Review: Persona 3 FES

The nameless protagonist of Persona 3 — who is nonetheless commonly known by his name in the manga adaptation, Minato Arisato (有里 湊 Arisato Minato^?) — is simultaneously easy and impossible to empathize with. He mostly falls into the 'silent protagonist' category: he has no voiced lines, except for the occasional battle cry; he also has no unvoiced lines of his own -- what lines he does "speak" are all chosen from a menu by the player. Still, one can figure a few things out from his actions and reactions during cutscenes and Social Link events, and from the selection of utterances presented during these.

What one learns is that Minato Arisato presents a different face to everyone, showing them exactly what they want to see — someone like themselves, who likes and understands them. He is as charming and manipulative as any psychopath, consistently willing to do anything for that extra boost in power — to encourage his closest friends down the worst possible path by telling them exactly what they want to hear. After reaching Social Link level 10 — which is often Intimacy 5 — the narration states that "[y]ou have forged a bond that cannot be broken". And it's true; Arisato can (where relevant) sleep around with other girls afterwards and never speak to them again for the remainder of the game, and the link will nonetheless remain at Level 10.

To the game's credit, it seems to be aware of this. It never explicitly calls the protagonist out on it, but there are two occasions — once after the typhoon, and once during The Journey's epilogue — where, if you've been ... charming enough, often enough... you can't help but be aware of the consequences this sort of behavior should be resulting in, and how Arisato is avoiding them only through chance.

(One theoretically does have the option of not behaving in such a fashion. Given that the mechanical benefits of Level 10 Social Links are significant, though, I'm not aware of anyone ever having taken it. — and yes, there is a jealousy mechanic, but triggering it is easily avoided.)

The subtext of NPC-relationship-minigames in JRPGs usually is creepy behavior on the part of the protagonist, if you step back and think about it: the player-character is running around charming the socks (and other underclothing) off of NPCs solely for material gain, with no lasting attachments implied on his part. (And it is, almost invariably, "his" — though Persona 3 Portable's female protagonist may be an exception.)

Persona 3 could easily have avoided this: close friendship would have served as well, in the overarching narrative, as promises of forever would. Instead, it dives in headfirst.

(But with eyes open. In my book, that counts for much.)

(TBC)

Review: Persona 3 FES

Persona 3: FES is a video game by Atlus for the Playstation 2, released (in the US) in 2008. It is essentially a "director's cut" edition of Persona 3, for the same system, released in 2007 (again, Stateside), featuring a new postlude (entitled "The Answer"), as well as some additional content in the original P3 storyline (named "The Journey" to differentiate it).

P3 has been called, with some justification, a cross between a dating sim and a traditional JRPG — a description better matching Thousand Arms, Atlus' earlier work for the original Playstation. It presages P3's Social Link system in many ways.

What Thousand Arms does not take from dating sims (and other simulation games) is the scheduling aspect. Like Tokimeki Memorial (and, to a much lesser degree, such games as The Sims with its aging mechanic), Persona 3 proceeds from day to day over the course of a fixed time period; the protagonist only has 25 hours a day to allocate to such activities as dates, studying, shopping, sleeping, hanging out with friends, praying at the shrine for good grades, thwarting paranatural jihadist assassin squads, directing a creepy old man to splice random bits of your psyche together, and fighting unnatural monstrosities and reified universal principles in a time outside of time.

(One spends most of one's time at the controller doing that last bit. P3:FES is first and foremost a JRPG, after all.)

The really notable aspect of Persona 3's scheduling, which (to my knowledge) few dating sims or RPGs have done before or since, is this:

The game and storyline (of P3 and of FES's Journey) starts on April 7th, 2009, and continues up until January 31st, 2010.

It's almost curious that other games don't do this: they prefer to try for a "timeless" setting that dates itself within a dozen years. P3 dates itself immediately, and is a believable 2009. (Although no mention is made of the global recession; the dollar is still as strong against the yen as it was in 2006-2007; and Aigis is never asked, at least onscreen, to sing either "Still Alive" or "Miku Miku ni shite ageru".)

The Answer, being only a short postlude, opens on March 31st, 2010, with the ending sequence taking place today -- 2010 April 1st.

(TBC)