Review: Persona 3 Portable

Atlus really does treat their fans well. Many associate them with the lavish pre-order bonuses they include with their games, usually without any additional charge, running the gambit from collectible figurines or plushies to art books, soundtracks and more. And while they are as willing and eager as most other developers/publishers to re-release games (i.e. for a new platform), they almost always are sure to update and add something extra to reward those who might be buying a title for the second (or third) time. Obviously, Persona 3 Portable is a prime example of this. Originally released in August 2007, the game was later re-released in a “director’s cut” version (with added content) less than a year later, also for the PlayStation 2. Now, almost three years to the day after the first game came out, gamers old and new to the title can play it once again in a third iteration, this time for the PSP, with Persona 3 Portable.

Basically, two types of gamers are going to be interested in this game: those that played Persona 3 and those who didn’t (but may have played Persona 4, its critically acclaimed follow-up). For those who haven’t played Persona 3 yet, this purchase may be a no-brainer, especially if you already played and enjoyed Persona 4. Fans who have already experienced the game once (or maybe even twice) may have more reservations, especially because of the shift in platforms. While I fall into the category of those who are playing Persona 3 for the first time, I’ll do my best to point out what is different and what’s new in this handheld version for those veterans who may be on the fence about picking this game up.

First, for those new to the game, I’ll outline the basic premise. You play as a high school transfer student who arrives to the dorm very late (after midnight) one night to witness some pretty strange happenings. Eventually, you discover that each day actually has 25 hours, not 24, including a “hidden” hour called “The Dark Hour.” During this time, which occurs after midnight each night, most people are unconscious, unaware of the mysterious happenings, sealed away in coffins while monsters called shadows run loose amidst the changed world. However, some people have the gift of staying awake during this time; the problem with this is that the shadows will attack anyone not in a coffin. Those unprepared to deal with them, rather than dying, having their minds fed upon and become “Lost,” victims of what has been termed a depressive mood called “Apathy Syndrome.”

Luckily, a few people have the gift not only of maintaining awareness during the Dark Hour, but also of summoning a Persona, a representation of themselves that aids in fighting the shadows. Your character discovers the dorm in which you live is the headquarters for SEES, the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, which is determined to fight the shadows and hopefully find out more about the mysteries of the Dark Hour itself. You soon discover that during this time your high school transforms into a “shadow nest” called Tartarus, a labyrinth you will explore throughout the game, battling shadows to hopefully reach the top and learn the truth.

When not battling and exploring Tartarus, you experience life as a high school kid, going to class, participating in clubs, and hanging out with friends. For those unfamiliar with either Persona 3 or 4, this might seem strange, but it’s really what sets the game apart from what would otherwise be a more generic dungeon crawler. Unlike the rest of your party members, your character has the ability to control several different personas, and with the help of Igor (and his assistant) in the Velvet room, you can combine two or more personas to create new, more powerful ones in a process called “fusion.” Whereas other Persona games have this ability, the later games introduce social links: bonds you form with friends and other people you meet that influence your ability to fuse personas in the Velvet Room. In other words, the more time you spend with your friends, the stronger your link will be and the bigger bonuses you will receive when fusing personas of the type matching the social link. It sounds a bit confusing, but basically it means that hanging out with your friends isn’t simply filler in-between dungeon crawling; instead, it is a necessary part of the game, and one that adds a lot of fun.

The biggest change, and the one that may most entice veterans of the previous versions, is that P3P allows you to play the entire game as a female (instead of a male) protagonist (note: you can choose a new male assistant in the Velvet Room, Theodore, rather than the original’s Elizabeth, if you desire). Rather than simply a swap of some art, your gender does affect the game, creating new interactions with your friends (former “friends” become potential significant others, and former prospects become friends), and your social link interactions also change, with some new storylines. For example, eight of the social links are completely re-done from Persona 3: FES, while two are completely new, including the Sports coach and the library chair. In addition, all the male party members now have their own social links for you to explore as well. Others links have been vastly altered; for example, you can now make items in Home Ec or Cooking club to give to others when you go out on Sundays.

