Exactly. At first, I thought that's what they were gonna do, once it got the criticism when it was announced at first. Guess not. It's still a good game but there's just things missing. Almost as if it's half clothed
@@statesminds Yeah Man. It would've been very cool. I'll still play it here and there, but compared to parts 5 and 4 and the first two part 3's, this version is literally the only one I can't stay glued to. The visual novel stuff.. Man. You ever played the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney games? Reminds me of those games a little bit Lolol Good games too
I know this option isn't for everyone but there is a version of P3 FES on Emulators that lets you control the party members, it's literally the best of both worlds.
Your in luck my friend come February 2 persona 3 reloaded is coming for modern consoles giving u your wish the only con is they voice cast is different
I played the LIVING HELL out of FES back in the summer of 2008. Played it more than P4 and P3P. The Answer was big twist for me when finding out what happened after Journey. I played Journey to death, pun intended, just so I could get tall the Personas, Orpheus Telos and the Messiah. Gonna need to dust off my copy and replay this bad boy again!
The overall Theme of Persona 3 is literally spelt out during the Opening (at least in Portable) "Memento Mori" which is Latin for "Remember that you must/will/have to Die" or "Remember Death"
@@ethantrotto6668 Yeah, just been a while since I've played/watched the OG Opening... Was pretty sure it was there, FES doesn't though from memory (actually one of the rare, probably only, Persona Intro's that has gameplay footage in it)
@@MrRhysReviews yeah, I always thought it was odd how the FES opening was like that. It has some pretty plot heavy scenes in it too, but at least the music is boppin
@@ethantrotto6668 because atlus expected people who play FES already played the vanilla. so they dont really gve that much fuck with the intro. you already know the story anyway.
P3 has best last boss in concept imo and best ending. The female protagonist social links are so improved i wish they’d update the male protag to have those social links too. So dumb you can’t decline romance or social links with male party companions. Don’t forget in Portable you also have Margaret from P4 and have her doors
I love Persona 2 more but I agree that Persona 3's final boss is the best one in the series. It literally uses each arcana as a elemental shift mechanic keeping you on your toes, as well as, that Velvet Room theme infused final boss theme was so good
@@BALDFURY69 sounds like I have a hot take then... I love how long the Nyx Avatar fight takes. The game spent two in-game months hyping up this boss as an unkillable entity. You are given the choice of forgetting everything for a merciful instant death or have the full knowledge of the proverbial doomsday clock. The idea of actually surviving is never on the table. Everyone in SEES goes into the fight expecting to die. So... a neat way of simulating being "unkillable" is for the boss to have a sadistic amount of HP and phases. Plus, I'm a SMT fan so my take is admittedly colored by the fact that I'd find more enjoyment in the game if more bosses were like this because Nyx Avatar was the only boss to actually challenge me in P3.
I love p3 sm, it's my fav game of all time Seeing 1 of my new fav youtubers covering it in any way makes me really happy so tysm!! U deserve so many more subs
After so many years I'm so glad this game is on the switch. I've been going through grief and loss after my grandmother passed away two weeks ago and this game is helping me through it and I couldn't be more grateful.
You should do a persona tier list with every version of each game. That would be such an amazing watch because you articulate your thoughts so well in these videos and on DD.
My first persona was P5R not too long ago, after a good 100 sum hours and the release of the P3P and P4G on switch I gave it a shot and HOLY. The themes, characters, and soundtrack just do it for me. Easily one of my favorite games and the nostalgia it gives is unreal. The ending was heart wrenching. I can’t wait to give P4G a spin but for now I’m going for new game plus
I'm assuming you didn't max out stats or confidants, since you're going for NG+ Unless you specifically wanna replay the whole thing just to fight Caroline & Justine
@@loganbigmo I missed out on multiple social links my first play through so wanted to give it another go this time with better knowledge of how the game worked
The atmosphere of game is great and characters. Persona 3 and 4 dungeons are weakest aspect so 5 really moved the series in great direction dungeon-wise. I’d love an actual remake of the older games bc i personally think they’re better than 5 except the dungeon/gameplay side. Minus the fact that 5 should have more physical attack types imo
@@statesminds tbh i don't think we need too many physical attack types, they just stayed feel redundant like having a piercing physical attack and having a weakness to complement it just make it be a normal physical attack, and it also consumes slots in the personas if you want them. I do fell more personas in 5 should have more access to attacking all enemies physical attacks. It's basically only yoshitsune and Yusuke persona and that's it.
Came here to say the atmosphere is a whole vibe. That and the music 🤌. I started with p5 vanilla, played royal, then went back to play 4 and then 3. I think 3 has the best vibe. Can't describe it better than that, just a vibe. 😎
3:42 just a minor correction but that’s not Orpheus, that’s Messiah, the protagonist’s ultimate persona Edit: 9:10 Eternal Punishment and Maya erasure 😔
I played P3 FES in high school and man did that game hit me! I was really hoping this rerelease would be a definitive edition that contained the Answer from FES w/ the controllable party and female protagonist from Portable
P3's story is honestly the best out of the 5 mainline games. Only Persona game that legit made me cry. RIP Giga Chad Door-Jesus-kun. Man is still suffering even now
Best way to play 3 is the party control FES mod on pcsx2. Also, there is a fantastic difficulty rebalance mod to pair with party control. I never felt portable was properly rebalanced for party control.
you can kinda do a combo of FES and Portable if you emulate it, there's a fan made patch/mod that adds in the party control to FES still don't know why Atlus didn't officially release it this way with an upscale instead of just a P3P upscale lol.
Is still doesn’t have femc, and the code is an absolute mess. It would have taken WAY longer to port FÈS to modern consoles. A full remake would probably have been easier.
@Jdog This is the ideal way, let's hope! There's rumblings about a possible 3 remake, would also love to see 1, but especially 2 in some sort of modern light.
