This review contains spoilers
Its weird to think that without this game, there may have been a chance that I wouldn't be around now to review it nearly a year later. The games underlying themes of death and rebirth spoke to me in a period of my life when I was at my lowest, and I think in a way, it also allowed me to begin the process of closing that dark chapter of my life and to keep moving foward to other doors that lay ahead of me.
An example of which could be seen in the Death Arcana, one of the 22 major arcana present throughout the entire series. While negative connotations have been previously associated with it, there is also an alternative meaning behind it. It can signal that one major phase of your life is ending, and a new one is going to begin.
That is partly why I have come to cherish this game, and to an extent, the franchise, so much. Even though from here and there it does seem to have its.. rather dated flaws in some places (e.g the hermit/magician s.l), the positives that the game, the story, the writing (in most parts), the character arcs have shown me throughout my near 731 hour playthrough far outweigh said negatives in my mind.
(P.S.
As for how i got so many hours in a game that only has 90-100 hours of content in... Tartarus was quite addicting in its gameplay suprisingly, even if it was merely just a spiritual predecessor to Mementos in a way. Also i thought that the final boss needed to be fought at like max level so there was a lot of grinding involved. I can definitely say that im never going to spend that much time on something like that again lol.)
An example of which could be seen in the Death Arcana, one of the 22 major arcana present throughout the entire series. While negative connotations have been previously associated with it, there is also an alternative meaning behind it. It can signal that one major phase of your life is ending, and a new one is going to begin.
That is partly why I have come to cherish this game, and to an extent, the franchise, so much. Even though from here and there it does seem to have its.. rather dated flaws in some places (e.g the hermit/magician s.l), the positives that the game, the story, the writing (in most parts), the character arcs have shown me throughout my near 731 hour playthrough far outweigh said negatives in my mind.
(P.S.
As for how i got so many hours in a game that only has 90-100 hours of content in... Tartarus was quite addicting in its gameplay suprisingly, even if it was merely just a spiritual predecessor to Mementos in a way. Also i thought that the final boss needed to be fought at like max level so there was a lot of grinding involved. I can definitely say that im never going to spend that much time on something like that again lol.)
This is one of the, if not the hardest game to talk about for me. It's far from the best game I've played, but it's without a doubt my favorite-
It took me 10 years to finish Persona 3: FES. I played the journey (which is the first and main part of the game) way back in 2010 when I was just 14. My love for the game was gigantic, the cast was interesting, the gameplay was engaging, the music catchy as hell; I even recall downloading the whole ost on a screenless mp3 to listen to it at school. But most importantly, as the teenager son of a drug addict and violent father it was a way for me to endure the suffering of being at his house. The Gekkoukan High was a place for me to escape, the upbeat and funky soundtrack brought me joy whenever my favorite tune began to play. And the main character was someone cool, with lot's of friends and, perhaps more importantly, had a reason to live.
My love for the MC was so big that I even got the emo haircut (minus the sonic-esque colored hair) but even with all of these things once I finished the journey I was unable to play the second arc of the game, "The Answer".
Why? In 2011 I finally felt that my life was truly in danger and ran away from my father's house, leaving behind the two most important things in my life at the time, my dog and the Playstation 2.
One year later, in August of 2012 my dad died- And as possibly any teenager who had the horrible missfortune of experiencing the death of a parent, the fragility and finite nature of life became a running theme on my life.
"Memento mori" is a phrase that haunted me forever, and while I loved the game and everything about P3. The memories and feelings that resurfaced every time I attempted to turn on my old ps2 kept me from playing the rest of the game.
The internet and fandom weren't exactly kind to "The Answer" either, so for me it was only natural to ignore it. This all changed on 2020; I felt I was a different person that I was a decade ago,
I finished high school a long time ago then, went to college, experienced what love meant, came out as queer, got a job and moved from my small town into the city. I finally felt I was ready to end this.
It's safe to say that "The Answer" was one of the best experiences on this medium that I had- It dosn't talk only about death, it talks about what happens -after- death. What happens when someone dies? the others keep going, that grief you carry shapes who you are. It breaks you and it rebuilds you.
Like the cast from the game I also found my answer.
Death is terrible; but it also brings a sort of simple, uncomplicated joy. The joy of being alive.
It took me 10 years to finish Persona 3: FES. I played the journey (which is the first and main part of the game) way back in 2010 when I was just 14. My love for the game was gigantic, the cast was interesting, the gameplay was engaging, the music catchy as hell; I even recall downloading the whole ost on a screenless mp3 to listen to it at school. But most importantly, as the teenager son of a drug addict and violent father it was a way for me to endure the suffering of being at his house. The Gekkoukan High was a place for me to escape, the upbeat and funky soundtrack brought me joy whenever my favorite tune began to play. And the main character was someone cool, with lot's of friends and, perhaps more importantly, had a reason to live.
My love for the MC was so big that I even got the emo haircut (minus the sonic-esque colored hair) but even with all of these things once I finished the journey I was unable to play the second arc of the game, "The Answer".
Why? In 2011 I finally felt that my life was truly in danger and ran away from my father's house, leaving behind the two most important things in my life at the time, my dog and the Playstation 2.
One year later, in August of 2012 my dad died- And as possibly any teenager who had the horrible missfortune of experiencing the death of a parent, the fragility and finite nature of life became a running theme on my life.
"Memento mori" is a phrase that haunted me forever, and while I loved the game and everything about P3. The memories and feelings that resurfaced every time I attempted to turn on my old ps2 kept me from playing the rest of the game.
The internet and fandom weren't exactly kind to "The Answer" either, so for me it was only natural to ignore it. This all changed on 2020; I felt I was a different person that I was a decade ago,
I finished high school a long time ago then, went to college, experienced what love meant, came out as queer, got a job and moved from my small town into the city. I finally felt I was ready to end this.
It's safe to say that "The Answer" was one of the best experiences on this medium that I had- It dosn't talk only about death, it talks about what happens -after- death. What happens when someone dies? the others keep going, that grief you carry shapes who you are. It breaks you and it rebuilds you.
Like the cast from the game I also found my answer.
Death is terrible; but it also brings a sort of simple, uncomplicated joy. The joy of being alive.
A emotional story and compelling characters, layed the groundwork of what Persona 4, and 5 would go on to accomplish. The lack of party control may be a turn off for many, but the atmosphere and story are some of the finest I believe ive ever had the joy of experiencing.
This review contains spoilers
After rating Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal a perfect score, Persona 3 FES had some big shoes to fill. And it didn't.
...At first. With an all too familiar slow start, Persona 3 sets up everything you need to know to have a basic understanding of its systems in place. Only now, retroactively, do I understand the significance of the slow start of this game. I was confused why I would only get lore every full moon, feeling like it would be more engaging and purposeful to get more early on. And while it was a struggle to find the time to play at first, I truly appreciate it for what it is now.
The slow dripfeeding of the narrative, characterization and establishing bonds is meaningful in the specific themes of Persona 3. SEES exists out of necessity, to get rid of the Dark Hour and its shadows. Our main crew didn't join SEES because they were friends with each other, their purpose was to fulfill their goal. Having the main characters of Persona 3 only be vaguely acquainted with one another through school, barely being able to call each other friends and even being suspicious of one another makes the bonding and gradual build-up in their overall dynamic that much more meaningful. Take Yukari and Mitsuru, a girl that doesn't know her purpose in the grand scheme of things and the leader of SEES. There was an inherent distance between the two, but over the course of Persona 3, their bond becomes something special and a unique dynamic exists between the two which can be said about a lot of its members.
