddamn man. Also really enjoyed the atmosphere, mostly in the Dark Hour and Tartarus. Seeing how each Tartarus block would look was fun.

Speaking of Tartarus, it's one of the most contentious aspects of the game (along with tactics of course). Some people really love it and some people despise it. Me? It's not terrible but it's definitely the worse of the Nusona dungeons imo (yes I like 4's more) and probably the worst of the PS2 megaten games in terms of its dungeons. Absolutely does not touch DDS1's dungeons for example, but I didn't hate it overall. At first, I was just not getting into it but after a while you get used to the flow of doing a bunch of floors, then social link stuff then Tartarus and repeat. Near the middle of the game is where I was sort of getting burnt out on it a bit, especially since you do have to grind in this game and around that point I feel like enemies weren't giving great exp. Maybe I was over leveled then, idk but near the end game I was getting loads more exp and my personas were actually good so I got over my burn out near the middle of the game. Either way, Tartarus is just meh imo. Thematically it works but gameplay wise it leaves a lot to be desired.

Funnily enough, I ended up thinking more positively on tactics this time around. I still definitely prefer controlling your party members, but tactics works really well for the most part. You just have to not be dumb and engage in the mechanic. If you simply set your party to act freely all the time, then yeah they're gonna do whatever and are more prone to do stupid shit. But if you set them accordingly then I don't see the issue at all really. In fact I found it fun the more tactics you got as you progressed. Though, one issue I personally had is when I want a group heal from Yukari. Someone is super low on health, while the others aren't as low but are still missing a chunk of their health. If only one party member has less than 50% of their health, then she'll single target them and that's it. In that case, I'd want to be able to control my party members but that was about it really. One more still doesn't touch press turn imo, and I'd take controllable party members over tactics I'd say but this game clearly is built around tactics and it works really well.

Honestly, super glad I ended up enjoying FES, even if it's my least favorite nusona and my least favorite PS2 Megaten game. I was expecting to actually dislike this one cuz that's how I felt the few times I tried to get into it. It has its faults but it also has its highs and yeah I recommend playing this even with Reload out now. It may fix some of this games issues idk, but this is still a good time I'd say. Going onto almost 7 years since I got into Persona and Megaten as a whole and I'm just happy to say I've beaten all the nusona games now!

This review is largely outdated and doesn't wholly reflect my views on Persona 3 anymore, namely in the fact that Persona 3 is no longer my favorite game. Still, people seem to like it, and so it remains for posterity's sake.

My favorite game of all time – what makes Persona 3 truly special isn't its individual qualities but how they interplay and work together as a whole. There are games that surpass Persona 3's merits one by one, but as a single cohesive work of art there truly isn't anything else like it.

Persona 3 has the sort of message that's meant to be heard by certain people – coming hot off the dating sim and visual novel craze of the early 2000s and deconstructing some of their greatest cliches while also embracing exactly what makes them appealing to so many people, Persona 3's narrative and its protagonist's story of opening up to the world around him and embracing life while it lasts is incredibly resonant and continues to mean the world to me and many others some fifteen years on.

If you're looking for a mechanically tight JRPG experience you might best look elsewhere, as Persona 3 isn't a game that intends to impress by gameplay alone. However, if you want a JRPG that makes the most of its mechanical quirks to help convey its message and portrays a theme of hope and determination against a bleak cyberpunk backdrop, then this game is definitely worth its 80+ hour runtime.

EDIT: Per request I've elucidated a little bit on two of the major points of this review in the comments below.

I had always loved JRPGs growing up. I was obsessed with Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy - the classics that defined the genre. Persona wasn't nearly as popular and it had slipped under my radar for years. When I finally caught wind of what these games were, it was honestly the perfect time - I was the same age and in the same year of school as the characters in the game.

It sounds corny, but I had never really connected with a game like this before, or realized that JRPGs could be so versatile. It was the first game I played that tackled the most mundane aspect of growing up - school - but made something fun out of it, and tied it into a frankly touching narrative about living life to its fullest.

