Persona 3 Portable Review

Posted By Joey C. about 1 year, 10 months ago

Persona 3 Portable Review

Having already played the first two versions of Persona 3 on the PlayStation 2 a few years back, I was curious to see whether or not I could get the same experience on a handheld. And all in all, Persona 3 Portable is just as thrilling as it was when I first played it back in 2007.  With a great story, a deep battle system, and with the addition of some minor gameplay adjustments, Persona 3 Portable is no disappointment. And though  the PSP version does suffer from some technical limitations, Persona 3 Portable is a welcomed addition to the PSP’s library that any fan of the franchise, or RPG’s in general, shouldn’t miss.

In Persona 3, you live the life of a high school junior. While at school, you’ll go to class, takes tests, join clubs etc. And it is at school, as well as some after school activities were you will be able to establish important social links that end up having an impact on your personas. Other students will approach you, and based on how you choose to respond to them, in the form of more than just conversation, like going to the mall or going to track and field practice, social links grow. During the day you’re going to school, and at night you’re off fighting shadows with the rest of the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad – SEES for short during the “dark hour.”

There are a number of differences between the portable and console versions of Persona 3. Due to the technical limitations of the PSP and UMD, all the animated cutscenes from the original version on PlayStation 2 are gone. Instead, the story is told through background stills and character portraits with voiceovers. Another major difference is the lack of free roaming. Most noticeably while at school, the mall, or the dorm, rather than control your character around the environment, you control a cursor on a 2D setting in which you use for interaction and exploration.

You'll navigate using a cursor across a 2D environment

While exploring Tartarus however, you will have the opportunity to free-roam. Enemies will roam the halls, and sneaking up behind them will result in gaining the upper hand in battle, however this goes both ways. While this is essentially a fairly watered down version of the game, the gameplay doesn’t at all feel hindered. In fact in ways it compliments it. Moving the cursor around is fluid and it allows doing more quickly. And even though animated cutscenes would have been nice in the PSP version, the story is solid, and with the addition of great voice acting that makes up for it.

As said before, you live the life of a high school junior, and at times it might feel tedious answering questions in class or going to student council meetings. But in addition to creating and maintining social links, doing these things will increase your characters stats. For example, answering the correct question during class will increase your charm. Or even deciding to stay awake for a lecture will increase your academics, which in turn will allow for you to perform well on tests, and change the perception other characters have on you. Additionally, you can increase other stats by taking on after school activities like a part time job. And at night, during the dark hour, you and the supporting cast travel to Tartarus to fight off shadows.

The battle system remains mostly untouched. During battle you can assign various tactics to the other characters that will react depending on any given scenario.. For example, you may assign support/heal to one, and full assault to another, both actions of which are self-explanatory. At times it’s these tactics that can make all the difference. Personally on several different occasions simply assigning a different tactic to a character allowed me to defeat a boss that previously had me stumped, and all it took was messing around with the tactics system. You’ll also have the option to analyze enemies for weakness and vulnerabilities, though this doesn’t typically happen instantly, and takes a few turns. You can use your Personas for various attacks, and when knocking multiple enemies down after critical hits your party can perform an all out attack, doing moderate damage to all enemies on screen at once.

P3P offers a female protaganist with new story directions

During these free-roaming sessions in Tartarus you’ll have the option to split up your party. This allows you to explore an area for items and access points quickly, however doing this increases risk for your characters, as they’re off fighting shadows by themselves, rather than with you and the rest of the party. But there is a benefit to doing this. In addition to exploring more quickly, any of your characters that successfully fight off shadows by themselves will gain more XP than if they were with the whole party.

In order for your characters to perform well in battle, you’ll need to monitor their condition. Characters can feel “great”, and in doing so they are more accurate in their attacks and can inflict more damage. However if any character is feeling tired or sick, their performance in battle will hinder. In order to ensure this doesn’t happen, some decisions will have to be made in how you choose to spend your characters time. Going to bed early will give you a better chance in being well rested. But staying up to study, or spending more time at Tartarus may cause your character to go under the weather.

The PSP version does come with some additional features, the biggest one being a female playable character you can choose from at the start of the game. Some social links in the male characters story –the original, remain the same, however there are some large differences concerning the characters social links. Some characters in the female protagonist story are not present as in the males, and the menu colors in the female’s story sports a more feminine look.

Persona 3 portable, despite its technical limitations is still an excellent addition to the PSP’s library. It can take anywhere from 40-60 hours to complete the story, but by exploring all social links, and some additional areas in Tartarus, one can easily put 100 hours into Persona 3 Portable. Atlus’ stellar RPG is available now on UMD, and as a download from the PlayStation Store for $39.99.

This game was provided by Atlus and  was reviewed on the PSP. Approximately 40 hours of play were dedicated to the single player mode and the game was completed.