It's amazing how the main gameplay loop feeds into Persona 3's themes, but often times that same loop suffers from feeling dull and repetitive.
Tartarus, while cool conceptually, is the most grueling and repetitive dungeon in Nu-Persona. There are good ideas such as being able to use stairs to evade enemies, but there's not enough variety to drive away the monotony. Adding to this is how shadows you encounter higher up in Tartarus disappointingly tend to be recolours of previously seen designs. The clear highlight of Tartarus for me is its challenging bosses, though they border on unfair at times. Tell you what I did like though, it's really cool how Tartarus' music has a new layer added to it for each block. There's a nice sense of progression there.
The Social Links are of mixed quality, and forcing the male protagonist to romance every girl for a full rank run was a clear misfire so it's good that future games give you a choice. The standout Social Links are truly worthwhile though. If you know, you know.
The story is, quite frankly, paced terribly. A strong, intriguing start followed by a stretched slog of a middle. When the story does rear its head, it's very good. I just wish it did that more often. The main gameplay loop would have probably been more bearable if the player had more plot to chew on while making their way through the days, but as is it's like there's an overreliance on that loop keeping the player engaged. I really had to push myself through it.
And I'm glad I did, because the story honestly does pick up and I love the finale. It's worth clambering up Tartarus for.
Regarding the portable version in particular, I think it's a shame you can't properly walk around the over world and that it lost the stylish animated cutscenes. Having the option to directly control party members was a fair call, but I think people are too quick to write off the AI party members. They're definitely far from perfect in execution, but there's value to their design and intention. Haven't played FeMC so can't comment there.
Anyway, with a good remake, I think Persona 3 could reach the heights it deserves to. As is, it's a very special but flawed game pulled together by its strong theming and ending. Oh and the soundtrack is great. Bless Meguro.
Tartarus, while cool conceptually, is the most grueling and repetitive dungeon in Nu-Persona. There are good ideas such as being able to use stairs to evade enemies, but there's not enough variety to drive away the monotony. Adding to this is how shadows you encounter higher up in Tartarus disappointingly tend to be recolours of previously seen designs. The clear highlight of Tartarus for me is its challenging bosses, though they border on unfair at times. Tell you what I did like though, it's really cool how Tartarus' music has a new layer added to it for each block. There's a nice sense of progression there.
The Social Links are of mixed quality, and forcing the male protagonist to romance every girl for a full rank run was a clear misfire so it's good that future games give you a choice. The standout Social Links are truly worthwhile though. If you know, you know.
The story is, quite frankly, paced terribly. A strong, intriguing start followed by a stretched slog of a middle. When the story does rear its head, it's very good. I just wish it did that more often. The main gameplay loop would have probably been more bearable if the player had more plot to chew on while making their way through the days, but as is it's like there's an overreliance on that loop keeping the player engaged. I really had to push myself through it.
And I'm glad I did, because the story honestly does pick up and I love the finale. It's worth clambering up Tartarus for.
Regarding the portable version in particular, I think it's a shame you can't properly walk around the over world and that it lost the stylish animated cutscenes. Having the option to directly control party members was a fair call, but I think people are too quick to write off the AI party members. They're definitely far from perfect in execution, but there's value to their design and intention. Haven't played FeMC so can't comment there.
Anyway, with a good remake, I think Persona 3 could reach the heights it deserves to. As is, it's a very special but flawed game pulled together by its strong theming and ending. Oh and the soundtrack is great. Bless Meguro.