Originally written .
Note that the operative word in that sentence is the word playing.
I think I actually enjoy damn near everything else about every Persona 3 game (yes, there are several; it's complicated). It's not a perfect game by a long shot, but I enjoy the story, the characters, the music, the setting, most of the social links, what it set up for the later games, and even the memes out there. I can nitpick the games, but overall, they've been a positive influence on my life. But I don't actually enjoy playing the game itself.
I've played through FES on the PS2, including one game of New Game+, as well as The Answer, although that was a while back. I also played through Reload when it came out. I also played through it on New Game+. Now I'm working on a New Game+ save on Portable on PC, as well as on the PSP, so there's a lot of Persona 3 in my life right now. And what I'm noticing is that it's a slog.
It was worth it to play through the slog to experience the game for myself, but on replays, there's nothing new (under the sun, or I guess full moon). The actual gameplay itself is nothing but a hindrance to getting the story, and if the story stops being a real reward, the gameplay becomes a lot less compelling. The same basic idea is true when it comes to the later Persona games. but it's particularly noticeable in Persona 3, since a lot of the kinks haven't been ironed out yet, and the game is a lot more punishing, as is typical of older games. It's there to stretch the game out over a longer playtime, rather than making what time you do spend enjoyable. Persona 5 did a lot of work in making the basic gameplay loop a lot more engaging to avoid this problem, and I think they really succeeded, but even Persona 4 tries to not overstay its welcome too much (even more so when it comes to Golden, although that game isn't an improvement on all fronts).
Most of my issues with the game comes from Tartarus just not being all that enjoyable of an experience. The nominal task is really easy: just climb the tower. But several of the minibosses more or less require you to grind enemies, and some do that to an excruciating degree. Add in Elizabeth's requests pertinent to Tartarus, which also nominally aren't all that hard, but often require luck in just finding the right enemies and loot, as well as going back and forth, since you can only take 3 requests at a time, and you've got a double dose of annoyance. It's all right the first time, especially if you don't take it all that seriously. It's also not too bad the second time, what with New Game+ making life easier, but after that, it really starts to grate.
The overworld is less of a problem, other than the schedule just being really tight compared to later games if you intend to max everybody out (and even the devs didn't really intend for you to do that). The rewards are smaller compared to later games, so there's less carrot to go around, but at least there's not any more stick either.
This might just be me getting sick of the game from having played it too many times. And to be fair, once I'm done with New Game+ on Portable on PC and PSP, I'll probably never play the games again (unless I need to help out a friend). It's a game that it's absolutely worth playing, once (maybe twice). After that, sure, you can play it more if you want to, but there's little more to experience, and what little is left you might as well just pick up from some Youtube videos or the wiki.
My good memories of Persona 3 fortunately aren't tainted by this. I'll always love Chihiro, Aigis and Elizabeth, and I wish SEES the best in future.
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