We can't find ourselves on top of each and every series worth playing. If you took RPGs alone, there'd surely not be enough hours in the day for you to experience them all, so you've got to stick with what you know and like, or go and explore something that comes highly recommended by someone you trust.
It took me far too long to listen to people pleading for folks to play the Yakuza series. Have I made the same mistake by overlooking Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3?
In the right circles, all you hear is Persona this, Persona that. Shin Megami Tensei is too foreign a title for me to get behind, it's too weird, I'll never be in the right frame of mind for that, I thought. But even the series' title has fallen as game after game gets released and re-released as Persona something or other.
There's something going on here. A world I know nothing about, but one that people have high praise for. What's going on?
Fun Times
I'm emulating the PlayStation 2 release of Persona 3 and it starts with a really slick stylized animated intro, full of reminders of your mortality, and imagery of people holding guns to their heads. Again, what on Earth is going on here?
You play as Insert Yournamehere, a teenager zoning out to his music as he travels through town in another animated cutscene. To compare it to Jeanne d'Arc for no reason other than that I've just played it and it also has animated cutscenes, Persona 3 moves less but looks better.
We're a new student and have finally arrived at our dorm to be welcomed under strange circumstances. A kid asks us to sign a contract before disappearing, a young girl armed with a handgun approaches us. Something's weird, to put it mildly.
Something is definitely weird. But it's a good looking weird. I've not done much of anything yet, but I'm interested in seeing what Pesona 3 is all about. My knowledge of the series is very limited: it involves schools. How? We'll find out soon enough, I'm sure.
As you can see in the top corner, time and date play a role in Persona 3. The daylight hours are spent in school, and your first few days are full of people introducing themselves to you, and starting rumours about you, and generally acting like school kids.
The introduction whisks us through time zones - days, even - and we sit through lessons that require us to pay attention to get stat boosts.
Not quite sure what game Persona 3 is beyond 'RPG', I've not seen a stat screen of any kind yet, but I'm sure being more popular and charming will serve me well. I'm not hitting on the teacher by correctly answering her favourite author, am I? This is a Japanese game, after all...
Daytime is the normalcy of school, then. Nighttime... that's different. Those in our dorm are covering something up, I can tell. They shrug aside my questions and insist that I'm just a bit tired, overwhelmed by my new surroundings. Go to bed early, they say. They all say. Why do they all say that?
You're monitoring my sleep? What kind of dormitory is this?! Why does my sleep need to be monitored, and more to the point, when is this game going to start? There hasn't been much for me to do yet.
Another anime cutscene clues us in - though we do need an explanation from a character afterwards to make sense of it. Here's the gist: At midnight, each and every night, there is a 'Dark Hour', a hidden hour where Shadows prey on the citizens who are unlucky enough to have remained awake. You see, most people sleep soundly in their coffins during the Dark Hour. Some don't. Some of those that don't have the potential to combat these Shadows. Some don't.
We haven't turned into a coffin, nor have we been targetted by Shadows as easy prey. Do we have the potential to fight in the night? We're the main character of an RPG, what kind of question is that?
What does a schoolkid need a short sword for, hmm?
Yeah, that might be an answer. We're on the roof now, in the Dark Hour, shadows coming for us. Our classmate Yukari is similarly awake during this hidden period, and seems to know what's going on - she was watching us sleep, after all.
All we've got to do is follow her lead and we'll be out of this tricky situation in no time.
Not the lead I was expecting to follow there, Yukari. Are you sure that's a good idea? According to Persona 3, yes it is. Triggering - literally - a strong reaction allows personas to emerge from your psyche, spirits of a sort that fight for you in the Dark Hour.
You don't cast spells in this game. You put a gun to your head to summon beings instead, like this Orpheus chap.
He cleared house in a cutscene, sadly, but we're finally able to play Persona 3. It's an RPG all right. An action wheel lists the common actions, only a couple being available to us right now. Select your action, choose a target, and watch the short sword swing, cutting through cowardly Maya like they just weren't there.
To confirm we're in an RPG, we level up, and get a chance to see some stats. A bit harsh to judge us a slacker after just a day or two of school, but we'll go with it. We have to, I suppose.
Frustrations
Now, I'm on board with Persona 3. I like the way it looks, I'm not put off by the characters or their voice artists. I'd prefer a lot more time at the controls, though, but this game just isn't letting me.
