The Shin Megami Tensei franchise of RPGs is known for bringing the strange, and bringing it hard, but the latest entry, Persona 3, tempers the series’ oddness to make it more accessible and inviting to a new audience. The visuals are less Goth and more j-pop, the overall atmosphere less somber and more upbeat. Although there’s still plenty of strange activity, it’s nestled among pockets of normalcy that make it more palatable to players who might otherwise find the game to be too alien.
To illustrate what I mean by “alien,” let’s examine the story’s general plot: At midnight, the Dark Hour, most humans transmogrify into coffins. A precious few remain conscious at this time, and it falls to them to wage war against the Shadows, evil creatures that are attacking those who’ve been coffinified, turning them into empty shells of humanity. A secret organization, called SEES, uses the power of Personas to do battle against the Shadows, but they can only summon forth the power by shooting themselves in the head. Naturally.
We learn all of this through a series of gorgeously animated cut scenes that are so fascinating you almost regret when the gameplay actually starts. In fact, for much of the first hour of Persona 3, you are but a spectator, largely helpless to do anything but watch as events unfold around you. Believe me, you won’t mind. The tale is told so expertly, answering one question only to spawn three others, that your desire to find out what happens next will shove aside any annoyance you may have that your controller is lying dormant.
Eventually, your role in the fight against the Shadows is revealed: your character is one of the lucky few with the ability to summon Personas, powerful creatures of magic that can perform devastating attacks. During the Dark Hour, you and your compatriots travel to Tartarus, an enormous tower that is the center of the Shadows’ influence. You’ll climb the tower floor by floor, collecting items and fighting enemies as you go. During the turn-based combat, you’ll choose from the usual assortment of options, such as using items, attacking with your weapon, or summoning a Persona. It’s somewhat frustrating at first that you don’t have control over the rest of your party, except to give them general commands as to how to fight, but it does a great job of speeding up the gameplay, keeping the fights from becoming too repetitious or boring.
As the name implies, Personas are the real heart of Persona 3, and they’re wonderfully bizarre. Those familiar with the Shin Megami Tensei series will recognize them as old friends (I heart Jack Frost), but newcomers will marvel at the creativity of their outlandish design. You acquire Personas primarily by defeating enemies in the tower.
Occasionally, after a fight, you’ll have the chance to choose a card, which will either award you with a Persona or a reward such as bonus experience points or an item. You can either use those Personas as is, leveling them up, or fuse them together to create new, potentially more powerful Personas. Fused Personas gain some attributes from each of their parents, but lose others, so deciding which Personas to fuse when adds a great deal of strategy and planning to what might otherwise devolve into a simple “catch ‘em all” philosophy.
In other games, real world obligations take a back seat to the heroism of saving the day, but in Persona 3, they’re a necessary part of your character’s development. As you make new friends at school, you form new Social Links that directly influence your Personas. Each Persona belongs to a different tarot deck-based Arcana, such as Hermit, Chariot, or Priestess, and the same holds true for Social Links. As you strengthen a Link, it provides an experience boost to fused Personas in that same Arcana, granting you access to higher-level creatures. You won’t have time to fulfill all the obligations that your Social Links require, however—you can’t hang out with your pal and also make kendo practice, for example—so you’ll have to decide which Links to pursue and which to let lag.
