When I started going back and playing the old Persona games, I didn't realise how much more they'd make me appreciate Persona 5. Persona 5 takes a large amount of its influence from older Persona games in the series but makes what it takes way better, making Persona 5 still feel like a Persona game but at a higher than ever quality. The Persona series has a few key themes, such as the use of Demons/Personas, rumours and the social aspects that make Persona unique to its source material Shin Megami Tensei. Persona 5 takes what it can from its roots, whether intentional or not, and in my opinion masterfully succeeds in weaving them together into a fantastic experience of its own. Here are some of the things I noticed from other Persona games that may have inspired Persona 5 and how Persona 5 usually makes them way cooler.
I'm currently playing Persona 2 on my Vita (at a snail's pace) and one of the first things I thought was really unique about it was its rumours mechanic. This rumours mechanic made me realise how rumours play a strong role in most Persona games, with most stories starting with a rumour, such as the Midnight Channel one in Persona 4 Golden. Rumours are also an integral part of Persona 5, as they often lead the Phantom Thieves to their next target and directly affect their credibility as a group. While Persona 5 may not feature a whole mechanic based around making rumours like in Persona 2, they impact the story in interesting ways and the story wouldn't be the same without them.
Talking to Demons
Since I played Persona 2 after playing a bit of Persona 5 in Japanese, I was surprised to see a Demon Negotiation System in it as well. Persona 3 and 4 didn’t feature Demon Negotiation, so it’s interesting to see a throwback to this in Persona 5. Persona 5 does the demon negotiation system so much better than Persona 2 however, by making it feel more like an extension of its social mechanics more than anything else. Persona 2’s Demon Negotiation system usually lets players do one basic action to gain a demon’s trust and potentially spur a conversation with one, while Persona 5 offers the conversation from the get-go, adding to the social nature of Persona and making for some amusing mid-battle conversation.
Big Dungeons
One of my favourite dungeon experiences in Persona was Persona 3’s Tartarus, a massive dungeon that was the focus of Persona 3’s dungeon crawling elements and featured randomised floor layouts to keep things interesting. While Persona 5’s main dungeons feature a set dungeon layout, there is the sub-dungeon Mementos that brings the randomised layout element back in for side-quests in a fun new way. While the original Tartarus didn't feature a cat car to drive through in, Mementos’ constantly expanding nature reminded me a lot of the enjoyable Persona 3 dungeon experience and serves as a good, functional throwback to Persona’s old dungeon system.
Weather
Weather may not be the most riveting topic in most cases, but the way Persona uses weather has always been fascinating to me, probably because I hadn’t experienced many weather mechanics like it until Persona 4 Golden. Persona 5 brings in a few new weather effects, such as Pollen Warnings and Rainy Seasons that can affect Shadows in Mementos, by making them less aware during Pollen season. I particularly like this one on a personal level, as while I’m not a person who suffers from Pollen allergies, it is something I hear a lot of people talking in my everyday life in Tokyo, especially in April, so I got a little kick from seeing this in Persona 5’s version of Tokyo, as it strikes me as really realistic.
Style
Persona 5 is a decidedly stylish game, which is a fitting evolution of Persona’s previous stylish tendencies. I’m still regularly surprised at Persona 2’s occasionally plain menus and maps, despite featuring characters just as colourful as the current Persona cast. Between Persona 3 and particularly Persona 4, Persona’s stylishness seem to have been slowly growing, with Persona 4 being the biggest jump in style and Persona 5 having stylishness in every aspect of it. It’s evolved from stylish characters and music to eye catching menus and some of the coolest load screens I’ve ever seen in such a way that it’s pretty much a Calling Card for the series. Persona 5 is so stylish in fact that I actually can’t imagine how Persona 6 will top it, but if Persona 5 has proven anything to me, it’s proven that a great series can continue to get even better every time.
What updated mechanic did you like in Persona 5? What things keep you coming back to the Persona series in general?
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As much as I love video games, I don’t claim to be the best at gaming. While I can pick up most mechanics, my varying degree of skill with some games has made me no stranger to the Game Over screen and I've had to hit the Retry button in some of my most played games (such as my complete inability to complete the Omega Ruins in Final Fantasy X). Recently I’ve been playing the Roguelike JRPG Sorcery Saga: The Curse of the Great Curry God, a fun but tough dungeon crawler that has found me sent back to its town without my items on multiple occasions with a small bit of my dungeon confidence eaten away. This made me think back to some of the many fails I’ve had while playing JRPGs and while these are only a small selection, these are some of the biggest fails I’ve had while playing or more accurately, times I’ve had my ass kicked while playing JRPGs.
Note: I’ve kept spoilers to a minimum by mostly not mentioning boss names and story circumstances, but there are some minor spoilers about significant boss battles in this article. Proceed with caution!
If there’s one thing Final Fantasy is good at, it’s bosses with multiple forms or stages. I’m not referring to the final boss battle that you pretty much automatically win, I’m talking about the true final boss of Final Fantasy X, the one with more than one stage and an overdrive gauge that can quickly wipe out any unprepared party. There are a bunch of bosses like this in Final Fantasy X but when I played the HD Remaster a couple of years ago, I was reminded of that feeling of total horror when you think you've won the boss battle, but oh no, let's put multiple status ailments on all your characters, shatter a couple for good measure and knock some out because I'm definitely out of Phoenix Downs. It was horrible, but the satisfaction I got after grinding a little more, taking advance of any possible status vulnerabilities, winning and crying like a baby to the ending was definitely worth the struggle.