Looking back, sure, this game has its flaws. But that first experience was honestly pure magic for me - the soundtrack, the suicidal imagery, the characters - I had never seen a game try anything like it, and it opened up an entire world of related titles for me to get into.

cw: depression

The Persona series is a strange beast. It falls into a really specific but fascinating sub-genre that I like to call "homophobic gay content." Maybe its simply a common occurrence in Coming of Age stories, but I think Metal Gear Solid, Jojo, and Ace Attorney fall into that genre too. How each Persona game accidentally trips into gay themes is always really compelling. They ultimately stumble or make major missteps in this messaging, but they're still something people in gay corners of fandom can project on pretty easily, even with all the frustration that comes with it. Persona 4 is about the internal struggle, trying to figure out your own identity, defying the perception of you that others are enforcing. Persona 5 is about the external struggle, focusing on oppressive systems and how one can defy them for a greater good.

Persona 3 is about fucking depression.

You can definitely feel this as the transitional game as they rapidly change the franchise format. The social links are short and paper-thin, the dungeon is.... a bit exhausting. But there's an oppressive tone and aesthetic to this game where it really excels. A melancholy pain and angst as these teens try to avoid thinking about the depression and death around them. There's a sense of inevitability to nearly everything. The monthly boss fight feels so much less triumphant than in later games. You train, you fight, you prepare to overcome this huge hurdle. You did it, no you can't celebrate. Go do it again. No matter how exhausting the journey, its just surviving until the next challenge. While Persona always involves balancing your schedule, you feel the weight of balancing your energy too. You get the sense that everyone in this story is putting on a mask of cheerfulness to get through the day. Time clocking down as their future approaches. Its a fascinating core dynamic and it elevates what could be a more generic jrpg story.

That said, not a great cast. While its easy to project gayness onto P4 and 5, even when its actively against gay content, I lot of the P3 cast just.... doesn't work for me. Aigis is by far the most interesting social link and I understand P3 Portable offers her as a gay option to the fem!protag. The girls are all basically pleasant and fine. But the men other than Ken are either kinda boring or aggressively bad.

Still, I can see why this is so beloved. Its got a lot of charm and ambition, even if it doesn't always reach the heights its aiming for. The ending and its build-up created some INTENSE feelings in me that an rpg rarely pulls off. Its a good ride.

(I do plan on making a longer review for this game at some point after playing through Persona 3 Portable.)

Persona 3 is honestly kind of a miracle of a game for me. It's one that I could've easily skipped over, as I wrote it off due to how it looked aged to hell to me and not being particularly impressed with P4 despite how highly regarded that game is, and worrying P3 would be the same.

But in April of last year, just over one month after the Promised Day, and after close friends constantly pushed the agenda, I finally began streaming it.

And I am unbelievably thankful that I did, because it ended up being one of my most cherished gaming experiences I'd ever have. And so, seeing as today is The Promised Day, I'd like to take some time to show my appreciation for this story’s characters and explain just a little bit of why I think this game boasts one of the finest casts in gaming.

Persona 3 is a game that often gets flak for being overly slow or dragging in the earlier parts of the game. And while I certainly agree that the first half is noticeably slower than the godly second, I don't agree with the notion that the game drags in its writing.

I love how focused the game is in establishing its characters, relationships, dynamics, and especially their flaws and how said they impact how they interact with each other, in these earlier months of the game. Whether it be Yukari's loneliness combined with her fear of letting people get too close to her, Junpei's selfish reasons for joining SEES being that he seeks validation and recognition for others, along with how second-rate he feels compared to the protagonist, or Mitsuru's social awkwardness leading her to come off as overly cold and unapproachable in the eyes of her teammates. Every character present in this cast is rich with nuance, struggle, and dynamism, consistently growing as people as the story progresses.

For these reasons, the characters were able to feel real to me. They stopped being dumb anime game caricatures and managed to feel like actual, genuine people that could think and react like a person would. For this reason, I was more invested in this game’s cast than either 4 or 5’s. And watching them all grow as people and friends was incredibly gripping.

As someone who loves it when games feel down to Earth and “human”, I was more than satisfied with how Persona 3 explored its characters, how we deal with loss, and how our lives are finite and we should appreciate what time we have while we have it. I’m so thankful I was finally able to experience a March 5th as an OFFICIAL Persona fan, and while I jokingly slander it, I am eternally grateful that I could share it with so many of my genuinely beloved friends through streaming it.

