Is this game meant to be a slow burner?

I've been playing through this game to and from work on my Vita. Without spoiling anything I'm in July and literally just about to encounter whatever big shadow turns up for that month. So far though, when compared with P4G (which I played first), I feel like I don't know or care about any of the characters and I haven't been given that much story.

Is it just that they knew how to tell a better story in P4G? Is it personal for me, do I like the presentation of P4G more? Or is this game a slow burner. It seems that in P4G there was at least a bit more with the group trying to figure out what was going on in the early game, meeting up and having long discussions about the events. In P3P there doesn't seem to be any of that. At least 3 of the new members just accept right off the bat whats going on. The most you get is Junpei asking you "hey are you ready for tomorrow!" or "lets go fighting tonight!"

I know it's still early in the game, but honestly I can't shake the feeling that I just don't know what's going on and it's not doing much to hold my interest other than "this is a persona game and I loved Golden so I want to see where this goes."

It is the slowest of burners. When it finally gets going though you'll be glad you stuck with it, which should be happening pretty soon.

It's certainly slower than P4. It's been a while but I feel like after the crew figures out what the moon cycle means there is about 20-30 hours where nothing really happens with the story. But the beach trip is when the game starts kicking its story into gear.

I think it's a personal preference thing. I prefer the characters and story in 3, but I think 4 is a better game overall. More characters show up and the plot definitely thickens later on, but yes, it takes a while to get going.

Most of the backstory of the characters starts after the summer vacation so yes.

Persona 3 has a completely different feel than 4. It's pretty self-serious and "dark", and because of that you don't get to see the characters having fun very often. It's kind of hard to connect with anything in that game because everyone's either angry or sad, and they're always in-fighting. It's still an interesting story when it gets to the meat of what's going on, but I think it definitely takes some time and effort to get there.

Obviously different strokes and all that.

Yep, the story has a different feel as others have mentioned and the pacing is slower. I actually stopped playing the game entirely for almost a year at one point, but when I eventually returned to it I absolutely fell in love with the game. I hope you stick with it.

@jesus_phish: Yeah, this game is kind of a downgrade coming from P4, especially Golden. Still, I really like it as a good RPG and I like some of the characters, although Yukari is the only one from the group I like (which is weird since a lot of people hate her). Some of the side-links are pretty good, like the taste-tester guy's okay. I don't know, maybe it really is a "you can't go back" scenario with this and 4. I'd tell you that it gets better as it goes and that I think the villains are actually a little better than the ones in 4, but I hate it when people tell me "No, it gets good, just wait a few more hours", so I'll just say I enjoyed it more than any other RPG I've played in recent memory OTHER than P4.

It will start to pick up after you beat your first full moon boss but if you want to see what's going on with your crew you have to wait for after summer vacation or you can play as female MC and S.Link everyone to get some good back story on everyone. Also Stick with it until October 4th. Things really pick up after that.

Persona 3 is one of the slowest paced games I've ever played so yes it is a very slow burn. I fell off after like 20 hours or so because of how much it drags. Thanks Tartarus!

Oooooooh yeah.

I didn't have a problem with the pacing of the story per se, but after trying to beat Sleeping Table multiple times I ended up giving it up for now. Quite sure I'll get back to it eventually.

It is so goddamn slow that I always gave up at roughly 5 or 6 hours in.

I think this is an area where Persona 4 shines in comparison, probably exactly because of a lesson learned from making Persona 3.

In Persona 4, you have this great loop that goes:

• Lead up to next person on the Midnight Channel. Who could it be?
• Investigation Team assembles, discusses the potential victim and investigates them and their whereabouts
• Person appears on Midnight Channel, something is probably happening involving their junk
• Rescue effort is mounted
• OPTIONAL STEP: Inauguration of latest Investigation Team member