Everything is being drip-fed to us at this point. We've slept for an entire week after our encounter during the Dark Hour, but we're still not ready for an explanation of what's going on. I've cut out a lot of other things going on because, coming up to an hour in, I just want something to do already.
We do eventually get filled in on who these people are, and are asked to join the SEES and help fight back against the Shadows. I jab that "Alright." option faster than you can imagine. Give me something to dooooo!
Further Fun Times
An hour and twenty minutes in and we're finally getting to the meat of Persona 3. This is Tartarus, a giant, randomly generated tower dungeon that emerges each and ever Dark Hour. It's full of... well, we don't really know yet. Monsters, probably, but hopefully answers as to what the Dark Hour is even. And it's up to us schoolkids to dive in and explore it.
As a party of three, each with their own personas and accompanying skills, you can approach each fight you come across in a number of ways. You can just wallop the enemy with basic attacks, and even automate such actions with a 'Rush' mode, where your party does what needs to be done without any input from you - great for weak enemies you want to brush aside for the experience points, I guess.
You're encouraged to learn your enemies' weaknesses and act accordingly, however. These guys are weak to fire, and Orpheus gives us a fire attack. It happens to open up the enemy to an all-out attack from the rest of the party, who pile on and pummel the shadow out of existence.
It was pretty fun. Took us an hour and half to get here, but if the combat is this fluid and looks this nice, I think I'll be having a good time with Persona 3.
In between fights, when you explore Tartarus, each section of the floor you're on will randomly fill in, like Dark Cloud dungeons, which is nice. You're looking for monsters to fight, of course, but also stairs to ascend to higher floors and portals to whisk yourself back out of the tower when you've had enough.
You can even split the party and let them map the floor on their own, though this may result in them facing enemies on their own, so watch out.
You can even tell your party what you want them to do within the fights, too. They seem fairly smart. There were an awful lot of automatic attacks, but I did once see a heal spell get cast, so you should be able to rely on your party even when faced with more than a handful of threats to eliminate.
Well, Mitsuru, I must admit that I think I like the sound of Persona 3. I do wish I was doing all of this an hour earlier than I actually ended up doing, but now that I'm here, I might just keep going. Yeah. What does the next hour hold?
The calendar finally opens up to us, and we're free to explore our surroundings. The school is alarmingly empty, though I suspect that's to do with it being 'After School'. You're prompted to join clubs and get social because doing so will up your stats and the more social you are, the more personas you can get, or the more powerful they become, one or both.
Sadly, everything's closed right now and I'm not sure how best to use my free time.
There isn't just a school to explore, and we find ourselves at the Paulownia Mall Police Station to buy weapons and armour, of all places. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but then neither does the Dark Hour, does it?
With some new clothing, we can head back to the dorm to arrange another dive into Tartarus and it seems that's going to be the gist of Persona 3 - enhance your stats and social standing at school, prepare for a fight in the evening, and ascend a big scary randomly generated tower at night. All in a days work, innit?
After two and a half hours of playing, this is where I left Persona 3, running away from Death, desperately trying to find the doohicky that pulls us out of Tartarus before we all succumb to fatigue. It was fun, but I'm not yet prepared for a deep dive into this tower, and I get the impression it's going to be very deep indeed.
Can a tower be deep if you're tackling it from the bottom up? Eh, doesn't matter.
Final Word
This must be the longest first impression of something for this blog that I've done. That's mostly to do with the fact that it took so darn long to get going, but it must have been doing something right to keep me engaged.
The story is weird, that's for sure, but compelling. We've had a rough past, losing our parents ten years prior, and we're not the only character in search of answers over their parents' deaths. Something is going on with the Dark Hour, something potentially manmade, and not supernatural.
But what do I know? Next to nothing. There's a lot going on in Persona 3. I've cut out some stuff here - turns out you can introduce a fair bit in an hour and half of gaming - and I suspect there will be plenty of twists and turns to come.
Just as soon as I get stronger. I need to bulk up my personas. I need to pay more attention in school. I need to make more friends. Will that be as engaging as fighting shadows? Is running around town going to be as interesting as running up a spooky tower?
There's only one way to find out. Play another few hours of Persona 3 at least...
Fun Facts
Fans of previous games didn't take too kindly to AI party members, but the reasoning for them to be computer-controlled in the first place is to emphasise the notion that you can only control who you are, and how good your friends are is a result of how good your friendship with them is.
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, developed by Atlus, first released in 2006.
Version played: PlayStation 2, 2007, via emulation.