I love Persona 3.

please change the fucking cover art im gonna go crazy

sometimes in the past i had played persona 3 fes and it was definitely the highlight of my life till that moment if i gotta be honest and im really happy to see that nothing really changed from that time i still love every single part of this game i love every single character and i cant really say anything bad for this experience that is as tight and incredible as everybody says and i genuinely cannot believe how breathtaking it can be after so many years from the original release of the game

its been a while since i actually explored this entry in the persona franchise and even though this is definitely a step down from p4 and p5 this can still sit rightfully at the top of the trilogy to this day this is still my favorite entry in the spin off series and while i also love p1 and p2 for what they have to offer i definitely still have a sweet spot for this game above the others in the series

im pretty sure everybody knows what this game is about as of nowadays but i just gonna talk about it anyway like people actually asked me to elaborate on my love for this game so i will definitely do that

persona 3 stars a guy transferring to a new school and for some different reasons he ends up in a squad of different people trying to fight off enemies called shadows in a structure called tartarus during an hidden hour after midnight called the dark hour (theres a lot of different terminology alright) where people get some into some weird ??? coffins ??? and actually escalates into something called the apathy syndrome where people become weirdly lobotomised or something of the like and to do that they have to use the power of personas

now personas are basically demons from shin megami tensei recontextualised to actually be used in this series as “another you” and usually just take the form of mythological creatures or deities or shit like that now you know im a big fan of shin megami tensei and its general sense of design so of course i was gonna love this iteration

thats the general incipit of the whole game and while this is definitely the main story theres a lot lying below the surface that needs to be explored

persona 3 fes is famously divided like every other game in the franchise (apart from 1 and 2 skull face) in 2 different sections where you either have some slice of life story high school events and turns into a jrpg in the night segments where you have to fight off the different shadows and ascend tartarus in the hope of a better tomorrow

basically what happens is that you gotta finish the game in a single year (omg atelier ???) and what happens is that during the day you can do social links with different characters that are basically segments where you hang out with people and this is gonna make the arcana social link go up and each single level will actually make the personae of the same arcana way more powerful when you fuse them so theres basically a lot of nuance to this but more on this later

persona still borrows a lot from shin megami tensei and this is actually seen in the fact that the main mechanic of the game is recruiting and fusing demons which is a fucking blast every time even though you cant choose the skills the demon is going to inherit and that makes me actually suicidal ngl like you want me to create the best persona ever and make me inherit marin karin are you actually out of your mind what the fuck honestly this is something that makes me go buck wild in older smt games like why would you make me redo and redo the same persona combinations until i can get some good inherited skills do you just want to purposefully make me angry cmon atlus dont fuck with me rn

while i definitely have some gripes with the gameplay elements i still have a lot of love for it the jrpg elements are super tight fusing personas is fun as hell the combat that still has the basic smt principle of exploiting weaknesses actually makes the game even juicier with the 1 more mechanic + the all out attack its just so fucking good its incredible and since youre gonna do this for like 80+ hours at least this needs to be some degree of fun its just a simple and quick way to finish battles off and this still have some of the classic smt flair in the fact that if youre pretty unlucky and the rng wants to fuck you up you can get demons actually doing mahamaon and killing every single party member or like crit and crit and crit until you bite the dust funnily enough

lets address the elephant in the room though while i still think p3fes is actually the safest choice i have a huge fucking problem with it: you cant control party members which fucking sucks because im adhd and need to use my controller at all times or else i get fidgety and THATS WHY i ended up using the controllable characters patch (and also the undub patch dont @ me i hate english VA i dont know in how many more reviews i got to say this) and while i definitely think this is the way to go i had a lot of game breaking bugs during battles because of course it was gonna get buggy because you know they basically recoded shit or something i have no idea how this works so yeah i mean i had to do a lot of save states and even when i actually made some save states i was dumb enough to actually save in critical moments so i had to wipe like 3 hours of progress sometimes that to say that TO ME it was actually a god sent addition but it is to be said that these are the conditions of the patch i dont really think the original AI party is actually that bad but i cannot deal with not controlling every and each character in a turn based combat game so theres that

i do also recommend the undub which is done really well they also added some subtitles to the cutscenes they put work in that so yeah just try it out maybe it is for you

anyhow the other elephant in the room is tartarus now we need to make a detour for a moment i do think tartarus is actually the oddest dungeon out of the 3 different personas the ones in persona 4 are actually pretty interesting because theyre character specific and (for what ive seen) persona 5 also has some character specific dungeons that look absolutely fucking gorgeous but as much as ive seen mementos or whatever its name is works the same as tartarus

now do i think tartarus is bad ? no . i probably had less fun in it than in p4 and p5 dungeons but that doesnt mean its bad the first blocks arent that interesting but the more you actually ascend into it the more the floors start getting interesting like the psychedelic one is such an highlight i had so much fun in it it makes absolutely no sense and the final block is real thematically consistent to the rest of the game