In a sense, this works on a meta level too. The more time you spend with these characters, the more you wanna see them, talk to them and form a unique bond with them. It feels authentic.
Among the things that this game does badly and does well, the development and meaning of the group dynamic of SEES and its ties into the message of Persona 3 stands out on top as its strongest component. Finding purpose and comfort in uncertainty through the bonds you create and the people you love is incredibly meaningful. As someone who struggles with finding a purpose in life, I feel like this game tells me that that's okay. And that I should be okay with that too.
Forever grateful for the friends that watched me, pushed me, encouraged me and supported me throughout this playthrough.
...At first. With an all too familiar slow start, Persona 3 sets up everything you need to know to have a basic understanding of its systems in place. Only now, retroactively, do I understand the significance of the slow start of this game. I was confused why I would only get lore every full moon, feeling like it would be more engaging and purposeful to get more early on. And while it was a struggle to find the time to play at first, I truly appreciate it for what it is now.
The slow dripfeeding of the narrative, characterization and establishing bonds is meaningful in the specific themes of Persona 3. SEES exists out of necessity, to get rid of the Dark Hour and its shadows. Our main crew didn't join SEES because they were friends with each other, their purpose was to fulfill their goal. Having the main characters of Persona 3 only be vaguely acquainted with one another through school, barely being able to call each other friends and even being suspicious of one another makes the bonding and gradual build-up in their overall dynamic that much more meaningful. Take Yukari and Mitsuru, a girl that doesn't know her purpose in the grand scheme of things and the leader of SEES. There was an inherent distance between the two, but over the course of Persona 3, their bond becomes something special and a unique dynamic exists between the two which can be said about a lot of its members.
In a sense, this works on a meta level too. The more time you spend with these characters, the more you wanna see them, talk to them and form a unique bond with them. It feels authentic.
Among the things that this game does badly and does well, the development and meaning of the group dynamic of SEES and its ties into the message of Persona 3 stands out on top as its strongest component. Finding purpose and comfort in uncertainty through the bonds you create and the people you love is incredibly meaningful. As someone who struggles with finding a purpose in life, I feel like this game tells me that that's okay. And that I should be okay with that too.
Forever grateful for the friends that watched me, pushed me, encouraged me and supported me throughout this playthrough.
It is truly insane how this game is real and how many lessons it can teach you. This was one of the first few games that I fell in love with and one of the first few that introduced me into story driven JRPGs. While I do pray this'll get a remake it's still as good as it is. 10/10, always.
Okay, let's get this one outta the way...
Persona 3 is kinda bad.
But not for the reason you may think; I actually didn't mind the party members being controlled by AI, I never had an issue with the idea and I actually kinda liked it as it made me think more for the combat... Also for the fact that this game is really not that hard, guys.
But, in terms of everything else? Oh yeah, it gets bad: for one, Tartarus is by far one of the worst RPG- no, video game dungeons in general; incredibly boring with no unique level design and a monotonous theme to boot. The combat is surface level, yet again, I don't really get much fun as everything can do down with a sneeze, the only fun I get out of it is the AI party members.
The music only has five good tracks which really sucks because, the few bangers this game has are really good, some of the best songs in the series! It just sucks that we have songs like Mass Destruction and Want to be Close taking up most of our playtime.
The story was also very weak, I actually laughed at the scenes that were meant to be taken with the upmost seriousness, the characters were very hit or miss with the only shining stars being Junpei and Shinjiro, in fact, the only few scenes I loved were with Shinjiro, who quickly became my favorite character in this game, and the entire series right next to Jun from Persona 2 and Adachi from Persona 4.
So, Persona 3 really isn't that good, to me. But, it's still got something in there that I believe people can and do definitely love, so I'd still recommend you play it and not just go off of this review, you might have a better time than I did!
aight now play portable instead of this one-
Persona 3 is kinda bad.
But not for the reason you may think; I actually didn't mind the party members being controlled by AI, I never had an issue with the idea and I actually kinda liked it as it made me think more for the combat... Also for the fact that this game is really not that hard, guys.
But, in terms of everything else? Oh yeah, it gets bad: for one, Tartarus is by far one of the worst RPG- no, video game dungeons in general; incredibly boring with no unique level design and a monotonous theme to boot. The combat is surface level, yet again, I don't really get much fun as everything can do down with a sneeze, the only fun I get out of it is the AI party members.
The music only has five good tracks which really sucks because, the few bangers this game has are really good, some of the best songs in the series! It just sucks that we have songs like Mass Destruction and Want to be Close taking up most of our playtime.
The story was also very weak, I actually laughed at the scenes that were meant to be taken with the upmost seriousness, the characters were very hit or miss with the only shining stars being Junpei and Shinjiro, in fact, the only few scenes I loved were with Shinjiro, who quickly became my favorite character in this game, and the entire series right next to Jun from Persona 2 and Adachi from Persona 4.
So, Persona 3 really isn't that good, to me. But, it's still got something in there that I believe people can and do definitely love, so I'd still recommend you play it and not just go off of this review, you might have a better time than I did!
aight now play portable instead of this one-
This review contains spoilers
You know when persona fans take the Hashino trilogy and say each one is the best in a certain category? The broken record of "3 has the best story, 4 has the best characters and setting, 5 has the best gameplay"? Well, throw that garbage out the window: Persona 3 is the best in everything except dungeons, and even there I'd make the case Tartarus is better than any Mind Palace, at least thematically. How P-studio managed to get so much stuff right on the first go and then fumble on subsequent releases is baffling.
I love this game and want to shower its story with praise, especially how it's not afraid to pull its punches from the start, the stakes and risks of your situation clearly established from the word ‘go’. It admittedly drags halfway through, I'd say the Summer section is probably the weakest part of the game, with the formula having fully set in and with it your complacency. Then October comes in like a truck, smacks you upside the head and yells: “you messed up, this shadow business is not a game, kid”. After that the story gets even better, each event that follows turning up the tension as you fight even harder and try to savour the last moments of your life, the calendar counting down to your eventual passing. Bit of a crap life, sure, but at least you’re not in it by yourself.
The characters of Persona 3 seem pretty shallow at first. Pretty much everyone plays their cards close to their chest, from the main cast to the social link options, with some coming off as especially unlikeable. Yet as you face hardships together and make an effort to better know your pals, as they experience the worst of what their situation has to offer, everyone grows and changes into stronger human beings, which is true even for the robot. Not really for the dog though, he just wants to help and is happy to be along. Good for him. In the case of the party, outside of the tragedy of Shinjiro’s death, and because of it, everyone finds a way to keep on living, striving for new goals with a clarity of purpose. In particular, the awakenings are amazing moments for each character, never feeling forced due to them going in lock-step with the plot, avoiding one of many missteps of future titles. Speaking of awakenings, let’s talk about Junpei.
Junpei starts out as the bro. Loud, jokey and obnoxious, always looking to prove his virility in a childish way. The eternal class clown. And much like a clown it’s an act, as he’s one of the most insecure members of the cast. Yet he never lowers his guard around others. It’s exactly because of his flaws he ends up in danger by the hands of Strega and it’s by facing his demons head on with Chidori that he starts to change. The jokey veneer never flakes off, yet as the months pile on, his core becomes ever more determined, driving him to stare directly into the jaws of death, literally, with a little help from his friends. This culminates with Chidori’s death, her spirit now alive within him, even passing her regenerative abilities onto him in battle, in one of the single best uses of a mechanic I’ve seen in any videogame. By the time March 5 2010 rolls around, Junpei is still the bro, yet he is much closer to really being “da man”.
