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Persona 3 Portable |OT|: Mixing Things Up for Third Trimester

Wizpig

Member
TheSeks said:
I can't honestly care about this version. :/ The girl main character doesn't appeal to me at all, and losing FES's "The Answer" is a huge blow to the value of the game.
It's not there...?
And you also miss the fancy cutscenes with the 3d characters... and I think you can'T actually move while in school, right? it's a point&click menu or something.

Is "Mass Destruction" still in the game, at least?
 

Cigol

Member
demonkaze said:
I'm in the uk and was wondering that if I pick this up off the us psn store, will I be able to transfer it over to my psp? Would rather get the psn version than wait for it to come from VG+.
Assuming you manage to buy it off the store it'll download and work fine, but I believe it will have some sort of nag screen every time you switch between your existing content and the US/JP content you've bought. I've also read constant switching between regions (which involves some sort of PSN activation) can get your account locked but I've no idea whether that's true (/incredibly rare) or not. Would be nice if someone in the know could clear it up.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
I AM JOHN! said:
Actually, Lord knows why you would ever want to play The Answer

Dungeon Crawling without having to deal with S. Links. Aigis Fanservice mode on. Story wraps up Persona 3's pretty nicely.
Yukari couldn't accept Minato's death until Aigis/the team found out he wasn't dead. He was a seal on the door preventing Nyx from coming
.

It's a decent, not great, addition to Persona 3 and losing it's story chapter is a real loss of value to the game.

But hey, now you can control your teammates that weren't as huge a problem as people make them out to be. YAY!

(Only time I had an issue with them was manually setting them to stand-by. Seriously, Atlus, you had no use for square in P3FES, why not set that to "please standby" mode? Or Mitsuru trying to buff instead of healing when in "heal/buff" mode)
 
Gah, I don't like P4's way of handling HP/MP replenishment. The healing options were stupidly expensive (at least for the sort of money you had at the start of the game). I like that there's no "You're getting tired now, lol", but in a way it helped you feel progress during the original - you'd take longer and longer to tire as you got stronger...
 
TheSeks said:
Story wraps up Persona 3's pretty nicely.
No it fucking doesn't! Persona 3's ending is perfect and didn't need to be fucked with. The Epiloge stuff (all the characters' motivations for awakening their Personas plus the ending reveal) were useless, dull and added nothing, and all the interesting new stuff (Metis, the tournament, etc.) doesn't become kick in until the last two hours of a 35 hour game, which is fucking ridiculous. And to paraphrase the OP, if you don't want Social Links, go play Strange Journey and get lost because you suck.

Regardless of whether or not it's part of the story, it's a shitty part of the story. Persona 3's ending was brilliant; The Answer did everything in its power to try and ruin it.
 
Fimbulvetr said:
I like both you jerk! ;_;
YOU SUCK.

I like both too and I'm glad that Atlus wants to support both styles, but I'd rather Persona be like new Persona and the few things that seem to differentiate old Persona from regular SMT just be incorporated into it.
 

ultron87

Member
Tranced Shadow said:
Gah, I don't like P4's way of handling HP/MP replenishment. The healing options were stupidly expensive (at least for the sort of money you had at the start of the game). I like that there's no "You're getting tired now, lol", but in a way it helped you feel progress during the original - you'd take longer and longer to tire as you got stronger...

In P4 you can strategize in order to conserve your SP so you can go further on a given day (or just get something with invigorate). With the tiredness system there isn't really anything you can do (at least as far as I know).
 

Jay Sosa

Member
I thought the tiredness and especially the sickness "feature" added a nice touch, I actually missed that in P4. And yeah besides Mitsu using tentarafoo(sp?) I had no problems with not being able to control your partners either.

Liked the answer, especially since I love Aigis. But yeah the ending was pretty outstanding on it's own but I guess too many people bitched about it (like they always do if an ending is like this). Don't think it got ruined by it though.
 
I AM JOHN! said:
YOU SUCK.

2cf84n5.jpg


I AM JOHN! said:
I like both too and I'm glad that Atlus wants to support both styles, but I'd rather Persona be like new Persona and the few things that seem to differentiate old Persona from regular SMT just be incorporated into it.

Agree. I'd also like a new battle system though. I don't see how they can go any farther with the One More system.

ultron87 said:
In P4 you can strategize in order to conserve your SP so you can go further on a given day (or just get something with invigorate). With the tiredness system there isn't really anything you can do (at least as far as I know).

After Kanji I was one-shotting every dungeon by using the Fox all the while making a profit.

You just gotta know how to work the system(gold shadows help :D).
 
