Well, it was only a matter of time until we got to the Persona franchise, and I am madami than happy to start off with this one. But not the OG Persona 3, mostly because I didn’t buy that one. No, we’re here to discuss Persona 3: FES.
Persona 3 is set in a Japanese city where you play as Minato-Makoto-Door-Kun- The kid in the image above, as he moves into a dorm with other young teenagers, only to learn that the city every night at midnight turns into the Dark Hour, where the local school turns into a giant tower called Tartarus and everyone turns into coffins. So, what’s teens to do? The answer is spend time with friends, go on wacky adventures, and occasionally talk about inevitable death. This wasn’t my first Persona game, but damn was it a really good one like any others in the franchise. Despite the fact that you are tasked with completing certain floors of Tartarus before a deadline, most of your time will be spent exploring the town after schools. Here, you can buy weapons for future trips into Tartarus, go and max out your characters social skills, and being a first in the series, interact with other people to advance Social Links, a system in the franchise where you hang out with side characters to learn their stories and to get benefits from it (Though you really only get them near the end). The game has so much for you to do. It’ll be hard for you to see everything in your first playthrough. Lord knows I wasn’t able to. But that’s okay, because what you will get to experience is the really good story, all about depression, death, and robots, all connected to the ability of Personas, which each party members has and each one has different strengths and weaknesses. But what’s an RPG without its characters. While Persona 3 doesn’t have my outright paborito cast of characters, I still really like the ones here. Each and everyone of them has something unique about them. Mitsuru’s desire to be a better leader, Akihiko wanting to get stronger to help others, Shinji’s distrust due to losing one of their own, Yukari sucks, Junpei wanting to be a hero so he doesn’t feel useless, and Aigis. Oh man, poor Aigis. She really deserved better. But what about the FES version? What does it add? Well, aside from some cool costumes, you get to experience new events in the game, you get to go on a petsa with the assistant of the franchises recurring character, Igor, named Elizabeth, and she is just so much fun. And there is also The Answer… *cough*. So yeah, FES is a pretty good version. You get all this and some bonuses, and for a reasonable price too, so how can you refuse. And the soundtrack is probably my paborito in the franchise susunod to 5’s. I just pag-ibig the rap soundtrack. It works well with the urban setting of Persona 3.
Persona 3 is not my first entry to the franchise, but it is a good starting point for others. It’ll take some time to get used to not having full control of your party, but it is still a worthwhile experience. Also, Elizabeth is best girl. Fuck you. Fight me