I don't get the obsession with the 3d world and animated cutscenes so much for this game tbh. While i would absolutely love those to be included in p3p, imo i feel like i didn't miss anything much at all. Plus, we are stuck in a small island for the rest of the game anyway lol. I would have really understand if we are constantly traveling from town to town for progression in the plot like in any rpg out there, but the game's plot really only revolves around this one whole ass island and tartarus hence why the protagonist and the party stays in a dorm near it. So yeah for me nothing much to lose at all without 3d world imo, although i would love it for FeMC because she's the one who made me really enjoy the game so much!
One of the things i also liked in P3P is the seperate velvet room assistant. Theodore is kinda different in the way that he has a different personality than the others, and he tells you a lot about his interactions with elizabeth and margaret, and he is more confused and unknowable than the others, and it is kinda nice to see a different way to present the assistant. He seems kinda new to this thing and it is very nice to see. His voice is also soothing and he tries to be a remarkable assistant to his guest. Then... PQ came about and... his character got completely butchered. I hated how they handled him in persona q and to be completely honest i want more of him in the following games if there are any cameos. ... plus i do have a soft spot since he shares my name and i really haven't seen my name much in games or media lol
Playing it for the first time thanks to the new ports, and I freaking love it so much dude. I get portable isn't the "full" experience, but it's still fantastic. Also the inclusion of FeMC is greatly appreciated
@@somecallmesean_ and portable has femc, who’s story has more content and is better than the answer, and has tons of QOL. Neither is objectively better or worse than the other.
Playing P3P for the first time alongside some friends, and I cannot understate how fantastic the female protag option is. It's a _substantial_ addition for female players, who really don't get catered to in the JRPG genre. Also, I can't even imagine not controlling my party, it would get so boring, especially while grinding Tartarus.
Persona 3 FES was my first Persona game ever, I bought it on eBay brand new for 15 dollars as a means to hype myself up for Persona 5 back in 2017 and fell in love with it. My first time playing Portable was like a year ago when they released the "remaster" on Steam...I can safely say it's a bad port of a good game. Even if they didn't want to add in all of the 3D environments (such as the school and the mall) they took out, they should have at least took more care in upscaling the backgrounds and cleaning up the sound effects, and putting in the anime cutscenes that were missing. They had an excuse with the PSP and its technical limitations, not so much on the PC, PS5, and even the Switch. It's more "playable" as a game thanks to the much needed QOL updates but fails in almost every other regard due to Atlus being lazy.
Still have my persona 3 portable in its special box, loved this game! it was also my second persona after 4 and the ending...that got me teary back in the day! ^^
Hearing you play that P3 FES answer music in the background sometimes when they’re talking about a certain someone’s death is bringing way too much feels back.
Thematically speaking I've always seen the evokers as "you need to have no fear to summon your true self" yukari is extremely fearful of rumors and you can see her reaction to what others think of her strongly at the start, and with the theme of death. You get this "to be who you are you must face it as you would face death, fearless and welcoming because it comes for us all". I think another series that did this representation well visually was critical role and vox machina (i haven't fully watched campaign 1) in the animated version you see a character chosen by the god of death, to accept that death is inevitable and that to face it fearlessly is to embrace destiny. THAT while sounding edgy, it's the truth. We label death as this cold matron that is vile and disgusting. When in reality death gives meaning to the life that was lived.
Nailed it. The Evoker imagery isn't just random edgy nonsense, nor is it about suicidality or something, it's about the need to confront one's mortality at every moment.
I will say as well that for PC players, fans have gone out of their way to introduce modpacks for both FES using emulation as well as for P3P on the Steam release. A modpack for FES adds controllable party members and widescreen support, whereas in P3P fans have added back the anime cutscenes (Male MC only) and reintroduced some of the higher quality 3D areas in Tartarus but the VN style remains more or less the same. Of course a PS2 disk is harder to mod than a Steam release so its up to the user to decide how down and dirty they want to get with it but it is an option. Also P3 Remake! Its STILL not the definitive version we want! Classic Atlus...
I actually really appreciate this video breaking down the differences. It's like, even if they just ported the models from the dancing game into the battles, that would have been SOMETHING to make it more presentable.
P3 has the best story and plot for me in the series. Its two biggest problems are the ones you mentionated: there isn't a definitive edition on where you compile the elements of Portable (Female protagonist, Controllable team) and FES (Cutscenes, 3D AND The Answer) Aigis and Mitsuru are the two best female characters in the entire franchise for me. I love both a lot.
@@theultimatedragoon2231 Nothing happens for a good part of the game, you just go to school, talk to some boring characters and go back to the dorm, it's only later in the game that the story really moves forward and gets interesting
@@kamen6009 It starts slow but it gets more and more interesting later on. Instead, P5 throws you out the hype quite fast but it ends with a mediocre ending at the end. P4G story is mostly a joke, so it is hard to take it seriously.
@@theultimatedragoon2231 it starts slow but gets interesting later on = the pacing is bad. The first half of the game gives you too much freedom. The 2nd half gives you too little. You don't unlock some of the girls social links until way later on and its very damn annoying trying to do them and the game keeps skipping days. I do think 3 had the best story but 4 has the best pacing by far (and is the better game overall)
It (portable) was my introduction to the Persona games, and I enjoyed it back then but after playing 4 Golden and 5 Royal, returning to 3 would feel like a few steps backwards in gameplay, characters, story and presentation. 4 is still my favourite.
I'm 35 now and for all my gaming life I couldn't stand the idea of turn based games. I don't know what it was that made me want to check out P5R, but it's one of the best games I've ever played. It's because of that game I've become a huge JRPG fan. Can't wait to try P3 and 4.
