Persona 3 FES is an amazing game, although it's brought down by some glaring problems due to it being the first Persona game of it's kind.
Pros: This game has a great story, with great characters. The social links with the various characters who live in the city are a wonderful addition and managing social stats is incredibly fun. It seems very simple when compared with future games in the series, but it's important to remember just how big of a leap forwards this was. The Persona 2 duology doesn't really have anything like this. They were reinventing the entire series with this game and it paid off. The story is has some amazing themes and ideas and explores the concept of death in wonderful ways. Each of the party members has a different relationship with it, still dealing with the grief. Even the dog is grieving someone. The characters are all great, even if some of them feel a little one note, and the emotions really run high. The gameplay is also much improved from Persona 2. Gone is the autobattle system, Persona 3 introduces the 1 More system, a very smart, fun and snappy battle system with a lot of depth. Elements of Persona 2's systems can still be felt, with the main character's fusion spells being similar in concept to 2's fusion spells, and the AI controlled party members feeling similar to 2's autobattle. The core combat system is great. It strikes a good balance between simplicity and depth.
Cons: Speaking of combat, while the combat system is a vast improvement over Persona 2, it's still a huge glaring weak point of the game. Tartarus, the game's main dungeon, is incredibly repetitive and goes on for way too long without any real variation. And while the AI controlled party members gives the game a unique identity by making all your party members feel like individual people with their own preferred battle tactics, it still just kinda sucks to use. It's very frustrating to lose a battle and know you could have won if your teammates weren't so stupid. That's not a good feeling to have in a singleplayer game. The AI party members combined with the incredible repetitive structure of Tartarus and some incredibly unbalanced difficulty spikes makes this one of the most frustrating Persona games to date. The story, while having some amazing themes, also is far from perfect. The game takes way too long to really start getting anywhere interesting, and there are significant periods of time in the game where it just feels like nothing really interesting is happening. In addition, basically every antagonist in this game is incredibly one note and not interesting or fleshed out at all. It's a wonderful framework for a story, but its not told or executed with the most grace. All these flaws really drag the game down in my eyes.
Overall: Despite it's flaws, Persona 3 FES is a game I can't help but love. It's a wildly experimental game, and the experimentation paid off, spawning the entire modern Persona series. At the same time, not every new idea worked, and it leaves the game feeling like it falls short in a lot of ways. Even with all it's flaws, it's still an emotional ride from start to finish.
Pros: This game has a great story, with great characters. The social links with the various characters who live in the city are a wonderful addition and managing social stats is incredibly fun. It seems very simple when compared with future games in the series, but it's important to remember just how big of a leap forwards this was. The Persona 2 duology doesn't really have anything like this. They were reinventing the entire series with this game and it paid off. The story is has some amazing themes and ideas and explores the concept of death in wonderful ways. Each of the party members has a different relationship with it, still dealing with the grief. Even the dog is grieving someone. The characters are all great, even if some of them feel a little one note, and the emotions really run high. The gameplay is also much improved from Persona 2. Gone is the autobattle system, Persona 3 introduces the 1 More system, a very smart, fun and snappy battle system with a lot of depth. Elements of Persona 2's systems can still be felt, with the main character's fusion spells being similar in concept to 2's fusion spells, and the AI controlled party members feeling similar to 2's autobattle. The core combat system is great. It strikes a good balance between simplicity and depth.
Cons: Speaking of combat, while the combat system is a vast improvement over Persona 2, it's still a huge glaring weak point of the game. Tartarus, the game's main dungeon, is incredibly repetitive and goes on for way too long without any real variation. And while the AI controlled party members gives the game a unique identity by making all your party members feel like individual people with their own preferred battle tactics, it still just kinda sucks to use. It's very frustrating to lose a battle and know you could have won if your teammates weren't so stupid. That's not a good feeling to have in a singleplayer game. The AI party members combined with the incredible repetitive structure of Tartarus and some incredibly unbalanced difficulty spikes makes this one of the most frustrating Persona games to date. The story, while having some amazing themes, also is far from perfect. The game takes way too long to really start getting anywhere interesting, and there are significant periods of time in the game where it just feels like nothing really interesting is happening. In addition, basically every antagonist in this game is incredibly one note and not interesting or fleshed out at all. It's a wonderful framework for a story, but its not told or executed with the most grace. All these flaws really drag the game down in my eyes.
Overall: Despite it's flaws, Persona 3 FES is a game I can't help but love. It's a wildly experimental game, and the experimentation paid off, spawning the entire modern Persona series. At the same time, not every new idea worked, and it leaves the game feeling like it falls short in a lot of ways. Even with all it's flaws, it's still an emotional ride from start to finish.