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Persona 3
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is the third video game in the Persona console RPG series. The game was developed and published by Atlus for the Sony PlayStation 2 console system. Persona 3 was released in Japan on July 13, 2006, was set to be released in North America on July 24, 2007, but was delayed to August 14, 2007 (due to a manufacturing error with the Persona 3 art book), and was released in Europe and Australia on February 29, 2008.
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is the third video game in the Persona console RPG series. The game was developed and published by Atlus for the Sony PlayStation 2 console system. Persona 3 was released in Japan on July 13, 2006, was set to be released in North America on July 24, 2007, but was delayed to August 14, 2007 (due to a manufacturing error with the Persona 3 art book), and was released in Europe and Australia on February 29, 2008. An add-on chapter and enhanced original game, entitled Persona 3 FES was released in Japan on April 19, 2007, and in North America on April 22, 2008. It was released in Europe on October 17, 2008.
The game has the player take the role of a male high-school student who joins up with other members of SEES—the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad—to attack Shadows and other beings that emerge during the "Dark Hour", a time period between each day which only few humans are aware of. The player uses weapons and magical abilities gained by the use of "Personas" to defeat foes in a turn-based combat system. An iconic feature of the game is the method by which the members of SEES release their Personas: by firing an Evoker, a gun-like object, at their head. In addition to typical RPG elements, the game includes elements of dating simulation games as the player character progresses day by day through a school year, making friends and relationships that improve the strength of his Personas in battle.
The game was well-received by critics and earned several gaming awards for 2007.
The North American version of Persona 3 contains the aforementioned art book, along with a soundtrack CD.
Plot
Setting
Persona 3s story, "The Journey", takes place in a modern Japanese city, built and funded by the Kirijo Corporation. Due to events in the past, there is a "Dark Hour", a period of time that exists at midnight between one day and the next that only few people are aware of and remain conscious for; those that aren't appear as coffins, frozen. The Dark Hour bends reality; Gekkoukan High School, where most of the characters attend school during the day, becomes a huge labyrinthine tower called "Tartarus", and beasts called Shadows roam the area, preying on the minds of those still conscious during that time, leaving their victims in near catatonic states outside of the Dark Hour. To learn about these aspects, a group called the "Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad" (SEES) was created, its members both having awareness of the Dark Hour and possessing the ability to call forth a Persona to assist them in battling Shadows. In order to call their Persona, each member aims and fires a gun-like object called an "Evoker" at their head, which does no physical damage but causes significant emotional stress to bring forth their Persona.
In Persona 3 FESs story, "The Answer", which occurs after the conditions that have created the Dark Hour no longer exist, the SEES students discover the Abyss of Time, a labyrinth underneath their dorm, and which becomes the central dungeon that the team explores.
Characters
Persona 3 focuses around the day to day life of the Main Character. The player is given the opportunity to name the character; there is no default name. In the official manga release he is called Minato Arisato. He is a teenage boy, returning to the city he grew up in ten years after leaving it as an orphan, to finish out his schooling. He joins with the original members of SEES and fellow classmates: Yukari Takeba, a popular but inquisitive and cautious girl; Akihiko Sanada, a calm and collected boy that leads the school's boxing team; and Mitsuru Kirijo, daughter of the head of the Kirijo group who supports the group during their explorations. Along the way, SEES expands with new members, including Junpei Iori, the school's class clown and best friend of the Main Character; Fuuka Yamagishi, a shy girl that has gifted Persona abilities; Aigis, a female robot designed by the Kirijo group to fight Shadows; Ken Amada, an elementary schoolboy who shows promising Persona abilities; and Koromaru, a dog loyal to his long-dead master and who also is able to fight Shadows.
The other two characters are Igor and Elizabeth who helps the main
character develop his personas and gives the player tips. At the
end of the game Elizabeth leaves Igor's service to aid
in the main character's eternal struggle against his foe
and her sister Margaret becomes the new assistant in Persona 4.
