Persona 3 - is it right for me?

[Kitsune Sniper]

I didn't want to make this thread, but I decided I'd better, since I don't want to pay $50 for a game there's a chance I would never play.

Here's the thing. I'm currently unsure whether I will buy Persona 3 or not. I tried out Persona 2 for about an hour a little while ago, and kinda liked the whole ask / charm / befriend demon thing that happens during battles. The fighting system didn't seem that bad either. But I was confused by the whole Persona dealy. I didn't really look at the manual at all.

I did find the story VERY interesting. I got as far as Joker activating your Personas. But I didn't make it that far, as I've been too busy with other games.

So do you think I'll like this game? For reference, here's a bunch of the games I've played and beaten.

Final Fantasy (GBA Remake, beaten)
Final Fantasy II (GBA Remake, didn't hold my interest)
Final Fantasy II (IV) (SNES, beaten back in 1998)
Final Fantasy III (SNES, favorite RPG)
Arcana (SNES)
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest

And for the record, I think FFVII is a decent game but it's nowhere near the BESTOMGCREAMINGMYPANTSINEXTAZY game so many people find it to be. :P

Anyone? Bueller?

[Richter Belmount]

BESTOMGCREAMINGMYPANTSINEXTAZY

Change that to your new user name XD

[roushimsx]

I'm a bit curious as to how I'm going to take to it as well. I'm dead set on buying it because I've really enjoyed the MegaTen games I've played in the past, but my backlog is growing incredibly large and I honestly don't know when I'll get around to playing it. The school life sim portion of the game sounds like it could be a fairly interesting little mechanic, too.

With the availability of Atlus' games these days, it's not like it'll be impossible to find a year down the road for normal retail price brand new (if not lower), but my compulsion to show a little retail love for the series outweighs my desire to wait-and-see

[Aussie2B]

The Persona series doesn't really have much in common with the Final Fantasy series, so that's not much of a frame of reference.

I'm not really sure why you're considering buying it in the first place. If I were you, I'd just play through Persona 2 first (and maybe the first Persona) and see how you feel about the series. If you REALLY love it, then sure, but if you're lukewarm on those, I don't think Persona 3 is gonna win you over. Persona 2 is regarded as the best of the three, and Persona 3 didn't go over that well in Japan. Most people are really turned off by the randomly-generated floors and the fact that's it's more of a dungeon crawler than a full, fleshed out RPG.

[RadiantSvgun]

I dunno Fox. One of my friends imported Persona 3, an he loved it. And he hated Persona 2. I'm getting it because anything with "Shin Megami Tensei" is right for me! I've been sold ever since Nocturne.

[Sabz5150]

I dunno Fox. One of my friends imported Persona 3, an he loved it. And he hated Persona 2. I'm getting it because anything with "Shin Megami Tensei" is right for me! I've been sold ever since Nocturne.

It's Pokemon.... for Satan!

[Kitsune Sniper]

The Persona series doesn't really have much in common with the Final Fantasy series, so that's not much of a frame of reference.

I'm not really sure why you're considering buying it in the first place. If I were you, I'd just play through Persona 2 first (and maybe the first Persona) and see how you feel about the series. If you REALLY love it, then sure, but if you're lukewarm on those, I don't think Persona 3 is gonna win you over. Persona 2 is regarded as the best of the three, and Persona 3 didn't go over that well in Japan. Most people are really turned off by the randomly-generated floors and the fact that's it's more of a dungeon crawler than a full, fleshed out RPG.

But see, if I don't get it now, I'll never, EVER find it again. So I have to choose or live with eBay's insane sellers.

[Aussie2B]

I wouldn't be too worried about it. Atlus seems to print their games in at least slightly higher quantities than they used to, and every now and then something gets reprinted. The first Persona was fairly cheap for a very long time (only recently has it started to get pretty expensive), and the second Persona dropped like a rock after the reprint. At worst, you might end up having to pay the same price later on that you would had you bought it brand new, but I foresee the price only dropping for at least a year or two before any possible swing back up.

[heybtbm]

Try out SMT: Nocturne first. It has more similarities to Persona 3 than the first two Persona's do.