In a lot of ways the first real Persona game was also the best. P3 started the whole year-long life sim aspect of Persona, and there is still the immense thrill that comes from stepping into someone's life. The game is split between a high school life sim by day and a dungeon crawling adventure by night. And you get to schedule what you do for both.

So what does this game do better than any of the others? Emotional connections. I don't think I've ever been gutshot as regularly or consistently as I was playing this game. It is a dark, oppressive piece of work, and that only makes the times you get to stretch out and enjoy yourself taste even sweeter. Subsequent games have nicened up the atmosphere, and while that was arguably necessary and good, I will always miss the emotional ties that can only be forged in suffering. Another thing it does really well is the midnight hour. You do all of your exploring at night, which is both a cool conceit and an easy timetabling adjustment. And basing the appearance of the supershadows on the phases of the moon makes planning easier and provides a logical reason for the deadlines. That's something that all the subsequent games have struggled with: making the arbitrary deadlines seem like they have a purpose. It's also easier to plan around having the big events come on a set day.

Where P3 is lacking in comparison to its successors is largely mechanical. The randomly generated levels of the tower are uninspired and repetitive. The inability to control your fellow characters is a nuisance rather than a challenge. There are insufficient things to do at nighttime. And the social links got much better too. Even leaving aside P5's incorporation of Mementos missions and social stats into the social link setup, P4 and P5 were a lot more tactical about who you can form social links with. P3 has a lot of non-party social links. Especially when it comes to girls. Most of your romance options are found outside the party, which is both less fun and fails to bring you closer to your teammates. In P3 there is no non-romance option for getting close to the girls, and you're punished for upping two at once. And it doesn't help that your female teammates are all boring apart from Mitsuru.

While later games may have improved on the characters and social links, they don't come close to matching the intensity of the plot. It feels dangerous and unpleasant, and while you can forget about it for a time by fooling around at school you never forget that you're fated to face monsters at night. I love P3.

I see persona 3 as the dealing with and acceptance of heartache, of obstacle and difficulty— all things external, that weigh on the heart and soul. What one must bear, and what one must do to bear, and, further than that, empower themselves with.. work with and around it, dynamically, instead of letting it go (star), forgetting it (judgement), avoiding it (hermit), or putting it someone else (tower). Carpe diem and the bad ending also very much work into its overall message, as well, because a lot of social links and main story stuff is about living with others to the fullest you can.. appreciating and enjoying the company of others, spending moments with others consciously, because they are finite. To hide from these truths would be hiding from reality, denying yourself the ecstasy of life, both by not overcoming yourself and your challenges, and not, thereafter, enjoying what is left, of which, there would be a lot, because of how much you allow yourself to see the truth.

Persona 4, on the other hand, is about making the most of the time you have with others, though through self-realization, introspection, and coming to terms with things internal. It is the mastery of the self, and harmony found within that persona 4 plays with... I think thats why it has a larger focus on each different party member, and saving them through defeating their own shadows, their own self-perceived shortcomings, and helping them realize themselves, introspectively, to gain greater power. Instead of adding some externally (mitsuru, yukari, junpei), realizing something of another that then applies to you (shinji, ken, and akihiko), or dealing with a burden put upon you by someone else (keisuke, akinari sort of, because his disease was "unfairly given" to him by his mother), it is dealing with your own imposed obstacles, removing the barriers you place upon yourself because of yourself.

So persona is for moments of life where it seems unfair, it seems like the world is against you.. like in the end game, with the entire cult, and a Goddess against you, it is unfair.. it is unjust. But dealing with that burden (also the entirety of SEES and exploring tartarus.. mitsuru mentioned its unfair that that specific group of teenagers had to clean up their parents or someone else's mess, but then akihiko retorts, "that if not us, then someone else would have to do it") and facing it head on (as they did Nyx), understanding that its unfair, feeling and coming to terms with those latents feelings of fear and anger, frustration.. feeling it unfair that its put upon you.. Yet still doing it, still trudging along despite all the external pain and sorrow, impeding you, and finding resolution and completeness thereafter. Acceptance. Love for everything, realizing that it wasn't all for naught, nor unfair.. You acted justly, played with the cards life dealt you, and, if you didn't refuse your fate, or refuse what you feel and know you must do, no matter the difficulty, you come out on top. Satiated, complete, and finished.

the ultimate culmination and resolution of everything that had happened in the game.. the ending is the most emphatic parting message, the ultimate way of expressing death and finality, though in beautifully satiating light..

The feeling of finishing Persona 3 was almost the complete opposite of finishing Persona 4. When I finished my trip in Inaba, I felt nothing but joy, but when I finally destroyed Tartarus, I felt... sad!

And that felt surprisingly good!

Persona 3 seemed like a game on the verge of something incredible. It has all the right ingredients that would eventually make the franchise stunning, but its formula was still being worked upon, at the time.

