This is the way I originally played Persona 3. This was my first Persona game. I've been told many times that this version is inferior, inadequate, and unworth anyone's time. I've played p3p at least 4 times and I truly believe it's an experience about as good as FES, not better or worse but suitable for experiencing the masterpiece that is Persona 3, specifically the route with the male protagonist, the FemC has quite a few notable differences that are worth addressing separately. Persona 3 portable does not make alterations to the plot of Persona 3 FES. The themes of death and bonds still make themselves prominent throughout the game as well. No significant narrative value is lost or sacrificed in this port, and with P3 the story and how the game presents it to you is much more its defining quality than the gameplay to me. By narrative I refer to the main story, as well as the social links that contribute to many of the overarching themes seen across all versions of Persona 3 (at the time of writing this). Thus I believe P3P is near 1:1 with FES when it comes to presenting the story to it's players in a way that provokes thought and emotion. I say nearly because I believe there are parts where the portable version falls a bit short in storytelling, such as the absence of many of the overworld animations, cutscenes, and overall flair present in FES. Things such as Elizabeth’s antics in her hangouts are now only described with not even a CG to accompany them, which is basically the standard as far as visual novels go. If you don’t enjoy vn style descriptors like “the boy danced around flailing his arms wildly like a madman with no sense of self” this is a fair detractor from the game, I for one believe there’s charm in such an approach but I also enjoy vn’s in general giving me a decent bias. You cannot directly walk around and control your protagonist in the world outside of Tartarus rather replaced by a cursor and still images. The same places and NPCs are interactable; there is just a loss of some of what grips the player into the world. That's it presentation wise really, but in terms of gameplay as well p3p is very different. Party members are manually controlled, a design choice favored by many but disliked by some others. There is something endearing about the AI control of FES I will admit, some argue it gives more personality to the characters themselves, and contributes to the narrative being told of how such different individuals could learn to work as a team. While I don’t disagree with this exactly I’d say this contribution is minor, and to most players lack of control over party members for the purpose of storytelling, in a game already so excellent at telling its story in many other ways feels like an unnecessary sacrifice at the cost of less fun especially for those who find that gameplay style and the hindrances that come with it tedious. FES is balanced and built around the tactics system but no system is exactly full proof, you don't always get what you're hoping for but you can play around that. However when this happens outside of a player's control it feels discouraging for many who'd rather fail on their own terms rather than doing all they can to skew things the way they want and only get within the ballpark rather than the goal. With that said it's not as if p3p’s gameplay ends up being some major improvement as it still resembles FES quite closely outside of direct commands. Manual control makes the game considerably easier alongside some balance changes, but it still provides a decently challenging experience, not the kind of change that trivializes the game at all. Ultimately gameplay alterations amount to direct control and an easier game, neither of which take away from the experience in my eyes. Now to address the FemC and what she brings to the table. The story is fundamentally the same but most notably there is one stand out alteration that players have to go out of their way to achieve. You are able to prevent Shinjiro's death. In the end this does not affect the story as the characters and events play out much the same but it lessens one of the most significant moments of the game that really serve to drive the theme of "Memento Mori" home. It being optional and not significantly impacting the story is the best you could ask for with this kind of change but it's better off not being implemented at all, as it feels strange to let a character die for the sake of a better story as a player. This leads to this very fanservice-esque kind of storytelling which detracts a lot from many of the significant story beats and character development that hinge on this moment playing out unchanged, most notably Akihiko and Ken's. The FemC also has new social links with all the male party members, including Koromaru, Ryoji, and two new characters Saori Hasegawa and Rio Iwasaki. While this initially sounds great as none of these are links in FES, it's not an addition but a swap with 8 other social links present in the male protagonist route. In my own opinion so long as the new one is of equivalent quality I have no qualms with different social links, however with some of these that is not the case. I believe Rio and Saori are fine on their own with Saori being especially standout and worth being in every version of p3 in my opinion. As far as comparisons go, Rio is a just about equivalent replacement for Kazushi, the original Chariot social link, but Saori and Ms.Toriumi are very different representations of the Hermit that I think each tell extremely compelling stories. I couldn't say one over the other is better or worse which I think is a point towards portable, for having new content of at least the same quality as FES which is what should be expected. Now for the others, the same praises cannot be sung. While you are able to romance every female social link in the male protagonist route, their stories are not written entirely around the idea of romance which is mostly an afterthought near the end of them. Almost all of the Femc's new social links with the men are written entirely around them being attracted to her, Junpei being the exception as he chooses to be just friends, very true to his character and respectful of his relationship with Chidori, a major aspect of his character. Koromaru has a very nice and simple SL which is probably the best you could ask for with the nonverbal dog character. However Ken, Akihiko, and Shinji feel awkward and out of character upon reading their interactions with the female protagonist, especially Akihiko as his character is very romance averse by nature, being one about feeling inadequate and the drive for self improvement, it is discomforting to see Akihiko be fluster awkwardly and become fixated on romance. Ryoji has this problem the least as he's always been written as flirtatious and it weaves into the symbolism of his character in an alright way being the unknowing embodiment of death just trying to make a life for yourself, only to suddenly have what you've tried to create taken away because of what you were born as. It's a tragic romance which helps it a lot. These social links for the most part feel like another instance where Atlus was just trying to write fanservicey options for players opting for the female route instead of focusing on telling an actually good narrative with the new territory they had the opportunity to explore. The boys had never gotten the chance at side stories to be explored in social links so it's a shame to see them be reduced to love interests. As far as swaps go Shinji's social link even with its flaws is pretty much the best improvement across the board contending with the notorious Nozomi, Junpei is a naturally more interesting character than Kenji, Ryoji as well is much more significant to the plot than Keisuke but his character is already very well realized without a social link and cuts away from what (albeit little) Keisuke can offer in my opinion. Ken and Akihiko feel like parodies of themselves that could easily be done without and even though it's somewhat excusable for Ken as he's a child he's still much more than what he gets made out to be in his social link, and both are better off replaced by their originals. Gripes with the FemC route end there, I believe it's fine but with some glaring character flaws that luckily don't end up altering the main story. She brings a couple new songs with her which are all very good, uses a Naginata instead of the typical sword wielded by persona mc's, and even has a different design for Orpheus the main persona of the protagonist. Overall her route feels like a fine idea with some cool stuff but too many unnecessary changes and missed opportunities thrown in. With that, these are my feelings on Persona 3 Portable. Persona 3 itself is a phenomenal game that I didn't really dissect too much as I wanted to more so evaluate how the portable version stands up to the much more revered FES version. I believe Persona 3 Portable is a very loyal port even with its gripes and changes, and I think it does a fine job giving P3 the justice it deserves.