Since I’ve mentioned battles, let’s settle the CPU party control debate to rest once and for all. In my objective opinion: it’s alright. It helps to further characterize each member other than your as their own person, warts and all. It’s a bit clunky, especially when the menu, as nice as it is, makes tactics switching feel like a bit of a chore. I know, I know, Mitsuru Marin Karin Mind Charge Ice Break, yeah we’ve all heard the joke. Thing is, it works. It’s a restraint which, coupled with the many design choices that are closer to Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne than they are to Persona 4, keeps you on your toes and thinking tactically.
I apologize to fans of Persona 4 and Persona 5 for badmouthing those games. I like them too, yet after playing Persona 3 it’s apparent how both misunderstand and/or misuse the groundwork laid by this title. I get it, 4 had to be made in two years alongside FES, it’s a miracle the game even shipped in the first place, while 5 probably wanted to stick to the plan because that’s the series’ identity after nearly ten years between instalments. Yet this leaves them feeling less complete, like they’re carrying vestigial elements which are there because they have to be or it won’t be a Persona game anymore. I hope this isn’t taken as an insult or as a slight against the series, but as an invitation to grow, to not be afraid of mixing it up and shed off the old skin, just like 3 did. I believe this makes for stronger experiences which, like the Kirijo Group claims, favour the harmony of two over the perfection of one. In this case, harmony of mechanics and story for maximum thematic power. Put that shit in Persona 6, Atlus employee who is definitively real and reading this review.
I love this game and want to shower its story with praise, especially how it's not afraid to pull its punches from the start, the stakes and risks of your situation clearly established from the word ‘go’. It admittedly drags halfway through, I'd say the Summer section is probably the weakest part of the game, with the formula having fully set in and with it your complacency. Then October comes in like a truck, smacks you upside the head and yells: “you messed up, this shadow business is not a game, kid”. After that the story gets even better, each event that follows turning up the tension as you fight even harder and try to savour the last moments of your life, the calendar counting down to your eventual passing. Bit of a crap life, sure, but at least you’re not in it by yourself.
The characters of Persona 3 seem pretty shallow at first. Pretty much everyone plays their cards close to their chest, from the main cast to the social link options, with some coming off as especially unlikeable. Yet as you face hardships together and make an effort to better know your pals, as they experience the worst of what their situation has to offer, everyone grows and changes into stronger human beings, which is true even for the robot. Not really for the dog though, he just wants to help and is happy to be along. Good for him. In the case of the party, outside of the tragedy of Shinjiro’s death, and because of it, everyone finds a way to keep on living, striving for new goals with a clarity of purpose. In particular, the awakenings are amazing moments for each character, never feeling forced due to them going in lock-step with the plot, avoiding one of many missteps of future titles. Speaking of awakenings, let’s talk about Junpei.
Junpei starts out as the bro. Loud, jokey and obnoxious, always looking to prove his virility in a childish way. The eternal class clown. And much like a clown it’s an act, as he’s one of the most insecure members of the cast. Yet he never lowers his guard around others. It’s exactly because of his flaws he ends up in danger by the hands of Strega and it’s by facing his demons head on with Chidori that he starts to change. The jokey veneer never flakes off, yet as the months pile on, his core becomes ever more determined, driving him to stare directly into the jaws of death, literally, with a little help from his friends. This culminates with Chidori’s death, her spirit now alive within him, even passing her regenerative abilities onto him in battle, in one of the single best uses of a mechanic I’ve seen in any videogame. By the time March 5 2010 rolls around, Junpei is still the bro, yet he is much closer to really being “da man”.
Since I’ve mentioned battles, let’s settle the CPU party control debate to rest once and for all. In my objective opinion: it’s alright. It helps to further characterize each member other than your as their own person, warts and all. It’s a bit clunky, especially when the menu, as nice as it is, makes tactics switching feel like a bit of a chore. I know, I know, Mitsuru Marin Karin Mind Charge Ice Break, yeah we’ve all heard the joke. Thing is, it works. It’s a restraint which, coupled with the many design choices that are closer to Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne than they are to Persona 4, keeps you on your toes and thinking tactically.
I apologize to fans of Persona 4 and Persona 5 for badmouthing those games. I like them too, yet after playing Persona 3 it’s apparent how both misunderstand and/or misuse the groundwork laid by this title. I get it, 4 had to be made in two years alongside FES, it’s a miracle the game even shipped in the first place, while 5 probably wanted to stick to the plan because that’s the series’ identity after nearly ten years between instalments. Yet this leaves them feeling less complete, like they’re carrying vestigial elements which are there because they have to be or it won’t be a Persona game anymore. I hope this isn’t taken as an insult or as a slight against the series, but as an invitation to grow, to not be afraid of mixing it up and shed off the old skin, just like 3 did. I believe this makes for stronger experiences which, like the Kirijo Group claims, favour the harmony of two over the perfection of one. In this case, harmony of mechanics and story for maximum thematic power. Put that shit in Persona 6, Atlus employee who is definitively real and reading this review.
Tactics were a great idea honestly, I know that's controversial but yeah. Second half is one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had, first half is still amazing but a few eh moments. I recommend this to any teen.
Keep my wife's name out your fucking mouth.
Did not plan to complete this on March 5th but I'll take it lol
No way is this remotely close to P5R or as good as P4G (there is literally nothing to do at night most of the time!!!) but nonetheless still a banger.
Even if a lot of the cognitive elements feel like a blueprint, the concept of the dark hour and its backstory are brilliant and I didn't even find Tartarus as tedious as I initially thought it would be - it has some really cool designs in its higher blocks (especially Harabah and Adamah). The overarching theme of death is beautifully explored too, especially in the more blissful moments of acceptance, and the animations of the cutscenes are so well directed it's a shame Portable doesn't include them.
A bit split on the party members: Ken, Fuuka, and Junpei are just really underwhelming despite the attempts to flesh them out (Chidori, Shinjiro, etc.); however, Mitsuru, Aigis (incredible VA), and Akihiko are all some of the best characters in the series, and I love Yukari a lot too.
So glad I've finally gotten to this one, intrigued to see how much Portable's FEMC route changes things too. Love this series to pieces :)))
No way is this remotely close to P5R or as good as P4G (there is literally nothing to do at night most of the time!!!) but nonetheless still a banger.
Even if a lot of the cognitive elements feel like a blueprint, the concept of the dark hour and its backstory are brilliant and I didn't even find Tartarus as tedious as I initially thought it would be - it has some really cool designs in its higher blocks (especially Harabah and Adamah). The overarching theme of death is beautifully explored too, especially in the more blissful moments of acceptance, and the animations of the cutscenes are so well directed it's a shame Portable doesn't include them.
A bit split on the party members: Ken, Fuuka, and Junpei are just really underwhelming despite the attempts to flesh them out (Chidori, Shinjiro, etc.); however, Mitsuru, Aigis (incredible VA), and Akihiko are all some of the best characters in the series, and I love Yukari a lot too.
