This review is largely outdated and doesn't wholly reflect my views on Persona 3 anymore, namely in the fact that Persona 3 is no longer my favorite game. Still, people seem to like it, and so it remains for posterity's sake.

My favorite game of all time – what makes Persona 3 truly special isn't its individual qualities but how they interplay and work together as a whole. There are games that surpass Persona 3's merits one by one, but as a single cohesive work of art there truly isn't anything else like it.

Persona 3 has the sort of message that's meant to be heard by certain people – coming hot off the dating sim and visual novel craze of the early 2000s and deconstructing some of their greatest cliches while also embracing exactly what makes them appealing to so many people, Persona 3's narrative and its protagonist's story of opening up to the world around him and embracing life while it lasts is incredibly resonant and continues to mean the world to me and many others some fifteen years on.

If you're looking for a mechanically tight JRPG experience you might best look elsewhere, as Persona 3 isn't a game that intends to impress by gameplay alone. However, if you want a JRPG that makes the most of its mechanical quirks to help convey its message and portrays a theme of hope and determination against a bleak cyberpunk backdrop, then this game is definitely worth its 80+ hour runtime.

EDIT: Per request I've elucidated a little bit on two of the major points of this review in the comments below.

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.

in the Grand Scope of video games, Undertale and Deltarune are not super innovative in their gameplay or anything by any stretch, more of just a remixing and repurposing of existing things in a very good and novel way. however, they are the ultimate Hangout Games, where you just want to pop into a world for a little bit and hear the funny little jokes that your friends tell as you walk around hanging out, doing nothing.

i would just play 100 of these. they are the "Falafel Wrap + Fries" of video games: extremely consistent, always delicious, filling, warms your heart, reminds you of better times

I don't have a particular game that hasnt aged for me as much as this one honestly.

Omori still a good game regardless but there's certain things about this game just feels like a complete waste of time, the real world sections is by far the most fun i've ever had no doubt about but when it comes to the dream world something about just doesnt make me interested in the slightest.

Good game but overall it's just falls a bit flat the more i think about it.