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Persona 3
Platform: PS2
With one of the best casts ever to grace an RPG, dialogue that is masterfully written, and subject matter that treats the player like an adult, Persona 3 is the kind of game every RPG fan should play.
Review by Paul "Sirus" McGuire
Persona 3 is likely the first Persona game you will play unless you happen to find a copy of one of the Persona 2 games on eBay for a large chunk of cash. In recent years we have finally started to see games in the Shin Megami Tensei series of mature themed Japanese-RPGS released in the US along with their spin-offs. Persona 3 is technically a side game but is given the title Shin Megami Tensei in front of it so that American players who enjoyed Digital Devil Saga will know to expect a somewhat similar experience. This move is certainly practical and, in the end, great because Persona 3 should be played by every fan of Japanese-RPGS in existence being that, even among Shin Megami Tensei games, it stands out and shines.
Persona 3 is not your typical Japanese-RPG and, because of that uniqueness, demands a playthrough by all gamers who have the will-power to get through a 90 to100 hour adventure. Typically the Japanese-RPG puts players in an anime-themed fantasy world with a group of children who go on an epic journey through various locations to ultimately save the world. Persona 3 is set in modern-day Japan where you play a transfer student who just got placed in Gekkoukan High as a junior. Before your first day of school, you witness a phenomenon called the Dark Hour, a time most people are unaware of because only those with the powers of Persona stay awake. Even though you haven’t awoken to your powers, the group who placed you in the dormitory you are staying in invites you to join a group formed to investigate the strange things that happen during the Dark Hour.
The group is called SEES (Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad) but to everyone else you just appear to be the lucky one allowed to stay at a co-ed dorm. Soon after you awaken to your power, you are joined by the existing members in an investigation of a mysterious tower known as Tartarus that appears every Dark Hour and is filled with shadows. Because each member of SEES has the power of Persona, they are able to use that power to combat the shadows that are believed to be behind the appearance of lost ones, people who wander around as empty babbling shells. All anyone in SEES knows is that the shadows need to be defeated so that the Dark Hour can be ended and things returned to normal.
As I mentioned above, you take the role of a High School student. As a good student, you must attend classes and take part in other school activities, even midterms and finals. Don’t worry, though, it is a lot more painless than it might sound. Most days at school begin with a short conversation you overhear on your way to class in the mornings. Then you are given control again after school where you are able to hang out with various people to create and nurture social links. Occasionally you will have to sit through a lecture, after which you will either have to answer a question about the short amount of material you just heard or give an answer to your friend who is being called on instead.
Answering a question correctly in class increases your charm while staying awake for the entire lecture, even though you are tired, increases your academics. There are many other activities you are able to partake in that increase your academics, charm, and courage stats and they should be taken advantage of because certain social links aren’t available until you have a high enough stat. For example, some girls aren’t approachable until you have a high enough charm stat. It is important to focus on social links from the very beginning because there is only so much free time in which you can raise them.
Social links are completely optional but are also one of the highlights of the game and so should not be ignored. Social links come down to building friendships with characters who open up to you more and more as your relationship becomes stronger. They lead to some of the best moments of the game when you finally max out the social link and see it to its conclusion. Social links have the added bonus of infusing Personas you fuse with extra power when the Persona and social link share the same arcana. For example if you raise the MMORPG social link of the Hermit arcana, when you create a Persona of the Hermit arcana, the higher level the social link is, the more bonus experience the resulting Persona will gain. The bonus experience is important because Personas take much more experience to level up than the main character.
Most social links are only available on certain days of the week and you can only work on one social link in the after school time each day. Social links with students of Gekkoukan High can’t be developed during the week leading up to exams or during holidays unless your friend contacts you by cell phone and plans to meet. Social links outside of the students should be started early on to take advantage of those times when they can be easily raised. The main story of the game advances mostly on the night of the full moon each month when you usually have to face a boss. You have the days in between each full moon to raise your social links and also to explore Tartarus.
The main story of the game is made more powerful as you see how the characters you bond with are affected by the events you go through. All the characters you meet have to go through their own examination of their reasons for living and what is important to them as they confront their past. The characters are all unique and memorable with mature problems they either face head on or run away from out of fear. The themes explored are a step up from the usual Japanese-RPG fare and will make most players contemplate their own situation as they watch these characters do the same. Social links let you explore many more characters who are all well-written and feel real.
