Slipping into a new Persona
BY ANDY ASTRUCThe destruction of the universe is almost here. Soon all life will perish, and all that exists and ever will exist shall become void. The important thing is not to panic. As long as I manage to make enough friends, psychoanalyse my social interactions, and shoot myself in the head, then everything will be fine.
Persona 3 (available on PS2) has eaten 318 hours of my life, according to the in-game clock. I guess that deserves a little discussion.
The game opens with your character (nameless, voiceless) arriving in the city to start at a new school. You are confronted by a small boy dressed in convict pyjamas who asks you to sign a contract. Then two girls turn up, each sporting handguns. They aren't real.
You settle into the daily grind of school, lunch, school, karaoke, sleep, school. Like so many games before it, Persona 3 then thrusts you into events beyond your control - a demonic tower filled with shadowy monsters, a mysterious hidden part of the day when everyone is asleep inside crystal coffins, the awakening of a magical power. Then you go back to school the next day.
Suddenly you start to wonder what kind of crazy game you are playing. It's best described as the mutant offspring of an RPG and a Japanese dating simulator. You spend your days going to classes, exploring new restaurants and - most importantly - meeting and interacting with new people. Then at night you try to unravel the mystery of the Dark Hour and it's relation to the humungous tower of doom sprouting from the top of the local school.
You fight using something called a Persona, which is a manifestation of your character's inner self. You summon them by shooting yourself in the face with the fake guns. Each person in the cast has their own unique Persona to summon, apart from the main character, who has the ability to summon all sorts of different ones. You can collect these during your explorations, as well as fusing them together to make new beasties.
The power of said beasties is determined by your Social Links. Making friends in Persona 3 activates a Social Link, which grows in strength the more you hang out with that person or group. Finally, a real reason to have friends.
These interactions are a major highlight in the game. You'll meet a series of colourful nuts around the city, including a small athletic girl with a potential eating disorder, an egotistical TV presenter, a classmate that is having an affair with a married woman, a parade of potential girlfriends, and a fat boy who wants you to join a cult.
But Persona is full of strange things. The enemies range from transgendered snakes, to haunted dice, to rainbow-coloured Hulk Hogans.
One of the villains could be Jesus. The grim reaper chases you around sometimes. Robot love.
Also included in Persona 3 is the greatest female character to ever appear in fiction. Mitsuru Kirijo, class president, valedictorian, heir to the Kirijo Corporation, head of the Dark Hour investigation, unattainable beauty.
Tough without being bitchy, Mitsuru is a force to be reckoned with. She frequently berates dead enemies, accusing them of wasting her precious time. Her combo attack is to stab the enemy 16 times, and then kick it to death with her high heeled boots.
I suspect that she could have finished the entire game on her own, but let me do it out of pity.
The game follows the characters for a full school year, which is exactly how long it took me to finish it, as of last Saturday. Now I get to start playing Persona 4, a game where you need to wear glasses so that you can see through the fog inside your television.
I know this because the giant talking bear told me so. Hopefully it will help me solve the horrible murders and make friends with some pretty schoolgirls.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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I haven't played FES. I had enough trouble finding a copy of Persona 3: Regular! Would like to play FES at some point though.
Dude, did you play pesona 3:fes? It's persona for real men (and butch women)