I played through the game with the female protagonist, partially because as a female gamer, I almost always try to play as a female main character, and also because I found myself while playing Persona 4 really wishing I had had the opportunity to play as a girl instead. However, the main story arc is unchanged, so if the prospect of having a few new interactions and minor side-story changes doesn’t get you excited, then the addition may not make this a “must buy” for you. Still, Atlus didn’t stop with the female MC when it comes to adjusting the game this time around. Other changes have been implemented as well.

The basic battle system is almost the same: you explore dungeons in 3D and must attack shadows before they can attack you to gain an advantage, then enter into turn-based combat where you use attacks, persona skills, or items to defeat enemies. Nearly all enemies have innate strengths and weaknesses (as do your personas and those of your party members), and a lot of the fun of the game is in figuring out which attacks work best on which enemies in order to defeat them efficiently. For example, if you attack an enemy with their weakness (i.e., use Garu, a wind skill, on an enemy weak to wind) you will knock the enemy down and get a second chance to attack (or whatever else you wish to do with your turn). Successfully knock down all the enemies and your allies will offer to do an “all out” attack in which everyone attacks together. Taking advantage of weaknesses to trigger these group attacks is an essential skill and adds some strategy to the game.

One important change, and one that most gamers will find especially welcome, is that Atlus has taken a page out of Persona 4‘s book and now allows you to control all your party members in battle. No more relying on the AI to get things right: control freaks (like myself) can now dictate specific commands to each member in his or her turn, if desired, allowing you to battle efficiently. Other changes (a la Persona 4) have been implemented, such as co-op attacks and other skills your allies will gain (i.e. being able to survive with one HP), which make battle a little easier.

You still have weapon fusion (introduced in FES), in which you can create special weapon uses, weapon bases (gained from defeating rare gold shadows) and personas. One change with weapons is each main character is now limited to one weapon type: one-handed swords if you play as a male and naginatas (a new bladed pole weapon) if you are a female. Not having played the game before, I don’t miss the ability to use different weapons (since you were limited to katanas in Persona 4), but veterans may be upset by this change.

In previous versions of Persona 3, some fused personas would tell you they had something “in their heart” to give you, and if you leveled them up enough, they would give you that item (i.e. a weapon). That system is still in place, but in addition to it are skill cards, something apparently taken out of Strange Journey’s playbook, and which I really liked. Basically, some personas will have a skill card they will give you once they reach a certain level. You can see what skill card and at what level they will offer it on the persona’s information screen in the menu. For example, early in the game you will recruit Pixie from the dungeon, and after a few levels she will give you the card for the “Dia” skill (a useful, low-level healing skill). You can then use this card to teach that skill to any other persona you want. It is useful in completing quests (if you are asked to present a persona with a specific skill, for example) or for adding a skill you need to a persona you like that may be lacking it. Best of all, you can take your cards (one at a time) to the shrine and get them copied. It takes five days, but after that you will have two identical copies, meaning you can use the skill cards almost infinitely. I really hope to see concept implemented in Persona 5.

The game also features some cosmetic changes which you may or may not like. In general, I feel as if Atlus did a good job optimizing the game for Sony’s handheld, rather than doing the “lazier” thing by simply porting it exactly as-is from the PS2 version. For example, while the PS2 versions of the game had you explore the town and school in 3D, for the PSP, Atlus chose to use static scenes that you navigate a cursor around to move to new locations or talk to people. Think of it like using the town map in Persona 3 or 4. I personally really liked this and thought it worked much better for the handheld than the 3D method would have. Some say it causes you to lose immersion, but I think most people (especially those who have already played P3) will really appreciate it. You can also use shortcuts by pressing the square button, although I really wish more shortcuts were available. For example, there are parts of the school you can’t access by shortcut, and I don’t see any reason why there couldn’t be a shortcut for, say, the field or the gym.

Another change, and one that is more upsetting, is the fact that Atlus has cut the anime and 3D cutscenes from the game. Instead, all interactions take place in anime still-screen style. The backgrounds are really well drawn and the portraits are nice, but it’s a bit disappointing that the backdrops are always empty. Still, it’s a minor fault and one that shouldn’t hurt your experience all too much.

