The realm of RPGs is, in most regards, fairly diluted.  The average gamer looking to get into the genre may find it a bit difficult to weed through the many basic titles to discover the many holy grails within.  Sony systems (PSP, PS1, PS2, PS3) are known for having the greatest selection and variety of RPG titles, and while the PS3 has yet to become home to many, the PS2 is still chugging along and churning out excellent and frequently niche RPGs. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 is in many ways a niche title, but it is definitely not the type of game that alienates people.

By day, you are an average high school student forced to balance your time between friends, academics, clubs, and sports. By night, you are rescuing the world from a menace that most do not even know the existence of.  Each and every night between 12:00 and 12:01, the Dark Hour occurs and everyone who is not a Persona-user stays within a tomb.  Persona-users, on the other hand, are thrown into a monster-infested world where they must fight.  As you may have already guessed, the main character is a Persona-user. He’s not the only one, though: there is a dormitory dedicated to all of the Persona-users within the “Bay Area” where the story takes place. 

Properly juggling one’s time adequately is incredibly important in order to further the power of your character. If you devote time studying then your academics increase. If you work up the power to drink the questionable concoction that the nurse has made for you, then your courage increases.  If you spend your time in a café, then your charm increases.  These, of course, are only a few select examples from the seemingly endless ways one can choose to spend their time.
 
In battle, Personas do a fair amount of the fighting.  In order to unleash one’s Persona, they have to shoot themselves in the head with a gun called an “evoker.”  Luckily, Jack Thompson has yet to catch wind of this game’s existence.

The player obtains Personas by earning them as rewards after battles and combining them to create stronger Personas.  While Personas level up along with you in battle, strong friendships and relationships also strengthen them.  There are different variations of Personas and certain ones can grow stronger depending on who you befriend.

The charm of Persona 3 lies in the way it avoids just about every well-known RPG cliché.  Sure, there is leveling up and dungeon-crawling, but the way it presents these things makes each of them exciting and for the most part kills the repetition typically found in both of them.   The storyline is so engrossing that any possible tediousness is excusable.

The overall sound of the game is some of the best I’ve ever heard. The soundtrack is filled with some of the most captivating and diverse music one can find in the realm of video games. It is the kind of soundtrack that you won’t mind listening to when you aren’t even playing the game. The voice-acting is topnotch and as convincing as it gets. The quality and diversity of the voices saves the characters from being one-sided and unbelievable.  Its clear that the creators put a lot of work into finding suitable voices for each character.

The graphics aren’t exactly up to par, but the settings and scenery are still beautifully conceived and orchestrated. There are sundry destinations to explore around the area you live in, and more and more places become available as the game progresses.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 is, without a doubt, one of the greatest RPGs on the PS2. That’s saying a lot, considering the sheer abundance of them to be found on the system. This is the kind of game everyone needs to try, regardless of whether or not they are fans of RPGs. The excellent storyline combined with the overall uniqueness and beauty of the game shouldn’t be passed up by any gamer.