Story
The Journey
Persona 3 begins with the Main Character returning to the city after ten years. He is quickly brought into SEES when his awareness of the Dark Hour is revealed and that he can summon multiple Personas into battle. With their help, SEES is able to explore Tartarus further and defeat Greater Shadows that appear every full moon, believing that by killing all twelve of them, they will be able to end the appearance of the Dark Hour. However, SEES learns they have been misled; by destroying the Greater Shadows, they have freed parts of a being called Nyx who will bring about the end of the world if it is fully restored. It is revealed that the Kirijo Corporation was attempting to do this ten years ago, but Nyx was released prematurely in a laboratory accident that also created the Dark Hour and Tartarus. Aigis, a robot designed to fight Nyx, battled the being but was unable to fully defeat it, instead dispersing parts of it into the Greater Shadows, and installing the last part into that of a young boy nearby, revealed to be the Main Character.
SEES encounters Ryoji, a teenage boy who tells him he is Death incarnate and that he will unwillingly usher in Nyx and the end of the world. The player is given the option to kill Ryoji at this point; if taken, the game explains that members of SEES lose memories of the last year, and show them leading normal lives until inevitably the end of the world occurs. If Ryoji is spared, then the game continues, and on January 31, SEES climbs to the top of Tartarus to face Ryoji, now in his true form of the avatar of Nyx. Though they defeat it, the avatar is still able to call forth Nyx; the moon splits open revealing a strange device that begins to kill people across the Earth. The Main Character uses all of his Social Links gained from SEES and other friends to create a seal to lock Nyx away, though sacrificing himself to do so.
The world returns to normal, though the memories of the past year are lost to the SEES members. As they finish school, they come to realize that they each promised to gather on the school's roof should they make it to graduation day. There, they find the Main Character lying in Aigis' lap, smiling at the brief reunion with the other SEES members before he dies.
The Answer
An additional chapter of the story is available through the game's expansion Persona 3 FES. The events in The Answer take place on March 31, shortly after the end of the original game; and with the end of school, the SEES dorm is to be closed down. However, they find that while midnight has passed, the rest of the world still believes it to be March 31. Resigned to determine the reason later, the group departs to bed, but they are awakened when Metis appears in the dorm and attacks Aigis. Aigis fights back, her Persona becoming that of Orpheus, the Main Character's original Persona. Aigis is able to subdue Metis, and SEES learns that she is trying to end the time skip by killing all the SEES members except for Aigis, who she claims is her sister. Metis reveals that below the dorm is the Abyss of Time, in which exist doors that lead to the past. SEES work their way through the Abyss, reaching the doors, and ultimately obtain the means to escape to either the present or the past just before the battle with Nyx. After some internal strife as to which option to choose, they discover a means to bring themselves to the moment Nyx was sealed, so that they could learn why the Main Character fell into a coma and died.
They confront Metis on this, and she reveals that the seal created by the Main Character was not to seal Nyx from humanity, but to prevent humanity from calling out to Nyx. However, due to the buildup over humanity's history, the wishes of humans that want to end their life has manifested in the being Erebus, who has been able to break through the seal, thus causing the time skip. SEES realize, that the wished that created Erebus came also from them, so they decide to fight it, and they eventually defeat it. Mitsuru points that Erebus will return someday, because humans will never stop wishing for death, so they must go on with their lives to try change things in the world. In the beggining of FES, since Aigis lost her purpose in life (protect the Main Character), she desired to become a cold machine again, and so, her human emotions were detached from her and they materialized in a new being (Metis), and so this is learned at the end. After the Abyss dissapears, Aigis changes her decision to return to the lab, and decide to return to school with her friends, and everyone move forward with their lives.
Gameplay
Persona 3 combines elements of standard console role-playing games and dating sims. The game takes place over the course of a Japanese school year. Each day goes by broken up into several periods such as "Morning", "Afternoon" and "Evening", with the Main Character going to school and then participating in selected activities during free time. The player may opt to use the free time activities to buy equipment and items at stores, talk to other non-playable characters, or spend the remainder of the free time either to build a Social Link or to improve the Main Character's attributes, such as by gaining courage by singing karaoke. Thus, the player must manage which activities or Social Links to improve in order to build up the Main Character for the exploration of the Tartarus. Certain in-game events will occur on prescribed days; Major Shadows will appear on full moons, there will be midterm and final exams within school, and school holidays give the player more time to work on other activities.