Persona 3 is definitely not bad. In fact it's in my top3 favorite games, along with Silent Hill 2 and Majora's Mask. I'm mostly talking about the original. I do have Fes, but I managed to accidentally destroy the disc while I was trying to fix some scratches, so thinking about it makes me a bit depressed. I've only tried P3P but I don't like the fact that it misses the cut scenes and you can't run around the city. Of course it would be better to have control over the party members on the PS2 versions, but having to manipulate the AI of the team mates becomes an interesting game in itself.
I wish they would fully remake persona 3 and combine all the best aspects of the 3 different versions so we’d have the best of 3 all in 1 game. Plus it desperately needs certain quality of life gameplay improvements. I like persona 3 but tbh it is really showing it’s age nowadays and after playing 4 and 5 I found it hard to go back to
Coming back to this video while playing P3FES after only playing P3P up until after the summer break and honestly i gotta say,i don't mind not being able to control my party since the AI seems to make solid decisions most of the time plus the 3D environments are a bliss(i love P3P's still image backgrounds but its such a diffrent feel to actually explore the world on foot)
I still think the Sun link in Persona 3 has to be one of (if not the best) social link in the series. I consider myself stoic, but that social link hit me HARD.
I got into the persona series after watching the persona 4 anime and playing persona 3 portable on my phone via PPSSPP. Wow it was amazing absolutely love the series
Really appreciate this vids Matty. Loved P5, Royale and Strikers Never played the OG Persona games. Was looking forward for some info on this one and 4 since you know. Thanks.
I had a superbly depressed childhood which caused many sleepless nights and major insomnia. This game both helped me get through a lot, but playing P3P on my PSP in my bed all night when I just couldn't sleep was very therapeutic... I'm glad I found the P3 FES PS2 port on the PS3, I think I vastly preffered this version.
Tartarus is... an interesting experience, since the characters in game will grow tired id you explore it for too long and so you will the person playing the game. Persona 3 was an odd, but cool experience to me, because it's the one the that I could NOT play for hours on end as would grow bored of it, but also, possibly the one I enjoyed the most? It made me realize that despite being a long game, it's a game meant to be played slowly and a MAX two hours per day
And now we have a remake that should have been the definitive edition, but instead it's also missing important stuff from the previous versions. Infuriating really.
I think they were onto something with your party members unable to be controlled and having their battle style be an extension of their personality. I think controlling all party members is just like having 4 player characters instead of just one.
I truly loved FES back in high school as a kid, and now I'm so excited to be able to play the Portable version (I never had a PSP) and play as female protag. I want more Persona games with female protag options!!!
Good memories of playing this at college during my break between classes back in the day. A definate classic. I think now with how modern console games look it would be hard to go back to this game as im not a fan of old games
I started 5 back when it first dropped on gamepass and loved it. Decided to drop it though to play through 3&4 so I can feel the game progressions and improvements, not go backwards :)
I'm enjoying P3P more than FES so far. FeMC gets better music and character interactions and the ability to control the party is just huge. No matter what tactics you have the AI use, it will always be less efficient with SP and items. There are times I miss the overworld, but there are also lulls between S links and world state changes where you're likely just going to do stat boosts at the mall afterschool anyways and that's faster and more convenient in the VN style here.
Portable is not missing scenes. It does not have the anime cutscenes, but those scenes play out in the visual novel style that the rest of the game plays out in. The story content is still there.
Honestly, if really making a definitive remake with the best parts of FES and Portable rolled into one was really too much work for ATLUS, the very _least_ they could’ve done was rerelease both FES and Portable for modern systems so new Persona fans can choose which benefits to experience.
Persona 5 Royal was my first to play in the series, I've recently completed 4 Golden and loved that too. With P3 however I'm really hoping the rumours of a remake are true.
I’ve only ever played the P3P version of Persona 3. I will probably hold off and wait for the rumored remake and if that never happens I guess I’ll jump on the remaster.
Completely agree with this video the issue is that there’s no definitive version of Persona 3 that has all the content ! In one that includes the female protagonist that includes the answer and that includes all the cutscenes Just look at golden and royal those games have all the content in one game just do this for persona 3 that’s it!!!!
After playing enough Persona 4 as a teen, Persona 3 FES was very much "the game to get" at the time. On one hand, I could notice the flaws at the time: voice acting was weaker, the lack of party control didn't do anything for me at the time but I could understand where that'd be a problem for others, and something always felt a little too convenient about the "they have the potential" plot convenience. And the pacing made things feel a lot slower. That being said, it very much carried the Persona 4 trait of having lovable, memorable characters such as Yukari Takeba and Akihiko Sanada, alongside the villains Strega. And I can't deny the quality of that final boss. Fast forward to when Persona 3 Portable popped up on my radar and.. I was never interested. It's neat and all that party control was added and we now had a femme route to work with, but gutting the anime cutscenes felt like too heavy a loss, and reversing certain deaths felt like backpedaling in a bad way. That and finding out later about a certain romanceable option.. I was okay with skipping this one. I might give it a try with mods someday to restore cutscenes at least, but otherwise, I'd sooner return to FES.
@@ethantrotto6668 And the occasional flat line delivery from Mitsuru, like her first "Tres bien" stated as if she was repeating after google translate rather than praising someone.
P3 with the male protagonist can be pretty raw, but I feel it holds up. WIth the female protagonist though, having Social Links with your team is invaluable for immersion. I really miss that replaying the male side.
Played FES with the controllable party mod and it is a much better experience, however there is an interesting note, when you fight a Tartarus boss and try and scan an enemy, even if the scan reveals nothing to YOU the ai of the party will be informed, for instance the first sub boss you fight is weak to piercing, if you play as expected Yukari will be the only one who can do piercing damage with her bow, normally you would scan and Yukari just starts blasting with her bow turning the fight into a breeze, but since you control her and you don’t know the piercing damage weakness you probably would relegate Yukari to healing because the sun boss is pounding on Junpei because he is weak to their elemental attack, turning what would have been an easy fight into a probably TKO
Maya was a female protagonist of eternal punishment as well, maybe argue less picky that Aigis was in the answer. Also with fes there are cheat codes for party control, so you can just go that route, though there is no fix to no female route.