while i definitely do understand where the most of the people here are coming from i also believe that theres definitely a huge chance that they are people who only played persona 5 because yknow its the most popular game in the smt franchise ever and of course tartarus was gonna get this kind of treatment since yeah its rudimentary its monotonous and its tedious BUT i still love it to hell and back slowly ascending the entire tower is such a joy that i cannot honestly think about this game without actually thinking about tartarus farming over and over and over again

now still talking about gameplay as a whole this is still the first persona to actually include the SoL/RPG elements which means its yes very simple but not because of that less effective doing the social links honing your 3 skills exploring the town buying stuff discovering new events doing side quests and shit actually makes for a really interesting gameplay loop that feels rewarding in the long run im not gonna lie that this still feels like stone age persona loop but again they had to start somewhere for the love of christ

in general i think the gameplay is such a blast and people who dont agree are dipshits and dont deserve shinjiros huge fat fucking cock thats honestly such a shame for as much as i want to criticise these decisions i actually have 100 contrasting reasons to actually say the opposite which means that every single hater of this game can suck my balls kissessssssssssss

a real shocker here will be the fact that yes persona 3 also has some super slick art direction now we all know and love the art direction in p5 even though at this point it feels like thats the only game that has an art direction but i digress (it is some of the best art direction ive ever seen though,,,,,,,, ngl) and i definitely can see a lot of care being put into this one the artworks of the characters are some of my favorites in the entire scope of videogames the models of the city are great every single persona is detailed as shit and the vibes of the entire game are absolutely unmatched and when you also add a bomb UI and art style you have the winning formula of the century and to not even talk about the entire ost department which is honestly as thick as it can get now im not gonna put 100 songs in the hyperlink because im trying to be more humble and lose less time in my life time is precious everybody

that to say that im gonna put just one song and my favorite in the entire playlist is changing seasons(https://youtu.be/ONsRqzQUeoo?si=6uDeTBnNrZiLwlkS) its such a sick track what the hell but as youll already know theres not really a single tracks that goes off the mark every single song is infused with a lot of hip hop vibes and enhance the entire experience to another level entirely

while i definitely feel that these are absolute strong points for the game i still do think that a lot of the best elements sit right into the story department and in particular the characters and interactions

the story definitely takes a real slowdown real soon in the game but as soon as like half a year passes youre gonna get plot twist after plot twist after plot twist boom boom boom one after the other im not gonna lie and this would probably fall flat if it werent for the gorgeous cast of characters

theres some that i like more and some that i like less i genuinely think shinjiro and akihiko are my lifelong companions im literally so in love with them i feel like im gonna pass out in particular shinjiro every time i think about him something in my pants swells i dont know guys im 10 and inexperienced should i take the gay test on trustworthy gay test sites online what do we think

so that to say that shinji and aki are my husbands i love how they both interact with each other and i love their archetypes so im definitely biased in the fact that i love boys i love boxer boys who can fuck my face up and fuck my ass up and i also like gloomy boys who dont want none to do with the outside world and social interactions shinjiro this game is literally based on social interactions stop being afuckinng cunt
i love them dearly

mind you even though those 2 are the loml i definitely have a lot of affection for my sweet little troubled yukari who feigns confidence through sass and a lot of ass mitsuru is literally the dominatrix of my dreams her persona has a whip and if that isnt a real indicator of her sexual tendencies idk what is junpei is my sweet little sunshine and while he can be a dickhead sometimes theres definitely a lot to his character than it meets the eye aigis is my baby i gave birth to her and im not gonna let anybody get near her ever in my entire life i love koromaru with the deepest parts of my heart and theres nothing that will change the fact that hes the bestest boy ever and ken is a good kid !!! i think and fuuka is still such a mystery to me but i definitely love her a damn lot maybe i dont know as much about her as i want to since i forgot to complete her social link teehee dont @ me mitsuru had the priority yall