But that's not to say that the game is bad! Because it's definitely not! While P3's gameplay may feel arcaic, the story and characters shines on the entire experience. The story does take A LONG time to actually develop and the pacing of progressing/leveling up does feel a little dull, but whenever something big happens, it floored me. Every character motivation is well written, dialogues are melancholic, they make you care about each person's tale, the protagonist has an actual interesting past in comparition to P4 and P5 and the ending... MY GOD, THAT ENDING IS PERFECT! Sad, sure... But superb.

I've also noticed that leveling up your social links in this game was simpler than the others. Side characters weren't as great as seen in future games, but they were nicely done, nonetheless. The soundtrack has fewer tracks, but they're VERY memorable and good to listen to. I am a sucker for every soundtrack that Shoji Meguro touches and this is no different. It perfectly captures the sorrow and urban distress of the game, making its atmosphere uneasy and unique.

As for the dungeon crawling aspect of P3, well... I don't like it too much. Fusing personas, managing the different and creative characters, exploiting weaknesses and making your party as tactical as possible is still fun and, honestly, the saving grace of P3's dated battle nuances - but DAMN, it is bland! - I didn't think this game was harder than P4, but leveling up here is A CHORE. The dungeons design sucks, enemy variety is a joke, traversing through Tartarus breaks the story's pacing and everything feels VERY slow. And the worst of all: Grinding might be boring, but it's a necessity. If your level is low when you're near a boss or mini-boss, than get your ass down to killing some shadows IMMEDIATELY!

ALSO, I WANT TO PERSONALLY PUNCH THE DUDE(S) THAT DECIDED TO TAKE AWAY THE POSSIBILITY OF CONTROLLING YOUR PARTY MEMBERS! FUCK THIS AND FUCK THAT A.I.!

It's sad that Tartarus sucks so bad, because that's the only negative thing I can think of. If it wasn't for Tartarus, even the story and character development would feel more natural and generally faster. I'm glad Atlus improved on their dungeons. Oh, one other thing, DO NOT play The Answer! It's unbalanced, ruins a perfect story and requires EVEN MORE GRIND!

While I wouldn't recommend P3 as your first Persona or JRPG, I'd definitely recommend to any fan of the franchise and genre. Especially if you crave a good, thoughtful, bleak story and atmosphere. It filled me with joy and then broke me. I loved it, despite its gameplay hindrances!

Memento Mori, everyone.

In my last status update, I claimed to have mixed thoughts on the game. My opinions still remain the same, however. Just to point out, I have only beaten the Journey and watched cutscenes of the Answer.

I still think the pacing WAS the worst in anything Persona (the worst pacing would now be P5A's Stars and Ours OVA). It's still really bad though. The first act of the game and December grind the story to very long halts.

I hated the first act, I really liked the second act, and I thought the 3rd act was a mixed bag.

I liked the first two large shadows because they were treated as actual threats. The next 10 however are just treated as MacGuffins. What are the consequences if you don't defeat these shadows? I don't know. They don't seem to be causing harm. I don't really think there is any danger when you come across these guys. Besides if you did kill them, you'd be closer to summoning the Fall, but hey. Our characters didn't know about that part. The first two did cause harm. They were dangerous. The first one was attacking the dorm. The second one was controlling a train. Therefore, if you didn't kill the shadow, a paradox would occur.

Gameplay-wise, the combat was still very irritating. Stuff to do during the evening is still lackluster. December is lackluster. There was no point in controlling your character in Kyoto and the festival. Enemy design is still copy-and-paste and weak.

The characters in this game are good. I think some of the characters are very weak Some were pricks like Hidetoshi and Nozumi. I thought Bebe and Kenji were annoying. Junpei is probably my favorite guy in the game because he's developed the most out of everyone. Unpopular opinion, but Yukari is my favorite character in the game as she is one of the most multilayered characters in the series. Her emotions spiraling as her loved ones like her dad and the protagonist die are what I like about her. I even like her in the Answer. Aigis and Ryoji are the main reasons behind my favorite things about the game. The twists. They are absolutely incredible and they make perfect sense.

The soundtrack is my second favorite in the mainline series. P5> P3 > P4. I love the normal version, final boss version, Spring of Birth version, and the Winter of Rebirth version of Burn My Dread. I like listening to Iwotodai Dorm and Joy when I'm doing my schoolwork. I like the Battle for Everyone's Souls. This is not in the normal game, but I liked Our Moment in Persona 3 Dancing.

As you can see, this is a 2/5. Would I play it again? Well, if there is an actual definitive version or a remake, I'd definitely play it and that's what I want from Persona 3. As much as I adore Persona 5, I'd want a Persona 3+ more than Persona 5 The Royal (+ meaning something like Persona 4 Golden) FES has the answer while P3P has FEMC. Why not the best of both worlds? I like the game. It's just that Persona 3 as a game has aged. Would I recommend it? I recommend you try it for yourself and see how you feel about this game.

FINAL RATING: 5/10

EDIT: Actually I changed my mind about which definitive version is which. It's P3P because you can pet the dog as FEMC. That version gets a 10/5.