It was a bit vauge but to anyone worried about the "missing scenes" comments, I think what they meant was that the 3D cutscenes are missing (and replaced with VN 2d-styled one's instead). Persona 3 Portable does not have any cut story or event cutscenes outside of "The Answer" which was entirely taken out.
Just finished the game, so I'm quite late to the party. But I do feel like a potential Remake would go the FFVIIr way and change some stuff. Mostly how Elizabeth handled some situation and something that follows the Amswer.
The answer is For the time it released yes But the age is showing and it really needs some mechanics overhauled (AI Teammates, boring dungeon design, etc.) A Remake will 100% fix em
I think the true definitive way to play Persona 3 is emulation on PC with mods. Like playable party members, the New Moon rebalance mod, and The Answer revamped mods transform the game to be FAR more bearable and enjoyable. Really the only issue would be not having the female protag, but that's not really needed imo
I remember i Saw this game when i was 5 years old my cousin play this game so seriously and the only thing i remember from it is the title of P3 Fes,Mass Destruction,the Protagonist Scream when summon Persona,and the dark the background music and the theme. I remember seeing the protagonist shot in the head for summon Persona makes me want to that in real life,and boy i was so lucky i didn't do that cuz' it ain't easy bought a gun in my country.
I will forever stand by the fact that party members aren't that hard to use if you do anything not act freely. meanwhile just Stuffing persona 4 mechanics breaks fight balance. but any time I ever hear Marin Karin complaints all I can think of is "So you kept Mitsuru as act freely." great video.
Buy Persona 3 FES for the male experience. Pick up Persona 3 Portable for the Female. Best of both worlds. Biggest sell honestly on P3P is the tired mechanic being fixed in Tartarus, and being able to control you characters. Fighting Nyx with out controlling your party and getting tired when in Tartarus was annoying.
couple corrections Only p1 is in first person, p2 adopted an isometric perspective that was dropped in 3 FEMC wasn't the first female protagonist, it was Maya in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment the 2nd half of the p2 duo
Persona 3 got me into the megaten rabbit hole and I'm not sure if I ever could get out of such. The persona 3 pc port was a huge bummer, and I was kind of looking forward to it. Might as well play the PSP version ig Shouldve been a definitive edition where you get the best of both worlds, but I guess the devs dont have access to the older game files of FES...
Persona 3 is the game that helped me get through my depression. This game and this series in general will always have a place in my heart.
Fr 😔🔫
Same but Persona 5 for me
Every time something drastic happens in my life I find myself playing a Persona game. It's my comfort series.
It actually helped me cheer up during a time where I was kind of sad
Cool, but is it good tho?
If they fused Portables quality of Life changes and used FES as a base model, it would be an awesome game and the definitive version of Persona 3
Exactly. At first, I thought that's what they were gonna do, once it got the criticism when it was announced at first. Guess not. It's still a good game but there's just things missing. Almost as if it's half clothed
Yeah, that’d make too much sense for Atlus though. I was hoping we’d finally get a definitive version but nope
@@statesminds Yeah Man. It would've been very cool. I'll still play it here and there, but compared to parts 5 and 4 and the first two part 3's, this version is literally the only one I can't stay glued to. The visual novel stuff.. Man. You ever played the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney games? Reminds me of those games a little bit Lolol Good games too
I know this option isn't for everyone but there is a version of P3 FES on Emulators that lets you control the party members, it's literally the best of both worlds.
Your in luck my friend come February 2 persona 3 reloaded is coming for modern consoles giving u your wish the only con is they voice cast is different
I played the LIVING HELL out of FES back in the summer of 2008. Played it more than P4 and P3P. The Answer was big twist for me when finding out what happened after Journey. I played Journey to death, pun intended, just so I could get tall the Personas, Orpheus Telos and the Messiah. Gonna need to dust off my copy and replay this bad boy again!
The overall Theme of Persona 3 is literally spelt out during the Opening (at least in Portable) "Memento Mori" which is Latin for "Remember that you must/will/have to Die" or "Remember Death"
It's also spelt out in the original opening several times
@@ethantrotto6668 Yeah, just been a while since I've played/watched the OG Opening... Was pretty sure it was there, FES doesn't though from memory (actually one of the rare, probably only, Persona Intro's that has gameplay footage in it)
@@MrRhysReviews yeah, I always thought it was odd how the FES opening was like that. It has some pretty plot heavy scenes in it too, but at least the music is boppin
@@ethantrotto6668 The music is good but when I played FES I always skipped that opening and waited for the og opening to play.
@@ethantrotto6668 because atlus expected people who play FES already played the vanilla. so they dont really gve that much fuck with the intro. you already know the story anyway.
P3 has best last boss in concept imo and best ending. The female protagonist social links are so improved i wish they’d update the male protag to have those social links too. So dumb you can’t decline romance or social links with male party companions. Don’t forget in Portable you also have Margaret from P4 and have her doors
Glad you said in concept there because...fuck that last boss in practice :L its not even remotely difficult, just tedious.
I love Persona 2 more but I agree that Persona 3's final boss is the best one in the series.
It literally uses each arcana as a elemental shift mechanic keeping you on your toes, as well as, that Velvet Room theme infused final boss theme was so good
Can’t wait for my female protagonist run. If I’m being honest some of the social links on the male story are very weak :(
@@BALDFURY69 sounds like I have a hot take then... I love how long the Nyx Avatar fight takes. The game spent two in-game months hyping up this boss as an unkillable entity. You are given the choice of forgetting everything for a merciful instant death or have the full knowledge of the proverbial doomsday clock. The idea of actually surviving is never on the table. Everyone in SEES goes into the fight expecting to die. So... a neat way of simulating being "unkillable" is for the boss to have a sadistic amount of HP and phases.
