Persona 3 Portable hit store shelves over here in the UK today so I got up unnervingly early to go and pick up a copy. The employee working at my local Game store appeared slightly bemused that somebody had picked a game of the (tiny) PSP section and bought it to the checkout. But I didn't care I was pumped to pick it up. I'm now two hours into the game (here or there) and I'm really enjoying it. Having never played a Persona game Persona 3 Portable should probably be overwhelming to me, seeing as the game introduces quite abstract story concepts and gameplay mechanics right off the bat. But as a huge fan of the P4 endurance run (As I'm sure everyone reading this is) everything was nicely familiar, like a warm handshake from an old friend....that I'm meeting for the first time.....if that makes sense. The general tone of the game is incredibly original and engaging but the one small downside is the lack of direct control outside of dungeons. I know that Atlus cut this for an obvious reason (So they could fit one of the largest RPG's of last generation onto a tiny little UMD) but it does detract from the experience somewhat. On the other end by taking out all of that direct movement you can move around the world with more speed than you would otherwise. The music seems fantastic so far, lets see if it gets tiresome the higher up the Tarturus I get. Also as someone who plays games with surround sound wireless headphones on, I can discern every mind blowing lyric (specifically during the rap...)

So in short loving the game so far, it's obviously still very early days but I'm excited to keep playing. I'll post another quick impressions at about the 15 hour mark.

On a quick side note the game came out over here in a sweet box with an art book, art cards and an A3 poster (which is currently residing on the wall of my room). I don't know if this was available in the US but its very nice.