Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES

 PlayStation 2
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 862 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 649 out of 862
  2. Mixed: 54 out of 862
  3. Negative: 159 out of 862
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  1. AzurealZX
    Apr 14, 2017
    2
    I expected something better for all of the hype this really average franchise gets.

    All characters were boring anime archetypes with no flavor of their own. The story was an extremely generic premise that flows in the typical Japanese way of story telling like Light Novels. Tartarus, the main gameplay feature was fun at first but as you progress in the tower, it becomes more and    I expected something better for all of the hype this really average franchise gets.

    All characters were boring anime archetypes with no flavor of their own.
    The story was an extremely generic premise that flows in the typical Japanese way of story telling like Light Novels.

    Tartarus, the main gameplay feature was fun at first but as you progress in the tower, it becomes more and more tedious by the second. In the end, I forced myself to complete the game.

    Bosses have a terrible gameplay design, for example the ones under the Millitary base, you have to kill the 2 bosses in the exact same turn or the one that wasn't killed will revive the other one ON FULL HP. No, they don't warn you about that, they never tell you about it until the first revive happens.

    One of the bosses even relies COMPLETELY ON LUCK. That's bad game design.
    He uses a move that spawns a roulette in front of you and you spin it and stop it.
    Whether you damage him for some small amount or he 2-3 shots you, that's up to luck.
    Whether you get debuffed or he gets debuffed, that's up to you..
    Oh, did I say that there' s another boss fighting besides that guy? Yeah, 2 enemies at the same time.
    Not only you have to rely on luck but you also must simultaniously fend off that other guy who has an attack that can one shot you if you have an Ice based Persona. or leave you barely alive on about 30 hp if you don't.

    The whole game is riddled with badly designed bosses and the pacing of the story is bad. A story sequence happens and you're left with a whole month of free time before the next one.
    Either you grind which is boring, or do Social Links, which are just unfleshed dialogues that get the other characters attached to you. The characters seem to start loving you way too quickly. You go and say hi and you already got a girlfriend... (It's an over exaggerated example, chill.)

    This version has the least content and is the most bare-bones one but at least it doesn't contain The Answer so I give it a better score than I did to FES.    … Expand
  2. JuniorMac
    Mar 24, 2020
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. You know, i was a big fan of this game until the very end. You spend over a hundred hours just for everybody you spent your adventure with forgetting everything, just to have their memories snap back. Once this happens they just rush to you but your character just **** dies right before they get there. You die, you're dead. You don't even get to experience meeting with the version of your friends that matters before you just die and never come back as is revealed in the answer. **** this game, wasted a hundred hours of my life.… Expand
  3. GundamBoy
    May 28, 2018
    0
    Clearly the inferior game out of the recent three. You might've heard somewhere before that people hyped this game as the best one in the franchise, which isn't true since those people are likely speaking from nostalgia perspective.

    The gameplay are unbalanced and you can't control your party members in battle, plus the AI aren't helping either. I lost count as how many times i've    Clearly the inferior game out of the recent three. You might've heard somewhere before that people hyped this game as the best one in the franchise, which isn't true since those people are likely speaking from nostalgia perspective.

    The gameplay are unbalanced and you can't control your party members in battle, plus the AI aren't helping either. I lost count as how many times i've encountered groups of enemies which all shares the same weaknesses and i set one of my party member to knock them down, but guess what? they decide to hit them one by one instead of doing it with multi-target skill attack. I don't mind if the enemies are weak to certain physical attacks since regular attack command will do. But when the enemies are weak to certain elements, prepare to waste more of your precious time & in-game resource.

    Next is the dungeon, in this game there's only one big dungeon called Tartarus, you have to climb this one and only lazy-designed dungeon to reached the top before the last day in the game, there's no real time limit here but you should still keep up with it every month if you don't want to get into trouble near the end. The worst part? not only does the process are tedious, but your allies could also got tired from exploring and thus severely limited your exploration.

    Lastly, the story use the same formula as in Persona 4 & Persona 5 but didn't executed as good and the characters are mostly okay except for this one robot girl (yes, a robot girl) that's just came out of nowhere and become the center of the narrative, not to mention that in some scene they make her looks like her sole purpose is to please the male playerbase by holding the main character's hand immediately after she saw him for the first time or going into the main character's room when he sleeps at night. Though there are some other annoying characters like the french guy at school or the fat dude in mall, the robot girl stand out the most since she's part of your team.

    The final boss battle are a drag because usually final boss in JRPG have 3 forms, but this one got 13 forms! and the optional boss aren't as hard as people makes it sound to be, just need lots of preparation not worth getting stressed over, complete with an epilogue called "The Answer" which is also tedious. If i have to say a good thing about this game, it's the music, "Burn My Dread" and "Battle Hymn of the Soul" are one of the best video games soundtrack i've ever heard.

    Overall, this game isn't as good as what the fans are saying. If you played this game expecting another Persona 4 or Persona 5, chance are you'll be disappointed. If you haven't played Persona 4 or Persona 5, play those instead since they're better in almost every way.    … Expand
  4. vodkaffee
    Jan 20, 2020
    3
    great music and a revolution in combat and combining simlife with jrpgs. but is literally unplayable. the only persona game that does not lets u control your party. u can use a tactics system that barely works. no character development. horrible pacing
  5. Cpercent
    Feb 20, 2021
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................persona threez nuts… Expand

Awards & Rankings

2
#2 Best PS2 Game of 2008
2
#2 Most Discussed PS2 Game of 2008
5
#5 Most Shared PS2 Game of 2008

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
89

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
  1. GameZone
    80
    Persona 3: FES will increase your appreciation of its storyline. The characters are great, the dialogue is believable (how’s THAT for an RPG!?), and if you enjoyed the gameplay last year, there are several new reasons to play through the original quest all over again.
    Read full review
  2. G4 TV
    80
    The three interwoven role-play threads in Persona 3 FES are so deftly sewn that it's easy to tune out the rest of the noise.
    Read full review
  3. Game Informer
    83
    With a mere $30 price tag, it's the perfect way for fans and newcomers to experience this exceptional RPG. [May 2008, p.94]
    Read full review
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