Plus, I'm a SMT fan so my take is admittedly colored by the fact that I'd find more enjoyment in the game if more bosses were like this because Nyx Avatar was the only boss to actually challenge me in P3.
@@nekotorin persona 2 is great as well!
Persona 3 is my favorite game of all time. Needless to say I'd be stoked as hell if the remake rumours turn out to be true.
UwU
They are. Have never played them though.
this aged well
Yay !!! Are you playing it? 😁
here is today...persona 3 is still not all collections into one...rip female pro
I love p3 sm, it's my fav game of all time
Seeing 1 of my new fav youtubers covering it in any way makes me really happy so tysm!!
U deserve so many more subs
After so many years I'm so glad this game is on the switch. I've been going through grief and loss after my grandmother passed away two weeks ago and this game is helping me through it and I couldn't be more grateful.
You should do a persona tier list with every version of each game. That would be such an amazing watch because you articulate your thoughts so well in these videos and on DD.
9:10 the first female protagonist in the series came from Persona 2 Eternal Punishment
Honestly, og trilogy and modern persona games might be counted as 2 different series
Yesss! Maya.
I’m playing through it for the first time ever right now (around 12 hours in) and I’m having a blast
Enjoy it man. There is some gut wrenching moments prepare yourself
Best Persona game story wise. This one and 2
My first persona was P5R not too long ago, after a good 100 sum hours and the release of the P3P and P4G on switch I gave it a shot and HOLY.
The themes, characters, and soundtrack just do it for me. Easily one of my favorite games and the nostalgia it gives is unreal. The ending was heart wrenching. I can’t wait to give P4G a spin but for now I’m going for new game plus
I'm assuming you didn't max out stats or confidants, since you're going for NG+
Unless you specifically wanna replay the whole thing just to fight Caroline & Justine
@@loganbigmo I missed out on multiple social links my first play through so wanted to give it another go this time with better knowledge of how the game worked
@@gideonswrld3 Ah, gotcha. Enjoy!
I’m playing p3p and I’m enjoying it. I think Tartarus definitely is not the best but the characters, story, and fusing demons is always fun.
The atmosphere of game is great and characters. Persona 3 and 4 dungeons are weakest aspect so 5 really moved the series in great direction dungeon-wise. I’d love an actual remake of the older games bc i personally think they’re better than 5 except the dungeon/gameplay side. Minus the fact that 5 should have more physical attack types imo
@@statesminds 5 definitely improved the dungeon aspect of the games I don’t think p4 needs a remake but P3 definitely would be awesome remade
@@statesminds tbh i don't think we need too many physical attack types, they just stayed feel redundant like having a piercing physical attack and having a weakness to complement it just make it be a normal physical attack, and it also consumes slots in the personas if you want them. I do fell more personas in 5 should have more access to attacking all enemies physical attacks. It's basically only yoshitsune and Yusuke persona and that's it.
Came here to say the atmosphere is a whole vibe. That and the music 🤌. I started with p5 vanilla, played royal, then went back to play 4 and then 3. I think 3 has the best vibe. Can't describe it better than that, just a vibe. 😎
@@BALDFURY69 Which version of P3 did you play?
3:42 just a minor correction but that’s not Orpheus, that’s Messiah, the protagonist’s ultimate persona
Edit: 9:10 Eternal Punishment and Maya erasure 😔
In the game manual where he points to Orpheus it’s Orpheus but on the disc for the game it’s Messiah
SMT if... too lol
@@ju2tunknown That's more of the precursor to Persona, it's not really part of the Persona series.
I appreciate this correction 🙏
I played P3 FES in high school and man did that game hit me! I was really hoping this rerelease would be a definitive edition that contained the Answer from FES w/ the controllable party and female protagonist from Portable
ONE OF MY FAVORITES OF ALL TIME!!!!
Persona 3 remake would be the best way to fix the issues people have with this game. I also think it would sell like hot cakes
💯 agree a remake would be amazing for p3!!!
Agreed, hopefully this was them testing the market and we’ll get both 3 and 4 remade.
Would ya look at that
P3's story is honestly the best out of the 5 mainline games. Only Persona game that legit made me cry. RIP Giga Chad Door-Jesus-kun. Man is still suffering even now
RR uploading a Persona 3 video on my birthday? Awesome! Cool video man!
Happy Birthday!
The fact that the remake coming out still isn't a definitive version is fucking hilarious.
Best way to play 3 is the party control FES mod on pcsx2. Also, there is a fantastic difficulty rebalance mod to pair with party control. I never felt portable was properly rebalanced for party control.
That's cheating and not the way this game is supposed to play.
you can kinda do a combo of FES and Portable if you emulate it, there's a fan made patch/mod that adds in the party control to FES still don't know why Atlus didn't officially release it this way with an upscale instead of just a P3P upscale lol.
The party controls not the main thing i like most in portable imo. I’d like a female protag route in FES lol
Is still doesn’t have femc, and the code is an absolute mess. It would have taken WAY longer to port FÈS to modern consoles. A full remake would probably have been easier.
@Jdog This is the ideal way, let's hope! There's rumblings about a possible 3 remake, would also love to see 1, but especially 2 in some sort of modern light.
@@DoublexCoke agreed especially on P1 and P2. Modern iterations of them would probably make new persona fans finally remember they exist haha
@@statesminds For some people the main point of P3P is the better gameplay in fights.
as someone who's only played P4 and P5, I'm loving the hell out of P3P. Surprisingly the VN presentation isn't bothering me at all
same here!☺
Having played around 30 hours of FES, I can say that the Portable is the superior version.
