I am thou, thou art I.

Gorgeous Persona 3 protagonist fan art by unknown artist. Would gladly credit!

In the course of my life, not many obsessions have hit me as hard as the one I’m developing (and nurturing) with Persona. Well, hindsight can be deceiving, I guess, and I’m a pretty obsessed person in general — but my poor boyfriend, for whom I would now like to take the opportunity to respectfully shed a tear, would gladly concur that after two completionist playthroughs of Persona 4 Golden, two completionist playthroughs of Persona Q and a sh*tload of trophies on both the Arenas and on Persona 4: Dancing All Night (Platinum on this one), all in the span of a little over three months and while keeping three medical jobs, not much remains to defend me from the accusation. It’s one I’ll take gladly, though, and I’m saving the best for last: the wonderful Persona 3.

The third title in the series has got to be my favorite for a solid myriad of reasons, among which I should point out the general atmosphere, the theme of life and death (one that I’m particularly sensitive about), and… well… Elizabeth. Yeah. Seriously, what else could you possibly want?

Development and nurturing of my obsession has been both productive and expensive.

Persona 4 — which, as said above, I played to death — has a nice vibe to it, but maybe too nice. It can be too upbeat, which does not resonate well with either me or (what I fantasize to be) the Persona series concept in general. Sure, the murder spree may be PG-13, but even these criminal angles are worked under a veil of noir coolness; other than the whole idea of having to face your true self in order to overcome life’s difficulties, not much about the game prompts sobering, introspective thoughts — not in the way P3 does, anyway; and while you may also rightfully accuse P3 of being too sober and depressing, it simply leaves a richer aftertaste. My thoughts on P5, which I own and have somewhat lived through my boyfriend, but have not yet played myself, are naturally more limited and less substantiated; it seems to me, however, that the obvious style and technical improvements do not make up for the lack of drama (…I’m such a wonderful parody of myself <3). P5 is reminiscent of P4 in many ways, from the super cool protagonist to the fluid mechanics and upbeat atmosphere; perhaps its themes are a bit more serious than those of its direct predecessor, but, well… it is not P3.

This, of course, is not to say that P3 is the ultimate Persona on every account — the artwork of both characters and scenarios may be too dull for some, especially after the pop colors of both P4 and P5 (not many players out there started their Persona experience with P3), the animation cutscenes are far from brilliant, and the original battle system, with its impossibility to control your party members, is quite frustrating (goddamn it, Mitsuru, JUST STOP USING MARIN KARIN ALREADY, THAT SH*T DOESN’T WORK) — in fact, the lighter, fluid feeling of the latter titles is probably the direction Atlus wishes to take the Persona series in the future. Still, if narrative and character development are what you value most in a game — and this is typically true of fans of RPGs –, Makoto/Minato/Kotone’s (ahh, Persona protagonists; so many names, so little time) is definitely the story to follow.

Which brings me to my final point — which is the ultimate Persona 3? To this day, opinions remain somewhat divided between the two obvious contenders: Persona 3 FES, the enhanced 2007 rerelease on the PlayStation 2, and Persona 3 Portable, the 2009 PlayStation Portable port. When a “remaster” does not settle the issue on which version is better, it often means that the original should not have been messed with in the first place; with Persona 3, however, I hardly feel this to be the case. It seems to me that P3P has been the victim of some rather misplaced hate in the fan community: whether this is due to today’s unavoidable hipster trend or sheer nostalgia is difficult to tell, but the fact is that the port did nothing for Persona 3‘s ratings on the web’s main aggregators: Metacritic, for instance, displays a 89% to its name, an amazing improvement on FES‘s 89%. Yes, I wrote that right.

Here’s a random misguided pearl of wisdom from Elizabeth, because why not.

Because my OCD is only surpassed by my irresistible urge to express opinions, especially on controversial issues, here’s a sum-up of how I see the whole thing:

(Warning: ALL the spoilers ahead!)

	Persona 3 FES	Persona 3 Portable
Year / Platform	2007 / PS2	2009 / PSP
Main Differences	Contains “The Answer”, a rather battle-oriented epilogue where you play as Aigis Three levels of difficulty Navigated through typical 3D overworld roaming Keeps all of the animated cutscenes of the original You can only manually control the protagonist’s actions in battle (How the f*ck did I beat this game again?) You can not defend/guard in battle (…No, seriously: how the f*ck did I beat this game?) The MC can wield all types of weapons	Main game only Five levels of difficulty Adds a female main character as an alternative to the original male, full of new Social Link options Adds a male Velvet Room resident option for the female MC (Elizabeth’s younger brother, Theo. Yes.) Navigated through a 2D point-and-click system Only features a few animated cutscenes You can manually control all of your party members’ actions in battle Features a Defend option in the battle menu The MC can only wield one type of weapon (one-handed sword for the male, naginata for the female) Features a cameo from P4‘s Ms. Kashiwagi (male MC storyline) or Yukiko (female MC storyline) A whole bunch of new features have been added, and some old frustrating ones have been corrected/improved — find them listed below
Why?	The epilogue is canon and provides some additional closure (although it is so battle-oriented and void of interaction that many people — obviously not including myself! — choose to simply read about it?) It’s a more immersive experience: all the animation, all the 3D roaming Provides a better challenge for the same difficulty level The original MC being able to wield any weapon makes sense when you take into account the protagonist’s Wild Card ability While P3P‘s female MC’s story is very much similar to the male MC’s, her narrative can not be considered canon — every spin-off is very obviously about a blue-haired emo guy holding off a god at the end of the world	Shinjiro Social Link, with a well thought-out, surprisingly not cheap surviving option The point-and-click navigation is so. much. simpler. omg (this may come down to taste, though; many people simply prefer to roam) Shinjiro Social Link! The missing cutscenes are, well, hardly missed — only on a couple of occasions could it be argued that their absence detracts from the feeling of the original game You can now save at your school desk! You can now have jobs! Shinjiro Social Link!! The Police shop is now open at night!! It is now not automatically night-time when you enter the dorm!! Tartarus rescue missions!!! Elizabeth’s challenges!!! Have I mentioned SHINJIRO – F*CKING -SOCIAL – LINK?
Verdict	Despite all of its flaws, FES should probably be your first P3 experience — it literally shows you how the game was originally supposed to be, and draws you well into the story	For second-time players, I feel that P3P is the ultimate P3 (sorry, guys). Practically every single thing that frustrated me in FES — the battle limitations, the absence of Social Links with other male party members, not being able to shop in the evenings, not having enough save points, the ridiculous amount of time it took to go from one place to another,… –were solved in P3P, and the new female MC Social Links are all amazing (especially Shinjiro’s — have I mentioned that?)

So, in short! — if you’ve never ever ever played the game, start with FES, and then decide whether to play “The Answer” or simply watch videos/read up on what happens (which is SO not what I did, *OBVIOUSLY*). If you have played it, however, even if just one time, the female MC version of P3P is definitely the way to go — even if you liked them the first time around, you won’t miss the cutscenes and 3D roaming half as much if you’ve already experienced them, and you’ll be able to extract much more meaning from the new Social Links. Also, it’s pretty much the P3 I dreamed of — and the original was already very dreamy.