as much as i love all of them im still pretty sad that in the original game you can only do social links with the girls in the party like who THE FUCK thought that was a good idea can i PLEASE suck shinjiros dick or do i need to pay a nsfw cosplayer on twitter to do that im not joking im gonna do that so thats sort of a let down and anyway the social links that are present here cant really compensate the absence of the main party to the whole meal like the school mates are fun like theres the gerontophile into milfs, walmart ryuji with a broken leg + his team manager whose social link i didnt finish so i have no pun, an immigrant that really feels kind of japanesephobic somehow, a timid girl whos scared of boys but also cant wait to suck dick, a son of a doctor who wants to be an artist but actually changes idea after a sitcom type of chain of events, a girl whose parents really need a fucking divorce, an athlete (thats his whole personality), a guy that i really hate so i fucking ignored aka the emperor, an online friend who actually is the most random character of the entire game and also a good excuse to put some persona 2 cameos, a guy with bulimia im not actually making fun of this one its actually pretty serious /gen, a monk who decided to follow buddha instead of pussy but then changes directions again because yknow pussy juice, a conniving businessman who wants to actually make you his apprentice, a couple with a a ,,,,, a d ea d umh a dead son umh wait i thought social links were supposed to be fun wait wait what and UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH WE DONT TALK ABOUT THE SUN ARCANA PLEASE

so as i was saying social links are some of the most inspired parts of the entire game and its such a shame that most of the time you wont see each and every one of them because yknow time management and shit but thats also the cool thing about persona you can do whatever the fuck you want and actually pursuit the stuff you actually want to see finished like i made my life work around the mitsuru social link and i studied my fucking ass off just to have a glimpse of her ginormous puthey thats what humans actually do so why the fuck not
so i guess im gonna get into spoiler territory now so SPOILER ALERT DONT READ ETC ETC

i genuinely love the fact that this game is surrounded by death everywhere its themes are some of the thickest and more real arguments to ever talk about and every single character conveys this kind of story to hell and back everyone in SEES actually had to face the pain of losing a beloved one mitsuru and yukari have to deal with the loss of a father ken misses his mother everyday akihiko is still grieving for the death of his little sister junpei is still traumatised by losing his loved one in a second and all of them are still trying to make sense of the departure of shinjiro DONT GET ME STARTED ON SHINJIRO DYING BECAUSE UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH LORD

death is a thing that permeates all life and it takes BALLS to actually make a game that is surrounded by death everywhere story beats remind you that the world is dying every character is actually trying to make sense to the world around them and even the social links have a lot to say about life as a whole

theres some other games that tackle these themes im not gonna pretend persona 3 is the only game which has memento mori as its main theme but i cannot overstate enough how beautifully composed every single story line and emotional breakdown to actually drive home this series of events that have a lot to say about our world and how we live in it

the final stretch of the game with the near apocalypse is probably my favorite part due to the fact that every single character is using their grief as a mean to move on theyre trying to use all their suffering as a way to become powerful against a common threat that threatens life itself and while i think the nyx boss fight can be a bit of a pain to go through it has to be said that is so thematically rich that i cannot hate it for any reason in the world ever

and to this day the ending makes me bawl my eyes OUT you know what this game has not the most heartbreaking ending in the world in a shocking sense the slow and steady demise of the main character can be seen even from a few days before but when its all done youre left with you yourself aigis crying for you your friends grieving and all the memories you made together till now seeping through the cracks of you consciousness

while i do agree this is the most 2000s emo tumblr storyline ive ever witnessed it is told so beautifully that it honestly touched my heart theres not really a lot that i can say about this game apart from please play it and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make it through the ending of the sun arcana you will be left with no regrets and a lots of tears youre advised listen to me it is definitely such an emotional social link and possibly the best social link of the entire franchise im not gonna lie here wow

the ending of the game is as heart wrenching as it can get and really encapsulates the entire experience in a like 3 days theres a lot of weird things that i can say about this game maybe the fact that there arent controllable characters is weird or the fact that it is as melodramatic as it can get the gameflow is pretty slow you can go an entire month without any story beat whatsoever and i wish shinjiro was still in the party but thats something that i will experience when i will play p3p

as much as this is not a perfect game i can attest to the fact that this is a perfect game in my eyes every single element of it comes together to create such an unforgettable experience that i didnt find anywhere else in the media p4 and p5 still have the flair and drama of this one but its definitely toned down for some other elements of psychological matter but to this day the way the theme of death is treated in this one
please please please please please check this one out and if possible play the original FES release not that portable isnt good but i think this is the way this game should be experienced (for the first time at least) and with all its gripes i still think this is as good as it gets

cant fucking wait for the FUCKING REMAKE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORD

i still have to play the answer tho

Totally did not have my save wiped randomly after putting 70 hours into this and watch a playthrough for the rest of the game. Definitely did not happen at all...

