Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES

It is like the sims life stories with action. A role playing game that isn't all battle, to be successful you have to manage the main characters personal life.

I an hooked

Being someone who has personally played through Persona 3 (the original) and Persona 3 FES (the remake), I can honestly say that buying the FES version was definitely worth it. It has everything the original had, but with so much more added! More anime cut scenes which help move the story along as well as extra elements within the game to keep yourself occupied. I enjoyed taking the dog on walks with a friend and seeing what event would take place depending on the friend you take. I also enjoyed the dating sim element within the game and wish they made more games that let you go on dates like that. The power of love strengthens you in battle. I regret getting the original when this one was so much better.

Atlus has improved upon one of its best games (who knew this was possible)...The Fes edition has added layers to the original awesome Persona 3 RPG by adding new personas, a weapons creation engine, and new quests to complete.

In addition, there is also a new chapter entitled "The Answer", which is a dungeon-crawling, grinding heaven not for the faint of heart.

In a word, superb.

Split your days building a social network (which boosts your combat capabilities), improving your own stats, and dungeon crawling in this stylish JRPG. Lots of repetition, so not for the casual gamer. Those willing to do the (considerable) time will be well rewarded with an intriuging story and addictive gameplay. Highly recommended.

I can't take JRPGs. Not usually. The big eyes plastered to childish bodies. The lengthy, cryptic, expositions. The cookie-cutter characters. The sick-making adorableness. The endless, pointless, series of soul crushing random encounters...

But I keep trying. I know there must be something I'm missing because I can't get past my personal tastes (as impeccable as they are) as a Western adult PC gamer whose interests run towards Western RPGs when they're not preoccupied with historical simulations and wargames. Heck, it took me a decade to break down and even buy a console but I was ultimately glad for it.

And once again my resolve, or lack thereof, has paid off. Take one part X-Com, the blending of turn-based tactical combat on unpredictable/dangerous terrain with a highly integrated strategic component, and one part Scooby-Doo. That's to my atypical, and slightly disfunctional, brain what Persona 3 FES is.

It's an extended series of adventures for the Scooby Gang, or this Japanese version thereof, as they explore a mysterious world beyond ours by night (the Dark Hour's dungeon crawl) and go to school by day.

The tactical and strategic interplay of Persona 3 FES is fairly deep. It trades X-Com's map movements and military style tactics and UN members needing placating for chosing which friends to make in the Real World and, as you learn about them, empowering those aspects of your own mind related to them called Personas. As other reviewers have noted the whole stable of personas is massive and they're highly customizable using fusions and having other elements in hand, or timing them right, when they're done. The single most important factor in how powerful a given persona will be is driven by social ties.

Now I'm not going to say you don't give up a certain ambience of having your own constructable base, as in X-Com, or the ability to play through the loss of individuals on your team, as in X-Com, or the sheer attraction of commanding an elite squad of commandos.

What you gain are the story oriented interactions of more detailed NPCs and a wealth of little details and a whole setting that changes as time goes on. It's so rich with story elements, most of which are not foisted on you in classic CRPG style, that you will have to replay several times and do different things to even see a fraction of what the daytime world has to offer.

You can find yourself building up personal stats that, in turn, offer you access to different elements of the game. Most commonly these are new NPC Social contacts. who in turn empower the fusing of persona-spirits matching their own Tarot suit. You might find elements that build up a persona's stats (combat oriented compared to your more social oriented stats - they exist in tandem, not overlapping), have totally random effects, offer items to improve social standings with other characters, provide you with new items and much more.

Each of the many NPC Social links has a whole backstory behind it that gets fleshed out as time goes on. Some seem to intersect the main story a bit while others have nothing to do with it.

The strategy of figuring how best to spend your limited time in one day and to take advantage of all that's offered, or even finding it (and in some cases learning schedules for certain events - like what days a week certain films are shown or when the karaoke bar is open) is a big concern.

Driving all of this is the background knowledge of a couple daunting threats that loom on the calendar: The Full Moon will spawn uberbosses you need to defeat to progress. You have to have the strength to handle these things which you gain both by grinding in the dungeon as well as building up social ties to empower your combatant personas. Possibly more scary: Mid-terms and finals!

I'm really not the type who goes for JRPGs but the mix of strategic, tactical, storytelling and freedom to make some of your own choices along with the sheer wealth of options to explore overwhelms having to live in a Japanese High School by day and beat on random encounters by night. My mind's as much on the underlaying strategic consequences of what I'm doing as the candylike graphics and storytelling icing.

And, for better or worse, I'm kind liking that too. "Oh, Stupei! You didn't really say that did you?!"