At night, the player may opt to enter Tartarus, or otherwise allow the characters to rest and recover. Tartarus is 250-floor tower which the player must eventually climb by the end of the game. Tartarus is broken into several "blocks", and various blocks are inaccessible until the Major Shadows are defeated on each full moon, thus limiting the progress through the tower. Most floors of Tartarus are randomly generated in a roguelike manner, with a random distribution of treasure and wandering Shadows, but each includes a stairway to the next floor and many also include a one-way only teleport point that allows them to escape to the first floor. Other levels contain mini-bosses that must be defeated in order to progress; these levels also feature a fixed teleport point that allows the player to travel to any other similar teleport point that has been previously accessed, thus allowing the player to skip blocks when returning to Tartarus. The player may opt to keep the party together or have each member explore the level, recovering any treasure found and fighting monsters individually. As the party explores, their health will worsen, and a member that ends up "tired" or "sick" will perform poorly in battle and may drop out before battle is complete; the only way to recover from these states is spend one or more nights without exploring Tartarus.
Combat is a turn-based affair. Each character can perform a standard melee attack with their weapon, summon their Persona to unleash an attack or spell, or use recovery and battle items. The player only directly controls the actions of the Main Character. The other members of the party can be guided through specific tactics assigned to each of them, such as maintaining the health of the party, or going all out with Persona attacks. Each foe has strengths and weaknesses; by striking a foe with an attack it is weak against, it will cause the foe to be knocked down, and the attacker will gain one more immediate attack; this can lead to a chain of attacks against each foe if the attacks are selected appropriately. If all remaining foes are knocked down, the player can opt for an "All Out" attack, with the remaining members entering a cartoon-like fight cloud, inflicting higher damage on each foe.
Social Links
Social Links represent various friendships that the Main Character has with fellow SEES members, classmates, and other persons around the city. Each Social Link in the game represents one of the Arcanas for Personas, and building these Links are necessary to obtaining more powerful Personas from that Arcana. Social Links can grow by having the Main Character spend a period of time with the appropriate person. This action does not always guarantee an increase in the Link. In some cases, it is necessary to spend two or more periods before the Link can be raised. At other times, the player may be asked to respond to a question from the friend; an improper response may cause the Link to stay stagnant, or even go into a "Reverse" state. In these situations, the Main Character will have to reconcile the relationship, or risk reaching a "Broken" state. Once a Social Link is Broken, the Main Character will no longer be able to use Personas of that Arcana for the remainder of that playthrough. Several of the Links are with teenage girls that can lead to romantic interests; these Links can be improved by giving the girl a gift, but can also go into a Reverse or Broken state if the Main Character spends too much time with another girl.
Personas
Each member of SEES has a Persona that they can summon with their Evoker which can perform special attacks and offensive and healing spells. Each Persona belongs to a specific Arcana and has set strengths and weaknesses against certain types of attacks. Personas level up with the characters as the result of successful battles, gaining new spells and abilities. The Personas of the characters (excluding the Main Character) can also change to a new, more powerful Persona after certain key events regarding that character in the game. The Main Character is unique in that he is able to summon multiple Personas, even changing these during battle. The player can select up to a maximum of twelve Personas to use within battle, and the amount he can use as a whole tops at least 170.
Within the Velvet Room, the player is able to store Personas, including their current experience and skills, and later recall them for a price. The player can also fuse from two to six Personas into a more powerful one. The result of a fusion will include selected abilities of all Personas used and will gain an experience bonus equivalent to the strength of the Social Link the Main Character has with the new Persona's Arcana. Fusing is limited by the strength of the Main Character and his Social Links; fusing the most advanced persona for an Arcana can only occur once the player has maximized the Main Character's Social Link in that Arcana.
Persona 3 FES
The expansion to the game, in addition to adding a great deal of content (both game play and storyline-related) to the main game, includes a continuation of the story entitled The Answer, totaling for an extra thirty hours of game time. When starting a new game, the player is prompted to select The Journey (known as "Episode Yourself" in the Japanese version) or the aforementioned The Answer ("Episode Aegis" in the Japanese version). The Journey is the original game with added quests and events, whereas The Answer can be considered a sequel, featuring Aigis as the main character, and the complete ending. The core gameplay in the extra content is similar to the base Persona 3 game, though days do not pass normally, and the characters explore the Abyss of Time rather than Tartarus. FES also contains extra costumes and a new weapon synthesis system, twenty-three more Persona, and a "hard" difficulty setting (the original Persona 3 came available with only Easy and Normal modes).