There are some social links available with members of SEES for players who want to get to know their favorite characters more intimately. Sadly, there are no social links for the male characters in SEES who are equally as interesting and I would have liked to have gotten to know more about. The overarching plot that weaves all of these characters together is interesting as well and has many twists and turns presented through beautiful anime cutscenes. Other major events are presented through static 2D detailed character portraits and text with voice acting.
Any evening you have free, when you have enough healthy characters available, you can speak with Mitsuru in your dorm and request that you go to Tartarus that night. The game will automatically advance time to the Dark Hour and you will be taken to the ground floor of Tartarus where you can select your party members and prepare for the dangerous climb. Tartarus serves as the only dungeon in the game and is the place for you to train your characters in preparation for bosses you will face in the next full moon. You can only explore upwards in Tartarus until you hit a blockade that won’t be removed until after the next full moon. There are usually simple fetch quests available that can focus your otherwise mindless grind as you level up on the shadows. There are generally two bosses in each section and, if you are able to beat them, it is safe to assume that you will be ready to face the full moon boss.
Each floor of Tartarus is randomly generated and, as you explore it, you will encounter shadows roaming around the floors. All enemy encounters are represented by black blobs that usually only vary in size, with larger blobs indicating more enemies. Careful exploration allows you to pick and choose your fights. Attacking the enemy from behind gives you an extra turn you can spend whittling away at their health or using the escape command if you have found that type of enemy to be out of your league. You will want to pick your fights carefully especially in the first few months of the game because your characters will tire easily and once characters get tired, their combat skills are lowered and staying too long will cause them to get sick. It might seem like a hassle at first, but after repeated treks into Tartarus, you will notice your characters are able to stay for longer and longer as their bodies get used to the strain.
Combat is a twist on the typical Shin Megami Tensei press-turn combat system seen in Digital Devil Saga. You will only be able to directly control your main character in combat while your remaining team members will be controlled solely by AI. If your main character falls in combat, you will see the game over screen so you must always make sure to keep him healthy. The AI party members can be both good and bad. While they aren’t perfect, they are a huge step up from other RPGs that have attempted to create AI controlled allies. The only reason the AI is anything but perfect is because the systems that govern combat are so complex and one wrong move could lead to your death.
All players in combat are strong to certain elements of magic or types of physical attacks and weak to others. Usually a fire Persona will be vulnerable to ice attacks. Thus, success in combat simply requires learning your enemies’ weaknesses and exploiting them. Successfully hitting an enemy with an attack they are vulnerable to allows you to take an extra turn. This extra turn only comes if your attack is a single target one and knocks down the enemy you hit with it or is a multiple target attack that knocks down every enemy you hit with it. A multiple target attack that only hits one enemy’s weakness will knock that target down but not grant you the extra turn.
If you are able to knock down all the enemies you are facing, you will be able to do a powerful rush attack where all your characters rush the enemies at once. Sometimes it is best to hold off on doing the rush attack because, while it deals large damage to all the enemies, it also gets them up from their knocked down state if they survive. If they remained knocked down instead, they would have to spend their turn pulling themselves up and not be able to attack. One common problem with your AI controlled party members is that they will knock down one enemy and, rather than knocking down the next enemy until they knock down all the enemies, they will attack the same enemy again, getting him up.
When you end combat after using a rush attack or hitting all the enemies’ weaknesses, you will sometimes be given a choice of cards that can increase your spoils and sometimes give you a new Persona. You will have to pick the card you want to follow before the game shuffles them around and then follow it with your eyes. It is usually pretty easy to pick the bonus card that you are going for if you pay close enough attention. Bonus cards are the easiest way to obtain a new Persona to use in fusion. Combat never goes on for too long thanks to short animations with each attack that are flashy. Combat can slow down every once in a while when large groups of enemies are all hit by powerful multiple target attacks but it never gets in the way of gameplay.
On the ground floor of Tartarus, you can enter a glowing blue door that leads to the Velvet Room. Within the Velvet Room you are able to accept various quests as well as fuse Personas. You can register any Persona in the compendium before fusion so that once you have your fused persona, you can get back your favorite Persona for a fee. The compendium is great because it encourages experimentation with fusion. There are many combinations that can lead to powerful Personas that will make your life a lot easier while exploring Tartarus.
There is a terminal point on the ground floor of Tartarus that allows you to travel instantly to other terminal points you activate as you progress. When you find a terminal point, you can warp back to the entrance so that your MP and HP are recovered and you can save your game before continuing on. If you are in trouble, there is usually a warp point on every floor that can send you back to the ground floor but, unlike the terminal points, they are one-way. Outside Tartarus you can only save your game in your dormitory, usually after finishing your after school activities but also on days without school before you head out.
