Story & Gameplay

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (ペルソナ3, Perusona 3?) is the third video game in the Persona console RPG series. The game was developed and published by Atlus for the Sony PlayStation 2 console system. Persona 3 was released in Japan on July 13, 2006, was set to be released in North America on July 24, 2007, but was delayed to August 14, 2007 (due to a manufacturing error with the Persona 3 art book),[1] and was released in Europe and Australia on February 29, 2008. An add-on chapter and enhanced original game, entitled Persona 3 FES was released in Japan on April 19, 2007, in North America on April 22, 2008 and in Europe on October 17, 2008.

The game has the player take the role of a male high-school student who joins up with other members of SEES—the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad—to attack Shadows and other beings that emerge during the "Dark Hour", a time period between each day which only few humans are aware of. The player uses weapons and magical abilities gained by the use of "Personas" to defeat foes in a turn-based combat system. An iconic feature of the game is the method by which the members of SEES release their Personas: by firing an Evoker, a gun-like object, at their head. In addition to typical RPG elements, the game includes elements of dating simulation games as the player character progresses day by day through a school year, making friends and relationships that improve the strength of his Personas in battle.

The game was well-received by critics and earned several gaming awards for 2007.

The North American version of Persona 3 contains the aforementioned art book, along with a soundtrack CD.

Story

The Journey[b/]

Persona 3 begins with the Main Character returning to the city after ten years. He is quickly brought into SEES when his awareness of the Dark Hour is revealed and that he can summon multiple Personas into battle. With their help, SEES is able to explore Tartarus further and defeat Greater Shadows that appear every full moon, believing that by killing all twelve of them, they will be able to end the appearance of the Dark Hour. However, SEES learns they have been misled; by destroying the Greater Shadows, they have freed parts of a being called Nyx who will bring about the end of the world if it is fully restored. It is revealed that the Kirijo Corporation was attempting to do this ten years ago, but Nyx was released prematurely in a laboratory accident that also created the Dark Hour and Tartarus. Aigis, a robot designed to fight Nyx, battled the being but was unable to fully defeat it, instead dispersing parts of it into the Greater Shadows, and installing the last part into that of a young boy nearby, revealed to be the Main Character.

SEES encounters Ryoji, a teenage boy who tells him he is Death incarnate and that he will unwillingly usher in Nyx and the end of the world. The player is given the option to kill Ryoji at this point; if taken, the game explains that members of SEES lose memories of the last year, and show them leading normal lives until inevitably the end of the world occurs. If Ryoji is spared, then the game continues, and on January 31, SEES climbs to the top of Tartarus to face Ryoji, now in his true form of the avatar of Nyx. Though they defeat it, the avatar is still able to call forth Nyx; the moon splits open revealing a strange device that begins to kill people across the Earth. The Main Character uses all of his Social Links gained from SEES and other friends to create a seal to lock Nyx away, though sacrificing himself to do so.

The world returns to normal, though the memories of the past year are lost to the SEES members. As they finish school, they come to realize that they each promised to gather on the school's roof should they make it to graduation day. There, they find the Main Character lying in Aigis' lap, smiling at the brief reunion with the other SEES members before he dies.

[b]The Answer

An additional chapter of the story is available through the game's expansion Persona 3 FES. The events in The Answer take place on March 31, shortly after the end of the original game; and with the end of school, the SEES dorm is to be closed down. However, they find that while midnight has passed, the rest of the world still believes it to be March 31. Resigned to determine the reason later, the group departs to bed, but they are awakened when Metis appears in the dorm and attacks Aigis. Aigis fights back, her Persona becoming that of Orpheus, the Main Character's original Persona. Aigis is able to subdue Metis, and SEES learns that she is trying to end the time skip by killing all the SEES members except for Aigis, who she claims is her sister. Metis reveals that below the dorm is the Abyss of Time, in which exist doors that lead to the past. SEES work their way through the Abyss, reaching the doors, and ultimately obtain the means to escape to either the present or the past just before the battle with Nyx. After some internal strife as to which option to choose, they discover a means to bring themselves to the moment Nyx was sealed, so that they could learn why the Main Character fell into a coma and died. Many believe this is injustice to the main character because he did so much.