Development
Hints of a new Persona game were given at an event meant to hype up the release of Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army in March 2006. A few days later in an issue of Famitsu details of Persona 3 were presented in a short three page article containing basic character and battle information. In the article, it was also mentioned that Shigenori Soejima would be in charge of character design and art direction rather than the series' usual artist and director, Kazuma Kaneko. The article also included the game's slogan: tempus neminem manet, or "Time does not wait."
The North American release of the game was originally scheduled for July 24, 2007, however, Atlus claimed that they had problems with the publication of the art book, opting to delay the release until August 14, 2007 in order to provide the corrected art book to fans of the game's series. In bringing the game to English-speaking countries, some of the original humor in Japanese was replaced with similar jokes in English, according to Project Leader Yu Namba.
Like Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne before it, Persona 3 had different age ratings in each part of the world. It was rated Mature (17+) by the ESRB in America, but in Japan and Europe it was given the equivalent of a Teen rating (CERO's B rating in Japan, PEGI's 12+ rating in Europe). This is probably because of use of the Evoker.
Persona 3 FES
On April 19, 2007, Atlus Japan released an add-on disk for Persona 3 called . A "director's cut" version, which included both Persona 3 and Persona 3 FES, was released on the same date. According to the game's director, Katsura Hashino, the subtitle of "FES" is said to come from the word "festival".
On October 19, 2007, a reference to a "Persona 3 Expansion Pack" was posted on the website of professional voice actor Derek Stephen Prince (who voiced Takaya in the NA version of Persona 3) under the heading "GAMES TO WATCH OUT FOR", suggesting that English localization of Persona 3 FES was indeed underway with Prince revealing the name of his role in the game: "Takeharu, Vice Police Detective." Shortly after the "leak" was publicized on online gaming forum NeoGAF, the reference was removed. In addition, the website of voice actor Liam O’Brien (who voiced Akihiko in the English localization of Persona 3) was updated to include Persona 3 FES -- and similar to Steve Prince's resume, this was removed shortly after the story broke. However, in the February 2008 issue of EGM, it was mentioned that the add-on Persona 3 FES was coming to North America.
On February 18, 2008, Atlus placed a countdown timer on their official site that held an extremely similar resemblance to the one in the opening of Persona 3. Ads also surfaced which displayed the same countdown as seen on the Atlus official site with the Atlus logo as well as an image of an arm holding an evoker. This was speculated to be a countdown to an official FES announcement.
On February 25, 2008, Atlus officially announced that Persona 3 FES would be released in North America on April 22, 2008.
On July 23, 2008, Koei officially announced that Persona 3 FES would be released in Europe on October 17, 2008.
Media releases
Persona 3 has had a wide range of related media released.
Music CDs
The soundtrack for the game was entirely composed by Shoji Meguro with the exception of one track by Yosuke Uda titled Adventured act:. It was released as a 2-disc Original Soundtrack on July 19, 2006 by Aniplex. However, it does not contain the school version of Memories of School and two unused tracks found on the game CD, Burn My Dread (Karaoke Version) and a Level Up track.
The US version of the game came with a CD, Persona 3 Original Soundtrack, containing a selection of tracks.
An arrange album titled Burn My Dread -Reincarnation: Persona 3- was released on April 18, 2007 by Aniplex. It contained 11 arrangements of tracks from the game and an extended version of "Burn My Dread", all arranged by Meguro.
Meguro returned to compose new music for the Fes version. The Fes Soundtrack was released on May 2, 2007 by Aniplex. The soundtrack contained arrangements from earlier Persona titles Snow Queen (composed by Kenichi Tsuchiya), Maya Theme (composed by Kenichi Tsuchiya), Persona (composed by Shoji Meguro) and Time Castle (composed by Toshiko Tasaki); Snow Queen was arranged by Tsuchiya and the other 3 by Meguro.
