67 hours in, I'd like to apologize for hating on Persona 3 in the first place because as I kept playing, it SLOWLY grew on me. I just modded the game to control my party members despite going against one if P3's themes. I still have criticisms with the game.
The pacing is absolutely awful. In fact, it's even worse than any of the Persona anime/movie adaptations. It takes 20 hours to finally get some story instead of exposition and constant downtime for 20 FUCKING HOURS. Don't forget December. After maxing out every social stat, at night, there is really nothing that you can do. There's just 1 social link, 1 place to level up your stats, 1 store for medicine, the Velvet Room, and Koromaru.
Enemy design is the weakest of the modern games as some enemies like Mayas, Cupids, and Knights are recycled.
As memorable as Shinji's death is. There wasn't really much that we know about him. He wasn't fleshed out and I wanted more from him because he did seem to be a promising character, making this scene less emotional. The second movie, however, did improve on Shinji a little bit.
The Kyoto Trip was nothing but a waste of time. Aside from Mitsuru and Yukari, nothing is fleshed out. Why even control your character in the first place when you can only do one thing(that being a request)? Just get rid of the request. Just show us the characters actually interacting with each other instead of just photos.
December. The game takes a dramatic nosedive and is by far the worst month in the game so far and it's right after October and November which were great which makes it even more disappointing. The story just grinds to a halt once this month arrives. There is nothing new to do. No new section in Tartarus. Just do 3 requests, do social links, maximize social stats, grind in the highest section of Tartarus that you can reach. That's it. Why can't you make your decision now and get the month over with already?
I find myself to have mixed thoughts on this game. On one hand, I like how the game keeps raising the stakes in October and November as you see people actually die. I like how the characters are impacted by these deaths. I really liked some of the twists in the game like Ikutsuki's plan to revive Death and Pharos disappearing beforehand, Pharos becoming Ryoji, Aigis putting Death inside MC, and why Aigis wants to protect MC. The latter 3 twists really make sense and are brilliant because of how the developers used their resources to have those twists make sense such as MC, Pharos, and Ryoji having the same voice actor in both English and Japanese. On the other hand, those characters that die are not that fleshed out. The pacing is awful. December is awful. There being a lack of things to do at night. The disability to control your party members is frustrating unless you mod it or play the PSP version. So far, I'd maybe give it a 4 or a 5/10.