They confront Metis on this, and she reveals that the seal created by the Main Character was not to seal Nyx from humanity, but to prevent humanity from calling out to Nyx. However, due to the buildup over humanity's history, the wishes of humans that want to end their life has manifested in the being Erebus, who has been able to break through the seal, thus causing the time skip. SEES realize, that the wishes that created Erebus came also from them, so they decide to fight it, and they eventually defeat it. Mitsuru points that Erebus will return someday, because humans will never stop wishing for death, so they must go on with their lives to try change things in the world. In the beginning of FES, since Aigis lost her purpose in life (protect the Main Character), she desired to become a cold machine again, and so, her human emotions were detached from her and they materialized in a new being (Metis), and so this is learned at the end. After the Abyss disappears, Aigis changes her decision to return to the lab, and decides to return to school with her friends, and everyone moves forward with their lives.

Gameplay

Persona 3 combines elements of standard console role-playing games and dating sims. The game takes place over the course of a Japanese school year.[4] Each day goes by broken up into several periods such as "Morning", "Afternoon" and "Evening", with the Main Character going to school and then participating in selected activities during free time. The player may opt to use the free time activities to buy equipment and items at stores, talk to other non-playable characters, or spend the remainder of the free time either to build a Social Link or to improve the Main Character's attributes, such as by gaining courage by singing karaoke.[5] Thus, the player must manage which activities or Social Links to improve in order to build up the Main Character for the exploration of the Tartarus. Certain in-game events will occur on prescribed days; Major Shadows will appear on full moons, there will be midterm and final exams within school, and school holidays give the player more time to work on other activities.

At night, the player may opt to enter Tartarus, or otherwise allow the characters to rest and recover. Tartarus is a 263-floor tower which the player must eventually climb by the end of the game. Tartarus is broken into several "blocks", and various blocks are inaccessible until the Major Shadows are defeated on each full moon, thus limiting the progress through the tower. Most floors of Tartarus are randomly generated in a roguelike manner, with a random distribution of treasure and wandering Shadows, but each includes a stairway to the next floor and many also include a one-way only teleport point that allows them to escape to the first floor. Other levels contain mini-bosses that must be defeated in order to progress; these levels also feature a fixed teleport point that allows the player to travel to any other similar teleport point that has been previously accessed, thus allowing the player to skip blocks when returning to Tartarus. The player may opt to keep the party together or have each member explore the level, recovering any treasure found and fighting monsters individually. As the party explores, their health will worsen, and a member that ends up "tired" or "sick" will perform poorly in battle and may drop out before battle is complete; the only way to recover from these states is spend one or more nights without exploring Tartarus.
A typical battle in Persona 3 wherein only the Main Character can be controlled directly.

Combat is a turn-based affair. Each character can perform a standard melee attack with their weapon, summon their Persona to unleash an attack or spell, or use recovery and battle items. The player only directly controls the actions of the Main Character.[6] The other members of the party can be guided through specific tactics assigned to each of them, such as maintaining the health of the party, or going all out with Persona attacks. Each foe has strengths and weaknesses; by striking a foe with an attack it is weak against, it will cause the foe to be knocked down, and the attacker will gain one more immediate attack; this can lead to a chain of attacks against each foe if the attacks are selected appropriately.[5] If all remaining foes are knocked down, the player can opt for an "All Out" attack, with the remaining members entering a cartoon-like fight cloud, inflicting higher damage on each foe.

credits @ wikipedia

whooooooahh.....

rajin nyaaaaa.....
nanyaaa (agak nyimpang)

p3 fes ada manga uga gagg??

setau saia gga ada deh ..
klo yg P3 ato P4 mah adaa .

tapi manganya jarang ngup-date yang baru jadi rada males ngikutinnya

Bukannya manga Persona 3 itu udah digabung sama versi fes-nya ?

udah setahuku.

OOT: Ada yang tahu manganya devil summoner ga? saya nyari.