“Not everything needs to be for some greater purpose. Just caring about someone can be enough. That’s all we need to give our lives meaning”

First of all, apologies if the following review is a bit all over the place. If anyone has read my previous reviews, they know I usually just post personal feelings towards the game rather than actually reviewing it. As I just finished the game, these feelings are very recent, so I may ramble more than I intend to. I don't really want to edit myself, so I’ll just put it all here.

It wouldn't be enough to say Persona 3 surprised me.
My previous and only experience with the Persona series was Persona 5, a game I liked gameplay wise but despised how it treated its own characters and story. When I lost my game file data not even 40 hours into the game, I gave up trying to play it myself. After all, if a story doesn't respect its own characters, their feelings, what is the point? It can’t be a good story.
Needless to say,because of that I was skeptical about persona 3. I had several friends tell me it was the best persona and since it had just gotten the remake and I really needed something to distract me from life and how kind of bad it has been since the year started i thought, why not? It may as well give me a good time, even if i may later regret or get upset at its writing

That is Not what happened. At all.
Persona 3 is a game that clearly cares for its characters, their purpose, their feelings and their relationships. Not only with each other, and with the main character, but with themselves too. What they set out to do they do for a reason that they later may or may not confront if that was the real reason they did it for, but these characters…they felt real to me. Even if the writing feels a bit too ....”anime-like” sometimes, I could believe these characters. I could believe IN them, feel with them as things happened and see how they grew as people. I found myself extremely attached to the cast. Yes, even Junpei, who I thought would just be the annoying funny guy friend trope kind of character, I found myself surprised at his character development. I cried with him.

Persona 3 did not fear to stick to its themes, to my surprise. I really did get into the game knowing nothing, so while I immediately understood (well, it's quite obvious) that the main theme of the game was death, and finding meaning in life, I did not know how far they wanted to take it. The loss of some of the cast really shocked me, but it was done well and it did make for a really great story.
I found that what the game wanted to tell it did so very well. Especially with the help of characters like Aigis. I find that her character was the one I liked most, because of her search for meaning when she doesn’t consider herself alive as she does everyone else. I thought her words and her description of life were so beautiful, I found myself tearing up several times at some of the things she said about living and what it means.

Before I get too personal, I guess I do have to mention that the game has its issues. Gameplay wise I found that most bosses weren’t really great designed. I found myself wondering if they simply kept them as they were in the original, and they didn't think twice about the issues with the design of them. I haven’t played the original but some gameplay choices felt very…old school I guess you could say. Also it was extremely easy to be overleveled in later bits of tartarus…though I guess that could be my fault, too. I wish the game divided its social links better too. There's only 2 night social links, that you max out pretty fast. Most of your social links are at school which means youre fucked when theres no school. Why can’t I advance the social links of at least the girls at the dorm outside of school time? I don’t really think that's a great choice, especially since I'm frustrated that the only two social links I couldn't max out were Fuuka and Yukari…I was so close…
As for the rest, the gameplay loop was interesting and I don't have much to comment on it, though I feel that as you advance through the game you end up having too much free time. I just walked koromaru way too many times, and while I do love him it feels like wasting time when I know I have social links I can't max out, I guess. But I wouldn't say it's necessarily a bad thing.

I am not great with words. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before. So I don’t know how to describe how I feel right now. As I said before, the game’s ending is pretty recent to me. As I type this, I only finished the game a mere…10-20 minutes ago.
I think what hit me more about this game is…well I guess I’ve been having a hard time lately. More than I’d like to admit. Life feels pretty meaningless sometimes, even when I’m having fun, even when I'm with my friends, when I'm by myself I think. It’s all a bit too much. I guess there's always a little bit of apathy that comes with being alive. Sometimes you think about everything a bit too much. Some days life is like normal but others, it feels like you’re just going through everyday life because you have to. I’m sure most of us feel like that every once in a while. I wouldn’t say I have a hard time, but sometimes it’s just well. Too much.
In those moments I'm always looking for something that will get me to just…think of how much worth it everything is. I always resort to media in my hardest moments, not only for the distraction but because I find fictional stories incredibly comforting, and they always keep me going.
I guess, what I mean to say is, persona 3 was that for me at this specific moment. While the game talks a lot about death, and it does so well, what hit me harder were its words about living. And I really want to take those with me. I believe I understand now why this game is loved by many people.
I believe the ending couldn’t have been better, as sad as it is and as much as I cried, it made it’s point and truly, it was just beautiful
Overall, I think it was a good game.

“When you think about it, it’s a miracle that two given people are able to ever meet in this chaotic flow of time and space. That’s why we find happiness in forging bonds and friendships”