Persona 3 Analysis - Almost Great

the personas series has been a mainstay in that JRPGs genre for over 25 years but has only begun to receive recognition in the West with the release of persona 5 back in 2017 since then the main protagonists of persona 5 min to Smash Brothers ultimate as a guest fighter and a slew of spin-offs and re-release have been popular leading the franchise ever since like too many [ __ ] spinasse please stop the modern incarnation of the persona series is vastly different than what came before it starting with persona 3 the series went from a more traditional JRPG to a slice-of-life dungeon-crawling hybrid that has a huge focus on your in-game social life persona 3 quickly became the sleeper hit ps2 game back when it came out in North America and a lot of new fans are probably wondering if this game is still worth playing that's the question I'll be answering today when I take a deep dive into persona threes definitive edition persona 3 fest whatever-the-hell fest means one quick note before we get started persona 3 is a very plot heavy game there will be a section of the video dedicated to talking about the major themes as well as the social links throughout the game I'll also be showing off the game as a whole this includes fusion mechanics tundra design bosses the works so if you do not wish to be spoiled please stop watching the video now and come back once you experience the game for yourself if you just want to watch the video anyway I appreciate it and I'll do my best do the game justice so sit back and relax because this is gonna be a long one a very important thing worth noting is that none of the persona games are directly connected in their plot lines the most will get as little winks and nods to other games in the series as such you don't need to worry about knowing any other game in the series to jump in he plays a high school student who recently transferred back to their hometown after many years of being moved around to different cities for the sake of referring to the protagonist of something other than the protagonist I'll be calling a Minato re Sato since that was the name given to him in the persona 3 manga and I like the name more than Makoto Yuki anyways while Minato is walking to his new dorm he begins to experience something that has noticed the dark hour during this time that most people are turned into coffins and don't experience anything the few unlucky people who don't and go through an hour of a twisted version of our own reality where normal buildings turn to massive towers shadows roam the streets to prey on helpless people and worst of all the electricity goes out Minato manages to make it to the dormitory without encountering any shadows and is greeted by a small child the child makes him sign a contract the state Minato will take full responsibility of his own actions the boy disappears as the dark hour ends and Minato seemingly forgets the events that just transpired the next few days go by like normal for Minato he meets his dorm mates Yukari talked about a classmate and Matsuura curry joe the student council president Minato begins to grow more accustomed to his new school life as he begins to make new friends and become more acquainted with the area one night during the dark hour a massive shadow appears near the dormant begins to attack Mitsu and the other student named Akihiko try to fend off the creature while Akari attempts to score at Minnesota safety the two end up hiding on the rooftop of the dormitory but the aren't safe for long as another massive shadow attacks the two on the roof yukari and self-defence pulls out her gun before she can pull the trigger the monster knocks Lucario away causing her to drop the gun on the floor the shadow begins to approach the two preparing for the kill the voice of the young boy that made Minato signed the contract rings in his head to pick up the gun Minato slowly trembles and sweats as he points the gun to his own head his breathing begins to get heavier as the music fades out and loud heartbeat rings suddenly everything goes silent and then thou art PI and I am that from the seed of thy soul I come up upstream if you're human then this would appear interest enough to at least be interested in playing the game this will be the last warning if there are spoilers from here on out this creature that Minato Summit is called the persona a persona is the manifestation of someone's personality a persona will take the form of deities and aid the user in battle the gun that used is someone a persona is not actually a gun it is in fact a fake the idea behind using a gun or an evoke as it's called is that the user needs to accept death of their own mortality in order to achieve their potential which is why the act of summoning a persona is very gruesome in this game anyways as it turns out the students that are in the dorm Minato is staying at or a part of a team there called the specialized extracurricular execution squad or C's for short they're a group that harnessed the power of their personas in order to eliminate shadows and find a way to end the dark hour the team consists of a total of nine members all of which I'll go into more detail later but as of right now if the team is with su the navigator Akihiko the captain of the boxing team Jun Pei I'll get to him later and you carry the [ __ ] the massive shadow that attacked the dorm is actually one of the twelve that need to be eliminated in order for the dark hour to disappear the group comes to a conclusion relatively quickly that every full moon or once a month one of the massive shadows will appear this is where the game really starts to open up it can be divided into halves one half of the game is the dungeon crawler where you do random battles and level up so you can be prepared for the full moon boss of each month the other half of the game is much more unique it's much more of a life simulator than a standard RPG both sections of the game are heavily intertwined with each other they say you accomplish in one portion of the game will affect the other portion I have a lot more to talk about the social aspect of the game so I'll save that for later persona 3 is unlike most G RPGs in the sense that there's only one single dungeon in the game this place is known as Tartarus and is believed to be the nesting ground for all shadows Tartarus is actually the high school you attend during the dark hour at the school morphs into this massive dungeon Tartarus is huge and filled with plenty of shadows for you to battle the battle system persona 3 is called the one more system you see almost every enemy has a weakness by exploiting the weakness or landing critical hits you'll gain an extra turn in combat you can only exploit the enemy weakness wants to get an extra turn if you attack the enemy that's already done with a weakness it will still do the bonus damage but you'll not get an extra turn if every enemy is knocked down you'll be able to form an all-out attack doing massive damage to every enemy on screen something that is exclusive to persona 3 however is the fact that if you use a spell to attack every enemy it has to knock down all of them in order for you to get an extra turn think of it like this if every enemy is weak to electricity and use the spell Mazzio to attack all of them but fail to knock down every single one it does not count towards getting it one more attack all spells have a lower hit rate than regular spells which adds a risk reward system to battle do I go for the gamble and try to knock down everyone in one attack with a higher chance of missing or do i attack enemies with single target spells until they're all down using more SPE I'll be honest when I say I'm not really a fan of having the attack all spells being inaccurate in my opinion I think that the higher SP cause for the skill is more than enough of a penalty in a game that has heavy RNG everything that I just said applies to the enemy as well if they can knock you down with a critical hit or your weakness they will get an extra turn another unique aspect of persona 3 but I say this in a negative way is the fact that your party members are ai-controlled before I continue I like to say one thing I know that there's a mod for persona 3 that will allow direct control of your party members it's a fantastic mod and I'm sure it took a lot of effort and a hard work to be implemented but I'm not critiquing a moderate version persona 3 I'm fatiguing persona 3 fests as it is with that being said I can safely say that this is the worst decision in the entire game there is no direct control your party members in persona 3 at most you get as the the tactics menu so here's how it works during the players turn you're able to open up a tactics menu and select the way your party members will act the list is as follows act freely full salt knockdown he'll support conserve SB attack fallen same target assigned target and standby at the start of the game however he won't have all the tactics unlock over the course of time you'll gain new tactics for your teammates but the fact that they aren't on a lock from the start is super limiting in my opinion is the reason why I think the tactic system is stupid it's pretty much all RNG on what skills your teammates will use no matter what tactic you have assigned the only thing tactics really does is help the AI narrow down what you want them to do but it still doesn't always work if you says someone like Yukari to heal and support she'll for the most part used the single target healing spell constantly this applies even if the prostitutes healing is close to full health for some reason Yukari is very stingy on the heal all spell - if you have multiple people that have taken damage - an attack your party members will only use the single target heal wasting turns as well as more SP in the long run on very rare occasions I've had Yukari use the spell of Medea to heal everyone it only happens when multiple party members are close to death then on the other end of the spectrum there are time when the AI will straight up use awful moves that they shouldn't even have to begin with if I'm being honest you know exactly what I'm talking about if you played this game [ __ ] merry caring why does this skill exist I've never found a single use for it but man oh man the AI loves that skill I have no idea why but if it's true is set to any sort of attack tactic so without a doubt try meirin Karin at least once the worst part is it almost never works I've had multiple points for Mitsu tried using married Karen