So glad I've finally gotten to this one, intrigued to see how much Portable's FEMC route changes things too. Love this series to pieces :)))
This game was overhyped for me. From what I read from everyone, I was expecting to get a depressive tale with lovable folks. Not just that, I heard this game was the best of persona. I... Didn't get that.
First let me start with the positives because they are short
Sun arcana is really emotional and I liked that.
Last month(last %10 of the game) is awesome with it's melancholic, majora's mask like dark vibes.
Lots of persona to fusion of course.
Best persona soundtrack
And the rest is...
Story is a giant timewaster that repetitive as heck. You learn about a person that have potential, kill the shadow boss that suddenly appeared, let that person join your group, repeat x6. Story only starts to go somewhere the moment bad guy group shows up(in the damn last quarter of this game).
People that say this game is depressive as heck just talks about intro of this game, persona calling animation that uses a gun to the head, 2 social links that is a bit depressive and last %10 of this game. But how a game can be named depressive if the %85 of the content is la la la upbeat colorful happy tones? I literally have any idea. Btw I don't have any problem with upbeat atmosphere but fans themselves create wrong expectations
Question is, can you like a story if only %10 of it just interesting? It's really good %10 I won't lie but what about the repetitive as heck rest? Sorry but I am not the "ending justifies the repetition" kind of person. Sorry.
Gameplay is... Repetitive as heck too. Level design is non-existent, one lazy person just flat out modelled 8 different room and colored it different 10 times with combining a randomizer and called it a day. What. The. Fu#k. Don't get me started on repeat enemies as well, if there is 20 enemy models, then don't worry they also have 10 different color variations that only difference of them is a slight stat difference. Only thing that refreshes the pace a little bit is, bosses are once in a while needs a different strategy rather than spam the same handful of elemental attacks and watching the same all out attack for the millionth time.
Social links
Other than Sun, lovers and hierophant social link...
Rest is meh at best and plain garbage at worst. Moon arcana(that damn fat kid), chariot(stubborn sports kid), hanged man(pedo... social link), priestess(i can't cook food fuuka soical link) etc. If your excuse is, in reality there are idiots or infuriating people in real life as well then why I am playing this game? This is a work of fiction. Give me something memorable. Unfortunately there is not much of that memorable feeling...
So yeah. For the %15 content sake, I don't give 1/5. But I can easily say, I can't see any of the praise other folks does. Sometimes I hate myself with joining the flow of hype and taking wrong decisions. I have not just persona 3 and 4. I also have 5 and it costed me. Probably I couldn't be able to gather enough motivation to start 5 so I really did a wasteful decision for myself.
First let me start with the positives because they are short
Sun arcana is really emotional and I liked that.
Last month(last %10 of the game) is awesome with it's melancholic, majora's mask like dark vibes.
Lots of persona to fusion of course.
Best persona soundtrack
And the rest is...
Story is a giant timewaster that repetitive as heck. You learn about a person that have potential, kill the shadow boss that suddenly appeared, let that person join your group, repeat x6. Story only starts to go somewhere the moment bad guy group shows up(in the damn last quarter of this game).
People that say this game is depressive as heck just talks about intro of this game, persona calling animation that uses a gun to the head, 2 social links that is a bit depressive and last %10 of this game. But how a game can be named depressive if the %85 of the content is la la la upbeat colorful happy tones? I literally have any idea. Btw I don't have any problem with upbeat atmosphere but fans themselves create wrong expectations
Question is, can you like a story if only %10 of it just interesting? It's really good %10 I won't lie but what about the repetitive as heck rest? Sorry but I am not the "ending justifies the repetition" kind of person. Sorry.
Gameplay is... Repetitive as heck too. Level design is non-existent, one lazy person just flat out modelled 8 different room and colored it different 10 times with combining a randomizer and called it a day. What. The. Fu#k. Don't get me started on repeat enemies as well, if there is 20 enemy models, then don't worry they also have 10 different color variations that only difference of them is a slight stat difference. Only thing that refreshes the pace a little bit is, bosses are once in a while needs a different strategy rather than spam the same handful of elemental attacks and watching the same all out attack for the millionth time.
Social links
Other than Sun, lovers and hierophant social link...
Rest is meh at best and plain garbage at worst. Moon arcana(that damn fat kid), chariot(stubborn sports kid), hanged man(pedo... social link), priestess(i can't cook food fuuka soical link) etc. If your excuse is, in reality there are idiots or infuriating people in real life as well then why I am playing this game? This is a work of fiction. Give me something memorable. Unfortunately there is not much of that memorable feeling...
So yeah. For the %15 content sake, I don't give 1/5. But I can easily say, I can't see any of the praise other folks does. Sometimes I hate myself with joining the flow of hype and taking wrong decisions. I have not just persona 3 and 4. I also have 5 and it costed me. Probably I couldn't be able to gather enough motivation to start 5 so I really did a wasteful decision for myself.
Death really do break a nigga
I came to this game after finishing Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal, and while I can't say I enjoyed this game as much as those 2, I'll start this review with the positive things. The story is so damn good. Without getting to into spoilers, all emotional beats are hit, especially late game, making for a very somber and emotional experience. The music is also fantastic, and always fits the tone especially in areas like the month of January. Many of the Social links like the Sun, Star, Aeon, Heirophant, and Devil are all also amazing, and some of the best of the series. My issues, however, begin with the games pacing as its fucking atrocious. Jack shit happens until September, and days before them become very repetitive and uninteresting, making the early game so incredibly slow and boring. Along with this, the main combat area, Tartarus, is super boring. It is repetitive in every sense of the word with each floor being identical to the last with no end in sight. Along with lacking the quality of life of future persona games, Persona 3 FES has many issues that bring down its score for me. However, despite all of this, I can confidently say this game is worth experiencing for the plot alone, along with the addicting fusing and combat featured in other modern persona games.
Esse jogo é um caso bem complicado, sinceramente eu não gosto da estrutura de progressão dele, não gosto de como você é obrigado a farmar muito mesmo na dificuldade mais fácil, faltou um pouco mais de balanceamento, ou ao menos um modo mais fácil, e me arrisco a dizer que umas fontes externas (mais conhecidas como hack), podem até melhorar a sua experiência com o jogo.
Mas de resto, o jogo é simplesmente perfeito, a história, os personagens, a trilha sonora que MEU DEUS, o final do jogo também é coisa de maluco, todo o tema do jogo sobre vida e morte também é simplesmente lindo, e aquela batalha final, hein...
Se esse jogo tivesse acertado um pouquinho mais na gameplay ou se pelo menos o jogo ficasse REALMENTE mais fácil nas dificuldades mais fáceis, eu facilmente daria 5 estrelas... até o the answer.
Eu não vou nem tentar explicar o porque o the answer é uma merda, até porque eu nem terminei ele, eu droppei e li a história, mas cacete cara, como pode estragar tanto um bagulho, parece que eles só queriam tirar leite de pedra continuando uma história que já tava muito bem consolidada.
Mas de resto, o jogo é simplesmente perfeito, a história, os personagens, a trilha sonora que MEU DEUS, o final do jogo também é coisa de maluco, todo o tema do jogo sobre vida e morte também é simplesmente lindo, e aquela batalha final, hein...
Se esse jogo tivesse acertado um pouquinho mais na gameplay ou se pelo menos o jogo ficasse REALMENTE mais fácil nas dificuldades mais fáceis, eu facilmente daria 5 estrelas... até o the answer.
