Shin Megami Tensei series is an unique RPG games because its not like the most RPGs that have a feature deep, engaging gameplay that spans dozens of hours, intriguing characters and tons of battles. But it have a brought up as many complex and adult concepts. Everything from alternate dimensions and questions of sanity to the occult and supernatural experiences has been fair game in these titles, making SMT one of the more mature series available. Persona 3 is the best of persona series that i`ve ever played,how about u?
It begins that a players take on the role of a nameless junior transfer student that's arrived in Tokyo to attend the institution of Gekkoukan High School. While everything seems fine at first glance, your character quickly finds out that things are horribly wrong at the school and in the city of Tokyo. Apparently, every night at midnight, the world finds itself stuck between other dimensions in a phenomenon called The Dark Hour. At this time, humans are transmogrified into coffins and strange beasts known as Shadows roam the land looking for people to feed upon. However, a select group of people (including your character) can avoid this imprisoned fate at midnight, fighting the Shadows from attacking people using special abilities known as Personas, manifestations of a character's psyche. Fortunately, this group also attends your high school and is known as S.E.E.S. - The Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, whose entire purpose is understanding and eliminating the Shadow threat from the world.
P3 is unlike previous Persona titles, the action within the game is split up between daytime and nighttime activities, all of which move rather quickly over the course of the game's school year. During the day, you'll be attending classroom events, such as studying subjects, answering questions that your teachers pose to you and other educational activities. Successfully performing these duties will add points to your charm, academics or courage stats, which will help you build skills that you'll use along the course of the adventure. However, you're also spending the days talking to other students, making friends, joining clubs and even gaining girlfriends. There are lots of people to talk to, but you can only dedicate your time to one person or group at a time. As a result, you'll often find that many of your days after school are frequently torn between choosing who you want to interact with, while frequently feeling as though you're not fully gaining insight into anyone in particular. In fact, there were some school days I found my character having to decide between at least five separate people that wanted my attention, which left me feeling as though I could never satisfy any of these friends. The plus with this situation, however, is that it encourages replaying the game to see what different outcomes you can acquire by befriending different people.
Even though the large amount of life/dating sim elements may be somewhat distracting to most Persona or Shin Megami Tensei fans who are only interested in the role playing elements of the game, there is a very important reason behind trying to become so popular at Gekkokan High. Every person or group you befriend will let you build what's known as social links, which are broken up along Tarot card lines. As you strengthen these links, you are allowed to create and summon new Personas that belong to that particular Card. For instance, speaking to someone online will give you access to the Hermit class of Personas, while talking to people in the Student Council may unlock the Emperor class for your character. This is important, because your character is somewhat of an anomaly when it comes to S.E.E.S. members - whereas they're only able to summon one Persona in battle, your character can summon and hold multiple beings within his psyche.
These Personas come with their own individual talents and skills, as well as elemental preferences. For example, the Angel Persona is associated with wind, while Omoikane is an electricity based Persona. However, they won't remain with these skills for long. Players will be able to strengthen their Personas in battle, allowing them to boost their individual stats as well as acquire new abilities. As a player winds up using a Persona more and more, they'll find that being's abilities evolving into new traits that can be employed in battle. Characters looking for even more powerful Personas can take advantage of the Velvet Room, which allows players to combine multiple summoned characters into one new Persona. Depending on the characters you mix together, you'll unlock new skills.
There are a few things that you have to be aware of when it comes to Personas, however. It can be somewhat difficult to figure out what skills you happen to be gaining when a Persona gains a level or is combined into a new entity. The game doesn't provide descriptions of the various abilities on the Persona's character page, which can be somewhat confusing. For instance, if you saw Bufu and Posimundi, would you actually know what those powers were supposed to be in a battle situation? Probably not. However, this is the only info you'll receive on the Persona's info screen. While you can discover what these do via the Skills menu or in battle, it can be somewhat confusing when you're trying to figure out what you need in the middle of a fight and you can't really gain the info you need because all you're shown are skill names. As a result, you have to memorize what abilities you constantly use if you're going to be successful in battle. The same could be said of the evolution of skills, because you don't have any control over those whatsoever, meaning that you'll randomly receive some skill (often that you've never heard about) that you'll need to take into battle. This can be extremely confusing, particularly when you set out to take on the Shadows at night.