multiple times in the same fight the worst part has to be this though you know I always said that you can only select tactics for the party members during your turn well you can only do this in your turn and there's no way to switch tactics in any other way let's say you're fighting a boss battle and you select your tactics for the battle everything is going normal until you get hit with a critical hit and are knocked down when you're knocked down you will stand up the next turn but it's skip said turn the problem is that you don't have a chance to change your tactics because you waste your turn standing up that means if you needed to quickly try another strategy you need to get lucky and either not died or avoid any [ __ ] that gets you thrown down your party will continue to use the tactic they were set to before when you really need them to do something else Jun fires a skill to bring you back up when you're knocked down but he has to be set to heal and support from now the higher chance of using it even if he is on healing support you'll find him using defense buff spells because the game has that set to a higher priority the biggest flaw with combat is how much rng is involved even in a really difficult game like Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne you're in control of every action you make unless it's that [ __ ] Muto spell the real challenge of that game is overcoming the odds by using buffs and debuffs you're always in control of your strategy of that game I consider for someone through the hardest game and not only the persona series but all on all of the Megami Tensei franchise at least out of the ones i played these flaws are in extreme cases and despite the complaints i have with the battle system it's still really good going into battle where you give the proper commands and destroy the enemies with ease and great teamwork feels amazing it really makes you feel like you're the leader of a group I just wish that there were more moments like this where everything just clicks or the very lease offer the option to control your party these kinks were ironed out for the sequels if you played for Sona four or five and they're gonna play this one for the first time it'll be a bit of a rough transition it may feel a bit archaic it's not the worst thing in the world but it does take a bit to get the hang of it maybe incredibly unfair at points but it's still manageable you may have noticed by now that Minato has been using more than just one persona unlike the others he's known as a wild card and it's the only person able to wield multiple personas except no he isn't no he isn't and no he isn't there's a mechanic that's been used throughout all the Megami Tensei franchise called fusion it functions like this you take two or more demons or personas in this case and combine them together and transfer their skills to a new persona to use a system that sounds so simple on paper but has a lot of depth hidden underneath layers its personas assigned in Arcana one of 22 in fact different Arcana means that they specialize in different stats let's say you have a persona of the Magician Arkana this means it'll be much better at magical text and have a higher magic step because of it there's a lot to consider when talking about the system and most of it can be found in the Velvet Room guide or online you can get some really cool personas if you try your hardest all of which are based on different deities from different myths with my personal favorite being Satan because it's [ __ ] Satan the most difficult part about this fusion system however and one that requires getting used to if you played the newer persona games is that the way transferring skills work when you select the personas that you want to fuse together get a preview of the new persona stats and skills skills that are going to be inherited are highlighted in green the problem is the skill selection is completely random certain skills have a higher chance of being inherited than others depending on the persona also lower - your magic for some reason as a higher chance to be inherited than other types of magic there's no way at all to choose the skills you're going to inherit I know that certain personas specialize in certain attributes but I think that's super limiting it is possible to get every skill that you want a specific persona but you'll find yourself doing this for a very long time granted it's not required to have every persona be at their absolute best to finish the game I just think that getting some skills on certain personas can be very very annoying especially when you're doing fusion requests for Elizabeth and a very strange and backwards way the limited skill and heritance can provide a rewarding experience much like how limited party member control can make you feel good when everything goes right but sure rewards through limitations be a good thing or should we just have the opportunity to pick what skills we want to inherit I'm firmly on the side of having party member control but I honestly don't mind not having direct implements over what skills are inheritable I do think that later games are an improvement with how you can just pick the skills you want but I don't think not having that ability is a big loss and is very easy to get used to something that I know takes a lot of convincing for people is Tartarus itself it's no secret that tartars is the only main dungeon in the game with the full moon events being small scaled areas the main gimmick of Tartarus is that every floor of the tower is randomly generated with the exception of boss floors and of course the first floor Tartarus being randomly generated as a neat idea and thematically it fits but in terms of gameplay it is lacking in my opinion Tartarus takes random chunks of level and rearranges it around while plopping enemies and sometimes treasure on most floors a tower of six separate blocks all of which are themed differently a lot of the level design because of the way each floor is generated is very similar however I appreciate the fact that each block not only looks distinctive visually but also the way the music begins to build more and more as you ascend higher this reinforces the game's themes and honestly I think it's a pretty good idea the struggle of pushing through what seems like a never-ending task only to have reminders that you're making progress every day and that there is an end but if I was to judge it more as a game than an experience I think it falters a bit Tardos looks very se me you could even see that every block has some sort of basis on how the levels are generated and with how tall Tartarus actually is you begin to pick up on it after a while I used to be on the side that absolutely hated Tartarus but when I really think about it there's a lot that people don't really give it credit for I do think that the area itself was a great idea but the execution wasn't the best and could have used more work it also helps if you space so your Tartarus trips evenly so you don't burn yourself out speaking of which one outside of combat you live your life like a normal student you study you build relationships play video games the works the stuff you do in the real world will affect what you can accomplish in the dark hour the stronger your bonds are with the people around you the stronger the persona you confuse can be it's safe to say the social links for the main draw the game and what makes the mana persona games to stand out among the crowd of JRPGs social links are like many stories that focus on a specific character in the real world some of which are your party members in order to access a social link you need to talk to people in the real world but some of them require you to have specific stats or fulfill the prerequisite in order to begin them the best way to level up a social link however is a bit more complicated than you may first think choosing the correct answers in your conversation with them will grant extra points towards the social link once there are enough points the social link will rank up giving you an extra scene that expands their story every social link is represented with an Arcana let's take Yukari for example she represents the lovers Arcana which means if you rank your social link up you'll become better at fusing personas of the lovers Arcana if you have a lover's Arcana persona in your party like pixie for example that you'll gain bonus points towards the social link as well once you maxed out the social link you'll gain the ability to not only create the ultimate persona of that Arcana but you'll also gain the most amount of exp from a fusion that you can possibly get if you hate yourself like I do then you'll take on the daunting task of trying to do every social link in one playthrough from a new save file this pretty much requires a guide to do since there's a very specific things you're supposed to do on every playable day throughout the game you have two actions you're allowed to take per day one during the daytime and one during the nighttime with the amount of options at the limited time it can feel overwhelming if you want to do everything thankfully GameFAQs user penguin Knight has written a fully comprehensive guide on how to Mac so every social link in one playthrough giving you tips on what you should be spending your nights doing and what social links you should be doing each day even giving you times when you should be going to Tartarus there are 22 social links in the game and only three are plot related but it's not like I have anything interesting to say about all the social likes in the game number one of the magician kenji tomo chica kenji has a crush on his teacher and spends the better part of the social link talking about her there's a point where kenji believes that he's dating his teacher because she insists that she tutor him privately kenji begins to become infatuated with her to the point where when he finds out that she's transferred to another school because of the rumors that he'll fall alongside her as it turns out the teacher amiri is actually engaged was planning on marrying her fiance Amira didn't know how to let Kenji know that she was not interested in him without hurting his feelings but with Minato by his side he was able to get over in here relatively quickly he revealed submitted so that he wasn't sure if he liked Amiri to begin with or just the idea of being in a relationship with a teacher Kenji social link is rather short and it doesn't really seem like he learned any sort of lesson by the end of it