Eu não vou nem tentar explicar o porque o the answer é uma merda, até porque eu nem terminei ele, eu droppei e li a história, mas cacete cara, como pode estragar tanto um bagulho, parece que eles só queriam tirar leite de pedra continuando uma história que já tava muito bem consolidada.
will do a real review one day but this changed my life
Somehow I didn’t log peak. Peak.
"You don't need to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of."
This game made a robotic, mass destructive humanoid weapon designed to kill shadows awaken my non existent motherly instincts cause of how cute it was
Persona 3 is the single worst piece of trash of a game i have ever played
it is literally the epitome of all thats uninteresting, trash in nature, and lacking in blessings
the dungeons are unoriginal, generic, and never a refreshing new start every single step
the enemies and bosses topple an unfair and inconsistent challenge that always keeps me on my cock and always keeps me brain dead wishing to die till my next move
and the cast of shallow and worthless characters just leaves me wanting less, and the game only kept delivering
Persona 3 has such an unoriginal and painfully simple story that just cannot be replicated in any meaningful way, it left 0 impact, it was light as in my body after i killed myself from boredom while playing, it had no love and it shows
nothing i've played in my life has come nearly as close to the magnitude of shit that persona 3 did, and i highly doubt anything in the future will be able to top the absolutely magnificently bad piece of shit that this game was, and it will always live within my heart as the worst thing to have ever been conceived in the history of this planet
it is literally the epitome of all thats uninteresting, trash in nature, and lacking in blessings
the dungeons are unoriginal, generic, and never a refreshing new start every single step
the enemies and bosses topple an unfair and inconsistent challenge that always keeps me on my cock and always keeps me brain dead wishing to die till my next move
and the cast of shallow and worthless characters just leaves me wanting less, and the game only kept delivering
Persona 3 has such an unoriginal and painfully simple story that just cannot be replicated in any meaningful way, it left 0 impact, it was light as in my body after i killed myself from boredom while playing, it had no love and it shows
nothing i've played in my life has come nearly as close to the magnitude of shit that persona 3 did, and i highly doubt anything in the future will be able to top the absolutely magnificently bad piece of shit that this game was, and it will always live within my heart as the worst thing to have ever been conceived in the history of this planet
For many years I’ve held Persona 3 in high regard as one of my favorite JRPGs of all time. With the upcoming release of Persona 3 Reload on the horizon, I wanted to give this game one more run before the remake comes out and play it with a fresh perspective after having not played it in about eight years. Coming back to this game after so long, there’s still a lot about it that I really love and respect, and finishing it still left me in an emotional mess. Despite that, however, this playthrough reminded me of many aspects of the game that don’t really sit well with me today, things that I hope Reload is able to improve upon.
Persona 3’s biggest draw to me has always been its story. The game has one of my favorite casts out of any JRPG I’ve ever played. I love how all of the characters grow and develop throughout the entire game. They all have emotional and generally very well-handled character arcs. Though some characters like Akihiko and Ken finish their character arcs a lot sooner and end up being flat for a good chunk of the story, I still think that the game overall does an excellent job with all of its characters, especially in comparison to the Persona games that come after it. One of my biggest problems with Persona 4 and 5 is their general story structure, and how each character goes through their arc before becoming flat for the rest of the game after completing their corresponding dungeon, only getting minor additional character development through their Social Links. Persona 3 isn’t like that at all. Up until the very end of the game, the cast is met with very personal challenges that they are able to overcome and learn from, which is what makes this cast and story resonate with me so much. Then there’s the game’s ending, which to date has made this one of the only games where I’ve actually cried while playing. It’s beautiful, tragic, and wraps up everything extremely neatly.
Aside from the story, another aspect about the game that I admire is how all of its unique systems are linked with one another. The combat system, Persona system, and Social Link system are all intertwined with one another in a way that’s extremely cohesive. Social Links affect the strength and progression speed of your Personas, which affects how efficiently you’re able to perform in combat. It’s very difficult to talk about one system without talking about another, and while that makes writing this review a bit more challenging, I think it makes for a very satisfying gameplay loop, as it constantly feels like you’re improving upon something in some fashion with every action you take on an in-game day to day basis.
The combat system is pretty standard for most JRPGs, though I really like Persona’s spin on it as it leads to more interesting decision-making. While you’re typically trying to find out the enemy’s weakness and exploit it, doing so allows you to knock your opponent down, causing them to lose their turn as well as take another turn for yourself. Knocking down all enemies on screen allows you to do an All-Out Attack with your party, which deals massive damage to every enemy on screen. However, this aspect of the combat also applies to yourself and your party members as well (though enemies can’t perform an All-Out Attack), which is why you need to make sure that you have the right Persona and party members when fighting enemies and especially bosses.
While aiming to get an All-Out Attack and wipe out the enemy as fast as possible is the general strategy, that strategy doesn’t always work nor is it always applicable at all times. There may be times where the spell you cast to knock the enemy down with misses, which gives the enemy a chance to retaliate. You might just not have a Persona or party member on hand who can exploit the enemy’s weakness, or the enemy might not have any weaknesses at all (which is the case for most bosses). Instead, you’ll have to form a strategy around what physical/elemental attacks your Personas and party members are strong and weak against and engage in more of a back and forth turn-based confrontation.
One of the most criticized aspects of the game is how it handles party members in combat. You don’t directly control what your party members do. Instead, your party members are controlled by AI. You are able to issue them general orders via the Tactics menu, however. You can assign party members specific enemies to target, tell them to focus on exploiting the enemy’s weakness and knocking them down, have them concentrate on healing/supporting the party with buffs or debuffs, etc, but you can’t select a specific ability of theirs during their turn. Personally speaking, this doesn’t bother me very much. For the vast majority of my play time, party members generally behaved as one would expect them to and did the most logical action during their turn. There were a few key instances where I found the AI consistently making decisions that aggravated me, though.
The first and more minor instance is that whenever you’re fighting a boss and you haven’t had the chance to analyze its weakness yet, Ken and Koromaru will almost always waste a turn trying to cast an instant-kill Hama or Mudo skill that will never ever work because bosses are always immune to them. There are also times where characters that don’t have a dedicated healing spell will give someone low on health a healing item. On paper, this isn’t a big deal, but in practice, wasting a turn to give someone an item that only heals a small amount of HP can be very frustrating, especially if they could’ve spent that turn knocking an enemy down, or you or someone else in the party is capable of healing people for more HP the very next turn. The biggest outlier however is one character in particular: Mitsuru. When Mitsuru is in your party, you need to be especially vigilant when it comes to assigning tactics to her, otherwise she will almost always waste a turn and magic casting either Marin Karin (a charm spell) that doesn’t work 90% of the time, or later in the game, she’ll cast Mind Charge instead, which can be more helpful since it boosts the damage of magic attacks, but isn’t really necessary since it’s generally more efficient to just knock the enemy down and do an All-Out Attack as fast as possible.
Still, despite the occasional frustration, I do think that a lot of people’s criticisms towards not being able to directly control your party members is fairly overblown. I actually like this system a lot, it makes the characters feel a bit more real. I understand that it’s not super popular, since the ability to directly control your party members was re-introduced in subsequent Persona games. Even though AI party members is still an option in those titles, the security of being able to directly pick which skill of my party members to use in any given situation is just too tempting to pass up on, and I fully admit that I likely wouldn’t ever use AI party members unless it was the only option I had.
