Persona 3

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Persona 3 (ペルソナ3; Perusona Surī) is a role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus. It is chronologically the fourth installment in the Persona sub-series of the Megami Tensei franchise. It was released initially on July 13, 2006, for the PlayStation 2 in Japan.

Plot

This story is set in the fictional city of Iwatodai between 2009 and 2010. An unnamed protagonist moves to the city because of his parents' decease. He starts to live in the city's dorm (something like an orphanage) and enrolls at Gekkoukan High School.

But he doesn't know that the Gekkoukan High School hides a giant tower called Tartarus, the cause of the Apathy Syndrome. The tower appears during the Dark Hour, a time hidden between the end of today and the beginning of tomorrow. If the dark hour finishes, everything returns to normal.

Starting from the 1st Full Moon Operation, the protagonist teams up with the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (SEES for short), a group of other Persona users also living in Iwatodai's dorm. The SEES' objective is to terminate at once the "root" cause of the Apathy Syndrome, the Dark Hour, the shadows, and the Tartarus tower.

During this Journey, the protagonist will learn about all the happenings and also make some friends at school and with people all over Iwatodai.

Why It Burns the Dread

Overall

1. This game combines a social simulator and a role-playing game. With Social Links, you can interact and make friends with people whose personalities and traits are based on one of the Tarot's Major Arcanas.
   • If an Arcana's Social Link has an establishment (with a maximum level of 10), if you fuse the Persona resulted with the same said Arcana in the social link will gain extra experience.
2. Over 200 Personas to the wild cards collect and register into the compendium! Most of them (including the strongest ones) are locked behind Social Link ranks, the protagonist's level cap, and Elizabeth's/Theodore's Quests.
3. The SEES' method of summoning a Persona is mostly based on a metaphor of a self-shooting suicide. This is part of the game's dark tone behavior and part of the Megami Tensei franchise's proposal to discuss serious/controversial themes.
4. The SEES' Personas (and the very first Personas of the "wild cards") are based on Greco-Roman mythology. This is part of the game's plot and theme, with Tartarus and Apathy Syndrome.
5. Like every Megami Tensei game, the settings are based on the contemporaneous age. This gives a difference over most JRPGs, in which the settings are mostly based on medieval or steampunk.
6. Speaking of the "contemporaneous age", the plot is mostly focused on the school. This means that you play as a high school student and you must go through a whole academic year. This helps make the setting feel more lively and the characters more relatable, unlike the previous two Persona games.
   • Japan has one of the world's best education systems and PISA rankings. It is a good idea to look at what the Japanese teachers are like.
7. The cutscenes have tons of text. But reading and understanding is very important, so you cannot get lost while playing. However, if you don't want to read, you can press and hold Δ. The texts will be in "fast forward" mode.
8. There are many things to see and do if you have free time outside school.
   • You can create new social links or level up existing Ones (Social Links are optional but very important for raising your strength).
   • There are 4 stores: the Police Station where Officer Kurosawa works (weapons and armor), the Aohige Pharmacy (healing goods), the Be Blue V (accessories for battle), and Shinshoudo Antiques (very useful dungeon-crawling items and persona + weapon fusions)