I don't get the obsession with the 3d world and animated cutscenes so much for this game tbh. While i would absolutely love those to be included in p3p, imo i feel like i didn't miss anything much at all. Plus, we are stuck in a small island for the rest of the game anyway lol. I would have really understand if we are constantly traveling from town to town for progression in the plot like in any rpg out there, but the game's plot really only revolves around this one whole ass island and tartarus hence why the protagonist and the party stays in a dorm near it. So yeah for me nothing much to lose at all without 3d world imo, although i would love it for FeMC because she's the one who made me really enjoy the game so much!
I just recently was considering purchasing this but I wanted to wait until you put out a review. I'm very glad I waited
Pretty sure Maya is the main protagonist in Persona 2 Eternal Punishment.
Maya is definitely one of protags teachers. Unless the student she likes coincidently is also named Makoto like my protag.
@@tomaliothetomato439 he’s talking about Maya from persona 2, not sure how you misunderstood that when they directly mentioned it
Replace "Pretty sure" with "She is" cause it's ok to be confident in yourself especially when you're right.
One of the things i also liked in P3P is the seperate velvet room assistant. Theodore is kinda different in the way that he has a different personality than the others, and he tells you a lot about his interactions with elizabeth and margaret, and he is more confused and unknowable than the others, and it is kinda nice to see a different way to present the assistant. He seems kinda new to this thing and it is very nice to see. His voice is also soothing and he tries to be a remarkable assistant to his guest.
Then... PQ came about and... his character got completely butchered. I hated how they handled him in persona q and to be completely honest i want more of him in the following games if there are any cameos.
... plus i do have a soft spot since he shares my name and i really haven't seen my name much in games or media lol
Just started to play this. I really like it.
Just got this video in my recommended today, and am super hyped for the remake!!
I love P3P. I completed it back in PSP and I'm happy a lot of people get to play it too :) Great video!
Playing it for the first time thanks to the new ports, and I freaking love it so much dude. I get portable isn't the "full" experience, but it's still fantastic. Also the inclusion of FeMC is greatly appreciated
Clarification. Persona 3 FES is worth it in 2023
Why atlus should've combined them both
@@somecallmesean_ Yea, that would explain been awesome
@@somecallmesean_ they can’t combine them both. It’s better there’s just a remake
@@maddox9511 fes still has 3d over worlds and the answer epilogue
@@somecallmesean_ and portable has femc, who’s story has more content and is better than the answer, and has tons of QOL. Neither is objectively better or worse than the other.
Playing P3P for the first time alongside some friends, and I cannot understate how fantastic the female protag option is. It's a _substantial_ addition for female players, who really don't get catered to in the JRPG genre. Also, I can't even imagine not controlling my party, it would get so boring, especially while grinding Tartarus.
Persona 3 FES was my first Persona game ever, I bought it on eBay brand new for 15 dollars as a means to hype myself up for Persona 5 back in 2017 and fell in love with it.
My first time playing Portable was like a year ago when they released the "remaster" on Steam...I can safely say it's a bad port of a good game. Even if they didn't want to add in all of the 3D environments (such as the school and the mall) they took out, they should have at least took more care in upscaling the backgrounds and cleaning up the sound effects, and putting in the anime cutscenes that were missing. They had an excuse with the PSP and its technical limitations, not so much on the PC, PS5, and even the Switch.
It's more "playable" as a game thanks to the much needed QOL updates but fails in almost every other regard due to Atlus being lazy.
Still have my persona 3 portable in its special box, loved this game! it was also my second persona after 4 and the ending...that got me teary back in the day! ^^
Very well made video. I hope you get the views you deserve!
Thanks! I hope so too ;)
Hearing you play that P3 FES answer music in the background sometimes when they’re talking about a certain someone’s death is bringing way too much feels back.
Thematically speaking I've always seen the evokers as "you need to have no fear to summon your true self" yukari is extremely fearful of rumors and you can see her reaction to what others think of her strongly at the start, and with the theme of death. You get this "to be who you are you must face it as you would face death, fearless and welcoming because it comes for us all". I think another series that did this representation well visually was critical role and vox machina (i haven't fully watched campaign 1) in the animated version you see a character chosen by the god of death, to accept that death is inevitable and that to face it fearlessly is to embrace destiny. THAT while sounding edgy, it's the truth. We label death as this cold matron that is vile and disgusting. When in reality death gives meaning to the life that was lived.
Nailed it. The Evoker imagery isn't just random edgy nonsense, nor is it about suicidality or something, it's about the need to confront one's mortality at every moment.
I will say as well that for PC players, fans have gone out of their way to introduce modpacks for both FES using emulation as well as for P3P on the Steam release. A modpack for FES adds controllable party members and widescreen support, whereas in P3P fans have added back the anime cutscenes (Male MC only) and reintroduced some of the higher quality 3D areas in Tartarus but the VN style remains more or less the same. Of course a PS2 disk is harder to mod than a Steam release so its up to the user to decide how down and dirty they want to get with it but it is an option.
Also P3 Remake! Its STILL not the definitive version we want! Classic Atlus...
I actually really appreciate this video breaking down the differences. It's like, even if they just ported the models from the dancing game into the battles, that would have been SOMETHING to make it more presentable.
P3 has the best story and plot for me in the series. Its two biggest problems are the ones you mentionated: there isn't a definitive edition on where you compile the elements of Portable (Female protagonist, Controllable team) and FES (Cutscenes, 3D AND The Answer)
Aigis and Mitsuru are the two best female characters in the entire franchise for me. I love both a lot.
The story is good but the pacing is bad
@@kamen6009 I don't agree. For me, the pacing is bad on P4 and P5 but not in P3.
@@theultimatedragoon2231 Nothing happens for a good part of the game, you just go to school, talk to some boring characters and go back to the dorm, it's only later in the game that the story really moves forward and gets interesting
@@kamen6009 It starts slow but it gets more and more interesting later on. Instead, P5 throws you out the hype quite fast but it ends with a mediocre ending at the end.
P4G story is mostly a joke, so it is hard to take it seriously.
