If there has ever been a reason why the PS2 is worth keeping, this is it!
Released in February 2008, despite being well into the current generation of consoles, Persona 3 was released onto the Playstation 2 (with making little to no waves in the gaming press), and this is where much of the criticism for the game arises from. In this current generation we are used to high definition presentation and ridiculous amounts of detail, especially in RPGs (titles such as Lost Odyssey and Mass Effect come to mind), and Persona 3 cannot match up visually with current generation titles. The character models and backgrounds are for the most part un-detailed and bland. This will come as a shock for a number of current generation gamers who may be put off and are spoilt by high definition. However after a small amount of time spent with Persona 3, these problems will seem trivial as the game is fleshed out with an epically expansive plot and a unique soundtrack. For all of Persona 3's technical deficiencies, there is an overabundance of positives that out way arguments of lacklustre visuals.
Other aesthetic issues such as sound may not be to everyone's taste. The soundtrack consists of J-pop and J-rock numbers. However, after certain plot points the music changes to reflect the mood of story at the time. This is a simple feature adds volumes to Persona 3's atmosphere, when you notice all at once that the once bustling streets of the city are now desolate apart from your character and the strings that make up the soundtrack. The voice acting is also up to high standards due to an especially skilled voice cast that many will recognise from anime (if you watch dubbed anime) and other games. However, the voice work on some characters is of a better quality than others. A handful of characters sound like they sound completely detached from the event at hand and are sarcastically mocking the main characters, although this can be quite funny it is still a flaw.
From the perspective of games mechanics, Persona 3 is certainly an odd ball (especially in battle). The game is split into night and day, during the day you attend school, meet friends or explore the town, all of which you give you the opportunity to increase social statistics (these are Courage, Charm and Academics). However the important thing to note here is that each friend you encounter triggers a social link that increases your proficiency with your battle persona's which are used at night to grind the randomly generated tower known as Tartarus. At the end of a lunar cycle the player must fight a boss, and so the game encourages a balance between the social life and schoolwork and your monster killing extracurricular activities. This amount of freedom can be potentially frustrating for players who don't adequately balance their daily life in Person 3 as there is no mechanic to encourage this kind of balance. If too much time is spent at school and with friends, your performance in battle will suffer greatly making the bosses more difficult with every passing month; alternatively, if a player spends all their time grinding the dungeons and levelling up, they will level up slower and find themselves missing out on one of Persona 3's most interesting and engaging features, the social links.
Social links are stories that play out between the main character and another character. Though these stories do not relate to the main plot they add depth to the world of Persona 3, and add motivation to go through the school and explore the town. Though none of these characters are voice acted, the writing and effort gone into including hundreds of hours of dialogue shows that a great amount of effort has gone into creating a world worth saving. The way you progress through each link is by making decisions regarding the responses given to the situations and questions posed by your in game friend. Although this may appear simple, you can also destroy the friendship by declining offers to meet up and making the bad choices in conversation. This means careful consideration is required to make and keep the friendships of Persona 3 going, you have to pay attention to the type of person a character is and how they would want you to respond before committing yourself to a decision.
Combat is a very different beast to other RPGs. Though Persona 3 uses a similar turn based system that many RPG fans will be used to, there are some twists that make Persona 3 quite difficult in comparison to other RPGs. To begin with, the player only controls the character in battle. This is where problems arise as the cooperative AI can make some plain stupid decisions such as, healing you when you don't need it, and attacking when they know it may heal an enemy (or even worse hurt them). Although the game offers a strategy system that allows the player to dictate weather they defend, heal, attack or buff it can still be wearisome when characters supposed defensive manoeuvre is to physically attack an enemy that deflects attacks of that type. With all this said, the main juice in battles comes from the main character who you control. With no set persona, you are free to equip different personas changing your stats and abilities in battle. The personas themeselves are aquired throughout the game after battles or through merging other personas together. This adds a dimention of collectability to the game, similar to a dark psychoanalysis driven Pokemon which is just a fantastic concept in itself.
Conclusively, Persona 3 may not be to everyone's taste. The visuals and music seem to be on the niche side rather than accessible. Though the game isn't for everyone, there is so much to Persona 3 for everyone to at least give the game an honest try. There is enough in terms of entertainment and story to keep the average player entertained for 80 hours, making this one of the longest JRPGs from within the current generation. Whilst other RPGs are currently grappling the high end graphics, Persona 3 is a testament to how new technology, does not necessarily mean a better game.