Persona 3 Portable - PSP

Hello again, my adoring yet underwhelming masses.
It's time again to visit upon another console defining title that provided me with countless hours of lost sleep and stimulated my urge to slay inhuman globs of what can only be described as magic nose goblins with arms.
Let me start out by saying I've played through about 35% of the FES edition of Persona 3 on the PlayStation 2. But, due to a massive loss of gaming data, my will to restart it was equal to a cat's will to stand up on it's hind legs and sing "Hello, Ma Baby" in the styles of Michigan J. Frog. For those of you who are confused by that, I suggest you stop watching whatever gay show is on TV and change the channel to Boomerang, I'm sure you'll figure it out if you watch long enough, just saying.
Anyway, I didn't play it again and wound up selling it. eventually I picked up the PSP version and decided to give it another go. GOD DAMN! I'm really happy I gave it a second chance, this is now my favorite PSP game above Crisis Core and Final Fantasy Tactics: WotL. Let's start with the actual reviewing, shall we?

STORY

In Persona 3 Portable, you start the game at midnight, in the middle of a dark and bloody city.
Everyone around you has transformed into coffins, the streets are paved with blood and the moon bright in the green tinted nighttime sky. You find your way to your assigned school dorm in the midst of the eerie situation before you. As you enter, you notice a young boy, his eyes blue and his skin pale, He is dressed in stereotypical  black and white stripped clothing, the kind of outfit that prison inmates in old cartoon would wear.
He approaches you, "I've been waiting a very long time for you".
"Please sign your name in this contract" He points to the notebook resting on the counter to your left. "Don't worry, it simply says that you will accept responsibility for your own actions."
A screen will appear asking for your first and last name, I named my character Hiro Naoru.

That is what happens in the very first scene, you'll have to play it yourself for more info.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story, it was as engaging as it was brilliant and mature.
There are times of great joy and hilarity and there are times of depression and brutal truths both thrust onto you without even a moments notice. I also loved how it wrapped up, the ending was enough to make me swoon, something not easily done.


GAMEPLAY

One thing I have to say about P3P is that it's battle system is far more superior than any Final Fantasy game.
(I'm looking at you FFXIII, you KNOW how much you suck at battles)
The P3P battle system consists of: Attack, Skills, Defend, Items, Persona, Tactics and Flee.

Attack will obviously attack, and each character's attack has a different attribute, depending on what their weapon is. For example, Hiro's weapon is a one handed sword, so it will inflict slash damage.
Certain enemy's are immune to slash damage, while at the same time may be weak to Pierce damage inflicted by bows and certain skills.

There are 3 different kinds of skills.

Physical, which will inflict the same type of damage as weapons (Slash, Pierce, ect ect)

Magical, which has 3 different types of attacks.

Type 1

Fire = Agi
Ice = Bufu
Wind = Garu
Electricity = Zio

Type 2

Dark = Mudo
Light = Hama

Type 3 is made up of various status inflicting spells such as Poisma, which will poison an enemy.


Healing and Enhancement, this one is made of Dia (healing) skills and status/buffing skills.


Defend will boost your defense by 25% for a single turn, you get the point.

Items you have collected will give you a boost in battle, I assume you can understand this as well.

Persona is a tricky command, from this menu you can switch between a set amount of Personas that Hiro has gathered. Persona themselves carry all your skills and will learn more upon leveling up. You will never go into a battle without at least one, but be sure to pay attention to it's attributes, as it will determine your strengths and weaknesses.

Tactics is where you can order your teammates what do do.
This ranges from direct control, where you will assume command of their actions when it is their turn to fight to assault, where they will act on their own using whatever attack they wish.
Also from tactics you can analyze your enemy, which after a turn or two will tell you it's strengths and weaknesses followed by current health and attack attributes.

Flee will let you run away from non-vital battles, I rarely used this command, so I do not know if it has any repercussions, such as money loss or otherwise.


When not in battle, you will have two different types of movement.
The first is when you are in Tartarus, you will have direct control of your character and can order your teammates to split up, regroup, explore and/or defeat enemies.
The second is during the daytime, where all interaction will be chosen by a cursor on-screen.
Simply drag it over a person or object you wish to interact with and press X.

When interacting with people and/or objects, sometimes you will be given a decision.
Depending on your answer, certain things may or may not happen, so chose wisely.

Finally, I come to Social Links.
These special links are developed by interacting with the unique people you will find throughout the game.
As said above, you will interact with them will be given choices, give the right answer and your social link will level up. the benefit of social links is directly related to your personas. Put simply, the stronger the social link, the greater your personas will be once you fuse them (see below).

Persona fusing and requests
During the game, you will be introduced to the velvet room.
From here you may fuse personas and take on requests.
I don't feel like covering this right now, so you'll have to see for yourself.




OVERALL SCORE

Story 9/10
Gameplay 10/10
Challenge 7/10
Voice Acting 4/10
Graphics 7/10

TOTAL
37/50
Pretty damn good.


I STFU'D the funny and cursing, but I did make it much longer.
I guess my stuff will always either be funny, vulgar and short or white-collar and long. sigh...

~Oaxan~