24FPSUK
2024
My first go round with any version of Persona 3. First, the good (and great) points. It looks absolutely incredible. The styling is very much inspired by Persona 5, and the way every little detail, right down to the sub sub menus, is made to feel in keeping with the colour scheme and themes of the game, as well as just looking beautiful and streamlined, makes it incredibly satisfying to simply navigate the game.
I played in English, and the voice cast are outstanding throughout. Every character is well defined, you get to know their voices, and the acting during the cut scenes, especially some heavy emotional story beats, is genuinely excellent. The writing is also largely very good. It deals in some tropes, and the way every character falls over themselves to tell you how insightful and brilliant you are can feel odd, especially in the early game, but the story arcs are well written and sincerely emotional, none more so than Aigis'. These emotional and heavy moments are also balanced with a lot of very funny bits, and you'll always want to talk to people to see if you're missing something amusing.
If you like the Persona gameplay loop, this is a very satisfying version of it. The balancing of your time is challenging in the early game as you try to make social links while raising stats to pass exams and open up links. The dungeon crawling in Tartarus is fun, and building your roster of both teammates to take with you and personas to utilise and fuse, while not super demanding strategically, lets you find a play style of your own.
On the other hand... while the story is very satisfying, smacks you with some stinging emotional moments and lands solid laughs, it is VERY stop-start. Things take a long time to get going, and while the new Link Episodes and dorm activities give you things to do, the fact a lot of the party social links open up VERY late in the game is frustrating, and makes those relationships a bit rushed. Several would benefit from being gated at a certain point, the way P5's were. Some SLs are better than others, I found Star to be almost entirely incidental, and Moon deeply annoying.
The stop-start nature of the storytelling is exemplified by Strega. When they are on screen the story advances in gripping and dramatic fashion, with part of the story involving one of them being one of the game's biggest emotional gut punches, but the game seems to forget about them entirely for large stretches at a time.
There are going to be ups and downs over a 125 hour playthrough though, and given how much I loved how Aigis' story developed, and the beautiful ending, I'm anxious to come back in September, take another run at the game (in Japanese, perhaps) and play The Answer.
I played in English, and the voice cast are outstanding throughout. Every character is well defined, you get to know their voices, and the acting during the cut scenes, especially some heavy emotional story beats, is genuinely excellent. The writing is also largely very good. It deals in some tropes, and the way every character falls over themselves to tell you how insightful and brilliant you are can feel odd, especially in the early game, but the story arcs are well written and sincerely emotional, none more so than Aigis'. These emotional and heavy moments are also balanced with a lot of very funny bits, and you'll always want to talk to people to see if you're missing something amusing.
If you like the Persona gameplay loop, this is a very satisfying version of it. The balancing of your time is challenging in the early game as you try to make social links while raising stats to pass exams and open up links. The dungeon crawling in Tartarus is fun, and building your roster of both teammates to take with you and personas to utilise and fuse, while not super demanding strategically, lets you find a play style of your own.
On the other hand... while the story is very satisfying, smacks you with some stinging emotional moments and lands solid laughs, it is VERY stop-start. Things take a long time to get going, and while the new Link Episodes and dorm activities give you things to do, the fact a lot of the party social links open up VERY late in the game is frustrating, and makes those relationships a bit rushed. Several would benefit from being gated at a certain point, the way P5's were. Some SLs are better than others, I found Star to be almost entirely incidental, and Moon deeply annoying.
The stop-start nature of the storytelling is exemplified by Strega. When they are on screen the story advances in gripping and dramatic fashion, with part of the story involving one of them being one of the game's biggest emotional gut punches, but the game seems to forget about them entirely for large stretches at a time.
There are going to be ups and downs over a 125 hour playthrough though, and given how much I loved how Aigis' story developed, and the beautiful ending, I'm anxious to come back in September, take another run at the game (in Japanese, perhaps) and play The Answer.