even by the end of the game he's talking about how he wants to date the new teachers that are arriving by the end of the year I would have preferred if Kenji learned the value of relationships with women his own age rather than just ignoring any sort of development despite that Kenji social link is still entertaining which I think still counts for something at least number two the priestess Fukuyama gishy Fuuka social link may sound uninteresting on paper but it really does have some hidden depth her story is one about self-confidence issues for a majority of the social link Fuuka tries cooking different kinds of food for Minato to taste test at first it starts off terribly she doesn't know how to cook at all gradually she begins to improve her skills and becomes dependent on Minato she at first thinks she lacks the skill for cooking she's clouded with negativity and always assumes it'll go wrong when Fuuka begins to hang out with Minato she begins to come more confident in her abilities and begins to try harder to impress Minato as well as the other members of seize her newfound confidence and positive attitude really improve her life by the end of the social link she gives up on cooking and wants to work on her mechanical engineering that she told Minato about I like this one a lot we see Fuu could gradually improve her situation the more we talk to her it isn't an immediate improvement either she still struggles with some negative thoughts throughout her story but by the end she's thankful for minitest friendship number three the Empress Mitsuoka Joe when Minato first begins to hang with Mitsuru the two of them one must have just visit fast food locations as of Mitsu's request as the two of them begin to hang out more and more but sue begins to open up to Minato about her personal life as it turns out she's a part of an arranged marriage but suru says that she isn't interested in fiance and is only doing it for the good of the courier group the company that her family runs eventually but suru and Minato encounter Mitsuru his fiancee he begins to berate Minato telling him to know his place in society this causes Matsuura to snap and yell at her fiance breaking up the arranged marriage in the process at the end of the story it's your thanks Minato for teaching her how to live her life for herself and gives Minitel her motorcycle keys symbolizing that she'll no longer run away from hardship there's nothing wrong with a concept of the social link but I feel like the pacing is a bit off the main story focuses on Mutsu in her arranged marriage but I can't help but feel as though some scenes are placed in the wrong order the first few scenes are perfectly fine we get the beginning a minute till Amit Sue's relationship and then it's revealed that she's a part of an arranged marriage but then there's an unrelated scene about MIT series saying that Yukari would be that kind of person to ride her motorcycle before we jump back to the main plot then after that there's another unrelated scene the pacing of the story that they're trying to tell us very often unnatural if this was more of a story about minsu of being independent from the courier group then it would make more sense if it was rewritten a little but the social link is clearly supposed to be about the arranged marriage the scene where mr. o stands up for Minato is very well done and it really shows that she does care about him and Fuuka socially every scene matters since it was all building up to her self-confidence being improved and all the scenes would flow together nicely I can't really say the same about Mitsuru social link because it's all over the place overall it's alright but it could've been paced better number four the Emperor Gita Toshi Odagiri he Bhutto she's a part of the student council and believes that he's alive everyone else there he'd often force his ideals on everyone else and was rather selfish he did so she tells Minato that the reason why he's so cold the people is that there was a scriptwriter that was used as a scapegoat for a crime it was sent to jail in the process he to toe she believes that you shouldn't trust anyone so something like that story wouldn't happened to himself he dato she's assigned to figure out a case behind a cigarette butt being left in the boys bathroom stall he's very rough with people who he believes are suspects blaming innocent students to see if they'd crack and verbally berate them to try to find the culprit eventually he dicho she's called down to the office and given a list of suspects it turns out that Minato is listed as a suspect and he dicho she immediately jumps to your defense saying even if the whole school turns against me I won't sell you out this is where he be so she learns the importance of bonds and Trust he drops a cigarette case because he realized that he was only on a quest for power he bit so she begins to better himself from there and he reveals that the scriptwriter from the story was actually his father and he now understands the meaning of trust I was honestly surprised with the socially because of how much he did tell she grows throughout we mostly see him from his cold exterior until the moment he stands up for you he did Toshi threw away his opportunity at becoming the student council just so he wouldn't lose his only friend if I had one complaint about the social link is that the seemingly correct choices are the ones where you have to be a total kiss-ass to him there's a lot of choices to disagree with he to Toshi's methods but those aren't the answers that will increase the social link faster but he does learn a lesson by the end of the social link because he's finally found friendship in minato and that part doesn't change number five the hero front the old couple the social link is unique in that there are two participants rather than one the old couple named Boone kiichi and Mitsuko opened a book store that Minato can visit when he finds a leaf from the permission tree Minato begins to visit the book store more and more often even before the place is open to the public it's a real that the permission tree was planted in memory of their son a teacher who worked at the school Minato attends who died in a car crash the school's planning on demolishing the courtyard where the tree is located and as a result the tree would be destroyed too but sue kumuda kiichi are devastated when they learned this and mistakenly believe that Minato started a petition to keep the courtyard the way it is after a while the couple agrees of demolishing the courtyard would be better for the school's education and that they shouldn't let their memories of their son hold that back but all's well at the end when the school planned on moving the permission tree to another part of the school to preserve it the story itself is sweet but in my opinion it's rather pointless as a social link this one is a bit of an odd case because there isn't much of a reason to Minato to be there other than to experience the event with his own eyes even the socially with heated soshi one that doesn't directly involve minutes over most of it still had Minato have an impact on the outcome you do bond with the old couple but not in the way that affects the story like other social links overall it's a good story on its own but lacks the involvement that other social links do that doesn't make it bad it just makes it feel less important number six the lovers Yukari taki bud yukari socially feels rather directionless with only the Vega overcoming isolation ever since yukari's father died 10 years ago she hasn't been living with her mother you Carr's mother has been dating multiple men over the years as an attempt to fill the void that was left after her husband died there's a small portion of the socially thats dedicated to you carter's relationship with her mother but i think that there's too little of it and we don't get to see a conclusion to that story the most we get to see is that Yukari is going to talk to her mother in person for the first time since her father died which is progress but that's all we get to see the rest of the social like is just Minato Yukari [ __ ] around and not really doing anything until Yukari says that she feels let's alone because of the time she spent with Minato the social like was rather pointless and I feel like it was only added there just to give you an option to date Yukari it's easily my least favorite social like out of the party members number seven the chariot Kazushi Miyamoto an interesting detail about Kazushi socially is that it can be based off with three athletic activities from my playthrough I joined the track and field team but there's an option for it to take place in a swimming club or a kendo club when Minato starts off in the track team he begins to talk to one of the members Kazushi Kazushi after every practice complains about his knee being sore it gets to the point where he needs to visit the nurse's office at the end of practice Kazushi reveals in minato that his knee has been hurting ever since the day Minato joined the track team and asked him to keep it a secret as the training goes on the condition of his knee becomes worse and worse to the point where if he pushes himself too hard he'll never be able to walk again despite this Kazushi insists that he carries on for his nephews sake Kazu she's nephew got into a car accident is going through rehab to heal himself Kazushi encourages his nephew to continue rehab when he wants to quit by promising that if Kazushi becomes the best athlete in japan his nephew would continue rehab with the help of Minato Kazushi is able to swallow his pride until the track team about his knee injury because issu decides to skip the event so that he can get knee surgery because here she tells Minato that he will be going through rehab with his nephew to support him I like this one a lot Kazu she's personal struggle to power through his pain for the good of his nephew is a noble cause but the damage that he could cause himself was something that he didn't care about he even admits that it was more of a pride problem because he didn't want to be known as the guy who needed help by the end of the story Minato helps Kazushi learned that you can't do everything by yourself number 8 Justus Chihiro Fushimi hero's social link is one about learning to speak up for yourself at the start of her story she's afraid of men and only talks to minute so to help get over her fear she gradually begins to open up to Minato and slowly begins to develop affection towards him money goes missing from