I keep dropping the word Portable in the title, and I do think that’s important to highlight and underline in terms of what Atlus decided to do. Persona 3 Portable does a magnificent job of not making players feel punished for avoiding a certain route. You don’t spend the rest of your existence lamenting not joining the Art Club in time, you just go blow 20 bucks at the arcade and call it a win. It’s more true to real life: if you don’t get a chance to do something, you move on and do other things. It was only a couple of days of fighting, but then weeks of trying to visit the library, keep up with student council activities, and timing when to watch TV in order to get the best swag from the home shopping network.Īs much as there is to do, you never feel like you’re drowning in multitasking. It took only two trips for me to hit the theoretical ceiling of Tartarus (initially), so then I can actually focus on doing the other “Persona” aspects to keep the game moving. This is the eighth time I’ve broken a clock this week, it doesn’t feel right anymore.Īnother great aspect is that the balance is really there in terms of “forward movement.” That is to say, the game wants you to run down the clock to December 31st regardless, and it’ll try and pace things out to keep it from being overwhelming. And a dog eventually joins your party, because why the hell not? Oh, and you only have a year to accomplish this. So now you’re working with a group of high schoolers, lead by the class president, overseen by a scientist who definitely isn’t suspicious, and you’ll grind your way through Tartarus, a demon portal, to figure out why Shadows keep appearing. Then it turns out you’re even MORE special because Igor from the Velvet Room (another weird area) says you’re the only one who can have more than one Persona in your head. But ALSO you happen to have amazing powers inside you, and all you have to do is put a gun-like object (called an Evoker) to your head and pull the trigger to make a Persona pop out and beat things up for you. Turns out normal people turn into coffins during The Dark Hour, but, for some reason, you’re still awake and not-coffiny, which means Shadows (hungry monsters) can see you. You’re a new kid who moved into the city of Iwatodai, only you arrive after midnight and the streets are full of coffins. So what is Persona 3 Portable ? Well, from a plot standpoint, it’s complete madness, but so is every Shin Megami Tensei. Yukari never fully warms up to you the way future characters might, but she’s got a lot going on in her head. Persona 4 is also one of those titles that has been ported to hell and back and, I would argue, was even more sought after than Persona 5 in terms of accessibility. Persona 4 Golden was recently taken to task as a game that still holds up wonderfully with gameplay mechanics and a banging soundtrack, even if the graphics haven’t aged gracefully. More recently, Atlus has finally brought over Persona 4 and 3, each with its own flavor (and also widely available accessibility thanks to Gamepass). The hardware couldn’t take the brunt of what was coming, but great coding and porting gave forth a fantastic version that, while a bit lower on the framerate, still inspired some excellent reactions. Last year saw the long-awaited and teased release of Persona 5 Royal, which, understandably, was less-than-optimal on the Nintendo Switch. The Persona franchise has been around for quite a while, and ports are basically the name of the game when it comes to appreciating them on modern hardware. Bad choices were made, and we have to learn and grow from them. I love the movie Short Circuit, but getting a white dude to play an Indian doctor, complete with a heavy accent, would get multiple people fired and banned from filmmaking if that were attempted today. Or, in my case, that it was EXCEEDINGLY problematic. As much as we wax nostalgic about our childhoods, everyone has something they can look back on and realize it wasn’t as good as they thought it was. Games age and show their cracks like any other form of art and entertainment.
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