2012
Having come to this game following Persona 5 Royal, which was one of the first true narrative games and the first ever JRPG I played, I am perhaps biased when I say that this isn't quite as good. However, it's still, largely, a tremendously entertaining 100+ hour playthrough, and once again, I know I'll come back to it. I'll want to re-experience the world of Inaba, which has a very different vibe and pace to the Tokyo of P5R, hang out with (most of) the cast again, explore different angles on the story, and do the many things I didn't entirely figure out.
On the plus side of the game, the story is great fun with its mix of the darkness of its murder mystery, the characters you get genuinely attached to and quite a few very silly moments. The social links with your party members really develop them as characters, from a solid starting point in the background to the dungeons that feature them.
The gameplay loop remains satisfying, fusing personas, figuring out enemies and their weaknesses, ranking up your party and deciding who you're taking into a dungeon with you is always something you need to consider (I almost always stuck with an all female party, bar the MC, because Chie and Yukiko, in particular, became stupidly powerful).
Though the dungeons are a bit samey to progress through, I took that as more indicative of the limitations of the system this was initially designed for, and at least each dungeon felt individualised to the character who was its focus.
On the downside, great as the characterisation often is, I wish the game had the courage to follow through on some of its initial ideas. The depiction of the second main dungeon boss is ROUGH, but immediately snatching back what had seemed a major part of their identity feels tone deaf even for when the game initially released, and the same goes for another character that could have been extremely groundbreaking had the game followed through. However, both these characters still ended up among my favourites in the game, despite these issues.
Persona 5 clearly built on everything that worked about this game, but those bits that do work are every bit its equal, and the bits that don't are minor, and hardly take away from a fun and involving time.
On the plus side of the game, the story is great fun with its mix of the darkness of its murder mystery, the characters you get genuinely attached to and quite a few very silly moments. The social links with your party members really develop them as characters, from a solid starting point in the background to the dungeons that feature them.
The gameplay loop remains satisfying, fusing personas, figuring out enemies and their weaknesses, ranking up your party and deciding who you're taking into a dungeon with you is always something you need to consider (I almost always stuck with an all female party, bar the MC, because Chie and Yukiko, in particular, became stupidly powerful).
Though the dungeons are a bit samey to progress through, I took that as more indicative of the limitations of the system this was initially designed for, and at least each dungeon felt individualised to the character who was its focus.
On the downside, great as the characterisation often is, I wish the game had the courage to follow through on some of its initial ideas. The depiction of the second main dungeon boss is ROUGH, but immediately snatching back what had seemed a major part of their identity feels tone deaf even for when the game initially released, and the same goes for another character that could have been extremely groundbreaking had the game followed through. However, both these characters still ended up among my favourites in the game, despite these issues.
Persona 5 clearly built on everything that worked about this game, but those bits that do work are every bit its equal, and the bits that don't are minor, and hardly take away from a fun and involving time.
This looks great, but I found the story mode a frustrating playthrough; long sections of story during which I kept wishing it would let me get into the massed battles, and, ultimately, little variety in the fight you do actually get to play out. If I can get better at this kind of game then fighting people online might be fun, but as a single player game, quite a slog.
2020
After Royal took me 130 hours, Persona 5 Strikers felt comparatively breezy at roughly 40 hours to complete (the main story at least).
There are ups and downs here, so let's start with the good stuff. The story and character writing are again excellent. The ideas are similar to those in Royal, but definitely develop the metaphor at the centre of the games more deeply, and give some strong arcs to characters who were relatively neglected in Royal. I especially gained a new appreciation for Haru. The new characters are all well integrated into the game, adding dimension and entertainment. This is also, especially in the first half, a much funnier game than Royal, the interactions between the Phantom Thieves are played for, and mostly get, laughs. Kudos to the English language voice cast for (despite some COVID era technical issues) giving stellar performances once again.
As I got used to the mechanics, I grew to appreciate how the game integrated some of the strategy of Royal's turn-based play into the action gameplay. It's a pretty good hybrid, though I missed the more extensive and easier to use Velvet Room mechanics of Royal (I was probably at fault, but I found a lot of fusions locked off to me, even late in the game). The action is fast and furious, the puzzles fun, but simple enough to never stall progress for long, in keeping with the pace of the game.
