Quite simply one of the best JRPG's to ever grace the PS2...
Now after a 8 year hiatus, Shin Megami Tensei have revived Persona back into the gaming scene, and unlike the previous two, Persona 3 has actually hit European shores, so this will be a first time experience of the series for many, and what better way to start…
To cut things short and without spoiling too much; you play as an unnamed silent protagonist (similar to the RPG Suikoden V in which you play as that silent metrosexual), who so happens to be a new transfer student at Gekkoukan High, which is set in the game's fictional island city; Port Island. However upon arrival things do not seem entirely normal, what with the deep green coloured sky and bloody coffins in exchange of people all over the place. Our airheaded hero simply ignores these out of the ordinary obstacles and proceeds to his allocated dorm. Here we are introduced to two of the main female protagonists; Yukari and Mitsuru, but your warm welcome is soon cut short as one of the other dorm mates; Akihiko, suddenly staggers his way into the room; clearly injured and exasperated, shutting the door behind him to which he claims that a "shadow" is coming. You are at once forced to escape by Yukari in which you head to the rooftops, however this move appears to backfire as you are instantly surrounded by a horde of midget sized looking beings. What follows next is is the shock value that makes Persona oh so unique to any other RPG; the evoker to the head…
No they're not trying to blow their brains out, the main characters in the game all possess an inner summon within them called "Persona".
Our characters use these summons to aid them in battle, each equiped their own unique set of attacks and skills, but calling them out could be seen as one of the most controversial abilities to ever feature in a role playing game. It's simply not done by magic as found in most RPG's, e.g Final Fantasy X, but being different isn't a bad thing in Persona's case. Who wouldn't find the sight of teens pointing guns to their head somewhat extraodinary in a video game?
Too frightened to release her Persona, your character, after a slight hesitation grabs the evoker off Yukari, points to it to their head, and fires, releasing his new found Persona named; Orpheus. An act of destiny described by your counterpart. Your character easily makes haste of these shadows with his new found power and is later congratulated and given a quick sum up of the events by your fellow dorm mate Mitsuru.
The monsters refered to as "shadows" which you had previously fended off only appear during the "dark hour". A time that occurs at the stroke of midnight and before the dawn of a new day thus making a 25th hour to captivate the day. During this time the world is eclipsed and transformed into a ghastly looking wreck wher'e shadows are free to roam. Normal people never experience this time of day as they are transmogrified into coffins, but because you and your dorm mates bare the power of Persona, you have the ability to stay awake throughout.
This is where your role in the game comes in. Mitsuru offers you a place in the dorm's secret group; SEES, an anti shadow group that works during the dark hour. From here on out you are now committed to helping out the SEES members in their mission to wipe out the shadows from existence. New comrades will join you as you progress through the strory, each possessing their own unique Persona. In fact the character's in Persona bring so much life into to the game as you'll find they are all extremely likeable and relateable to in their own unique way.
You can literally find yourself being attatched to one of the character's featured in the game as they all have profound personalities to get acustomed with. Simply engaging in a conversation with one of the caracter's brings out their personality that almost feels life like. In comparisson to Final Fantasy XII, as great an RPG it was, the characters simply never felt "real" to me as they always sounded too monotone. You could just never feel a "warmth" from them. This could be due to the voice acting featured in both games. The voice actors in Persona sound like your typical anime character; vibrant, cheesey and fun, which is what everyone expects to hear in JRPG's, which is essentially why the cast is so loveable. The voice acting in Final Fantasy XII, although done very well always appears too serious, meaning you could never feel any real emotion illuminate from any of the characters.
The battle gameplay in Persona is the turn based system you'd come to expect in any other RPG. However what makes Persona so different is it's many other features that bear within. The meat of the RPG element focuses on you exploring "Tartarus" a huge tower where your team battles shadows and is also where the games main theme of "dungeon crawling" takes place. You may only take up to three other SEES members with you at once leaving the rest on standby to wait on the ground floor, doing so means they'll not be able to gain any experience points which risks them falling behind your other party members, so you'll have to balance your team carefully. There are over 200 floors in the tower and they are split into five different sections, each section having different and stronger shadows as you progress.
RPG's always tend to have random encounter battles, its almost an necessity as it's found in many great RPG titles such as; Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy X & XII, Suikoden V etc. In Persona however you'll actually get to see your enemies wondering around each floor, and if you strike them first with the tap of the X button you'll engage into battle with an advantage, e.g; attack first. You'll have the choice to attack with your primary equiped weapon, or have the other command to use your Persona's battle skills. Your team mates however have a mind of their own and will attack using their own A.I. It surprisingly works very well and your team will react to changes occurred in battle such as healing wounded party members, cure status abnormalities and even react to exposed enemy weaknesses.
Before you enter a new section within the tower you'll have to defeat a boss shadow that blocks you from progressing any further. You'll find many enemy shadows present on each floor in which they'll vary in weaknesses which you can easily identify through their masks. A certain colour such as green indicates that they are prone agaisnt electricity attacks. However if you are unsure about a shadow's weakness you can always choose the analyse option command which takes up a whole action turn for a character.
