Persona 3 first impressions

Well, I got Persona 3 first. Was surprised to see the very high scores the game got around the board. As of late this has been a rarity for Japanese RPGs so I decided to give the game a shot. The art book and soundtrack didn't hurt the decision. The game is very Japanese. A japanophiles wet dream in fact. It's your typical modern-day-Japan-high-school-dating-sim-emo-shoot-yourself -in-head-at-night-to-kill-demons fare. Kinda of cool at first but the game has a very strange pace to it. You follow a very rigid calendar and you can only do so many things during the day. Go to school, attend class, answer questions, hang out with buddies, join after school clubs, shop at the mall, do some karaoke, mack on some girls, and then at night explore a dungeon and kill demons. Oh and try to squeeze in some extra study time before bed.

This may seem awesome because you have so much to do, but the timing of activities limits what you can accomplish in a day. Like one day I decided to hang out in my room and play an MMO an in-game friend had given me. Much like your typical MMO experience in the real world, my character did nothing else that day. I could have been hanging out with chicks at the mall or something. The funny thing is I did establish a "social link" with another player in the MMO that day. Your character's social links directly effect how well you create the demons you use in combat. So it's kinda cool how your daily life effect your night life job of killing badies.

My only problem so far with this form of pacing is that the game in no way explains how much of your day will be taken up by a certain activity. This is further problematic because your main character (and your allies) will get tired. If you spend all day and night singing karaoke your characters won't be able to explore very far into the dungeon at night, or even at all. This can be frustrating. One cool thing I discovered though is sleeping in class. You can decide to doze off in class at the sacrifice of academics points that day in order to rest up for the night. So that's kind of cool.

I'm not sure how I feel about this game yet. At times the game really frustrates me, but on the other hand it does some things that are so bizarre and different that I kind of want to keep playing. I mean I've never seen an RPG where strategic bathroom breaks can enhance your skill in battle.

Further impressions in the future.