the student council and she here was blamed for stealing it since she's the treasurer she here one minute so are called down to the office so that they can hear their side of the story Chihiro is able to speak up for herself and defend her stance thanks to Minato spending time with her it turns out she was innocent all along and the money wasn't stolen but it was misplaced by a teacher this social link focuses more on learning about Chihiro as a character rather than solving some sort of big plot like the other ones it hits a lot of the same beats as focus but in my opinion it is told in a much less interesting way it's okay but nothing too special number 9 the Hermit Maya this social like is rather unique since it's the only one where you interact with a character that doesn't show their face this story takes place in the MMO titled innocents in online which is a very cute reference to a videogame that no one remembers especially Atlas Maya social Inc doesn't revolve around any ongoing story if it rather focuses on the character and her feelings about her current situation in life the main trial of social life is finding out who Maya is in the real world Maya will begin to open up to Minato about her personal life over the course of the social link and it turns out that she's a teacher not just any teacher however but she's actually Minato his homeroom teacher mr. yumi the socially definitely has one of my favourite epilogues in the game you meet with mr. Yumi in real life and she sees that your phone background is the screen capture of her saying I love you to Minato this causes her to break down an embarrassment and attempt to ask out Minato on a date but she doesn't go through with it I like this one a lot since it's a different pace than the other social links while still being entertaining in its own way the only real critique is the slang use throughout the entire thing it's the same problem I have with stewards ago from Ratchet and Clank full frontal assault a lot of internet speak that doesn't really add to anything and kind of dates the game I still think that she's a good character and isn't defined by that one personality trait number 10 the fortune cuyahoga this socially changes slightly depending on the club you joined before interacting with the character it's like Kazushi social Inc in that regard from my playthrough I joined the art club the other choices are the music club and a photography club keiskei is the art club leader who's pressured by his father to quit the club and become a doctor just like himself Keisuke social link revolves around the choices he has to make in finding his own path in life despite not liking his father's overbearing attitude about becoming a doctor it's shown multiple times that keiskei knows what he's doing it would be great in that field Keisuke even makes him deal with his father that if he wins the art contest that he'd be able to pursue his passion for art keiskei not only ends up winning the contest but has offered to study abroad in that field Pesky's father is thrilled and even offers to pay for the flight the four kites can leave two elderly people collapsed on the ground Keisuke immediately stops what he's doing to call an ambulance and keeps the people live before it arrives pesky later decides that he'll become a doctor not out of his father's will but because he genuinely wants to help save people's lives what I took out of this social incas that Keisuke wants his career to be fueled by passion to do so rather than what would make other people happy I don't really think that this message is conveyed all too well throughout the story it would have better to see how keisuke's father treats him and not here how he's been treated it took a couple of read-throughs on the wiki to understand how Keisuke came to this conclusion number 11 strength you konichiwa ki jumping the gun a bit this social like his [ __ ] boring literally nothing goes on in it there's no lesson to be learned and there's no character traits for Yuko that stick with me the social link begins with Minato and Yuko casually greeting each other before deciding to hang out along the way there are these kids she coaches on the high school track field but nothing interesting really happens I can't really remember much about you've got living the fact that she's the first female socially can get into a relationship with it suffers from the same problem as yukari's social link but is amplified here since we know about Yukari the story the Yuko gets zero characterization even her wiki page is hilariously small a total waste of time only did it's like a few Siegfried and Siegfried is badass number 12 the hangman Maiko washi Maiko social Inc is about how kids react to when their parents are having marital issues Maiko on the surface seems to be a happy-go-lucky kid that has to do with the [ __ ] that is cram school but she eventually reveals submitted so that her parents have been arguing a lot she even convinces herself that her parents don't love her anymore mykos parents end up divorcing near the end of the social link at first she wants to stay with her dad because that would mean she wouldn't have to move away from Minato but ends up wanting to stay with her mother's so that she can keep her happy Micah was social like is a really good one to experience and it will even hit home if you went through the same things she did when you were younger a complaint I have against it however is the same one I have against you that oh she's it's the fact that you pretty much have to suck up to her in order to gain points towards a social link there's a scene where she wants to run away from home to try to test her parents and you have to encourage her to do that no way and how what ever tells someone to do that in this kind of situation and is it just me or does this social like have a lot of strange undertones to it like you're a high schooler who's hanging out with an elementary school girl to even start the social like you have to buy her food and drinks I don't know something about this seems a little creepy and is probably illegal in some way Oh someone's at the door number 13 which is actually 14 because I skipped over a plot related social link the temperance Bay Bay Bay Bay is a transfer student from France who doesn't want to move back home and wants to stay in Japan until he dies he's basically the first representation of a french weeaboo beibei's socially cuz the bare minimum of a social links tori baby's aunt died not too long after you start the social link and he says that she's the main reason why he was able to visit Japan baby's uncle is trying to force and return to France so to impress his uncle have to let him return to Japan baby makes him a kimono that's about all that happens the socially Gleaves a lot to be desired Beibei seems desperate to return to japan after he leaves but we don't really get a satisfying answer as to why he feels that way the closest thing we get is that he loves the culture that's lame as [ __ ] with how personally social linked stories feel I was expecting to hear that he hated his uncle or something that would be much more interesting because of the conflict would have had weight to it baby isn't even an interesting characters since his only trait is that he liked sewing and he likes to eat at the local sweetshop so it doesn't matter to me the player if baby returns or not because I don't care about them or have any conflict that would want me to say baby overcome babe a socially could be removed like Yukos and have zero impact on the game and I'm serious about that number 14 the devil president Tanaka this social Inc is very unique as it's one of the few social links that doesn't focus on a school student but rather than an adult in the business world Tanaka at first seems like the lowest scum of the earth he attempts to swindle Minato out of his money in exchange for business advice at first it's very obvious it doesn't care at all about teaching men to tell anything but later on he begins to open up to you and you can see that this advice comes from Tanaka own personal experiences Tanaka had a rough upbringing he tells stories about how kids made fun of him for only having rice for his lunch and that he didn't have any shoes for PE he made it his personal goal to become the most successful out of all of his peers now that he's at the top of the food chain Tanaka feels unfulfilled that is until a woman visits him in his office asking for a donation at first he laughs at the idea until he realizes that by donating to the orphanage he would have more children to teach the business world to Tanaka admits that if it weren't for the conversations you have in minato he wouldn't have discovered this side of himself this social link is really good because we see a gradual change in Tanaka's point of view he doesn't become a saint out of this in fact he still keeps his demeaning attitude but his intentions are now selfless rather than selfish number 15 the tower Luo Tatsu Mutasa was a bitter old depressed alcoholic just like me Luo Tatsu is a pessimist he's been through a lot of rough times is willing to share his experiences with Minato at first Mutasa she was very deflective of the company but eventually warms up to it we toss who believes that you shouldn't be wasting your life with work rather you should be using that time you have in life chasing after what you find most important we Tatsu left his wife and son and at first he doesn't seem to have any issues with this we Tatsu seems glad that he did in fact there's a point as social like where we see mu Tatsu drunk out of his mind and he confuses bonito with his own son mu Tatsu reveals that he and his wife used to argue a lot so when she left him he became an alcoholic he drinks a night after night because he's afraid of trying to reconcile with his wife we tought to hide as a private detective to find his wife and son so we can apologize for all the hardships and hopefully retire with them back in his life if Maiko socially because about seeing a failing marriage from a child's point of view mitosis is about how this type of situation can affect an adult Minato was a less of a direct impact on the progress of this social link it feels more like a wall that Matata throws his life story at not saying that this is a bad thing but it's certainly less involved in the other ones number 16 the star Maru who is a llamar was social like is just a worse worse because ooh she's in my opinion mammarra wants to become the best at its chosen sports so that