Time Played: 14 hours 10 minutes.
Emotional State: Slightly trepidatious.
Just a general update on my progress through Persona 3 here, and a reflection on JRPGs in general.
I'm not playing the game with a walkthrough, so I have that unease every time I make a decision, wondering what effect that will have on the intricate mathematics of the game and how exactly it will rise up and bite me in the ass later on. I considered downloading one, but while that would relieve the tension this game creates, I wouldn't be playing the game as much as I would be following a set of instructions. I did this before with a Phoenix Wright game that was giving me trouble, and while it unlocked the story, I didn't have any feeling of achievement. So nuts to that.
Which brings up the question of whether a time-pressed middle aged North American can ever hope to fully succeed in a JRPG without a walkthrough. And the answer is 'Let's hope so'. I know that many JRPGs are meant to be replayed endlessly to find every little bit of gear and explored probability, but I don't have that. So this fumbling playthrough will have to do.
So here's the story: you play as a student in a high school in a town where every night at midnight most people turn into a coffin. There is a threat to the town that can only be met by a group of plucky fighters who don't turn into coffins and who can enter a tower called Tartarus each night to battle the monsters there. This is connected to a disease striking the city outside of the temporal Coffinitis called the 'Apathy Syndrome'. This disease makes sufferers wander around going 'Aahh...uhh...ahhh' and generally not much else.
Of course, you are one of these plucky fighters, even though you're new to this town. Due to some lucky planning, the high school has put you in a dorm with the other fighters against the dark. So you have to go to school during the day (six days a week, since the Japanese apparently hate the idea of a two day weekend)and fight at night. You fight with weapons and with something called a Persona, which is a monster that you summon from inside your soul. These Personas have varying spells which you use against the Shadows, analyzing each monster to determine what spell is most effective. You can also fuse these Personas to make even stronger ones in an alternate dimensional place called the Velvet Room, where an old man glares at you from his chair while his beautiful assistant helps you out and asks you take her on dates and fetch her items from the outside world.
To help level your Personas, you have to create Social Links with others. This means you have to take an after school job, join after school clubs (like Kendo, Student Council), with each one adding points to various attributes. You can also level up aspects by eating food, drinking beverages, or studying.
So far my team consists of Yukari, a girl who wears a neck choker and likes to shoot arrows; Junpei, a baseball cap wearing dude who isn't all that smart but wields a huge sword when he isn't scoping on the ladies; Akihiko, an oddly grey haired guy who has no sense of humour and relies on brass knuckles to punch evil, and Mitsuru, a red haired vixen who runs support on our missions and keeps telling me that I should be studying more.
I've made it to the second level of Tartarus, and have so far only died once. My character is now dating a very clingy girl called Yoku, who manages the kendo team. I messed up with her on a date by not giving her a gift, and our relationship is now, according to a pop up screen, 'in a rut.'
I'm worrying that I haven't leveled up enough to power my Personas, but that's part of the game. I fell into a pattern of just going home after school and studying, forgetting about my job at a coffee house and health food store. I've neglected playing the MMO in the game, instead focusing on attending kendo practices and paying what may be rather fruitless attention to Yoku, who would stalk me outside my class when the last bell rang.
The game can eat the hours, I'll give it that. But I just know I'm doing something wrong. Maybe even twenty things. We shall see.
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