It creates this pattern very early on that constantly gives you something to be doing, while it also doles out new characters at a steady clip. It also feeds out a constant stream of new information for the case and each successive victim gives you a new data set to compare against the others in the search for a connection between the kidnapper's targets. While Persona 3 does create a repeating sequence with the lunar cycle, there is far less to it and it basically boils down to being ready to fight a powerful shadow of whatever the next arcana is on the night of the full moon. You have lots to do in that time, from raising your personal stats (becoming a charismatic genius badass), training in Tartarus, levelling up Social Links, questing for Elizabeth etc, but none of that ties strongly into the main plotline. You feel less invested because you've so far been given less to invest in. This is maybe Persona 3's biggest issue, perhaps further compounded by the dearth of Social Links within SEES. If they're there at all, they're not accessed till fairly late in the game and that coincides with the character development in the actual story not being terribly front-loaded.

I think it's also easier to feel more distanced or detached by Persona 3 in comparison to Persona 4 because the agents at work in the story are more nebulous, which makes answers feel less attainable. It's made clear early on in Persona 4 that human motives are very likely to be behind the kidnappings. There are obviously supernatural elements, but it seems most probable that the perpetrator is a person. The antagonism in Persona 3 initially feels far less quantifiable.

Having said all that, I really love Persona 3. It's a fantastic game and I'm still not sure which I like more out of P3 or P4. Late July is also when I recall it really starts to pick up steam.

Well it is a 80 to 100 hour game so no it isn't supposed to be a slow burn.

@damodar: I think you've summed up for me what I'm missing and it's the loop from P4. You're 100% right in everything else you said in the first two paragraphs (I haven't played enough to comment on the rest). I feel like between full moons all I'm doing is nothing but carrying out a routine and not learning anything. New members also just are way, way to accepting of it. I get that the original members of S.E.E.S are ok with what's going on and that the PC is also ok, but Fuuka? Why does she just accept all of this?

I'm going to stick the game out anyway, it sounds like I'm coming up to getting over the initial rocky start. At the core, I still enjoy the game play, I just really hope the story starts picking up so I can stop my routine of working in a coffee shop for three days, studying for two and spending one long session grinding to the next floor before the next full moon.

Thanks for the responses all.

this game is slow as shit but i was completely addicted to it. took me 117 hours...

Yukari: Stupei!!

Definitely slower than 4, but I like it a little more. Honestly, the game is worth going through just for the last month. I loved everything about the last month of that game.

I really tried getting into P3 but after having played P4 on the PS2 and playing through Golden on the Vita I grew to like those characters a lot more and P3 just felt a little boring to me. I understand it is a darker game but I don't know none of the characters immediately made me want to know more about them. It's like Jeff said during the P3P quicklook "Junpei is no Yosuke"

Playing P3 first then P4 was awesome and I loved both games. I can totally see how people would have trouble going back to any version of P3 after loving P4 first. In some ways, the progress that was made between a lot of the aspects of P3 and P4 is what gives me hope for P5.

I don't know if "slower" is the right word, but the pacing of 3 is super weird.

You get thrown into the crazy shadow stuff IMMEDIATELY, but then the game just kind of coasts forEVER, up until the beach trip, at which point a ton of plot happens bizarrely fast.

4 has a much longer "opening", introducing various elements one by one, but I think it's a better strategy. They really learn the right pace to dole out new concepts.

Playing P3 FES and then P4 really made me appreciate the advancements of 4. I absolutely hated the AI for your party members in 3. It was attrociusly bad and I lost many a boss fight because my AI decided to attack a boss instead of healing a party member. Such a good game though and I can't wait to see what they do with 5.

Persona 3 Portable lets you control your party in battle.

Play as the lady. All the new social links are much, much better written.

Persona 3 has some wonky pacing with its plot development and, to be honest, some of the social links you get early on aren't so hot. Both of those get some payoff once you are able to S. Link your fellow S.E.E.S members and stuff in the story actually starts happening, but it's a slow burn until then.

He's already a significant way in and the game is meant to be played first as a dude.

Ahhh gotcha. Thought the only real change to portable was the addition of the lady. Good to know even though I know I'll never go back to that game due to that final fight.

Why do you say that? I played both characters and didn't notice anything that indicates one should be played before the other.

