Okay so, first things first: I played a bunch of Persona 3 on the PSP back in the day, but never finished it. Considering I have no idea where my PSP is (and how much I disliked the weird style of the simulation aspect of that game compared to 4) and how many great things I've heard about three, I've finally started this on PS3 and...I am struggling. I like all of the Persona stuff about it and I'm quickly warming on the characters and some of the ridiculousness of the world in true Persona fashion. But I'm having a HELL of a time with the JRPG stuff thus far. Not being able to control my party members hasn't been a problem yet (but it is kind of stressing out the control-freak in me, especially considering this would literally be the first turn based JRPG I've ever played where I couldn't) and as far as I can tell I have to talk to them to anytime I want to see their status or heal with someone other than my MC, unless I'm missing something? It hasn't made me stop playing as the good has definitely outweighed the bad, but it is really starting to irk me to the point where I feel like I need someone to tell me 1) if the AI is truly good enough to trust the party members as the game goes on; 2) if I'm missing someone as far as seeing the party information as a whole, or if it just becomes something you get used to over time; and most importantly 3) if it's all worth it to push through.

I really want to love this game but I'm worried I've been a little too spoiled by later games and their quality of life improvements.

EDIT: when I say just starting, I should be clear, I'm several hours in. I mean just starting in the Persona game sense.

Yeah, there are definitely some obnoxious design decisions in 3. It helps if you can get into the right state of mind where you can accept that this is how it's designed and let go of any expectations you may have for your party members' behavior. On that though, a couple of points that you might find helpful. First off, once you unlock the "knock down" command for your party, things become a lot more manageable. Also, from my memory, it's very rare that you'll lose a battle because a party member did something stupid. Most stupid deaths will be from insta-kill spells, so... yay?

To your most important question, I would say that it's an amazing game that's definitely worth sticking through the annoying bits for.

It's been a while since I've played it so I'm sure someone can correct me on anything I get wrong here...

The AI in the game isn't great, and you might need to rely on issuing general commands like "prioritize healing" to get them to not be dumbasses. Had plenty of times where a party member would cast a ma- spell that the enemies would reflect, knocking down some of my team who were weak to it. Mitsuru was a chronic Marin Karin caster and that garbage never connects. Eventually this becomes less of an issue, but not due to any AI improvement so much as the game opening up more options to you as far as equipment and persona go. To build off the example I gave, you could eventually get items that would nullify your party's weaknesses, so a spell getting bounced back is no big deal, or even beneficial. Your main character will also get strong enough to shoulder a lot of your team's bad moves, to a point where you can more or less take care of things on your own while they do whatever.

I'm extremely vague on this, but I want to say as your party has their skill slots filled, you're given the choice of what they drop, allowing you to nix any moves you think are problematic.

Can't speak much to the menu stuff as its been way too long to remember how exactly they handle that, but I want to lean more on the side of it being something you're overlooking. I don't recall having any difficulties with that.

I do think Persona 3 is worth sticking with, though maybe not from a mechanical standpoint. Things do improve in a way, but it's a very archaic installment compared to P4, and it's definitely not for everyone. What hooked me was the story, and towards the latter third of the game, it gets really nihilistic in a way I kinda dug, especially off the heels of 4 which remained fairly optimistic throughout.

The AI is okay at best. Early on, the game can be pretty rough between some of the harder encounters and your party members not having great skills or sense. I do remember it getting better as you go, though. Make sure to set the tactics behaviors for each member as needed too, such as making someone a dedicated healer.

For party information, I'm pretty sure the only way to do anything with them is through those menus as you talk to them. That means equipping them with new stuff, using their abilities, and checking their fatigue has to be done manually through different menus, which is a huge pain in the ass. You do get used to it but it takes a bit long to be fun sometimes.

As for if it's worth pushing through, Persona 3 is absolutely worth seeing--as long as you can stomach the amount of (sometimes frustrating) combat. The story has great twists and is far darker in tone than 4 and 5. It can be a hard game to go back to, just as 1 and 2 are even harder to go back to nowadays. I personally think it is a game that deserves recognition.

You'll need to take advantage of Tactics to get the most out of party AI (you won't have them all right away), but you shouldn't need to do much micromanagement. They won't always do exactly what you want, but it's pretty consistent about what it does do, so it's not hard to work around it once you know what to expect.

Unfortunately party management is what it is. You'll just have to used to that part.

