I grew a love for the JRPG genre at a young age, primarily with the Final Fantasy franchise. I somehow overlooked the Persona games for quite a while, it wasn’t until I got the PS Vita and “Persona 4 Golden” came out that I was finally exposed to this universe, and I’ve been in love with it ever since. Fast forward to the present, where I have gone back to play every game in the franchise including its fighting and dancing spin-off titles, and like many others, while the latest title “Persona 5 Royal” is my favorite, it’s nice to see these classics be made available on modern hardware. With the massive success of “Persona 4 Golden” being brought back from the PS Vita grave and playable on Steam back in 2020, it was a no-brainer to further the games reach to consoles we play today. The added bonus and slightly controversial choice of “Persona 3 Portable” coming out at the same time was a pleasant surprise, I’m all for classic games being made easily obtainable for modern gamers. I say controversial, only because P3P is arguably not the definitive version of “Persona 3,” this title was originally made for the PSP back in 2010. A 2008 release titled “Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES” (rolls right off your tongue, doesn’t it?) had an extended epilogue of the original game that is unfortunately omitted from P3P. While there are other differences besides just that, I won’t get into specifics, but having said all that, P3P is still a solid experience in its own right.
With these titles being over a decade old, there is little to be said about these games over the years that hasn’t been said already. This dual review of both “Persona 3 Portable” and “Persona 4 Golden” will generally be of me doing my best to convince you to buy them with simple, straightforward thoughts on what I loved and didn’t love (but mostly loved). These games can take a minimum of forty hours to finish, so I unfortunately didn’t get to finish replaying either of them just before this rerelease, but I did go back into each for a good refresher and was surprised at how similar they are to my original experiences. These rereleases are exact ports of what players have played before, with very few new additions. The only new changes I noticed were quick save being added, as well as being able to change the difficulty at any point you desired. There may also be more language options here too. I know this isn’t a remaster or a remake or anything, but a few more quality of life improvements would have been nice, especially for P3P.
Like any Persona game, they mostly take place in a high school in a town in Japan. They take place during a calendar year, where you’ll be going to school in the mornings, and random activities in the afternoon. Often times these activities will be to boost your relationships with friends or romantic interests. The meat of the gameplay is when you travel to the “dungeon” aspects of the game. In P3P there is a phenomenon that occurs called where a labyrinth brimming with shadows that appears at the school late every night called the Dark Hour. In P4G you crawl through a television and enter another dimension called The TV World. These dungeons are seemingly endless and in the case of these two titles, very little detail in their design, they’re just arenas where you fight supernatural creatures with attacks and your own supernatural creatures called personas. The action is turn-based and tactical, as you progress throughout the year you should also be building up your relationships, so they are stronger fighting along beside you in these battles. The fighting is fun and as complex as you want it to be, for games that take up so much of your time, the gameplay loop needs to be rock solid to keep your interest for so long, and it does.
While gameplay is key to the longevity of keeping you playing, what kept me hooked the most though were the stories and the characters. Since you’re playing day to day in this character’s life you grow to care for your friends and family around you. The only thing that links each Persona game is not in their stories, but just The Velvet Room. It’s a space that’s in-between realms and only for those who it deems worthy can visit. In this place you will meet the only recurring character, Igor, who is the attendant of the Velvet Room. Here you can fuse personas you collect to make even stronger ones for future battles.
Alas, you will only love these games if you enjoy the genre, but if you do, these are top tier level. From gameplay, to story, to the amazing hand-drawn animation in the cinematics, and of course, the soundtracks to every single one of these games are iconic to say the least. I don’t give out 10/10 scores very lightly, this may be the first one I’ve given while reviewing games for Gaming Cypher, but that score is fully deserved for “Persona 4 Golden.” As for “Persona 3 Portable,” while it’s still an amazing game, I didn’t click with it overall as I did with its sequel, and with this still not being the definitive version fans have been waiting for, this release is a bit of a missed opportunity. Needless to say, either game is a fantastic way to drain dozens upon dozens of hours from your life.
Persona 3 Portable – 8.5/10
Persona 4 Golden – 10/10
Related: Nick Navarro Reviews
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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