Persona 3 Import Playtest

by Anoop Gantayat Via IGN

July 14, 2006 - I have a strict policy against playing games with the number "3" in the title. But I'm glad I made an exception with Peraona 3
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In the third numbered entry in Atlus' popular Shin Megami Tensei spin off series, you play as a transfer student. During the day, you're just a standard student at a standard high school, but when the clocks turn midnight, the world enters into "Darkness," a period of time whose Japanese name is literally "Shadow Time." While most people sleep straight through this time and appear to be housed in coffins, you and a few of your fellow students who have the ability to control Persona alter egos, go to action, facing off against "Shadow" demons who emerge in the darkness and attempt to bring harm to people.

Your adventure is split into time segments, taking you through the school day and into Darkness. You start off your day in the early morning, and spend morning, lunch and afternoon periods in school. These parts of the game are mostly free of interaction as you view events and dialogue sequences, some of which provide clues for what you should do later in the day. Occasionally, during class, your teacher will ask a question to make sure that you're paying attention. A correct answer helps to build up your character's stats.

The real fun is to be had after class and on holidays, when you're free to explore school and the surrounding town. You can walk around school, going between rooms and speaking to people, and even taking part in after school clubs. By selecting locations off a map, you can head out to shops and train stations in town. During this part of the game, you build up "communities," which assist you in your subsequent battles.

When you're finished with your exploration, you head back to your dorm. The time automatically advances to night, and it's time for the game's name sake, the Persona support characters, to make an appearance. At night, by speaking to a particular character, you can enter Darkness time and head off to your school. Only this isn't the same school that you attend during the day. It's been transformed into Tartaros, a special tower that just happens to be the center for the Shadow creatures. Exploring as a party of three or four, you attempt to reach the top floors of the tower.
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Come into contact with a Shadow creature, visible ahead of time roaming about the floors of Tartaros, and you enter into battle. Persona 3's battle system is of the menu-based variety, but with some Persona-influenced twists. In addition to a standard attack by your party members, you can call out your Persona alter-ego form for special skills. Enemies and Personas have elemental types, and with proper use, you can do extra damage to enemies, "breaking" their guard. Breaking an enemies' guard gives you a chance for another attack, which is why the battle system is referred to as the "One More Plus" system. By breaking all enemy guards, you can team up with your allies for a combo attack.

You have access to multiple Personas, which can be equipped like a standard piece of RPG equipment, giving you access to different skills. Each character has their own Personas, but only the main character can operate multiple Personas at once, giving him access to special "Mix Raid" special moves.

You can also combine Personas. By heading off to the "Velvet Room" during Darkness, you can combine two or three Personas into a new form that inherits the skills of its predecessor.

Persona 3 is a bit difficult to classify. It has school simulation elements, a battle system and dungeon crawling, but calling it an RPG would be somewhat of a misstatement. Following a couple of hours where the game holds your hand and leads you into your first experience with Tartaros, the title becomes pretty open ended, allowing you to move around freely and progress at your own pace.

The best way to classify Persona 3 would probably be simply as a Megaten game; Atlus could probably make the case for creating a genre out of the series. The game has all the trademarks of the franchise, from imaginative creature designs to the cold Megatenish characters. Presentation is full of style, from the menus to the voiced background music during battle.

And, of course, the trademark weirdness. You summon your Persona into battle by sticking a gun to your head and blasting away. That probably won't hold up too well in America, but everything else about this polished sequel should go over just fine.