I'm near the end of the my first playthrough and I'm missing like half of my social links (got all the obvious ones but missing the sees crew and fortune), I can appreciate all the pacing of P4 more after playing P3P....that being said I will be playing for a second time. Everyone else said it best it is slog through the first half of the story unlike P4, but P3P has that awesome skill card system (I have not picked up a vita so I have not played P4G, kinda wishing they would just make it cross play/buy for the PS3 since I don't think I'll playing anything else on that system) and when the story does pick up oh boy does it throw some sh!t at you.

@alphazro: The SEES one is part of the story.

P3 gets a bad rap on this site because of an endurance run. I also got news for you, Yosuke ain't no Junpei. P3 is a slower burn because unlike P4 it is never this happy club of friends that feel ripped out of a lucid dream being had by Shaggy after a bad scooby snack. Even though the game is about finding a murderer P4 never feels pressing. What's the worst thing that can happen? A murder gets off scott free. P3 what happens if you mess up? World is destroyed, everyone dies.

The P3 characters also have actual emotional baggage beyond being in high school. Some of them even (god forbid) have character development and mature over the course of the game. Chie, Yosuke, and Yukiko are the same characters at the beginning of the game as they are at the start. They are great likable characters you can relate to, and there is nothing wrong with that, but the P3 cast for the most part is considerably more interesting once you learn about them and has tons more going on as characters. I hate to say it but despite some people posting to the contrary some of them are also far more recalcitrant to jump on board and help than anyone in P4 is, and many of them have tons of doubts and are happy to express them. Not to mention there is actual conflict between characters, something most people think is good in the plot/character department.

The closest thing to a good reason that I can think of is the inclusion of some of the Male MC's friends (Kenji, Kazushi, Yuko) as side characters. Rio's social link in particular gives a little more context to a few of those characters, if I remember correctly.

Even still, that isn't exactly dire stuff and I absolutely agree with you. FeMC's story is much better, and I'd argue that Junpei's social link alone is worth the whole remake. A few of the other characters are also given much more personality, too. I always said that the original storyline felt like fighting monsters with your girlfriends and a few cardboard cutouts of boys that you don't really know or care about.

It's more that it's the canon, and that's important for Arena and Q, maybe even 5 if they decide to have Elizabeth in it.

So just an update to my original post - I've hit past the beach scene in July and I'm heading towards September and plot is actually starting to happen which is really cool. It seems like I was literally just a week or two away from the plot kicking off. The pacing is real weird compared to Golden though where in this about three months go by and it's just "yeah lets go to school and fight monsters at night and not talk about it ever".

Also I think I enjoy that I played Golden first because I get all the references to things that happen in 3 that are made in Golden.

Either way, definitely going to keep going with this and kinda stoked for 5.

Correct. Junpei is better.

Yosuke is a somewhat generic best friend who keeps getting hit in the nuts and has some issues about his parents' store and a girl he likes who works there.

Junpei is a rival who learns to accept you, uses his comedy to mask the fact the he knows he won't amount to much, and puts himself through hell to rescue a girl who feels her life has no value, only for her to sacrifice herself and to lead Junpei to believe in himself.

It's a slower paced game than P4 but it's better than P4 in pretty much every way except for the non-manual control combat so just stick with it I guess because the highs of P4, are like fuckin' hills compared to the highs in P3.

P3P lets you control your party members in combat. The only downside to P3P is that none of the animated cutscenes are in it.

I don't think I'd stick with it if I couldn't have set direct commands for combat. It took me no time at all to get sick of Junpei not using Agi against enemies that were weak against fire.

Oh Mitsuru always trying to use Marin Karin. Always.

Damn straight.

They are both the worst characters in their respective games though.

@corevi: Worse than Fuuka? Or Yukiko?

Both passive, non-personalities.

I didn't mean worst as in worst written, they are very well done complete assholes that I dislike in every way.

@corevi: Fair enough.

It starts out pretty slow but the story and the characters become REALLY interesting. Keep at it, it out did Persona 4 for me in every way and i love that game to bits.