Persona 3 Reload

“You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes, all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of” I love video games as a medium. I am a firm believer that the stories, art, music, and experiences they provide can genuinely influence you as a person, so long as you let them. Persona 3 is an exceptional example of this. I came into this game as a fan who started with Persona 5 and worked my way backwards. With a background of how well the P4 and P5 casts mesh together in those games, I was offput by how little the SEES members seemed to want to interact beyond just fighting in Tartarus. I had initially thought this to just be a lack of chemistry, and was worried that I wouldn’t care as much about this cast as the other games. I am so glad that I was wrong. These characters start out so distant and isolative by design. This is a cast of people who are hurt, grieving in some form over loss they have experienced in their lives, and due to this, they struggle to bond with others in meaningful ways. It’s not until they begin to open up to each other in response to major events in the story that they really start to grow together, and come to realize what they are fighting for in their lives. These changes do not happen for awhile in the story, and when they do happen, it takes time. It’s a slow burn, but through fragments of these shared experiences they have, it eventually culminates in a cast that feels strongly bound together through meaningful, emotional connections. At its core, this story tackles nihilism, and struggling with the answer to finding meaning in life in the face of an inevitable end. In a world where “a meaningful life” is subjective, why should you bother? If there is pain, and grief, and suffering, then what’s the point? Because life can be beautiful. Acting as a direct antithesis to nihilism, this game takes place in a world that floods you with a constant stream of colorful scenery, fantastic music, and a roster of characters that all feel exciting to interact with. Having the benefit of being a Persona game, being able to live out the calendar year lets you fully engulf into this setting, and grow attached to the daily life of Makoto, and the people you can spend time with. By being an active, positive force to those around him, you get to see how genuine human connection and love brings meaning and understanding to their lives, lifting them out of their respective sorrows. The experiences throughout the “Daily Life” portions of the game act as the perfect motivation to eliminate the Dark Hour and Tartarus. By the end of this game, SEES isn’t just fighting shadows for some vague notion of righteousness, they are actively declaring war on nihilism, imbuing the personal meaning they have come to find in the value of their lives into their fight for humanity in the face of an impending death. Although I won’t ever need to justify the value of my life to an apocalypse-harboring god, I will need to justify it to myself. Because I will die one day. At its core, I think the beauty of this game is its ability to pull the bleeding heart of the human condition to the surface; Mortality. We are granted an indeterminate amount of time to live out our lives, and fill them with meaningful experiences and connections. That time can be used to grovel and sulk, but it can also be used to uplift others and appreciate the paths we choose to take until we reach the end. I’d like to think that I have surrounded myself with people I deeply care about, and use my time to be a positive force in their lives. Although I don’t always get the opportunity to tell them, I hope they know how much meaning they bring to my life. What Persona 3’s story has been for me is a beautiful, sapphire hued reflection pool. One that was fun to play, filled my playlists with fantastic music, and told a story that bolsters and encourages an appreciation for life. For the last hour of this game, I just wept, not out of sadness, but out of sheer awe at how meaningful this story became for me, and how much I had come to the love the bonds shared by Makoto, Junpei, Yukari, Mitsuru, Akihiko, Amada, Fuuka, Koromaru, and Aigis. I don’t think I could begin to unpack all my feelings for this game in one review, so I mostly just tried to cover the overarching themes that felt valuable to me. But it is the theme and message of this game that really puts Persona 3 in a class of its own. It’s so personal, yet universal at the same time. I have so much love for video games that add such substantial value and perspective to my life, and this game goes above and beyond in that aspect. Although I am yet to decide if this is the “best” way to experience this as an RPG (I intend to play FES and P3P to see how they feel eventually), I would strongly encourage playing any rendition of this game for its narrative alone.

what a great anti-suicide game. 10/10, will make you want to live again

Best Persona game ever, especially if you're a chronically depressed emo in the modern day. Episode Aigis should be base game tho.