atreyurock

Hey i've been hearing great things about Persona 3 and 1up has been glowing about this game. Sounds pretty awesome, I just ordered this off amazon and it came with a soundtrack and art book so im pretty excited.

boston george

I just got it! Awesome, awesome game. Although it is definitely not everyones cup of tea.
It's very...Japanese. And honestly that turns a lot of people off. For me that's why I like it so much (plus i have always LOVED RPGs) The translation and localization are top-notch. Very faithful, at least as far as I can tell. Also the voice work is great.

I've only had it a day and a half, so I haven't played it a ton, but I plan to spend A LOT of time on it. I'm gonna try and play this and Bioshock at the same time, so we'll see how that works out.

As far as I can tell every copy comes with the hardcover art book and the soundtrack cd. At least the first printing. This is an Atlus game so I would recommend that anyone with any interest in this game pick it up NOW. You never know if this will become hard to find.

flashburn

I just started playing it, and so far it is pretty interesting. I do hate how the time of day etc is always displayed on the screen, that is kind of annoying.

atreyurock

You know i had heard that Atlus games become near impossible to get at a reasonable price after the initial shipment sells out. I heard great things about Odin sphere a while back to and wanted to pick that up. Now im worried if i dont i may end up screwed.

boston george

I still see Odin Sphere around, but get it now anyway. It's only 40$ and you'll get around to playing it sometime It's great too.

Lastblade

I ordered P3 and should be here this or next week. This looks like an amazing RPG, I should finish FFXII and then get started on this.

PixyJunket

I've never had an interest in the Persona games but holy hell do I love the character art in this one.

darkside

I skipped the first two on the Playstation, but I am very interested in this one. Problem is I am already years behind on my PS2 games.

boston george

I hate myself. I just ordered the Sony Walkman MP3 player and Audio Technica headphones that the main character wears around his neck. Goddamn I'm a geek

I already own an 80 gig Ipod and really nice headphones (the phones aren't used with my Ipod though) but the Walkman is cool with an FM tuner, stopwatch and pedometer, along with super-slick overall design.

And the headphones are AWESOME, I've always wanted comfortable high-quality headphones to take with me and my MP3 player, a good deal at 69.99.

I'll post pics/links later if anyone wants to see.

atreyurock

yea post the pics, id like to check it out. Amazon just shipped my game so i should have it by next week. I cant wait.

PixyJunket

Odin Sphere does not, although there is a little bit of micromanagement in grow plants and collecting food items for cooking, but nothing extensively tedious. Plus, there's an easy mode which I'm sure slightly lessens the need to focus on those things if you so desire. It's my favorite PS2 game of all time, I think. Persona 3, on the other hand, probably DOES require time and attention, if it's anything like the other Megami Tensei games.

Chris_D

I ordered it from DBO, but they're now saying backordered, so wondering if I'm screwed as to easily getting a copy. I was going to order from playasia but it's a little more expensive.

I loved the style and atmosphere Persona 2 on the PS1, but the difficulty and lack of save points was punishing so I never really got that far in it.

RichC2

Well I decided to pick up the recent release, Persona 3 FES, and just started it.

Pretty cool game, definitely for a specific subgroup of gamer but nice no less. Feels more like an interactive anime than any of the cellshade games, which is kind of odd, but thats due more to the cutscenes and game setup.

Kind of surprised to see a game like this getting a re-release with new material in the states. Though, I suppose more surprisingly, is that it sold the same amount in the US as it did in Japan (~ 200k). Reminds me a bit of Boogiepop Phantom.

PixyJunket

Lastblade

I am pumped for P4... and I am playing P3 FES now. Great series, this is way more fun than the FF series (except 12, I love FF XII).

Chris_D

I'm still stuck at around 40 hours into P3. I'd like to get back to it one day but not sure when that will be. Lost O is taking up my RPG time these days.

I'd be interested in a P4, but I'm at the point where, as awesome as the PS2 is, I'd prefer new games to be on PS3 or 360.

PixyJunket

I've got Nocturne and FES in transit from Amazon.

fujishig

Still miffed that I wasted money on Persona 3, which sat unopened and unplayed, but I'm loving FES. Even though this isn't a rogue-like, at times I get flashes to Shiren when I'm trying to advance floors in the tower to get to the next teleporter, so I can save up before the next boss. The other day I was one floor away, when I decided to go after an enemy that hadn't seen me so I could pick up the item he was guarding... ended up wiping out my whole party.

PixyJunket

My games came in Saturday (that was FAST for Amazon free shipping).

I think I'll jump into Nocturne first.

brainee

Thanks for whoever bumped up this thread, bringing the P3 FES release to my attention.

I got the game about a week ago, and have been playing for a couple days. I'm about a month (game time) into it (just before the next full moon). The gameplay is really grabbing me, so far. I love how the game flows along with (game) time, not so much with level-grinding and getting to new areas. It's probably considered mundane for Japanese players, but I really feel like I'm learning about Japanese culture. And to me, that's a good thing. The flow of gameplay (school day/after school/evening/Tartarus) is addictive - I think about stopping, then press on for "one more day".

