Pull the trigger upon thy head... to shatter the mask that binds your inner strength... This is PERSONA 3 FES.
If you already bought the original version DON'T FALTER...
And IF... JUST an IF, you are an insomniac then your LUCKY...
This game is a fresh type upon my collection, bought the original version first, and to my surprise I was ditchin' classes to play a game that will force me to attend classes, tie me to a recitation and slam an exam up on my face!!! What can I say... err I hope that High School was this easy... and fun.. and... and.. err.. WHATEVER!
You are a High School Student that was recently transferred and meant to stay temporarily on a CoEd dormitory. Upon your arrival, a blue haired boy asked you to sign a contract that says that, "You have to take full responsibility on your actions." As you sign it... It BEGAN.
This game is a cross between SIM/DATING GAME and a JRPG with a high school theme. As the story told, there is 25 hours a day... Though man is only conscious 24 Hours a day because as the 25th hour strikes the clock, mankind will transmogrifies into a coffin and oblivious to what's happening around him. The 25th Hour is known as the "DARK HOUR". Apparently that was just fine until the shadows came along... Shadows are hideous, creepy looking creatures with an unknown origin that feeds of the minds on people who are not transmogrified into a coffin; the shadows feeds on the minds of these people and as soon as the normal hours resumes, they will become mindless... Short of a Zombie. BUT DON'T WORRY!!! THAT'S WHAT YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS ARE FOR!! You have a POTENTIAL. An ability to summon a PERSONA and to change one persona to another to suit your needs to fight the shadows. Persona is some kind of a mask perse that... blah blah blah... the point is... It's cool. Seriously persona are like your inner strengths in the forms of mythological creatures and pagan gods and you will be able to utilize their powers to justice. So you will have sleepless nights venturing a giant conglomeration tower that only appears during the dark hour to find the answer how to stop the dark hour and the shadows. And that tower happens to be your school. And did I mention that you are a high school student? So to sum it all up; you got to ask yourself, "What's more important; tomorrow's exam or fighting the bad guys today?". If I will be ask that question... "SCREW THE EXAMS TOMORROW AND LETS KICK THEIR BUTTS!!! ROAR!!!".
Night is not the fun part, days are also important. In order for you to strengthen your personas, you've got to... umm.. be friends with everybody! The higher the friendship, the higher the bonus experience if you create a persona. Not to mention, you can even find yourself a girlfriend!!! Too bad for the girls, your main character is a boy, unlike the other persona game.
The tower which you will be exploring is almost a random dungeon except for the boss levels. But you won't get lost so no worries, and it's no random encounter too.. The battle is pretty much the same though, except that there is no TALK option, so there's no recruiting that will happen. The gameplay will force you to memorize the spells and find the weakness of your opponent which maximizes your strategy part of your brain busy, plus, only the main character will take commands from you, you can advice other party members how will they act but you cannot commandeer them, they got their own personalities and battle tactics so you must cooperate with them to survive. The enemies here are simply aggressive, even a common enemy can kill you in on hit so so got to be careful especially in hard mode. It's no biggie actually, as long as you wont get surprised by the enemy. There also a status "DOWN", if all the shadows in the battle is DOWN (can be done by landing a critical hit or hitting it with its weakness), you can do an all out attack. Your party will attack simultaneously. Sounds COOL? IT'S NOT!!! It's just... err ridiculously gang the enemy... that's just it! And oh! I forgot!, It's a GAMEOVER IF THE MAIN CHARACTER DIED!!! Isn't that great?? Har har har.
I played the Persona 2 on the PS console, the transition was astounding! Instead of boring days of inviting and chatting on a persona to join you, they replaced it with cards. Yup! You heard me... CARDS. Shuffling Cards to be exact. First you will see the cards face up then it will be faced down then shuffled before you got to choose one. Just pray that there is no death card in the choices coz if you've pick that death will pursue you and if it finds you... your as good as... well.. err DEAD?
The characters are composed of main character, and obnoxious classmate, a HOT CLASSMATE, a genius, a sports addict, a computer hacker and... I'd rather not say... Find yourself surprise who the characters are..
THE GOOD: A fresh new look on the JRPG. With a challenging battle and a high school theme from which you can relate. A wide variety of persona that you can fuse with it's own characteristics. Though some of them are useless, the illustrations are great with a side dish of mythological creatures and pagan god's history. And an additional chapter for those who have already played the original version...
THE BAD: The leveling is a drag since the battles are almost repetitive. And the soundtrack is the most annoying kind that I have heard. Something irritating that you can't scratch. Damn!! And this bad stuff is already obvious, the gameplay is somewhat traditional.. Same as any of it's predecessor.
Do not hesitate, any RPG Fan will be absorb by this game. Or better yet... I'm wrong all about this stuffs in the first place.