Which Version of Persona 3 Should You Play? - All Ports Reviewed & Compared

while I plan to cover Persona 4 and Persona 5 on the channel in time Persona 3 comes first because it has the most to discuss with two radically different versions both with substantial pros and cons today we'll discuss the original PS2 Release from 2006 The Fez upgrade version from the following year the PSV version and the remaster of the PSP version that was released alongside Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal for the 8th and 9th gen consoles this year the localization changes made to Persona 3 were mild the English class was revised and mitsuru spoke a little English in the Japanese version but in the North American version she speaks a little French instead [Music] additionally references to the original Megami tensei on famicom were changed to reference the Persona games we got in the west the biggest addition to Fez is the 30 hour long epilogue the answer or episode I guess in Japan which in Japan could be bought as a separate disc the answer takes place after the main game and doesn't feature the life Sim aspects if you had already played the vanilla game you can transfer your save to Fez to transfer your persona compendium social stats and completed social link items outside of the answer the story changes to the base game were mild though there is a touch more Exposition for Chidori Fez features new personas skills quests and requests costumes the weapon Fusion mechanic hard mode difficulty epilogues for the Social Links a social link for igus and many more opportunities to hang out with your friends on walks or at the movies Fez also added Easter egg surveillance recordings of everyone in the dorm there is also a new opening though the hidden opening was removed The Fez version tweaks and rebalances gameplay a bit there's differences in some Persona stats Arcana types skill sets starting skills and skill costs additionally Fez reduces the HP cost of physical skills across the board as they were underpowered in the original some status effect attributes were also tweaked too like regenerates HP rate or some effects chances to work the protagonists can also now equip any weapon type the monad depths are utilized at end game and in Fez you have to beat the reaper for Elizabeth to unlock them but on the flip side they now stay unlocked in New Game Plus in Persona 3 you and your party members have a condition status they can be great good tired or sick good it is the default great gives you higher accuracy and higher crits tired party members will miss more often take more damage have trouble getting up after being knocked down and they'll leave Tartarus if you go back to the entrance for any reason sick party members are more susceptible to ailments also their stats damage and spell effects are lowered in the original game you and your party members are immune to becoming tired or sick before a full moon and Fez this isn't the case however before a full moon Tire party members won't leave Tartarus in Fez some of the treasure chest drops were changed deadlines for Elizabeth were tweaked as were her rewards and social link requirements were relaxed a little additionally some social link parameters were changed such as tanakas now takes place at night which due to an oversight can be exploited to skip the final boss in The Fez version you can get a bonus boost to Social Links when you have a Persona of the matching Arcana takoramaru on walks go inside game Panic to spend time and the shrine was overhauled a bit before it'd be used just to raise your academic stat and get a little money in Fez the fortune draw is used to help improve or recover Social Links additionally the Inari Sushi offers a variety of random effects lastly doing anything at The Shrine takes up your afternoon not many bugs were fixed in Fez either and like we said with Tanaka social link some ended up being added there's especially a number of bosses in the game that were bugged in one way or another in regards to their AI programming though these are generally harmless to the player they're mostly things like one boss gets stuck repeating an attack in certain conditions while another boss never goes into their second phase new music was introduced into Fez 2 a few new tracks were also remixes of Music in the series such as snow queen and Maya's theme now Fez is available on the PSN store on PS3 this version had bugs but they were patched out over time other than a PS3 or PS2 emulations your other option Persona has a very solid modding scene as well so going into Portables changes keep in mind some of the changes were backboarded into Fez but more on that at the end of the video speaking of the other major version of Persona 3 is Persona 3 Portable to start things off to fit on the PSP and on a UMD disc presona 3 Portable drops all 3D exploration outside a Tartarus and practically every 3D cutscene in conversation is now 2D it also drops the answer epilogue as well as all anime cutscenes dialogue and action text were revised to accommodate the lack of visible animation to give you a full 2D visual novel presentation characters will call things out that they didn't before and actions or details you'd be looking for are explained in text there's someone else here there's someone else here anyways let's hide the prior anime cutscenes are also adapted like the 3D cutscenes