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Persona 3 Thoughts
I played Persona 3 Portable over the last week or so. I avoided all the Portable-version story changes, per Lily's advice. Here are some thoughts.
On the whole, I liked it quite a bit. The writing was pretty good throughout, and they did some lovely things with characterization. Despite the Typically Japanese treatment of pick up artistry and peeping toms, Yukari and Mitsuru were really splendidly done characters, and I like Fuuka too.
The only "what the actual fuck is this" moment I had was with the Moon s-link. I was surprised and pleased that it ended up affirming that he should go with his passion for food and stuff, and I'm happy he did well there, but come on what is with the cult it really leaves you hanging there.
In terms of disappointments, I wanted to see more from Akihiko and Ken. They kind of have some stuff climaxing with Shinjiro's death... and then they're just kind of There for the rest of the game. Apparently you can s-link with them on Female route, which would be great if not for the incredibly disturbing fact that you can date and fuck the 10-year-old.
(The ten-year-old orphan who has already learned not to report to the police, who is sharing a living space with you and has nowhere else to go, who has no friends who aren't your friends, and who is desperate for approval. What the hell dude, how much more at risk can you get!? Please, Minato, leave Ken's heart and penis alone.)
Okay but that aside, I watched all of Ken's s-link on youtube because until the dating bit, it's really quite sweet and I like him a lot. (I hear ye olde Persona fandom hated Ken. They're missing out, dude. Also, why blame Ken over Shinjiro's death when you could have Akihiko hanging out with Ken instead? Come on. It would be adorable.)
My favorite social link for the male protagonist is decidedly Akinari. At first I was like "his favorite BLOOD RED pen seriously?" and I think he is a bit of a newbie artist but he says a lot of great stuff about the condition of being other and confronting existence and he's delightful. His mother is also delightful. You see where he gets it. There's no social link I like quite as much -- I got thrown off the s-link guide for a bit and shafted people left and right to try to make things work, but I never missed a scheduled Akinari day.
I think I actually liked Mitsuru better before I went through her s-link. Like, I'm glad she told her abusive fiance to fuck off, but I could do without the repetitive "I'm too rich to understand fast food!" and "my girlboner for you changed everything."
As for the gameplay itself... there was a certain element of fun to it, but for the most part I found it extremely long and repetitive. I think I'm spoiled by Fire Emblem. I'm such a wuss about (sorta-)random encounters and grinding. I mean, I even play roguelikes but there's just something about Tartarus which is like... 250 floors? And you have to revisit some to get lost people if you went ahead? Seriously? Uuuugh.
The boss fights were super fun though. For the most part I really enjoyed P3's battle mechanics.
I liked the tarot-based thematic stuff with the story arcs.
Uh. What else do I write. Takaya/Jin otp but I didn't care for any of Strega as characters or bosses. I guess they're sad children but the execution fell flat for me.
Idk, ask me things.
On the whole, I liked it quite a bit. The writing was pretty good throughout, and they did some lovely things with characterization. Despite the Typically Japanese treatment of pick up artistry and peeping toms, Yukari and Mitsuru were really splendidly done characters, and I like Fuuka too.
The only "what the actual fuck is this" moment I had was with the Moon s-link. I was surprised and pleased that it ended up affirming that he should go with his passion for food and stuff, and I'm happy he did well there, but come on what is with the cult it really leaves you hanging there.
In terms of disappointments, I wanted to see more from Akihiko and Ken. They kind of have some stuff climaxing with Shinjiro's death... and then they're just kind of There for the rest of the game. Apparently you can s-link with them on Female route, which would be great if not for the incredibly disturbing fact that you can date and fuck the 10-year-old.
(The ten-year-old orphan who has already learned not to report to the police, who is sharing a living space with you and has nowhere else to go, who has no friends who aren't your friends, and who is desperate for approval. What the hell dude, how much more at risk can you get!? Please, Minato, leave Ken's heart and penis alone.)