@@theultimatedragoon2231 it starts slow but gets interesting later on = the pacing is bad. The first half of the game gives you too much freedom. The 2nd half gives you too little. You don't unlock some of the girls social links until way later on and its very damn annoying trying to do them and the game keeps skipping days. I do think 3 had the best story but 4 has the best pacing by far (and is the better game overall)
It (portable) was my introduction to the Persona games, and I enjoyed it back then but after playing 4 Golden and 5 Royal, returning to 3 would feel like a few steps backwards in gameplay, characters, story and presentation. 4 is still my favourite.
I'm 35 now and for all my gaming life I couldn't stand the idea of turn based games. I don't know what it was that made me want to check out P5R, but it's one of the best games I've ever played. It's because of that game I've become a huge JRPG fan. Can't wait to try P3 and 4.
Persona 3 is definitely not bad. In fact it's in my top3 favorite games, along with Silent Hill 2 and Majora's Mask. I'm mostly talking about the original. I do have Fes, but I managed to accidentally destroy the disc while I was trying to fix some scratches, so thinking about it makes me a bit depressed. I've only tried P3P but I don't like the fact that it misses the cut scenes and you can't run around the city. Of course it would be better to have control over the party members on the PS2 versions, but having to manipulate the AI of the team mates becomes an interesting game in itself.
I wish they would fully remake persona 3 and combine all the best aspects of the 3 different versions so we’d have the best of 3 all in 1 game. Plus it desperately needs certain quality of life gameplay improvements. I like persona 3 but tbh it is really showing it’s age nowadays and after playing 4 and 5 I found it hard to go back to
Coming back to this video while playing P3FES after only playing P3P up until after the summer break and honestly i gotta say,i don't mind not being able to control my party since the AI seems to make solid decisions most of the time plus the 3D environments are a bliss(i love P3P's still image backgrounds but its such a diffrent feel to actually explore the world on foot)
I still think the Sun link in Persona 3 has to be one of (if not the best) social link in the series. I consider myself stoic, but that social link hit me HARD.
I got into the persona series after watching the persona 4 anime and playing persona 3 portable on my phone via PPSSPP. Wow it was amazing absolutely love the series
P3r is getting me through a very difficult time.
Really appreciate this vids Matty. Loved P5, Royale and Strikers
Never played the OG Persona games. Was looking forward for some info on this one and 4 since you know. Thanks.
And now we have Persona 3 reload! Even though this was released as the "definitive edition" its still missing content!
I had a superbly depressed childhood which caused many sleepless nights and major insomnia. This game both helped me get through a lot, but playing P3P on my PSP in my bed all night when I just couldn't sleep was very therapeutic...
I'm glad I found the P3 FES PS2 port on the PS3, I think I vastly preffered this version.
Played 4 2 years ago. Playing it 3 Portable now, really fun
Tartarus is... an interesting experience, since the characters in game will grow tired id you explore it for too long and so you will the person playing the game.
Persona 3 was an odd, but cool experience to me, because it's the one the that I could NOT play for hours on end as would grow bored of it, but also, possibly the one I enjoyed the most? It made me realize that despite being a long game, it's a game meant to be played slowly and a MAX two hours per day
And now we have a remake that should have been the definitive edition, but instead it's also missing important stuff from the previous versions. Infuriating really.
I think they were onto something with your party members unable to be controlled and having their battle style be an extension of their personality. I think controlling all party members is just like having 4 player characters instead of just one.
It wasnt Orpheus on the disc but messiah thats even more insane
I truly loved FES back in high school as a kid, and now I'm so excited to be able to play the Portable version (I never had a PSP) and play as female protag. I want more Persona games with female protag options!!!
Good memories of playing this at college during my break between classes back in the day. A definate classic. I think now with how modern console games look it would be hard to go back to this game as im not a fan of old games
I started 5 back when it first dropped on gamepass and loved it. Decided to drop it though to play through 3&4 so I can feel the game progressions and improvements, not go backwards :)
I'm enjoying P3P more than FES so far. FeMC gets better music and character interactions and the ability to control the party is just huge. No matter what tactics you have the AI use, it will always be less efficient with SP and items. There are times I miss the overworld, but there are also lulls between S links and world state changes where you're likely just going to do stat boosts at the mall afterschool anyways and that's faster and more convenient in the VN style here.
It's subjective, what you said is just your opinion therefore, have fun.
Portable is not missing scenes. It does not have the anime cutscenes, but those scenes play out in the visual novel style that the rest of the game plays out in. The story content is still there.
@Legacysquid 062 it's still not missing any scenes, it's just presented differently
Currently playing through it on my switch for the first time im 25 hours in and ive slowly gotten more hooked on it
That hoodie looks so good!
persona 3 reload is amazing
The music is godlike
I can't wait to play the remake, but of course Atlus had to go and not make it the full, definitive version
Best Persona imo the vibe the darkness the silhouettes🔥
Honestly, if really making a definitive remake with the best parts of FES and Portable rolled into one was really too much work for ATLUS, the very _least_ they could’ve done was rerelease both FES and Portable for modern systems so new Persona fans can choose which benefits to experience.
Persona 5 Royal was my first to play in the series, I've recently completed 4 Golden and loved that too. With P3 however I'm really hoping the rumours of a remake are true.
I’ve only ever played the P3P version of Persona 3. I will probably hold off and wait for the rumored remake and if that never happens I guess I’ll jump on the remaster.
Completely agree with this video the issue is that there’s no definitive version of Persona 3 that has all the content ! In one that includes the female protagonist that includes the answer and that includes all the cutscenes
Just look at golden and royal those games have all the content in one game just do this for persona 3 that’s it!!!!
