Entry 1- Persona 3 review

 Greetings fellow nerds, This is Iron Pearl here. Welcome to the first edition of Gamer Goodybag, a blog I have created to  discuss what I consider to be some of the greatest video games of all time, absolute must plays for those who have not played them before. Ever since the first video games were ever created, there has been a wide community of people who love and appreciate the medium for what it is, myself included. I have been playing games since I was in preschool so I have tried so many different games both good and bad. My goal is to persuade the reader on why they must play these games I love so dearly. Without further adieu, lets dive right on in with our first game.

 

                Persona 3 was originally released as part of the Persona series (A spinoff of the Shin Megami Tensei series) in July 2006 for the PlayStation 2 in Japan, before getting released in other territories of the world between 2007 and 2008. The game is a Japanese Role Playing Game (JRPG) where you take the role of a High School student who transfers to Gekkoukan High and moves into a dorm with some of his fellow classmates. The student later discovers that his roommates are all part of a secret organization where students can summon magical beings called Personas that guide them in combat. The organization's goal is to enter the Dark Hour (A mysterious 25th hour between midnight and 1 am that alters reality and releases shadow monsters all over Japan) and defeat the shadows with their Personas once and for all. When the game first released it received critical acclaim and became regarded as one of the best in the series. I definitely consider it one of my favorites for various reasons and I will share what I think are the strongest points.

                 First lets talk about the music. The soundtrack by composer Shoji Meguro is highly regarded as one of the best gaming OSTS of all time, combining a mix of Japanese pop, rap, and rock. Vocals for the songs were provided by singer Yumi Kawamura and rapper Lotus Juice and they do fantastic jobs on their tracks. The background music is very atmospheric and blends in really well for whatever area you are in, whether it be the highschool, the city, the dorms, and especially in the Dark hour when you are exploring dungeons and fighting shadow monsters. The emotional tracks for serious moments especially do a great job at tugging at the heart strings when the heaviest parts of the game take place.

               Next is the setting and story. The game takes place in modern Japan in the fictional city of Iwatodai, based on the real life island of Odaiba. In the day time you get to explore areas such as the high school, shopping districts, shrines, beaches and many other lovely locations that are very authentic when you compare them to the real life versions you can find in Japan. The developers' goal for Persona 3 was to try a different approach of localization. Previous entries in the series often were changed heavily to be more accommodating to American audiences, but this did not work out as they had originally intended. This time they decided to keep the Japanese setting and use it as a tool to educate Westerners on what daily life on a Japanese island is like, and is very educational in showing off how day to day life can be for those living in that part of the country. The story itself is very gripping and dynamic with many amazing characters who you will grow attached to and feel for them throughout the adventure. The more one plays through the game the more they will be hesitant to put the game down and finish it because it is just that good, its like playing through an Anime series that is addicting and you don't want to hurry up and get to the finale until its just right.

            Of course the most important element of a game is how well the gameplay and controls are, and for the most part the game does this incredibly well. The game is run on a day and night system. You spend the day doing various activities such as going to school, exploring the town, spending time with people, and acquiring objects that will help you through the night section. The game heavily emphasizes that the more you do during the day the more it will benefit you when the combat section kicks in. A crucial part of the daytime section of the game is the socialization aspect. You can choose to spend time with various characters both on and off your team throughout the game and the more you do the stronger your relationships with your teammates will be, causing stronger bonds and cooperation throughout the fights. However be careful, because if you make too many mistakes you can mess up the relationships and it will cause problems for the team. It really keeps you on your toes to avoid rushing through the game, making it better to just appreciate your time experiencing it while making sure to make the best decisions for the player. During the nighttime, you will enter the Dark Hour, and all the places around you will change going from bright and colorful to dark and dreary. The team explores Tartarus, which is the Dark Hour's version of their high school, a very tall and explorative series of labyrinths and mazes full of shadow monsters. The Personas come into play here as they will protect your team from the monsters. The player takes turns choosing different strategies of attacks and defenses to defeat their enemies and level up their Personas. While players can try and grind through it as much as possible, it is heavily recommended that players pace themselves on each night as the game goes on, but not to waste too much time as the game is timed in a span of one in-game year. This gives the player initiative to work hard but also not too hard to the point where they put themselves in a position they cannot get themselves out of.

        The game is not perfect by any means however, there are a few issues with the game (more specifically the original PS2 version as the game has been remade and rereleased over the years for PSP, PS3, PC and even an upcoming version for PS4, PS5 and Xbox One) . The biggest issues in the original PS2 version is that the game only lets you control the main protagonist. All of the other team members are AI based. You can choose if they do attacks or defenses but that is about it. While it can be annoying for many to have this system, it does however add more to the characters based on their personalities and give more depth to them. The other main gripe I have with this version is there are scenes in it that are definitely dated due to cultural changes and ideas. A notorious example involves a scene  where the male characters are going to the beach to meet women and they meet a trans woman. The scene is played off for comedic effect, which nowadays would be considered very offensive for many. This scene thankfully was changed in later iterations of the game but is sadly still in the original PS2 version. Japan has thankfully grown more progressive since 2006 so this scene is nothing more than a dated element now.

     Overall, I still consider Persona 3 to be one of my favorite games of all time. To me its much more than a game its an experience. If you're a huge fan of story based games and Anime I highly recommend it. Everything about it from its characters, music, aesthetic, gameplay and setting is done with such care and love that you can tell the developers had a lot of passion for the product and it shows. I give the game a 8.5/10, definitely one of the PS2's best games. There have been more Persona games since this one and thankfully the flaws of 3 get fixed in them, but the original version of this game is still worth visiting just to see how it originally was. If the issues of this version are too much for you, there are plenty of other versions of the game that fix them as well, and the newest version will be out for modern consoles in February 2024, so keep an eye out for it.

    That is gonna be it for my first post. Thank you all for joining me and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did making it. Join me next time for another review of one of my favorite games. Until then, Stay nerdy friends!- Iron Pearl