he could be scouted and get a scholarship to support his family but because his mother collapses from an illness he has to take over her responsibilities immediately by the end of the social link he selflessly does but it's a little too similar to Kazushi social link I like that socially because we not only get to know Kazushi but we also get to see him go through the struggles of trying to compete with his knee injury we see firsthand his determination to power through all the pain just so he can convince his nephew to go through therapy Kazushi grows and learns a lot from his journey and overall makes him a better person Mamoru doesn't get this kind of development he just gets a different kind of job than the one he wanted to support his family with at least with Kazushi there was a lot more tension because there was a personal risk involved with it if Kazushi pushed himself too hard he would lose a function of his leg and could never walk again it feels like that there were two different ideas to what the athletes socially should have been but instead of cutting off the obviously weaker we got both instead number 17 the moon Nozomi soo bit sooo yeah I hate this social link I'm not even gonna sugarcoat this one it's easy my least favorite in the game Nozomi socially is not only confusing but it's also the only one with a character becomes a bigger [ __ ] than they start off as Nozomi as a title the gourmet King right and because Veneto proves to him that he has a knowledge of food Nozomi let's admit it so hang out with him we see that Nozomi has an inflated ego and treats Minato like dirt throughout the entire social link I guess what they were trying to go for is the fact that Nozomi is insecure by being compared to his dead brother but Nozomi never really grows past that instead Nozomi is a part of a cult that is worshiping the end of the world and is seeking paradise I kid you not Nozomi is revealed to have scammed a kid of his money because he convinced the kid not to give it to his tutor he even tries to scam and it so out of 100,000 yen near the end of the social Inc what the [ __ ] is that all about eventually people are hired to beat up Nozomi for scamming kids and Minato comes to save him from it I cannot believe this there's no option to ever reviews the help Nozomi or to put him in his place he's a total piece of [ __ ] throughout the social link and I don't care about him at all number 18 the son a Qunari kamiki Hadar is a young man who was dying of an incurable genetic disease and is expecting to pass away very soon he is very dismissive of minato first because he believes he's only spending time with him out of pity but I can re eventually warms up to Minato and appreciates his company a Qunari has a very bleak outlook on life which is very understandable because he is going to die soon and there's nothing he can do about it we see his frustration towards his situation but he isn't selfish enough to which this curse on everyone else Minato and a canary share a common interest in reading and a canary reveals that he never finishes the story he reads because he's pulled out of the fictional world he was just in and has to face the reality of his situation a canary is inspired to write his own story and much like the ones he's a fan of reading the stories about a pink alligator that cannot hunt because all the prey notices color and run away the other animals don't like the pink alligator because he's different the alligator eventually becomes friends with a bird that cannot fly and the two would spend their time at a pond the alligator actually swallows the bird while he sleeps losing his only friend a canary has trouble writing a happy ending for the story and says that he'll get inspiration once he finds the meaning in life at this point of the social ink a Canaries condition becomes much worse she even stops taking his medication because it numbs his hands so we cannot write a story he knows that he's going to die anyways in the medication was only prolonging his death eventually a Qunari is able to come up with an ending of the story the alligator felt regret and sadness from eating his friend and cried so much that he drowned at his own tears his tears turned into a beautiful lake where trees at delicious fruit begin to grow this spot becomes the new place of relaxation for all the other animals of the forest a canary explains the Minato even though he couldn't see what his life men doesn't mean it didn't matter to other people as thanks to Minato for sticking by his side and showing what life really meant he gives him into tow the notebook he wrote a story in a Qunari fades away implying that he died earlier and the his spear can now pass on during the epilogue of the game Minato Kamiya Canaries mother at the shrine she reveals a minute oh that a canary thanked her for being born and that he was glad he was able to live his life ah Canaries mother was inspired by his words and now wants to live her life to the fullest not for her own sake but for the sake of her light son man this social link is really special the ending is genuinely emotional a Canaries mother asks Minato if he has the notebook the aachen are used to write in minato offers to give it to her but she denies it saying that she'll wait until she sees a canary again to hear the story straight from her son that's some heavy [ __ ] man number 19 they a on I guess I guess a social link is very interesting because it ties in directly with her character development throughout the main story you can only start this social link during the last month of the game after she recovers from a near-fatal encounter with death what makes is unique from the other party members in the game is the fact that she isn't human and is actually a robot I guess is what's known as an anti shadow weapon basically she's a robot giving a personality so that she can use the power of a persona this social link focuses on teaching I guess what it truly means to be alive I just learned that what makes life worth living is the bonds that people share but what she can't comprehend is why it comes to an end eventually since I guess as a robot she could not age and die like a human she begins to feel frustrated as the more human her personality becomes and that there will always be a barrier that keeps her from becoming human entirely she begins to ask questions like why are we born and why do we live stuff like that Minato doesn't have any of these answers and I guess eventually comes to her own what makes life worth living is the fact that it will come to an end since everyone is going to die that makes the connections you have with those around you more important I guess uses this new resolve to muster up the courage to admit her love to Minato I guess is social link is very important one in the game because it gives extra context to her character development I personally feel as though it's my favorite party members social link in the game it was very close to being my favorite social link entirely but Aki nari still managed to beat it out in the end and that's all the social links in persona 3 overall I would say that while most of them are good some are even great the low points are really [ __ ] low I think the biggest missed opportunity with the social links is the fact that none of the male party members get one I gather they do go throughout the main story but I think it would've been nice to include a side story with them I like the one with I guess because it intertwines with her main character development foo cos is also a good one because she grows beyond what her character arc in the game is I feel as though the most noticeable exclusion is a social link with Jun pay even though Minato and Jun paid barely get any one-on-one time with each other and are even at odds for most of the game shooting pace still has a scene where him in minato pretty much say that they're best friends which I feel is unearned now why would you ever want to do what I did and do all the social links in one playthrough well not only because it's the best way to experience so the game has to offer but you also get a very special reward for doing so once you visit the velvet room after completing all the social links Igor will reward you with the ciphers mask but this item you can fuse together the strongest personas in the game and to create the ultimate persona the second form of Orpheus Orpheus Telos and let's just say if you play your cards right he's pretty good I believe it's now time to talk about persona three's most recognizable aspect its soundtrack holy [ __ ] I cannot believe how long I went on without caring about this game's music it's not only my favorite video game soundtrack ever it's also my favorite music to any piece of media ever it's filled with multiple Jean Stahl expertly crafted ranging from hip hop electronic rock and jazz the battle themes especially kick ass I'm telling you right now virgin last surprise versus Chad mass-destruction it all serious though let's talk about persona three's main story for a bit for the past couple of months these have been eliminating the shadows during the full moon operations it's eventually revealed that there's another group that is operating during the dark hour though their motives are different this group is known as Strega and they run a hitman website for a fee they can find your coffins you're in a dark hour and kill the person inside of it making seem like an accident Strega catches wind of seas plans to eliminate the dark hour and this goes against their goal so naturally if the two teams begin to butt heads Strega instigates a lot of conflict for the group but they don't really have any clear motives or any actual character besides Chidori who all get to later I don't think the members of Strega really function well as characters but morsel is a reoccurring obstacle which is super disappointing because this game does a really good job with giving characters motivations speaking of which it's time to go over the party members every members of C's has their own motivations for fighting against the dark hour and go through their own character arcs some of which are tied with other main characters in the party sadly I don't think all of them are stellar I have a couple I do want to talk about because I find that I have a lot to say about them I'll get the weaker ones out of the way first I think hookahs social link is really good but her involvement in the main story is very minimal who could joins the party after one of the full moon operations because