Persona 3: a whole greater than the sum of its parts

Nervously I clenched my playstation controller as I fought the final boss at the top of Tartarus, the midnight domain, which I had vigorously traversed through over the course of 80 hours. Any mistake could mean the death of my character and me having to restart this arduous fight all over again. A fact I knew all too well after dying to the very same boss the day before, after an hour of fighting, causing me to almost give up on the game entirely. But I persevered, as I couldn’t give up after coming this far, and I challenged the boss for a second time. Their health was approaching zero. Only a few more successful hits and I would be victorious. Finally the boss committed to their infamous “Night Queen”-attack, which had spelled my demise during my last attempt. However this time I came prepared and I managed to withstand the attack and the subsequent status conditions it brought forth. This was my chance. I committed my entire party to an all out offensive despite the fact that everyone’s health was low. Just a few heavy elemental attacks and that was it. The fight was over. I had beat the game.

I just described the final hour of Persona 3, a japanese role playing game developed by Atlus, which I have spent the last couple of months playing incrementally by incorporating it into my daily routine. Some people have described the game, and subsequently the entire series, as a mix between social life simulator and a dungeon crawling role playing game. That description is not entirely inaccurate either. It may sound like a strange combination at face value but it really does make sense in context. The entire premise of the game is based on how people use different personas to adapt to different social situations. After all, we don’t have the same personality when we’re hanging out with friends, when we’re talking to grandma, talking to work-related acquaintances etc. The Persona series takes this a step further and adds an alternate universe where these personas manifest as magical beings used for battle against monsters. Just like how you would use different personas to adapt to different social situations in the real world you will also use different personas in this alternate world to best adapt to different combat situations. Your social links and friendships that you form in the real world will affect the personas you create in the alternate world, just as the personas you create in the alternate world will affect how you relate to your social links in the real world. Sure it might sound a bit “video game”-y that the personas manifest as “battle monsters” but the connection between these worlds genuinely makes for an engaging gameplay experience.

Fighting shadows inside Tartarus

Persona 3 wasn’t my first exposure to the series. That honor goes to Persona 5, which I incidentally also finished playing not too long ago (for the third time). Having played these 2 games back-to-back I’ve come to appreciate their similarities and differences alike, but probably not in the way I had expected. Persona 3, being the earlier entry in the series, certainly feels more “primitive” compared to the polished visual sensation that is Persona 5. I’m not just talking visually though as everything from gameplay to player movement to menu design feels a lot more clunky and inconvenient in Persona 3, which took some time to get used to after having spent 100 hours with the masterfully executed user interface of Persona 5. In fact, taken in isolation I would argue that Persona 5 executes every gameplay feature better than Persona 3. However, and this is a big however, Persona 3 still manages to create a better whole than Persona 5.

I am a strong believer in judging games as an artform and not as a product. Some people see video games as a list of features that can be scored individually to create an objective average score that can then be compared to other game scores. However I believe that individual features and mechanics should be judged in the context they take place in and that the game should be judged as a whole. This also means that it can be hard to compare the quality of 2 different games. Despite all this I can still say that I think Persona 3 is a better game than persona 5, even though Persona 5 is technically more fun to actually play.

The main reason for this really comes down to immersion, particularly when it comes to the level of control you have in the game world. In Persona 5 you have full control of each character in battle: what attacks they perform, which skills they learn, what armor they wear, which target they attack and more. Not only that but in the real world you know the exact moment every social link is available to spend time with and every session spent with a social link will always result in some kind of beneficial increase in your relationship. When creating battle personas you even have full control over which battle skills will be inherited and you can even get a handy list of all personas currently available for creation (as opposed to experimenting and finding them yourself). In Persona 3, on the other hand, each character acts on their own accord in battle. You can give them vague instructions and hope that they will use the move you wanted them to do, but giving instructions is optional. If you want a specific character to equip a certain item you have to manually go up to the character and give the item to them, but even then they might prefer to equip another item entirely. In the real world it’s not always obvious which social links are available at the moment so you simply have to walk around the world, hopefully find them and ask them if they want to spend time with you. Even then it’s not always the case that a session spent with them will result in a deepening of your friendship. Add on top of that that some social links might become angry, bitter or hurt if you haven’t spent time with them in a long time, or if you canceled your plans with them. If you become close to one of the female social links they also might get jealous if you frequently hang out with other girls. Creating battle personas is tedious and mostly based on trial and error, not to mention that you can’t choose which battle skills to inherit and instead the game chooses it for you.