are as a result the lack of 3D affects the pacing and impact of dialogue to varying degrees all throughout it is subjective though it's not necessarily negative every time either seriously don't say anything about last night alright what moreover not all of the information of a scene is conveyed to the player like before for example you don't know a character is in a scene until you see their portrait and you'll never see a complete group shot of all your friends together unless it's a still image or Sprites on the couch on the other hand there is an argument in favor of the faster pacing being appreciated given how long the game is already now there is a lot of changes to Portable besides what you're seeing so this doesn't paint the full picture we're gonna play some examples back to back but by all means you can skip past them when you get the idea accepted how's it going me I'm June payori nice to meet you sup dude how's it going me I'm June payori nice to meet you that's true but there's another reason you too can you summon your persona without any difficulties like he can yeah of course I can I think so that's true but there's another reason you too can you summon your persona without any difficulties like he can yeah of course I can I think so [Music] um of course not we already know it's not a ghost and besides I'm not that afraid of ah my cell phone why now oh Figures it's spam um of course not we already know it's not a ghost and besides I'm not that afraid of ah [Music] my cell phone why now oh Figures it's spam now on the flip side portable adds a female protagonist room this route features a holy revised script with a few differing plot points as well as new scenes most of which are instances where kotenai hangs out with the girls rather than the guys this route also offers a new Orpheus design different sports different battle and seasonal music eight new Social Links that changed who they were four six romance options compared to Makoto's five an optional new Velvet Room attendant and a cameo from a Persona 4 character now when you start the game you're told from the get-go that the female root was designed not only for female players but also for those already familiar with Persona 3 story it's up to you how you play and what you play first and ultimately either route is a Time investment but yeah kotenai's root resonates more if you've already played as Makoto that's what's cool about Portable 2 is even if you've played or doing New Game Plus portable still has something fresh to offer everybody regardless of root there's also a cameo from a Vincent look-alike from Catherine this is a cool Easter egg because it predates Catherine even being announced by a month in the U.S and nine months in Japan portable also has its own new opening replacing the one from Fez but now on to gameplay portable adds more new personas The Dizzy status effect follow-up attacks more floor effects and Tartarus like no map or full map reveal a bit more end game content in the form of the abyss of time doors from the answer which leads to a new super boss part-time work and new difficulty options beginner difficulty enemies deal much less damage and you're given 30 plumes of Dusk to revive the party when the protagonist dies Maniac difficulty and a means deal two times as much damage from normal difficulty enemies get Advantage more often certain weapon fusions can't be performed and on New Game Plus nothing carries over besides Play Time portable also introduced skill cards skill cards are used to teach a Persona a move that it can't inherit many rewards throughout the game like for exams Inari Sushi or Elizabeth's request were changed to give you skill cards instead and of course the most recognized gameplay change in portable is direct control of your party members keep in mind that Persona 3 wasn't balanced around this so it does make the game easier this should be thought of as a quality of life thing though granted it's a really nice option to consider and a deal breaker for folks if it's not there the AI Control does get a bad rep it is harder and you gotta keep on top of your party members tactics and you can't just let them be on act freely and arguably the second biggest gameplay change is that you and your party won't become tired or sick until after leaving Tartarus making the mechanic much easier to manage and you don't need to worry about anyone abandoning you remember it's still a mechanic though also when you name yourself your surname and given name were swapped that's not a big deal though I'm only explaining it because that is why in some footage Makoto's name is swapped around importable AOE attacks only need to knock down one enemy to get a one more where before they had to knock down every enemy that they had hit when knocked down you can still act on your next turn instead of needing to take a turn getting back up you can resume tardoris from your highest floor even if it's not a checkpoint floor you can change your party member's equipment and view their stats right from the menu at any time where before you had to walk up and talk to them to do that subsequently you can now buy equipment and immediately equip it rather than waiting until you can talk to them again to give it to them and the square button is used for fast traveling anywhere in a location as well as back to the map where before the best you could do was talk