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Platform: PlayStation
2
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Persona
3
Shin
Megami Tensei is one of the Japan’s largest role-playing series, with
over thirty titles and spinoffs in total. Unfortunately, a vast majority
of them have never seen the light of day on American shores. One of the
first ones to be translated was Persona, back in 1996, before RPGs
became big. While the game was slow and confusing, it offered an
interesting storyline focusing on a group of young high school students
that had somehow been sucked into a bizarre demonic world. Persona 2:
Eternal Punishment was released in 2000, also for the Playstation, and
won acclaim for it’s unique characters and dark setting. Once again,
Atlus is resurrecting the series for the Playstation 2.
Not much is known about the plotline, except it once again revolves around some high school kids and demons. Each character can control their own demon - known as a “Persona” - which can execute a variety of attacks and magic spells. However, most unique to Persona |
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3 is
the method which the characters summon these creature - they take out a
gun, point it to their head, and pull the trigger. It doesn’t hurt
your character, but then the Persona pops out to deal some damage. The
Shin Megami Tensei series has become known for it’s controversial
elements, and Persona 3 doesn’t seem any different. At this point,
it’s unknown whether Atlus will censor this when it comes to America,
but hopefully it won’t come to that.
The gameplay is pretty similar to the other recent Shin Megami Tensei titles, like Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga. The random battles have been ditched, and enemies now appear on the |
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field.
The Press Turn system seems to have returned, so you can extra attacks
by exploiting the elemental weaknesses of the enemies - similarly, you
need to defend your own weak points unless you wish you get pounded. The
dark graphics of the earlier games have returned, with character designs
by Shigeki Soejima, who most recently drew the artwork for Stella Deus.
Persona 3 is seeing release this August in Japan, with an undetermined release date in America.
Kurt Kalata (May 15, 2006) |
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