Anyways, Persona 3 is a classic and many people have already written in length on the greatness of this title and its impact for the series going forward. The cast is amazing, the battle system still feels good to this day, the music is peak 2000s J-pop and Hip Hop edge, and atmosphere and central narrative is brilliantly dense and oppressive, and stands as the strongest in the entire series for me personally. Hyped to experience this world and Tartarus again in Reload in a few months.

i might be biased in this review because i had the whole story spoiled for me because i actually had dropped this game twice(over the course of a year), watched the movies and figured that would be my p3 experience. there was always something in my head telling me to play it, so i finally cracked and decided to beat it and not drop it. going in knowing everything made me enjoy it less, probably. and that kinda sucks. but it is what it is.

8/10

i dont like the gameplay. tactics is fine when it works, and is a pretty cool concept. makes you feel like youre actually leading a group, lol. however it doesnt work a lot of the time. even then, my biggest critique on the gameplay is how rng based it is. it is very clearly the first incarnation of the one more system, and thats a theme youll see a lot with this game. growing pains. they struck gold with the hybrid rpg-social sim but there are visible growing pains from the transition of what p1 and 2 were to what it the series became that wouldnt be ironed out to perfection till 4 and 5. some examples are better gameplay and party member social links for the dudes, and not forcing a harem. despite all this, persona 3 still feels the most organic of the nusona trilogy to me. the characters dont just congregate around the mc, they each have their own aspirations and connections to other party members. their second awakening isnt tied to the protag. the characters can't go to tartarus some days because they have other stuff to do. all this makes it feel like a very organic experience, wheras in 4 and 5 it can feel like the world revolves around you. hmmm what else...
the soundtrack is banging as expected. i think i prefer the movie osts more tho. cant go wrong with light in starless sky

i enjoyed my time with persona 3. i think its the weakest in the nusona trilogy, but im a sucker for the persona games and thus i still enjoyed it a fuck ton. even cried at the ending despite knowing what would happen

pro tip: tartarus grinding is slow and boring,battle animations take forever que up some mid romcoms/slice of life anime and video essays on squeenix games to at least have something to listen/watch while going through tartarus. turbo mode is very helpful, lol

unfortunately mogs all other personas by having the evoker method being the most kinomatic shit of all time

I can only really compare it to 4 at this point but it's so much more focused and handles its theming much better. some social links are pretty cringekino but another one made me cry . you win some you lose some

ultimately it's just a cool ass game - i wish tartaros was about 70% shorter but nevermind that, ill forgive you.

i then found out that "the answer" that everyone is talking about is approximately 70% more tartaros - i think this was a stupid decision made by an idiot. in fact it might have been the stupidest decision made in japan for all of the early 2000s. i put in about 2 hours before i decided its best played through on a youtube playlist. if i had decided to play it my rating likely would have dropped by at least a full star . thats okay . just dont play it unless youre really really dumb

One of the most tragic and most impactful games I've ever played.

Aside from some dated game mechanics, Persona 3 is a masterclass of atmosphere, story/character writing and attention to detail.

I wished this was released for modern consoles instead of the very inferior portable edition.

I played this at 13 and it was a sea change for my perspective - no other game I would readily recommend to a high schooler than this one because it so expertly talks to them at their level, unafraid to sugarcoat the real drama, frustrations, sexual paralysis, and depth of angst a teen can feel, the entire spectrum of coming into an existential self, toiling with agnosticism, and becoming aware of yourself and your limited time in such a dreadful way. it’s a post-structural treatise on a teen’s burgeoning time management skills, their ability to juggle relationships while toiling with inner conflict and secret traumas, and while it’s flaws are immediately apparent to me on replay in adulthood, it’s hard to fight the gloomy catharsis this game achieves, one I have never found anywhere else in quite the same way.

Is life worth it?

Persona 3 settles the player into an ultimately repetitive cycle. Do an activity during the day, do an activity during the evening, chop away at the ever-tedious Tartarus, and fight a boss at full moon. Repeat.

Oftentimes there are stretches where you can't do anything, nowhere is this more apparent than the vast amount of empty evenings you are tasked to repeat. Or December. I could not for the life of me find anything to do during December.

It then asks you at the very end: "Did you make the most of this?"

Did you make the most of this game? Were there characters you ultimately regret not bonding with? Did you regret any other decisions?

Did the characters make the most of their year?
Is it even worth living life through so many hardships?
They used a year of their youth for the future.
How often do you think about the future?

