After hearing the announcement for Persona 4’s release in North America later this year (09/12/2008) I felt guilty for not beating Persona 3. Previously I’d gotten to the 2nd Block and beat the first full moon instance without consulting any FAQs. After I looked into the intricacies of the game, I realized I had missed a boatload of valuable Social Links. Being a semi-perfectionist, I decided that I wanted all the social links maxed by the end of the game. Instead of restarting the game, I left it to gather dust for months.

After the announcement I felt that I had to return, if only to prepare myself for the inevitable release of Persona 4. By now Persona 3 Fes was released in the States (coming October 22nd in the UK!), so I decided to get myself a copy and start from there. It was nice to be able to copy over my player stats from my Persona 3 save file (which helps a lot for the social link scheduling) and persona compendium. So far I’m 30+ hours into the game and meticulously following 6 different FAQs (Walkthrough, Persona Fusions, Max Skill Link, Quiz Answers, Persona stats, and Skills). Sadly I’ve only reached the 3rd block by this point (probably 1/3 of the original Persona 3 story).

My first gripe is with the archaic save system and lack of checkpoints. On numerous occasions I’ve found myself dying and losing 30+ minutes of progress because I made a small mistake or encountered a cheap enemy. Additionally the interface is often clunky and requires you to micromanage Personas, which can be quite time consuming over time. In fact during the full moon instances, you can find yourself going through over an hour of gameplay without a single save or checkpoint in between. It’s sad to see that all of this could have been fixed with a little bit of updating (which I hope will come in Persona 4), especially considering this is the 2nd revision of the game.

Even though this game is torturing me and wasting my time, I find the story and characters both compelling. The game often feels like one giant puzzle involving balancing persona creation, skill linking, and leveling . Bottom line…. don’t try this game unless you’re ready to commit the time and soldier through its flaws. While it isn’t “difficult” like Ninja Gaiden 2, it certainly is complex.

(Images from Games.net)