Thanks to all of you! At the very least, the push that it's worth seeing through for the story has renewed my resolve.

I think a lot of it for me is just going to be re-framing my brain and just embracing the suck that will be the menus. It was just such a stark shock after P4 Golden and P5 it was almost hard to even believe.

But, I guess if I'm going to be in menus, at least the music is really good. Anyway, thanks again. I'm especially excited to hear how dark things get! Which...feels like a weird thing to say, but whatever.

Some of the party management stuff you get used to. Will they do the thing you always want them to do? Nope. Will Mitsuru keep casting Marin Karin, even though it will never work? Yep! Also the PS2 version of Persona 3 is probably the least forgiving of the Persona games. Party members taking lethal blows is something that was added into P4. There's no restart a floor or boss option. There were times where I would die and lose an hour of progress. There are a couple of other minor inconveniences like party members becoming fatigued the longer you stay in Tartarus (although how long they stay does increase over time, I believe).

In terms of if it is worth it: yes, absolutely. Persona 3, 4, and 5 are all incredibly strong game, each with their unique strengths from a narrative perspective. Not to hype it up too much, but it has one of my favorite endings to a game. The themes build up over time in a really satisfying way.

Persona 3 Portable is the better way to play P3 with some of the improvements they made to the base game, but I fell in love with the original when I first played it back in 2008.

@clagnaught: I can definitely already tell that I miss the quality of life stuff that was improved with the Persona 3 PSP version, but I really didn't like how disconnected the picture finder esque stuff outside of Tartarus felt. I guess It's just about just embracing whatever irritates me less. I realized over the course of this thread that I have a Vita that I could play that version on so if I can't take it anymore I guess I could always go that route (it is also really cool that that version let's you play as a female, although I haven't tried it yet).

If you thought not being able to control your party members is bad, just wait until you get into 3's handling of Social Links. I'll let someone else spoil/explain it, but finding the optimal path of that in 3 gets reeeeally fun compared to 4 and 5.

@sethmode: The female protagonist is a plus. (I'm shocked no other game has added it, even though it is obviously a lot of work; it's just a good idea) It's mainly the same, but some social links are different. I probably appreciated more because I played it originally on PS2, and then played P3P on my Vita.

The pick up and go aspect on the Vita is a nice bonus. That is also kind of carried over with Persona 5 on the PS4 with reset mode. When I originally played P3 and P4, I distinctly remember walking out of the room to go do something else or waiting 30-60 minutes to let my PS3 controller charge while I was in the middle of a dungeon.

More to your original question, I think there is nothing unmanageable about Persona 3 / Persona 3: FES. Old games are old, and they can be archaic in some odd ways. It's not as bad as going back to a PS1 or N64 era game, and the few things that would drag down the experience of the PS2 versions of Persona 3 are really not that bad in the grand scheme of things. Most of the quirks about those versions of P3 can be adjusted to fairly easily. With P3P, the biggest thing is the presentation of walking around, the lower quality graphics, etc. After a while, this aspect didn't bother me either, once I just accepted it.

I think Persona 3 is an exceptional game, regardless of how one were to play it. I would generally recommend people play Persona 3 Portable for a number of reasons, but P3:FES is still fine.

In hindsight P3 was pretty brutal. There's a lot of risk vs reward even when it comes to leveling. I find the party member's SLink to be not as interesting, especially when compare to P4 and P5. Some of the NPCs ones are pretty good tho. Navigating through the SLinks are also full of pitfalls. I highly recommend a guide.

Compare to the recent titles and especially compare to your team member you will find P3 MC's to be so much stronger by comparison, and very flexible with multiple weapons choices and persona switching obviously. You pretty much need to learn how the fusing system works and spent a shit ton of time cycling. If I remember correctly the game favors lower tier spell over high tier spell of the same type, so you actually need to learn to start phasing out lower tier spells in order for the new ones to take their place. There are some serious quality of life issues with the game.

Also the Answer is even harder, so yea...

There are fusion spells which is nice...especially if you just power level and get the kill everything one.

I don't remember if they remove the never-fatigue-before-a-certain-day "feature" in FES, if it is still there use that time to grind wisely. Despite being pretty hard, the game does follow the SMT tradition of if you are willing to put in a shit ton of time your character can get pretty insane. FES dial Victory Cry back a little, but there's still enough to around if you ever reach that level.