Persona 3’s boss battle is one of the absolute harshest boss battles I have ever experienced. If Final Fantasy X was bad for bosses with multiple forms, Persona 3’s boss is just plain unreasonable. When I played Persona 3 this year, I assumed that it would be harder than the previous bosses I’d faced, all of which had been difficult but not impossible, but the absolute uphill struggle I faced was definitely beyond my expectations. The final boss really ramps up the difficulty, with over 10 different forms to fight and without a proper strategy, any party will be quickly annihilated. I can’t even begin to tell you how many online guides I read and Youtube videos I watched just to check if winning was a possibility and to work out how to defeat that thing with what I had. I must have tried it over 20 times and definitely saw a lot of Game Over screens, which are just a little more crushing when you're almost at the end of the game. It took a lot of persistence and a little grinding, but eventually I did it. I hope to never face a boss that slays me that hard again.
I think I had a lot of luck when I versed Final Fantasy IX’s Plant Brain for the first time, because I had no problem beating it. However something happened - either my Vita ran out of power or I turned it off without saving - and somehow, I lost my save, meaning I had to do the boss battle again. Fine, I said. Piece of cake, right? Wrong.
Older JRPGs are different to the standard beginning of a modern JRPG. They don’t try to make you feel like a god in the first few battles so that you keep playing. They’re not scared to kick you around and knock out a majority of your party, which is exactly what happened to me. I wasn’t expecting to use any healing items because it was one of the first boss fights in the game and I repeatedly kept getting knocked down and finding myself at the Game Over screen thinking I was a better gamer than this. Going from winning on my first try to absolutely struggling was kind of a shock, but I accepted it was going to be a tough battle, put my pride aside and healed my party. It did however let me understand that Final Fantasy IX was going to be a little more challenging than other Final Fantasy’s I played, so it served as a good introduction for what was ahead.
Sorcery Saga: the Curse of the Great Curry God’s Chapter 4 Dungeon
Ah, my week long dilemma. Every dungeon in Sorcery Saga is a little punishing, but with the amount of potential enemies that can surround you, surprisingly strong bosses and devastating traps in the 25 floors of this fourth dungeon, Sorcery Saga is definitely working against me in my quest to win this dungeon. Since Sorcery Saga is a Roguelike JRPG, I’m also starting fresh each dungeon run so if I lose, my next run is even tougher because I may not have my best sword anymore. And even if I go in with the best equipment in the world, there’s potential for it to get cursed or eaten by an enemy or Kuu (your friendly dungeon pet) if he's super hungry. It seems like I need a lucky run and to use Kuu and the area as perfectly as possible. For now, my dungeon crawling confidence is waning, but I will not give up!
(Fun fact: before this article went up, I won the dungeon through excessive grinding on each floor and risking dungeon collapse. Yay! Currently slowly going through the last dungeon so I don't you know...die.)
I’ve spoken mostly about getting my ass kicked in battle in this article, but there are plenty of ways JRPGs can make things hard for the player, such as the simultaneously heartwarming and patience-testing Legend of Inaba trophy from Persona 4 Golden. Social Links are an enjoyable part of Persona 4 Golden, but to max them all out in one playthrough requires thorough planning and execution, something I failed at multiple times. This trophy pretty much took me three playthroughs, and with a playthrough of Persona 4 Golden being over 100 hours on average, I don’t need to tell you it was hard work. I had to make sure I said the right things to each character or else I may not be able to fully get them to the next Social Link rank in the next interaction, which would cost more time. Memorising what days characters were available, on top of keeping the dungeon crawling part of the game afloat was a true challenge, but at least it was a fulfilling one as it's probably the most immersed I've felt in a story. Persona 4’s well-written characters thankfully made this worth it and I’m forever happy about the 300+ hours I spent with Persona 4 Golden, even if it was tough.
Some JRPGs might be ruthless difficulty-wise, but I never think it’s a bad thing. It’s the persistent battling and desire to beat challenges that make completing a JRPG so rewarding, like I truly worked for the experience I gained. I honestly think sometimes the persistence I’ve had encouraged in JRPGs has also become apart of my everyday life, as I look to be challenged in real life situations and in a weird way I enjoy the struggling challenges presented to me in JRPGs as working them out feels truly satisfying. Knowing that all the challenges in JRPGs are conquerable keeps me going and I’m looking forward to whatever the next JRPG struggle I face is, even if it's a temporary kick to my confidence as a player. In the end, it's worth it.
Persona 3 left me with two things: dungeon fatigue and a love of the coolest humanoid robot ever, Aigis. While I think I'm finally getting over the dungeon fatigue, there’s no denying that Aigis is great and interesting character. Even pre-playing the Aigis-central second part of Persona 3 The Answer, her story was one of the highlights of Persona 3, especially during the social parts of the game as she was so different to the other characters in the way she responded to the world and events around her. My first true encounter with Aigis wasn’t Persona 3, rather Persona 4 Arena where she immediately struck my curiosity because she was a robot dressed as a human, and her charming interactions with the other characters really made her stand out against Persona’s already distinct and unique cast.