The Persona system is both simultaneously easy to understand as well as very esoteric. If you’re just trying to play through the game normally, and you’re not trying to create a specific Persona, it’s fairly simple to just test and see what the results are of specific combinations of Personas. As long as it makes a Persona with a specific skill you’re looking for and is of an Arcana whose corresponding Social Link you’ve made a lot of progress in, then you’re generally good to go. However, if you’re trying to create a specific Persona for something like Elizabeth’s Requests or if you’re looking for one to help with a particularly difficult sub-boss in Tartarus, I do not see how you are supposed to reasonably be able to do so without some sort of guide. There are just far too many combinations and no real in-game way to tell what makes what. As long as you’re just sticking to the main game and not doing anything optional, you don’t really need a specific Persona for anything though. You’re generally able to make do with what you have as long as you’re consistently fusing Personas that are near your current in-game level.
The Social Link system is very conflicting, for a multitude of reasons. While the system itself I think is great and is an excellent way to tie-in gameplay elements with the thematic elements of the narrative, coming back to this game I initially thought that the narrative quality of the Social Links was generally very poor. In order to progress certain Social Links in the fastest and most efficient way possible, you’ll be required to constantly reinforce the beliefs and choices of the character whose Social Link you’re currently working on, even if they’re very poor, like Kenji or Hidetoshi. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that was kind of the point. As opposed to my original playthrough I decided to use a guide to see how best to progress through the Social Links, and I found the dialogue choices that would progress them the fastest are the ones where you have to kiss up to them at all times. This resulted in some Social Links being incredibly boring, with little to no conflict to them. I think this is the game’s way of saying that no friendship or relationship is ever perfect, most relationships have conflicts to them, and what’s most important is being able to overcome those conflicts and emerge from them with a stronger bond. Now, that could just be me reading too deep into the Social Links on a thematic level, admittedly. However, the Social Links do still have serious problems, some of which have already been addressed in future Persona titles, and some that I hope the remake rectifies.
The most obvious problem with them is that you can’t fully complete a female character’s Social Link without dating them. You have no option to just be friends with them. Thankfully, this was something that has already been handled in future Persona games, and I have no doubt that will carry over to the remake as well, but this was a very baffling oversight that wasn’t even addressed here in FES, the second version of Persona 3. An even bigger issue is that there are various Social Links that either involve or allude to romances with extremely uncomfortable age gaps. Kenji is a sixteen-year-old high school student whose entire Social Link is about his oblivious pursuit of his completely one-sided romance with his teacher. Maiko is a nine-year-old girl dealing with parents who are going through a divorce, and at the end of her Social Link, she falls in love with the high school age Protagonist, and you don’t have the option to directly say “no” to the idea of the two of you becoming “a mom and dad together”. One of the most problematic ones is “Maya”, the MMO player who is revealed to be an adult in the Protagonist's life with a crush on him. I really do hope that the remake rewrites these, “Maya”’s especially, because these are just not acceptable, especially in this day and age.
Tartarus is where that previously mentioned intertwining of systems is on full display. It’s a single 264 floor dungeon that you spend the entire game climbing. It’s here where you build up you and your party’s levels so that you’re strong enough to face the boss that appears at the end of each in-game month. Tartarus has always had a very mixed reception, and my most recent playthrough really opened my eyes to its problems. I think it’s biggest issue is that it’s not clear how much time you should be spending in Tartarus before you face the boss at the end of the month. The game does suggest you try and make it to the top of a block of floors before each fight, specifically via Elizabeth’s Requests, but even if you do make it to the top of a block, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you fought enough enemies and that you’re strong enough to fight the end-of-the-month boss. Persona 4 and 5 solved this problem by letting you fight the monthly bosses at any point within a certain period of time, giving you a deadline to defeat the boss as opposed to only allowing you to challenge and defeat a boss on one specific day. Given the narrative concept of Persona 3, you can’t really do that here, but hopefully Reload will give you some idea of what level you should be at to face those end-of-the-month bosses.
In addition to that, the sheer length of Tartarus and the unchanging layouts of its floors can grow rather tiresome and repetitive over the course of the game. The longer you play, the more of a grind it is, as more party members get added, which means you need to level more party members up, which means you need to spend more and more time in Tartarus. I do like the decision making that Tartarus forces, as you have to consider whether or not it’s worth challenging every Shadow on a floor, or if it’s better to try and continue the climb so that you make it to the next checkpoint without having to redo a section of floors again. It can be fun and an interesting challenge, but by the time you reach the end of the game and you make it to the top, you’re likely sick to death of it.
After all of that has been said and done, at the end of the day, I still greatly admire and appreciate Persona 3 despite its flaws. It doesn’t excel in every single regard, but if you stick with it, I think that it’s a game that can ultimately feel very rewarding, with a story that remains deeply impactful to me. There’s a lot this game does right, and even a bit it does better than the games that come after it. I hope that Persona 3 Reload is able to patch up the areas where it’s lacking, because I think that with a modern touch, Persona 3 could end up being not just the best game in the series on a thematic and narrative level, but on a gameplay one as well.
Persona 3’s biggest draw to me has always been its story. The game has one of my favorite casts out of any JRPG I’ve ever played. I love how all of the characters grow and develop throughout the entire game. They all have emotional and generally very well-handled character arcs. Though some characters like Akihiko and Ken finish their character arcs a lot sooner and end up being flat for a good chunk of the story, I still think that the game overall does an excellent job with all of its characters, especially in comparison to the Persona games that come after it. One of my biggest problems with Persona 4 and 5 is their general story structure, and how each character goes through their arc before becoming flat for the rest of the game after completing their corresponding dungeon, only getting minor additional character development through their Social Links. Persona 3 isn’t like that at all. Up until the very end of the game, the cast is met with very personal challenges that they are able to overcome and learn from, which is what makes this cast and story resonate with me so much. Then there’s the game’s ending, which to date has made this one of the only games where I’ve actually cried while playing. It’s beautiful, tragic, and wraps up everything extremely neatly.
Aside from the story, another aspect about the game that I admire is how all of its unique systems are linked with one another. The combat system, Persona system, and Social Link system are all intertwined with one another in a way that’s extremely cohesive. Social Links affect the strength and progression speed of your Personas, which affects how efficiently you’re able to perform in combat. It’s very difficult to talk about one system without talking about another, and while that makes writing this review a bit more challenging, I think it makes for a very satisfying gameplay loop, as it constantly feels like you’re improving upon something in some fashion with every action you take on an in-game day to day basis.
The combat system is pretty standard for most JRPGs, though I really like Persona’s spin on it as it leads to more interesting decision-making. While you’re typically trying to find out the enemy’s weakness and exploit it, doing so allows you to knock your opponent down, causing them to lose their turn as well as take another turn for yourself. Knocking down all enemies on screen allows you to do an All-Out Attack with your party, which deals massive damage to every enemy on screen. However, this aspect of the combat also applies to yourself and your party members as well (though enemies can’t perform an All-Out Attack), which is why you need to make sure that you have the right Persona and party members when fighting enemies and especially bosses.
While aiming to get an All-Out Attack and wipe out the enemy as fast as possible is the general strategy, that strategy doesn’t always work nor is it always applicable at all times. There may be times where the spell you cast to knock the enemy down with misses, which gives the enemy a chance to retaliate. You might just not have a Persona or party member on hand who can exploit the enemy’s weakness, or the enemy might not have any weaknesses at all (which is the case for most bosses). Instead, you’ll have to form a strategy around what physical/elemental attacks your Personas and party members are strong and weak against and engage in more of a back and forth turn-based confrontation.
