Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, originally released in Japan as simply Persona 3 (ペルソナ3 Perusona Surī ), is the fourth video game in the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series of console role-playing games developed by Atlus, which is part of the larger Megami Tensei series of video games. Persona 3 was originally published in 2006 on the PlayStation 2 by Atlus in Japan; the North American release of the game was delayed due to issues with the publication of the official art book. An add-on disc entitled Persona 3 FES, containing a "director's cut" of the original game, as well as a new epilogue, was released alongside Persona 3 in Japan in 2007, and in 2008 in other territories. A PlayStation Portable version of Persona 3, titled Persona 3 Portable was released in Japan on November 1, 2009, and in North America on July 6, 2010. The remake adds the ability to play as a female protagonist, new story elements and music, and a new interface designed for the PSP. In America, Persona 3 became the first game in the series to be rated M by the ESRB; all previous titles have been rated T.
In Persona 3, the player takes the role of a male high-school student who joins the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (SEES), a group of students investigating the Dark Hour, a time period between one day and the next that few people are aware of. During the Dark Hour, the player enters Tartarus, a large tower containing Shadows, creatures that feed on the minds of humans. To fight the Shadows, each member of SEES is able to summon a Persona, a manifestation of a person's inner self. The game's most iconic feature is the method by which the members of SEES release their Personas: by firing a gun-like object called an Evoker at their head. In addition to the standard elements of role-playing games, Persona 3 includes elements of simulation games, as the game's protagonist progresses day by day through a school year, making friends and forming relationships that improve the strength of his Personas in battle. The North American release of Persona 3 includes the aforementioned art book, along with a selection of music from the official soundtrack.
There are official soundtracks for Persona 3, Persona 3 FES, and Persona 3 Portable, as well as an arrangement album containing music from multiple games in the Persona series. Music from the game has also been performed live at two concerts dedicated to the Persona series. Persona 3 has seen a manga adaption, multiple radio dramas. Critical reception of Persona 3 was mainly positive; reviewers enjoyed the game's social elements, while some found its combat and environments repetitive. Persona 3 FES was said to give narrative closure to the original game, although it was criticized for not featuring the simulation aspect of Persona 3. The sequel to Persona 3, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, was released in 2008.
In 2008, an original anime set 10 years after the events of Persona 3, entitled Persona: Trinity Soul, was released in Japan. According to the official Persona 3 Portable fanbook, Trinity Soul is considered a spinoff and a non-canonical entry in the series, although it shares with Persona 3 the same world and certain characters.
Setting
The story of Persona 3 takes place in a 2009 CE Japanese city called Iwatodai (巖戸台 ), built and funded by the Kirijo Corporation. Experiments carried out ten years ago created the Dark Hour, a period of time that exists between one day and the next. During this time, most people are transmogrified into coffins and are not aware of the Dark Hour; however, there is a select group of people who are. 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 known as Shadows roam the area, preying on the minds of those still conscious. The Shadows leave their victims in near-catatonic states outside of the Dark Hour. To investigate and learn about the Dark Hour, Shadows, and Tartarus, the "Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad", or SEES, was created. SEES is a group of high-schoolers capable of summoning beings known as Personas to combat Shadows.The Persona 3 instruction manual describes Personas as being "a second soul that dwells deep within a person's heart. It is an entirely different personality that emerges when a person is confronted with something from outside his world." Persona-users usually summon their Persona by firing a gun-like object called an Evoker at their head.
Characters
The main character of Persona 3 is a silent protagonist, named by the player at the start of the game. He is a teenage boy, orphaned as a child, returning to the city he grew up in ten years prior to attend Gekkoukan High School. After learning of his ability to summon a Persona, he joins SEES, which is composed mostly of students at his school: Yukari Takeba, a popular, cheerful girl; Akihiko Sanada, a calm and collected senior who leads the school's boxing team; and Mitsuru Kirijo, the Student Council President and daughter of the head of the Kirijo Group, who provides backup during battle. As the game progresses, SEES gains several new members: Junpei Iori, a class clown and the protagonist's best friend; Fuuka Yamagishi, a shy girl who replaces Mitsuru as a support character; Aigis, a female android designed by the Kirijo Group to fight Shadows; Ken Amada, a middle schooler whose mother was killed by a Persona-user; Shinjiro Aragaki, a former member of SEES who left the group due to prior events; and Koromaru, a dog capable of summoning a Persona.
Story
Persona 3 begins with the Protagonist transferring to Gekkoukan High School, and moving into a dorm in the city. After learning of his ability to summon a Persona, he is asked to join SEES, and is eventually elected its leader in combat. Additional members join SEES over time, all students attending Gekkoukan: Junpei, who had only recently discovered his ability to summon a Persona; Akihiko, whose arm injury prevented him from fighting; and Fuuka, who replaces Mitsuru as the team's support member. After awakening to his Persona ability, the Protagonist is transported to the Velvet Room, which its proprietor, Igor, says is a realm between "dream and reality". Igor explains to him that his Persona ability is special: he is the only member of SEES capable of wielding multiple Personas in battle. In-game, the Velvet Room is where the player may fuse two or more Personas to create a new one. Igor also encourages the Protagonist to meet people and form bonds with them, known as Social Links. According to Igor, the power of his Social Links will determine his potential in combat.