Persona 3 is about the little time you have. The most obvious use of this idea is the dark hour. Having an hour every day no one is conscious of, a dead hour ultimately everyone wastes is a straightforward but effective method to paint this central picture.

If there was one thing that had to grow on me, it would be the characters.
They are not badly written by any means, they're great. I'm especially fond of Akihiko. Initial impressions gave me the thought that a story grasping with mortality in the way Persona 3 does could have benefited from a more mature cast.

It is of course a coming of age story, like so many others. Most, if not all of these stories utilize their teen casts to grasp the future.
I thought 3's "retrospective on life" tone would clash with its youthful party, and could have been more impactful when tackled through the lens of people that have lived most of their lives already, but blending the two outlooks into one actually makes for an interesting back and forth between retro-, and prospect.

I'll admit I was in a slight rush when playing this game, because a game I was highly anticipating was right around the corner.
But I feel that in the grand scheme of things, this did not hamper my experience with Persona 3. Maybe it even strengthened it.
I see the irony in having a limited time to play a game all about this central idea.
Though maybe that was the reason I drew the conclusions I did out of Persona 3.

The answer is yes.

After finishing this game for the first time at the tail end of last year, I proceeded to replay it on multiple different occasions across its different versions, with my most recent FES replay being the one where I was left a crying wreck by the end of the credits. I GUESSSSS one could say this game, with its grounded cast of characters, its themes pertaining to life and its many inevitabilities, and its protagonist's journey of self-discovery in pursuit of finding meaning within said life, has managed to emotionally resonate with me in ways that very little media have ever managed to, if any at that.

Or one could say I just really really like that cute blonde robot with the smile. She's so nice!

it's been weeks since i finished persona 3 fes, and yet i still find myself searching for the words to summarize how i feel about it.

this game is truly stunning in every way. the combat is layered, expertly weaving main plot theme and narrative with it's use of tactics and tartarus. the characters are independent of the mc, with the game being entirely unafraid to explore them in both flaw and strength, writing them in the most natural and real of any persona game. the protagonist is one of the strongest silent protagonists i've ever experienced, ending up as my favourite character for so many reasons, and the skill in which the writers round him out and make him a fully living being in this dark, scary world is unbelievable.

every single shred of persona 3 fes is dripping with its themes, every ending and variable in the game gives you such immense emotion and outlook, with the tone and the atmosphere never shying away.

p3's themes are treasured in my heart, and yet plays with ideas that keep me up at night with worry. it delivers on both with exceptional skill. my all time favourite persona, and a new favourite game of all time.

To 11 year old me, it was the greatest game of all time.

To 21 year old me, it's a dated horror.

I commend it for getting me into JRPGs and dungeon crawlers but the gameplay and pace doesn't hold up well in its time and today. Story is fine.

"Why are you wasting your lives!?" "We’re just planning for the future. Right, Ken?"

Writing reviews for these huge games always seems like a daunting task, not even because I'm lazy but just because there is so much to talk about and it's hard to balance talking about everything, so I'll attempt to keep it condensed because this was an experience (in a positive light).

It took me around 6 times of playing this game's intro and dropping it because of various reasons to finally get hooked which I think is a testament to retrying games that don't initially click with you. This time though It really sunk its teeth into me and It kept me coming back despite sometimes the game doing everything in its power to discourage me. It may come as a surprise to those who were in VC with me as I fought some of those early Tartarus bosses but I have to say I think in many aspects I think this game is so well-designed to serve its story and themes that it actually made me revise why some of this stuff transferred over to p4 and p5.

The story of this game had me very interested once we hit a certain point and I can respect those first couple of months for being a bit more relaxed and letting you spend time with the characters but I will say it is the part I probably dread the most when I replay it for portable later this year but once it gets going I think it's really well-paced and keeps you invested with twists and turns and allowing enough time for characters to have mini-arcs with how the presence of death/Tartarus affects them and It's really enjoyable I loved Junpei and Yukari especially I loved them and how human they felt with Junpei apologizing and Yukari redirecting her anger of her father's death. This game tackles the subject matter in such an interesting way and It even had me consider how I live my life. The phrase "Memento Mori" has really stuck with me throughout. it permeated into my motivations and how I thought about playing the game I think. The weaving of the themes of the game into player choice and actually making it matter seeing the people you 10 ranked at the end is so cool, especially in this game.

