HomeVideo GamesShin Megami Tensei Persona 3 FES: The Answer Review

Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3 FES: The Answer Review

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Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3 FES: The Answer Review 1

All who live, journey in search of the answer, and they reach it at the journey’s end…
If you have close ties to people you call friends, remember this…
Strength of heart, when united is barred by no door…
It was the same for that young man.
And that is all I can tell you.

– Igor to Aigis

Persona 3 FES was an append disk that was released in Japan, and later came as a compilation series in English. Whilst this review is primarily on the new chapter “The Answer”, the disk does contain several updates to the main storyline such as:

  • New Persona to Unlock
  • Around 50 new quests for you to undertake during the events of the game.
  • New Class Questions
  • New events for your character to take (Eg. Taking friends to cinema, Going on walks with Koromaru).
  • Remakes of certain scenes.
  • Updated social links (Such as the additional scene at the end of the Hermit social link which is a real laugh)
  • New battle costumes for the characters… at a cost.
  • Other things as well~

This should encourage you to replay the game if you have already played it before. If you do replay it, you can convert your Persona 3 save file to a FES save file, but there are certain restrictions that can carry over:

  • No Money and levels Carry Over
  • Traits (Charm etc) carry over.
  • The game starts from the beginning
  • Your Persona list does carry over, however you start with the default Orpheus persona.
  • No Equipment and Items carry over

So essentially, it is like the New Game + setting on Persona 4.

Now back to the main addition of the game, “The Answer”. This is an additional chapter that you can choose to do at the title screen. It is completely separate from the main storyline as in you cannot transfer any data over from it. It takes place a while have the events of Persona 3 had concluded.This is my summary of the introduction to the storyline.

The main character died shortly after the events of the graduation ceremony at the end of the game and all the other members of S.E.E.S is dealing with his loss. On the 31st of March, the dorm is in its last day before it is closed for good when at midnight, a strange occurance arrises where as the clock hits midnight, the day resets itself to the beginning of the 31st again, when it should have hit April 1st. Another machine similar to Aigis appears and starts to be hostile, in order to protect her sister. Also appearing is a giant trap door on the floor of the dorm lounge which leads to the unknown. With Aigis becoming the next possessor of the Wild Card (The Fool), can Aigis help everyone else escape the time loop and the dorm or will her depression and fear of losing the protagonist be too much for her to handle?

The storyline is simply that, a continuation on the main story to provide more closure to the events of the previous game, whilst investigating the pasts of each of the characters, since at the end of each level, one of the characters pasts are revealled, from Ken talking to the police the day his mother was killed to Junpei being a cry baby the day Akihiko found him cowering in a convenience store during the dark hour. As the storyline goes forward, the storyline is solid and makes it worthwhile to do the extra hours of dungeon crawling.

This game does not involve any social links at all, therefore character development is primarily based on the playable characters in the main story. The personalities of a few of these characters are vastly different, namely Yukari and her coldness towards everyone, especially Aigis (Because she was the last one to be with the protagonist) and Aigis herself, falling into a spiral of depression because she could not protect him, often just wanting to go back to the lab and be away from all her friends. The other addition is the main focus through, the character Metis who claims she is the sister of Aigis and knows a lot about the new levels of the basement but is not sharing much information on herself. A lot of the chapter involves the mystery behind who she is and why she is so insistent on protecting Aigis.

The graphics in this game are overall the same as the prior game. These were no real updates made at all, and this carries over to Persona 4 itself. That being said, there are in-battle costume changes for all characters in the main chapter which make a nice change and diversity for the battles you have…. althrough having the characters battle in their swimwear seems inpractical.

All the voice actors were brought back for the extra content, which is all voiced to the same extent in which “The Journey” was. The new voice actor for Metis was also appropriate for the character and had the same robotic feel as Aigis. No overdramatic voice acting either.

First off, the game gets a new opening song cleverly titled P3FES by Lotus Juice and Yumi Kawamura. I like this song and is more hip-hop then the song Burn My Dread which was the opening of Persona 3. For those who like Burn My Dread, it is added to the opening theme rotation. There is also another version of Mass Destruction which plays during the battles in The Answer, which is a nice change but I dont think it is as good as the original version, for whatever reason. There are also about 10-15 extra tracks that play during the game and added to a rotation of dungeon crawl BGM’s. A nice complition of new music, however very few vocal ones.

The gameplay is, for the most part, exactly the same as Persona 3, where you dungeon crawl through a dungeon, running into monsters to initiate a battle. The battle system is also similar, relying on the AI to be smart enough to follow what you want done. There is nothing more frustrating than the AI screwing you over because it wants to go on standby whilst you are dying.

The Answer is a more restricted version of Persona 3, with the following features enabled and disabled:

  • All characters start off with level 20 and with their upgraded Personas.
  • There is no trait updates or social links to undergo.
  • There is no Persona List from the previous game but you can fuse your own Personas.
  • Only one difficulty setting “Hard”.
  • You cannot use shops at the start of the game, they start later.
  • Aigis cannot wield different weapons.

So essentially, it is a dulled down version of Persona 3 with a focus on dungeon crawling and storyline. That being said, I found that you needed a lot more strategic gameplay to complete the levels, especially in the earlier levels where you have no access to item or weapons shops, solely relying on item drops to survive. As well, the game will occasionally force you into battles with set party members (even with less than four members), even if you havent used that other character at all.e

If you enjoyed Persona 3 previously, then you will no doubt enjoy playing Persona 3 FES. There are enough features to keep you playing for a first or a consequitive time in The Journey, and The Answer is a nice addition to test the skills you learnt in the main game. I could see you dedicating dozens of hours to completing both games.

Personally, I would recommend this game to everyone who is interested in a good RPG. It is already out on the PS2 in which I would advise everyone to buy the FES version over the P3 version (Althrough if you can only find the P3 version, then get it anyway since in Australia at least, there are very few copies around). If you have a PSP however, Persona 3 Portable is coming out in July in which it does not have The Answer chapter however, it has “The Journey” in which you can play as either male or female (With storyline alterations for each) and enjoy a much improved battle system.

Overall Score

Storyline – 9
Characters – 9
Graphics – 8.5
Music – 9
Gameplay – 9
Replayability – 10
Personal Opinion – 10
Total Score – 9

No Images yet, at uni but I will try and get them up in a few hours. I am not joking when I say it is difficult to find in Australia however there are a few copies around, I got my copy of Persona 3 from my local EB Games store and Persona 3 FES from my local GameTraders store…. ask around and you might find a copy! It is worth the hunt!

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Yea, it is definately brutal, althrough it was a decent addition to the series…. I much preferred to play through the main enhanced storyline through. Never really liked Metis but I knew we had to use her in battles with just Aigis, so just decided to level her up.

    I loved your blog post, added you to my blogroll :)… your blog is a very interesting concept.

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