Out of all of the Persona dancing games, this one is the second best. The story is just a typical "the main characters can have fun, but lose their memories afterward" type plot, so this game is technically canon, but not in any substantive way. The gameplay is pretty good, with a bunch of good remixes for "Way of Life" or "Time," but a lot of shit ones, like "Light the Fire Up in the Night" and ESPECIALLY "Mass Destruction." Many of the complete original tracks are in this game, too, like "When the Moon's Reaching out Stars" and "Burn My Dread." Mapping is okay, with three buttons and three d-pad directions used for inputs, while the touchpad/shoulder buttons are for the disk spins. The dances are pretty good, too. Overall, Persona 4 Dancing is much better, but if you wanted a bit more fan service from the S.E.E.S cast, this isn't too bad. If you don't like rhythm games, you can skip this one.

Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight is a rhythm game spin-off of the popular JRPG Persona 3. It is the second in a series of rhythm game spin-offs of the Persona series, and launched alongside Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight after the success of Persona 4: Dancing All Night (I agree these titles are confusing). Released for several platforms including the ill-fated PlayStation Vita in 2018, Dancing in Moonlight features the main cast of Persona 3 dancing to a selection of songs from the game's soundtrack, as well as new remixes and arrangements from other Persona and Atlus titles.

The gameplay of Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight is nothing special in the rhythm game genre, and is essentially identical to that of its predecessor. In short, players press buttons in time with the beat of the music, and are scored on their accuracy - again nothing groundbreaking. The only slight mix-up present in the gameplay here from other rhythm games is the use of either analog stick to hit what the game calls Scratch Notes. These special notes are essentially a record scratch effect that slightly changes the song. They add very little in the way of difficulty, but function as a means to help the player fill up the Fever Bar. If this Fever Bar is filled by a certain point in the song, the player will enter Fever Mode where a chosen partner character joins in the dance routine, with unique choreography reflecting the characters' existing relationships. This doesn’t change the difficulty of the track being played, but does offer a means to see how characters interact outside of the typical scenarios seen in a Persona title.

While a story does exist in Dancing in Moonlight, it is sparse to say the least and only functions as an excuse to explain why these characters are dancing in the first place. The story is honestly secondary to a system of character interactions that showcase the Persona 3 cast interacting in lighter tone and less stressful scenarios than the atmosphere present in the original game. It is these character interactions (as well as the amount of unlockable outfits) that really propels the player to continuously try to get a high score or tackle songs on harder difficulties. Without these character interactions I doubt Dancing in Moonlight would be as engaging or fun to play for me personally as I am seldom motivated by the quest for a high score, but would do just about anything a game asks of me to uncover another part of a story or see characters I adore grow closer together.

The easy to understand gameplay and fun character interactions are amplified by the game’s stunning visuals. Even on the less powerful PlayStation Vita. Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight is a visual treat. The game's graphics are bright and colorful, and the characters are all beautifully animated. Furthermore, while Dancing in Moonlight is no Persona 5 in the presentation department, it does have that Atlus flair that makes their games standout. Every menu is laced with character and something as simple as song selection or menu navigation is intriguing. It’s something Atlus continues to nail in their games and I wish more developers would follow suit.

Despite my praise so far, Dancing in Moonlight is not without its flaws. As mentioned previously, the story, if it can be called that, is non-existent and, besides the character interactions, the game adds little to the original Persona 3 experience. Players looking for more lore or interesting tidbits concerning the world of Person will be disappointed. The game in general is also pretty short. Even with 8 different characters to interact with, it doesn’t take long to unlock all of their Social Links in the game as just playing every song at least once will typically do the trick.

Despite these flaws, however, Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight is overall a great rhythm game that is sure to please most fans of Persona 3 and rhythm game enthusiasts alike. The game is truly tons of fun to play, and the music is fantastic. If you're looking for a fun and addicting rhythm game, Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight is definitely worth checking out.

Finished in one sitting. Gotta say as a stinky rhythm game player, this sucked duck nuts. Maps varied in quality, some of the remixes were comparable to dad noises at 6 in the morning and the story progession being solely based on social link events for each character didn't really help the already non-existent story but I guess you dont really play these games for the plot anyway sooo who cares. Best thing is the inclusion of the iconic P4A outfits cause I get to see mr twinky little boxer boy Akihiko shirtless :)

Un peu moins enthousiaste que la première fois en refaisant le jeu cette fois.

La setlist est vraiment chouette et le gameplay est toujours efficace mais il n'y a absolument plus de mode histoire, on doit se contenter de quelques dialogues inintéressants. Les S.Links ne servent à pas grand chose à part être un prétexte pour les objectifs et débloquer quelques objets et costumes. Pour finir, même si la setlist est chouette, c'est quand même assez chiche en contenu et il faut passer par des DLC un peu abusif, comme toute la politique tarifaire lié à ce jeu à sa sortie.

These Persona rhythm games get too much hate. I think they all play pretty intuitively and when you excel at the higher difficulties you kind of enter that advanced ultra instinct flow state you get with some rhythm games. Like I swear I will clear a song and not even realize I'm looking at the screen.

The faults here are obvious though. Not nearly enough single player content. They really should have just combined this with P4 and 5 to make an all-in-one game. I don't necessarily need all the social link content, but it's a cute nod to the source franchise. A must play for fans and especially fans who play rhythm games.

This game is a lesser game than Persona 4 Dancing, not as many extras and the "story" is just basically s-links that are annoying to unlock, they also changed the tap note color to blue but scratches are still blue so it's annoying to play. However, the track list in this one is BY FAR my favorite. I'm very biased towards Persona 3, and especially its music, but the picks here are great. The Time remix is my favorite remix from any of these games. Just wish this didn't have the same dev cycle as P5D because it sure suffered from that. Also Shinji being DLC is weird, one song for him and it's not even fitting. Kotone just isn't here, despite there being 4 songs from P3P and two remixes of Way of Life.
Worst gameplay of the three games, but best track list of them at the same time.