One of the most criticized aspects of the game is how it handles party members in combat. You don’t directly control what your party members do. Instead, your party members are controlled by AI. You are able to issue them general orders via the Tactics menu, however. You can assign party members specific enemies to target, tell them to focus on exploiting the enemy’s weakness and knocking them down, have them concentrate on healing/supporting the party with buffs or debuffs, etc, but you can’t select a specific ability of theirs during their turn. Personally speaking, this doesn’t bother me very much. For the vast majority of my play time, party members generally behaved as one would expect them to and did the most logical action during their turn. There were a few key instances where I found the AI consistently making decisions that aggravated me, though.
The first and more minor instance is that whenever you’re fighting a boss and you haven’t had the chance to analyze its weakness yet, Ken and Koromaru will almost always waste a turn trying to cast an instant-kill Hama or Mudo skill that will never ever work because bosses are always immune to them. There are also times where characters that don’t have a dedicated healing spell will give someone low on health a healing item. On paper, this isn’t a big deal, but in practice, wasting a turn to give someone an item that only heals a small amount of HP can be very frustrating, especially if they could’ve spent that turn knocking an enemy down, or you or someone else in the party is capable of healing people for more HP the very next turn. The biggest outlier however is one character in particular: Mitsuru. When Mitsuru is in your party, you need to be especially vigilant when it comes to assigning tactics to her, otherwise she will almost always waste a turn and magic casting either Marin Karin (a charm spell) that doesn’t work 90% of the time, or later in the game, she’ll cast Mind Charge instead, which can be more helpful since it boosts the damage of magic attacks, but isn’t really necessary since it’s generally more efficient to just knock the enemy down and do an All-Out Attack as fast as possible.
Still, despite the occasional frustration, I do think that a lot of people’s criticisms towards not being able to directly control your party members is fairly overblown. I actually like this system a lot, it makes the characters feel a bit more real. I understand that it’s not super popular, since the ability to directly control your party members was re-introduced in subsequent Persona games. Even though AI party members is still an option in those titles, the security of being able to directly pick which skill of my party members to use in any given situation is just too tempting to pass up on, and I fully admit that I likely wouldn’t ever use AI party members unless it was the only option I had.
The Persona system is both simultaneously easy to understand as well as very esoteric. If you’re just trying to play through the game normally, and you’re not trying to create a specific Persona, it’s fairly simple to just test and see what the results are of specific combinations of Personas. As long as it makes a Persona with a specific skill you’re looking for and is of an Arcana whose corresponding Social Link you’ve made a lot of progress in, then you’re generally good to go. However, if you’re trying to create a specific Persona for something like Elizabeth’s Requests or if you’re looking for one to help with a particularly difficult sub-boss in Tartarus, I do not see how you are supposed to reasonably be able to do so without some sort of guide. There are just far too many combinations and no real in-game way to tell what makes what. As long as you’re just sticking to the main game and not doing anything optional, you don’t really need a specific Persona for anything though. You’re generally able to make do with what you have as long as you’re consistently fusing Personas that are near your current in-game level.
The Social Link system is very conflicting, for a multitude of reasons. While the system itself I think is great and is an excellent way to tie-in gameplay elements with the thematic elements of the narrative, coming back to this game I initially thought that the narrative quality of the Social Links was generally very poor. In order to progress certain Social Links in the fastest and most efficient way possible, you’ll be required to constantly reinforce the beliefs and choices of the character whose Social Link you’re currently working on, even if they’re very poor, like Kenji or Hidetoshi. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that was kind of the point. As opposed to my original playthrough I decided to use a guide to see how best to progress through the Social Links, and I found the dialogue choices that would progress them the fastest are the ones where you have to kiss up to them at all times. This resulted in some Social Links being incredibly boring, with little to no conflict to them. I think this is the game’s way of saying that no friendship or relationship is ever perfect, most relationships have conflicts to them, and what’s most important is being able to overcome those conflicts and emerge from them with a stronger bond. Now, that could just be me reading too deep into the Social Links on a thematic level, admittedly. However, the Social Links do still have serious problems, some of which have already been addressed in future Persona titles, and some that I hope the remake rectifies.
The most obvious problem with them is that you can’t fully complete a female character’s Social Link without dating them. You have no option to just be friends with them. Thankfully, this was something that has already been handled in future Persona games, and I have no doubt that will carry over to the remake as well, but this was a very baffling oversight that wasn’t even addressed here in FES, the second version of Persona 3. An even bigger issue is that there are various Social Links that either involve or allude to romances with extremely uncomfortable age gaps. Kenji is a sixteen-year-old high school student whose entire Social Link is about his oblivious pursuit of his completely one-sided romance with his teacher. Maiko is a nine-year-old girl dealing with parents who are going through a divorce, and at the end of her Social Link, she falls in love with the high school age Protagonist, and you don’t have the option to directly say “no” to the idea of the two of you becoming “a mom and dad together”. One of the most problematic ones is “Maya”, the MMO player who is revealed to be an adult in the Protagonist's life with a crush on him. I really do hope that the remake rewrites these, “Maya”’s especially, because these are just not acceptable, especially in this day and age.
Tartarus is where that previously mentioned intertwining of systems is on full display. It’s a single 264 floor dungeon that you spend the entire game climbing. It’s here where you build up you and your party’s levels so that you’re strong enough to face the boss that appears at the end of each in-game month. Tartarus has always had a very mixed reception, and my most recent playthrough really opened my eyes to its problems. I think it’s biggest issue is that it’s not clear how much time you should be spending in Tartarus before you face the boss at the end of the month. The game does suggest you try and make it to the top of a block of floors before each fight, specifically via Elizabeth’s Requests, but even if you do make it to the top of a block, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you fought enough enemies and that you’re strong enough to fight the end-of-the-month boss. Persona 4 and 5 solved this problem by letting you fight the monthly bosses at any point within a certain period of time, giving you a deadline to defeat the boss as opposed to only allowing you to challenge and defeat a boss on one specific day. Given the narrative concept of Persona 3, you can’t really do that here, but hopefully Reload will give you some idea of what level you should be at to face those end-of-the-month bosses.
In addition to that, the sheer length of Tartarus and the unchanging layouts of its floors can grow rather tiresome and repetitive over the course of the game. The longer you play, the more of a grind it is, as more party members get added, which means you need to level more party members up, which means you need to spend more and more time in Tartarus. I do like the decision making that Tartarus forces, as you have to consider whether or not it’s worth challenging every Shadow on a floor, or if it’s better to try and continue the climb so that you make it to the next checkpoint without having to redo a section of floors again. It can be fun and an interesting challenge, but by the time you reach the end of the game and you make it to the top, you’re likely sick to death of it.
After all of that has been said and done, at the end of the day, I still greatly admire and appreciate Persona 3 despite its flaws. It doesn’t excel in every single regard, but if you stick with it, I think that it’s a game that can ultimately feel very rewarding, with a story that remains deeply impactful to me. There’s a lot this game does right, and even a bit it does better than the games that come after it. I hope that Persona 3 Reload is able to patch up the areas where it’s lacking, because I think that with a modern touch, Persona 3 could end up being not just the best game in the series on a thematic and narrative level, but on a gameplay one as well.
