This is hands down my favorite Persona game by a mile, and also my first unsurprisingly. (Just a note I'll only be discussing the base game, as I haven't gotten around to The Answer. Been busy with other stuff.)
The RPG gameplay is great, sure Tartarus' layout is bland but it's pretty much the same as it is in Persona 4, and really a hub for me to get battles and find money is all I need even if I adore the complex, grand dungeons of Persona 5. The combat is addictive and fun as always, sure you can't directly control party members which is easily the biggest issue with the game, but tactics work just fine for me, especially when modern Persona gameplay is really just so great at its core. Also really liked some of the stuff exclusive to this game like splitting up party members on Tartarus floors and multiple attack types. Aside from controling party members, my only real big issue here is that some of the bosses are very annoying in the mid-to-late game. Not a ton of them, but some really got on my nerves (Sleeping Table).
As for the life simulator stuff, it's great here as well! It hasn't quite hit its peak with stuff to do, but it's fun to raise stats in the evening and to spend days talking with the homies. This is made wayy better because unlike P5 or especially P4, you go to Tartarus at night so you have way more time at day open that is rarely ever taken away by short, unecessary cutscenes. The social links themselves are kind of hit and miss, a few are bad, some are really solid, and a ton of them are just fantastic. Sun and Hermit are probably my favorite social links in the franchise, and they aren't the only great ones either.
The music is fantastic too, this is probably my least favorite modern Persona OST, partially because I hate having to listen to Mass Destruction the entire game, but it's just so good dude. Want To Be Close, the Tartarus themes, Battle Hymn of the Soul, and my favorite video game opening of all time, Burn My Dread.
I saved story and characters for last because my lord they did not need to go so HARD for this game. This story is one of my favorite in video games, period. Great twists, wonderful story arcs, amazing character development, high stakes, rich atmosphere, fantastic writing, heavy themes, and one of the best endings I've ever seen in my life. It's just amazing from beginning-to-end. And these characters? I get why people prefer the Persona 4 cast, but I think these guys just slightly edge out for me, mainly due to their great development. And "the gang" dude, Junpei, Yukari, Akihiko. They're all amazing, they all have such good interactions and development, especially Junpei who is one of my favorite characters ever. I'd like a little more goof off time with them but really what we have was already fantastic so I don't care. Not all the party members get as developed as others, but they're still solid enough so I don't mind.
What really hits me about Persona 3 is how immersive it is though. I don't know if it's the music or the fact I played it first, but while Persona 4 did definitely recapture a good chunk of this for me, I just could not put the game down. When I first sat down and played this game, blind as a bat thinking you fought demons, I sat and played it for six hours straight. Then after that aside from when my PS2 and game were screwing up for a bit, I had multiple days where all I did was play Persona 3. We're talking multiple days where I would just wake up and then play Persona 3 for 70-80% of the day, completely ignoring doing Driver's Ed. I especially remember when I got to the last month of the game, I woke up at like 10 or 11 A.M. and decided i was gonna beat the game that day. I went to bed at like I think 2 or 3 A.M. and I was just laying in bed thinking about how powerful this game was, how much fun I had in Tartarus, how moving the story was, how much I genuinely loved and cared about the characters and where they were going, and that absolutely perfect ending. What a special game this is. Persona 3 isn't just a game, it's an experience.
The RPG gameplay is great, sure Tartarus' layout is bland but it's pretty much the same as it is in Persona 4, and really a hub for me to get battles and find money is all I need even if I adore the complex, grand dungeons of Persona 5. The combat is addictive and fun as always, sure you can't directly control party members which is easily the biggest issue with the game, but tactics work just fine for me, especially when modern Persona gameplay is really just so great at its core. Also really liked some of the stuff exclusive to this game like splitting up party members on Tartarus floors and multiple attack types. Aside from controling party members, my only real big issue here is that some of the bosses are very annoying in the mid-to-late game. Not a ton of them, but some really got on my nerves (Sleeping Table).
As for the life simulator stuff, it's great here as well! It hasn't quite hit its peak with stuff to do, but it's fun to raise stats in the evening and to spend days talking with the homies. This is made wayy better because unlike P5 or especially P4, you go to Tartarus at night so you have way more time at day open that is rarely ever taken away by short, unecessary cutscenes. The social links themselves are kind of hit and miss, a few are bad, some are really solid, and a ton of them are just fantastic. Sun and Hermit are probably my favorite social links in the franchise, and they aren't the only great ones either.
The music is fantastic too, this is probably my least favorite modern Persona OST, partially because I hate having to listen to Mass Destruction the entire game, but it's just so good dude. Want To Be Close, the Tartarus themes, Battle Hymn of the Soul, and my favorite video game opening of all time, Burn My Dread.
I saved story and characters for last because my lord they did not need to go so HARD for this game. This story is one of my favorite in video games, period. Great twists, wonderful story arcs, amazing character development, high stakes, rich atmosphere, fantastic writing, heavy themes, and one of the best endings I've ever seen in my life. It's just amazing from beginning-to-end. And these characters? I get why people prefer the Persona 4 cast, but I think these guys just slightly edge out for me, mainly due to their great development. And "the gang" dude, Junpei, Yukari, Akihiko. They're all amazing, they all have such good interactions and development, especially Junpei who is one of my favorite characters ever. I'd like a little more goof off time with them but really what we have was already fantastic so I don't care. Not all the party members get as developed as others, but they're still solid enough so I don't mind.
What really hits me about Persona 3 is how immersive it is though. I don't know if it's the music or the fact I played it first, but while Persona 4 did definitely recapture a good chunk of this for me, I just could not put the game down. When I first sat down and played this game, blind as a bat thinking you fought demons, I sat and played it for six hours straight. Then after that aside from when my PS2 and game were screwing up for a bit, I had multiple days where all I did was play Persona 3. We're talking multiple days where I would just wake up and then play Persona 3 for 70-80% of the day, completely ignoring doing Driver's Ed. I especially remember when I got to the last month of the game, I woke up at like 10 or 11 A.M. and decided i was gonna beat the game that day. I went to bed at like I think 2 or 3 A.M. and I was just laying in bed thinking about how powerful this game was, how much fun I had in Tartarus, how moving the story was, how much I genuinely loved and cared about the characters and where they were going, and that absolutely perfect ending. What a special game this is. Persona 3 isn't just a game, it's an experience.