Okay but that aside, I watched all of Ken's s-link on youtube because until the dating bit, it's really quite sweet and I like him a lot. (I hear ye olde Persona fandom hated Ken. They're missing out, dude. Also, why blame Ken over Shinjiro's death when you could have Akihiko hanging out with Ken instead? Come on. It would be adorable.)
My favorite social link for the male protagonist is decidedly Akinari. At first I was like "his favorite BLOOD RED pen seriously?" and I think he is a bit of a newbie artist but he says a lot of great stuff about the condition of being other and confronting existence and he's delightful. His mother is also delightful. You see where he gets it. There's no social link I like quite as much -- I got thrown off the s-link guide for a bit and shafted people left and right to try to make things work, but I never missed a scheduled Akinari day.
I think I actually liked Mitsuru better before I went through her s-link. Like, I'm glad she told her abusive fiance to fuck off, but I could do without the repetitive "I'm too rich to understand fast food!" and "my girlboner for you changed everything."
As for the gameplay itself... there was a certain element of fun to it, but for the most part I found it extremely long and repetitive. I think I'm spoiled by Fire Emblem. I'm such a wuss about (sorta-)random encounters and grinding. I mean, I even play roguelikes but there's just something about Tartarus which is like... 250 floors? And you have to revisit some to get lost people if you went ahead? Seriously? Uuuugh.
The boss fights were super fun though. For the most part I really enjoyed P3's battle mechanics.
I liked the tarot-based thematic stuff with the story arcs.
Uh. What else do I write. Takaya/Jin otp but I didn't care for any of Strega as characters or bosses. I guess they're sad children but the execution fell flat for me.
Idk, ask me things.
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When I have time! P3 took up a week of free time and I'm moving soon so I really should dedicate more time to straightening everything up...
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I like most things about the lady route -- I like her design more than I like Minato's, I like being able to s-link the entire team like in P4, I like pink more than I like blue, and I prefer to play as a girl for pretty obvious reasons -- but yeah, the Ken thing is just phenomenally messed up.
Was there a party setup that you were partial to, or did you use the playable cast more or less evenly throughout the game?
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Well, getting ambushed by random enemies generally meant a good chance of death until endgame's magical SEES powers, which was interesting in its own right... but very tiring.
My boss fighting team was generally Akihiko, Junpei or Aigis, Ken. Give or take some weakness-bases substitutions.
I'm gliding through New Game+ with lady MC now (and all the inheritances are silly) and I do enjoy having generic links swapped out for team members.
But come on, they had enough dignity to let Junpei stay a bro, why Ken.......... It should've been a Maiko thing, where you let him have his crush but definitely do not get in his pants.
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I really enjoyed having Junpei as strictly a friend, since it was a nice step away from the base game's "if she's a girl, you can bang her" philosophy. ...But then, Junpei being a buddy passed the buck to Ken, so...
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I am curious, though: did you have a favorite persona, or a rotation of them? I did for my initial playthrough, and then when I played The Answer, I ended up having a much different set of favorites based on my new(ish) party composition. Dunno how much this has to do with play style, but it's always interesting to know which ones people like best. :D
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In midgame, I really really liked Narcissus. I had one fused with maragi and magaru spells plus media. I think I had Oberon to cover electricity alongside him, and Queen Mab for ice. That was consistently my favorite kind of setup until I got the maxed out s-links, by which point I liked spamming Akasha Arts more since it didn't consume SP, and HP was more easily replenished.
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None of the three Strega really did it for me either, they were just sort of 'human antagonists that have persona powers too.'
Mitsuru and Akihiko stand out most for me party-member-wise, the restA I didn't dislike, but I wasn't as attached to them. I feel bad that I can't say too much more since I think I last played it like... 2 weeks after release. I really wanna go back through it as the male protagonist though since I heard it does a few things quite a bit differently and has different social links. After reading this I think I will try to next week.
Have you played any other Persona game, or any Shin Megami Tensei game previously?
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I tried SMT4 and Digital Devil Overloaded but I didn't get very far in either for lack of interest.
I personally really liked the male protagonist. I liked the social links too, though I suppose they'll read like a downgrade after being able to talk to characters you already know and love. I feel like less of it is ... questionable, though.