Persona 3 (Kinda Sorta Mildly Spoiler-y) Review

Well, I take back my original comments on “Persona 4” wherein I state it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever played.  Back then, I didn’t know, I just didn’t know at all how much better its predecessor was on almost every level.  That’s not to take away from “Persona 4” at all, the game is superb and I immensely enjoyed my time with it and plan to return to Inaba for some more shenanigans in the near future.  Still though, aside from some technical aspects, better dungeons and more refined Social Links, “Persona 4” comes nowhere close to touching “Persona 3”, not from a narrative and thematic perspective, nor does it come close in terms of challenge.

The 3rd Birthday - a rant

To start this off, I have a love/hate relationship with this game.  On the one hand, it’s a fun, kinetic and challenging little action/RPG hybrid.  Even on the normal difficulty, the game is extremely unforgiving with a decent learning curve, leading to a frustrating, but rewarding experience.  Top off the sleek action and presentation with a relatively deep customization system and you’ve got one hell of a game on your hands.  I’ve played through it about four times now and still, the game is as cathartic and interesting as when I first booted it up.  On the other hand though, this game is a complete fucking asshole and practically goes out of its way to ruin the legacy of a character and franchise I cared very much about.