I love that I can slander this game to no end and still call it a flawless 10/10 masterpiece with no parallel.
Now that Reload is out, I'll be real, I think that this game has aged just about as well as milk on a hot summer day (hyperbole probably)
This review contains spoilers
you shoot gun, then fuck a robot and then you fucking die
"Every life comes with a death sentence, so every few months I come in here for my regular scan, knowing full well that one of these times – hell, maybe even today – I'm gonna hear some bad news. But until then, who's in charge? Me. That's how I live my life." - Walter White
the fear of death is something that transcends generations and cultures. for as long as the world has existed, humans have been trying to find a way to cope with the fact that their lives will inevitably end. whether its through literature, religion, philosophy, every avenue of history is shaped around the fear of the end.
one of the few guarantees that we have in life is that one day it will inevitably end. death is absolute and indiscriminate, and comes to some in ways more fair than others, but does the fact that life will end mean that we should simply give into that? that the knowledge that one day everything we've ever done will be for naught, as the eternal tranquillity of death embraces us, mean that everything we had done is pointless? thats how some choose to view it, however, such a philosophy is a recipe for a miserable life. one of nihilism, of loneliness, of never truly finding happiness.
the meaning of life is something you find when you accept that your life will end, but instead of being consumed by apathy or fear, you choose to live in spite of that. an unavoidable end means that we should find beauty in what we have. the everyday life we lead, the bonds we make, tiny things we take for granted begin to truly show their importance when you come face to face with death. by making the most of every single day that you are alive, and choosing not to live a life of loneliness, when the time to die does come, you can look back at the meaningful life youve lived. the good, and the bad, moments of happiness and ones of sorrow, the connections we made with the people dearest to us, who will remember us, and treasure our memory long after we're dead.
the fear of death is something that transcends generations and cultures. for as long as the world has existed, humans have been trying to find a way to cope with the fact that their lives will inevitably end. whether its through literature, religion, philosophy, every avenue of history is shaped around the fear of the end.
one of the few guarantees that we have in life is that one day it will inevitably end. death is absolute and indiscriminate, and comes to some in ways more fair than others, but does the fact that life will end mean that we should simply give into that? that the knowledge that one day everything we've ever done will be for naught, as the eternal tranquillity of death embraces us, mean that everything we had done is pointless? thats how some choose to view it, however, such a philosophy is a recipe for a miserable life. one of nihilism, of loneliness, of never truly finding happiness.
the meaning of life is something you find when you accept that your life will end, but instead of being consumed by apathy or fear, you choose to live in spite of that. an unavoidable end means that we should find beauty in what we have. the everyday life we lead, the bonds we make, tiny things we take for granted begin to truly show their importance when you come face to face with death. by making the most of every single day that you are alive, and choosing not to live a life of loneliness, when the time to die does come, you can look back at the meaningful life youve lived. the good, and the bad, moments of happiness and ones of sorrow, the connections we made with the people dearest to us, who will remember us, and treasure our memory long after we're dead.
This game is such a mixed bag, the story carries this game on its shoulders and the gameplay is just boring compared to the other personas. This game's story is phenomenal to me at least. I'd only recommend this game if you know what your getting into.
Best story out of all the persona's imo.
Best story out of all the persona's imo.
Persona 3 is a game I hold near and dear to my heart. When I replayed this game last summer I was a total loser, I hated my life and just wanted to give up. The story of Persona 3 is about fighting that feeling, the feeling of just wanting to give in to despair, to fight giving up and staying in bed due to having a lack of motivation to live. Near the end of the game the cast of Persona 3 is thrown into a situation where they have to fight the very embodiment of death and despair. The characters all have a reason to continue to live, to fight against the sometimes overbearing feeling of despair. Akihiko continues onward in order to gain the strength to protect his loved ones, Yukari simply wanted to learn why her father had to die, Ken lived to get revenge on the man who killed his mother. Junpei doesn’t even really know why he fights, he isn’t particularly good at anything and the protagonist is way better than him at the one thing that he is good at. Sometimes it’s okay to not know why you continue onward in life, because just like how Junpei eventually finds a reason to fight so will you. Then there’s Shinji Aragaki, someone who had made a horrible mistake in his past and has lived in guilt ever since, he had given into his despair and decided to stop fighting. He simply just wanted to forget what he did and move on. Of course running away from your mistakes doesn’t solve anything, the only thing that will lead you to is down a path of self hatred. It isn’t until Akihiko convinces Shinji to rejoin SEES that he’s able to continue fighting against his guilt, despair and finally take accountability for his actions that allows him to find peace. The main character lives to spend time with people. Time is limited, you might not be able to spend time with certain people in the future, you might not be as close to certain people as you are now in the future. So don’t waste your time living in self hatred or living as a shut in. Walk away from your soundless room, spend time with the people you care about, and go do things you always wanted to do. Sometimes it might be tedious, sometimes you may want to give up, but refusing to give up and finding the strength to carry forward will make life a lot more fulfilling.
does not have a plot for 50 hours and playing it actively hurts but it's still alright
one of the most impactful pieces of media ive ever experienced with my favorite ending to anything ever
Este juego fue un jodido error.
up there with my favorite games of all time. p3 really feels so confident in what it wants to do and comfortable as a game. the way the interactive experience ties into the story and themes is a real sight to behold. while it takes a while to truly show why its special, the willingness to fully combine every ingredient of the game together is extremely commendable. the story does pace itself fairly slowly for a while, but gives lots of time for the great social links to breathe and to emphasize the isolation that each sees member faces. this makes the emotional payoff from october and onwards truly feel special and culminates in the extremely impactful december stretch. the catharsis from that point onwards feels so earned and perfect. its also hard to explain why without spoilers, but the way the game embodies the memento mori concept is insanely special
the gameplay is amazing as well. as mentioned before, the way the narrative and gameplay tie together is quite special and this relates directly to the battle system with how you go from being quite isolated at the beginning to a well oiled team by the end. not having ai control has a lot of detractors but if you actually buy into the mechanics and use the tactics system it becomes incredibly satisfying and fun, and really gives a sense of growth in a ludonarrative sense. i wont really defend tartarus a ton, its alright but definitely pretty repetitive. but if there was anything in this 80 hour game i was okay with them not really emphasizing it was that. even then, the way the music and visuals evolve and the last climb are pretty damn great.
the ending (to "the journey") is pretty much just peak and represents the boldness that makes this game special. truly feels like a perfect jrpg in how much it rewards you for the effort you put into it, while also never just directly catering to player demand. and im not sure we'll see a persona like that ever again
they should really use the japanese box art pic for this lol
the gameplay is amazing as well. as mentioned before, the way the narrative and gameplay tie together is quite special and this relates directly to the battle system with how you go from being quite isolated at the beginning to a well oiled team by the end. not having ai control has a lot of detractors but if you actually buy into the mechanics and use the tactics system it becomes incredibly satisfying and fun, and really gives a sense of growth in a ludonarrative sense. i wont really defend tartarus a ton, its alright but definitely pretty repetitive. but if there was anything in this 80 hour game i was okay with them not really emphasizing it was that. even then, the way the music and visuals evolve and the last climb are pretty damn great.
the ending (to "the journey") is pretty much just peak and represents the boldness that makes this game special. truly feels like a perfect jrpg in how much it rewards you for the effort you put into it, while also never just directly catering to player demand. and im not sure we'll see a persona like that ever again
they should really use the japanese box art pic for this lol