I'll keep it brief about this game's combat but I am actually a fan of how it became a game of mitigating mistakes made by party members and coming up with solutions with the tactics to not get them to do dumb shit but the spikes in difficulty caused me so much frustration. I gotta say though it gives Tartarus this unique kind of character, it's unforgiving and adds to the oppressive atmosphere, it's funny though because in a call I was babying at intrepid knight but the rest of the game I feel like I had no huge problems with.

I already broke my promise about keeping it condensed but this game all in all is a smartly designed experience when it comes to injecting its themes and story into gameplay and player choice and it felt so good when the story was kicking, but between the slow couple of first months and some other issues with balancing it made me lose a bit of love throughout. I loved this game by the end but these are things I dread when replaying portable and maybe reload this year, I truly see why people say it is the best one I might even think that later on it is something I'll be thinking about.

Definitely glad I stuck through with this one that ending made me cry. I'm actually so tempted to start portable now.

So I moved into the city and shit is wild. I can't talk. Everyone wants to be my friend or to date me. I black out at midnight and am assaulted by demons and a disturbing child in striped inmate pajamas. I yell at my dormmates to do things and they get it right half of the time and if they don't I get mauled to death and do it again. Dr. Frankenstein's former assistant cackles at me and gets some kind of hotel maid to shove demons into my mind. One of them is possibly Jesus.

It's a huge pain in the ass. The grim reaper tears itself out of my psyche and screams at me. I hate it when all three of the friends I picked kill themselves on a reflective barrier. I get wrecked about a hundred times. 10/10. Would transfer here again.

Gonna preface this review by saying P3 is my favorite game of all time, and all my bias for the hodgepodge of weird quirks and gameplay design choices that perfectly collided into making this bizarre and wonderful game is unavoidable.

I think there's a lot of games out there that do far better in terms of individual metrics like gameplay or graphics - but what makes this game truly special is how everything flows together. Nearly all of it's gameplay functions - no matter how egregious or tough to work with they might seem - have a purpose in it's story, and it all flows together in a cohesive masterpiece unlike anything I've seen before.

A perfect example of this is the way you cooperate with your teammates; there's no direct control over the other characters. Most people hate the AI control to the point where they don't want to even give it a chance - but being a dysfunctional group that slowly learns to depend on each other is exactly what the main characters are and the way this gets expanded on by the range of tactics that you're able to assign your teammates expanding each month you survive together is absolutely brilliant.

The main character is also my favorite silent MC (and one of my favorite characters of all-time, even) because of how well him being a silent MC is implemented; which I can't quite mention without going too deep into the story, but he has such a genuinely fantastic reason for being the way he is and it truly makes sense for him to adapt to a different mask for every person he comes across.
People like to think of him as the same blank slate silent main characters they're used to when they start the game (especially if they've played P4 or P5 beforehand and aren't expecting much) but trust me, he'll end up being so much more than that.

I think the game's definitely a slowburn, and the pacing regarding that isn't perfect by any means, but it is absolutely worth it.
I've never experienced a more gripping and genuinely warm story of love and hope despite how bleak the world might be, and I'm so glad I found it exactly when I needed it.

So yeah, if you're looking for some game you'll enjoy for revolutionary gameplay alone; you're probably better off looking elsewhere.
But, if like me, you adore it when a game makes use of all it's quirks and design choices to make the message it's trying to send even stronger, you're in luck. I don't think I'll ever find a game that does that as strongly as Persona 3 does.

This game is.. incredible. I think personal circumstances had a lot to do with it, but I genuinely wouldn't know where I'd be without it.
And for that, I'll love it through all eternity.

I first played P3-5 in 2019, and since then I played 4 and 5 a few more times, but never 3 which I always had ranked below them. After finally securing a European copy of FES (very expensive) I decided to finally revisit it that way on my CRT. Man... I GET Persona 3 now. I finally understand why people love it so much. After playing other SMT games and growing accustomed to the difficulty and quirks, it was now a walk in the park and a lot of the criticisms I had don't matter to me anymore. I enjoy grinding Tartarus, the boss fights, really enjoy the higher difficulty than 4 and 5, and I even grew to like the weird stuff - ordering AIs with tactics, tiredness, reverse social links. I guess it made it feel more realistic and made me approach it differently to other RPGs. I tore through the story and didn't find any of the pacing issues I remembered and wow, this is a super consistent story with probably my favorite finale in the series. I don't love all of the cast but they are generally well written. It's undoubtedly the most flawed of the modern Personas and it's not gonna be for everyone, but I love it now. I've been thinking about it so much. 9/10 for the experience