To commemorate mine and my boyfriend’s love of Aigis, we convinced each other it was about time to pick up an Aigis figure for the apartment. A year ago, I saw a huge Aigis figure in Akihabara in a rotating display that I really liked, but it was about $200 and was way too big to justify storing it anywhere in our small apartment and the slowly disappearing remaining space in my figure collection wouldn't allow it either. So instead of that figure, I found an Aigis (or Aegis as she's known in Japan) Persona 4 Arena prize figure from Taito that had a gravity defying pose and big weapons that seemed pretty cool for a low price of about $20.
Considering prize figures are typically not the highest quality, this Aigis figure is pretty decent. When I took her out of the box, I immediately noticed the beautiful detail of her face. If you look at her eyes, the drawing style is so spot on to Atlus’ animated version of Aigis that it almost makes the figure look more expensive. Her textured hair has a slight ombre colour effect, I’m guessing to add texture and simulate light being cast on her as it’s not something I really noticed about her in Persona 3 or Persona 4 Arena. I like the hair a lot, although there are a few very small bumps that up-close make the Aigis figure look a tad dirty sometimes, but from far back it's not a problem.
The rest of the figure is perfectly coloured with a mix of matte and metallic paints and is pretty detailed considering the price. While the gold, patterned detail on Aigis’ shoulder and leg connections have a few small bumps and tiny out-of-place paint marks, they're mostly smooth and detailed enough that from further back she looks just as detailed as other my other figures. A lot of these less perfectly-detailed spots are also easy to miss thanks to her cool looking weapon and dynamic pose drawing attention to other areas of the figure, so it's not a big issue for me. It may not be the most precisely detailed figure, but every detail is represented and done well enough.
The PVC body of the figure feels as strong as most of my other figures and is supported by a plastic rod attached to a plastic base. These can hold Aigis well on a shelf, but I’d probably advise against keeping this figure on a desk or area where she can be bumped as the part attached to the base that holds Aigis has a tendency to move very easily when touched. Even when I was taking pictures for this post, I bumped the base a little too much and suddenly had an upside-down Aigis figure. While it definitely looked amusing, it’s probably not the way most people want to display their figure. When kept in a steady area, I haven't had any problems or fears of damage and as long as it's not touched regularly, so my figure maintains it's structure and appearance just fine.
For the low price, this Aigis figure is very cool looking with it’s strong, dynamic pose. Although it’s not the most detailed and perfect Aigis figure ever, the colouring and face details are nicely done and when displayed on a shelf, she looks great and doesn't have any problems. I would eventually like to get the big high quality Aigis figure someday, but for now, this Aigis figure is a nice and cool-looking way to remember my Persona 3 experience without breaking the bank.
Score: 7.5
With amazing face details and a cool pose, this Aigis figure is a great find for the price. Now I need to get her a Koromaru!
Who was your character from Persona 3? Do you have any Persona figures?
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Spring was a season full of more games than I expected. Much like in Winter, I had planned to crank out Persona 3 after being distracted by games like Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth. But playing the same game for two seasons left me pretty prone to being distracted, so distracted I was by smaller experiences like Platinum Demo: Final Fantasy XV and X-Tactics. In hindsight, I'm pretty glad I tried other experiences in between, because even without these it still would've taken me a few months to finish Persona 3, so the variety broke up the experience well and some of these smaller experiences were my favourite games from Spring. So, here's my mix of tactical, quirky and fantasy JRPGs I played during Spring. Let me know what you played in the comments!
Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS)
Status: Now playing and enjoying!
I only started playing Fire Emblem Awakening this week, but I'm already excited to keep playing. Playing Tactic JRPGs is a very recent thing for me, but it's cool seeing JRPGs done in a different way than the usual turn-based or active battle style I stick to. I'm really enjoying how the social part of the game benefits the battle and improving my skills as a Tactician.
Another thing that feels fresh to me is playing a portable console again, especially since I'm not fully familiar with playing 3DS. It's nice being able to have more options for where and when I play and to be able to play even when the TV’s being used! Seriously forgot how much I love portable consoles and I honestly hope they don't ever go away.
Status: Ongoing. Finished all non-event missions, so now I'm playing through events and GPS missions
X-Tactics was a pleasantly enjoyable surprise to me. It was my first tactical JRPG from recent memory and since I'm very loyal to the other two games I play on my phone (Final Fantasy Record Keeper and *shock horror not a JRPG* Hearthstone), I was wondering how it would fit into to my lunch time mobile game time. I'm pleased to say it fits really well with it's fun touchscreen combo making, quirky characters and regular updates that keep making me want to come back.
My main goal in the game right now? Getting the XCoin to buy Kuku.
I was very happy to find a bunch of pre-owned Japanese Pokemon DS games for really cheap and I thought they'd be good for Japanese study. While it's super fun to play with Pokemon I've never played with before, Pokemon Diamond and it's child level Japanese is surprisingly difficult for me to understand. I've gotten lost multiple times because I haven't understood something and because I was planning to play it before bed in place of reading a book, it usually melts my brain so much I just end up sleeping early.
