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Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 game Review

Story & Playability

far as story goes the game is reminiscent of final fantasy or any kill the big bad with no real alternate ending that has an alternate boss. and to be honest the series starts out like the TV series bones where everyone is happy and slowly they reveal they're misfits with tragic pasts for dramatic effect. and as awesome as that is the American TV fans it irritated me. so if you're like me and prefer characters to not dawdle in their issues and concentrate on what matters then you may find this story a little irritating. however the plot has twists and maintains consistency relatively well unlike the TV series Bones or other games that use similar tropes like break the cutie or tall dark woman. the characters themselves have decent depth and this makes he social link part of the story mechanic fun and interesting for the first 40 hours of the 80 you will spend playing the game. that is if you want to beat the boss. a few characters weren't so whiny like yukari, such as Shinjiro or the perverted male sidekick. but junpei is a fun character. in the end it's decent but nothing unique and interesting like Devil Survivor or other SMT games.

Rating: 7

Graphics

the art is what really kept me playing the game. it's very well done and consistent. the 3-D part irritated me but i prefer 2-D like Strange journey or 3-D like Descent 2. so you can feel free to ignore my views. but i felt like the character and demon art was much better than it was in previous games. and kept the game feeling clean and fresh as opposed to losing ground to the story. the artist the had for the characters is one of the better mangakas out there today so if you choose your game for the art this one is a good idea. like i said earlier the 3-D art leaves something to be desired but then just about everything short of FF13 does. not that i like FF13, i personally think it's one of the worst games ever made. but the psp doesn't have a lot of graphics power with it's gpu being a 333Mhz mips risc processor. so all in all it's good but the combat is overrated compared to other 2-D combat like p2.

Rating: 9

Sound

the audio is decent but i didn't care for the soundtrack. but this is all up to personal preference. the voice acting grated on my patience a little but some games do and some don't so i recommend looking at samples first. the ost is not one of the best in smt though it has become popular and the songs without vocals are quite well done compared to many modern rpgs. if you're looking for good audio though i would look into p2 or earlier smt games. the voice acting in p2 for example is quite good. the female soundtrack is much better than the male soundtrack outside of the generic battles. of course the final boss music is epic but the game would be a massive disappointment if it wasn't. in general it's ok but it has a few good tracks. unfortunately the bosses are all way to easy even on hard mode so the good music doesn't last long.

Rating: 7

Fun

the game is very well presented and is very well polished. it's UI is easy to use and the game's mechanics are consistent and easy to grasp. the minimal but yet flashy UI gives a very fresh feel to the game where persona 2 felt a little like it was patched together for the psp and then thrown out there. despite this persona 2 is still a far better game. all in all the game looks very well polished and the player never feels like they have to fight the controls like in many ported games. the intro video for the psp release also gives the game a shiny new feel. the only thing i dislike compared to the original is when you're walking around you don't walk around with characters like Elizabeth anymore.

Rating: 10

Final Verdict

8.3333 (good)

Reviewed by omaiwa, Oct 24, 2011

Comments

angelxxuan Banned Member Oct 24, 2011

from the very beginning I saw a lot wrong with this review. I've never even seen the show bones so I have no clue about that one, you made too many references to other things that many people have never heard of let alone seen. so that really causes a lot of confusion. I rather like this game in question that this review is being based upon, really doesn't help those that know nothing about it though. noticed quite a few grammar mistakes as well. also stating opinions about entirely different game reviews was also a bad idea as well. I've never played ff13 and you pretty much just made it sound worse than it probably is. if you didn't like the game much you sure did give it such a high score throughout the review. and there again to throw out there that another game is better than the first, you're doing a review for this game not another game and it's unfair and illogical to compare the game for those that have never played persona 2 might not be aware, or they might actually compare the two and not bother with either.

as this might be your second review, I noticed in your first review that it was slightly similar. just stating some critiquing that should be looked into, reviews are nice and all but it's better to do reviews on what you're reviewing, not by bringing and comparing others. messes up the review or it causes confusion to those reading them. would have been nice to see more info about the characters, which version that you played and the plot and not so much as all the comparing. just my opinion is all :)
z827 Oct 25, 2011

As Angel said - don't take references to things that others is not likely to have seen or even heard about.
Final Fantasy is a common element , yes , but I've never heard of "Bones" in my entire life. You can't really assume everyone to have watched the show , much more so upon the fact that not EVERYONE is American in this site. You'd need something more... "global" as a reference.