Just finished P3P and i really liked it , it will probable be in my top 5 goty 2023
I really wanna watch this but I need to beat the game first... Love ya Matty
After playing enough Persona 4 as a teen, Persona 3 FES was very much "the game to get" at the time. On one hand, I could notice the flaws at the time: voice acting was weaker, the lack of party control didn't do anything for me at the time but I could understand where that'd be a problem for others, and something always felt a little too convenient about the "they have the potential" plot convenience. And the pacing made things feel a lot slower. That being said, it very much carried the Persona 4 trait of having lovable, memorable characters such as Yukari Takeba and Akihiko Sanada, alongside the villains Strega. And I can't deny the quality of that final boss.
Fast forward to when Persona 3 Portable popped up on my radar and.. I was never interested. It's neat and all that party control was added and we now had a femme route to work with, but gutting the anime cutscenes felt like too heavy a loss, and reversing certain deaths felt like backpedaling in a bad way. That and finding out later about a certain romanceable option.. I was okay with skipping this one. I might give it a try with mods someday to restore cutscenes at least, but otherwise, I'd sooner return to FES.
I always thought the voice acting was fine, excluding certain characters like Ikutsuki and Fuuka
@@ethantrotto6668 And the occasional flat line delivery from Mitsuru, like her first "Tres bien" stated as if she was repeating after google translate rather than praising someone.
@@iisanulquiorrahara8 True, she has some moments like that. Everyone else is pretty good though, at least for the party members.
P3 with the male protagonist can be pretty raw, but I feel it holds up. WIth the female protagonist though, having Social Links with your team is invaluable for immersion. I really miss that replaying the male side.
YEAHHHH BABYYY!!! NEW MATTY VIDEO!!!
Played FES with the controllable party mod and it is a much better experience, however there is an interesting note, when you fight a Tartarus boss and try and scan an enemy, even if the scan reveals nothing to YOU the ai of the party will be informed, for instance the first sub boss you fight is weak to piercing, if you play as expected Yukari will be the only one who can do piercing damage with her bow, normally you would scan and Yukari just starts blasting with her bow turning the fight into a breeze, but since you control her and you don’t know the piercing damage weakness you probably would relegate Yukari to healing because the sun boss is pounding on Junpei because he is weak to their elemental attack, turning what would have been an easy fight into a probably TKO
Maya was a female protagonist of eternal punishment as well, maybe argue less picky that Aigis was in the answer. Also with fes there are cheat codes for party control, so you can just go that route, though there is no fix to no female route.
I'm not a P3 guy at ALL, but I respect anyone that gets enjoyment out of it
It was a bit vauge but to anyone worried about the "missing scenes" comments, I think what they meant was that the 3D cutscenes are missing (and replaced with VN 2d-styled one's instead). Persona 3 Portable does not have any cut story or event cutscenes outside of "The Answer" which was entirely taken out.
My favorite game of all time and my childhood…
Just finished the game, so I'm quite late to the party. But I do feel like a potential Remake would go the FFVIIr way and change some stuff. Mostly how Elizabeth handled some situation and something that follows the Amswer.
I played Persona 3 FES on an emulator with a controllable party mod. I think it's the best way to experience P3 currently.
The game means so much to me, changed my life when i played the ps3 version 10 years ago
This was never released for the PS3. Do you mean the remake on PSP?
@@LastOneLeftProd it was the ps2 classic from the psn store
@@whodatninja439 ahhh, how could I forget about those ps2 classics.
The answer is
For the time it released yes
But the age is showing and it really needs some mechanics overhauled (AI Teammates, boring dungeon design, etc.) A Remake will 100% fix em
I think the true definitive way to play Persona 3 is emulation on PC with mods. Like playable party members, the New Moon rebalance mod, and The Answer revamped mods transform the game to be FAR more bearable and enjoyable. Really the only issue would be not having the female protag, but that's not really needed imo
Maya was the first female protagonist, way back in 2000. But yes we haven't had one since Kotone in Portable
Hell yeah it is. That's all that needed to be said.
I was waiting for this🔥
I remember i Saw this game when i was 5 years old my cousin play this game so seriously and the only thing i remember from it is the title of P3 Fes,Mass Destruction,the Protagonist Scream when summon Persona,and the dark the background music and the theme. I remember seeing the protagonist shot in the head for summon Persona makes me want to that in real life,and boy i was so lucky i didn't do that cuz' it ain't easy bought a gun in my country.
9:09 the FEMC is actually the third female protagonist. the first being Maya in P2 EP and the second one being Aegis in P3 FES the answer.
I will forever stand by the fact that party members aren't that hard to use if you do anything not act freely. meanwhile just Stuffing persona 4 mechanics breaks fight balance. but any time I ever hear Marin Karin complaints all I can think of is "So you kept Mitsuru as act freely." great video.
i never had problem with the ai.
except for getting them to knock down.
I started it...seems like an interesting story
3:38 umm acktually that's messiah 🤓
Persona 3 is my favourite after playing it after p5.
Buy Persona 3 FES for the male experience. Pick up Persona 3 Portable for the Female. Best of both worlds. Biggest sell honestly on P3P is the tired mechanic being fixed in Tartarus, and being able to control you characters. Fighting Nyx with out controlling your party and getting tired when in Tartarus was annoying.
couple corrections
Only p1 is in first person, p2 adopted an isometric perspective that was dropped in 3
FEMC wasn't the first female protagonist, it was Maya in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment the 2nd half of the p2 duo
Persona 3 got me into the megaten rabbit hole and I'm not sure if I ever could get out of such. The persona 3 pc port was a huge bummer, and I was kind of looking forward to it. Might as well play the PSP version ig
Shouldve been a definitive edition where you get the best of both worlds, but I guess the devs dont have access to the older game files of FES...
Depends on the version. Persona 3 has no "definite edition" like the later games, as FES and Portable have their own strengths and weaknesses.
Wouldn't surprise me to see some mods for P3P HD for PC that add the cutscenes back in.
I beat the game on ps2 it was a lot of fun and the soundtrack was so cool wish they made a hd remake