I really want to keep playing it, but will definitely need to find more time to play it or adjust my Japanese study schedule to include it and pull out that dictionary if I want to get through it. Without voice acting and kanji, it's possibly more difficult for me than Final Fantasy X was. Definitely something I will come back to for a good challenge and monster catching fun!
Status: Finished 'the Journey' portion of the game, will play 'the Answer' at some point
I enjoyed this game, but I played it for five months, so I think I'm officially burned out on Persona until Persona 5, which is something I never thought I'd say!
I liked Persona 3, but I didn't love it as much as I expected to. Since Persona 4 Golden was my window back into JRPGs, I had pretty high expectations for Persona 3 which probably killed some of the magic. I enjoyed the dungeon crawling and the story, but would have preferred a better balance between the two. Now that I've finished it though, I'm excited to venture into the world of Persona 3 movies. I know one released recently, so I'm hoping to catch myself up on those and finally play the Persona 3 parts of Persona 4 Arena and Ultimax that I've been avoiding because I didn't want the spoilers. And of course, I'll have to eventually play 'The Answer' part of Persona 3 FES. Persona 3's universe is huge!
During the Uncovered: Final Fantasy XV event, I was absolutely thrilled when it was announced there was a new demo for Final Fantasy XV. I didn't play Episode Duscae, so the idea of playing Final Fantasy XV at all was pretty exciting. Platinum Demo: Final Fantasy XV was incredibly stunning, even if it only gave a glimpse into the gameplay of Final Fantasy XV. I'm really keen to play more when it's finally released in September. In fact, this just reminded me I need to put a pre-order on it, so I'll probably do that sometime soon!
Disgaea 5 Demo (PS4)
Status: Played a mere 10 minutes of...but liked it!
Being completely honest, I played only 10 minutes of the Disgaea 5 demo with the intention of testing the video capture of the PS4 in case I ever try make video content or reviews for the blog. I really liked Disgaea 5’s wacky humour in the demo, but 10 minutes in nowhere near enough time to properly preview Disgaea 5’s gameplay, so I didn't end up using any of the footage. Despite that, my brother's a big fan of the Disgaea series and it was nice to see a peak at why, so it'd definitely love to come back to the series another time and spend some real time with it.
I finished Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth early Spring, but I definitely still have great memories of playing it. Cyber Sleuth has opened my life back up to the world of Digimon and monster capture games, their cute creatures and their silly stories, to the point where I now have an Agumon pillow and it makes me happy. I loved the Digivolution mechanics in Cyber Sleuth, which makes me want to try other Digimon games like Digimon World or Re:Digitize to play similar systems. For now, I really recommend the game to any past fans of the series - it's great!
So, I've been having a weird time with Record Keeper. I'll play an event to win a character I like, play the next two events to win characters I usually don't know so well, then bail. Then it hooks me right back in with either a character or event for one of my favourite Final Fantasy games and the cycle begins again. A perfect example of this is that I'd previously written here that I was on an 'off cycle' with the game, but recently they put up a Final Fantasy IX event where you can recruit Kuja and I think that's a ridiculous enough reason to return to the game because I clearly need to have him. It's a weird cycle, but it's pretty enjoyable still.
Final Fantasy X HD (PS Vita, Japanese Version. Also on PS3/4)
These days I’ve been having to find a lot of compromise in my gaming time, mainly because there are so many games I wanna play and replay. I feel the need to make really good decisions about which game I'll play next because JRPGs are pretty long.
I tried to continue my Platinum journey with Final Fantasy X this season, but I was also really determined to finish Persona 3. Because of that, I mostly left Final Fantasy X (and my Vita) untouched during Spring. At this point, I'm not stale on Fire Emblem yet so I have no reason to use trophy hunting as a means to break any potential lost game enthusiasm yet. I definitely still want to get this platinum at some point though, but I'll probably wait till next time I feel like going for it.
I’ve mentioned it multiple times in this article, but after playing Persona 3 for so long, I’m ready to check out something new. I’ve started playing Fire Emblem Awakening which has been a really nice change of pace since it’s much shorter than Persona 3 was and also quite different, so it’s giving me a much needed new experience.
With Final Fantasy XV and Persona 5 coming out in September and Danganronpa 3’s anime being released, I’m debating whether I should stick to those series or take this in between time as a chance to play other games. There’s Danganronpa Another Episode which I’ve had sitting on my Vita’s home screen for awhile and I bought Final Fantasy Type-0 recently. But, there are also the Atelier games that sit in the back of my mind and I'm reminded of my huge backlog everytime I open my CD folder or look at my PSN downloads, so I definitely have a lot to keep myself busy with.
As much as I like planning my gaming season, I think after having my plan be 'finish Persona 3' for so long, I’m gonna play whatever I feel like playing for a bit. I will likely end up playing Danganronpa Another Episode because I feel like it will heighten the anime, but otherwise, I’m gonna keep things fairly free and hopefully pick the best game I can play.
I'm always accepting suggestions though, so feel free to leave anything you think I should play sooner rather than later in the comments below!
