Persona 3 ranks among the best RPG games I've ever played, but it does have one significant flaw that turned what would have otherwise been an essential game into a repetitive grind that almost made me want to abandon it.
Unlike other RPG games, Persona 3 is divided into two segments: daily school life and dungeon crawling. Daily school life plays out just as you expect it to, with you managing your character's personal stats and relationships with other residents of Iwatodai, a feature called Social Links.
This feature is arguably one of the game's strongest aspects, with each of the social links delivering gripping sub-plots about many of the NPCs in the game. Not only that, but it also provides a gameplay bonus that is beneficial in combat.
Although, of course, the social link system is still far from perfect, with many of the sub-plots never really going anywhere and being dragged on for so many meetings. I especially didn't like how you're often forced to pick the option that the characters only want to hear, even if doing so will result in them taking advantage of you or increasing their terrible behavior.
Meanwhile, the combat segment of the game, which is the dungeon crawling, is incredibly fun but tedious due to the lack of variety in the environment. Tartarus, the dungeon in the game, provides little to no variation for both events and structure outside of the full moon segments. Essentially, what you experience in your first month in the game is pretty much what you will be experiencing throughout the remaining duration of the game. After the second month, I was already feeling burned out with the game, and I couldn't bear to continue anymore. In fact, before I played FES, I was playing the portable version, but I never got to finish it due to how dull Tartarus was. I did try to replay it again from the start, and I was able to make it to the beach arc but ended up abandoning it again because I was getting bored. It took me about six real-life months just to be able to finish FES, and it's because I needed to take a break from all of the tediousness every time. The only reason I continued playing the game until the end was partly due to its strong story and characters.
The AI for your teammates doesn't fare that well either, with them (and by them, I'm mostly talking about Mitsuru) preferring to use every other action except for the one needed the most in the situation. This leads to so many frustrating moments and could sometimes even result in the entire party's death. There is an option to command them, but still, it suffers from poor management of actions by the AI.
Despite this, though, I still liked all of the cast of characters and fell in love with each of them by the end. The game even managed to put me on the edge of tears with its touching ending.
I'm really hoping that the remake will fix Tartarus so that more people will get to experience the beauty of Persona 3.
Unlike other RPG games, Persona 3 is divided into two segments: daily school life and dungeon crawling. Daily school life plays out just as you expect it to, with you managing your character's personal stats and relationships with other residents of Iwatodai, a feature called Social Links.
This feature is arguably one of the game's strongest aspects, with each of the social links delivering gripping sub-plots about many of the NPCs in the game. Not only that, but it also provides a gameplay bonus that is beneficial in combat.
Although, of course, the social link system is still far from perfect, with many of the sub-plots never really going anywhere and being dragged on for so many meetings. I especially didn't like how you're often forced to pick the option that the characters only want to hear, even if doing so will result in them taking advantage of you or increasing their terrible behavior.
Meanwhile, the combat segment of the game, which is the dungeon crawling, is incredibly fun but tedious due to the lack of variety in the environment. Tartarus, the dungeon in the game, provides little to no variation for both events and structure outside of the full moon segments. Essentially, what you experience in your first month in the game is pretty much what you will be experiencing throughout the remaining duration of the game. After the second month, I was already feeling burned out with the game, and I couldn't bear to continue anymore. In fact, before I played FES, I was playing the portable version, but I never got to finish it due to how dull Tartarus was. I did try to replay it again from the start, and I was able to make it to the beach arc but ended up abandoning it again because I was getting bored. It took me about six real-life months just to be able to finish FES, and it's because I needed to take a break from all of the tediousness every time. The only reason I continued playing the game until the end was partly due to its strong story and characters.
The AI for your teammates doesn't fare that well either, with them (and by them, I'm mostly talking about Mitsuru) preferring to use every other action except for the one needed the most in the situation. This leads to so many frustrating moments and could sometimes even result in the entire party's death. There is an option to command them, but still, it suffers from poor management of actions by the AI.
Despite this, though, I still liked all of the cast of characters and fell in love with each of them by the end. The game even managed to put me on the edge of tears with its touching ending.
I'm really hoping that the remake will fix Tartarus so that more people will get to experience the beauty of Persona 3.