Jay Sosa said:
Liked the answer, especially since I love Aigis. But yeah the ending was pretty outstanding on it's own but I guess too many people bitched about it (like they always do if an ending is like this). Don't think it got ruined by it though.
Begin rant mode.

Perhaps saying that The Answer ruined P3's ending is a bit unfair, but I feel like it certainly cheapened the ending. The entire reason I love the game's ending is because of the mystique about it, and the fact that you have no idea what is going on. Yes, it's pretty obvious that you're dying and that the reason why you're dying makes sense when you think about it (even if it doesn't quite gel with the fact that you've been able to live for another month-and-a-half), but I feel like there is an almost dreamlike bliss to the ending with an incredibly dark edge. You saved the world, you get the girl of your dreams in a sense (Aigis), you remembered the promise you made and everything is perfect; but there is that obvious edge where you're essentially watching the life drain out of your body as the lover becomes a maternal figure, in a sesne guiding you to a blissful death. That fucked up dichotomy is exactly why I love it: it's overwhelmingly happy in execution and yet something is obviously very wrong, and the fact that they don't explain it and just leave you to make of it what you will--are you really dying? Is this just a dream?--is part of what makes it so powerful.

The Answer's problem is that it tries to be two different things: an Epilogue and an all-new, somewhat unrelated story. While all the new story parts were great (the mystery surrounding Metis, the destruction of SEES and how the ending pretty much completely fucked everyone up), the Epilogue parts (which make up the VAST majority of the game) just completelt fall flat for providing explanations to things that didn't need to be explained. Knowing why they all awakened their Personas doesn't add any to my understanding of the characters and their motivations, especially when they're all retreading ground that's been thoroughly plowed by the base game; expecting me to not be annoyed when that's your great "reward" for getting through a dungeon doesn't help matters either. And then there's the shield explanation. Obviously you can't follow up an ending like that without saying "this is what actually happened," but I feel like it was mismanaged on multiple accounts, bluntly spelling out the entire ending within the first five minutes of The Answer being one of them; the entire shield thing supposedly being a big reveal when it essentially boils down to "remember when we said that he gave his life to stop Nyx from causing the end of days? Well what we didn't tell you is that he actually gave his life to stop this other monster from causing the end of days!" is another." The point of an Epilogue is to give you a bit more context and tie up loose ends with the purpose of enriching your understanding of the events; instead all they did was just repeat every single thing they said in the original game verbatim for thirty-three hours before shifting their focus to the new stuff--the stuff that was actually good.

I like Aigis and the crew and the idea of giving us "one more peek into their lives, post saving the world" is a sound idea, but considering what they gave us, I'd rather they had just filed The Answer with Trinity Soul under the "don't even bother" category.

Well that was time consuming.
 

Tamanon

Banned
Minamu said:
:lol Oh shit, I'm so doing that. Will Francis York Morgan fit though?

If only they let you rename
Ryoji, you could name him Zach



To another point: I agree that the Answer wasn't really needed, P3's ending was outstanding and made complete and total sense, didn't need the extra stuff. Although I liked seeing the other members when they were younger.
 

Spiegel

Member
Destructoid - 10

The Atlus/Shin Megami Tensei/Persona fan isn't really looking for my recommendation for this release, so I'll speak to two other groups that I think will benefit from this new portable version. The first is the one-time Persona 3 player that would like to give it another go, but also remembers sitting in front of the television for weeks. Get this version, and you'll blow through it so much faster and likely enjoy it a bit more on-the-go. Another is the poor sap that couldn't find time to finish this 70+ RPG in the first place. Yes, it's every bit as good as you've heard, and this PSP version will make it really easy for you to experience and actually finish some time this summer.

We loved it before and we still love it. This title would have sit very high on our recommendation list just as a straight PS2-to-PSP port, but the new additions make it appealing to both the new gamer and the seasoned Persona fan. Looking over our PSP game coverage since its release, Persona 3 Portable is near the top of the heap among all the offerings for the system, and definitely at the very top for role-playing games.

http://www.destructoid.com/destructoid-review-persona-3-portable-178053.phtml
 

Lafiel

と呼ぶがよい
If the hyper-mode is harder then expert mode in P4 i'll bite.

However i am disappointed with the lack of "lesbian s-links' ;_:
 

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
Wow just thinking about playing this game again didn't really appeal to me all that much... but hearing about how much different the game is by playing the female MC really appeals to me. I think that I could justify myself playing through the same game again but with a different twist.
 

mileS

Member
This will be my first time playing Persona 3. Started with Persona 4 thanks to Giant Bomb and I was about to buy 3 until I heard about not being able to control your party. For some reason that really put me off from wanting to play it.