On nights when the moon is full, the city is attacked by a Shadow more powerful than the ones found in Tartarus. After several of these incidents, Mitsuru is forced to reveal to the team the origin of Tartarus and the Dark Hour. Ten years earlier, the Kirijo Group, a research company founded by Mitsuru's grandfather, began amassing and containing Shadows. They studied and performed experiments on them, in order to harness their power. However, the experiments went awry, allowing the Shadows to escape and assemble into twelve larger creatures. Each is affiliated with one of the twelve Major Arcana. SEES's leader, Shuji Ikutsuki, informs them that, if they were to defeat all twelve of the greater Shadows, Tartarus and the Dark Hour would disappear forever.
As the year continues, the group adds two more Persona-users to their team: Ken and Koromaru. While vacationing in Yakushima, Junpei, Akihiko, and the Protagonist encounter Aigis, who had recently escaped the laboratory where she was kept, despite having been deactivated for years. For reasons she cannot explain, she has a need to be near the Protagonist, even breaking into his dorm room at night to monitor him. Aigis is also enlisted in SEES. It is revealed soon after that Shinjiro accidentally killed Ken's mother by losing control over his Persona; during an altercation between the two, Takaya threatens them both at gunpoint, when Shinjiro throws himself in front of his revolver, saving Ken's life and leading to his own death. After defeating the twelfth and final Shadow, SEES learns that they had been mislead by Shuji Ikutsuki. By destroying the greater Shadows, they have freed parts of a being known as Nyx, which will bring about the end of the world if it is fully restored. Nyx, or the "maternal being", is the creator of Shadows; she is drawn to Earth by The Appriser, or "Death", a Shadow of the Death arcanum. SEES encounters The Appriser disguised as Ryoji Mochizuki, a recent transfer student to Gekkoukan High School.
The Shadow experiments performed ten years earlier created the Death Shadow, albeit in an incomplete state. Aigis, unable to defeat the Shadow, sealed it inside the Protagonist, who was a child at the time. By defeating the twelve greater Shadows, the Death Shadow was recreated. Its purpose is to usher Nyx into the world, who will bring about the extinction of the human race. Ryoji insists that Nyx cannot be defeated; however, he offers SEES an alternative. If they were to kill him, their memories of the Dark Hour and Tartarus would vanish, allowing them to continue life unaware of their impending death. Aigis, who now realizes why she wanted to protect the Protagonist, begins to believe that she is useless. She urges SEES to kill Ryoji, as they cannot defeat Nyx. Through encouragement from her friends, however, she gains the resolve to join with SEES as they attempt to fight Nyx.
On December 31, New Year's Eve, the player must decide whether to kill Ryoji. If he is spared, then the game continues, and on January 31, SEES ascends to the roof of Tartarus to face Ryoji, who has transformed into the Nyx Avatar. While they are able to defeat him, Nyx continues to descend to Earth. As this is happening, the Protagonist is summoned to the Velvet Room, where Igor reminds him that the power of his Social Links would determine his potential. The Protagonist hears the voices of his friends encouraging him. The strength of his Social Links grants him the power of the "Universe", allowing him to seal away Nyx from humanity. The world returns to normal, though the memories of the past year are lost to the members of SEES. However, Aigis and the Protagonist do remember. On Graduation Day, the two go to the roof of the school, where the members of SEES had promised to meet should they stop Nyx and live to see their graduation. It is here that Aigis thanks the Protagonist for giving her a purpose in life: protecting him. Shortly afterwards, he closes his eyes. The protagonist's fate is revealed in The Answer, included with the FES version of Persona 3.
Gameplay
Combining elements of traditional console role-playing games and simulation games, the gameplay of Persona 3 involves following the day-to-day life of the game's protagonist, as he attends school and works to build relationships with other people. Each day is broken up into several periods of time, such as "Morning", "After School", or "Evening"; certain activities are restricted to certain times of the day. Free time can be spent engaging in a number of activities, including participating in a sports team or meeting, seeing a movie, eating at a restaurant, or spending time with someone to improve a Social Link.
Social Links are bonds of friendship the Protagonist has formed with other characters, each associated with one of the Major Arcana. Each Link has its own narrative arc, starting at Rank 1; spending time with a Social Link character progresses their story, and increases the Rank of the Link. Increasing Social links usually needs certain conditions - attributes, friendship points, or require other social links or items. Bringing the Persona with the same Arcanum to the Social links will increase friendship level better, although it is not a must to achieve the social link. It is noted that leaving a social link unattended for too long, or doing something like meeting multiple girlfriends or selecting incorrect option in some social link may get the Arcanum reversed, preventing the Protagonist to summon that arcana's Personas unless it reverses back again. The worst case, however, may "break" the Arcanum which cannot be reverted again through the game.