Opening Songs
- Burn My Dread by Yumi Kawamura
- P3 fes by Yumi Kawamura and Lotus Juice (Fes only)
Insert Songs
- Want To Be Close by Yumi Kawamura
- When The Moon's Reaching Out Stars by Yumi Kawamura
- Mass Destruction by Yumi Kawamura and Lotus Juice
- Deep Breath Deep Breath by Yumi Kawamura and Lotus Juice
- ???????? (Jika Net Tanaka) by Masahide Takaya
- Burn My Dread -Last Battle- by Yumi Kawamura and Lotus Juice
- Mass Destruction -P3fes version- by Yumi Kawamura and Lotus Juice (FES only)
- Master of Tartarus
- Master of Shadows
- Unavoidable battle
- Heartful Cry ( FES only )
- The battle for Everyone's Souls by Tomoko Komiya
- Darkness( Fes only )
Ending Songs
- ????? (Kimi no Kioku / Memories of You) by Yumi Kawamura
- Brand New Days by Yumi Kawamura (Fes only)
Drama CDs
- Persona 3 Drama CD Vol. 1 - Daylight (FCCT-0050) (March 21, 2007)
- Persona 3 Drama CD: A Certain Day of Summer (LACA-5635) (April 25, 2007)
- Persona 3 Drama CD Vol. 2 - Moonlight (FCCT-51) (May 25, 2007)
- Persona 3 Characters Drama CD Vol.1 - Main Character and Ryoji Mochizuki (February 28, 2008)
- Persona 3 Characters Drama CD Vol.2 - Junpei Iori and Chidori (March 27, 2008)
- Persona 3 Characters Drama CD Vol.3 - Aigis, Ken Amada, and Fuuka Yamagishi (April 23, 2008)
- Persona 3 Characters Drama CD Vol.4 - Yukari Takeba and Mitsuru Kirijo (May 21, 2008)
- Persona 3 Characters Drama CD Vol.5 - Akihiko Sanada, Koromaru and Shinjiro Aragaki (June 25, 2008)
Novels
- Persona 3 Owari no Kakera
- Persona 3 Shadow Cry
- P3 PERSONA3 Novel Anthology (June 25, 2007)
Manga
A manga adaptation of Persona 3 by Shuji Sogabe has been published monthly in Dengeki Maoh since April 4 2007.
Figurines
Several figurines of the characters have been produced by Kotobukiya, a Japanese company that produces toy collectibles. These include:
- The Main Character (Evoker and tarot cards) (released in December 2007)
- Aegis (Multiple weapon parts) (released in August 2007)
- Mitsuru (Evoker and sword) (released in July 2007)
- Akihiko (Evoker and gloves) (released in January 2008)
Mitsuru and Aigis are 1:7 scale, and the Main Character and Akihiko are 1:10 scale. The male characters will also come with a bonus mini CD containing a drama series. These CDs are unique to the figurine collections. The figurines have bases on which they stand in the form of a circle with the school's crest for Aigis and Mitsuru and a mirror for the Main Character and Akihiko. The figurines have interchangeable parts, which can be stored in the base.
Alter, another Japanese company that specializes in collectibles, has also come out with an Aigis figurine showing her mid-action. This figurine is 1:8 scale and is more detailed than the one put out by Kotobukiya. Alter also plans to release a 1:8 figurine of Mitsuru in June 2008.
Headphones
The headphones are the main character's trademark and are made by Audio-Technica, model: ATH-EM700 sv.
Anime
An anime sequel to Persona 3 which takes place ten years after the events of the game, entitled Persona: Trinity Soul, was aired in Japan starting in January of 2008 and lasted for 26 episodes. Although the Anime features Akihiko Sanada as a secondary character, it contains no direct reference nor relations to Persona 3.
Reception
Persona 3 has garnered generally positive reviews since its release in North America. In particular, it received praise for combining common RPG elements such as leveling up and dungeon exploration with social links, and for its occult-themed storyline.
The game accrued a small amount of controversy during its release, due to the manner in which in-game characters summoned their "Persona". This was done by placing a gun shaped device known as an "Evoker" to their heads and pulling the trigger. Evokers, however, do not replace guns in the world of Persona 3, as real firearms are wielded by several characters in-game.
GameSpot named Persona 3 the best RPG of 2007. Gamespy named it the 2007 PS2 RPG Game of the Year and placed it second in the 2007 PS2 Top 10 Games of the Year. RPGFan gave Persona 3 the RPGFan's Best RPG of 2007 Award.
Nintendo World Report considered the game transcendent enough to create a special podcast episode dedicated to the game, and described it as "one of the best games on the PlayStation 2."
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