Originally released on the PSP in November of 2009, Persona 3 Portable is an "enhanced" port of 2006's JRPG classic that makes a few controversial excisions to the core gameplay whilst also adding enough new content and combat improvements that we actually reckon it's the best version of Persona 3 overall. Controversial!
At this stage you likely need no introduction to the goings-on at Gekkoukan High, the school at which our protagonist enrols only to find themselves plagued by nightmares and attacked by shadows as the city of Iwatodai is plunged into eerie green chaos during the Dark Hour at the stroke of midnight every day. In time-honoured fashion, you soon discover your ability to wield powerful Personas and must delve into the bowels of Tartarus, the game's enormous dungeon, in order to fight shadows in turn-based combat.
Persona 3 was undoubtedly a turning point for Atlus' franchise, redirecting the tone away from the darker style of the first two entries towards the more colourful and cool atmosphere that's become the signature of the series since. More importantly, this was the game that introduced social interactions and a daily life cycle to the series, redefining what Persona was about and further separating it from Shin Megami Tensei, the post-apocalyptic RPG series from which it was originally spun.
Returning after all these years you may expect an experience that's aged badly, but it's remarkable how fresh it all still feels, and it's thanks to the changes made in this portable version that the core gameplay and narrative remain such a joy to get to grips with. Persona 3 Portable may have removed the beautiful anime cutscenes from the original game, alongside the ability to roam freely around environments, but its slick visual novel style, which sees you engage in static conversations with characters and hop around locations via a menu system, makes for an adventure that doesn't feel as old or as clunky for modern Persona fans to wrestle with as the game perhaps does in its original form.
This version also introduced the choice of a female protagonist to the mix, a change that shakes up social interactions more than it does the actual core narrative, and there are combat tweaks that make for a slicker experience once you're taking on shadows in Tartarus. Taking its cues from Persona 4, you can now swap between your party's characters in battle, there's a new defence command that allows you to limit damage rather than just wait for your next turn, and various co-op attacks and other tweaks - such as the ability to organise all party equipment from a single menu - that make for a more modern take on turn-based combat. Persona 3 Portable, for all that it removed from the original, just feels better to play from moment to moment than the 2006 version.
In terms of this new port, well, you've got all the expected upgrades, high resolution graphics locked at 60fps, a quick save system that can be utilised at any point during the action, and the ability to choose your difficulty right from the get-go. All told, it makes for the slickest version of this classic that we've played so far and, if you've yet to play it, we can't recommend it enough really.
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I was going to play the one that came to GP a while back, but, the idea of it being over 100 hours just made me feel fatigued lol.
This is still my favorite Persona, even though that’s probably nostalgia talking.
It also should’ve been FES instead of portable but oh well.
@Clankylad Yeah that's my problem. I know it sounds silly, because I'm essentially moaning about huge amounts of playtime, but... man, that's a lot of time lol.
I have a good attention span too. So it's not something that's "wrong" with my thought pattern. I just get put off by something that long (lol). I love open world RPGs, but for me, I find myself questioning "when is it the end" after like 40 hours 🤣
100 hours plus, and I don't care how great something is, is just too much for me. Glad I'm not alone in that haha.
@Kaloudz its not 100 hours in all honesty. My playthroughs of p4g on vita and p5 on ps4 have totalled maybe 145 hours.
These games are worth a go. I wouldn't replay either tbh. But that's the same as restarting a forza horizon save. No thank you. P4 is my favourite out of the two.
@Clankylad @Kaloudz I felt that way too with the vanilla version of P5.
Hey, I love P5 as much as anyboby else. But it felt tooo much, even if I liked most of it. I threw the towel around the 80 hours mark to never return...
Now, I want to try and finally beat P5R and see if this is indeed a "better" version (having played Strikers and SMTV last year).
I would like to make a Persona-thon and beat 3,4 and 5 this first half of year, but that would be lying to myself, lol.
Good stuff, I'll be checking this out too.
My first Persona was #5: Royal (108 hours in right now and still playing) so I have never played any of the other Persona games. However, from what I understand, and correct me if I'm wrong, is the greatest Persona versions look something like this...
P5:Royal > P5
P4: Golden > P4
P3:FeS > P3P > P3
If Atlas is trying to give us the best versions of their Persona games, why did they choose portable over FeS? From what I understand P3Portable even has some of the anime style videos removed from it, but they added another playable character and some other changes. But FeS has way more changes to it, kinda like P5 to Royal amount of changes.. Is this correct? If so... why did they give us Portable and not FeS? If it was just for the extra playable character could Atlas not have just added the character to FeS?
@Ashadelo From what I have read, the FES extra content was not exactly highly praised, and completely ignored the whole game's social link system, something that to me sounds like a Mass Effect ignoring your game choices.