The Protagonist has three social attributes—Academics, Charm, and Courage—which can be improved by engaging in specific activities. For example, studying after school or at night will increase Academics, correctly answering a question during a class increases Charm, and singing karaoke at night will increase Courage. Some Social Links cannot be started unless a specific attribute is at a certain level.
At night, the player may enter Tartarus, the primary dungeon of Persona 3. Tartarus is a tower containing over 250 floors, divided into several "blocks" . The floors of Tartarus are randomly-generated, each containing chests with money or items inside, enemies to fight, and a stairway to the next level. Certain floors contain mini-bosses that must be defeated before moving on, or having road-blocks that is inaccessible without certain movements in story, along with a teleport point which allows the player to return to the entrance of Tartarus (or returning from the entrance to that point). To fight Shadows, the player may bring into Tartarus up to three members of SEES, in addition to the Protagonist and the supporting-member (which is fixed and only changed once as story's movement) who did not engage in battles; these five characters comprise the player's "party". The condition of members of the player's party will worsen as they continue to participate in battles. A "tired" or "sick" character will perform worse in battle, and must be given time outside of Tartarus to recover. Every full-moon day's midnight the story's plot will have a big movement, which they're usually accompanied with boss battles, which may, or may not happen in Tartarus.
Personas
Each member of SEES has a Persona they can summon during battle. Each character's Persona has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, as well as its own unique set of abilities. It also identifies with one of the Major Arcana. When a battle is won, each Persona gains experience points, eventually causing it to level up, increasing its strength in battle and granting it new abilities. The Protagonist is unique among the members of SEES, as he is able to carry multiple Personas. By switching between them during battle, he has access to a wider variety of skills than any other character. In addition, he is the only character who has access to the Velvet Room, in which the player is able to fuse multiple Personas together to create a new, more powerful one. A new Persona inherits several abilities from the Personas used to create it; in addition, it can gain an experience point bonus, based on the rank of the Social Link that matches the Arcanum of the Persona being fused. The player is limited by the level of his character when fusing a Persona; the level of the Protagonist must be at least equal to the level of the Persona to be fused. There is also a Persona Compendium which contains all previously-owned Personas; this allows the player to retrieve, for a price, an older Persona to be used.
Persona 3 FES
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES (ペルソナ3フェス ) is an add-on disc for Persona 3 containing updates to the original game, as well as a new epilogue in which the player controls Aigis. FES was released in Japan on April 19, 2007, as both a stand-alone game, and with the "director's cut" version of Persona 3. Overseas, the combined edition was published in North America by Atlus U.S.A. on April 22, 2008, and in Europe by Koei on October 17, 2008. According to the game's director, Katsura Hashino, the subtitle "Fes" is derived from the word "festival". Players of the original Persona 3 are given the option of transferring certain data from the original version's save file, such as the player's compendium, social-related stats, and maxed Social Link items.
The expansion to Persona 3, in addition to adding new content to the main game (referred to as "The Journey", or "Episode Yourself" in the Japanese version), includes an epilogue to the original story entitled "The Answer" ("Episode Aegis" in the Japanese version). The core gameplay of The Answer is similar to that of The Journey, although the Social Link system has been removed, and the player does not attend school.
Persona 3 Portable
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable (ペルソナ3 ポータブル ), an enhanced remake of Persona 3 for the PlayStation Portable, was released in Japan on November 1, 2009, and released in North America on July 6, 2010. It will be coming to most of Europe on 29 April 2011 and the UK on 28 April 2011. The announcement in Famitsū revealed that the player would have the option to play as a female character. This selection alters some aspects of the story: the first Persona gained by the Protagonist, Orpheus, will have a different appearance; Igor's assistant in the Velvet Room, Elizabeth, can be replaced with a male equivalent named Theodore. The gender choice also alters some aspects of the Social Link stories. In addition to the new playable character, there are two new difficulty levels to select from alongside the original game's three. Persona 3 Portable only includes the story of the original Persona 3;however, general changes have been made to the plot, regardless of character choice.
The game's revised battle system draws on elements added in Persona 3's successor, Persona 4. In combat, the player is able to directly control every character, as an alternative to utilizing the game's artificial intelligence. The ability to guard has been added, and allies will take fatal attacks for the Protagonist, preventing his or her death. Outside of Tartarus, instead of navigating the game world by directly controlling the Protagonist, the player guides an on-screen cursor around an area, allowing interaction with characters and objects. The game includes the voice acting of the original game, although characters are not shown in the world, instead being represented by on-screen portraits. In addition, the anime cutscenes seen in the original Persona 3 have been replaced to feature in-game graphics.[59] Shōji Meguro composed new music for Persona 3 Portable; some of the game's music is different if the female protagonist is selected. Several cameos of characters from Persona 4 have been added to Persona 3 Portable, including Yukiko Amagi, a playable character from Persona 4.It also features a cameo character which was hinted as Vincent, the star of another game by the Persona development team, Catherine.