The Misadventures Of Minato Arisato (Persona 3 Portable, First Playthrough) [SPOILERS!]

[Funyarinpa]

After loving Persona 4 Golden, I needed more Persona. I finally gave in today and bought P3P and played about an hour of it on my Vita.

So far, not really feeling it. That said, P4G hadn't hooked me until this point as well, so I'm not too worried. The presentation is painfully worse compared to P4G, but I knew that'd be the case. The cast isn't as likable as P4G (Junpei pissed me off literally from his first spoken lines) but the atmosphere is more unique, which is quite nice. Feels a bit overwhelming that I still haven't gotten into Persona fusion and stuff, saved right after the Tartarus tutorial section. I wonder how new characters will be introduced in this game, I suppose it has something to do with full moons (heard of it, I'm not ultra observant or anything). Will need quite some time to get used to movement by cursor, bad image and text quality, VN storytelling, reliance on D-pad, and whatnot. I have high hopes for this game.

 

[Darklord Rooke]

Persona 3 has a creepier atmosphere and setting, which is nice. It also has less accessible, but more satisfying dungeon crawling imo. They're very similar but there's a massive 'tone' difference between the two. P4 is more accessible and cheery, P3 not as accessible and a little gloomy. 

[Kaguya]

Story-wise I significantly like P3 over P4... But they deal with different themes, anyway. 

[Funyarinpa]

Just closed P3P after getting to F14 and going back through its terminal, and apparently the time is 1 am.

...It's good to have you back, Persona.

This time I'm even enjoying the battles, I think.

[Darklord Rooke]

23 minutes ago, Kaguya said:

Story-wise I significantly like P3 over P4... 

Same. OTOH my sister enjoys P4 much more than P3.

[Mugi]

I also prefer P4 over P3. But on topic, you're going to need to get used to a few of the games mechanics and put up with them, or else you'll probably end up dropping the game. Like the exhaustion system, where you can only stay in tartarus for a certain amount of time before your party members get tired and you're almost forced to go back (at least on more difficult floors). Also I feel like tartarus is pretty bland and repetitive in comparison to the different P4 channels, as all the floors look painfully similar. Plus there's a rather annoying weapon system that makes a couple characters (Mitsuru was one of them iirc) useless because another character is just objectively better. Maybe that was just me, but I've heard a lot of other people say the same thing. Oh, and there's the fact that you can't control your party members in vanilla and FES, not sure if they changed that for portable, but I think they did. That being said, I highly recommend putting up with the games flaws, as it's something definitely worth sticking with until the very end. Well..maybe not The Answer...you might want to just watch a video playthrough for that..  

[Decay]

Well, you COULD control your party members somewhat in original P3 and FES, with the AI orders system. You'd get more orders for party members as you s-linked with them, or something like that. Obviously, from a gameplay standpoint I'd prefer direct control, but I dunno, I didn't mind the AI system in P3 much. The way it was integrated into the story, the s-link mechanic, and the way the AIs sort of matched the character personalities, all felt pretty novel to me. I mean, Direct control is ultimately better, but still.

Also, the fatigue system was nerfed in FES and nerfed even further in P3P. It's practically a non-issue now.

[Lumaria]

Persona recently started being the flashier version we see now. Heck even though persona 3 was a little more flashier and had a new artist, it still tried to follow the original persona games. 

[Decay]

Eh, P3 was a VERY different game from P2. The differences were much more profound than the similarities. P4 was a minor divergence from P3, if anything. 

[Funyarinpa]

58 minutes ago, Decay said:

Eh, P3 was a VERY different game from P2. The differences were much more profound than the similarities. P4 was a minor divergence from P3, if anything. 

Will have to agree with this post, P1-2 and P3-4 are very different beasts from what I have seen of them.

[Kurisu-Chan]

I think the matter of liking P3 or P4 is simply if you started the series with P3 or P4, personnally, i started with P3, so of course, i enjoyed it like hell, but i'm pretty sure i'll prefer P3 over P4 only because i started with the third episode, both games are incredible, both games deals with different themes and have a different kind of ambience.

 

But something P4 will never beat P3, is the Persona summoning, man, it's always thrilling like hell.

[Funyarinpa]

Restarted as FeMC seeing as MaleMC is nothing more than an edgy husk.

Man, the style. THE FUCKING STYLE. The OST changes are pretty nice for the most part (battle music is still as good but the school theme was a bit better for P3MC) but the best changes are in the battles. That leg shake thing at the beginning of every battle. That critical hit combo. That victory gesture finger shake. HNNNNG.

[Darklord Rooke]

Before Golden, 'Shuffle time' was also pretty useless in P4. But they fixed that, I believe (don't own a Vita so I don't have Golden.)

[Kurisu-Chan]

9 minutes ago, Funyarinpa said:

Restarted as FeMC seeing as MaleMC is nothing more than an edgy husk.

