So who has there copy of P3

Got it yesterday and here is 100% spoiler free thoughts on it! It is the chunk of my ign reader review. Pardon any minor grammar errors.

Chances are your relationship is a love or hate affair with Atlus. They publish many of the most innovative and original rpgs to date but also some of the most frustrating challenging ones as well.

If you have no idea "what" MegaTen is I'd say Persona 3 is one of the best introductions to the "goddess reborn" alternate universe you are going to get.

Imagine you are a transfer student coming to a new high school. Like anyone else your age you like chilling with your head phones and having a good time. The only problem is weird unexplainable deaths and occurences start happening around you. The cause of this is the "Dark hour" a hidden time in which most people go into stasis and demon-like "shadows" seep into our reality to prey on souls under spiritual and emotional pressure. As expected for some reason your main character can be awake during this time thus he is recruited by a special squad of other "awakened teenagers" to dish out an ass kicking to the forces of evil like Ashe from Army of darkness. Oddly enough each character has a spiritual manifestation called a "persona" and the only way to call your alter egos forth is by taking a hand gun looking magic expelling "evoker" and shooting yourself in the head with it. Sound emo inspired? Don't worry evokers aren't "real guns" and no brains get splattered all over upholstery.

The thing that stands out from Persona 3 is you do have to live the life of a normal high school student and what friendships you make and clubs you join has a direct effect over the main Personas your character can create,how powerful they are, and what stat bonuses you get in battles. Want to be that angsty loner elitist type? Well unfortunately being a socialpathic invert isn't a good idea in Persona 3. You "need" to have good friends to get by and there's no shame in being a shoulder to lean on or lending a helping hand to others. Personally I liked this approach. It is a positive message and encourages you to give a damn about those around you.

At night your average high school turns into a dark tower called "Tautarus". This is where all the shadows emerge and the higher you get in the tower the more of its mysteries are exposed to you. Unlike random encounter rpgs you can see the enemies slogging around. If you attack them first it is an equal footing match. If you sneak up on them and bash them from behind you get the advantage then again if they do the same to you they get to go first. As expected every enemy has an elemental weakness to exploit and the rewards of winning include loot or more persona cards so you can fuse them later to create more powerful alter egos. Only your main character can access the Velvet room and this is where all your personas are stored and evolved.

All this would still be somewhat mediocre if the cast of heroes sucked but lucky for you the rag-tag group of characters are lovable and have great voice talent behind them. Depending on your choices your romantic and friendly relations with your comrades will go in different directions so unlike the painfully Linear rpgs there is a feeling that "you" have control over your destiny.

The music is a mix of creepy goth techno, orchestra scores and opera vocals,as well as upbeat hip-hop. In any other game this would be off key but in Persona 3 an rpg that emphasizes being young, alive, and filled with energy the tacks are perfect.

Last of all and most important to any of you that found other MegaTen games too hard with a focus only on level grinding fret not! There is an "easy" setting and even the "normal" mode has a forgiving learning curve. True save points can be far between "but" any one with common sense can manuever around this hardship by stacking up items,making healing requests while having conversations with other friends during exploration,and taking quick "re-track portals" back to the safe zone when the adventure party starts getting tired.

There's so much more to this game I'm not telling you because I could write a whole book on how wonderful,nostalgic,and fun it is to me. I played it the first night 12 whole hours without stopping. The only people that would hate Persona 3 are those that have forsaken rpgs all together or have some sort of weird bias against modern Japanese culture. For the rest of you enjoy! It was worth the wait!