Recently I managed to get a hold of a game I’ve been wanting to play for a while now, and that game would be, if you couldn’t already tell by the title of this article, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3. It may feel like we’re taking a step back here by reviewing a PS2 game, but despite being last-gen the PS2 still has a few gems left to be discovered; Persona 3 being one of these.
Persona 3 is a classic Japanese RPG set in a modern day Japanese city. You start the game as the unnamed, blue-haired exchange student (The Main Character, or MC for short), making your way across the city to your new High School dorm. Along the way, some really freaky shit starts to go down right from the get-go. At the stroke of midnight, everything goes black. You slowly regain your vision only to realize that the streets and buildings are covered in blood and that the busy Japanese night-life has been replaced by a plethora of coffins.
Totally not suspicious, at least not in Japan.
Being the level-headed MC that you are, you quickly shrug it off and believe it must be your tired mind playing tricks with you. Soon, you arrive at your dorm, greeted by a strange boy who takes your name down on some strange “contract”, and then quickly disappears into the thick darkness of the dorm. New voices grab your attention; it’s your fellow dormmates, Yukari Takeba and Mitsuru Kirijo. That’s right, it’s a co-ed dorm. BOO-FUCKING-YEAH. You exchange a few introductions and quickly set yourself up for a good night’s sleep.
The next couple of days are your standard “get to know your way around” days where you have your first few classes as a Junior at Gekkoukan High. The real action begins on the midnight of your first full moon. You’re sleeping soundly in your room, when all of a sudden you awaken to what sounds like fighting coming from downstairs. Yukari knocks on your door and tells you to come with her, and, strangely enough, gives you sword as protection. Protection against what, you ask? Your question is soon answered, for as you reach the roof of the dorm, a giant, amorphous mass of pitch-black claws and daggers climbs its way to you and Yukari. As if this wasn’t strange enough, Yukari takes out what appears to be a pistol and points it…at her own head?
It’s called an “Evoker” in game, although it never explains why it’s a gun.
She attempts to pull the trigger, yet hesitates, and has the gun knocked out of her grips. A voice calls out to you, and, as if on instinct, you pick up the gun and put it to your temple. One pull of the trigger and…BANG! Your mind shatters and something is let loose. This something is what is referred to as a “Persona”.
Then begins the standard tutorial segment of the game. Learning your way around Persona 3’s battle system is about as easy as any other turn-based RPG. You’ve got your HP/MP, attack, magic (using your Persona), wait, but you also have the ability to change Personas mid-battle, an ability that’s completely unique to the MC. Eventually you learn that these creatures you fight, called shadows, come out during a special time of day called The Dark Hour. This hour which exists between days can only be experienced by those with the power to wield personas whilst most normal humans become “transmogged” into stone coffins and are completely unaware of its existence. Anyone else unfortunate enough to be caught in The Dark Hour becomes prey for the shadows, having their minds devoured and going into a trance-like state called Apathy Syndrome. You also learn that your dormmates also use personas and are part of a “school club” called SEES, their sole purpose being to discover the reason behind the Dark Hour’s existence. This is where the MC comes in; now that you’ve come along, SEES now has enough manpower to begin exploring Tartarus, a giant tower that appears in Gekkoukan High’s place during The Dark Hour. Because of your unique abilities, you are chosen to lead your group of persona-users to the top of Tartarus, hoping to find some answers along the way.
Once again, a common occurrence in Japan aside from giant fighting robots.
Phew, now that most of the preliminary summary is out of the way, we can move onto the gameplay. Like I mentioned earlier, battle is pretty standard for an RPG: Attack, use magic, exploit weaknesses, etc. One of the few major spins on battle is that every critical attack or exploited weakness will ‘knock down’ its target and grant the attacker an extra turn. If you can manage to knock down all enemies on the field, you have the opportunity to trade your borrowed time for an All-Out Attack, where your party members essentially gang-rape all of the foes for a substantial amount of damage. Another interesting part about battle is that the only character you have control over is yourself. The rest are controlled by AI, but you can use a Tactics command to change how they go about battle so it’s not completely out of your hands. This being said, the independent AI is pretty good, seeing as how they’ll exploit a weakness if they know it, not use certain attacks if they’re ineffective, and heal when necessary.
The main powerhouses of the game are known as Personas, which are explained as a person’s ‘other face’ or a manifestation of one’s personality. The MC is the only person with the ability to fuse and hold multiple personas (160+ can be made, 12 max at a time depending on level) which take the form of tarot cards when inside The Velvet Room, a strange place inhabited by a long-nosed man named Igor and his assitant, Elizabeth.
It’s called the Velvet Room for a reason.
Here you can fuse personas that you’ve collected in battle in order to create new, higher-leveled personas, although you can only create personas relative to your own level. Along with the personas is a system call Social Links, which chronicle your relationships with classmates, friends, and even girlfriends, and each Social Link corresponds with a certain arcana, or group, of personas. For example, if you make a social link of the Chariot arcana, every time you make a persona of that arcana they’ll gain experience, often instantly leveling them up. Also, a persona’s stats are also the stats of the player, so a more strength-oriented persona will increase the power of physical attacks and skills (uses up HP instead of MP).
Your equipped persona levels up independently from you, so be sure to choose wisely.
Outside of The Dark Hour, you and the rest of your teammates are still high school students, so Monday through Saturday equals classtime. During class, you’re fed an occasional random piece of trivia which has absolutely no relevence to the overall plot, yet should be kept in mind because these are used later on mid-terms and finals which you’ll need to do well on if you want to establish some new social links. Afterschool, you have to opportunity to hang out with people and establish Social Links, go shopping, or increase your traits (academics, charm, courage) which will help you gain more powerful Social Links later on. Doing most of this, other than shopping, will take up that block of the day and you’ll end up back at the dorm during the evening. During this time, you can decide whether or not to explore Tartarus, or just spend the rest of the evening at the mall before bed.
In all, Persona 3 has a very good system of combat with an innovative twist utilizing the persona fusion system. Although where you can fight is limited, Tartarus has 260+ floors, which should keep you occupied for a while, and the sheer variety of personas can keep you playing just to see what you can make, that can range from simple mythological creatures and figures to major deities such as Satan or Odin. Where I feel this game truly shines is it’s ability to put you in the MC’s shoes. Sure, you may not be an evil banishing persona-user in real life, but the quirkiness and depth of the characters you meet outside of battle feels almost real. However, Persona 3’s major downfall has to be its music. The music itself isn’t really issue, but really how often you have to listen to it. Outside of The Dark Hour, everywhere you go you have to the same j-pop songs over, and over, and over again, lyrics and all. It wouldn’t be as bad if places that you visit often just have some looping instrumental track, but this shit really grates over time if you’re not used to it. Also, I forgot to mention that if the MC dies in battle, it’s automatically a game over.
Overall I give Persona 3 9/10, a definite must-buy for any RPG buff with its enticing story and excellent character development. However, I suggest you bring your iPod lest you be ear-raped vigorously by annoying J-pop music that doesn’t know it’s place.
~Lyon~