Defeating shadows goes into random card picking mini game in which you can possibly earn EXP points to level up your characters, money or a brand new weapon or Persona. I honestly find it unecessary and rather annyoing actually, especially when you happen to pick the shattered card; earning you absolutely nothing! Thanks for rubbing salt on my wounds, greatly appreciated Atlus!
In truth, leveling your character up does not make you stronger at all; it only furthers your ability to equip Personas of the same level or lower. In fact your strength comes from your equipped Persona with your stats such as speed, defence etc all focused on them. Your Persona's will also gain experience points at the aftermath of battles and as they level up you'll find yourself getting stronger too. They'll also learn new abilities and attacks to use in battle, some will serve as a huge asset in forthcoming missions.
Leveling up monsters, doesn't that bring the Pokemon games to mind? Whilst indeed there are a large roster of Persona's to aquire, they're aren't quite up to par with the huge amount of pocket monsters found in the latest Pokemon games. We can still applaud Persona 3 for their versatility though. Persona's come in different shapes and sizes, some may look cute and cuddley such as; Jack Frost, whilst others may look grim and menacing, such as the Ghost Rider rip off; Hell Biker.
You'll have access to Tartarus everyday after school in the evening as you'll be needing it to bulk up your characters for incoming missions on the calander. Yes, the game has a calender that spans 9 months; your time in the game. A mission takes place every full moon, an event that occurs once a month. So battling in Tartarus is the only way to build up your characters for these missions.
Outside Tartarus you'll be able to explore the island city during the day, and increase your three basic stats in the process; Intelligence, Courage and Charm. This can be done by either; going to the school library, eating at certain restaurants, watching a certain film at the cinema, or participating in certain activites such as karaoke. These three stats are necessary if you want to form a "social link" with the female SEES members. The shopping mall is where you'll be able to purchase equipment such as weapons and armor, and an item shop to buy various medicines for use in Tartarus. The other areas on the map serve as social places filled with restaurants and various key people you can form other "social links" with. "Social Links" are another unique feature to the game in which players can forge friendships with certain key people including the SEES members. Persona's are catergorized into different groups called "arcana", and each social link you make uses this "arcana". By improving that social link e.g hanging out with that certain person after school and weekends, increases the level of that "arcana" allowing you to gain bonus experience when fusing Personas.
Persona fusion is also another key feature to the game. When you fuse Persona's they'll form a whole new entity with enhanced strength, and depending on its arcana level, can gain additional stat points.
So where does the genre of dating sims come in? Well, if you make social links with female characters you'll soon forge a typical romantic bond with them once you reach rank 5 of their social link. You'll also have the chance to give certain items to them when out on dates to boost their social link even higher. However all available girls have different likes and dislikes, so be careful when choosing an item to give to them, you could end up upsetting her. Be warned, if you choose to date numerous girls at a time they'll soon catch you out and your backstabbing ways, and you could risk "reversing" and eventually "breaking" their social linsk. Broken social links do not allow you to use Persona's of their arcana in battle…
Persona 3, graphically is very niche looking for a PS2 trying to compete with the current generation of consoles. The game is meant to capture an anime art design and it does it very well with the character portraits looking very detailed which even change to display their current emotions whilst in a conversation. The 3D character models however could have done with a facelift, but it's nothing to put you off. To compare this game to Final Fantasy X in terms of graphics wouldn't exactly be fair. Final Fantasy X was way ahead of its time back when it was released in 2001, with Square Enix throwing in phenomenal FMV sequences to give it the that "wow" factor that still sends ripples of its brilliance today. Looking back at it you could compare it with the current generation; it was simply that good, and with a Hollywood movie like budget of around $32 million that's no surprise.
To be fair Atlus did a great job on the graphics, and they do deserve credit for managing to create multiple Persona's, shadows and epic boss battles to feature within the game. Exploring Port Island can also be an enjoyable and lush experience at times, especially during the summer season. The game's multiple use of anime styled cut scenes was also a nice touch, and although few far and between, were very much appreciated and appeared pretty much every time necessary. However the recycling of shadows in Tartarus do become a bore along with the repetitivelooking floors. Watching your character pull the evoker trigger against their head thankfully never loses its intensity, as you watch little fragments of their soul burst through the other end.
To close, Persona 3 can be an incredibly enjoyable experience. Packed with a unique, loveable cast and an intriguing story filled with gob smacking moments, there's so much to like here in Persona. Maxing out all the social links can become one of your primary objectives, or maybe your aim is to acquire all of the available Persona's. With a length of around 50+ hours, the journey ahead will become a difficult one so constant level grinding isn't an exception in this case, sorry...
In the end, Persona 3 is an absolute fresh and original take on a genre plagued with the same old thing. It may lack in a few minor areas but it would still be a travesty for any RPG fan to take a pass on it. While there is a significant time investment required for Persona, it is well worth it as this game should be part of any PS2 owner's collection.