it turns out she has a persona that's really good with navigational abilities outside of her initial introduction her major character development comes from her social link there are hints of her reconciling with her bully and the two become friends but we don't really get to see that on screen but true his family has a close tie with a dark hour and Mitsuru feels guilty about it 10 years prior to the game beginning the careers real group was working on harnessing the powers of shadows and control space and time there was an accident during one of the experience in the dark hours created along with 12 full moon shadows protected but she wants to fulfill her father's wish of destroy the dark hour which is admirable when her father is killed she's thrown off the path slightly that is until Yukari slaps him sense to her and she gets back on a track but sue doesn't really change throughout the story other than looming with the guilt of her family's experiments and wanting to rectify that she's okay if a little too distance from the group for my liking Yukari is a cold distant [ __ ] who's an [ __ ] to June day for no reason her whole story evolves around her family ties to the courier group it turns out her father was a part of the research team that was responsible for creating the dark hour at first Yukari is very resentful to her father's sins it denounces him it isn't until after a coup Sookie's betrayal that Yukari I was able to watch the unedited video of her father it turns out that her father loved her and was very regretful that he would not be able to see Yukari again I guess bukhari learns forgiveness from this because this is where she awakens her ultimate persona the only thing Yukari really does after this is console masseur from the loss of her father and the two of them do become friends after this moment I just don't really think that Yukari had a graceful character growth all right let's get to the good ones Akihiko and Ken's development happens around the same time and it involves the same situation so I'll be combining the two together for this recap Ken Amada is an elementary school student who is revealed to potentially have the power to wield a persona on July 18th but doesn't officially join the team until one month later when a Coetzee confirms it before Ken joins the team he stays in the high school dorm for the summer because the elementary school dorms will be empty you see Ken's mom died in an accident two years prior to the game beginning sue doesn't have anywhere to stay other than the dorms while the rest of the group is okay with the decision and welcome to the team Akihiko Matsuura are concerned for reasons that aren't apparent just yet throughout the game Akihiko has been visiting his childhood friend shinji aragaki and has been attempting to get Shinjiro to return to sees he sees Shinjiro here is also a persona user and used to be a part of the team as well but during one of his first missions he ended up losing control his persona and accidentally killing a bystander since then shinjiru has announced everything to do with his persona seized and even the connections he had with his friends when Strega begins to become more of a problem Akihiko admitted to essentially forced Shinjiro to rejoin the team at first shinji rejects the two saying that has nothing to do with him it isn't until a geeky girl mentions that Ken has joined the team as well that Shinji begins to take interest he asked if ken joined the team at of his own volition and Aki who confirms it with Shinji after that Shinji takes his older Volker back from Akihiko and agrees to help end the dark hour during the full moon operation October 4th both Ken and Shinji are absent from the mission when the two shadows are defeated Akihiko realizes that October 4th was an important day to Ken and quickly rushes off to find the tube kenan shinjiru rendezvous in the back alleys of Tatsumi port island where ken reveals the truth that shinji Ken's mom didn't died an accident like the police said she was killed by Shinji ROS persona ken has spent the last two years trying to find out who killed his mother so we can avenge her death when Shinji joins C's Ken recognized him and his persona so Ken waited until the anniversary of his mother's death to confront Shinji about it and in turn get his revenge should Jiro still filled with regret tells Ken to kill him he also lets Ken know that if he does go through with killing him that he will live the rest of his life filled with regret before ken can make his decision Takei arrives on the scene Takaya tells Kenda that getting revenge is pointless because shinji was already going to die soon anyways it turns out that the suppressant shinji has been taking to tamers for sona have slowly been wearing a spotty down and will eventually kill him kena Spheeris said no matter what happens he'll never be able to avenge his mom that's when Takaya decides to take the opportunity to kill the two Takaya shoots Shinji in the chest fatally wounding him before Takei can finish Shinji off he tries to strangle information out of them he wants to know who the navigator of C's is so he can kill them ken lies saying that it's himself he lost his will to live after he realized he won't be able to get his revenge he thinks his life is now meaningless Takaya aims his gun at Ken and before he can pull the trigger Shinji jumps in front of the kid it takes another bullet for him just then the rest sees arrives causing Takaya to retreat the team is unable to get Shinji any medical attention because during the dark hour no hospitals will be functioning Shinjiro dies that night but not before telling ken to use his anger as his strength the team takes a loss of their comrade hard but not nearly as rough as Akihiko does Akihiko visits shinji rose memorial and admits to himself that it was because of his own obsession with power and fighting he didn't realize what was going on around him in a very emotional scene he finds his new resolve [Music] in battle there's always a chance of dying I knew that but I was so focused on fighting that I didn't notice anything else it didn't matter how tough I was look what happened yeah I know crying won't change anything will it alright Shinji you watch from there with Mickey I still have things to do right even after all that happened Akiko never lost his will to fight until the end that shit's inspiring man ken also takes this a bit harder than the rest the only thing he had worth living for is now gone and in his mind his mother will not be able to rest peacefully Akihiko confronts ken after he runs away from the dorm he lets him know that no matter what he does the dead can't come back and if he has the spirit he can rejoin him fight to end the dark hour this snaps Ken out of his trance he realizes that he was only using revenge as a coping mechanism for the isolation he felt ken musters up the world to return to cease he's now not only fighting for his mother but also for the will of Shinjiro if you cannot tell from the amount of detail I went into for this explanation I feel so there's a lot of depth the character arc for these two the only complaint I have about this entire scenario is the fact that Shinjiro feels a lot less like a character and more of a tool for Akihiko and Ken's development in a way it's more like an Uncle Ben type of death rather than the death of a character we care about if we had more time to spend with Shinjiro as a party member and get to know him more personally the impact of his loss could be much greater when I see Shinji ROS death scene I feel more sad for Akihiko because we get to know him more than Shinjiro most of the characters are saddened by shin Geo's death because of what it means Saki hiko the only person I can think of who seems upset about it other than the obvious is Joon pay there's a scene where Jun pig gets angry at the students that aren't being respectful during the memorial it shows that Jun police had some respect for him there are dialogue options that you can pick to have Minato show that he did care about Jin Jiro too but as a player experienced in the game we don't know shinjiru more than just Aki he goes friend I'm not saying that this ruins the scene or the character not at all it's a really good portion of the game I just personally feel as though that could have been more done with sugar before he died I still like this a lot and the way it's handled is amazing I saved the one I probably feel the most mixed about for last June pay your is one of the starting party members he actually awakens to his persona not too long after Minato does I would say June pays main character arc starts around mid August June pay is bored out of his mind near the end of summer vacation that is until he stumbles across an oddly dressed girl sketching in a book at first the two don't pay much attention to each other but over the course of time the two began to run into each other more and more eventually June pay and the girl Chidori begin to talk about more personal things she'd already asked June pay an odd question what makes you feel alive June pay replies that him acting like a hero makes him feel alive but he tells her that it's all fantasy Chidori reveals a bit of her true intentions and asks if June may fight shadows during the dark hour somehow June P isn't suspicious about this and tells Jude Ori how he is the leader as sees and we all know where it goes from there with the new information at her disposal Chidori takes June day as hostage during the full moon operation on September 5th she tells June pay to call off not only this mission but every other mission as well Jinpa admits that he can't do that because he isn't the leader of the team the group is able to quickly come to June pays aid when Fuuka senses that there are two persona users back at the dorm Aki commits to admit she door to the hospital for her own safety where they try to wrangle information about Strega out of her despite her betrayal the June pay he still visits she Dory in the hospital she'd always slowly grows more and more welcoming to the company over the course of a couple weeks Detroit one of June pays hospital visits Chidori is oddly distant towards him when he tries to see what's wrong Chidori gets angry at him saying that she's afraid to be around him now during the night of November 21st the other members of Strega are able to locate Chidori in the hospital they break her out of a room and hand her and a vocre Chidori leaves her sketchbook behind saying that it's all June pays fault