   • Various activities (paid or not) will raise your Academics, Charm, or Courage. Such as Game Panic (random/varies), Mandragora Karaoke and Wild-Duck Burger (courage), Chagall Café and Hagakure (charm), and the Wakatsu Restaurant (academics)
9. For the first time in Megami Tensei, the enemies (shadows) appear on the field, rather than simple and annoying random encounters.
   • Also, just like Mother 2 and 3, you can get an advantage by hitting the shadow's back and immobilizing it for one turn. The inverse can also happen.
   • If you're strong enough, the shadows will try to stay away from you. In other words, you will repel them!
10. The shadows' vulnerabilities to an element (Strike, Slash, Pierce, Fire, Ice, Wind, Electricity, Light, Darkness) are random and the effects are more varied (Weak, Strong, Null, Drain, Repel). This gives a difference to Pokémon, whose effects are restricted to type and ability.
    • The combat incorporates the Press Turn feature from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, which is renamed "One More" system: hitting an enemy's vulnerability will grant an extra turn which can be used by a character to perform any other action (though only one extra turn can be obtained at a time, and passing your action doesn't give you an extra turn, unlike mainline Shin Megami Tensei games)
      • If you want to know the shadow's vulnerabilities, ask for an Analysis.
    • Perform massive violence against the shadows with all your party members! You must knock down all the shadows (by hitting their weakness or performing a critical) and have at least two people in the party.
11. The カッ effect. That's it.
    • The sexy and stylish glare effect defines the style of the Persona series and influences a fair amount of fan-made tribute works and memes, whether related to Megaten or not.
12. There is Fusion Spells, which is undoubtedly the strongest spells in the game! You need two specific Personas to perform some of those, and only the wild cards can do that. Click here to see a list of fusion spells.
13. Both 3D graphics and anime FMVs are decent and okay, but aren't ugly. The same applies to the interfaces and even the game's logo.
14. Awesome soundtrack; composed by Shouji Meguro and sung by Lotus Juice & Yumi Kawamura.
15. Many memorable quotes like "The arcana is the means by which all is revealed.", Akihiko Sanada's "I've been waiting for this!" and Aigis' "I need your HELP!".
    • Yet some derogations like "Yuka-tan" (for Yukari Takeba) and "Stupei Ace Defective" (for Junpei Iori)
16. The first-ever Persona game released in the PAL regions (despite being only in English). The numeration is unchanged and previous games would be released later.
    • It is also the first Persona game to be localized to South Korea and the first-ever Persona game not limited to Japanese and English.
17. 100% uncut for all region locks.
18. Characters from Revelations: Persona and 2 are mentioned by watching the television in the dorm at night, thus confirming that the game takes place in the same continuity as the previous games. The in-universe game "Innocent Sin Online" (present in the Hermit S.Link) is a fictional MMO version of Persona 2: Innocent Sin (Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei in the Japanese version), and the characters' in-game avatars are accordingly named Tatsuya and Maya.
19. The English dub is as good as the Japanese original.
20. While Persona 4 and 5 had their funny and epic moments, here, there are some moments in the story that not even Persona 4 or Persona 5 would go this far.