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Before the hugely popular PS Vita game Persona 4 Golden stole my heart and my gameplay time, there was it’s predecessor, the standout PS2 JRPG Persona 3. Persona 4 set the tone to my journey into the world of Persona games with it’s glaring yellows and talking bears, but this impression of the series shifted when I began Persona 3. Persona 3 may be another high school dungeon crawler, but the glaring yellows are replaced by dark blues hues alongside a darker story when compared to it’s successor, giving it a unique feel of it's own. The two games share a similar structure, but Persona 3 being the older game has a few drawbacks, such as an inconsistent AI which makes the experience feel a little less refined than Persona 4. However with it's complex battle system and an interesting story premise, Persona 3 highlights the Persona series strength of interesting stories and fun dungeon crawling it's own darker way.
The dark tone is set for Persona 3 is set pretty quickly in it's opening sequence with the protagonist entering the town of Iwatodai at night surrounded by coffins. He enters the town during the Dark Hour, an extra hour of the day that occurs every day at midnight. While this extra hour may sound convenient, this extra hour isn't just free time. For starters, most people during the dark hour become unconscious and transform into coffins until the hour is over. Those who remain conscious are preyed upon by monsters called Shadows. It's a pretty chaotic hour, but luckily the people conscious during this time tend to have the potential to fight these monsters using Personas. The protagonist quickly discovers he's a Persona user and quickly joins the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad known as SEES. This group is made up of a group of students from Gekkoukan High School whose job is to protect citizens from these shadows by fighting strong shadows that appear whenever there's a Full Moon and also to explore Tartarus, the mysterious tower meets dungeon that their school turns into during the Dark Hour.
Tartarus is where Persona 3’s dungeon crawling gameplay takes place to prepare for the monthly Full Moon boss and story arc. For those who have also played Persona 4 Golden, learning how to play these dungeons is pretty simple as dungeon mechanics are very similar to those in Persona 4. Battles are turn-based and are fought with the usual JRPG tool kit of magic, elemental and physical attacks. What made me love the battle system in Persona 3 (and Persona in general) is the way it puts it's own spin on regular JRPG mechanics by adding fun, extra mechanics. There's the all important Persona system of course, but an example that was new to me in Persona 3 was the way physical attacks were divided into subcategories like piercing, striking and slashing and correspond with different weapon types and enemy weaknesses. It's a small difference to Persona 4, but I liked having to think about which weapon I was using before using a regular attack, making sure I was always on my feet in battle rather than just hitting 'attack' all the time.
The main thing that sets Persona 3’s battle system apart from other JRPGs is the game’s namesake: Personas. Personas are described as the character’s face used in the face of danger, so fittingly they accompany each party member into battle and provide them with the ability to fight shadow. Persona 3’s protagonist’s ability is extra special because while the other characters are limited to one Persona, he can wield multiple and switch between them during battle. This ability introduces a fun monster collecting element to game, heightened by the ability to fuse Personas together to create new ones and completing Social Links to gain some of the strongest ones. This was another system that was familiar to me because of Persona 4 and I was glad to see that Persona 3’s system was as good as it was similar to Persona 4’s system, so I was able to navigate it with ease.
While Personas are a solid element of Persona 3, the Tactics aspect and AI stood out to me a little too much as it was too varying in success in Persona 3. The protagonist is the only party member able to be fully controlled during battle, leaving the other three party members to think for themselves with mixed results. The Tactics option allows characters to be given general commands, such as ‘Heal/Support’, ‘Conserve SP’ or the seemingly simple option ‘Act Freely’. Through some parts of the game, the AI was relatively smart - my characters were healed when they needed to be, they didn’t use any counterproductive elemental attacks and things were fairly smooth. However as I progressed through Persona 3, I felt like as my party leveled up and learnt more skills, the sillier they got with how they used them. For example, they would neglect using items to use spells and then just not heal once they were out of SP or ‘Wait’ instead of doing a regular attack because they felt they couldn’t use a skill. It wasn’t constantly bad as I definitely got through Persona 3 probably 60% with a decent AI, but the crucial moments when I needed my party to be their best such as the all important final boss I felt like I was fighting to keep the AI working in my favour more than I was fighting the actual boss.
Persona 3 was the first of the Persona games to introduce Social Links to the game, a fact that was huge surprise to me considering how crucial they are in the series now. Social Links allow players to get to know the characters while gaining access to more powerful by giving EXP bonuses for Persona fusing and unlocking extra powerful Personas. There are plenty of people to Social Link with, from the main cast of female characters to various classmates from Gekkoukan High and people around town. Each Social Link has a similar structure during it’s 10 stages - getting to know the character, finding their personal struggle and watching them overcome it, all while forming an unbreakable bond with each other. This structure could be described as predictable, but each character’s story is so different and emotive that it doesn't feel that way in action. I really enjoyed how Persona 3’s Social Link character’s stories were all equally interesting, regardless of if they were side characters or the main cast. On top of that, there was enough variety in story content that I found multiple characters I either related to or felt compelled to keep spending time with, making Social Links feel like much more than just a way to get better Personas.
