General Info :
- Release Date(s) - in order -
- Japan - November 1st 2009
- North Amerca - July 6th 2010
- Europe - April 29 2011.
Available on : PSP ( PlayStation Portable ) and PSVita as Digital Release.
Developer : Atlus
Rating : Rated M for Mature
The Shin
Megami Tensei / Persona series is a phenomena that needs little introduction.
Back in the
days, most JRPGs could have been labelled to all feel the same, you'd have a
bunch of heroes going to save the day from whatever threat there was. You'd have
a character who you can look up to and admire, someone truly badass, but rarely
had we seen a JRPG where YOU are the main character, literally. Right off the
bat the game lets you chose the gender you want to play as, and not long after,
your name. Instantly the game gets the player involved into the story, you
already feel like you belong in this universe, like everyone is conscious about
your existence and not the one of a predetermined character that everyone else
will experience in the exact same way.
Imagine a
JRPG Where your choices and responses to the world surrounding you could affect
social links and events in the game, where you are free to decide how you want
to spend your time after a day in a virtual school. Would you like to go to the
cafe and meet some new people ? Hopefully establishing new links or forming
more social skills ? Would you rather take the offer of one of your friends to
go watch a movie to form stronger bonds
with that character ? Or maybe you're more studious and would rather go to your
dorm and study until midnight to increase your academics ? Waiting for that
famous moment when the clocks tics and the biggest feature of the game takes
place : The Dark Hour.
The Dark Hour
is a phenomena that occurs at midnight, an anomaly that serves as the 25th hour
of the day. In the Persona universe, the ones who can invoke a Persona can
experience the dark hour while normal humans will turn into coffins and have
absolutely no idea whatsoever that the 'dark hour' has happened. Meanwhile,
entities known as 'Shadows' will awake and attempt to reach for the humans
inside their coffins so that they can feed from psyches and turning them into
'Lost ones' in the process.
The Dark Hour
is known to drain your stamina while you play, stay too long in Tartarus and
you and your friends will be exhausted the next day at school, you might want
to sleep during class but you also want to keep good grades. But let's keep on
topic here and leave good grades out of this.
Tartarus is
a giant tower with an obscure history that appears during the dark hour, this
is what almost every single battle will take place. Every night you will go
with your group of friends and explore the tower as much as possible. This is
when we fall into the category of 'Dungeon Crawling'.
It is the
perfect time to grow your characters, find items, level up, you know the drill.
Except this game does it in a very interesting manner, considering your can
give orders to your party to split up in search of items, stick together or put
enemies in priority. Don't let your partners stray too far as you could end up
cornered by enemies, forced to fight alone.
The game
gives you its share of advantages though. Outside of battles when an enemy is
spotted you can go ahead and deliver the first hit before it does, therefore
giving you a much better start. If taking
your time through every single battle isn't your style, there's a 'Rush' option
you can activate by pressing Triangle that will pretty much do the battle for
you at a fun speed, you can just sit back and watch the show, be careful as
Rush does not guarantee you a victory, it only makes things much faster.
However the
game's cool features are far from over. The title 'Persona' isn't there to
simply look good, it actually is part of the game, part of you, specifically.
A Persona
in the game, is an incarnation of an individual's personality, note that only
Evokers can use their Persona. During the game it can also be referred to as a
'mask'. These Personas will assist you in battle and prove to be quite useful.
You can have more than one, you can fuse them, level them up, pretty much give
it the same growth as your give yourself during the game. Many people
considered it be like 'Pokémon training' and it is somehow comparable.
The music
is stylish and excellent. It is unique and fits the mood constantly throughout
the game. Not a single time have I uttered ' Oh gosh, not that song again ' or
' I hate that song '. The entire
soundtrack feels like a gift and should be missed by no one, specially JRPG
fans. It can get repetitive at times, but it's nothing soul crushing. Note that the voice acting is also quite
good, no character feels out of place with his or her voice, increasing the
immersion even more.
The
anime-style graphics are quite enjoyable, the game's art style is well applied
to the 3D models and nothing seems or feels out of place, it's a well crafted
universe with believable environments and characters.
The
controls are very, very simple and intuitive, they are responsive and cause no
issue, the camera never gets in the way and navigation is very easy, even if
this is a portable version of a PlayStation 2 game.
Note that I
do not speak about the story in this review, because each player makes his /
her own story by playing, yes there is a main journey to be played through, but
that's something everyone should experience for themselves without being told
anything about it at the exception of the insane amount of freedom you have. If
you play as the male character and have already played the PS2 version of
Persona 3, you should know what to expect, however the game allows you to play
as a female character which gives you a completely new perspective on the game
and it's one of the key features for this portable edition of Persona 3.
Persona 3
Portable offers a long and interesting journey full of possibilities to the
player, filled with a lovingly crafted universe, soundtrack, characters and
combat system. The game can sometimes feel 'infinite' due to how many
possibilities you have as a player, therefore creating an immense replay value.
Also keep in mind there are various difficulty settings.
I
personally would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys RPGs, JRPGs or wants
to give a shot to the genre, Persona 3 Portable is a great place to start and
is sure to be a memorable journey, your journey.
Score : 8.9
/ 10 - I've never played an RPG so inspiring, unique and immersive on a
portable device, too bad you can't have a huge impact on your character's design
via a very detailed customization system or anything of sorts. The game can also appear to be
repetitive after a while but if you love what you're playing it shouldn't
bother you. The game kicks ass.