I am quite fond of RPG games especially the Japanese RPG games although I am very picky to play them since most of them are very identical. Before I got this game I saw quite surprising reviews. The game got many different awards from several critics praising the game's storyline, battle system, music and replay value (PS2 version back in the year 2006). When this game was released on PSP I decided to check it out. I know ATLUS for its great RPG games but this one is definitely excellent.
Before you start the game intro movie is just plain awesome. The music and the cinematic both combined well with each other that you can understand this game is going to be awesome. Before departing on your journey, you choose either to play as Male or Female main character (MC). The male character plays the original story of Persona 3. So if you are new to this game (like me) choose the Male MC since the storyline stays original. The Female MC has a slight difference in the storyline which gives you more replay value and the difficulty is a little bit more challenging. Once you choose your character, your journey begins with a whopping +70 hours of adventure.
Your character is a silent protagonist which is named by you later on in the game. The MC is a transfer student that arrives at Iwatodai during midnight which is trying to find the dormitory that the MC is going to stay. Although the atmosphere in Iwatodai is pretty heavy. The full moon shines very bright, the roads, pavements are covered in blood. The most puzzling surprise is that you see huge coffins standing tall around the streets. It is so quite that you feel alone and deserted in a different dimension. Once the MC arrives at the dormitory, things gets much clearer about the bizarre things happening outside. You will understand why there are coffins outside the streets, the Dark Hour, the Persona power, the unknown threat coming close to the world, the Velvet Room and meet roommates that are after to solve this mysterious things going around with your help. I would like to stop telling the rest of the story since it will be spoilers. Although there is one very important element in this game which is the ability to summon your 'Persona'. Later on in the game, the MC will learn how to use this special power and you find out that you are not the only one to use this secret power. With the power of Persona you can defeat the enemies called 'Shadows'. Without it you are dead.
The game is mixed with social sim and dungeon exploring. The story is progressed with a calender system. You nearly have a full year to complete the story. The game begins on April the 6th and ends around the new year. Within those days, you have to make friends, socialize with them, explore dungeons, upgrade your party and fuse Persona to create even more powerful Personas. Since you are a student you must attend classes, answer teachers' questions and complete term exams. Once you are free you can either spend time with friends or work part time jobs. If you spend time with friends you increase your S. Link with each specific friends. With the power of S. Link you can fuse more powerful Personas according to your friends Arcana. Each Persona has a different Arcana and those Arcana gives specific skills and features to the Personas. For example: if your friend's S. Link Arcana is Magician and you have made a Level 4 relationship with that friend, the Persona that you are going fuse and create a Persona with Magician Arcana will have Level 4 bonus EXP points. As the Personas level increases, they will learn new skills that will make them more powerful. Some friends have difficult S. Link that takes time to increase relationship level. You must be careful with the words that you are going to choose to say to them. The chosen correct words will make them happy and your relationship level will increase and vice versa. If they are angry with you, you must spend more time with them in order to improve your S. Link. Once the S. Link level of a specific friend reaches Level 10 you will get a special item from your friend that you can fuse ultimate Persona plus that friend will be your best buddy. You can also make girlfriends (if the MC is male) and boyfriends (if the MC is female). If you are working part time jobs, you will earn a good amount of money which you can spend them to buy items and equipment and increase your MC's personality stat. These are Courage, Charm and Academics. Some S. Links require a specific level of personality stat to form relationships with them. So you have a lot to do with your social life in this game. It is both fun to do them and helpful for your battles later on in the game.
