P3 - Rant time! As some of the people in chat probably noticed, I enjoyed this game fairly well and thoroughly, and I think it'd be nice to elaborate - especially after I bludgeoned DDS with a 2x4 as badly as I did before. So, let's begin.
First, the fundamentals. They're a conceptual trainwreck. 3/4s of your party under AI control? Main dies = game over? That on top of SMT design basics? That just sounds like a recipe to disaster and frustration, and I was very wary of it when I got into the game. Making this tolerable at all would require insanely tight overall balance throughout the game, and, after DDS, the idea that the game would achieve that level of internal intelligence was but a pipe dream to me.
Yet, the game does it. In spite of having only one controllable party member, your control over the flow of battle is great. You can view the order of the people attacking in battle before making any decisions, and they rebalanced the weakness system to permit a more elegant flow. First, not getting extra turns if MT doesn't hit weakness on the entirety of the group targetted may seem not nice, but it helps a lot for that balance (makes your side MTing things mindlessly not be the one true way to victory, for an example, and reduces the possibilities of MT hax on the enemy side something fierce), and not stealing your turns when you hit immunities is what they should've done to begin with. Then, the AI is rather good, if not perfect, but it doesn't hamper you as long as you remember to switch AI settings now and then for a few niches. Then, there's the fact that you have full control over initiative. You have no idea how important this is, and how this alone deepens the options you can pull to win. Being able to get a free turn on your enemies suddenly makes those somewhat inaccurate MT status spells a highly viable option, for an example, and gives you more leeway to handle enemies. Then, there's the fact that the game feels genuinely challenging. I find that they hax less and are just outright generally competent, and the Tartarus boss fights are all pretty challenging and fun. Most of them having status spoilability and a few alternate tricks to deal with doesn't hurt, either. Then, there's the fact they mixed weaknesses really well: you find uses for all elements. And you have an astounding degree of flexibility on your own skillset, alongside having the Compendium to keep all your Personas safely available for future use. While DDS spat in your face by trying to play the game in an intelligent manner, P3 rewards you for doing so. This doesn't mean the annoying hax doesn't make its presence (it's still a problem in the early game, and I dislike that sort of difficulty balance. But then, the game is actually not too bad about it, the game doesn't turn into a joke ever unless you grind pointlessly), and I penalize the game for it. However... it's dealt with so much more elegantly. Also, risks of IDing the main = game over? Well, the game lets you buy rather affordable off the bat items that save you from an ID effect that connects on Minato the minute the ID randoms start showing up. And the rate of ID really fails and enemies seem rigged against targetting the main in general. It's not entirely mitigated, of course, and it's still dumb conceptually. In the end, it's just never fully justifiable, but they made an stupid as hell design idea... sane. Somehow. I can't congratulate them for it, but at least shows they knew what they were getting into and manage to not fail it up.
On the other hand, the dungeoncrawling outside of battles is boring. Tartarus is designed mercifully, but the very fact it's a randomly generated dungeon makes it... not easy to tinker with without being same-old. Point against. Then, there's the equipment/status screen management, which is a convoluted mess. Something as basic as checking your friends' stats can't be done with a single menu access, which is sorta dumb in a fundamental sense. Equipping/buying stuff is also sorta awkward when you're doing it for your companions. Another point against.
But then, there's the whole building of S. Links and screwing around in town. It's really fun to build those Links, and a few of them are downright bizarre. They're pretty decent to flesh out the NPCs surrounding you, and some of them are downright joyous. *Insert Hermit S. Link hype here.* Just a fun thing to play with, and they have a wonderful effect on your battle strength.
And, since we're talking about writing-related stuff, the writing? Is pretty solid. The plot itself is a trainwreck that involves Scary-Go-Round shenanigans, last-minute DEADLY CULT OF ZIO insanity, a Way To Go Serge and a nice I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH IT IF IT WASN'T FOR THOSE MEDDLING KIDS AND THAT DOG somewhere in the middle. However, cast interactions and personality building/flow is surprisingly tight. Yukari and Junpei are the strongest links, due to their archetypes being the closest to earth in the setting (Junpei is downright relatable, while Yukari is pretty much what your typical schoolgirl would be if she wasn't a moron. Sure, she's a bitch, but she not only has her reasons as she looks pretty consistent when she does it. You'd expect the first girl to be a Sophia type, but no, she's actually got a bite to match the bark). And, in general, the way the game sorta plays around with the heroic tropes clashing right into your typical student life is amusing. You get a big friendship talk out of nowhere! And instead of getting it extended, the rest of the party just goes "um, okay?" and moves on, for an example. It actually captures the general mindset of high school and the overall atmosphere (okay, this is also helped by the aesthetics), which you may not find awesome, but it's at least obviously a success, considering they aimed for it. Granted, when it comes to the actual conflict, things fall apart: Strega FAILS AT LIFE, and the plot twists are a headdesky thing, as I pointed above. Then, there's the strong feeling of wish fulfillment coming from the setup, which sometimes makes me uneasy (not helped by Minato being a silent main with Serph syndrome). But there is better filling there making up for it.
Then, there's the atmosphere/sense of style. While P3 isn't a pretty game, it captures the state-of-art postmodern city and highschool feel brilliantly. The soundtrack may suck outside of the game, but it's one of the big factors to make it work. The city has a lot of personality, and it's generally hilariously designed (what the fuck, a police station inside a mall!?). But it's all good fun, the game is surprisingly dispretentious at what it does.
In the end, I feel like it was a worthwhile experience, but bogged down by shoddy fundamentals. It was very fun, pretty creative and rather unique, but it probably could have been much better without the dumb design decisions the developers knew that were dumb. That they managed to get around so much of it is very impressive, and a testament to the fact that they're skilled at the game design thing. But I still can't get over the fact that they hamper their potential really badly that way. 7/10.
EDIT: Oh, what I'm playing currently.
MMXCM - MEGA MAN PLOT