Persona 3 has a beautiful stylized anime look thanks to Shigenori Soejima’s fantastic character designs and Kazuma Kaneko’s fantastic enemy and Persona designs. The voice acting in the game is top notch as well with the entire cast having fantastic voices. Some of the voice actors who play two characters become obvious towards the end but that is minor. The music in the game is a mixed bag. While the entire soundtrack is composed by series veteran Shoji Meguro, some of the music is too much like hip hop and rap and detracts from the experience. The dungeon music and music during major events is reminiscent of Digital Devil Saga music but the music in the dorm, the school, and the malls is not my style at all.
Some will appreciate the music as a welcome change if they are tired of the same old epic music in games while others will wish they could turn off the music in the options and enjoy the game to their own music without muting the game’s sounds entirely. The unique musical style is understandable because it is likely done to mirror the styles of music High School students in Japan listen to but as it is I played the game on mute during normal gameplay, something I have only done once or twice before. This is one game that I wish was on another console just so I could use custom soundtracks to save me from the horrible music.
Persona 3 is an extremely long game. My final playtime clocked in at around 95 hours, making it the longest game I have ever played. Much of this time feels like it is padded out as the best moments of the game’s story are spread out with long periods of grind in between. Thankfully after completing the game you can do a new game + feature that carries over a good amount of the things you worked hard to accumulate in your first play through that will make the second play through somewhere around 30 hours instead. Persona 3 is the perfect example of a game that is greater than the sum of its parts.
When you finally reach the end, you will remember all the great moments of raising social links and advancing the main plot while forgetting all the slower grind-like moments in between. With one of the best casts ever to grace an RPG, dialogue that is masterfully written, and subject matter that treats the player like an adult, Persona 3 is the kind of game every RPG fan should play, even if it takes them months to beat. It is easily the best PS2 RPG of 2007 and one of the best RPGs ever to grace the PS2.
Platform: PS2
With one of the best casts ever to grace an RPG, dialogue that is masterfully written, and subject matter that treats the player like an adult, Persona 3 is the kind of game every RPG fan should play.
Review by Paul "Sirus" McGuire
Persona 3 is likely the first Persona game you will play unless you happen to find a copy of one of the Persona 2 games on eBay for a large chunk of cash. In recent years we have finally started to see games in the Shin Megami Tensei series of mature themed Japanese-RPGS released in the US along with their spin-offs. Persona 3 is technically a side game but is given the title Shin Megami Tensei in front of it so that American players who enjoyed Digital Devil Saga will know to expect a somewhat similar experience. This move is certainly practical and, in the end, great because Persona 3 should be played by every fan of Japanese-RPGS in existence being that, even among Shin Megami Tensei games, it stands out and shines.
Persona 3 is not your typical Japanese-RPG and, because of that uniqueness, demands a playthrough by all gamers who have the will-power to get through a 90 to100 hour adventure. Typically the Japanese-RPG puts players in an anime-themed fantasy world with a group of children who go on an epic journey through various locations to ultimately save the world. Persona 3 is set in modern-day Japan where you play a transfer student who just got placed in Gekkoukan High as a junior. Before your first day of school, you witness a phenomenon called the Dark Hour, a time most people are unaware of because only those with the powers of Persona stay awake. Even though you haven’t awoken to your powers, the group who placed you in the dormitory you are staying in invites you to join a group formed to investigate the strange things that happen during the Dark Hour.
The group is called SEES (Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad) but to everyone else you just appear to be the lucky one allowed to stay at a co-ed dorm. Soon after you awaken to your power, you are joined by the existing members in an investigation of a mysterious tower known as Tartarus that appears every Dark Hour and is filled with shadows. Because each member of SEES has the power of Persona, they are able to use that power to combat the shadows that are believed to be behind the appearance of lost ones, people who wander around as empty babbling shells. All anyone in SEES knows is that the shadows need to be defeated so that the Dark Hour can be ended and things returned to normal.
As I mentioned above, you take the role of a High School student. As a good student, you must attend classes and take part in other school activities, even midterms and finals. Don’t worry, though, it is a lot more painless than it might sound. Most days at school begin with a short conversation you overhear on your way to class in the mornings. Then you are given control again after school where you are able to hang out with various people to create and nurture social links. Occasionally you will have to sit through a lecture, after which you will either have to answer a question about the short amount of material you just heard or give an answer to your friend who is being called on instead.
