Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3
RPG, PS2, 2008
Persona 3 was one of the last true gems of the PS2 era. And I'm not surprised that you not have heard of it. I only heard of it thanks to a friend asking me to listen to its soundtrack on his iPod. I bought it 2 months later in May 2008. Come August 2009 I seriously started to play it... briefly. Come September 2010 and I endeavoured to to play more than just 10% of it this time. And you may question why I can categorize the game as quasi-perfectly completed by 10%.
Persona 3 is set on an in game timespan of one year. This is incredibly daunting for someone such as myself who likes not to explore in games, but fuck about quite irresponsibly. I adored Harvest Moon: Back to Nature on the PS and there I had 3 years, but still I hated it. I could once again say the same about Shenmue 2 on the Dreamcast, but that only affected the ending. What I hate about Persona 3 being on a day by day timespan is that it is an RPG and I can well and truly get a game over because I haven't levelled up enough at any point in the game. And this is annoying if after 30 hours of play, I would have to start all over again.
This almost became true after two months of the game. After defeating the first boss at the beginning of May(in game), I had to sit school exams. Yes. School exams. School Exams that I probably did better in than in real life. Persona 3 is literally a Final Fantasy/Harvest Moon crossover where social interaction is as important as physical dominance. Hanging out with school friends and colleague improves your social links with them, and each associate has a specific Arcana. Here we add one more game into our crossover: Pokemon.
All the fighting in the game is done with a spiritual being summoned by the main character(by shooting themselves in the head): a Persona(clever...). Although all party members are limited to one Persona of a specific Arcana, the main character(our heroic silent protagonist) can utilize a whole plethora of Personas and switch between them mid-battle. New Personas are created by winning battles and successfully picking their card in a random post-battle shuffle minigame(along with money, weapons and experience boosts) which is easily exploited or fusing them(this is where most of my time was spent) into new powerful Personas. Depending on your social link of the Arcana the Persona will belong to, they will receive an experience points boost and will level up. At lvl 20, I was able to fuse the lvl 20 Persona Sati who belonged to the Magician Arcana. Combine that with a maxed(lvl 10) Magician Social link and Sati levelled up to lvl 25.
So, back to my story of post May Boss. During the exam period, none of my school friends and battle allys were able to aid me in hanging out for social links nor fight at night time. I say fight at night time since fighting is only possible during the dark hour, an hour at midnight that no-one knows(except those who know and exist during it) exists(similar to when daylight savings towards the beginning of winter occurs) and is central to the games plot. Luckily, our heroic silent protagonist wields the potential and at night, when the school turns into the random towering dungeon Tartarus, he is able to go there with his allies and prepare literally for the next boss. Tartarus is randomly architected every floor, and every 5/10 floors or so, there is a teleporter so you don't have to climb to every floor each time you begin.
After the exam period was over, I finally was given a full party to go into Tartarus with but it was still somewhat difficult to reach higher up in. Without being able to reach the highest available floor at that time, I was beginning to brick it and I'd have to restart for the 4th time. But then Persona 3 truly opened up to me and I began to master its strategic demands. In battle, all enemies have a weakness(any of 3 physical and 6 magical traits), and if exploited, the enemy is knocked down and the player gets an extra attack. Knock all enemies down and a batman themed "All-out Attack occurs" causing great damage. Realising I couldn't exploit all these weaknesses, I experimented with every persona, fusing many together, just to get basic elemental attacks. And after that, it was all uphill.
The true trick to Persona 3 is choice. I was fighting every battle, but as you fight more enemies, you eventually become fatigued(tis why you have to go to tartarus over several nights), and I died quite a bit due to my excessiveness. But, by just rushing up floors, the game became a true joy, and I was beating seven shades out of every shadow. The June Boss was no match for my squad, and after the initial difficulty passed and I came to grips with the game, I was able to immerse myself in the setting and truly appreciate the games compelling story.
Persona 3 is a fine game and definitely deserves the look of any RPG enthusiast. The fact that it has come out on PSP can only encourage you to try it. However, it is a game of patience, but the waiting is surely supplemented by the excellent soundtrack of J-Pop, rock and techno, which may seem an unfamiliar choice but incredibly complementing the entire bizarre world and concept of Persona 3.