It also didn't allow you to control the party, only the protagonist (the AI being questionable at best) and [this is a bit of an assumption] the FES being a PS2 game very likely locked at a 4:3 aspect ratio.
For me, just being able to command the full party is enough for me to want to play P3P over the others.
@HarmanSmith @Clankylad @Kaloudz 80? 100? I spent 200+ hours playing P5R on XBox when it came out 😅
Mind you, I went all the way donw the completionist road path... well, the Gamer Score completionist. There is no way I was going to play the game 11 times back to back. "True" completionists will do that to get every single relationship reward from romancing each individual option.
I just romanced Tae Takemi, but only because the game did not give me the option to romance Yusuke or Goro... and that is likely the one way they would make me play the game again within this year... patching it to make those two romanceable 🙃
Can not wait...
Lets roll on...
@themcnoisy Totalled as in each, or altogether? That's an insane amount of playtime. I think it was Ni Nu Kumi (is that how it's spelled?) that I recently played and put north of 60 hours into.
@HarmanSmith It just gets to a point doesn't it? I think it was AC Valhalla. A game I LOVED beyond anything at its time. It's was based in England, during one of my favourite periods in history, and despite how much I adored it, I just couldn't find the will to continue past the credits. Which is something I used to do on the older ones.
@Tharsman Wait what? So people have played this thing 11 times to explore every option, at over 100 hours a pop? O_o That's a crazy amount of play time. Oh and I just googled Tae. Not gunna lie, I'd have romanced that one too lol!
@Kaloudz together. You can skip a lot of conversations. Persona has an awful habit of repeating the same stuff sequentially. Also in dungeons just get to the end, the collectibles aren't worth the detours.
The biggest time sink is checking in with everyone. If you have a plan, like trying to max a single character it's much quicker. Also don't go for a completionist run - why anyone would want to max the persona log is anyone's guess, you tend to find a couple of good ones and stick with them.
For p4g and p5 I never used a guide, however I may try to find a min-max guide for the opening hours of P3. Just so I'm not stressing half way in.
Best version of the game by far. The other two feel so dated and just not fun to play. Gosh, I still remember how boring The Answer was,
P3P is a great step in the right direction. Tartarus still sucks, tho. it will always suck. One unique, big dungeon, with zero personality and mostly the same song all game. Still a good game.
@themcnoisy So, there's a lot of optional stuff that dials down the play time? If the game is completable in, say, a max of 50-60 hours I could probably get behind it, but that tends to be my limit before fatigue sets in hard 😅
@Kaloudz it’s not a common thing, but there are people out there that rather play their favorite game several times over playing multiple games. For what it’s worth Im sure many of these completionists do skip cut scenes on a secondary play through.
If you are interested on how crazy some completionists can get, on this game or any, I recommend this crazy YouTuber:
https://youtu.be/VzcmyLzwAbA
(He spent about 500 hours on this game alone, on the base game, not even the Royal one)
@Tharsman Thanks my man. I'll check that out later today. 500 hours though 😳 I can't even imagine...
I struggle to sit and play for more than 3 hours at a time. I think the last time I put more than 100 hours into something was Stardew, but even then I started to really get irritated by the roll of it all. Before that it was Destiny, but that was heavily social so it wasn't too bad and tended to be a cycle of strikes, nightfalls, and raiding.
Perhaps I'll take a deeper dive into it all. I must admit I like the lifesim side of it. It's probably much different but that reminds me of Shenmue 2.
@Kaloudz 500 hours and (spoiler alert) he gave up and didn’t get all the items, stopped at his 6th playthrough.
Edit: as for playing games for long windows, for me it’s about the game. I could not play Plague Tale Requiem in large chunks, it requires too much focus on the story as it pops in constantly.
If the game has long stretches of just plain game without story, then I’m way more likely to play it for up to 12 hours or more in a single sitting, since I can also listen to podcasts or even talk on the phone while also enjoying the game. The bliss of being an older adult with no children 😅
Oh the negative side it the game, as much as I like the social link system, I find once you max it out there is very little reason to continue hanging out with your favorite friends. Eventually the 5 key stats get maxed out without having to do that, and the ones that give you bonuses for things like HP give such a small bonus that it’s meaningless to continue hanging out.
Hope a sixth entry give more of a reason to actually neglect everyone else and just hang out with your besties through and entire play session.
@Tharsman "The bliss of being an older adult with no children"
That... That cut deep 😅 got a few years to go before I can boot the final one out the proverbial nest.
Yeah I agree on PT. I loved the games. I hold them in very high regard, but I had to have quite a few breaks before tunnelling on.
I watched the vid. Not gunna lie, the game looks pretty damn good. If it stays in GP for a while and the year dries up, I'll see how I get on.
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