I suppose the background music might start to drive me nuts soon, but I haven't reached that point yet. I'm not seeing where the "M" rating comes. It seems really clean so far - some spooky imagery, minor cursing, and some scantily-clad personas. If anything the cartoony graphics (not to mention the high school setting) make this seem like a title marketed for teens, not adults. But it's early. It doesn't matter to me, if the game is good. I just hate seeing a great game get an unfair rating, perhaps limiting its sales.

I do have a question for those of you who've finished it (or gotten a lot further). Should I be worrying about how I build up my character? I hate games where you find out you're screwed at the end (by being underpowered) because you didn't do things the right way. I've just been playing P3 going with the flow. Trying to raise attributes equally, making as many social links (and advancements) as I can. I've been exploring Tartarus when in "good" condition, but taking a night off when I'm not (or the other members of my team aren't good). There haven't been any indications about how fast I should be exploring the tower, so I haven't been stressing over it. Does this approach sound reasonable?

PixyJunket

Just play the game the way you want to, there's no right or wrong way to do these games, there may be more optimal paths and such but if you obsess about it or meticulously follow some guide, you're not really playing the game, you're just following instructions.

fujishig

Did you miss the part where high school students are pointing guns at their heads and shooting in order to summon their personas (I know they're not really killing themselves, but they even present it as really challenging for some of them to do psychologically)? I'm sure some of the demonic personas has a hand in that too, as well as the

I agree with Pixy, play this game at your own pace, and don't try to max out all the s-links on your first play through, or you'll go insane. The one thing I don't like is how limited you are at night time: it's pretty much Pawlonia Mall and that's it.

If you're severely under-leveled, the game gives you an out by letting you visit Tartarus on the day before the full moon without the threat of getting tired. Like other SMT games, it's best not to get too attached with your personas (even Orpheus) because there's no way they're going to be useful if you just keep them and level them up... you have to combine them to create more powerful ones, hopefully with a good s-link bonus to gain even more levels.

I started off trying to maximize my time at Pawlonia mall, so I'd hit up Karaoke every night, and on the weekends when it was full I'd go to Tartarus. Or, if I happened to get lucky, I'd go to the bathroom and get a "great" status and then go to Tartarus (since it wears off at the end of the day anyway, and it seems to help you get critical hits in battles). I'd check with Elizabeth to see what new tasks related to Tartarus enemies she had, then take a quick jaunt up the tower, stopping on the floor where the next boss is (where there's a teleporter). I'd go back down to floor 1 (which heals you), save, then try to beat the boss. You can only really go up two bosses per full moon, at least at the point where I'm at.

You get tired really quickly early on, but as you level up it takes longer for you to get tired. I usually try to keep enough free slots to get a few of the "free" personas to try out new fusions, but I always keep at least one persona with attacks of every type (agi, bufu, garu, zio, though I found the light and dark skills to be hit and miss, even against enemies weak to them).

Wick

I picked it up a couple of weeks ago and I've been playing it occasionally. So far, I'm about 14-15 hours in, and I'm in June/on floor 36, I believe. I think the game is phenomenal. It's easily one of the best RPGs I've played to date and I hope to be able to finish it. I seem to have a problem playing RPGs - I put a lot of hours into them and then a new game comes out, so I stop playing for a bit then don't get back to playing the RPG.

PixyJunket

I'm definitely enjoying it so far. Nocturne and The World Ends With You have definitely renewed my faith in JRPGs being able to break out of the supposed mold they're stuck in. With all the pissing and moaning from moron reviewers about JRPGs being stale, I'm not sure why the Shin Megami Tensei games have gone under the radar thus far. Actually, I KNOW the answer to that; most people only want what they know and are comfortable with but will complain about it anyways since that's the fashionable thing to do on the internet.

Even ignoring how unique and awesome the setting, characters, plot and music are, the game itself is pretty good. I of course like that it's all about the gameplay (something that most people forget is actually part of RPGs nowadays) even though I'm torn on whether the extreme reliance on knowing and exploiting the enemy weaknesses is annoying or not. Also, the aspect of having any and all of the enemies join you, merging them and whatnot is pretty overwhelming!

fujishig

The gameplay of most of the SMT series is pretty similar, though (I think Devil Summoner is a bit different, but I haven't even opened it yet). Exploit the enemies weakness so you can get extra turns. If you're recruiting monsters/personas, don't get too attached to them because traditional leveling up won't keep them up to date, so you HAVE to fuse to get better monsters.

Nocturne has you recruiting monsters to create a party pokemon style, while being able to adapt your main character with different mitama. DDS gives you a more traditional party with each member having an affinity for a certain element. Persona 3 has the rest of the party having only one persona of a certain affinity, but the main character can use multiple personas, which you can get by "recruiting" them through cards you gain after battles (so unlike Nocturne, you're not actually fighting the personas you can recruit). The main danger in most of these games is when you first face an enemy and don't know their weakness yet, when an enemy with a group attack surprises you and attacks first, or when you don't have a skill that an enemy is weak against.

It's actually a pretty simple system, but the games have great style and presentation. In Persona, I actually enjoy the non-tower parts of the game more than the grinding in-tower parts. I hear that's the big knock on the FES portion of the game, which is more battling and grinding and not so much of the in-school stuff and s-link promotions.