Chickaroo Reviews - Persona 3 FES (PS2)
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 1:42 pm
What if I told you that there are more than 24 hours in a day? And that during the Dark Hour, there are strange coffins and shadows all around...come join me in the Velvet Room for this fantastic JRPG. Game: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES
Systems: PlayStation 2, PSP, PlayStation Network
Release Dates: P3 on PS2: 7/13/06 (JP), 8/14/07 (NA), 2/29/08 (EU), 3/6/08 (AUS)
P3 FES on PS2: 4/19/07 (JP), 4/22/08 (NA), 10/17/08 (EU), 11/18/08 (AUS)
P3 FES on PSN: 4/10/12 (NA), 2/12/14 (EU)
P3P: 11/1/09 (JP), 7/6/10 (NA), 4/29/11 (EU), 4/28/11 (UK)
Developers: Atlus
During the “After School” segment is the most common, this is where you get to roam around the school or around town and do various things. You can talk to people, hang out with people, study, enter a sport, go shopping around the mall, and so much more. Doing some of these stuff will affect the protagonist in a certain way, depending on your actions. If he studies, his knowledge will increase. And so on and so forth.
And now for the big part of the game, the “Evening” section. Once the evening has begun, you will be sent back to the dorm rooms to possibly study, sleep or go to this place call the Tartarus during the dark hour. The Tartarus is the school turned into a big tower full of shadows and monsters. This is where the battling comes in to play. At the beginning of the game, your party consists of the protagonist, Yukari Takeba, a cheerful popular girl at school, and Junpei Iori, the class clown. Running around the Tartarus consists of many shadows to defeat and many floors to explore. While running around, the protagonist can shoot at a shadow with their bow and arrow weapon. Or you can get hit by a shadow if it runs after you.
Here comes the battling part! The battles are turn based. You only get to control your character and not the team mates. However, you can set up their actions via a tactics option during your turn, an example being to tell one of your teammates to heal someone if they’re hurt or attack a certain enemy. You can use your weapon to attack or use your newfound persona to do element based attacks. How you summon your persona is by...having the character shoot their heads with a gun...okay to clear things up, the characters are not suicidal nor does the gun kill them. But it is pretty confusing first time around and may upset a few people. Battles can be short or very long, depending on how powerful the enemy is. If you feel as though the battle is taking forever, you can tap the triangle button to speed things up a bit.
What’s new this time around is the social links. Social links are rankings between relationships you have with the people around you. The more you hang out with them and do stuff with them, the more your bond will grow.
Music is composed by Shoji Meguro.
4 / 5
Systems: PlayStation 2, PSP, PlayStation Network
Release Dates: P3 on PS2: 7/13/06 (JP), 8/14/07 (NA), 2/29/08 (EU), 3/6/08 (AUS)
P3 FES on PS2: 4/19/07 (JP), 4/22/08 (NA), 10/17/08 (EU), 11/18/08 (AUS)
P3 FES on PSN: 4/10/12 (NA), 2/12/14 (EU)
P3P: 11/1/09 (JP), 7/6/10 (NA), 4/29/11 (EU), 4/28/11 (UK)
Developers: Atlus
The Shadows Are Out to Play...
Story: The story begins in the year 2009 with a nameless boy riding a train on his way to Iwatodai to stay in the Gekkoukan High School dorm rooms. He then learns about this club at the school called the SEES. The SEES group is known to help defeat shadows to protect people during what is known as the “Dark Hour.” The Dark Hour is an hour taking place between one day and the next. During this hour, people who are still out and about turn into coffins and these creatures called Shadows come out and attack. It’s up to the SEES group to get rid of them and protect the people at all costs. And now, it’s up to your character to join with the SEES and save the night and day!
Juggling High School Life and Fighting Shadows
Gameplay: The game at the core, is an RPG but also for the first time in the Persona series, mixes in some social simulations. At the beginning, you get to name the protagonist whatever you want. After all, he is you. Since your character is in school, they get to be able to run around the school and talk to others. The game is also set up in different times of the day too. There’s the “Early Morning” segment, where you character walks to school and may overhear a conversation between the other kids at school. During the “School” segment, you may hear a speech from one of your teachers and may be quizzed. You can answer them and may be right or wrong.During the “After School” segment is the most common, this is where you get to roam around the school or around town and do various things. You can talk to people, hang out with people, study, enter a sport, go shopping around the mall, and so much more. Doing some of these stuff will affect the protagonist in a certain way, depending on your actions. If he studies, his knowledge will increase. And so on and so forth.
And now for the big part of the game, the “Evening” section. Once the evening has begun, you will be sent back to the dorm rooms to possibly study, sleep or go to this place call the Tartarus during the dark hour. The Tartarus is the school turned into a big tower full of shadows and monsters. This is where the battling comes in to play. At the beginning of the game, your party consists of the protagonist, Yukari Takeba, a cheerful popular girl at school, and Junpei Iori, the class clown. Running around the Tartarus consists of many shadows to defeat and many floors to explore. While running around, the protagonist can shoot at a shadow with their bow and arrow weapon. Or you can get hit by a shadow if it runs after you.
Here comes the battling part! The battles are turn based. You only get to control your character and not the team mates. However, you can set up their actions via a tactics option during your turn, an example being to tell one of your teammates to heal someone if they’re hurt or attack a certain enemy. You can use your weapon to attack or use your newfound persona to do element based attacks. How you summon your persona is by...having the character shoot their heads with a gun...okay to clear things up, the characters are not suicidal nor does the gun kill them. But it is pretty confusing first time around and may upset a few people. Battles can be short or very long, depending on how powerful the enemy is. If you feel as though the battle is taking forever, you can tap the triangle button to speed things up a bit.
What’s new this time around is the social links. Social links are rankings between relationships you have with the people around you. The more you hang out with them and do stuff with them, the more your bond will grow.
A Nice Mix Between 2D and 3D
Graphics: The graphics here are pretty dang good. This game looks absolutely beautiful for 2006. The 2D models that appear during texts look nice and clear. Battles look nice and the opening cutscene whenever you start up the game is magnificent too. This is one game that pulls off the anime look well.Who Doesn’t Love Engrish Music?
Music: The music is very good too. Probably one of my favorite soundtracks as well. From the catchy “Want to Be Close” that plays at school or the powerful “Burn My Dread” as the theme song, you’ll find a favorite song. Keep in mind that they repeat like crazy too.Music is composed by Shoji Meguro.
Are You Going to Burn Your Dread?
Overall: Persona 3 FES is a great JRPG. From the story to the characters to just about everything in this game. It’s fun and great and offers a nice challenge that’ll make you keep going until you hit the end. 4 / 5