Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES: PlayStation 2

...

version thereof, as they explore a mysterious world beyond ours by night (the Dark Hour's dungeon crawl) and go to school by day.

The tactical and strategic interplay of Persona 3 FES is fairly deep. It trades X-Com's map movements and military style tactics and UN members needing placating for chosing which friends to make in the Real World and, as you learn about them, empowering those aspects of your own mind related to them called Personas. As other reviewers have noted the whole stable of personas is massive and they're highly customizable using fusions and having other elements in hand, or timing them right, when they're done. The single most important factor in how powerful a given persona will be is driven by social ties.

Now I'm not going to say you don't give up a certain ambience of having your own constructable base, as in X-Com, or the ability to play through the loss of individuals on your team, as in X-Com, or the sheer attraction of commanding an elite squad of commandos.

What you gain are the story oriented interactions of more detailed NPCs and a wealth of little details and a whole setting that changes as time goes on. It's so rich with story elements, most of which are not foisted on you in classic CRPG style, that you will have to replay several times and do different things to even see a fraction of what the daytime world has to offer.

You can find yourself building up personal stats that, in turn, offer you access to different elements of the game. Most commonly these are new NPC Social contacts. who in turn empower the fusing of persona-spirits matching their own Tarot suit. You might find elements that build up a persona's stats (combat oriented compared to your more social oriented stats - they exist in tandem, not overlapping), have totally random effects, offer items to improve social standings with other characters, provide you with new items and much more.

Each of the many NPC Social links has a whole backstory behind it that gets fleshed out as time goes on. Some seem to intersect the main story a bit while others have nothing to do with it.

The strategy of figuring how best to spend your limited time in one day and to take advantage of all that's offered, or even finding it (and in some cases learning schedules for certain events - like what days a week certain films are shown or when the karaoke bar is open) is a big concern.

Driving all of this is the background knowledge of a couple daunting threats that loom on the calendar: The Full Moon will spawn uberbosses you need to defeat to progress. You have to have the strength to handle these things which you gain both by grinding in the dungeon as well as building up social ties to empower your combatant personas. Possibly more scary: Mid-terms and finals!

I'm really not the type who goes for JRPGs but the mix of strategic, tactical, storytelling and freedom to make some of your own choices along with the sheer wealth of options to explore overwhelms having to live in a Japanese High School by day and beat on random encounters by night. My mind's as much on the underlaying strategic consequences of what I'm doing as the candylike graphics and storytelling icing.

And, for better or worse, I'm kind liking that too. "Oh, Stupei! You didn't really say that did you?!"

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES: PlayStation 2

...

a way to plan your schedule out in advance for a week and then simulate the whole week at once... this might help to dull the monotony of day-to-day management. This flaw is not a large one however, and truth be told, detracts very little from the allure of the game
This game comes highly recommended.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES: PlayStation 2

...

a hidden 13th hour, and a group of teenagers that use their inner psyches to battle for the fate of mankind while trying to keep up with their responsibilities tied to high school life you will love this improved Persona 3 dearly.

As much as I want to describe evokers, Apathy syndrome, fusing cards to create new personas, strengthening social links to make your Arcana types more powerful, and running around in the labyrinth of Tartarus which oddly enough is your High School during the day time I think it is more important to discuss what is new in Fes. I assume most of you have at least researched the original title so I will not waste your time going over what has already been covered.

If you think "The Answer" segment with Aegis is the only thing new about FES you are mistaken. "The journey" has an added hard mode, more ways to increase your social links, a weapon/persona forging system,more interactivity amongst your SEES comrades,additional quests, and though it may seem like a trivial detail everyone will change their clothes throughout the year. Getting the sexy costumes for the female heroines is a guilty pleasure if you are into that sort of thing. (Maid wear and swim suits anyone?) and if you are a girl playing you'll get a giggle out of dressing down the guys too. If anything at least P3 fes does not descriminate against either gender. No feminists will have the excuse to wail about burning bras here. The female characters have alot of depth,personality, and lovable quirks and there's so much more to them than looks alone. The same thing can be said for the guys. You'll take to Junpei's class clown antics and Akihiko's fighting spirit in no time flat. I must say this is one of the only RPGS I played in which I liked every character and none of the cast felt like over blown comic relief or tacky add-ons. The endearing heroes/heroines in P3 Fes will make you wish Final Fantasy as a series still cared about giving their characters heart and soul instead of just marketing them to be "cool" as shallow gimmicks.

While the Jorney is easier due to all the additional ways you have of balancing normal adolescent life with fighting shadows "The Answer" is automatically on hard mode. For those of you that do not mind a challenge you'll still enjoy the same old level grinding but if you are a casual gamer it can get tedious. That said getting more revelations about the first game will be worth the drudgery to most of us. Because "The Answer" ditches social links and focuses more on combating your way through the new dungeon called the abyss of time the only conversations you'll see are between the SEES members themselves as they discuss how they feel about where their lives are heading after the events in the journey. Aegis takes the role as the lead so at the very least she has acess to more then one Persona and can enter the velvet room.

By now if what I said has intrigued you Fes is likely worth your dollar. There are alot of less fun RPGS out there going for higher prices so right now Fes is a win/win situation.

Pros

1. Taking Elisabeth for dates outside the velvet room.

2. Walking the dog to up your social links

3. More social links to estabalish.

4. P3 fans get more answers and more closure

5. Getting revealing or outlandish costumes for each character

6. Hard mode for those that thought the original was too easy.

7. Metis is a good new character both as an antagonist and an ally.

8. Fuuka gets more love

9. More quests (One which deals with Chidori)

10. Great translation and voice overs

11. Addition of classic Persona battle songs in "The Answer"

12. Good music that fits the game. (By this I mean the music would be weird or abyssmally bad if not in P3 but it compliments this type of adventure perfectly.)

13. Very affordable

Cons

1. Gameplay is mostly unchanged

2. The Answer is nothing more then a difficult story driven dungeon hack.

3. Tartarus and the abyss of time get very repetitive. It would have been nicer if more missions took place outside the main dungeons or there were more enviorment types.

4. Those not open minded to modern Japanese culture may feel alienated.

5. Atlus could have waited so we only had to buy this version instead of belting out money for two versions of essentially the same game. Hopefully Persona 4 will come to us finished the first time. If they later release P4 fes I'll be irrate.

6. The game is very linear (especially if you've romped around in the wide open spaces of Dragon Warrior 8 or Final Fantasy 12)

7. Likely the copies are limited so snatch it soon or forever be in gamer purgatory. (Atlus always has limited copies. What gives?)

8. To clarify evokers are not real guns but the imagery of putting a gun like object to ones head and pulling the trigger to summon a persona is still risque. No problem for gamers with a good grip on reality but if you are a parent considering this a purchase be sure your teenager or child is firmly rooted in common sense before you get them P3 fes. Overall it is not nearly as violent or vulgar as God of War or GTA San Andreas however.