Ready to buy a new PSP and download the game day1.
 
Lafiel said:
If the hyper-mode is harder then expert mode in P4 i'll bite.

However i am disappointed with the lack of "lesbian s-links' ;_:

Can't you? I mean obviously there won't be hardcore action, but there was none in Persona 3 (as far as I remember nobody even said "love" to main character"). In P3P you can still hang out with Mitsuru, so...
 

Barrett2

Member
I have never played a Persona game, but the hype for this is tempting. Will i be in over my head, or is this approachable for a first-timer?
 

Aeana

Member
lawblob said:
I have never played a Persona game, but the hype for this is tempting. Will i be in over my head, or is this approachable for a first-timer?
Almost everybody here started with Persona 3. It's fine.
 

alanias

Member
lawblob said:
I have never played a Persona game, but the hype for this is tempting. Will i be in over my head, or is this approachable for a first-timer?
You'll be fine. It's so different from other JRPGs it's pretty refreshing.
 
Oh nice, lol, Amazon is faster than I thought, they moved the status to shipping soon, my past release date deliveries shipped that monday evening, lol!

Im running out of gameplay videos to watch, lol, in anticipation.
 

Blueblur1

Member
lawblob said:
I have never played a Persona game, but the hype for this is tempting. Will i be in over my head, or is this approachable for a first-timer?
Like others have said, it's different from other JRPGs. My first experience with the series was with Persona 3 as well and I absolutely loved it. This version seems to improve upon the original version's faults and I think you'll enjoy it. It'll be a great way to kill time.

Crewnh said:
It was shitty.

Or the UMD couldn't hold all that content.
Maybe both! I feel that The Answer was indeed shitty. Persona isn't that fun when it's just pure combat gameplay, in my opinion.
 

MrDaravon

Member
Dedication Through Light said:
Oh nice, lol, Amazon is faster than I thought, they moved the status to shipping soon, my past release date deliveries shipped that monday evening, lol!

Im running out of gameplay videos to watch, lol, in anticipation.

Yeah, but in this case I'm wondering how they possibly plan to pull off release date delivery; Monday's a holiday, I don't think any of the carriers work that day (or at least UPS and USPS don't). My Crackdown release date delivery shipped overnight Friday, so that'll get here properly on Tuesday but literally don't see how it's possible Persona 3 will if it hasn't shipped yet.
 

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
Yeah The Answer was just boring without SLinks and story. It's besy the way it was presented in The Journey in small chunks, the fighting I mean
 
lawblob said:
I have never played a Persona game, but the hype for this is tempting. Will i be in over my head, or is this approachable for a first-timer?
It's quite approachable and accessible, especially this version of the game. There's a bit more info about it in the "HEY, WHICH ONE SHOULD I PLAY?" section of the OP that I wrote up to answer that very question. ;)
 
I AM JOHN! said:
No it fucking doesn't! Persona 3's ending is perfect and didn't need to be fucked with. The Epiloge stuff (all the characters' motivations for awakening their Personas plus the ending reveal) were useless, dull and added nothing, and all the interesting new stuff (Metis, the tournament, etc.) doesn't become kick in until the last two hours of a 35 hour game, which is fucking ridiculous. And to paraphrase the OP, if you don't want Social Links, go play Strange Journey and get lost because you suck.

Regardless of whether or not it's part of the story, it's a shitty part of the story. Persona 3's ending was brilliant; The Answer did everything in its power to try and ruin it.

No. The Answer doesn't take anything from the impact of The Journey's ending.
 
SailorDaravon said:
Yeah, but in this case I'm wondering how they possibly plan to pull off release date delivery; Monday's a holiday, I don't think any of the carriers work that day (or at least UPS and USPS don't). My Crackdown release date delivery shipped overnight Friday, so that'll get here properly on Tuesday but literally don't see how it's possible Persona 3 will if it hasn't shipped yet.

Oh nice, lol, mine shipped today via FedEx. So I guess it will get here Tuesday.
 

Mr_Brit

Banned
No thanks Atlus. You could at least have kept all the cutscenes and original gameplay and not turned it into a slimline point and click experience. I'd be all over this if it was a true Persona 3 portable. The original game wasn't exactly pushing the PS2 to its limits so I'm sure that they could have replicated the game almost completely on the PSP.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Mo the Hawk said:
Ugh... I've had it pre-ordered for a month on Amazon but it still takes two days after the 6th to ship. :\
I had it preordered for months but Amazon's saying the 9th...
 
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