Alexx Aplin
Alexx AplinMy first exposure to the Persona franchise was Persona 3 Portable way back in 2011. I was a junior in high school, and at the time the dark-fantasy JRPG was one of the most striking gaming experiences I’d ever had. I had never seen an RPG devote so much time to the lives of its characters outside of things like adventuring. In 2023, diving into Persona 3 Portable is an absolute treat, especially considering the re-release is the first time Persona 3 has been available on anything other than its original home console of PlayStation 2 or in Portable’s case the PSP since 2008 or 2010 respectively.
Before I get into the game itself, this is a good time to mention that if we’re being specific, Persona 3 Portable (on Switch and current-gen) is a remastered version of the 3rd release of Persona 3, which came out on PSP. It differs from the other two versions in that the original release had just the main storyline with several combat mechanics that were later taken out.
Persona 3 FES, which was released in 2008 in the west, had an extra epilogue segment and changed up some mechanics to be more user-friendly based on the original’s critical reception. Persona 3 Portable, however, stripped away some of the exploration elements due to the PSP’s lower hardware specs compared to the PS2, but added a whole new way to play, offering a female protagonist option that changed social links and all manner of other things.
As someone who has done extensive research, I’m not the only one who believes that technically speaking, much like Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal that follow in the years after, Persona 3 Portable is the definitive way to play Persona 3. While the overarching storyline for the female main character remains the same, it was refreshing (and still is) to enjoy seeing the entire game from a new perspective. This is one of the minor complaints I have with later games, having female protagonist options in those games would be fantastic.
Regardless of whether you play as the male or female protagonist, you are a student at Gekkoukan High School, a school in the fictional Japanese town of Iwatodai. Gekkoukan High School has a secret. The Kirijo Group (its owners) discovered a phenomenon called The Dark Hour, an hour that exists between one day and the next that most people cannot perceive.
As a student at Gekkoukan, you join SEES (the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad) a group that goes out during the Dark Hour to explore Tartarus, a labyrinthine tower in the same space as the high school. The tower is inhabited by Shadows, and thus as a Persona user, you must fight them and solve the mystery of the Dark Hour.
Personally, I find that Persona 3 Portable’s story is excellent, but it is also darker than Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal. While there are moments of humor and characters that are meant as comic relief, a lot of the Social Links and the themes of the game are more serious. It should also be noted that Persona 3 was the first Persona game to make use of the Social Link (or Confidant in Persona 5) system, so what you wind up seeing is a very early version of it.
Tartarus itself is similar to other dungeon environments in the Persona franchise. However, in this you can send your party members out to attack Shadows on sight, investigate the floor, and do other actions. The level design is also the most simple of the recent Persona titles, but that is to be expected due to the fact that Persona 3 was the foundation of what the series would eventually become.
Combat takes advantage of the Press Turn system. If you’ve played (or read my review of) Soul Hackers 2, you’ll remember the Press Turn system being a combat system that encourages the exploitation of enemy weaknesses. By utilizing attacks that take advantage of enemy weaknesses, you can knock enemies down and gain extra turns for your characters.
You can either take advantage of the game’s AI and let your party act on their own or set them to a direct command setting which allows you to control what each character does. This is vital for certain bosses where careful timing and usage of abilities can make or break your strategy. If you knock down all enemies in a battle you can unleash an All-Out-Attack. This ability should be familiar to Persona fans and allows you to do large amounts of damage.
Sometimes at the end of a battle you’ll trigger “shuffle time” which lets you draw cards that provide various effects and can even give you new personas to use. These personas are important since you’ll need to fuse personas in order to unlock more powerful ones and expand your combat capabilities. You can also pick up weapons and armor for your party, but persona fusion is a highly valuable method of progression.
As far as gameplay outside of combat and dungeon exploration goes, Persona 3 Portable has a very vivid visual identity, just like later games in the series. The art style is intriguing, and uses the color blue to vivid effect, just like Persona 4 uses yellow, and Persona 5 uses red. The character designs are all unique, and what voice acting is present is very well done.
Considering Persona 3 Portable was created for the PSP, playing it on the Nintendo Switch is a no-brainer. However, I wasn’t expecting just how good it looks thanks to the polish and enhancements that were made for the new release. It plays exceedingly well, and I am very happy to be able to play it again since I hadn’t spent any time with it since my PSP died a few years ago.
If you’re looking for a great JRPG to play and you haven’t played a Persona game, this is a good entry point. If you’re a fan of the series, then I’d highly recommend it, especially if you haven’t played Persona 3 Portable before. You’ll easily get over 50 hours from the game, even more if you decide to try for the true ending in New Game Plus. Persona 3 Portable on the Nintendo Switch is probably the ideal place to play it since you can take it on the go or play from the comfort of your couch, as intended.
A Nintendo Switch Review Copy of Persona 3 Portable was provided by Sega for this review.
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🔥1.7 KPersona 3 Portable
$19.99 USD
Pros
- Quality of life addons like Difficulty Options
- Remastered Visuals
- Great Story
- Engaging combat and progression
- Over 100 hours of content