Part of the reason the story is still conveyed well is the large amount of quality voicework. Not all of the dialogue is voiced, but the most important interactions are, and it really brings the characters to life despite the visual limitations of this version. Another interesting thing about the audio is that playing as a male protagonist apparently keeps the original soundtrack intact, while the female’s storyline adds some new music. Personally, I found the music of Persona 4 much better, and felt the volume was off. This was actually one of the biggest gripes I had with the game: it doesn’t allow you to independently adjust the volume of sound effects, music, and voice in the menu, which was frustrating. The music was very loud (and annoying, in my opinion) most of the time, so I would turn my volume down, but then I’d have to turn it way up in order to hear the voicework during spoken dialogue sections. To make things worse, in moments where the voices speak over “background” music, I found the music often drowned out the dialogue. I don’t know if this problem is limited to the PSP version (perhaps due to the low quality of the PSP speakers), but I definitely would recommend using headphones for most of the experience, as that seemed to help.

Shin Megami Tensei games can be extremely challenging and lengthy, but P3P hopes to ameliorate that somewhat. For example, you are given a range of difficulties when you start your game, including Beginner, Easy, Normal, Hard, and Maniac, allowing everyone from the first-timer to seasoned MegaTen player to find a level challenging enough for their tastes. I played on Normal, and for the most part found it fairly easy. I usually died when an enemy was cheap (killed my MC in one blow) or with bosses before I was able to figure out the strategy to defeating them. While the first type of death is frustrating (especially since you can lose a lot of progress), the second is part of the experience, like the games of old, it prompts you to go back and try again using a new technique or after leveling up a bit to grow stronger. In terms of the length of the experience, like its fellows, P3P is not a short game. It’s hard to judge how long, exactly, due to the fact that the PSP will record time logged unless you turn it off (i.e. even in power save), but based on my experience with Persona 4, I would say it should take approximately 100 hours to complete once, more depending on how much you grind and how many of the side quests you choose to undertake. However, I personally find it much easier to complete such a long experience in handheld form than in a console version. It took me a year to complete 130 or so hours of Persona 4, but I was able to make it through P3P in a few weeks, playing a bit while doing errands, watching TV with my husband, or waiting in lines.

I was actually pleasantly surprised as to how well Persona 3 translated into a handheld experience, to be honest. I was a little worried, because I had memories of hours and hours of time spent in dungeons in-between save points in Persona 4, and especially with the poor battery life of the PSP, I was a bit hesitant. However, Persona 3 is actually broken down into pieces fairly well, allowing you to play for a few minutes and save (then quit) if you’d like, even in dungeons. For example, many floors have “access points” that will warp you to the dungeon entrance, where you can save, which is really nice. You can pick up your PSP, explore a few levels in Tartarus, use an access point, save, and be done, if you want. I do think it would have been nice to implement a quick save feature that would allow you to save and quit at any time, and that would erase whenever you resumed play, but you won’t miss it as much as I thought you would. Of course, the addictive gameplay may find you running the battery down on your PSP when you only intended to play a few levels.

All in all, Persona 3 Portable is a great package: for newcomers, it gives you everything from both Persona 3 and FES, plus more, and despite the lack of cutscenes, is a great way to get through the lengthy campaign. Likewise, veterans of the game will find plenty of new features, whether it is the new story elements or gameplay tweaks, to give even a seasoned Persona 3 player a reason to come back. If turn-based RPGs are your thing and you own a PSP, you really need to pick this game up. You’ll definitely get your $40 worth, and if you’re lucky, you might still be able to snag the pre-order baseball cap.

Doin’ It RIGHT: - Female protagonist is a fun, new perspective. - Can control all party members in battle. - Optimized navigation for PSP. - Everything you loved about Persona 3 & FES and then some.	Doin’ It RONG: - Would be nice to have a “quick save” feature. - Ability to adjust volume would help. - Anime cutscenes removed. - Slight lag during battles.
FINAL SCORE: 9 / 10