Blog: My Journey Into Persona 3 Thus Far
By MetalGearSunny 49 Comments
I haven't written a proper blog on Giant Bomb in a while, and that's mostly because of the fact that I hardly played any games. As you can tell by the title of this blog, I've been playing Persona 3, or Persona 3: FES: The Journey to be specific. I downloaded it off of Playstation Network a few weeks ago, and if you follow me on Twitter, you know that I'm having fun with it. But I would like to go more in depth with it and maybe have some discussions, MOSTLY SPOILER FREE of course, because I'm not finished with the game yet.
For those wondering where I am in the game:
I think I knew from the start that I was going to enjoy this game. After re-watching some of the Persona 4 Endurance Run with my girlfriend, I was wanting to play a game like it. Since I already know how Persona 4 ends, and the fact that Persona 3 FES is only 10 bucks on PSN, I decide to try it out. And hey, I'm loving it. It is pretty similar to Persona 4 in that you're in high school and you're fighting shadows and protecting this town and all. I guess the main difference here is the overall tone. It's clear to me from the start (as well as some of the events that have happened so far) that Persona 3 is a much darker game than Persona 4. I mean...
...yeah. But I'm glad it's like that. I don't mean to say that Persona 3 doesn't have it's funny moments, because it totally does. This is clearly the same people who worked on Persona 4, and that shows with stuff like "Operation Babe Hunt." And the writing is basically the same. You have moments where characters realize things that are already extremely obvious to you (the team finally realizing that strong shadows come out when it's full moon, for example) and that can be a little annoying at times. Nevertheless, I'm really enjoying myself and I can't wait to see what comes next in the story.
One of my problems with the game doesn't come from the game itself, but with the emulation. While there are some bugs that I don't mind, like flickering textures, there are other ones that kind of upset me, like a save issue and an unavoidable long freeze that apparently happens on 9/5. I have encountered the save issue a few times, and it's really unnerving when it happens. You get an error saying that there is no memory card inserted and the save failed. And sometimes when that happens, it just wipes your save. Hopefully, if you catch it, you can just save over it, but if it's like my game, it might not let you save over it. I cannot save in slot 2 anymore, because I get that error every time I do. It's a really bad bug and the fact that it hasn't officially been addressed by Sony or Atlus really bothers me, especially with a game as long as this. I'm keeping 4 redundant saves now, and I hope I don't run into that bug again, because I really enjoy the game regardless.
Persona 3 has been taking up pretty much all my game time. I am completely hooked. I even downloaded the soundtrack, because it's just so damn good. (side note: the animated cutscenes in the game are very beautiful, as well) I did get Persona 4 Arena, but I really want to finish Persona 3 before I jump into that story mode, and from what I hear, it's pretty awesome. I played some P4A with my girlfriend the other day, and I fucking suck at it. I need to do some of the practice mode before I can really get myself to enjoy it. Also, I ordered Persona 4 from Gamestop because...because. I was playing Jak II before I got into Persona 3, and although I would like to go back and finish that up (I'm about 9 hours in) I don't see me doing that for a while.
Persona 3 is a great game, and I can't wait to get more into it. I'm playing on easy, mostly because I'm just in it for the story, but I'm also enjoying the combat as well. What do you guys think? Do you agree with my thoughts on Persona 3? Have any tips for me, without spoiling anything? Am I stupid for comparing it to Persona 4, even though this one game first? Am I a baby for playing on easy?
(I don't really care if you think I am)
MAKE SURE YOU DON'T HURT NOBODY