1. FFallen

   10

   ATLUS always impresses me with their games. This one is no exception, in fact, this is probably my favorite RPG as of right now. All the attention to detail and things to do besides just explore and grind in the tower make it a stellar experience with tons of replay value.… Expand

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2. ageofwinter

   10

   I played Persona 3 FES, so I will submit this review for both the original and FES. Persona 3 is right up there on my list of "greatest games of all-time" alongside Shenmue. The story in this game is simply the best ever, it's emotionally engaging, great voice actors and really puts you in some tough positions when you have choices to make. This is RPG at it's finest. I fell inlove with all the characters here and I never stopped. The gameplay is top-notch, dungeon crawling has never been more fun, the combat is the best I've seen for a JRPG, the use of Personas gives it a nice, unique twist to it. When you're not in combat, you're either in the dorm, at the mall, in school or exploring the other areas of the city. There is so much to do, and the game is extremely long, took me ~80 hours to complete this. Oh and lets not forget the soundtrack, simply one of the best, if not the best, of all time. If you love JRPGS, great stories, and great combat, make sure you purchase this game, you WILL NOT regret it.… Expand

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3. vahn

   8

   This is the one of the best JRPG on the ps2, and to me it still is because of its originality and how different was the common RPG where you're the usual hero and go on a travel and do dungeons: in here, you are a student and you have a life to handle too, by attending school, making relationships (which is needed), but also having the exploration in THE dungeon and train in order to go on in the game, and in this part of the game you'll end up using Demons, or Personas, which are basically your set of magic spells, stats, weaknesses and defense. Except for the main character, which can use any persona, thus can change his stats at any time, the others are fixed characters with fixed personas. and they'll usually behave according to their "role" (Yukari is basically your healer, while Akihiko is your physical attacker with few spells). Nothing original on the fighting system, but it works great, and the plot of the game is very good and dark, with some few twists as well, and the setting for the story is very intriguing.....but with that said, I wouldn't recommend this game to everyone for few good reasons, actually 3: 1) This game is based on the dungeon crawler formula, which is basically "One dungeon with lots of floors", and that's it. Yes the floors are many (about 200+) and actually varied, but this formula isn't what many people expect on a home console and even though I don't mind I "kinda" got disappointed too on this regard...oh well, at least it's explained and makes sense. 2)The relationships I've mentioned are actually a MUST: you have to increase the Social Links, which is basically a way to measure the relationship with a certain friend or person, and you need it in order to create better personas via fusion; with that said, the game is basically a mix between the first point and this one, so....it can be a real big disappoint if you like more variety. But one more issue can be a problem, and that is...3) This game has a time limit!!! You have an (ingame) year of time to complete the game, but don't worry about it because you'll have TONS of time in order to finish, without mentioning time never actually passes when you do dungeons or play anything. But you still have a specific dead line and this aspect can be in conflict with the other 2 points, because you have to plan your interactions with your friends and ALSO train in the dungeon. Even though it's possible to increase all Social links to maximum you'll have to plan what to do next and, since you need to train in the dungeon, you'll won't be able to do some specific Social Links at night. Oh, you also have to train your character interaction stats (Charisma, Courage and Academics) in order to speak to some of them too! Anyway, these 3 points aren't real big flaws but I believe these 3 points can go in contrast and be annoying to each others, so that's why this 8, but if you like dungeon crawling, a good story, a simple yet good fighting system (I know the compagnions are AI controlled, but I actually had no big trouble with them, but yeah I wish I could control them), this game still and will remain one of the best RPGs on the ps2, and that isn't easy considering there are many good rpgs on it!… Expand

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4. doodlerman

   7

   I wasn't particularly impressed, but it is pretty addicting. Normally anime high school based games aren't my cup of tea either, but something about this game's build up was much better than games I've played previously in this sort of gameplay style. At first I wasn't sure why this was M-rated, but then when I got to the part where you have to shoot yourself in the head in order to attack with your persona(s) it became pretty clear (it's not a message you want to send to kids). There's a lot of interesting things you have to take into consideration in this game that most other games don't consider - like resting and relationships with other people... (well I guess a lot of games consider this, but I don't play a whole lot of them) Anyway, that's pretty much why I find it decent. Not really the best reason I suppose, but hey, I enjoyed this game. (it's got creepy incoherent animated scenes)… Expand

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