I updated the Persona 3 portion of the site today. The Overview section now has three additional subsections which cover the battle system, school life components and Velvet Room concepts. These are all based upon the English version of the game and provide a general review of how each of these aspects of the game work. I figured separating the section would make it far easier to digest and expand in the future.

Expect more updates during the remainder of the week.

Update: The link issue for the Battle System / Dungeons section has been fixed.

Gamespot’s product listing for Persona 3 now includes a very small image of the final package you will receive when you pick up the game. Looks pretty nice when it’s all together.

Thanks to NotMSRP for posting this image on NeoGAF.

Continuing our last reviews post, a friend informs me that EGM has reviewed Persona 3 and given it the “Game of the Month Award”. The magazine uses a three score system, netting the game an 8.5, 9.5 and 9.5. Very nice.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a review copy for Digital Devil Database just before the delay. If there’s anything else you’d personally like to know about the game, feel free to ask in the forums. It also looks like our interview with Atlus for the title will be made available closer to the game’s new release date.

Thanks to Charles for the information.

Persona 3 has started popping up on retailer websites for European release in 2008. While Game, for example, does not list a publisher on their web site, others are marking it as KOEI. This makes sense since they recently published Devil Summoner in the area.

My assumption is that this likely will only be translated into English for a general UK release. As far as I’m aware, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is the only game released in PAL format so far that actually offers multiple languages.

In any case, if more news pops up we’ll post it. Thanks to ShinByakki for pointing this out.

I created a new video of the first 42 minutes of Persona 3. It’s been uploaded to GameVideos and GameTrailers.

It shows off every thing from the title screen all the way to the first time your character utilizes his Persona. Obviously the video is nothing but spoilers, so if you don’t want to ruin anything for yourself just skip it. However, in light of the delay I figured some people would be interested in this.

Unfortunately, the full sized video is just simply too large to easily distribute. It had to be compressed and lowered down to a 320×240 resolution. Obviously video sites compress video even more, but it’s still definitely watchable. The main issue, to me, is that the audio is noticeably more hiss-y. “S” sounds definitely don’t come off that poorly in the actual game.

I was going to embed the video, but unfortunately GameVideos’ player scales the video up and makes it look even worse. I would suggest going to the page for the video where you can either watch it or download it for yourself. Gametrailers, meanwhile, seems to have sampled the video up to a larger size. You can watch it here.

Update: Here’s a 640×480 resolution version.

Thanks!

Figured it was worth making a new post about reviews for this game. Sure, it’s been delayed, but the review embargo has obviously ended as far as these sites are concerned. At least they were on the ball for the original date . . . . I remember a few instances were Devil Summoner reviews didn’t even appear until weeks later. Anyway, I’m going to include the reviews from the previous post just to keep these all in one place.

RPGFan - Damian Thomas’s review and Ashton Liu’s review.

Gamernode - Brian Lindsey’s review.

GameAlmighty - Matt Butrovich’s review.

Game Informer - Metacritic states GI gave the game an 8.5.

Play - Himuro informs us that Play gave the game a 9.5.

RPGamer - Michael Beckett’s review.

HonsterGamers - Staff review.

IGNPS2 - Jeff Haynes’s review.

Gamespot - Kevin VanOrd’s review.

Check out Metacritic’s page on the game for more as time goes on.