Everyone has that moment, where they're having a rough day/week/month/year, and maybe you even get some intrusive thoughts, and one question comes to mind: what's the point? Or perhaps, for some reason the thought of your and your loved ones' inevitable deaths crosses your head, and you start to (maybe obsessively) think about the implication of that, and what exactly is "death". Persona 3 is basically all about those moments.
The plot itself honestly felt very secondary, the focus is very much on the message and the themes, with the characters acting as the conductors, and the plot is merely the background. With one major exception (a very good one! One of the best, most effective tragic story beats I've seen), there aren't really any big plot moments, it's all a very standard JRPG affair in that regard.
But thematically, Persona 3 comes strong, there were multiple moments where I stopped for a moment, just looking at the screen and reflecting on what the game had just told me. Playing this during my formative years would have most likely been extremely impactful. The structure of the game also feeds into that, with characters having existential crisis and big life-altering moments in front of them, but being forced to do such mundane tasks as going to school because yes, life doesn't stop for you to recollect your thoughts and strength - it just keeps going, with all of its glamourless banality.
That structure also means the game is repetitive, since you are literally living one day at a time, and towards the endgame, there are multiple days where there is literally nothing to do. I think that repetition is ultimately the reason why this is like the Disco Elysium of JRPGs to me, in the sense that I'm not in love with the game - I "just" like it a lot, and consider it one of the most memorable narratives I've ever consumed.
There's a good chunk of the game where nothing is really happening, and the themes haven't shown themselves yet, it takes a few in-game months for it to get going, and until then, it's a very basic "gotta defeat the Shadows because they're evil and dangerous" thing.
Regarding the Social Links, I think I have mixed feelings. Some are strong, like Hanged Man, Sun and shockingly Moon (the ending of this one really took me by surprise). Then you have Magician, a story about a high school kid who wants to bang his teacher. That's it, really. And there are maaaany Links that I'd describe as just okay. They're fine.
But the payoff at the end is a very interesting example of gameplay and story integration, that I felt was very effective - though it also greatly annoyed me that I was a mere 3 ranks away from maxing every Social Link. I think that in a game where the bonds you form with people is such an important feature, making a 100% Social Link run a strict thing that is a bit difficult to achieve on 1st playthrough, isn't a particularly good idea. Despite maxing every Link but one, I still felt like I missed something, as if I was robbed of it.
And I'm not a huuuuge fan of ambiguous endings, so I have a personal nitpick with the ending here. I guess I'll get more closure in September.
Gameplay-wise, I just wanna say that I love Atlus' dungeon-crawling and UX design. The final boss was very uneventful to me, though I did go out of my way to try and do everything in the game.
Like I said before, I don't love the game, but I like it enough to want to eventually play FES and Portable, just so I can see the differences.
And I now want every RPG to have a dog as a party member. Aigis and Koromaru's interactions were always hilarious to me, though I can't believe they paid a person to do the dog noises. Atlus my dear, just google "dog stock sounds" ffs, are you kidding me. They clearly also had people doing cats, because there is one scene with cats that sounds like an extremely bad impression of a cat.
The plot itself honestly felt very secondary, the focus is very much on the message and the themes, with the characters acting as the conductors, and the plot is merely the background. With one major exception (a very good one! One of the best, most effective tragic story beats I've seen), there aren't really any big plot moments, it's all a very standard JRPG affair in that regard.
But thematically, Persona 3 comes strong, there were multiple moments where I stopped for a moment, just looking at the screen and reflecting on what the game had just told me. Playing this during my formative years would have most likely been extremely impactful. The structure of the game also feeds into that, with characters having existential crisis and big life-altering moments in front of them, but being forced to do such mundane tasks as going to school because yes, life doesn't stop for you to recollect your thoughts and strength - it just keeps going, with all of its glamourless banality.
That structure also means the game is repetitive, since you are literally living one day at a time, and towards the endgame, there are multiple days where there is literally nothing to do. I think that repetition is ultimately the reason why this is like the Disco Elysium of JRPGs to me, in the sense that I'm not in love with the game - I "just" like it a lot, and consider it one of the most memorable narratives I've ever consumed.
There's a good chunk of the game where nothing is really happening, and the themes haven't shown themselves yet, it takes a few in-game months for it to get going, and until then, it's a very basic "gotta defeat the Shadows because they're evil and dangerous" thing.
Regarding the Social Links, I think I have mixed feelings. Some are strong, like Hanged Man, Sun and shockingly Moon (the ending of this one really took me by surprise). Then you have Magician, a story about a high school kid who wants to bang his teacher. That's it, really. And there are maaaany Links that I'd describe as just okay. They're fine.
But the payoff at the end is a very interesting example of gameplay and story integration, that I felt was very effective - though it also greatly annoyed me that I was a mere 3 ranks away from maxing every Social Link. I think that in a game where the bonds you form with people is such an important feature, making a 100% Social Link run a strict thing that is a bit difficult to achieve on 1st playthrough, isn't a particularly good idea. Despite maxing every Link but one, I still felt like I missed something, as if I was robbed of it.
And I'm not a huuuuge fan of ambiguous endings, so I have a personal nitpick with the ending here. I guess I'll get more closure in September.
Gameplay-wise, I just wanna say that I love Atlus' dungeon-crawling and UX design. The final boss was very uneventful to me, though I did go out of my way to try and do everything in the game.
Like I said before, I don't love the game, but I like it enough to want to eventually play FES and Portable, just so I can see the differences.
And I now want every RPG to have a dog as a party member. Aigis and Koromaru's interactions were always hilarious to me, though I can't believe they paid a person to do the dog noises. Atlus my dear, just google "dog stock sounds" ffs, are you kidding me. They clearly also had people doing cats, because there is one scene with cats that sounds like an extremely bad impression of a cat.