Just a regular pretty anime school boy by day. But by night…

In most cases a higher level of control in a video game would be lauded, but in this case the lack of control creates a more immersive experience (in my opinion). Don’t get my wrong though, I’m glad they removed some of these features in later entries, like the fact that you can’t form close platonic relationships with any of the girl characters (which just feels kind of sexist to be honest), but I can’t deny that all these previously mentioned gameplay elements certainly creates a unique experience unlike anything I’ve played before. I spent every day trekking forward with a sense of uncertainty in the back of my mind, never knowing if my course of action is the right one and never knowing what consequences might follow. When I found out that my in-game classmate was hurt by the fact that I had canceled my weekend plans with him to instead spend time with someone else I felt genuine remorse, despite the fact that he was just a bunch of pixels on the screen. Another example was when I showed kindness to the shy girl in the student council. Being a shy introvert myself I thought I would extend a helping hand to help her sprout her own wings. However she interpreted my kind heartedness as romantic affection and thus considered us to be a couple after seeing each other just a few times. This wasn’t my intention from the start but I also knew that there was no way to get this across to her without hurting her feelings, so I distanced myself from her (which inevitably led to her feelings being hurt anyway). Despite the fact that these were fictional people the emotions I felt were real and I do believe this is due in part because of the aforementioned lack of control you have as a player to the world around you and the unforeseen consequences your choices can have. The act of not knowing what might come next really keeps you on the edge of your seat, even if it’s just something “normal” like inadvertently hurting someone’s feelings because of something you did last week (I’m not claiming that it’s a normal occurrence for me to hurt other people’s feelings. Just that worrying about hurting a pixelated character’s feelings might not sound like an interesting gameplay strategy as compared to, I don’t know, slaying monsters in an alternate reality). You only need to experience this once in order for it to completely change the way you play the game and how you act towards all the characters. Not many games can really pull that off.

Your character can be a smartass as well.

Do you have time to talk about Mitsuru Kirijo, best girl and saviour of mankind?

When it comes to the dungeon crawling aspect of the game the previously mentioned lack of control creates similar immersive experiences as in the social segments of the games. First of all I should probably mention that Persona 3 is a HARD game. I was honestly quite surprised at how relentless it could be at times. I believe I died at least once to every miniboss in Tartarus (the great tower you explore throughout the entirety of the game). You really need to learn which personas to use during each fight, otherwise you’ll be steamrolled. You also need to have faith in your teammates that they will do the right move at the right time which means that it’s important to give the right instructions and provide them with the right gear in advance. If you use an inadequate persona during battle you’ll more easily get knocked down, and you can’t give out orders while knocked down. Getting back up again takes up your turn as well so you can easily end up in a knock-down loop if you’re not prepared. Not to mention that there are no checkpoints in the game. The only thing that saves your progress are the designated save points which are only available in the school dormitory and the first floor of Tartarus. My save file says that I’ve played the game for 80 hours but the real number could easily be over 100 because of all the progress I lost by dying. All these mechanics serve to make you uncertain of the outcome of each battle. Rarely did I ever feel confident I would beat a boss, instead I would grip my controller with anxiety every time the enemy made their move, knowing it could mean the end of me.

Now let’s talk about the music. Just like all other soundtracks composer Shoji Meguro has been involved with it is phenomenal. Persona 5 also had a phenomenal soundtrack which became so recognizable that it even spawned a few memes outside the Persona fanbase. I would describe the Persona 5 soundtrack as consistently decent. You can pick pretty much any song and you’re bound to have a good time even without the game accompanying it. The Persona 3 soundtrack works a bit differently though. While it really has some killer tunes like “Mass Destruction” and “Master of Shadows” I still feel that most of the soundtrack is best appreciated in context. The best example of this would be the Tartarus theme. Throughout Tartarus you’ll only hear the same repetitive theme throughout all 264 floors. The catch is that each new area you transcend through adds an additional layer of instrumentation to the song. This means you feel a certain attachment to the song since it reflects the progress you’ve made in the game. I probably wouldn’t listen to it by itself but it always makes me feel pumped when exploring tartarus and it only gets better as the game progresses. Let’s not forget the haunting melody that plays on the bottom floor of tartarus as well, which really adds an eerie mysticism to the game as you prepare to venture into the tower once more. The constant use of leitmotifs also adds so many layers to the storytelling of the game and memorability of the music. The end credit song “Memories of You” just hits so much harder as it uses all the melodies and leitmotifs you’ve grown accustomed to throughout the entire game. Makes me teary eyed just thinking about it.

Since the game is very routine based you quickly start to recognize all the tunes and which occasion they’re associated with. Especially the song that plays during school time, the song that plays while you’re exploring town after school and finally the song that plays in the dormitory. You grow very familiar to these songs very quickly and eventually they just become second nature to you. This is why it hits you so hard when all these themes change during the final act of the game to better reflect the mood of the story. That was really the moment when this game went from good to excellent. Having the music you’ve heard 100s of times change all of a sudden during the story’s most critical moment is such a brilliant decision and really causes you to immerse yourself even more into the world. It’s just like how Dark Souls almost never feature any music while exploring the world, which means that the few areas that do feature background music instantly creates a higher sense of significance. This can only be accomplished by setting up a pattern that is interesting enough on its own to hold the players attention, only to break it at most crucial points of the story. Not many games have the courage to do this in fear of having players lose interest before the end credits.

I’m glad I decided to play this game to the end. There were many times when I considered giving up on the game, partly due to the difficulty but also because of the constant uncertainty I felt playing it. But now I realize that these are essential components for the optimal experience of this game. This of course means that this game won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but that’s all right. We need more niche games like this otherwise the video game artform will just become diluted to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Persona 3 knows what it is and who it’s for and that is commendable in it’s own right. I might not play the game again anytime soon but I will always cherish the memories I’ve made playing it.