that she's become afraid of dying the following night everyone is called to the command room for an emergency meaning Luca reveals that she's located the members of strago right outside of Tartarus but before she can say anything else Chidori manages to use her persona to speak through cos she challenges the members of seas to a battle ginpei quickly runs off on his own to try to reason with Chidori she doesn't want to listen to proceeds to battle the team Chidori is defeated rather effort and June pay quickly runs to her side she'd already tells June pay that he has given her the pain that she's never felt before the pain of attachment she tells June pay that since she's become more attached to June pay she's begun to fear death she has a fear of losing June pay forever and losing the connection that she made over the past few months Takaya and June revealed themselves and Takaya expresses his disappointment that she door has begun to cling on to life June pay begs Chidori to leave Strega and return with them Takaya isn't having any of that [ __ ] and he caps the son of a [ __ ] where he stands Hey jeune pay has a vision of him being in a hospital bed with Chidori visiting him the to express their true feelings for each other and Chidori tells Jun P that he can't die here as a last-ditch effort Chidori uses her true power for persona and brings student pay back to life but at the cost of her own she passes away in June pays arms telling him that she loves him Takaya says that she Dory's death was meaningless which gets June pay fought in fists Takei is about to retaliate but Jin suggested they make a retreat and save their energy for their true mission Joon pay wants to go after Strega out of rage the Akiko manages to calm him down Joon pay now realizes that he's not fighting for himself anymore but he was given a second chance at life to fight for the memory of his loved one for the most part this is a really good story for Joon pay but there's one major thing that bogs down this entire story and quite frankly ruins all the emotional impact that it has and persona 3 fests if you speak to Joon pay throughout the game during certain days and give him the correct answers you can bring Chidori back from the dead this [ __ ] sucks and ruins most of the impact of this character art and is also a slap to the face the game's overall theme and story is trying to tell persona 3 is a story about accepting death as a part of life and enjoying the connections you have while they're still around it's a game about not fearing the end but living life to its fullest having the option to bring back such an important character for Joon pays character arc goes against that main theme G Tori's death now lacks the impact that it should because it's now a reversible problem and the way they bring her back feels like a poor fan fiction apparently the flowers she touched while staying at the hospital stored her life energy so that when she was dying from giving her life to Joon pace she just took it back from the plants I don't care that this is optional it's in the game every social link is optional as well but those are all a part of the experience it's only fair to give this scene a mention because it's a clear example of Atlas pulling their punches for the sake of fanservice that brings me to my main reason as to why I decided to talk about the party members in this fashion while they all do have their individual stories some obviously better than others persona 3 very much lacks in an ongoing plot until near the end of the game most of the story comes from how the characters develop over the course of fighting the shadows in the dark hour the closest thing we have to a reoccurring antagonist is Strega but other than Chidori the group is very one the more I think about it the more I realized how much of a missed opportunity Strega is a group of artificial persona users created by the choral group is such a grid setup especially for a role from its uru they worship the concept of death in a cultish way and we do get to see some of the effects that has on the city but not much is done with that Takaya is treated as always a big deal to cease but he spends most of the time lurking in the shadows and trying to stop cease from ridding the dark hour but the question I have on my mind is why doesn't he want the dark hour to disappear it's something the game never goes into and as a result I believe that they suffer as a villains because of it all right I believe it's time we wrap things up I've gone over all the social lengths to combat the characters the dungeon design music and pretty much everything else now all that's left to do is talk about the rest of the story if after all that I've talked about so far still hasn't interest you in playing persona 3 what the hell's wrong with you throughout the story the small child from the beginning of the game has been casually checking up on minato usually to inform them when the next ordeal is going to happen as time goes on the small boy begins to remember about who he is and why he is alive he tells Minato that his name is Faris and the two actually start to form a bond after C's finishes up their final full moon operation and defeats the last shadow Pharos tells Minato that it's time for them to bid farewell and that their bond will not be forgotten the group celebrates their victory over the dark hour later that night a kootz key and I guess aren't there for the celebration because the Chairman wanted to give I guess a to no even but sewers father arrives for the occasion the party is interrupted however as the dark hour comes as usual this confuses the group as it defeated all the shadows they quickly go to the Tartarus entrance only to find Akatsuki in a brainwashed I guess it turns out that Akatsuki was a part of the original team that were experimenting on the shadows that created the dark hour the plan was to awaken death itself so that they could destroy the world and have someone rule over his king by defeating the twelve shadows they reunited as one it will bring forth death Akatsuki tells the group that sacrifices may be needed to bring forth the fall and in no time he commands eige stew capture the group the group is hung up on crosses and Akatsuki keeps him it's through his father a Tyga's gunpoint before I guess can execute him it's through begs I guess not to shoot this momentarily snaps her out of acute skeeze control omits through his father uses this time to shoot Akatsuki both of the men are shot by each other by Mitsuru whose dad is fatally wounded Akatsuki command zygous to commence the sacrifice but she cannot bring herself to do it as Minato his face reminds her of the promise she made to herself that is to protect minitel at any cost I guess is able to break free of the coots Keys control and breaks everyone out of their shackles a coots key knowing he's up match commits suicide by jumping off of Tartarus the group is shaken up over the events and is left wondering if the follow cuts key was talking about will happen without sacrifices a few days later on November 9th a new student transfers in dominicos class Ryoji here is a very polite kid who immediately asked I guess on a date for some strange reason I guess believes that Ryoji is a dangerous person the group dismisses I guess is warning if your friends Ryoji Haven June pay especially become good friends there's even a cool scene where the boys spend some time together during one of the school trips on December 2nd I guess finally understands why she feels aggression towards Ryoji and confronts him on the moonlight bridge during the dark hour at first Ryoji has no idea why he's there explaining that it called to him I guess reveals that 10 years ago they battled in this same location and that Ryoji is death itself it turns out that I guess was created with the purpose of defeating death and stopping the fall from happening but she wasn't strong enough to do it as a last-ditch effort she sealed death inside a nearby child who turned out to me Minato Minato carried death inside of him until he awakened his persona at the beginning of the game which is why Orpheus transformed into Thanatos during his first battle with death awakened and the 12 major arcana defeated they all returned into one being Ryoji now that he knows the truth I guess in Ryoji have the rematch Ryoji is able to effortlessly defeat I guess nearly killing her in the process soos quickly makes her way to the moonlight bridge thinking that I guess is battling Strega alone only to be surprised when they find Ryoji there I guess admits a minute oh that the reason why she wanted to protect him was because she felt guilt from stealing death inside of him against his will she then collapses and needs to be taken for emergency repairs Ryoji is taken back to the dorm for questioning and he reveals what his true purpose is Ryoji is the apprised her for death the goddess of death Nix will be drawn to Ryoji and by the end of the winter she'll descend on humanity and bring about the end of the world despite the group's best effort to find a solution Ryoji tells him that there's no way to prevent the fall and that everyone will die no matter what he offers him a remedy to this issue Ryoji says if he were to die the dark hour and all the groups of memories about those events will disappear Nix will still come but to the members of seas it'll be instantaneous and they won't have to suffer in despair Ryoji gives the group until December 31st to make the decision but the final decision will be down two minutes to makes since he's the only one that could kill Ryoji the group slowly warms up to the idea of facing Nick's head-on even though they know that they'll die to them losing their memories of the year isn't worth the trade-off since they know that their meaning to life is the connections they made the only one against their choice is I guess who after returning from the Cory Joe group requests that Ryoji be killed she believes that she failed her purpose as she was created to defeat death and that she has no value now I guess expresses that she can't even feel sorrow for cease because she's just a machine the group helps I guess realize that her true purpose isn't to only fight shadows but to live life like everyone else December 31st comes in Ryoji asks everyone made the decision since everyone is an agreement that they want to fight Nick's minato spares him the Ryoji expresses concern from Minato because he doesn't want him to go through any more suffering so it gives him one more chance to change