A Long Time Coming

This is a post about a game that took me way, way too damn long to complete.

Persona 1 Cast

I've been familiar with the Persona series actually going all the way back to the (fairly heavily altered) American release of the first game. I didn't play the game myself, but I watched a friend of mine suffer through the first two dungeons and based on all the fun he wasn't having I decided to give it a pass (despite being a Japanese-style RPG [JRPG] fiend back in those days).

Persona 2 was the first entry in the series that I picked up and played myself. It turned out to be a better entry point that the first game - more accessible overall, and less of a hack in its localization (though that was made up for by America only getting half the game for many, many years) - and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Persona 2 Cast

I never ended up finishing Persona 2, but that was as much due to how I played games back then as anything else: I was one of those "100% completion" types, and trying to farm up rare personas drove me bonkers.

Persona 3 marked a significant turning point for the series (which is in and of itself a branching point for the Shin Megami Tensei series). It shifted the series away from a focus on dungeon delving and traditional JRPG narratives by focusing instead on a much more narrow, personal timeline. You experience the story over the course of a year (played out day by day, though in heavily abstracted time) through the perspective of an average Japanese high school student (who can also summon super-powered entities from their soul).

This change in perspective made Persona 3 a much more personal journey than any of its predecessors, or indeed almost any other game of its time. It was very well received (both domestically and abroad), and put the Persona series on the map.

Persona 3 Cast

I've started Persona 3 no fewer than three times: once when it was initially released, once when it was re-released in an updated version (Persona 3: FES), and once when it was re-re-released on the Playstation Portable (PSP) system as the "ultimate" updated version of the game, Persona 3 Portable (P3P).

It is that last version that I spent the most time with, though I put a decent bit of time into the previous two versions. Persona 3 in general is a very, very long game: due to the nature of how it plays out, you can only play through it so quickly. Its entry on HowLongToBeat.com lists the "main story" as taking almost 70 hours; getting any more into the game than that can easily clock in at well over 100 hours.

Because of the minimum time required to complete it and because of how I played it - almost exclusively when travelling, as a way to relax and pass the time - I just recently crossed the finish line on P3P last week.

I've been playing that game since it came out, so it only took me 5 years and 80 hours to get through it.

Yikes.

Since I've spent so much time with the game, I feel like I owe it a quick review, even if it is so old at this point that I don't know how many people would play it instead of Persona 4 (or the upcoming Persona 5). So I'll try to keep it brief.

Persona 3

The Good:

The way Persona 3's story is told is really remarkable. I've played a ton of JRPGs over the years, and (even though it fundamentally boils down to the same "bonds of friendship will always overcome" core idea that you've seen a thousand times in games and anime) the way you experience Persona 3's story gives it significantly more impact than it probably would have otherwise.

The "slice of life" storytelling approach is very refreshing and interesting. It also leads to a very time consuming game - you can only play through a calendar year so quickly, no matter how you abstract it - but it never really feels like a drag. The game does a fairly good job of throwing enough activity at you to keep you occupied with your days, and there are plenty of times where you'll be going through the days like potato chips because you want to see how things unravel.

That is due in large part to Persona 3's most successful new system and what has become iconic to the Persona series: the Social Link system. The abstract of it is this: some people in the world represent special bonds that you can forge and then enhance through social activity. Doing so not only rewards you with that character's story (all of which that I experienced were entertaining and worth going through) but it also gives you significant gameplay advantages as well (as the Social Links play a big factor in the fighting power of your main character).

Persona 3 - Social Link rank up.
One of the most satisfying screen/sound effect combos ever.

It is a tremendously enjoyable feedback loop, and it is one of the main things that kept me playing all the way until the end.

Combat is also very fun. Persona's combat has always emphasized buffs and debuffs more than other games have - and in that regard this game is no different - but this game also heavily rewards you for figuring out and focusing on enemy weaknesses. It would take too long to go into all the particulars, but the net result is a combat system that is fast, easy to understand, and very rewarding.

Music is also a significant part of the Persona 3 experience. Unlike other JRPGs which opt for sweeping orchestral scores, Persona 3 uses a more modern musical style to emphasize the setting. At first I wasn't sure I would like it very much, but it quickly grew on me (which is good, as I spent 80 hours with it).

Finally, without spoiling anything, I will say that Persona 3 has a very good ending. The final boss fight is suitably epic without being unnecessarily cheap or gimmicky, and the final story sequence is one of the better ones I've experienced in a JRPG.

The Bad:

For as good as the combat system is (especially compared to other JRPGs I've played that felt like they were phoning it in), it definitely shows its age. I never really found a good use for the hit point driven physical attack abilities, and having three different types of physical attacks seemed like extra complexity that never really paid off (and was randomly irritating when an enemy was immune to that specific attack type).

Although it is initially pretty interesting, I found the day/night cycle fell apart after a certain point. Theoretically, you're supposed to be constantly juggling your time: you can only hang out with others during the day and fight enemies/progress through the main dungeon at night. Fighting too much at night leaves you tired for the next day (which can eventually make you sick, and all of those statuses make it that much harder to actually progress in the dungeon), so you're meant to fight a little each night and make small inroads into the dungeon while also juggling your daytime activities.

Persona 3 - "Tired" status strikes

In practice, I never ran into any issues with that. You have plenty of leeway before anyone gets tired in the dungeon during a given session of fighting, and it gets to be even less of an issue as you gain levels (I literally never had anyone get tired after about the midway point in the game). If someone does get sleepy, there is an item unique to the P3P version of the game you can use to instantly cure the tired condition - its relatively expensive and relatively limited, but you'll probably always have access to more than you need.

Many of these things were changed as the game went through its iterations. The initial release of Persona 3 was much more harsh about tiredness and forcing you out of the dungeon; almost too much so. So for the record: I prefer it this way over any other iteration of the system.

But it also meant that every time more of the main dungeon opened up, I would spend the first night carving a bloody path through to the next plot mandated roadblock, then never go back to Tartarus (the name of the dungeon) unless a side-quest mandated it. Probably not the gameplay loop the designers intended.

A big part of why I played the game that way is because Tartarus kinda sucks. It sucks for a combination of reasons, all of which unfortunately build on each other. 1) Tartarus is randomly generated every time you return to it. Aside from a few fixed floors, it changes every time. That sounds great, but in practice you quickly learn how the pieces fit together, so it doesn't feel very random. And it makes Tartarus dreadfully boring to look at and explore. That is made all the worse when you realize: 2) that you'll be spending a looooooong time in Tartarus.

Persona 3 - Tartarus

All of your exploration and combat - aside from a few one off boss "dungeons" that aren't very interesting either - takes place in Tartarus. Something this sparse would have been acceptable in a shorter game, but it quickly wears out its welcome after 20-30 hours (which leaves you with 50+ more hours to spend in the damn thing before you're done).

Conclusion:

Overall, I'd definitely say that playing through Persona 3 was worth it. I'm not sure how many folks would go back to that game with Persona 4 available (which seems to fix many, if not all, of the issues I had with the previous game), especially considering that the best version of it to play is on a system that is very, very dead. Though I suppose that does mean that you can pick it up for relatively cheap and have a pretty fantastic portable JRPG on your hands for hours and hours.

Persona 3 Portable Main Characters

Now that I'm done with P3P, I've started in on Persona 4 Golden (the Playstation Vita re-release of the original sequel). By all accounts, this is another 80+ hour game, so I'll be really happy to finish this game before 2020, if P3P is any indicator.

Needless to say, I was not at all bothered when Atlus announced that Persona 5 is going to be pushed back to 2016. I am clearly in no rush.