As you all should know Persona 3’s “release date” is officially tomorrow, August 14th. It’s likely your local retailer won’t see it for another day or so afterward, so just give them a call if you’ve pre-ordered locally. Unlike Devil Summoner and Digital Devil Saga, it appears even retailers like Best Buy will be carrying this game. . . at least on their web sites. If you’ve not pre-ordered already, I would suggest you do so tonight.

If you’re still not sure, I suggest you check out Metacritic. The overall score from all submitted professional reviews puts the game at 88 out of 100 currently, which is quite good.

As for our review, I’ve unfortunately not finished the game yet. I am, however, a good 45 or so hours into it and thus feel safe posting my overall thoughts on it so far. I have no intention of attaching a score, but it might be a good read if you want some more input on the game. To keep it short: I really like it.

You can check that out here, if you so desire. Expect the Persona 3 section to expand more in the coming weeks as I (and others) progress through the game. The character and Persona sections will be revamped (hopefully to provide indepth info to those who want it, without spoiling every one else), just to give an example.

Thanks!

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.