This epic RPG is one that you won't regret, regardless of whether you've played the others or not.
Persona happens to be a spin-off series of the Japanese famous Shin Megami Tensei. The first Persona (titled Revelations: Persona) was released on the original PlayStation back in 1996, and was one of the first RPGs on the system along with Suikoden, Beyond the Beyond, Wild Arms and Final Fantasy VII. Persona 2 was released in two chapters. The first chapter, Innocent Sin was released in 1999, but only in Japan. The second chapter, Eternal Punishment is set three months after it's predecessor, and was released in Japan and North America during 2000. Six years later, Persona 3 came out in Japan, one year later in the US, and 2008 marked the first Persona appearance in PAL regions.
Persona 3 is set in the not-so distant future of the year 2009. The main protagonist (who you can give a first and last name during the opening chapter) has just been transferred to Gekkoukan High School, and has moved in to the "best and safest dormitory ever". This blue emo-styled-haired protagonist happens to wield the power of the Persona, and is one of the few people able to enter an exclusive period of time, known as The Dark Hour. The other students who live in the same dorm happen to have this ability too, and they can help you progress through this 25th hour. These students have Personas, which are creatures that can assist you during battle, and tackle those creatures in the dark world of Tartarus. So in short, the way to describe this game is "Student by day, Persona user by midnight". I am unaware of how this story compares to the first and second titles, but I quite like the story in Persona 3, despite it's strangeness.
The characters are fairly good. I'm usually not a fan of teenagers as the main characters, but this cast is an exception. The main character is entirely controlled by you, and you are able to control his actions. So it's up to you to choose whether he's a badass, or an annoying twit. It would've been cool if they added the option of choosing the gender, but I'm sure you ladies don't mind.....do you? Yukari is the female protagonist, and she is a fairly interesting character. I found that she has a lot of mood swings, though she's a fairly cool character overall. Stupei...*cough* I mean Junpei is the clown of the bunch, and happens to say $#!+ a lot. Then you've got Mitsuru, the "sexy nerd", who is the original commander of the Persona team, and who I actually quite like. Akihiko is another key character, and is also fairly cool. More bizarre allies join the crew later on in the game, making up an interesting mixture of humans, robots, personae and.....a dog.
Many events pass through this 70 hour adventure. Rumours spread fast at Gekkoukan High. The students talk about all sorts of wacky events, such as numerous students dying. The students usually have something different to talk about when the months pass. These events are highly linked to the main story in the game.
During the first few hours of Persona 3, you'll find that the game drags on a little bit with the school days, and doesn't get particularly interesting until you are introduced to The Dark Hour. From there however, your craving for satisfaction will completely transform into one hell of an unforgettable journey. Every day consists of an average Japanese teenager's life. From Monday to Saturday, you are at school (yeah, talk about tough), and you can make new friends and hang out with them after school, and sometimes in the weekend. You can even get lucky and score a girlfriend. Ooh la la! In the menu, you can find the levels of your relationships between you and your friends. As long as you treat them with respect, as in choose the better options, you can gain their trust. This adds to the realism in the third installment, and I haven't seen any JRPG like that.
Of course you don't always need to hang out with your friends, but rather do things on your own and increase your non-combat stats. You have an Academics level, which the more you have, the smarter your character is. Studying increases this level. You have a Charm level, which makes your a more attractive person. There are various ways to get this level up. Examples are like watching romance films and getting questions correct at school. Then, there's the Courage level, which is fairly straight forward. Again, there are various way to increase this level. Examples would be watching courageous films and drinking disgusting medicine at the sick bay. Get these up, and you're guaranteed to enjoy your time at school. To top up the realism, your character also has feelings. He can get sick or tired, which is when you shouldn't study or train in the Dark Hour. Other times, he can feel good or great. But it's not just you, your allies have these feelings too. So when going to Tartarus at midnight, it is recommended to check your allies to see if they're ready to take on some shadows. It may seem a bit weird at first, but later on it gets really good.
The other half of the gameplay is in the Dark Hour. When evening comes, you may talk to your commander and tell her that you will be going to Tartarus. Tartarus is a huge tower with many floors. It's set out much like the two Dark Cloud games, with randomly generated floor designs. It gets a bit repetitive, but it's still pretty cool. As this is my first Persona title, and I am unfamiliar with the previous titles, I will just assume that the gameplay was similar in them. The battle system in Persona 3 is turn-based. If you are not a fan of that kind of style of battle, you may stop reading now and are excused from this review. There is a bit of difference however. While you have full control of the hero, allies are controlled by the CP. It might have been a bit better if you had control over them, but it's good that they make up decisions immediately instead of you pondering over whether you should heal yourself or attack the enemy. Sometimes the CP can be fairly smart, but then sometimes they do actions which you don't want. You do get used to it though, so it really isn't that much of a big deal. Every ally is armed with a certain type of weapon and a Persona. Personae have a small number of abilities, usually those that come from a certain element. A good example being your default Persona, Orpheus. This Persona is of the fire element, and uses mainly Fire abilities. New personae can be acquired, and can be equipped any time outside battle. Sadly, you are only able to have up to a certain amount of personae, but the limit can be increased when your character gets to certain levels. In all....well most RPGs (probably about 99.9999999999% or whatever), your allies level up. Allies level up, but so do the Personae. They too have EXP much like the Guardian Forces in Final Fantasy VIII.