During the night, specifically during The Dark Hour, you can take on the Shadows in Tartarus, a labyrinthine tower that mysteriously erects itself on the grounds of the high school. Broken up into different themed areas known as blocks, Tartarus is the main "dungeon" that your party will crawl through as you attempt to eradicate the threat. You won't be able to continually enter Tartarus night after night, because each time your party enters its halls, they run the risk of becoming exhausted due to the amount of evil in the walls, which makes them vulnerable to attacks. Each floor within a block is stocked with items and Shadows, who will attack on sight. Since you can see these creatures, you can attempt to gain an advantage in battle by striking them or sneaking up on them and landing the first blow.
While the gameplay takes on a traditional turn-based affair once you get into battle, you'll find that there are a couple of twists to this standard formula. The first part of this revolves around exploiting enemy weaknesses. Players can scan Shadows, trying to find what elemental or physical flaws they have so your party can land extra damage. Successfully striking these beasts in this manner will frequently knock them to the ground, incapacitating them for a while and providing you with an extra attack in battle, which can be used to finish that monster off or focus on other creatures. What's more, knocking down all monsters during a fight will allow you to perform an All-Out Attack with every member of your party at the same time, which can't be defended against. The other twist that the battle system provides is a rush feature that lets you speed through battle sequences, automatically triggering all party members to attack without any user input, which can be useful for charging through meaningless monsters or fights that you can easily win.
However, the battle system also has a couple of issues that wind up cropping up and hampering the overall experience. Unlike other turn-based games, you'll only control your main character; your party members are governed by AI commands that you can establish, such as conserving your skill points or acting freely. For the most part, your characters will act intelligently, using their abilities at the right time or healing characters that need help. However, because you don't have full control over the other members in your party, you'll find some moments of frustration. For instance, if you happen to die, the game is over, but you may find that your AI won't focus on your needs every now and then, which may force a restart. What's more, you may find that they'll stop using their skills during an "Act Freely" command, which doesn't particularly help when it comes to eliminating enemies that are weak against specific elemental abilities. As a result, you may find yourself trying to do everything possible that you can during your turn, because you might not receive the result you want from your allies.
At least the end of some battles gives you much more than the standard experience and spoils scene. Depending on the monster you defeat, you'll receive a chance to select a tarot card from a number of cards on screen. Similar to a three card monte game, the cards will shuffle about, allowing you to select the one you want once they've stopped moving. Not only will players be able to gain new personas in this way, they can acquire new items, money, experience points or even heal their party in this manner. Gamblers even have the chance to double their luck by putting their won card up against higher stakes. However, there are some dangers: players can lose all of their earned cards or even receive a cursed card, which summons Death to relentlessly track your party through the halls of Tartarus. It's a creative twist on successfully beating monsters.
Persona 3 is a solid title graphically. While the game doesn't visually raise the bar of the PS2, it's nevertheless impressive, if for no other reason than the game has some of the most striking monsters you'll face off against in an RPG. Beheaded dancers wielding fencing foils, tables that are flinging pans and utensils, as well as walking gloves are only some of the basic creatures you'll fight your way through. The Personas are pretty creative as well, with everything from unicorns and scantily clad women to brain stems with eyes and moving wisps of hair. But perhaps the most arresting, and potentially disturbing, visual of the game revolves around the summoning of the Personas thanks to the use of the Evoker pistol. With all of your party members "shooting" between the eyes or their temples to summon their entities and recoiling from the impact of the action (with shattered glass replacing the expected brain matter, thankfully), this is one of those animations that's both intriguing and shocking at the same time. This isn't one of those titles you'll want to play when someone impressionable is in the room.
The title is supported by a ton of voice acting, and for the most part, the dialogue is pretty good. There are some lines that fall flat, as would be expected, but you get a good sense of many of the characters because of their chatter as you move through your school day or in the midst of battle. Whether it's the inclusion of the Japanese honorific tenses or the arguments that characters get in, you really get a sense of everyone's personality in the game (appropriate considering that the game is called Persona, right?). The music manages to support this as well, although it's a bit weaker. A mix of rap, beats, lyrics and other compositions, you'll find that the game typically uses and reuses the same track over and over again. As a result, you'll probably find yourself tiring of the battle theme or the school theme, for example, because it feels as though you've heard that same loop for the past five minutes or more.
I really like this game, and also the character is have a strong image..
for shin megami tensei or RPG-ers fans, u must try it! because it`s one of a perfect game i ever played. ^^
MY SCORE is 8.7