On the downside, while the Bond system is welcome, and it would be odd to start the social links over again, I did miss the strategic approach of deciding whose links to prioritise, and finding the time in the days to complete them. The gameplay loop does get a bit wearing. By the end of 40 hours I was a bit tired of just hammering buttons. This is likely just a personal taste thing, but I found the pace of Royal more to my liking.
This is a great story and a fun time to spend with a group of charaters I got to love in Royal, but I'm not sure how many more times I'll take this roadtrip, whereas I feel like I still have so much yet to experience in Royal, even after a 130 hour playthrough.
There are ups and downs here, so let's start with the good stuff. The story and character writing are again excellent. The ideas are similar to those in Royal, but definitely develop the metaphor at the centre of the games more deeply, and give some strong arcs to characters who were relatively neglected in Royal. I especially gained a new appreciation for Haru. The new characters are all well integrated into the game, adding dimension and entertainment. This is also, especially in the first half, a much funnier game than Royal, the interactions between the Phantom Thieves are played for, and mostly get, laughs. Kudos to the English language voice cast for (despite some COVID era technical issues) giving stellar performances once again.
As I got used to the mechanics, I grew to appreciate how the game integrated some of the strategy of Royal's turn-based play into the action gameplay. It's a pretty good hybrid, though I missed the more extensive and easier to use Velvet Room mechanics of Royal (I was probably at fault, but I found a lot of fusions locked off to me, even late in the game). The action is fast and furious, the puzzles fun, but simple enough to never stall progress for long, in keeping with the pace of the game.
On the downside, while the Bond system is welcome, and it would be odd to start the social links over again, I did miss the strategic approach of deciding whose links to prioritise, and finding the time in the days to complete them. The gameplay loop does get a bit wearing. By the end of 40 hours I was a bit tired of just hammering buttons. This is likely just a personal taste thing, but I found the pace of Royal more to my liking.
This is a great story and a fun time to spend with a group of charaters I got to love in Royal, but I'm not sure how many more times I'll take this roadtrip, whereas I feel like I still have so much yet to experience in Royal, even after a 130 hour playthrough.
A pretty incredible experience. I found combat a bit of a chore before starting to unlock stances, but once that was done there was more variety and the challenge felt balanced.
Otherwise outstanding. I played the Japanese version, and the cast bring the characters and their stories to life in a way that draws you in (I was especially invested in Yuna's story). It's so beautiful that early in the game I just enjoyed riding around the map between objectives to look at the world.
I also loved the structure. The brief missions growing into the larger tales works for the storytelling, but it also means that you can dip into the game for 45 minutes or an hour and leave feeling like you've made plenty of headway. Just a supremely enjoyable playthrough.
EDIT: Completed the Iki Island DLC, which brought the score down half a mark. Less involving than the rest, thanks to frequent interruptions to the gameplay because of one story mechanic, and the fact you no longer have the allies you've spent the entire game cultivating makes it less engaging. Still a lot of brutal fun to play though, and a great game overall.
Otherwise outstanding. I played the Japanese version, and the cast bring the characters and their stories to life in a way that draws you in (I was especially invested in Yuna's story). It's so beautiful that early in the game I just enjoyed riding around the map between objectives to look at the world.
I also loved the structure. The brief missions growing into the larger tales works for the storytelling, but it also means that you can dip into the game for 45 minutes or an hour and leave feeling like you've made plenty of headway. Just a supremely enjoyable playthrough.
EDIT: Completed the Iki Island DLC, which brought the score down half a mark. Less involving than the rest, thanks to frequent interruptions to the gameplay because of one story mechanic, and the fact you no longer have the allies you've spent the entire game cultivating makes it less engaging. Still a lot of brutal fun to play though, and a great game overall.
2019
I only started gaming in June, and this is only the second game I've ever finished. It's going to be tough to beat: an immersive, evolving, involving story and a set of characters the game essentially forces you to come to care about. It looks spectacular, maybe sounds better, and I'm already considering what I'll do differently on a subsequent playthrough to see the things I missed.