While I really enjoyed the social links, I got the feeling I couldn't get as close to the main party as I'd like to, considering only the female half of them are able to be social linked with in the FES edition I played and also the original PS2 version of the game. I had a good time getting to know female characters like Mitsuru and Yukari, but since the Social Links with the main party seem to take a somewhat ‘dating sim’ style approach, for some reason I wasn’t able to spend time with characters such as Junpei and Akihiko, who I thought seemed just as interesting. The main male characters receive plenty of cutscenes during the main story, but it felt a little strange that I couldn’t get to know them deeply the same way as the female cast. I know I have the option to play through Persona 3 Portable if I really wanted to get to know the male cast, but it definitely feels like something I should’ve been able to do in the first place rather than have to play potentially another hundred hours of another version of Persona 3 to do.
The Social Link aspect of the game serves as a nice booster for the story, but also a good break between dungeons, which is much needed because between the story and dungeons there tends to be a bit of a gap, making the story feel broken up at times. There were many times I would spend 5+ hours in a dungeon and not see a piece of story for a really long time, causing me to feel significantly less immersed in the story. Likewise, after finally getting to a good chunk of story after so long, going back into the dungeon again I felt a little bummed because I knew it would be awhile before whatever conflict had arisen in the story would be resolved. On the other hand, with Social Links I felt like I could keep up with better because I could work towards them in each game day, but since they’re only supplements to the main story this didn't help the pacing feel less spaced out.
At the time of its initial release, I can see why Persona 3 was such a strong game and a great edition to the JRPG genre. The Social Link system gives a great new element to monster collection and enhances the story well as a fantastic way to get to know the characters, which was appreciated considering the spread out nature of the main story. There’s a lot of good ideas in the battle system like different types of weapons and physical attacks and battle tactics, but these are unfortunately let down by an inconsistent AI that was more harm than good in important moments. Because of the AI and the pacing issues I had with Persona 3, although I still enjoyed it, it mostly made me appreciate the fact that Atlus noticed these problems and fixed them in Persona 4 because I didn't notice them at all when I played Persona 4 Golden. For hardcore fans of Persona 4 or those looking for a darker story, Persona 3 may be not be as polished of an experience by today’s standards, but if you can handle it’s flaws, Persona 3’s darker story gave an interestingly different take on what I understood Persona to be may be and is a valuable experience for those who want to understand the series more.
Score: 7.4/10
An interesting story premise and fun dungeon crawler with great Social Link aspects, unfortunately paired with an occasionally silly AI and some pacing issues.
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Note: I dont have any game capture equipment for PS3, so all of the gameplay pictures in this post are taken from Google Images and I take no credit for them!
A majority of the cast of Persona 3 and 4 (and some other characters too) together in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
When I finished Persona 4 Golden, I was sure there was no other game in the world that was as deep, as engaging and as involved as it was. Little did I know, Persona had plenty more to offer and the series was already highly successful after Persona 3. Persona 4 Arena had introduced me to the characters of Persona 3 and since I wanted more Persona in my life, after starting the game, getting distracted by other games and then starting again, I decided to finally commit to Persona 3 to learn more about the series and honestly, in the hopes finding another game that would become high in my favourites list.
The mechanics of Persona 3 were easy enough to pick up, but I quickly noticed a different feeling in Persona 3. I definitely think both games I good, but I found I definitely had a favourite out of the two games. For anyone interested, but specifically for those who were like me and may be thinking about trying Persona 3 because of Persona 4 Golden, here is a friendly comparison between Persona 3 and 4.
Note: Since I've played Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 FES, this article is purely based on them and not the very first PS2 releases of the games.
Story and Tone
The tone of Persona 3 and Persona 4 is probably what differentiates the two games the most. One of the main things that drew me to Persona 4 Golden was it's bright exterior and positive feeling I felt from it's music and visuals, which looked so exciting and fun that I decided I needed a Vita to try this game. Persona 4 Golden has it's own dark themes, but there's always an upbeat outlook to things that I really connected with while playing.
While I didn't play Persona 3 because of it's trailer, it's easy to see that the trailer of Persona 3 is a bit darker, feature more blood and fighting scenes in the trailer. Of course, when next to a game that uses a bunch of bright neon colours like Persona 4 Golden, Persona 3's blue colour palette will naturally seem darker, but I can confirm that throughout Persona 3's story, I've definitely felt a somewhat sadder feeling. Both games feature the theme of loss as a story theme at points, but it's much stronger in Persona 3 and therefore the overall tone of it is darker. Both games also feature a lot of humourous and light-hearted moments, but with less loss and death evident in Persona 4, it feels very different.
Personally, when it comes to the two games, I much preferred Persona 4 Golden's story. Possibly because the game keeps a more upbeat tone most of the time, dark moments in the story felt deeper to me and hit me harder. In Persona 3, the story is definitely compelling as well, but the characters seem to go through hardship after hardship, so the feeling of contrast and surprise isn't as distinct. Both stories are extremely interesting and worth playing though and I think people's feelings on which story they prefer will probably stem from if they generally prefer a darker or more positive story.
