The epitome of: “Don't try this at home, kids!”

Alright, I realize that I did review Persona 4 before I reviewed Persona 3.  The only reason is because I liked Persona 4 better. That's not say I didn't like Persona 3, I did, otherwise I wouldn't have bought the fourth game. There are just certain aspects of Persona 4 I liked better, and I will explain those as we go on.  Let’s get started, shall we?

First off, this is what you would call the “special edition” of Persona 3. It's a re-release of the original Persona 3, with added content. A few things are added to the original story, and a completely new chapter called The Answer sort of continues where the game left off. It adds another 15+ hours onto the game, and it’s decent, but compared to the rest of the game, not as enjoyable.

Continuing the tradition of a majority of MegaTen games, Persona 3 is centered around high school students with crazy demon powers. So the real question is, how do these kids use those demon powers that are locked away deep within their minds? The answer is quite simple really, the Evoker; a pistol shaped device that they basically shoot themselves in the head with, thus forcing the Persona out. It's actually kinda disturbing the first couple of times you see it, but you get used to it, and it never did cease to be amusing to me.

There is also something called the Dark Hour. Every night between Midnight and Midnight, there is a hidden hour. Most people don't experience it, because during that time, they turn into coffins. Still with me? Ok, good. You see, during the Dark Hour is when Shadows come out, which are the main enemy in the game. They come in all shapes and sizes, but they all share one thing in common: creepiness. So what happens if a person is awake during the Dark Hour? Well, if you have the power of Persona, you fight them. If not...well then you either become a Shadow or just die. When it ends, everyone goes back to normal not realizing what just happened.

The bulk of the game is spent within a 250+ floor dungeon called Tantalus. You have about 1 year to explore all of it, and must do so before the end of the game. It sounds taxing, but it’s really not all that bad. Tantalus is what the character's school becomes when the Dark Hour rolls around. Also, every time there is a full moon, something bad happens and a more powerful shadow shows up. These take place outside of Tantalus, and usually have their own dungeons to explore.

Outside of boss fighting and dungeon exploring, you'll be living the life of a normal Japanese teenager. Or so I'm guessing. You go to school, hang out with your friends, do after school activities, and so forth. A few of the activities actually have an impact with how well you do in battle. There are several important characters that are represented by the major tarot arcana. If you become friends with these people, you will strengthen your abilities to make stronger Persona. There is a place called the Velvet Room, where you combine two or more Personas that you find to make stronger ones.

Combat plays out like pretty much any other RPG. You can see the monsters on the field, and you swing your weapon at them to engage in battle. Then it's just pick your action and watch how the battle plays out. Now here's what I didn't like about Persona 3's battle system. You can only control the main character. I hate that; I like to have full control of my party in turn based RPG. The AI is pretty good, but I still would rather choose all of my characters actions.

Graphically, the game is pretty simple. They’re not really gonna knock your socks off, but they are still decent. The anime cutscenes, however, are really pretty. They look really good. The game also delivers when it comes to sound. The background and battle themes set the mood rather well, and I did like both of the opening songs. Voice acting was also top notch. Atlus does a very good job localizing these games in the US.

So besides the fact that I can't control all of my party in battle and that the game is basically a dungeon crawler. (Two things I usually hate in RPGs) It's still really good, its quite lengthy and challenging as well. I highly recommend picking up Persona 3 FES if you can find it. It's getting a little hard to find now, but there are still new copies floating around out there. It's definitely worth a play.

	System:	Playstation 2
	Genre:	RPG
	Experience:	Finished the main story in 70 hours

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