Persona 3 FES

1. New characters, a new story called The Answer (which happens after the events of the called The Journey) and a new epilogue as well.
   • Aigis becomes the main protagonist of the said chapter, where she tries to cope with the death of the protagonist, meets her long lost sister named Metis, and find the reason for the protagonist's death.
2. More Personas were added.
3. Secret videos of the protagonist's dorm mates have been added, which are funny and embarrassing at the same time! You can see them in the monitoring room where Shuji Ikutsuki usually stays.
4. Speaking of funny situations, the SEES can now wear unusual clothes to go to Tartarus, and they will react to whatever they wear, such as the female party members being embarrassed when they wear high-cut armor.
   • However, this would be unuseful if you want the best defense/evasion values for your party members.
5. Koromaru can now be taken on walks. You may receive very valuable items, which may be useful for battle or exploring the city.
6. Several Social Links have been modified slightly, such as Tanaka (XV "Devil" Arcana) being available at Night/Evening.
7. Several New Elizabeth's Quests were added.
8. A hard mode is included.
9. You can now select 4 totally different soundtracks. But only if you have Fuuka in your party.

Persona 3 Portable

1. Despite being somewhat inferior due to the PSP's hardware limitations, this version is a unique take on the game.
2. Now, you can play with a female protagonist. Often nicknamed Hamuko by fans, her social links, plot details, and soundtrack differ from the male variant.
3. This version features most of (if not all) the updated mechanics from Persona 4. For example:
   • Now you can control your party members! Go to Tactics and select Direct Commands for all of them.
   • You can now Defend instead of simply Wait (do nothing). This is a very good change because you can reduce the damage you'll take and avoid being knocked down.
   • Follow-up attacks: Every time you knock down (hit a weakness or hit by critical) a shadow, one of your party members may want to knock down a shadow too. By performing a unique attack.
   • You can now equip your party members and ask for healing in any way, form, and position, rather than strictly having to talk with them to do something.
4. The interface is more organized and better looking.
5. Instead of walking, you need to move a cursor and navigate to where you are, which is more practical and faster. Even better, you can press Square for a shortcut to go somewhere!
6. Somehow, this version includes Persona 4 content like the Inaba city Yukiko Amagi (for Hamuko role only), and Margaret. As Persona 3 is set 2 years before, you'll see them younger.
   • The de facto debut of Vincent Brooks, the protagonist of Catherine.
7. You can now choose 5 difficulties instead of only one in the original or two (Normal or Hard) in FES.
8. It was announced at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022 that it will be coming to Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Which could mean the possibility of graphics up to 4K and 60fps.
9. PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch ports were also announced as well.

Bad Qualities

Overall

1. If the protagonist dies, it's game over. Regardless of your party members being alive. Doesn't that sound familiar? Same thing applies with the later Persona games.
2. Fuuka Yamagishi's voice acting is abysmal. To make matters worse, she's your Navigation/Mission Control throughout the whole game starting from the 3rd Full Moon Operation's #Bosses, meaning you must listen to her constantly state the obvious.
3. Repetitive combat, grinding, and environment designs.
4. Unlike Persona 4/5 where you can befriend or romance your female Social Links with the male protagonist, you can’t befriend any of them. This means that as you continue to max out their Social Links, it’s an automatic romance for all of them, and you can’t avoid it. (The female protagonist, however, is free to both befriend and romance the male social links).
5. There is a shadow hidden in Tartarus called The Reaper, that will appear if certain conditions are met. It is stronger than the final bosses of the game. Fuuka (or "Mitsuru Kirijo") will give you advice and tell you not to fight with him.
   • He can be fought at the very beginning of the game rather than being restricted to New Game Plus.
6. Except for your party members Social Links, some Social Links (aside from your party members) can be bland and/or uninteresting to delve into, such as the Moon Arcana Social Link: Nozomi Suemitsu, Magician Arcana Social Link: Kenji Tomochika or the Hierophant Arcana Social Link: Bunkichi & Mitsuko.
7. Yukari Takeba can be rude, unlikable, detestable, and somewhat of a Mary Sue at some points. Especially in the chapter, The Answer.
   • She's at her worst when you’re about to fight Hierophant, and she forces herself to go with you despite her weakness in the boss’s main attack.
   • Not to mention, she mocked only Junpei after finding out that he was scared when the world was about to end and not the others when they were just as terrified as him.
8. Your personality stats (Academics, Charm, and Courage) must be completely maxed out to start a Social Link with your party members.
9. While the animation and art style in the FMVs are still decent, most of the colors haven't aged well since they've looked more washed-out, and also, due to their washed-out colors, the graphics can be a bit dull and plain. (Though it can be understandable. Considering Persona 3 is a fairly old game)
10. Very inconsistent age rating. In North America, it is Rated M despite containing little blood and mild swearing. In Europe, it is rated PEGI 12, equivalent to a hard E10+ and a soft T. In Japan, however, it is rated CERO A (equivalent to an E Rating), even though the game is obviously not intended for a minor.

Trivia

• It spawned memes such as Aigis The Toaster, Mitsuru's Marin Karin, Burn My Bread, Fuuka's voice acting, The battle theme, Aigis' "I need your help" often being misspelled as "I NEED UR HALP" and Yukari's "Stupei, Ace Defective".

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[[Category:PlayStation 2 games]]