Persona 3 Portable is unfortunately missing everything that gives Persona the magic that it should have.
Like a lot of people I'm a late bloomer to Persona and to Atlus in general. I started with Tokyo Mirage Sessions in January of 2020 and then got into Persona 5, then 4, SMT, and so on. When the announcement that P3/4/5 were coming to game pass/modern consoles I figured this would be my time to complete the "modern" Persona trilogy. I didn't understand the discourse quite yet about the versions of Persona 3, figuring that it was just another additional content version (Persona 4 vs Golden, 5 vs Royal) but I was very wrong, Persona 3 Portable is a visual novel take on one of the darker entires into the series. I didn't realize it right away but the VN take on the game would remove a LOT of what makes these games special. There were no anime cutscenes, no character models outside of battles, and no traversing the world outside of point and click. Emotional moments in the narrative were left as text blurbs instead of actions, if a character was killed off, you saw nothing. I feel spoiled having played the most refined entries in the series first, but I think to fairly rate this experience it's okay to consider what we have now and what versions exist outside of the Portable.
Voice acting was really rough. Aigis, Ken, and Fuuka had some of the worse VA jobs I've heard in recent memory. Aigis' attempt at robotic speech felt real awkward, though that's probably a product of the times. Ken sounded like was a thirty year old male attempting to voice an eight year old, and Fuuka was just rough too. I already didn't like this cast much as I felt they didn't gel very well and were rather one dimensional with little redeeming qualities, but the VA made it much worse. Mitsuru was cool and all but the rich person schtick is just annoying, I'm glad they sorta reformed this archetype with Makoto in 5. Yukari was arlight but she's kinda just a blank romantic interest, Junpei is okay but after playing 4 and 5 he's a worse version of the stupid best friend type, and Akihiko was... alright. Unlike 4 and 5 I just didn't feel attached to this party, honestly I was more attached to the non-party social links like Yuko, Chihiro, Akinari, Kasushi and Kenji than I was the main crew.
The narrative was alright but honestly I don't know if I can properly gauge it as I was so removed from the slice of life aspect of the game due to the VN storytelling style. Not being able to see my party in the games most important moments leaves a lot to be desired. I liked the storybeats and impending doom/gloom that came with the mass infliction of apathy syndrome, however it just misses the mark with the portable release.
There are two inexcusable things about P3P that I assume are also in FES/the original release. The first is the design of the only major dungeon in the game: Tartarus. To reach the end of the game and to properly level your party, you must climb 264 floors of proceudrally generated square room hellscape filled to the brim with encounters. Yes, that is not a typo... two hundred and sixty foor floors. This monotony wears thin as soon as you embark in it, thankfully not having the ability to do it all in one go as that would probably drive even the most ambitious gamer into a Persona induced insanity. It's incredibly rough, and after playing Soul Hackers 2 this last year, its clear that some teams within Atlus have learned absolutely nothing from how awful this was.
The second thing about P3P that I hope everyone is in agreeance with, is the prevalence of pedophilia within multiple social links. This is an element of games and media within Japan that I find completely inexcusable and disgusting, the most egregious of which that I've seen being in the anime show "No Game No Life." Within P3P though, Maya's social link involves her (an adult teacher) who has an attraction to teenagers and children within her school, and Kenji having a relationship with his teacher. This stuff is never okay, it's not funny, it's not innocent, it's weird and I hope nobody condones it when playing.
What there is to like: Music. To the surprise of hopefully nobody, this is another Shogi Meguro success story. Everything from the introduction scenes to the battle music to the score during emotional social links is phenomenal, carrying a completely different vibe from the games that have come out since.
Having not played the OG version of P3 or the FES version, I can't recommend anyone play P3P unless they're looking for an inferior release of a potentially very good game.
Like a lot of people I'm a late bloomer to Persona and to Atlus in general. I started with Tokyo Mirage Sessions in January of 2020 and then got into Persona 5, then 4, SMT, and so on. When the announcement that P3/4/5 were coming to game pass/modern consoles I figured this would be my time to complete the "modern" Persona trilogy. I didn't understand the discourse quite yet about the versions of Persona 3, figuring that it was just another additional content version (Persona 4 vs Golden, 5 vs Royal) but I was very wrong, Persona 3 Portable is a visual novel take on one of the darker entires into the series. I didn't realize it right away but the VN take on the game would remove a LOT of what makes these games special. There were no anime cutscenes, no character models outside of battles, and no traversing the world outside of point and click. Emotional moments in the narrative were left as text blurbs instead of actions, if a character was killed off, you saw nothing. I feel spoiled having played the most refined entries in the series first, but I think to fairly rate this experience it's okay to consider what we have now and what versions exist outside of the Portable.
