Reviewed: August 6, 2007
Reviewed by: Megan Dyer

Publisher
Atlus Software

Developer
Atlus Software

Released: August 14, 2007
Genre: RPG
Players: 1

10
9
8
10
9.1

Supported Features:

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, a spin-off from the main line of Shin Megami Tensei games, is no exception, and in fact, is one of the best RPGs that has come out for the PS2 in some time.

An eerie story unfolds. Your main character arrives at a new school and is placed in a co-ed dorm that consists of other students with a mysterious power, a power that your character awakes to. This power is called Persona. During an extra hour of the day (referred to as the Dark Hour) normal people transform in coffins and a mysterious tower called Tartarus appears where the high school normally stands. Monsters called Shadows emerge at this time and seem to cause something called Apathy Syndrome, which practically turns its victims into botched lobotomy patients.

The main character, along with other students in the dorm, has the power not only to stay awake and not transform into the creepy coffins, but also to summon forth Personas, superhuman representations of the characters’ inner selves that have the ability to fight Shadows and enter, as well as explore, Tartarus. These events all have a connection to each other that unfolds as the game goes on.

Your character has the ability to change Personas in the middle of battle, and while your character is the only member of your party that you can directly control, you can still set up different types of tactics for each battle, such as telling one member of your party to heal and support and the others to act freely. Occasionally, this type of battle can be frustrating, simply because you have to put at least some confidence into your party's A.I. The A.I. of your other party members however is relatively intuitive, and there are rarely instances where your party does something that blows an entire battle.

Different Personas can be obtained by chance in between battles with games similar to Three Card Monte; pick the card with the picture of the Persona on it, and you can then use that Persona. Similar to Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne's demon fusion, you can also fuse Personas in the mysterious Blue Velvet Room to create new Personas and shuffle abilities around between them. As always, everything associated with the supernatural in this game is very creepy and at times morbid--but in this Shin Megami Tensei spin-off, there's more to the world than just the supernatural.

During the other, um, twenty-four hours of the day, you are a typical sixteen-year-old kid going to high school. Why even bother with those other twenty-four hours not spent fighting Shadows and getting to the bottom of the Dark Hour mystery? Why, to make friends of course! Different Personas take on different forms and have different abilities. They also have different classes, which is where the socializing aspect of your normal life comes into play.

Throughout the game, you can make friends with (and even date!) different people you encounter. The more you hang out with these people and the more you speak with them (and how you speak with them) strengthens your link with one of the twelve Persona classes (or Arcana, as they're called in the game, which takes a cue from Tarot cards). As your social links strengthen, so does your ability to create Personas. A strong friendship tied to the Chariot arcana will grant a large experience bonus to newly fused Personas of the Chariot arcana, and so on. Therefore, it’s in your best interests to build as many relationships as you can in the regular world.

Sound complicated? It is, but it isn't difficult to pick up as you play. On top of all of this, you can use the rest of your time increasing three personality traits, including Academics, by studying; Charm, by doing various things such as learning romantic one-liners from an evening at the movies; and Courage, which can be increased by eating mystery meat at burger joints, or singing karaoke. Depending on how you increase these stats, certain aspects of the game change, such as how people interact with you.

Eventually, a whole plethora of fun and highly interconnected ways to spend your time is made available to you.. Making social links to strengthen your Personas is well worth your time, as you can fuse Personas that will level and gain new skills right on the spot depending on how strong your social link is with the associated person in your high school life. Taking the time to strengthen social links plays a lot like a high school simulation (a type of game popular in Japan): you can join clubs, work with the student council, compete in sports teams, hit on girls, spend time playing with kids on playgrounds and even keep a lonely old couple company. The simulation aspect feels realistic and allows you to role play your character just how you want to. There will even be times where being a jerk can work to your benefit, so playing through the game more than once, to see all the different paths you can take, is a more appetizing prospect than with most RPGs.

