Now as I'm sure you've noticed from my gushing over it with Kazy, I'm a big fan of the Persona series. Yes, series, not just 4. I'm currently playing 3 again, and I thought I'd do a bit of a review on it.
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 is the multiple-award winning spin-off of Atlus's Megami Tensei RPG series. The series has been around since the late 80's even predating Final Fantasy, and yet odds are that none of you have heard of it. This isn't so much a hipster comment on how awesome the stuff you've never heard is, so much as a comment on how old the series is. Hell, the Persona series started in 1996. So yeah, Atlus has been in the game for a long time.
Despite that, they sadly very few of their games made it outside of Japan. Of the original series, only Shin Megami Tensei 3 made it here, although the entire Persona series, and the Raidou Kuzunoha series made it here. Despite that, none of them ever escaped from the realm of obscurity, and into the mainstream.
Persona 3 was the first to break that mold, thanks to a combination of some damn good music, likable characters, and the introduction of the Social Link system, a system I'll get to in a moment.
You take the role of the new student in Gekkoukan High School, but on your way there the first night, you discover things aren't quite what they seem. As soon as you get off the bus at midnight, things start getting weird. All electronics turn off, water turns red, the sky turns sickly green, and every human transforms into a large coffin, and monsters known only as "Shadows" roam. This "Dark Hour" occurs every night during Midnight, although a select few can experience this time, with the power of Persona, and fight back against the Shadows. In addition, your school transforms into the nightmarish labyrinth known only as Tartarus.
"Your school has a pool? That's cool, mine looks like something out of M. C. Escher's nightmares."
After discovering that you posses the power as well, you join the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, also known as SEES, and fight your way up the tower, as well as exterminating the powerful Shadows that escape into the city every full moon.
The combat system is fairly simple to understand. You can go into battle with three party members, not counting the main character. Each character has one Persona with 8 different attacks, and their own strengths and weakness. While they learn new attacks on their own, and delete old attacks at their leisure, their weaknesses will never change. However, your main character has the unique ability, known as the Wild Card, to hold between 8 and 12 Personas, and switch between battle, and summon them... by shooting yourself in the head.
Yeah, it's that kind of game.
There are three methods of physical attacks (Slash, Strike, and Pierce), and six methods of magical attacks (Fire, Ice, Electric, Wind, Light, and Darkness, the latter two being instant kills). There are six reactions to each different kind of attack (Weak, Normal, Resist, Null, Reflect, Absorb, the last not being an option for Light and Dark magic). Those reactions change how much each attack damages you. Weak means you take double damage, and are knocked down, Resist means you take less damage, null means you take NO damage, reflect means all damage is sent back at your enemy, and absorb means you regain all the damage you would take as extra health. If you manage to his an enemy's weakness, you get an extra turn. Once all of your enemies down, you can initiate an All Out Attack, dealing massive, and unblockbable damage to all of your enemies.
Unlike your party members, who's only Personas stay usable throughout the game, your Personas are only good for about 6 levels, before you have to get better ones. After battle, you can occasionally get new Personas, although those are typically weaker than your current ones. With these weaker Personas, you can enter the Velvet Room, and make use of the services the residents offer.
This guy looks legit. I'd totally be alone in a room with him and his creepy assistant, wouldn't you?
Inside the Velvet Room, you can accept sidequests for various rewards like money or items, or you can fuse together your weaker Personas for stronger ones. In fusing them, you can not only get a Persona with stronger stats, you can also get the new Personas to inherit abilities from the two Personas used to create it. So if you really liked that instant death Dark attack that had high odds, you can pass it onto the next Persona. Unfortunately, each Persona has certain kinds of moves it likes, and moves it won't like, so the odds of certain moves getting passed on vary depending on the Persona. But with a lot of time, you can eventually get a Persona you may like, such as Mara.
"I am he, and he art I. From the sea of Koji's soul, I come!
Each Persona is one of 22 categories, based on each of the Major Arcana in the Thoth deck. While those categories are sometimes useful for figuring out what moves a Persona may like, their true value comes from the Social Link system. Upon creating a new Persona through fusion, if you have a rank in the respective social link, the Persona will gain bonus experience, frequently gaining anywhere from one to five levels upon creation. Social Links made their debeut in Persona 3, and they are likely to be the sole reason this game became so popular, as you are given the ability to actually interact with, and befriend various characters in the game, from that guy in your class, to the party members who fight eldrich horrors by your side. Over the course of your friendships, you get to know them, and even help them through their troubles.
It's not what it looks like.
The robot just wants him to touch her most private part.
Wait a minute...
The social link system plays like a dating sim, and this unique mixture between demon fighting and high school could have easily failed, but ended up being the key to it's success, with Persona 4 improving on the system, by allowing your friendship with party members to enhance their abilities in combat.
You'll notice I went out of my way to avoid talking about anything but the most basic aspects of the story. Well, if you want to learn more, well. that means you'll have to go looking for the game. Most of the twists in these games are things you actually care about. If you don't believe me... ask Kazy what she wants to do to the guy who spoiled the bad guy of Persona 4.
Persona 3 was original released on the PS2, although it is currently on sale on the PSN for $9.99 and there is also a PSP port. All images are the copyrighted property of Atlus.
