If you've never met these characters, you've got a wonderful time ahead of you. This was accepted as a trade-off for getting the game onto the PSP - but here, it feels wrong that Portable was the version ported. They’re not as slick as the latest entry, but have plenty of character in those 3D models – something lost in P3P. That version was on PS2 in the form of Persona 3 and the expanded Persona 3 FES, games that present pretty much identically to Persona 4. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course, but sitting this next to Persona 4 Golden makes it feel older, slower, and less attractive, especially with the knowledge that a full-fat version of Persona 3 exists. Dungeon crawling and battle action still takes place in full 3D, but story scenes play out only with portraits, pre-rendered backgrounds, and moving a cursor around a static scene rather than navigating a character around a 3D space. On PSP, Persona 3 was stripped back from a game of 3D models and scenes to an experience that largely plays out like an adventure game. Blow it up onto the big screen, onto powerful machines, and it feels older and more decrepit than its 14 years. It’s a version that has always been lightly compromised, but those compromises were accepted on PSP because, well, it was the PSP. But the version of Persona 3 offered here is Persona 3 Portable, the PSP version of the game. I want to be clear that it’s still a good port, given the source material. But, here, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend you play Persona 3 unless you’re already a fan. This is more of a trilogy, and indeed a rare one where despite not being narratively connected, the three games lead from one to the other clearly in terms of mechanics, tone, and worldview. Some would be ready to run to the comments to say, actually, y’know, the formula perfected in Personas 4 and 5 was really cemented in Persona 3 – and they’re right. When I described these games as a duology earlier, I knew it would have some fuming. So, in fairness, does Persona 3 – but it is compromised. The elements that fundamentally can’t be touched up hold up well stories that engage and thrill, characters that endear, and absolutely ass-kicking musical licks. That makes it important that these games got good ports to new platforms: and they have. Persona 4 Golden is just a clip lower at an average score of 93 – again marking it as an all-time great. Persona 5 Royal sits with a metascore review average of 95, placing it firmly in the top 50 games of all time. Wait, I thought games were supposed to be a fantasy?ĭon’t just take my word for it, though. They’re not just among the best Japanese role-players of recent years they’re undoubtedly some of the most important. In an era when Final Fantasy was in a panicked tailspin of desperately trying to copy Western RPGs and appeal to Western tastes, Persona 4 released as an unabashedly Japanese experience and became not only a nerd hit, but then was able to parlay that cult status into a genuinely huge level of success for both it and its successor. There’s a textual and tonal element to the Persona series that is startling in its uniqueness, even if sometimes it leads these games to be prickly to Western sensibilities from time to time. If you prefer Persona 4’s sleepy small-town vibe or Persona 5’s all-guns-blazing narrative is something of a matter of taste, but it’s fair to say that the two make up a very special sort of JRPG duology that’s been much-celebrated over recent years. This is a great port, just as it was back on PC a couple of years ago. Now there is at least an ideal, legal, and easy way to purchase and experience these stories – even if it isn’t necessarily the ideal experience.įor Persona 4 Golden, however, this new release is an idealized experience. It’s been old hardware, emulation, or nothing. But Persona 3 has been trapped either on PSP or PS2, depending on your allegiance, for many years. Persona 4 Golden, originally a Vita definitive edition of all-timer Persona 4, has admittedly made its way to PC before now. The release of these ports is important, in a sense. Now you don't need a Vita to play the best Persona games! It’s a banner day for Japanese RPG fans, or the JRPG curious. Once a hard-line PlayStation exclusive, all three of the modern-era Persona games – which follow a fairly similar template across the trio – will be available on PlayStation 4 (and 5, via backwards compatibility), Xbox Series, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. This week, the modern Persona series will be fully democratized.
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