12.6 hours played
Written 7 days ago
I give this game a rank C- (55-60%)
Average game - only if you have nothing else to do.
See my profile for more details about my reviews.
If you want a very insightful take on the Persona series from someone who knows it a lot, move along. This is the review from a casual like me, who always heard about Megami Tensei (then Shin Megami Tensei) when I was teen, then Persona, and always wondered what it was. Lots of people rave about it, whether they are from Japan or from other countries, and SMT/Persona is a big series with its fans like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Xeno, etc. So I had to try. But that's a C- for me.
It might not have been the best idea, some will say, but I tried Persona for the first time with this one, Persona 3, and despite my stubborn efforts (12 hours!!), I can not reasonably continue. I still think this game is not too bad, just okay, but it depends a lot on who you are. If you are a tired dad like me seeking for the next unique and profoundly fascinating game, Persona 3 will not do it for you. If you are a younger gamer (15-25) this game might be totally awesome.
Basically Persona 3 mixes elements of JRPG (turn by turn combats, summons to do all kinds of magic, dungeons to explore, dialogues, party to manage etc), with some Visual Novel mecanisms, Anime art style, groovy music, slight Dating Sim features, Pokemon mentality (collect them all), etc. That sounds great on paper!... problem is, the way it is done is just not for me. While I think Final Fantasy series has been mediocre for a long time now (since the 10), I still think they do a better job than this at making things fun, engaging, varied, etc. Here, the combats are very repetitive, the dungeon is utterly boring - and yes, you read that right: dungeon, singular. Procedurally generated dungeon, orthogonal as all hell (imagine New York streets style), same boring enemies, same summons to call... it is incredibly dull. I can not see myself doing that for 100 hours.
Yes the idea to collect the summons is a bit exciting, especially to level them up, to fuse them to get new ones, etc... but maybe when you are 15 with all the time in the world?
And then the story and world: it screams 'awkward Otaku' every minute. Play a dull teen with the same charisma as an oyster doing the same damn thing everyday: not exploring and adventuring in a fantasy world, no, that would be too exciting! no, you are a Japanese teen in a boring suburb of Tokyo, waking up everyday, brush your teeth, get dressed, go to school, have dull conversations with angsty teenagers, flirt with chicks, wear your social mask to talk with pals, then study at the library or do a part time job in a cafe or play a mmorpg on your computer or at the arcade center, eat some ramen in a shopping mall... so, yeah, a second life of sort.
When I was 14 I might have loved that? and sure enough, Shenmue gave me that feeling. But now? I just can't take it. Day after the day the dates get crossed out on the calendar (April 6th, April 7th, April 8th...) and I read somewhere that the game gets better after a year? Not sure if it was a joke, but looking at the pace I can totally believe that!
The story? No idea, it just feels non sensical, boring otaku junk of a teenage boy fighting monsters in a dystopian dreamworld version of Tokyo, summoning weird and quirky creatures mixing odd fantasy and bondage fanatism... oh, and to summon them, you need to shoot yourself in the head. Yup, no idea why. Everything feels just so random that if it was just for the story, I would give it a 3/10.
But the art style is really cool, the atmosphere is not too bad, the dialogues are incredibly, incredibly renewed (imagine: each character will tell you something different EVERY single day! that's nuts), the music tracks are really cool and funky... so yeah, overall, it's a 56%, it's not bad, just not for me anymore - and even then, when I was teen, I loved varied gameplay and varied level design, which is not the case here, so even then it's doubtful I would have enjoyed it. Maybe it's just not for me! I will go on and try the 4 and 5 and Metaphor, though.
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