up there with my favorite games of all time. p3 really feels so confident in what it wants to do and comfortable as a game. the way the interactive experience ties into the story and themes is a real sight to behold. while it takes a while to truly show why its special, the willingness to fully combine every ingredient of the game together is extremely commendable. the story does pace itself fairly slowly for a while, but gives lots of time for the great social links to breathe and to emphasize the isolation that each sees member faces. this makes the emotional payoff from october and onwards truly feel special and culminates in the extremely impactful december stretch. the catharsis from that point onwards feels so earned and perfect. its also hard to explain why without spoilers, but the way the game embodies the memento mori concept is insanely special

the gameplay is amazing as well. as mentioned before, the way the narrative and gameplay tie together is quite special and this relates directly to the battle system with how you go from being quite isolated at the beginning to a well oiled team by the end. not having ai control has a lot of detractors but if you actually buy into the mechanics and use the tactics system it becomes incredibly satisfying and fun, and really gives a sense of growth in a ludonarrative sense. i wont really defend tartarus a ton, its alright but definitely pretty repetitive. but if there was anything in this 80 hour game i was okay with them not really emphasizing it was that. even then, the way the music and visuals evolve and the last climb are pretty damn great.

the ending (to "the journey") is pretty much just peak and represents the boldness that makes this game special. truly feels like a perfect jrpg in how much it rewards you for the effort you put into it, while also never just directly catering to player demand. and im not sure we'll see a persona like that ever again

they should really use the japanese box art pic for this lol