Characters and Social Links
With Social Links as one of the most important gameplay mechanics of Persona games, good characters are an essential part of the mix and thankfully Persona 3 and 4 have these in spades. All characters are based off the same types, the Persona Arcana cards, so there are definitely some similarities between characters but all have their own unique stories to tell. The purpose of the Social Links is mainly to improve your relationship with each Arcana to unlock the most powerful Persona from that Arcana, but each Social Link adds it's own bit of depth to the story because it helps the player understand where the characters are coming from.
Persona 3 was actually the first Persona game to feature Social Links, a fact that surprised me considering how vital they are to Persona 4 Golden. Persona 4 Golden's Social Links definitely improve on what was done in Persona 3, adding more voice acting, longer cutscenes and player choice. Also when related back to the tone of each game, Persona 3's Social Links are again centered around loss and a lot of hardships, although it's also apart of the game where softer and light-hearted sides of characters are seen a bit more too. Since Persona 4 Golden is more about finding inner strength, the characters deal with a bigger variety of struggles and I just found that generally more interesting and relatable, so I felt more of a connection with the characters in Persona 4 Golden than I did in Persona 3.
Dungeons and Battles
The base mechanics of Persona 3 and 4's dungeons are the same, but the execution makes certain parts feel quite different. In both Persona 3 and 4, each dungeon section features climbing a bunch of floors and then fighting a sub-boss. Persona 3 doesn't usually have any main bosses inside it's dungeons because it saves them for the full Moon, whereas the goal in Persona 4 Golden is to get to the top of the dungeon in order to fight the boss and save whoever is stuck inside the TV world.
What's interesting about the difference between Persona 3 and 4 is that you must complete Persona 4 Golden's dungeons otherwise it's a one-way ticket to game-over town. In Persona 3, if you don't play through the dungeons, the only real consequence is being highly under-leveled for bosses or having a lot to do towards the end of the game. This is one of the reasons I actually preferred Persona 3's dungeons.Dungeons in Persona games are not short, so having them be more optional was something I definitely appreciated. I could choose to either have a challenging boss battle and higher stats or slowly building my stats and beating bosses easily. Grinding your characters stats is an important part of Persona as well, so feeling like I had more of an option to not to grind at every possible time was a good way to avoid getting fatigued and bored of the slightly repetitive dungeon areas, especially considering how much there is to do in Persona games anyway.
Persona 3 also has a few extra mechanics in it that makes overly easy dungeon levels, like being able to split your team up to explore a floor or fight enemies and having enemies who are clearly a much lower level than your party be easier to critically hit. I don't know why these features weren't added in Persona 4 and Persona 4 Golden as I really enjoyed using them in Persona 3 to make my dungeon time easier. However Persona 4 Golden does feature the benefit of your characters not getting tired, meaning you can crank out a dungeon in one in-game afternoon and then be free to Social Link. Both have their pros, but I liked the extra functionality of Persona 3's dungeons.
I'm getting close to the end of Persona 3 and while I'm enjoy the experience, it reminds why Persona 4 Golden was such a special game to me with it's positive outlook and it's emotional depth. I do enjoy that they're both different though, as it makes going back to playing Persona 3 FES as a PS2 Classic much more interesting and as much as I love Persona 4 Golden, 300 hours was a good amount. Playing both of these games and seeing their differences also makes me curious as to what will be different in Persona 5. With it's red theme and dark first trailer, I wonder if the game will lean darker or more positive in tone, or even somewhere in the middle. Only time will tell, but for now, Persona 4 Golden definitely still holds a very special place in my gaming heart.
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Yesterday it was my day off. I played 4 hours of Persona 3 according to my game count.
Except I didn't.
Yesterday I played Hearthstone, read the Walking Dead comic, bought a DSi and some Pokemon games for it, went for a walk in the park, had multiple convenience store runs, did a bunch of chores....
I probably played an hour of Persona 3. Two if we're being generous.
This happens to me a lot, not just with Persona games, but with every console game I play. I look at my game counts and I feel like I really should be finished by now. Then I look at How Long To Beat and feel like this even more. It makes me question my gaming ability because it makes me think I'm taking too long because I'm bad at the game. It makes me question whether it's me or the clock or the fact I leave my console on way too much while I'm running errands. It's most likely the latter, but it's still something that has bugged me for awhile.
It's weird thing to write about, but I've been noticing this since last year I got back into playing games on home consoles. When I play with portable consoles such as my PS Vita, I can see exactly how much I played because if I need to do something or I get distracted, I can just lock my Vita and come back, meaning my game count remains pretty much 100% accurate. If I walk away, pause or anything while playing a home console, the clock keeps ticking as if I'm intently sitting at my TV creating strategies when in fact I'm probably on the phone or texting or just doing something else. All these times add up to make my game count seem highly inflated at points.
I am realistic about this problem though. I don't expect developers to spend time inventing a system that can tell the difference between idle gameplay time and actual gameplay time. I'd definitely love them to keep making the actual game as great as possible, so great that I forget the clock exists. And that's just it. From thinking about this more intently than I should've, the biggest thing I've learnt is that as soon as I google How Long To Beat for a game, I'm running out of enthusiasm for it.
