Off Topic: My Favorite Video Games Part 6 Persona 3

This time for another special review since I have turned 18 I am going to do a review on a game I recently finished. Also it's my favorite game, first if you haven't seen one of the recent video game posts I am a big fan of turn based RPG's. This is the first time I have played Persona and the reason I wanted to start with this one is because of the little infamous fame it has. Whenever I hear people talk about this game it's always joking about how the heroes use guns to summon their Personas. So yes they shoot themselves and I remember seeing clips of this game when I was young and it freaked me out. During this year my friend told me that Persona 3 FES is up for download and since I'm the RPG fanatic I had to try it. All I have to say is that the game took me 70+ hours to get through the main story and I was never bored. The story revolves around a protagonist who is moving into a dorm. While going there something odd happens as the whole environment changes. It's darker, the moon is yellow, and coffins are around where people should be. Our main hero though walks through it all and finds goes into the dorm. There he signs a contract and after that he meets Yukari, but at first she is very startled and almost used her Evoker. Mitsuru stops her though and soon things just seem bizarre right now. Going to the next day we see the hero going to a new school and it's just like any other school. He meets a man named Junpei who is a friend of Yukari. You get more antiquated with Junpei and you keep going back and forth between the dorm and the school for a couple of days. During these days though the crew along with their director are watching over the hero since he has the potential. On a day of a full moon everything goes wrong. A member with the name Akihiko is injured when he fights a big monster and is heading for the dorm. This is all happening during in the strange environment and Yukari goes to save the hero. The two get to the roof, but that doesn't help as the second batch of the creatures called Shadows appear. Yukari tries to fight, but is too scared. Soon she is attacked and her Evoker gets into the hero's hands. He starts to think and uses the Evoker and summons his Persona. At first though it changes for some reason and fights off the Shadows. His Persona returns to it's normal state and then he takes out the rest of the Shadows. After the battle he faints and finds himself in the Velvet room. A man named Igor says that since he is under a contract he will lead the boy to his destination and will help with anything related to his powers. A week passes as the boy wakes up in a hospital bed. Yukari then tells him about the fight against the Shadows and the lost of her father. Soon he is told about the Dark Hour which happens every day at midnight and it acts like an extra hour. During this hour the Shadows roam around and cause havoc. With the SEES group in action and getting new members they fight these creatures in a maze which acts like a nest and fight off any Shadow that comes out of the maze.

Like any usual RPG from Japan the story does sound simple, but it has tons of plot twists and each one expands on some part of the story. If it is a huge dramatic change or development for a character. Reminding me of the characters there are a great bunch of them and make the story more enjoyable. You are the main hero as he is mostly silent and you decide what he says at certain points. Yukari is a young and bold girl who fights because her father's death has a connection with the Kijiro group and Mitsuru is the daughter of the president. Soon she finds more out about her father's work and it pushes her more to fight for her father's wish. Mitsuru is an intelligent woman and acts very mature, she deals with a lot of grief and she has trouble getting past them. Soon though she faces things much worse than her past deeds and fights for her father as well. Junpei is a womanizer, but inside he is actually very mature. When he starts to care for someone he really does shine a lot and he also says very motivating words. Junpei is my favorite character from the gang since he can ve great comic relief he also has the best character development. Akihiko shares the same grief as Mitsuru as he can act older, but at first he is a man who loves to fight and to increase his abilities. He is also a character who pushes on and is the first one to find his true goal in life. Fuuka is the next member and she is a very shy girl who keeps to herself a lot. Her life was starting to get ruined by a couple of bullies that lock her up in the school. The next day she is gone and soon the bullies start to drop. The team investigate and find her during the Dark Hour and there she finds an Evoker and uses it to protect herself and the bully who soon becomes a friend. Next is a dog named Koromaru and even though he doesn't do much for the story he is probably the best dog in video games ever. Aigis is a robot designed to fight the Shadows as she acts like a robot no duh and doesn't get human emotions. She starts to find her human self soon and she has to protect the main hero for reasons that will be explained later. Ken is an elementary kid and like Mitsuru and Akihiko he acts way too mature for his age. He is also in connection to their past and the final member of the team. Shinji is a total punk badass who left the group a while ago, but joins again because of Ken. All the characters are mostly just trying to protect the world, but in reality there is more going on than they think. I absolutely love the characters in this game, they all have an arc to follow and all of them get memorable moments and push things further.

I want to talk about the villains, but that will spoil way too much of the story, but they are great as well. Mostly basic, but how they pursue their goals is another thing that pushes the heroes farther. Now one thing to talk about in this game is the gameplay mechanics. It's very different from a usual RPG, you only control one character. The rest of your team act on their own in the fights, but when with commands you can make them heal or go on a full assault. This really works with how you think because getting the right people in your team is important since all characters have something unique. Another thing that stands out in this game is that it has a dating sim like engine. In this game you make bonds with the main and minor characters as it gives you more powers to unlock different Personas. Also the main hero can hold multiple Personas so having the right Personas help in battle as well There are 26 social links so yea getting them all maxed out is very hard and to get some you need your stats at high levels. So everyday you can be working on a social link or trying to max out your stats so you can get other social links and stats are important. If you get your intelligence up you can do great on tests which can get you items later on.  Another thing you have to juggle around in this game is the maze called the Tartarus. You fight to reach the top and it has over 200 floors! No need to worry though some levels are blocked off for a certain time and you easily get fighting out of the way quickly. Also there are requests which can be getting items from enemies or getting items from characters on certain dates. So overall not only is there a great and long story to follow you got social links, stats, requests, and fighting to get to the top of the Tartarus. Good luck trying to get everything in the first walk through is all I have to say. No need to worry because there is a new game + and in it you can carry things back from a previous walk through like your stats. So if you have the time I recommend maxing out your stats so that in the "+" mode you can focus more on the links.

So if you love RPG's, great stories, collecting many things, and a strong fighting system, there is no excuse why you shouldn't get this game. You can download Persona 3 FES on PS Store for $10! Another reason why you need to play this game is that the ending is amazing! This game has many great things and it got a lot of emotions from me. If it is happiness from defeating a big boss or sadness from a sad part in the story (be prepared there is some good heavy stuff in this). This is usually the fan favorite in the Persona library (from what I heard) because not only is there a second version to the game (FES it comes with another story which should take 30+ hours) there is also a PSP version of this game. It's pretty big and I'm surprised I don't hear more about this masterpiece.