to this kid in class to get to the map Social Links in the prior versions could reverse or break if you didn't hang out with a person for a while in portable they will only reverse or break from poor dialogue choices now for any version you play the male protagonist romances are baked into the Social Links so so you'll be in a relationship with everyone you Max the social link of that is applicable in the prior versions this meant that you'd have to manage all of your romantic relationships as the game went on as the time before a girl gets jealous drops each time you hang out with another in portable that's not necessary at all Additionally the romance options for the female protagonist and portable are totally optional you can max out their Social Links and keep things platonic balance wise portable tweaks a few more things from Fez for example because statuses can't degrade and Tartarus vorpal blade is technically buffed some skills can't be inherited anymore such as Alice's Die For Me additionally some skills had altered SP cause such as the AOE Buffs and debuffs abilities like fuka's Oracle or the skill summer dream have more benefits to them and their bad effects were removed despite the localization not being updated to accommodate their new and removed effects so when it tells you that everyone's HP was reduced to one it's just straight line so then Buffs only apply to the party while debuffs and knock Downs only apply to enemies waiting in battle was replaced with defending helping you protect from knockdown Fusion skills are now activated by items allies at a certain point will endure one fatal attack the protagonist can only wield one-handed swords again there's less unfair Shuffle time patterns and new spinning ones you can check a specific Persona skills now from their page in the menu instead of only from the skills menu when you split up into risk party members that find money give it to you now instead of taking it the camera and Tartarus is higher up and angle down letting you peek around corners as well as over walls you don't Auto heal when you return to the entrance of Tartarus anymore and you have to pay a bit to heal going back to your room doesn't fast forward time anymore and shops were once again overhauled the police station can be used to buy weapons armors and now accessories in addition to being the only place you can sell at B blue v is now used to upgrade your status from Tire to good or good to Great and the pharmacy is only used to buy consumables you can also save at your desk in school and choose who to spend your time with at the end of the game in New Game Plus portable had some bug fixes including some of the boss ones but many bugs still remain additionally portable has a few typos and grammatical mistakes wrong voice lines wrong descriptions and untranslated lines the PS2 version ran at 480p 30 while portable itself runs at 272 P30 assets are lower resolution and models when you do see them are lower poly portable also adds 10 new music tracks most of which are heard in the female route the audio quality in general though is much lower compared to the PS2 version now we're highlighting the audio quality of a PSP game so much since the remaster's music quality is the same as the PSP versions so take a listen [Music] portable also uses new sound effects [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and now to accompany the eighth and 9th gen releases of Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal we have Persona 3 Portable remastered now for the first time Persona 3 is available in French Italian German Spanish and simplified Chinese be careful with changing a language after starting though as it'll revert the protagonist's name this new version offers dual audio quick saves a text log and achievements and Trophies the only gameplay changes to really address are with the difficulty options first off not only can you now change the difficulty after starting the game but you've got a handful of difficulty options to tweak to this end plumes of dusk were removed instead you can toggle on Reviving in battles like before but with no limit now which the game discourages or instead you can also choose to resurrect from the prior floor some instances of incorrect voice lines or untranslated lines were fixed as soon as he wakes up I'll tell him the truth as soon as she wakes up I'll tell her the truth the though many mistakes are still present additionally many of those Legacy bugs mostly regarding bosses still remain though like we said these bugs are generally harmless to the player summer dream and Oracle weren't fixed either the screams of scared Shadows are missing too but I could believe that that was on purpose now the assets are upscaled utilizing a mix of original sources like character portraits UI and fonts and AI upscaling for things like the backgrounds the AI upscaling results are pretty mixed some turned out pretty well most simply got the job done just fine though most also do have that look of being Ai upscaled and in a few select shots it does get the details wrong and AI updating being used here is a little concerning though because the source assets of the PSP version really aren't that old but I digress while the PSP version ran at 272 P30 the remaster runs at 1080p 60 everywhere except Xbox series X and PC which can go up to 4K 120. there is no designated PS5 version or