In Depth Review of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3

I have a limited experience with Shin Megami Tensei and the slew of games under that name. My first encounter was with the mouthful Shin Megami Tensei Online: Imagine, a free MMO that allowed players to run around in school uniforms and catch monsters recognized from other Shin Megami games. Persona 3 puts you in the shoes of a transfer student whose fellow residents go out at night to battle monsters that threaten to destroy the city.

The game starts with your chosen character getting off the train later than expected and seeing the city during the Dark Hour, which is when normal people are contained in coffins and the city becomes dark and infested with shadow monsters. After reaching the dorm, you're informed that the members of the dorm have the ability to control personas, which are creatures that aid them in battle against the demons.

Gameplay

There are a lot of different features to Persona 3, which is a huge reason to why it's so popular. Your character moves around the city by point-and-click as opposed to the controller. Besides the high school where much of the story takes place there is a mall, shrine, train station, and movie theater, all with their own areas of interest that the player can explore. You control your character's avatar in the tower called Tartarus, which is where you can choose to go during the Dark Hour and fight monsters. The game revolves around climbing this tower to defeat the evils within.

Social interaction is a huge part of the game and interactions with certain characters will produce various outcomes. Personas come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are organized into specific categories; pursing relationships with certain characters will increase your rank with a certain persona category that allows you to unlock the personas' hidden abilities. There are a number of ways to go about increasing this rank, the player has free reign after school to pursue activities like swimming or kendo, student council, having lunch with friends, playing an online MMO, or going on dates. The level of the character's three attributes: academics, courage, and charm will also determine which characters they can create relationships with.

While the tower of Tartarus becomes available during the Dark Hour, the player is free to roam the area or do something else to pass the time, though every full moon brings about a boss that is ready to wreck havoc on the city that your team must be prepared to defeat.

There are a number of personas available in the game and their strengths and weaknesses vary along with their appearance. After certain battles you have the chance to collect more personas that aid you during a battle with their skills and abilities, or you can fuse personas together to get a possibly more powerful one. Battles emphasize strategy and exploiting your enemies' weaknesses to gain the advantage; the hallways of Tartarus are dangerous, but the rewards are greater the higher you climb.

Graphics

As with most ported games, Persona 3's graphics are sharper and brighter than its PS2 version and the anime characters that pop up during dialog are drawn well enough, but compared to other new PSP games, nothing really stands out as far as graphics go. The settings like the strip mall and school are non-moving backdrops and the tower of Tartarus is divided into blocks and the levels in each block are identical. The game looks pretty good, but to harp on the visuals would take away from the game's goal of providing a truly unique RPG experience.

Replayability

There's a lot of replayability in this game. Unlike the PS2 version, Persona 3 allows you to choose either a male or female character to start with, and pursue the alternative love interests that the choice would bring. Maxing out your attributes and persona categories are difficult without a strict walkthrough, so there is the incentive to play the game through again and choose to pursue different relationships and activities.

Likes

● I really like how the setting is modern time and going to school is a big part of the game, you don't see that in many RPGs

● The number of characters to interact with create a lot of choice for the player, who has to decide who they want to spend time with and what activities they want to pursue.

● Experimenting with fusing personas can be a lot of fun

● Finding good treasure and defeating tough monsters in Tartarus is gratifying

Dislikes

● Exploring Tartarus can be a little repetitive

● Some battles can quickly become frustrating and overwhelming

Final Verdict

Persona 3 is a great RPG and a unique one at that. It succeeds in creating that addictive element to make the player want to see what each new day will bring and what treasure the next level in the tower will hold. I give this game an 8 out of 10.