Persona 3 takes time to unravel itself, as you decide how to manage your time on a literal day to day basis, but nothing is ever dull or boring and there is always seemingly more to do. Whether you're exploring Tartarus, strengthening social ties, shopping on the home shopping network (and I dare you not crack up at the "irritatingly catchy song" that plays when it comes on the television), or drawing fortunes at a local shrine, there is always more to do, and it's all loads of fun. It feels surprisingly realistic, too: I found myself caring a lot more about the ins and outs of my character's social life than I ever have in most games. I was genuinely pleased when he got good marks on his final exams--all that studying paid off! Persona 3 is an all-around charming game, and given the amazing variety of things to do with it, it's uniquely hard to turn off and put away.

In game graphics are awesome as well, keeping the same anime style, somewhat cutesy and chibi, albeit in full 3D. Colors are vibrant (the Blue Velvet Room is particularly luscious) and lines are crisp and clear. Designs for enemies and Personas range from striking to silly and the game includes some familiar faces gracing the various Personas the main character can use; fans of previous Shin Megami Tensei games will recognize the seemingly endless list of real world mythological characters available for use in battle, and a good number of new ones (such as Orpheus and Fortuna) as well. The NPC designs in Persona 3 are widely varied as well, unlike some RPGs that fall back onto carbon copies after a while, which is fun and refreshing for veteran gamers.

Still, with all of the variety in character design, the stages of Tartarus stay pretty much the same. While the tower changes some as you advance further into the tower, it never changes much, and the basic layout stays the same. Putting only one dungeon in a game, no matter how big, has its drawbacks. Most of the rest of the game’s backgrounds consist of school, a handful of strip malls, train stations and a shrine, as well as the dorm that your party lives in; not a whole lot of scenery change goes on, which can get a little monotonous after a while.

Despite the almost never-changing scenery however, Persona 3 does look very cool. It’s pleasant to look at for anyone, and is an absolute treat for otakus. Even if you don't care for the anime/manga design, it's hard to think of any other look for this game that would work just as well, and impossible to think of one that would work even better.

Besides a decidedly J-pop soundtrack however, there are also songs played in the style of electronic, techno and hip-hop music, often fused together. The result is very cool, and I wouldn't mind owning the Persona 3 soundtrack myself. It’s certainly a novel experience to fight hellish shadow beasts to the strains of a sassy-sounding woman singing, “Ooh yeah, buh-baby baby,” but somehow it manages to work.

This isn't to say, however, that the soundtrack completely consists of contemporary pop music, which is good, considering there are some spooky and mysterious aspects of the game that call for music conveying a less than peppy mood. While exploring Tartarus and spending time in the blue room, the soundtrack appropriately becomes much more somber. Whatever the case, Persona 3 does an excellent job of making sure that the soundtrack fits the situation, and the soundtrack itself is overall pretty cool and perhaps one of the most unique that I've heard in and RPG in a very long time.

The voice acting on the other hand is spottier. None of the characters have particularly bad voice acting, but none of them are particularly good either, mainly due to what sounds like overacting. Junpei is supposed to be the class clown and his inflection should characterize this, but there are times where he sounds so overzealous that he comes off as annoying when he's intended to be likeable. Yukari, the popular but conflicted member of the group, occasionally sounds like she suffers from sudden bouts of valley girl syndrome; other times, she sounds normal. Some lines are delivered quite well, but it made me wonder why that level of quality didn’t stay consistent throughout the game.

Plus, there are tons of social links to strengthen, persona fusions to try out, and the huge tower of Tartarus to explore. Because Persona 3 goes along a distinct calendar, aspects of the game change daily, and the story itself takes its time to unfold, albeit at a good pace. You won't be complaining that Persona 3 doesn't give you tons and tons of stuff to do, that's for sure. The only drawback to this game from a time perspective, is that there's so much to do and so much fun to be had, that it's incredibly addictive and may cut into other daily activities substantially. You've been warned.