bahamut_zero's Profile

The main attraction of Shin Megami Tensei games for me personally has been the ability to develop unique and fascinating games without compromising the essential ingredients of a traditionally great RPG. The morbid and often macabre nature of these games is yet another added bonus for me as it is a welcome break from the usual dull and predictable RPGs of late.

Persona 3 like all SMT games (released in English) does not fail to impress. Newcomers to the game should find it a fresh new experience while veterans of the series will appreciate it as yet another welcome addiction.

The story revolves around a young highschool boy who has the ability to summon several ‘personas’ – manifestations of his subconscious soul, for lack of a better explanation. In order to summon these personas, the other characters as well as the main protagonist have to shoot themselves in the head with an evoker, which looks like a gun and is responsible for forcing these personas out into physical form. Like most SMT protagonists, the main character is silent and does not speak at all, apart from a few grunts while in battle.

Our highschool hero not only has to deal with the ups and down of being a teenager in school but he has also been entrusted with the responsibility of eliminating Shadows – which as their name suggests are the bad guys who roam around at night, specifically the Dark Hour. The Dark Hour relates to an hour of time between midnight and 1am that noone else is aware of except persona users and a few others. As such your routine will be shuffling your main character between levelling up during the dark hour and coping with daily school life – homework, girlfriends, sports, studying and maintaining friendships etc.

One of the most fascinating aspects of SMT games is the use of demons, or in this case ‘personas’ to assist in battle. In Lucifers Call you could fight alongside them, in Digital Devil Saga you could eat them (and you WERE them), in Devil Summoner you could capture and enslave them and finally in Persona 3 you can summon them. Most of these ‘demons’ have a fundamental weakness which when exploited can cause them to miss a turn. Strategy is therefore required to win battles. In P3, since the main character is the only one that can summon different personas, he is subject to their weaknesses while they are equipped. The other characters also have weaknesses based on that of their respective personas.

There is also an interesting relationship between the personas and the relationships you build in the normal life of the main character. As he meets and forms friendships, he develops social links. These in turn are tied to the arcana categories of the various personas (there are 20 altogether) so as his bonds strengthened, so are the personas. This is incentive enough to ensure that enough time is spent socialising and spending time with your ‘buddies’. While this may seem tedious and boring to some, it does break the general monotony of levelling up and makes for a far more interesting experience.

I would strongly recommend you try Persona 3 especially since the next instalment Persona 4 is due out in March. While this review is based on the original P3 game, the FES version is probably more worthed since it has added bonuses such as costumes, secret personas etc. Its a great game and newbies should most definitely try the other SMT games as well.