Answering a question correctly in class increases your charm while staying awake for the entire lecture, even though you are tired, increases your academics. There are many other activities you are able to partake in that increase your academics, charm, and courage stats and they should be taken advantage of because certain social links aren’t available until you have a high enough stat. For example, some girls aren’t approachable until you have a high enough charm stat. It is important to focus on social links from the very beginning because there is only so much free time in which you can raise them.
Social links are completely optional but are also one of the highlights of the game and so should not be ignored. Social links come down to building friendships with characters who open up to you more and more as your relationship becomes stronger. They lead to some of the best moments of the game when you finally max out the social link and see it to its conclusion. Social links have the added bonus of infusing Personas you fuse with extra power when the Persona and social link share the same arcana. For example if you raise the MMORPG social link of the Hermit arcana, when you create a Persona of the Hermit arcana, the higher level the social link is, the more bonus experience the resulting Persona will gain. The bonus experience is important because Personas take much more experience to level up than the main character.
Most social links are only available on certain days of the week and you can only work on one social link in the after school time each day. Social links with students of Gekkoukan High can’t be developed during the week leading up to exams or during holidays unless your friend contacts you by cell phone and plans to meet. Social links outside of the students should be started early on to take advantage of those times when they can be easily raised. The main story of the game advances mostly on the night of the full moon each month when you usually have to face a boss. You have the days in between each full moon to raise your social links and also to explore Tartarus.
The main story of the game is made more powerful as you see how the characters you bond with are affected by the events you go through. All the characters you meet have to go through their own examination of their reasons for living and what is important to them as they confront their past. The characters are all unique and memorable with mature problems they either face head on or run away from out of fear. The themes explored are a step up from the usual Japanese-RPG fare and will make most players contemplate their own situation as they watch these characters do the same. Social links let you explore many more characters who are all well-written and feel real.
There are some social links available with members of SEES for players who want to get to know their favorite characters more intimately. Sadly, there are no social links for the male characters in SEES who are equally as interesting and I would have liked to have gotten to know more about. The overarching plot that weaves all of these characters together is interesting as well and has many twists and turns presented through beautiful anime cutscenes. Other major events are presented through static 2D detailed character portraits and text with voice acting.
Any evening you have free, when you have enough healthy characters available, you can speak with Mitsuru in your dorm and request that you go to Tartarus that night. The game will automatically advance time to the Dark Hour and you will be taken to the ground floor of Tartarus where you can select your party members and prepare for the dangerous climb. Tartarus serves as the only dungeon in the game and is the place for you to train your characters in preparation for bosses you will face in the next full moon. You can only explore upwards in Tartarus until you hit a blockade that won’t be removed until after the next full moon. There are usually simple fetch quests available that can focus your otherwise mindless grind as you level up on the shadows. There are generally two bosses in each section and, if you are able to beat them, it is safe to assume that you will be ready to face the full moon boss.
Each floor of Tartarus is randomly generated and, as you explore it, you will encounter shadows roaming around the floors. All enemy encounters are represented by black blobs that usually only vary in size, with larger blobs indicating more enemies. Careful exploration allows you to pick and choose your fights. Attacking the enemy from behind gives you an extra turn you can spend whittling away at their health or using the escape command if you have found that type of enemy to be out of your league. You will want to pick your fights carefully especially in the first few months of the game because your characters will tire easily and once characters get tired, their combat skills are lowered and staying too long will cause them to get sick. It might seem like a hassle at first, but after repeated treks into Tartarus, you will notice your characters are able to stay for longer and longer as their bodies get used to the strain.
Combat is a twist on the typical Shin Megami Tensei press-turn combat system seen in Digital Devil Saga. You will only be able to directly control your main character in combat while your remaining team members will be controlled solely by AI. If your main character falls in combat, you will see the game over screen so you must always make sure to keep him healthy. The AI party members can be both good and bad. While they aren’t perfect, they are a huge step up from other RPGs that have attempted to create AI controlled allies. The only reason the AI is anything but perfect is because the systems that govern combat are so complex and one wrong move could lead to your death.
All players in combat are strong to certain elements of magic or types of physical attacks and weak to others. Usually a fire Persona will be vulnerable to ice attacks. Thus, success in combat simply requires learning your enemies’ weaknesses and exploiting them. Successfully hitting an enemy with an attack they are vulnerable to allows you to take an extra turn. This extra turn only comes if your attack is a single target one and knocks down the enemy you hit with it or is a multiple target attack that knocks down every enemy you hit with it. A multiple target attack that only hits one enemy’s weakness will knock that target down but not grant you the extra turn.
