This is one of the, if not the hardest game to talk about for me. It's far from the best game I've played, but it's without a doubt my favorite-
It took me 10 years to finish Persona 3: FES. I played the journey (which is the first and main part of the game) way back in 2010 when I was just 14. My love for the game was gigantic, the cast was interesting, the gameplay was engaging, the music catchy as hell; I even recall downloading the whole ost on a screenless mp3 to listen to it at school. But most importantly, as the teenager son of a drug addict and violent father it was a way for me to endure the suffering of being at his house. The Gekkoukan High was a place for me to escape, the upbeat and funky soundtrack brought me joy whenever my favorite tune began to play. And the main character was someone cool, with lot's of friends and, perhaps more importantly, had a reason to live.
My love for the MC was so big that I even got the emo haircut (minus the sonic-esque colored hair) but even with all of these things once I finished the journey I was unable to play the second arc of the game, "The Answer".
Why? In 2011 I finally felt that my life was truly in danger and ran away from my father's house, leaving behind the two most important things in my life at the time, my dog and the Playstation 2.
One year later, in August of 2012 my dad died- And as possibly any teenager who had the horrible missfortune of experiencing the death of a parent, the fragility and finite nature of life became a running theme on my life.
"Memento mori" is a phrase that haunted me forever, and while I loved the game and everything about P3. The memories and feelings that resurfaced every time I attempted to turn on my old ps2 kept me from playing the rest of the game.
The internet and fandom weren't exactly kind to "The Answer" either, so for me it was only natural to ignore it. This all changed on 2020; I felt I was a different person that I was a decade ago,
I finished high school a long time ago then, went to college, experienced what love meant, came out as queer, got a job and moved from my small town into the city. I finally felt I was ready to end this.
It's safe to say that "The Answer" was one of the best experiences on this medium that I had- It dosn't talk only about death, it talks about what happens -after- death. What happens when someone dies? the others keep going, that grief you carry shapes who you are. It breaks you and it rebuilds you.
Like the cast from the game I also found my answer.
Death is terrible; but it also brings a sort of simple, uncomplicated joy. The joy of being alive.
It took me 10 years to finish Persona 3: FES. I played the journey (which is the first and main part of the game) way back in 2010 when I was just 14. My love for the game was gigantic, the cast was interesting, the gameplay was engaging, the music catchy as hell; I even recall downloading the whole ost on a screenless mp3 to listen to it at school. But most importantly, as the teenager son of a drug addict and violent father it was a way for me to endure the suffering of being at his house. The Gekkoukan High was a place for me to escape, the upbeat and funky soundtrack brought me joy whenever my favorite tune began to play. And the main character was someone cool, with lot's of friends and, perhaps more importantly, had a reason to live.
My love for the MC was so big that I even got the emo haircut (minus the sonic-esque colored hair) but even with all of these things once I finished the journey I was unable to play the second arc of the game, "The Answer".
Why? In 2011 I finally felt that my life was truly in danger and ran away from my father's house, leaving behind the two most important things in my life at the time, my dog and the Playstation 2.
One year later, in August of 2012 my dad died- And as possibly any teenager who had the horrible missfortune of experiencing the death of a parent, the fragility and finite nature of life became a running theme on my life.
"Memento mori" is a phrase that haunted me forever, and while I loved the game and everything about P3. The memories and feelings that resurfaced every time I attempted to turn on my old ps2 kept me from playing the rest of the game.
The internet and fandom weren't exactly kind to "The Answer" either, so for me it was only natural to ignore it. This all changed on 2020; I felt I was a different person that I was a decade ago,
I finished high school a long time ago then, went to college, experienced what love meant, came out as queer, got a job and moved from my small town into the city. I finally felt I was ready to end this.
It's safe to say that "The Answer" was one of the best experiences on this medium that I had- It dosn't talk only about death, it talks about what happens -after- death. What happens when someone dies? the others keep going, that grief you carry shapes who you are. It breaks you and it rebuilds you.
Like the cast from the game I also found my answer.
Death is terrible; but it also brings a sort of simple, uncomplicated joy. The joy of being alive.
2 Comments
I agree. I believe individual experiences are more important than an "objective" approach. However I don't believe theres a -wrong- way to approach a videogame; If anything the biggest strength of this medium is the player agency.
I'm dwelling dangerously near spoiler territory here but a lot of the criticism comes from Yukari's actions near the final act of the game. All I will say that is that death is somewhat incomprehensible to humans, if given the chance to see a loved one once more I'm sure that all rationality would be thrown by the window.
After all, for humans there are more important things that the end of the world.
I'm dwelling dangerously near spoiler territory here but a lot of the criticism comes from Yukari's actions near the final act of the game. All I will say that is that death is somewhat incomprehensible to humans, if given the chance to see a loved one once more I'm sure that all rationality would be thrown by the window.
After all, for humans there are more important things that the end of the world.
FrozenRoy
2 years ago