The third time is the charm for Persona 3
GRAPHICS:
The biggest asthetic change of the game is that there are no more anime cutscenes and you don't control your character freely on the overworld. Instead, we have still images and a cursor to control. While the cursor is good to use and makes the game a big more fluent, the lack of the cutscenes and animations on them makes they feel kind of liveless. The animation on the dungeons still is third person, and has good animations, similar to the console versions. 3/5
SOUND:
The music on the other versions was fantastic, and still is here, with the new music also being really good. Besides that, the voice acting is beliveable and fitting for the characters. 5/5
STORY:
You play as an unnamed boy or girl. You just arived in your new school, when you are attack by monsters named Shadows, and awakes a power named Persona. From there on, you have explore a mysterious tower named Tartarus, and discover its secrets and the ones from your friends.
Now, I made a very simple summary of the story, but that is because I don't want to spoil that much, since it is a really good story. It is original, the characters are not only beliveable but also contribute greately to the story, and plot twists are really not expected, so you are genuinely surprised.
As I said, you can play as a girl in this game, which is an addition from the previous versions. Besides the gender thing, her storyline has differences from the male one, so people who have played previous versions can play it and be surprised. Also, it adds more to the replay value, as you have to play it at least twice to see both stories. The changes are minimal since the overall story is the same, but noticeable.
5/5
GAMEPLAY:
The game is a turn based RPG with dating sim elements. During the night, you explore the tower of Tartarus and fight enemies, while exploring the tower itself. The battle mechanics are very solid. You have the ability to chose to attack your oponent with your normal weapon or use your personas, which basicaly give you skills, like healing and striking with magic.
One of the biggest strenghts of the game is that you are conpletely free to use whatever Persona you want. You collect them in Tartarus and then fuse them togheter to make newer and stronger ones. It alows for great customiability, and you can play the game multiple times, every one of them with a different team. A single play though of the game will last at the very least 50 hours, but much more if this is your first time around.
From the changes that this game has from the past versions, the most notable is that you can control all your alies, not only the main character. This makes the game more manageable, and definitely more fun. Your party consists of 4 characters, 1 of which is always the protagonist, and the other 3 you can chose freely. Again, this enables great personal output from the player, since all the characters have strenghts and weaknesses.
Besides fighting demons with great battle mechanics, one the morning, you act like a normal student. You have to go to school, learn and have a social life. The "have a social life" part is the other big part of the game, which is meting friends, which will create a Social Link, whose purpose is to help you make better personas. They act like side stories, and some can be quite deep, so it really is worth making them, and can be quite interesting. Other than that, you also have to play attention on classes to become smarter and do other stuff to become more charming and courageous. This opens the path for better Social Links and some other rewards.
As a whole, the separate elements of Persona 3 come togheter beatifuly, making a game that will always keep you entertained.
5/5
OVERALL:
The new additions and tweeks makes this version the best of the masterpiece that is Persona 3. Get it now.
The good:
-Now you can play as a girl, which differ some stuff in the game
-Story is as fantastic as ever
-Battles are a lot of fun
-Social elements feel fluent and efficient
-Music and voice acting are top notch
-Very lengthy and replayable
The bad:
-Anime cutscenes are gone.