Emulated. Its pretty interesting how wildly different this is from Persona 1, which I finished not too long ago, but still feels distinctly like a game of the same series. The now staple school life aspects of the Persona series were introduced here, and the combat has changed a bit. Instead of every party member having 3 personas, now everyone but you has 1, you can have up to 12. Its an interesting change I'm not sure I like. You don't have as much control over your party member now. In fact, in the original release and the improved FES you can't even control your party in battle. Thankfully the devs realized that was dumb and you can control them here. Persona 3 in general has a trend of giving you less control over things you previously could, all of which were bad ideas that were changed in later sequels. You can't even choose what skills your party member they keep or change when they level up now, they automatically do it themselves, which is a change I definitely don't like. You can't manually choose what skills the personas you fuse have either, you have to pray and hope the RNG gives you the ones you want.

Little niggles aside, I did like this game, and found the story pretty engaging, the characters were likable enough and the music was great, as is tradition of the Persona series.

Uma longa, repetitiva e entediante jornada com um final magnífico. Ok, esse resumo faz o jogo parecer pior do que é. Para ficar claro: é um bom game e tem algumas ideias bem originais, apesar da execução ser por vezes falha.

O grande destaque de P3P é que ele tenta juntar dois estilos de jogatina num só pacote: dungeon crawling e simulador social. Separadamente, esses elementos são repetitivos e rasos, respectivamente. Juntos, ajudam a dar ritmo à narrativa, permitem explorar os personagens e às vezes se reforçam mutuamente. O problema é que os pontos em que essas duas partes se comunicam são limitados: bônus para fusões de personas, algumas missões para resgatar NPCs no Tartarus e... Só. Inicialmente a novidade da abordagem por si só é um atrativo, mas estamos falando de um jogo absurdamente longo, então esse sentimento logo vai embora.

A história em si é OK. O final é excelente (como dito no início) e os personagens bacanas. Mas o miolo dela reflete o jogo como um todo: longa, repetitiva, entediante. Dava pra "enxugar" metade do jogo que ainda ia ficar longo!

Sobre o combate: é legal. Mas, advinha? Isso mesmo: lá pra metade do jogo começa a ficar repetitivo e entendiante! Há pouca variedade de inimigos, com a maioria deles sendo apenas monstros que apareceram antes com uma corzinha diferente e mais fortes.

Nem a simulação social, que é o que os fãs mais amam, escapa muito disso, pra ser honesto. O jogo todo tem apenas 4 músicas para as atividades diurnas e (3 faixas para a escola, que aparecem em momentos distintos do calendário, e 1 faixa para as outras localidades) e só umas ~8 localidades diferentes. As histórias dos personagens coadjuvantes são bem interessantes, mas padecem de outro problema, que é a falta de profundidade. São todas mini-narrativas super-lineares em que suas escolhas nunca levam a caminhos ou finais diferentes — a não ser que você conte "opa, você escolheu a opção de diálogo errada e agora esse personagem está de mal com você" como uma escolha distinta e válida. Já vi gente dizendo que essa parte do jogo é um "simulador de namoro simplificado" e sou obrigado a concordar.

Como só enchi o game de críticas, sou obrigado a salientar de novo: não é um jogo ruim, tendo méritos especialmente na mistura única de gêneros que tenta fazer e nos personagens bem escritos. Não obstante, espero que os Personas posteriores tenham aprendido com os erros dele, capitalizando no que deu certo e fazendo algo mais variado menos agarrado.

P3 is still the best Persona game,

Pros:
FeMC rules and has a fantasticly written alternative story line and I way prefer the social links in this one.
The extra OST tracks are all really good.

Cons:
I'm not replaying it the controls almost made me quit the first time. Really amplifies some of the frustration of your party members doing dumb things.

If they remade the FeMC storyline in an actually modernized remake of P3 it's easily a 10/10 and would be the uncontestable best Persona game and probably the second best SMT game overall.

I don't generally like being vulnerable, publicly. Even my most personal write-ups tend to be at least a little bit structured to guide around pain points that I'd rather not disclose, boiling down thoughts to more readable ideas that I don't need to haunt me. I don't really have that luxury today.