PS4 Pro so the PlayStation experience is identical across the board and frankly the footage space for itself the higher resolution isn't really a huge benefit the remaster in general is essentially identical across all platforms anyway unless you're set to take advantage of that 120 FPS then by all means All Things Considered this remaster is the sharpest version of portable since the original resolution was so low understandably the backgrounds are jarring compared to the clean art and UI though and to set expectations for the PC Port you can't click options in the menu or like in combat but your cursor does not replace the giant Circle marker so you'll be using your cursor to guide the big cursor there is arbitrary resolution support though it'll maintain the 16x9 aspect ratio it also supports hot plugging controllers and your button icon options are manually set in the options for audio it seems that they use compressed assets from the PSP version as well rather than the PS2 version or even their official soundtrack counterparts [Music] moreover there's a handful of some voice lines or sound effects that are compressed in quality even further from their PSP counterparts here goes [Music] here it goes [Music] [Music] Persona 3 is a divisive title and you can see why portable is simply a more accessible game in every regard and is the go-to pick up and play option if you don't have a copy of Fez and a PS2 PS3 or aren't on board for emulation however it comes at the compromise of visuals to compensate for that compromise we have a new playable route in the game for kotenai that would be welcome to anyone who's already played Fez he can play how you want of course but when the games were releasing a good chunk of the intended audience had already played Fez and then played portable for her and even today playing Fez and then portable for kotenai isn't a bad idea at all what I hear often from those that prefer portable defense is how they appreciate that it's a much faster game with less tedium it is argued though that portable makes Persona 3 too easy in that if you're more interested in a challenge then Fez provides that for you based on the differences we've discussed whether that's more challenging or more tedious is up to you it's also plausible that just getting the iso of the game that has party control modded in is is easy enough and I know that's a fairly popular option as well speaking of now while I still prefer just comparing vanilla experiences and you probably won't see me do this with Persona 4 Persona 5 picking between Fez and portable is extremely divisive and modding discussion is kind of inevitable so if you're up for the effort of modding the games the modding potential May sway you for portable do not hold out for anything to restore the entire 3D World or all of the 3D cutscenes however there are mods to at least restore the anime cutscenes the PS2 models HD portraits the Oprah Makoto The Fez camera and Tartarus and even more even for the remaster you can restore anime cutscenes there's fixes for a handful of grammar mistakes and there's already a fix for the audio quality of sound effects manual skill inheritance something not seen in any version of Persona 3 is even in the works as well for Fez meanwhile there is HD textures widescreen quick travel direct commands for the party some backboarded portraits and dial dialog from portable and more a good place to start would be the community enhancement pack which will walk you through the arduous setup but from there you could add on more mods many of the gameplay changes we've highlighted aren't individual mods currently I think because ultimately they aren't deal breakers for people like direct party control is I will however highlight the new moon balance patch the creator of Phoenix is actually responsible for a handful of info in this video particularly with bugs and balance tweaks so this rebalancing mod comes from somebody well aware of how Atlas sought to rebalance the game over time it's not really a difficulty mod rather it sets out to make everything more viable by reworking more variables than you can imagine adding and reworking skills fixing and improving AI altering skill progression and so on party control isn't built in for it but using party control with it won't be nearly as unbalanced as the vanilla game video has gone on long enough though so huge thanks to Phoenix modders of Persona 3 and those responsible for the research and info used in this video this video can only go into as much detail as it does thanks to them so like I said Persona 4 and 5 will airport reviews in time but for now the next priority is Tales of Symphonia remastered so look forward to that if you want to support the channel find me on patreon and until next time thank you for watching

Channel: AustinSV

Views: 275,286

Keywords: AustinSV, persona 3 fes vs portable, persona 3 fes cutscenes, persona 3 fes gameplay, persona 3 fes mod, persona 3 fes vs portable comparison, persona 3 fes vs portable graphics, persona 3 fes vs portable differences, persona 3 fes vs portable gameplay, persona 3 fes vs portable side by side, persona 3 portable pc vs fes, persona 3 portable review, persona 3 portable gameplay, persona 3 portable switch, persona 3 portable pc, persona 3 portable vs fes

Id: mVKPE9vgZng

Length: 23min 2sec (1382 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 03 2023