Persona!
Kia ora folks!
So this weekend just gone, I started getting into the Persona series of games for the first time. I played a tiny little bit of Persona 5 Royal in October last year when it hit Game Pass, but I had pretty much already decided when the ports got announced that I wanted to play them in order of original release. People kept telling me it wasn’t necessary because there’s no shared continuity or story, but I know myself; if I started with the most recent entry, I would never be able to go back and play the older titles because I would get frustrated with the systems, controls and visual styles being different/worse. I often find that it’s not really possible to go back and play retro games that I didn’t play when they were more recent - I can play Wonderboy III: The Dragon’s Trap and Alex Kidd in Miracle World for hours, but I get bored and/or frustrated playing Super Mario Bros almost immediately. But I digress.
Persona 3 Portable definitely feels like a mobile game, but it’s put together in such a way that I am able to get past its limitations because it is, aside from combat, presented like a visual novel with some JRPG stuff kind of in the background. Plus I find the concept and plot super interesting. I’ve wanted to play these games for a long time, because I have heard so much about them on the myriad podcasts I listen to, but never had a chance to actually play them because I have never owned a PlayStation in my adult life - I’ve always had an Xbox of some kind.
Y’all… I am really enjoying this game. It’s very dark and bizarre that the protagonists have to shoot themselves in the head to summon their Personas, but it’s also kind of compelling because it’s not the type of thing you see a lot of. The JRPG mechanics are some JRPG-ass mechanics, and I like that a lot. It’s been a while since I played a meaty JRPG that I was able to stick with. I’m excited to get to Persona 4 Royal after this, but I have a feeling that that might be a while away. I read a really great review of the Persona 3 Portable remaster over on Digital Trends that you should check out!
Persona 3 Portable is out now on Steam, Microsoft Store for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Windows, Nintendo Switch, and PS4.
Now, I wanted to remind y’all that my short story Olivia is still on sale on itch.io for 25% off, with $2 from every purchase during the sale going to the New Zealand Green Party to help them with making signs, supporting volunteers and other general election year stuff. You can read Olivia here for free, and then if you like it and want to support not only me, but the NZ Greens, you can buy it here. There are other ways you can support me personally though, too! You can subscribe to this newsletter at the paid level for $5 per month or $30 per year, or send me a little donation over on my Paypal or Ko-Fi pages. As always, you can comment on this post, or you can find me on the socials at the bottom of the page if you have any comments, questions, suggestions, feedback of any kind, or just wanna say hi!
Thanks so much for reading, y’all, I really appreciate it. Stay safe out there folks, have a great week, and I’ll talk to you again soon.
Ka kite anō au i a koe! 💚