Once it is evening, you can call your roommates explore the dungeon called the Tartarus during the midnight. Tartarus is a huge tower that only shows up during the midnight. It has dozens of floors crawling with Shadows and loots. You must get to the top to know what's up there. You can have a party of four members (including you) to explore the dungeon. The dungeon exploring is done by over-the-head 3D view. You can sneak up behind the Shadows and attack them to have advantage when the battle begins. When you are at the advantage, you will have more turns before the enemy turn starts and if you are lucky the enemies might be scared which can cause them to stop fighting or let them escape making your battles even more easier. If you are chased and caught by a Shadow, this time you are at the disadvantage making the battle really difficult to finish. During the battle, you can either attack with your weapon or guard or use skills or use items or change Personas or analyze the enemy for weak points or escape from the battle. Each enemy has weakness and strengths that you must concern when fighting with them. The enemy can either be defeated with Slash, Strike or Pierce Attacks or with Fire, Ice, Wind, Lightning, Dark or Light element attacks. If the enemy has weakness to Fire, use Fire elements attack. If the attack is successful the enemy will fall unconscious which it will give you one more extra turn. If all of the enemies are unconscious you can use all out attack to assault the enemy with everyone in the party to deal incredible amount of damage to the enemy. Some enemies have strengths too which you must be very careful when attacking them. If you attack the enemy with Strike weapons, the enemy will not sustain damage at all since it has affinity to Strike attacks. Some enemies absorb the damage which causes to recover their HP. The worst scenario case is when the enemy reflects your attacks. If you cast Dark/Light spell to an enemy (which has 50% chance of instant kill) and the enemy reflects that attack, you will receive the damage. So you must be very careful with the enemies. Use tactics! Every time you defeat the Shadows, you will earn EXP, money and sometimes items that are needed to finish requests. If you explore the dungeon more than the usual the party members will get tired or even get sick reducing stats and the amount of EXP earned after each battle. So you must return to the lobby and call it a day or switch party members to fresh up the party's mood.
Later on in the game you will discover the special place called Velvet Room. You will meet Igor the owner of Velvet room with his assistant Elizabeth (if the MC is male) or Theodore (if the MC is female). Igor helps you to fuse Personas. You can either fuse with 2 or with 3 Personas to create a strong Persona. Some special Personas need 4-way or 5-way or even 6-way fusion for the ultimate secret Personas. The outcome is determined according to the Personas' Arcana, level and skills. Once the fusion is successful you can use the created Persona. If you are happy with the Persona you can register to the compendium and re-summon them for future needs. There are more than 150 Personas waiting for you to be summoned. The assistant Elizabeth/Theodore will ask you to complete requests for bonus rewards. Some can be obtained from looting or from people in the city by asking them. Once you complete all of the requests you will get a very special reward.
These are the basic elements in Persona 3 Portable. There are other aspects that makes the game special. The soundtracks used in this game are awesome and you don't get bored every time you listen to them. The character development of your friends is very interesting learning about their pasts, their troubles, their secret life and so on. The storyline of the game sucks you in for more excitement and you don't get bored from it. There are even really funny and mature dialogues and events that entertains you which feels like watching an anime or reading a manga. To make things more clear here is the pros and cons list:
Pros:
- Amazing storyline and atmosphere
- Great battle system and social sim that are well combined with each other making the game unique from the other JRPGs
- Characters are very unique with realistic personalities
- Some events are really funny giving a good amount of humor to the game
- Huge amount of Personas, requests and secrets increase the game replay value
- Great dialogue scenes that is helpful and interesting to listen to them
- Catchy music with different soundtracks
- The ability to play as Female MC with different S. Link members
- Nearly no loading times
- Great menu design and easy to use
- Fusing Persona's are fun and addictive
- Two different endings
Cons:
- Most of the anime cutscenes are removed and in game cutscenes are done by still character portraits and dialogue boxes
- Dungeon exploring can be boring since it is all about corridors and stairs
- Grinding can get boring after a while
- When the MC dies in the battle, the game is over no matter if your members are alive with full HP, causing frustrations to start over again from the last save point
- No 'The Answer' chapter which tells further story after the ending of the game giving more details to unsolved questions of the main storyline
The final statement: buy this game since it is once of the ATLUS gem games that makes a unique game in the PSP's game library.