Persona Q is very much a mixed bag for me, I don’t really have many strong feelings on it, but it does do some stuff that I like, along with crap I dislike.

There’s some pretty easy pros and cons that can be drawn here, for example the music is mostly really good, and the artstyle is cute, but then a lot of characters get butchered pretty badly and come off as flat. This is definitely worse for some characters than others,but it’s still prevalent.

The gameplay is an aspect I knew was divisive going in, and unfortunately I wasn’t much of a fan, felt the dungeons were too big and complex for their own good, and running away from FOEs got real old real quick, which is a shame because there are some genuinely cool ideas here, but they just tend to overstay their welcome, and trying to solve puzzles while dealing with random encounters is just annoying.

The game’s story is kinda just a worse version of Persona 1 funnily enough, although it does have some good stuff in it. While I don’t care for Rei much, I can’t deny that her VA did a really great job, and while this is an idea that’s been done before, it’s still pretty effective I feel. There’s dumb stuff like how Zen making an exception for Rei is pretty unbelievable considering he would’ve already farried millions of people to the afterlife, but eh I don’t care much.

Overall, you know it’s fine, like a very flat 5 out of 10, I don’t regret going through it, but also I don’t think I’ll ever do so again.

You know, its funny. When I first told a friend of mine that I was gonna play Persona 3 on an emulator he told me to install a mod that adds controllable party members. I get why this mod exists and will be the definitive way that most people approach Persona 3’s gameplay, but the Tactics system acts as a summary to one of the game’s greatest strengths: treating it’s characters like people. You play the part of a commander that prescribes a general flow of battle rather than some far-off omnipotent being that extends its will over your party members, who learn to cherish each other and work harder together (symbolised by gaining new tactics after a full-moon mission). SEES wasn’t exactly the closest group of friends nor did they amazing chemistry with eachother, but they have been the only Persona party members to feel like a team of authentic, real people. Characters won’t develop in single, one-off “chunks” only to never really be relevant again, instead oftentimes have intricate and multifaceted arcs that occur naturally over the course of the game. They sometimes get tired and have to take a few days off, or need to take exams, or grieve the death of someone who you (the protagonist) never got to know well and will be subsequently unable to visit Tartarus.

It’s certainly unconventional, but the Tactics system and the many other small instances of micromanagement teaches the player to make the most of their time with the people they love while they still have it. No Persona game comes close to tying it’s themes into the gameplay so effortlessly and as a result Persona 3 is easily my favourite game from what I’ve played of the series and has quickly become one of my favourite games of all time. It’s just completely authentic. Engaging with it’s source material in a multitude of complex but with earnest, deeply human sensibilities. I don’t think I’ll ever play something like P3 ever again.