I once played Persona 4 Golden for 8 months and platinumed it because I didn't want to leave that world yet and didn't pay attention to the clock until it was done (300+ hours by the way). If you play JRPGs, you know they're long and you go in expecting them to be long, but when a game's got it's hooks into me so deeply that I don't care how long it is and what game trailer or game in my backlog I could be playing instead, it's a true winner for me. My favourite time of looking at the time played is when you see the hundreds of hours sunk into the game and you feel a weird sense of pride because you were having so much fun. I want to feel as much of that as possible. This article doesn't have a lot of point other than serving as a reminder to myself and others that as much as I'd like to play and clock every JRPG ever because I love the genre so much, that quality is more important than wasting my own (and your) time playing a sub-par game or a game that's much for me. It's hard to manage this sentiment with my completionist tendencies, but it's something I think is important enough to keep in mind.
What game took you too long to beat? What's the longest time you've spent in a game?
Leave a comment below or send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle and let's talk!
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During Winter, appropriate to the indoorsy weather, I played a lot of games. I'm meant to exclusively be playing Persona 3 in order to play it faster, but I got swayed by a lot of cool games. For a start, Final Fantasy Record Keeper got it's hooks in me again, I really wanted to play Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth and I wanted to platinum Final Fantasy X (still going for it!). Persona 3 is long and while it's really good, I wanted to keep trying new stuff. So here's what I played during Winter while I should have been playing just Persona 3. Let me know what you played too!
Persona 3 FES (PS2 Classic)
Status: 50+ hours in and going strong!
I've spent a surprising amount of time grinding and versing bosses, but I'm sure I have a minimum of another 50 more hours in the game because the story is huge! Usually by this point, I know if what I'm playing is a game that's for me and I'm pleased to say that I'm totally enjoying it. The story, albeit a little slow moving, is interesting and the whole concept of the Dark Hour still feels very mysterious. My opinions of the characters keep changing as I play the game, which is keeping my interest. I will say one thing though, although I'm enjoying it, I still haven't gotten completely hooked by the game, which is probably evident in how many games I've played while playing it. I don't want to say too much because I haven't finished the game yet, so I still have hope it'll suck me in like Persona 4 Golden did.
Final Fantasy X HD Remaster (PS Vita)
Status: finished the story, now platinuming
I'm very proud to say that Final Fantasy X is the first game I've completed in Japanese. I know the story really well, so it may not have been as difficult as playing a story that was new to me, but my Japanese reading and listening skills benefited from playing it again and it was really interesting to hear the Japanese voice staff and see the small localisation differences. (I wrote an article about my experience playing the Japanese version if you want to read more about it!)
Now I'm onto focusing on getting the Platinum Trophy for it, which is going to take some time, I know for sure it's going to take probably another 50 hours since I'm 50% in and I haven't done the lightning challenge yet or started cranking the sphere grid yet. But, since it's not my New Years Resolution to Platinum it this time, it's nice to have it as a casual game between JRPGs and it's a fun way to study Japanese.
Status: Finished for the second time, considering platinuming it one day.
I really enjoyed playing Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection again! I needed a break from long RPGs and this Neptunia game delivered yet again as a great light game for the weekend. Since it had been a while since playing it for the first time, the story felt fresh again. I had to relearn how to play again, but after 20 in game days (which is probably equivalent to about half an hour of playing), I was right in, remembered my strategies from my first time playing and was laughing at Neptune's witty humour again. You can read my full review here.
Status: 32 hours in and will probably finish it soon (hoping to review it this week or next week if all goes to plan!)
I'm so pleased to say that a PS4 game finally got it's hooks into me. I've had my PS4 since launch and have been a little disappointed that I had nothing that made me keep the console plugged in for more than a few days. Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth both scratches the Digimon game itch I've had (I played Digimon World on PS One a lot as a kid and it was a big favourite of mine) and means I finally have a worthy JRPG I can play on PS4. I intended to only play the game for a week, but I've been so into the monster collecting and case solving that I may as well just finish it this point.
(I kind of want to get all the Digimon too, so I may try to get the platinum trophy for this one too.... :) )
Final Fantasy Record Keeper (iOS) Status: Playing the Final Fantasy X Jecht Event I've found a healthy way to play Record Keeper: events only. As I mentioned recently, I got back into the game during the Rikku event and after remembering how much I enjoyed weapon and character collecting, I decided to stay on, but manage my gaming time better. It's good, casual fun at the moment, although I do wish they added something like Conception II's ability to skip battles where you'll win with one hit, as I find a lot of the initial battles are way too easy if your characters are anywhere higher than 20 and while they're quick, the time could be better spent on the later levels. But anyway, I'm having fun after winning Jecht's bandana and plan to win him and maybe Tidus' memory crystal before this week's event is done.
Spring's Game Plan
Despite getting a 3DS LL for Christmas, I've barely touched it other than to check the eShop and for the occasional Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2 song. Once I finish Persona 3, I'd like to either jump into Persona Q or Digimon World ReDigitize: Recode on 3DS and keep my PS4 plugged into the TV for awhile. I also currently have Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls on my Vita, so that's something I'm interested in completing as well. But the main plan for Spring is to play some 3DS, which should be a lot of fun!
What did you play during Winter? Do you have any gaming plans for Spring?
Leave a comment below or send me a tweet at @JRPGJungle and let's talk!
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