Voice acting was really rough. Aigis, Ken, and Fuuka had some of the worse VA jobs I've heard in recent memory. Aigis' attempt at robotic speech felt real awkward, though that's probably a product of the times. Ken sounded like was a thirty year old male attempting to voice an eight year old, and Fuuka was just rough too. I already didn't like this cast much as I felt they didn't gel very well and were rather one dimensional with little redeeming qualities, but the VA made it much worse. Mitsuru was cool and all but the rich person schtick is just annoying, I'm glad they sorta reformed this archetype with Makoto in 5. Yukari was arlight but she's kinda just a blank romantic interest, Junpei is okay but after playing 4 and 5 he's a worse version of the stupid best friend type, and Akihiko was... alright. Unlike 4 and 5 I just didn't feel attached to this party, honestly I was more attached to the non-party social links like Yuko, Chihiro, Akinari, Kasushi and Kenji than I was the main crew.
The narrative was alright but honestly I don't know if I can properly gauge it as I was so removed from the slice of life aspect of the game due to the VN storytelling style. Not being able to see my party in the games most important moments leaves a lot to be desired. I liked the storybeats and impending doom/gloom that came with the mass infliction of apathy syndrome, however it just misses the mark with the portable release.
There are two inexcusable things about P3P that I assume are also in FES/the original release. The first is the design of the only major dungeon in the game: Tartarus. To reach the end of the game and to properly level your party, you must climb 264 floors of proceudrally generated square room hellscape filled to the brim with encounters. Yes, that is not a typo... two hundred and sixty foor floors. This monotony wears thin as soon as you embark in it, thankfully not having the ability to do it all in one go as that would probably drive even the most ambitious gamer into a Persona induced insanity. It's incredibly rough, and after playing Soul Hackers 2 this last year, its clear that some teams within Atlus have learned absolutely nothing from how awful this was.
The second thing about P3P that I hope everyone is in agreeance with, is the prevalence of pedophilia within multiple social links. This is an element of games and media within Japan that I find completely inexcusable and disgusting, the most egregious of which that I've seen being in the anime show "No Game No Life." Within P3P though, Maya's social link involves her (an adult teacher) who has an attraction to teenagers and children within her school, and Kenji having a relationship with his teacher. This stuff is never okay, it's not funny, it's not innocent, it's weird and I hope nobody condones it when playing.
What there is to like: Music. To the surprise of hopefully nobody, this is another Shogi Meguro success story. Everything from the introduction scenes to the battle music to the score during emotional social links is phenomenal, carrying a completely different vibe from the games that have come out since.
Having not played the OG version of P3 or the FES version, I can't recommend anyone play P3P unless they're looking for an inferior release of a potentially very good game.
2 Comments
@ignozero
Appreciate it!
Per the writing/VN style its the way my brain works in jumping into an immersive setting like a slice of life that ruins counterproductive to the way P3P tells it. Historically I'm not great with true VN's but have been able to come around on the longform stories as the ones I play aren't SoL's (Devil on G String and House in Fata Morgana for example) but rather tell a strict narrative. In P3P I got a little lost in the mundane day to do and it was a little difficult to gauge my actual interest in the story content. In P4G for example I was able to visualize the characters making their day to day movements, physically interacting with key storybeats, and attach character models to important moments in the game. That really helps my brain actually become interested with what I'm seeing, on the contrary existence of the VN telling in P3P the water gets a little muddy and I had a hard time just buying into the story as a result.
I sent this to a friend who is also a pretty big Persona/SMT fan and he had the same conversation with me about the character simplicity. I think you nailed it though, I'm a little spoiled having interacted with the P5 cast in which they change the sequencing and interaction just enough to make it feel a little different. Great point about the series changing as it goes too, it makes me real excited for P6. Every game I work back on in the series I feel is a little rougher which is a sign of Atlus/Persona Team's commitment to improving the quality of their premier title, which is very good.
Appreciate it!
Per the writing/VN style its the way my brain works in jumping into an immersive setting like a slice of life that ruins counterproductive to the way P3P tells it. Historically I'm not great with true VN's but have been able to come around on the longform stories as the ones I play aren't SoL's (Devil on G String and House in Fata Morgana for example) but rather tell a strict narrative. In P3P I got a little lost in the mundane day to do and it was a little difficult to gauge my actual interest in the story content. In P4G for example I was able to visualize the characters making their day to day movements, physically interacting with key storybeats, and attach character models to important moments in the game. That really helps my brain actually become interested with what I'm seeing, on the contrary existence of the VN telling in P3P the water gets a little muddy and I had a hard time just buying into the story as a result.
I sent this to a friend who is also a pretty big Persona/SMT fan and he had the same conversation with me about the character simplicity. I think you nailed it though, I'm a little spoiled having interacted with the P5 cast in which they change the sequencing and interaction just enough to make it feel a little different. Great point about the series changing as it goes too, it makes me real excited for P6. Every game I work back on in the series I feel is a little rougher which is a sign of Atlus/Persona Team's commitment to improving the quality of their premier title, which is very good.
ignozero
1 year ago
Also, fuck Tartarus. I remember googling how many floors there were after getting to floor 40 or 50ish ready for it to end, and absolutely losing my mind. Hellish, hellish place.