Wrapped up P3P in a little over 72hrs. Been playing it every day since launch and all of it on Deck.
But yea a very good PS2 era JRPG. I did the male campaign. So many great characters. Good story and addicting gameplay. Atlus is really good when it comes to writing. They make sure every character and story angle feels just as important near the end of the game as they did in the start. The way everything progresses always feels fresh. Its something that lacks a lot across the industry but they are great at it. Reminds me a bit of Obsidian with their WRPGs.
The final boss was shit but its pretty much expected with these type of games. It always feels like a tedious endurance run towards the end lol. and dying against the last boss is very punishing
As much as I loved the game I can't put it ahead of P4G or P5R. The story was a bit slow and subtle. Kind of safe but not necessarily in a negative way but just not as ambitious or mysterious as the other Persona games. There was a lot of downtime too in between major monthly events. The story was slow to start and basically nonexistant until the summer months. It does pick up and gets good. Also the first couple of months it felt like every major/minor enemy was weak to lightning attacks. I was spamming Mazio a lot in fights heh. But I'm not gonna be too harsh since this was a weird product of its time. They did great with each new entry and improved in many areas.
If I were to rank these games I would say
P3P = 9.0 out of 10
P4G = 9.5 out of 10
P5R = 10 out of 10.
All three are amazing and must plays if you haven't played them. So happy they put them on Steam.
Not gonna lie I am a bit Persona'd out. A little burned out as I played so much this past year with this and P5R. and P4G before that. I'm good on these games for a long while but if Atlus were to stealth drop SMTV this summer I would buy and play it ofc
The Deck is a wild card in all of this. Its such a great device for these type of games and completely rejuvenated my love for these long old school games. At times it feels like traveling back in time and enjoying the PS2 era in a more convenient way. Hands down the best 540$ I ever spent on gaming hardware. And it really has changed the way I choose what to buy/play these days.
All this talk of P3 remake and honestly I don't know. I mean I could see myself messing with it for a bit in a female playthrough but I don't know if its really needed. And I don't see myself doing an entire playthrough. The story would most likely be identical in the remake so it would feel redundant. This P3P version is old sure but its not some fossil or anything like that. Its better than 95% of JRPGs out there these days. The pacing, cast and art was great. And most importantly playing it felt great.
Also a brief wishlist for Persona 6.
- Make the cast an older mature college grad or adult life cast. No more high school stuff please.
- Make the story much darker than 3, 4 and 5. These games had some dark themes to it but still very safe in a lot of places. Make 6 a straight up horror game if needed with more mysteries, deaths, twists etc.
- And please SEGA make Atlus do a day n date launch with PC. Don't fucking let Sony/Nintendo get their hands on this again with the timed garbage pls.
