You just had to be there:

-for the 1st announcement
-for the trailers
-for the launch

like... you just had to be there

I'm making this new log as I've had a sudden change of heart about my initial experience with Persona 3 FES.

Now I still stand by what I said about how grind heavy this game is and how frustratingly long it took me to beat the game, but playing the "remastered" port of P3P made me realize I vastly under appreciated Persona 3 FES for what it is.

Now I know people are turned off by this version for a vast variety of reasons. AI controlled party members, complicated difficulty, people hate Yukari, etc. etc. etc. Tbh all of those valid (except for the Yukari one, you folks don't understand teenage girls and hate women as a whole) and I'm glad that they made the game more accessible in P3P as well as introduce FeMC, but during that "remaster" development so much heart and soul that made P3 FES went away and it makes me miss P3 FES so much more than I thought it would.

P3 FES deserved better as it is the better version of the Persona 3 games. this is a hill I will die on with my gravestone etched "here lies so and so, amazing human and devoted P3 FES defender."

To anyone who says P3P is the definitive way to play Persona 3 is so full of it.

Say what you will about P3 FES' difficulty and AI controlled party mechanic, it's still leagues superior to P3P.

While I don't hate this game, and quite honestly had a good 115 hours of it, the effort put into this "remastered" PSP Port really ruins the experience of Persona 3. I miss that warm fuzzy 480 SD explorable world that made P3/P3 FES so alluring and charming to play and experience. P3P was cool for its time, but just as its appeal started that's where it also should've ended.

To be frank, unless you're rolling in cash, have a subscription to Xbox Gamepass, or are insanely desperate to play Persona 3, I'd just skip this port and either dish out the money to play it on a PS2/PS3 or emulate it. P3P does not do the game the justice it deserves.

And just to reiterate, if you have an issue with the AI party control that just sounds like a skill issue to me but what do I know.

Can you tell how ticked off I am about this remaster.

A masterclass in DS game design that is horribly under appreciated and recognized. It's one of the few DS games that not only uses most if not all of its functions, but uses it so cleverly!!! Without spoiling too much, the game requires you to think outside the box quite literally and when I discovered how literal it was I couldn't help but giggle like the doofus I am.

The story to this game was also just as delightful too. It's nothing too convoluted or grand. Just a very engaging adventure about a 13 year old girl learning about her father's location being on a private island after being gone for 10 years and discovering the secrets of said island.

The puzzles and exploration of this game feel very similar to a point and click PS1 style adventure game. The game felt surprisingly ahead of its time in terms of graphics and exploration, but then again its exploration is very bare bones. Not in a boring way mind you just in an efficient straight to the point way.

A shame the title is stuck on the DS and DS emulation because I think it's a title that is worth remastering for a console like the Switch. It feels like a very important piece of video game history just from how technologically creative it is. I'd hate for it to be widely forgotten.

In the most respectful way possible, this game feels like if Fallout was a horror game that was story heavy????

Like the first Evil Within was obviously inspired Mikami's work on Resident Evil 4 with some Silent Hill influences, but The Evil Within 2 just from the beginning has that Bethesda style of open world design that I could not stop noticing throughout my gameplay. I say this respectfully because instead of it being overly ambitious it is VERY contained and serves its purpose. At first I was worried being slightly open world it would distract me from the main story but if anything it helps contribute to its story so it works out. I think the was a necessary approach to keep the game feeling fresh, even if it may lose some fans of horror and The Evil Within along the way.

That's the thing about The Evil Within series that drags me in so much is that while it obviously calls back to older horror games and their gameplay types, it does a very good job keeping things fresh in a modest way. I know the series as a whole isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I feel like you'd be lying to yourself if you didn't find the games to be important for horror games in the 2010's.

Overall The Evil Within 2 is another fantastic entry to the series and I truly hope for its third sequel.