despite the downgraded presentation that this game offers over the other persona 3 versions, i think it still hits the same mark that the others have to the best of its ability. some of the scenes don't hit as hard as their fes counterparts because of this, but it's still a fine way to experience the game in my eyes. then again, i am a massive p3 shill so i might just be biased and this isn't my first experience with the game. is it ideal? no, but it's still fine. vision quest is a really neat concept, allowing you to refight full moon bosses, specific challenge fights (fuck the power door) and eventually margaret from p4. femc is a novel idea, it's cool that she was added but i just prefer the male mc route.

maybe i wouldve enjoyed this game more if i played fes but im really not sure. i feel like at best this game felt tolerable to play through.

as far as story goes, i feel like there were some really good ideas with not so great execution and very predictable twists. for the characters, the party members ranged from being ok to flat out boring, while a lot of the social links were just really not good. in terms of gameplay, the actual social life part gets insanely boring once you figure out a routine and you realize all you can do at nighttime is level up your social stats which will all be maxed out by like october. then in the day time you talk to a social link that imo will most likely not have a very interesting story to tell. then you stick to that routine until you end up having nothing to do at nighttime anymore and you end up just going to bed early most nights to move on to the next day. its just the rinse and repeat cycle. tartarus also isnt much better, it adds on to the monotony by having several randomly generated floors of nothing to do but walk around and fight monsters until you reach the end of the section and cant progress anymore. also, if youve beaten a persona game prior to this one do yourself a favor and pick a difficulty higher than normal because not once did i feel challenged in this game which made me feel really disappointed in this game further. i do enjoy persona gameplay and getting to play it again was fun, fusing personas, filling out the compendium, exploiting weaknesses and so on, but it still just got a little boring at a point and i was just ready to be done with the game.

i knew that going into this there were a good few differences between this version and fes like the full on visual novel with very few actual visuals to accompany the story. also the lack of any cutscenes past the intro video that plays when you open the game and the occasional kinda shitty 3d model cutscene. i thought i could handle all of these things because i thought the story would be good enough to carry all of those issues, and on top of all of that there were some good qol additions like controlling party members and not getting fatigued while inside of tartarus, but obviously i was not able to handle any of this. i especially hated the story presentation with the VN stuff because it made every important story moment feel so underwhelming and made so many bits feel almost a little goofy or forgettable, especially when there was a shitty low quality accompanying backdrop of the characters with what was supposed to be happening. maybe i would have enjoyed any of these moments more with the added visuals, but i cant really be fucked to play fes after the immeasurable disappointment i felt playing this game.

im sure there are a few more issues i could list off but this is just what comes to mind right now. like 50 or 60 hours in on my playthrough p3 reload got announced and it looks pretty good so i definitely plan on playing that hoping it fixes a lot of what i didnt enjoy with this one. i really do want to like p3 as much as everyone praises it and im a big fan of 4 and 5 so im hoping when i give it a second chance i turn around on it.

Finishing Persona 3 feels like the closing of a long book in my life. I finished it over the span of three years, and what I’ve been through in that span has decisively built a collection of chapters. Chapters each with their own meanings and lessons that lead into the next, as with the months in Persona 3. Although not a technically clever narrative, Persona’s ability to walk the line between innocence and maturity in a high school simulator/dungeon crawler themed around death is impressive. There were many special moments for me during this game while completing the social links, seeing the cast grow and evolve in their own ways, accepting and appreciating their fate, respective to their backgrounds. The game itself is nowhere near to perfection, with sluggish and inconsistent pacing issues, poor gameplay variety, and weak role-playing elements. For an experience well worth over 100 hours, it would be quixotic to expect consistency in quality, and the story peaks were vindicating of those errs. The fusion system, and vast amount of content went a long way to redeem some of the issues and make for an addicting gameplay loop. Ultimately, it was worth sifting through a bin of mud to find a pot of gold. This game has some of the great emotional peaks you’ll find in a JRPG. The sheer amount of time spent with characters gives weight and uncertainty to their fates, and most storylines have banging payoffs. The unfortunate reality is the slog it becomes to remain invested in so many storylines for this long of a game without taking a significant break, and as a result having to catch yourself back up with the plot and characters each time it phases out of your life.

The highest merit of Persona 3 is the well-written variety of believable high school students with fascinating stories. Junpei and Yukari, Akihiko, Mitsuru, Fuuka, Aigis, the list goes on. The way characters are developed in this game are with one-on-one interactions between the protagonist and their acquaintances, resulting in a lack of illustrated affinities between character arcs besides the ones directly tied to the main plot. For an RPG, self-contained relationships make for a less rewarding narrative, as player agency is severely diminished. This just goes to show how Persona is such a well-crafted narrative experience that despite those issues, it remains such an influential game on so many for the execution of its themes of death and acceptance.

The visual novel presentation wasn’t great and hurt the experience of important story beats. The first ten or so hours of the game has enough cutscenes and presentation variety for it not to be an issue, but the weaknesses of the style does start to reveal itself towards the end of the game. I enjoyed it and felt it was fine regarding the social links, and everyday school life, but it suffered otherwise.

At the end of the day, the game itself is old enough to be in high school, and plenty of case analyses have been conducted on the game’s strengths and weaknesses. If there’s one thing to take away from my experience with the game, it’s to always have a tribe. People you can trust and surround yourself with to support each other both through times of suffering and of bliss. If you don’t have a tribe to live for, you’ll become apathetic, and death will take control over you. Though you’ll still be living, with nobody to live for, our existence becomes merely an inhabitation. Our family protects our peace of mind. Love and peace, Alhamdulillah.