If you are able to knock down all the enemies you are facing, you will be able to do a powerful rush attack where all your characters rush the enemies at once. Sometimes it is best to hold off on doing the rush attack because, while it deals large damage to all the enemies, it also gets them up from their knocked down state if they survive. If they remained knocked down instead, they would have to spend their turn pulling themselves up and not be able to attack. One common problem with your AI controlled party members is that they will knock down one enemy and, rather than knocking down the next enemy until they knock down all the enemies, they will attack the same enemy again, getting him up.
When you end combat after using a rush attack or hitting all the enemies’ weaknesses, you will sometimes be given a choice of cards that can increase your spoils and sometimes give you a new Persona. You will have to pick the card you want to follow before the game shuffles them around and then follow it with your eyes. It is usually pretty easy to pick the bonus card that you are going for if you pay close enough attention. Bonus cards are the easiest way to obtain a new Persona to use in fusion. Combat never goes on for too long thanks to short animations with each attack that are flashy. Combat can slow down every once in a while when large groups of enemies are all hit by powerful multiple target attacks but it never gets in the way of gameplay.
On the ground floor of Tartarus, you can enter a glowing blue door that leads to the Velvet Room. Within the Velvet Room you are able to accept various quests as well as fuse Personas. You can register any Persona in the compendium before fusion so that once you have your fused persona, you can get back your favorite Persona for a fee. The compendium is great because it encourages experimentation with fusion. There are many combinations that can lead to powerful Personas that will make your life a lot easier while exploring Tartarus.
There is a terminal point on the ground floor of Tartarus that allows you to travel instantly to other terminal points you activate as you progress. When you find a terminal point, you can warp back to the entrance so that your MP and HP are recovered and you can save your game before continuing on. If you are in trouble, there is usually a warp point on every floor that can send you back to the ground floor but, unlike the terminal points, they are one-way. Outside Tartarus you can only save your game in your dormitory, usually after finishing your after school activities but also on days without school before you head out.
Persona 3 has a beautiful stylized anime look thanks to Shigenori Soejima’s fantastic character designs and Kazuma Kaneko’s fantastic enemy and Persona designs. The voice acting in the game is top notch as well with the entire cast having fantastic voices. Some of the voice actors who play two characters become obvious towards the end but that is minor. The music in the game is a mixed bag. While the entire soundtrack is composed by series veteran Shoji Meguro, some of the music is too much like hip hop and rap and detracts from the experience. The dungeon music and music during major events is reminiscent of Digital Devil Saga music but the music in the dorm, the school, and the malls is not my style at all.
Some will appreciate the music as a welcome change if they are tired of the same old epic music in games while others will wish they could turn off the music in the options and enjoy the game to their own music without muting the game’s sounds entirely. The unique musical style is understandable because it is likely done to mirror the styles of music High School students in Japan listen to but as it is I played the game on mute during normal gameplay, something I have only done once or twice before. This is one game that I wish was on another console just so I could use custom soundtracks to save me from the horrible music.
Persona 3 is an extremely long game. My final playtime clocked in at around 95 hours, making it the longest game I have ever played. Much of this time feels like it is padded out as the best moments of the game’s story are spread out with long periods of grind in between. Thankfully after completing the game you can do a new game + feature that carries over a good amount of the things you worked hard to accumulate in your first play through that will make the second play through somewhere around 30 hours instead. Persona 3 is the perfect example of a game that is greater than the sum of its parts.
When you finally reach the end, you will remember all the great moments of raising social links and advancing the main plot while forgetting all the slower grind-like moments in between. With one of the best casts ever to grace an RPG, dialogue that is masterfully written, and subject matter that treats the player like an adult, Persona 3 is the kind of game every RPG fan should play, even if it takes them months to beat. It is easily the best PS2 RPG of 2007 and one of the best RPGs ever to grace the PS2.
| 9/10 - An RPG with a well designed combat system. | ||||||
| 9/10 - The graphics are well done and there is plenty of artistic style. | ||||||
| 8/10 - Hit and miss soundtrack and fantastic voice acting. | ||||||
| 10/10 - Boasts fantastic characters and mature themed plot. | ||||||
| 10/10 -90-100 hour play time with plenty of thing on the side. | ||||||
| 9.2/10 (Marvel-Ous) | ||||||
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