Persona 3 Portable is a amazing game, just like its sequels P4 and P5. Tackling the meaning of life and death from multiple characters POV is not an easy feat, and for the most part P3 succeeds in that along with having good characters, combat, and of course an amazing soundtrack. But there is something about P3 that keeps it behind the other Persona games I've played.
It's a possibility that it's because I played P3 Portable and not P3 FES and the missing gameplay elements like seeing the character models move and actually walking around/seeing places other than in Tartarus is what makes me feel this way but I don't think it is. P3P is just missing some things in it's core.
For example, there is no social links for the male S.E.E.S. characters for the male MC (and I'm pretty sure no female ones for Fem MC), what makes it worse is that they're in the game but locked behind what protagonist you choose. Expanding on this point, a good few of the social links are either not that memorable and/or good (for male MC at least), there are some great ones too but overall feels lacking. And the last big one for me is the ending is kind of weak? No spoilers of course but you really feel the stakes in the final month of the game and it builds as it reaches it's climax and cool/surprising things happen as expected and then the games epilogue is kinda weird due to what happens in the climax and then it just ends. Maybe this is just a P3P issue and the epilogue is better in FES.
With all that said I genuinely loved the game lol. P3 has a lot of great moments that rival if not are some of the best and I'm excited and hoping that with Persona 3 Reload it addresses some of the issues I had along with the quality of life improvements from the more modern Persona games. If so it might make it the best one yet.
It's a possibility that it's because I played P3 Portable and not P3 FES and the missing gameplay elements like seeing the character models move and actually walking around/seeing places other than in Tartarus is what makes me feel this way but I don't think it is. P3P is just missing some things in it's core.
For example, there is no social links for the male S.E.E.S. characters for the male MC (and I'm pretty sure no female ones for Fem MC), what makes it worse is that they're in the game but locked behind what protagonist you choose. Expanding on this point, a good few of the social links are either not that memorable and/or good (for male MC at least), there are some great ones too but overall feels lacking. And the last big one for me is the ending is kind of weak? No spoilers of course but you really feel the stakes in the final month of the game and it builds as it reaches it's climax and cool/surprising things happen as expected and then the games epilogue is kinda weird due to what happens in the climax and then it just ends. Maybe this is just a P3P issue and the epilogue is better in FES.
With all that said I genuinely loved the game lol. P3 has a lot of great moments that rival if not are some of the best and I'm excited and hoping that with Persona 3 Reload it addresses some of the issues I had along with the quality of life improvements from the more modern Persona games. If so it might make it the best one yet.