My uncle died yesterday, and we were close enough to where today I woke up staring up at the ceiling regretful, toiling around in my own head with a fog of thoughts that even now still permeates. I went through the rest of the day so far trying desperately to act as if nothing happened, driving with FFXIV music blaring out the car speakers, taking care of responsibilities with the best smile I could feign. Then I got home, and loaded up this game again, drawn to it searching for comfort. After an hour I started rewatching cutscenes, reading things about the game again trying to reexperience the same feelings that brought me solace. The game's chock full of them after all, with a dying man sitting at the bench with you giving last thoughts on a world and life he knows has dealt him the worst hand, to a scummy kid who is envious of his brother and still is even after his death not realizing how much he's trying to fill that hole in his heart that's been left. An old couple welcomes me in with smiles on their faces as they continue to grieve, just my presence being enough to remind them of what once was, but still they look forward hopeful.

I'm crying again as I attach myself to these stand-ins for loss, those depressing but not lonesome stories that help me grieve on my own time. This aura permeates through the entire narrative, as characters not so much different from my feelings of today pull off the same images of trying to act like everything's ok, and even the most naive cocky individual of the party has to come to terms with a hospitalized lover who he now wishes more than ever that he could've spent just one more minute with. I wish I had more time too, the last memory of my uncle is going to be me moving around stuff in his house while he can barely move about his home, and then after helping when he offers me and another sibling to stay and watch a movie with him, I say that I have to go home as it's getting too dark to drive. I still don't know whether my leaving was out of apathy, or cowardice, and I don't know which is worse.

And this game rejects apathy, it pushes to understand these feelings I struggle with today, an ENTIRE cult founded to bring the fall of all is juxtaposed with a desire from those who have suffered the most to keep living. A disgusting choice is thrusted towards the player and what's best isn't to remain ignorant but it is to defy this fucking downfall. It's hopeful, in the end, not wallowing in sorrow, even when the ending is still painful.

Not to say that this is a perfect simulacrum of these discordant thoughts, the combat ensues listlessness even in this version that tries to right wrongs of the flawed original. You walk multiple floors fighting enemies on passable at best strategies thinking about how it'd be nice if we were back several minutes ago to feel feelings at a scene again. There's even what would become late Atlus's problematic bullshit with hots-for-teachers and terrible handlings of lgbt, and that only spreads more poison over time for me. It just makes me angry, bile held and punches I wish I could throw at something other than air.

But the game still very much speaks to me, just putting out these thoughts after every couple minutes of tears and thinking of what this MEANS to me, what it represents, what it is, is helpful. I don't know if I can entirely recommend, or hope that the same will stand true for most individuals, not that it matters I guess. Please spend time with your loved ones if you can, I'm surely about to drive once more to be with family and mourn together while I still struggle not to fall myself.

I should get around to playing FES because I loved p3p so much, but I love femc and it was my first Persona game, so I have a soft spot for it.

For a silent protagonist, femc had a noticeable personality and you could see the difference in how she and male mc behaved and dealt with their trauma and depression. Male mc was apathetic and out of touch with people, while femc was bright and cheery but hid her pain a lot and later, was shown to be a bit more on the vengeful side.

I cried so hard at the ending and then I looked up the lyrics to Kimi no Kioku and cried more. I think its a neat game

Certainly not the best version of Persona 3, but still an excellent game that one should look into. The addition of the FEMC adds lots of replay value to the package, the soundtrack additions this game has are all notable and great additions to an all ready solid soundtrack from the previous versions of the game. The story is good, and remains unchanged from the previous versions of the game for the most part (With the exception of the FEMC, or course, who has multiple differences in her storyline in comparison to the original mc), however, if you had problems with the repetitive nature of Persona 3 previously, well, nothing has gotten better. In fact, arguably, due to the 2D sprites in replacement of 3D models (Except for in Tartarus), the games becomes even more of a drag, with the poor pacing of the game certainly not helping. However, don't let said criticism deter you from picking up this version of Persona 3, or playing it if you've never experienced Persona 3 before. It's still a great experience, and a good game, despite it's flaws.