There are also many interesting twists to the battle system. Enemies have a certain weakspot, and it's usually based on elements. Your personae also have weakspots, so it's up to you to find out what element they are and what element they can't tolerate. When you or the enemy is hit in their weakspot (or if they get hit critically), they get knocked down. In short: You attack it's weak point for massive damage. No, this doesn't refer to just Giant Enemy Crabs. When in this condition, you can't get back up until your next turn comes, or if you get attacked or if someone casts Re Patra on you. The player is not able to take any action when getting up. If all enemies have been knocked down, one of the allies asks you if you are willing to perform an "All out attack". If X is pressed, the allies do a massive blow to the enemies. Otherwise if Circle is pressed, you won't do so and carry on with the battle.
Every month, there will be a certain floor that you can get up to. You won't be able to pass this certain floor until you beat the next shadow. Shadows can be fought every full moon, and it's worth levelling up for them. A few days after a shadow is defeated, you get notified that you are able to advance further in Tatarus.
The Velvet Room is back, with the Pointy Nosed Weirdo and the strange woman, Elizabeth. Your character is the only person who can enter it, as the others can't see it. The Velvet Room can be entered via the mall or when in Tartarus. There is actually a fair bit to do with Elizabeth. She gives you requests, which are kind of like side-quests which you can do during your time in Tartarus. Every month, Elizabeth gives you a new batch of quests to complete. Most of these quests give you about a month to complete, and examples would be like "Retrieving an Old Document" or "Getting her 5 of a certain item". She also allows you to fuse your Personae and make a powerful new Persona.
There are two difficulties. Easy and Normal. I have no knowledge on Easy, because I chose Normal. I don't like playing through games on the easiest difficulty, unless it's Fire Emblem or something else outrageously hard. In Normal, it is fairly tricky and does require some grinding for some of those annoying guardians on certain floors. Shadows don't require too much training, seeing as you've trained enough for the other hard enemies. When the main character's HP reaches zero, it's Game Over for you. I found this very annoying in Kingdom Hearts, and now it's frustrating in Persona 3. This gives you the message that you need either better luck or more training. Like a majority of RPGs, this one is quite long. 70 hours + worth of goodness. It's fairly addictive too, so you most likely won't find yourself taking a long break from it anytime during the playthrough.
When it comes to graphics, Persona 3 looks pretty good, despite the number of PlayStation 3 titles i've played this year with the jaw-dropping motion capture and such. When firing up the game, the player will be welcomed with a strange, but cool anime cinematic. A number of them will come across your way when playing through the third Persona. The graphics outside the cinematics are also fairly good, and gives me a good reminder that the PS2 still has top-notch graphics. Sure, they may not be easy to compare to some of the best graphics on the system from various Square-Enix titles (Kingdom Hearts II, Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria and Final Fantasy XII to name a few) but you have to admit that they're still great!
The sound is a slight mediocrity, and isn't very satisfactory in my books. I really wasn't a fan of most of the songs on the soundtrack. There were a few songs that I could enjoy, but then there was a bunch of terribly repetitive songs that came from the two music genres I loathe. Rap and Hip-Hop. Ooo yeah. Dadadada, dadadada. Baby, baby. Dadadada, dadadada. That is an example of something you are going to hear A LOT throughout the game. It's part of the battle theme, and in all honesty, it is the worst battle theme I have ever heard. I hope that this hasn't been the case with the other titles in the series. It seems that I am not a fan of Shoji Meguro's work. What a pity. As for the English VA...I am not a fan. Usually when it comes to Japanese games translated into English voice acting, it's like hearing your Mathematics teacher write on his or her blackboard with chalk. Fortunately, the voice acting in Persona 3 isn't quite that bad, and is definitely better than your average English voice acting. Voices only come up in important cutscenes and battles anyway. The only time when voices nag you a bit is during battles, when Fuuka's ear-bleeding voice gets to you. I will not say anything about the nihongo voices, as I haven't heard them. I'm also one of those people who can't tell whether it's good VA or not anyway.
The PlayStation 2 has been a brilliant system over the eight years of it's life, and even though the PlayStation 3 has been out since 2006 now, the PS2 is still getting some good titles. With the fourth Persona around the corner, Persona 3 definitely isn't gonna be the last good PS2 game. So don't do anything to your PS2 just yet, Atlus still hasn't given up on it yet. If you plan to buy Persona 3, make sure you look for the cheaper and expanded edition titled "Persona 3 FES". With great graphics and wonderful gameplay, I do recommend this epic RPG, and it's one of the best games I've played this year. It's also up there as one of my favourite games on the system. Get it, I guarantee you, you will not regret it!