The review is lacking in details and does not relatively describe how one would like - or perhaps - dislike about the series.
It would also be wise to leave other series out of the topic with subjective tones like "like or dislike" when your reviewing about a specific series and try to make the review slightly less about your own opinion and more about the prominent features in the game.

Further elaboration on existing details is also required and either way , you'd probably like to polish this review up a bit.
I'd look forward to the improvements you would make , I'm sure Angel would agree that we all start off weak :P
CyanideBlizzard Retired Moderator Oct 25, 2011

While I understand making the reference that you did, Bones and Persona 3 have absolutely nothing in common that making such a comparison from would benefit. Considering the fact that Bones is more of a crime solving drama that's slightly based upon factual events.. and Persona 3 is about kids fighting monsters that randomly appear at midnight. If you were to draw comparisons upon what you mentioned, a lot of shows, games, novels and pretty much anything else can be used as a comparison. We completely welcome comparisons, but unless you either reference something with a link to help people understand, or offer an example that better explains what you are referencing you only create confusion by just simply making a reference and expecting people to understand it. The Persona 2 is another example of that, considering the fact that there were two versions that were released and those of us in the US only played one version. Considering there were also significant changes between Persona 2 and 3, I'm a bit confused by the comparison too.

Another thing that Z touched upon is you definitely need to offer more detail. A game like Persona 3 has so much going on and so many things you can do, that I wouldn't of guessed if I had never played the game before and just read this review. Don't be afraid to make a review longer and more wordy, as it only helps the audience to better understand what you are looking for.

I would also definitely recommend spelling and grammatical checks before submission as well. We have no deadlines on reviews, so you are welcome to take as much time as you need to complete.

I hope that these critiques don't scare you away from trying your hand at reviews. A recent submitter had a similar issue, but they tightened it up and are by far one of the strongest reviewers we've got here now. Practice makes perfect, and reviews are no exception to the rule.

Best of luck to you in the future!
Dancerinthedark Oct 27, 2011

Well I agree with everything u said,nice review XD
and hmmm but the characters aren't very lovely don't u think so?I think persona 4's main characters are better but persona 3's s.link characters are cuter then 4 that what i think^^;
but in the and I can't choose wich persona is better 3 or 4^^
thanks for the review again!:)
shoujoboy Nov 01, 2011

When you first put the reviewing hat on it's best to always have someone else take a second look. It's hard to see your own faults and find anything wrong with what you've written. It's when you have an objective opinion, maybe one without any knowledge of the material you are talking about, to take a look and point out any issues. There are obvious flaws with capitalization and sentence structure. Honestly, I can only attribute that to laziness as it's just too consistent to be by accident. Most have mentioned the problem with you making references to other things and that is a big problem. Referencing other things is fine but you cannot make that a major backbone in your reviewing. The most glaring issue, in my opinion, is your very general descriptions of various elements of the game. Why is something 'decent'? Why would you say something is 'very well *insert adjective here*"? What about those individual elements gives them that qualifier?

The final thing I'd like to point out is that you seem to have created a bit of a problem in your final section. By grading something a '10' you have essentially said that something is at the absolute top of it's class. It's very possible that you truly believe this game gets a '10' in Fun but you've essentially hurt that opinion by saying that it doesn't measure up to something else. This is one of the major pitfalls of dropping comparisons. You may write 3 reviews and give them all '10's and it would be fine as long as you kept each of them independent of one another and free from cross referencing them. When you start to drop other things and say that it doesn't measure up to that standard, a '10' is just not going to look accurate.

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