Man, the style. THE FUCKING STYLE. The OST changes are pretty nice for the most part (battle music is still as good but the school theme was a bit better for P3MC) but the best changes are in the battles. That leg shake thing at the beginning of every battle. That critical hit combo. That victory gesture finger shake. HNNNNG.

Enjoy one of the best female protag story ever told, also cutest girl of the entire cast of the series.

[Funyarinpa]

Just now, Kurisu-Chan said:

Enjoy one of the best female protag story ever told, also cutest girl of the entire cast of the series.

First part might be true but can't bring myself to agree with the second part when Rise exists.

[Kurisu-Chan]

Rise is Shit. muhahaahaha.

 

But seriously, just imagine the whole job they did, they changed every bit of dialogue, they even modified and added other social links, so it's not just a pink reskin of the hud, but a whole new experience.

[Funyarinpa]

Just now, Kurisu-Chan said:

Rise is Shit. muhahaahaha.

 

But seriously, just imagine the whole job they did, they changed every bit of dialogue, they even modified and added other social links, so it's not just a pink reskin of the hud, but a whole new experience.

I know! The second part, I mean.

Rise >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Marie >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kurisu, btw.

[Kurisu-Chan]

Just now, Funyarinpa said:

I know! The second part, I mean.

Rise >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Marie >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kurisu, btw.

Spoiler

 

[Darklord Rooke]

21 hours ago, Funyarinpa said:

I know! The second part, I mean.

Rise >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Marie >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kurisu, btw.

Marie?

... Interesting.

[Fred the Barber]

I never finished my FeMC playthrough of P3P, but I've heard the story changes a fair bit. Well, enjoy! FeMC is certainly the cutest character in the game, but I never get much attached to Persona main characters due to their (intentional) absence of inherent personality, so that didn't do much for me.

And if you want to reopen the Persona best girl question, there's at least one forum thread on it which you could necro, complete with poll. I have a feeling it's the kind of topic you can bring up every 3 months without making anybody mad. Inexplicably, best girl Aigis  wasn't winning last time I saw the poll...

[Funyarinpa]

4 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

I never finished my FeMC playthrough of P3P, but I've heard the story changes a fair bit. Well, enjoy! FeMC is certainly the cutest character in the game, but I never get much attached to Persona main characters due to their (intentional) absence of inherent personality, so that didn't do much for me.

And if you want to reopen the Persona best girl question, there's at least one forum thread on it which you could necro, complete with poll. I have a feeling it's the kind of topic you can bring up every 3 months without making anybody mad. Inexplicably, best girl Aigis  wasn't winning last time I saw the poll...

I'm sold on Aigis already and that's just from hearing "robot with human feelings"

Fucking LOVE that theme if executed well

link thread pls, gotta root for Rise

[Mugi]

7 hours ago, Rooke said:

Marie?

... Interesting.

I'm also pretty fond of Marie. I know a lot of people outright hate her and feel like she shouldn't even be in the game, but I just don't see it. 

Spoiler

Also Naoto best girl, all your waifus are shit  

Oh, and obligatory Persona 5 hypu 

 

[Fred the Barber]

5 hours ago, Funyarinpa said:

I'm sold on Aigis already and that's just from hearing "robot with human feelings"

Fucking LOVE that theme if executed well

link thread pls, gotta root for Rise

Aigis is best robot girl, no question. Although I wasn't actually sold until, after finishing P3P, I read a summary of The Answer (extra section in P3FES, interesting story, but apparently grindy as hell), and then played P4A and P4AU (didn't enjoy the gameplay all that much, but I lived for every second of Aigis screentime)

Couldn't find the thread, though... guess it's time for a new one

4 hours ago, Mugi said:

obligatory Persona 5 hypu 

My body is ready.

[Funyarinpa]

5 hours ago, Mugi said:

 

Oh, and obligatory Persona 5 hypu 

don't get me fucking started

all three BGMs are perfect for me

LITERALLY perfect

That style is killing me too, watched each trailer probably over 50 times

I'm so fucking hyped man, wish I had a PS4 so I could remote play it to Vita but alas, will have to settle for a borrowed PS3. Not much money either, so it'll be a LOOOOOONG time before I play P5 unless it ends up on PS Now. ;_;

 

[Mugi]

2 hours ago, Funyarinpa said:

don't get me fucking started

all three BGMs are perfect for me

LITERALLY perfect

That style is killing me too, watched each trailer probably over 50 times

I'm so fucking hyped man, wish I had a PS4 so I could remote play it to Vita but alas, will have to settle for a borrowed PS3. Not much money either, so it'll be a LOOOOOONG time before I play P5 unless it ends up on PS Now. ;_;

 

Find a way to make enough by summer, you can't miss out on this. You just can't..

I spent the entirety of yesterday watching the trailers over and over, and watching trailer breakdown/theory videos. It's all I can do to contain my hype