his mind and kill him Minato refuses because he realized that he cannot change manitos mind he decides to reveal where Nick's will be arriving so they can fulfill their last wish on january 31st Nick's will descend on the planet during the dark hour they'll be able to find her at the top of Tartarus because its true purpose is to be a beacon that draws Nick's in so in the meantime all they can do is prepare for the final battle the month of January is my favorite part of the game the atmosphere is unrivaled in the series there's an overwhelming sense of dread that fills the city and the civilians a doomsday cult is started by Strega when they find out that Nick's is going to destroy the world people even begin to worship death to the point of insanity the city streets become more and more empty as the promised day approaches even through all of that seas never loses their motivation to do what they feel is right this is the point where you can also start I guess a social link and experience more of her character development I already went over this aspect of my social link review section so I won't talk about it here I highly recommend that you prepare for the final battle because once you enter Tartarus on January 31st you won't be able to leave so wrap up and you social you have left to do by the best equipment you can for your party fuse yourself a fancy Lucifer's blade and finally make sure you have the best personas for the job let's just say when a tad bit overboard for my setup before sees enters a dark hour for the last time Akari thinks that if they're able to beat Nix that the dark hour will disappear and their memories will as a result your car comes up with an idea that they should meet up on mid sewer and akihiko x' graduation day and that they'll meet on the school rooftop and overlook the city together before the nix annihilation squad can reach tartarus they're interrupted by jenna Takaya separately not gonna lie this is just a warm-up match before the main battle this applies to all the Strega fights if I'm being honest these guys put up a no challenge in their boss battles it makes me wonder why they're built up to be such a threat if their fights are so pathetic throughout the game look at poor Jin here she just gets [ __ ] slapped with strike Oh finally taken out of commission it's time to face Nick's head-on when the group makes it to the top of the tower they're greeted by Nyx's avatar who's actually another form of Ryoji the members of the group each tailed Nick's that they're all tired of running away from death and no matter what happens and they'll defeat Nick's with that the final battle begins Nick's is my favorite boss fight in the entire series not just the persona series but the entire Megami Tensei series Nick's has a total of 14 health bars and cycles through the arcanist that represent the full moon shadows that you had to battle throughout the game each one progressing and difficulty having different skills and being resistant to different attacks there's no way I can talk about this boss battle without mentioning the music easily one of the best songs in the entire soundtrack its climactic and also calls back to the Velvet Room song to symbolize that this is indeed at the end of the journey when Nick switches their Arcana to the final one death they become a lot more aggressive and use the most powerful attacks in the game you're going to need to bring your A game to have enough Mike to defeat Nick's where it stands or you could just do this just when the group thought they defeated next it turns out that they were too late to prevent the fall Knicks his avatar shoots a beam out of its back towards the moon and reveals Dix's true form Nyx's power is too overwhelming for everyone and one by one that they begin to fall just before Minato loses consciousness his mind is transported back to the velvet room Igor lets Minato know that destroying is coming to an end very soon and that the power of his bonds will be the solution to this ordeal a massive ball of energy forms in front of Minato and he can hear voices of his friends and loved ones calling out to him and thanking him for the time they spent together with the combined power of his bonds a new Arcana is born the universe and with the power of this new Arcana Minato faces death had on even though Nix is using the power of death on Minato he still manages to survive every attack the members of the Nixon dilation squad begin to send their own life energy to Minato so he can have enough power to defeat Nix with something called the Great Seal the dark hour slowly comes to an end and Tartarus begins to crumble when the group sees that Minato survived his encounter of Nix they're all shocked but happy I guess even though she's a robot sheds a tear from Minato proving the fact that she's now human the months go by and before we know it it's now the beginning of March Minato Jun pay and Yukari reminisce on how the passenger went by pretty uneventful II in fact it was so forgettable that June play a new car he even forgot how they became friends during the last few days of the school year Minato can check up on his maxxtow social links and see the epilogues if they have one and all these conversations everyone comments how Minato has been looking really tired lately on graduation day Minato has become so tired that he hasn't even left the dorm before graduation started August knocks on his door and claims to have remembered the events that transpired before the defeat of Nix I guess a minute oh go to the school rooftop by themselves so they can just wait for the others to arrive on the rooftop we see I guess and Minato relaxing waiting for their friends I guess begins to tell Minato that she's found the minion life and rather than doing it myself I'll just let her explain it after fighting alongside you and facing the world's end I finally began to understand what it means to live thinking for yourself not running away accepting the inevitable all things eventually come to an end every living thing will one day disappear only by accepting this can one discover what they truly want what the meaning of their life will be I understand now why I was so tormented by my lack of strength protecting others became more than just an order I had to obey I wanted to do it for my own reasons I realized this once I decided to try and prevent the fall when I thought I might never see you again something else became clear to me what I wanted most and so I made up my mind I decided that I would continue to protect you I want to be your strength I know I'm not the only one who can do this but that's okay my life will be worth living if it's for this reason thank you you're right what am i doing I understand now so I should be happy hey everyone I realize now that I have friends as well you don't have to save the world to find meaning in life sometimes all you need is something simple like someone to take care of I'll keep on living no matter what so that I can protect you [Music] thank you for everything you must be tired please get some rest I'll stay right here with you soon all your friends will be here by your side [Music] don't worry I will always be by your side protecting you [ __ ] me that ending made everything worth it whenever there's discussion involving persona 3 one of the first things mentioned is this ending and for good reason - it perfectly summarizes what the themes of the game are we see I guess finally realizing that she has a reason to live that reason is to protect her friends even minato was subtly giving his own answer to life throughout the game you make all these unbreakable bonds with people of the city you can easily make the case that Minato his reason to live was to keep those bonds safe no matter what the cost was even after his final battle with death Minato kept himself alive until graduation he was functionally dead for months at that point when Minato finally passes away he has a smile on his face He fulfilled the promise he made to his friends that's [ __ ] powerful man despite the problems i have with persona 3 i still think it's a good game it just misses the mark from being a great one for me but this ending it's easily my favorite video game ending ever the high points such as some of the social links in the final months of the game are some of the best parts of this franchise but when it drags and misses the potential in some parts it's super noticeable look if it sounds like I was being really critical about persona 3 I probably was at some point I still like this game a lot if I didn't I wouldn't make a video that's over an hour long about it I wouldn't have gone out of my way to do every social link and talk so much about them all I wouldn't spend as much time as I did fusing my favorite personas and even making the best one that I could persona 3 has some amazing aspects to it but also has some stuff that I cannot stand about it it's important to be critical about the things you like because that's how we can see improvements in the future even if the thing in question is almost 15 years old at this point and that was persona 3 it's a very solid game that's certainly worth your time to check out playing the game I own pace is the best way to experience it for sure I hope that the thing you take away from this video is the fact that this franchise means a lot to me and I just want more people to play these games they aren't perfect but they really are special and may resonate with different players I'm personally a bigger fan of its sequel persona 4 but there is one thing I haven't talked about yet I've had a bone to pick with this for years and only now after covering all of persona 3 I have an excuse to finally talk about it it's not only something that I dislike no no no it's something that I absolutely hate I have so much to say about this that I couldn't even fit it into this video so join me in part two so I can talk about persona three's direct sequel persona 3 the answer [Music]

Channel: Nam’s Compendium

Views: 542,127

Keywords: nams compendium nocturne, persona 3 almost great, Nam's Compendium Persona, nams compendium persona 4, Persona 3 review, Nam12399, nams compendium persona 5, Nam's Compendium, Nam's Compendium SMT, Persona 3 story explained, Persona 3 Fes Analysis, persona 3, nams compendium, Persona 3 Analysis, persona, Persona 3 Fes Almost Great, Persona 3 critique, Nam's Compendium Persona 3, Persona 3 Fes Critique

Id: 2gr5neTRrxM

Length: 70min 57sec (4257 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 29 2020