Which Version of Persona 3 Should You Play? - All Ports Reviewed & Compared
THANK YOU to Atlus West for providing a key for the PS4 version of Persona 3 Portable. Thank you to the Persona Modding Discord for discussion & their documentation & research done on the inner details of these games.
This is a comprehensive review & comparison of Persona 3 for the PlayStation 2, Persona 3 FES for the PS2, Persona 3 Portable for the PSP, and the recently released Persona 3 Portable for Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series. We'll cover content, gameplay, visuals, and audio differences found among every version of the game. This comparison should inform you of any and all significant difference between each version of the game. It'll also provide common ground for discussion among which version others may prefer & the points of contention to refer to in discussion, in addition to clearing up potential misconceptions.
LinkTree: linktr.ee/austinsv
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Sources
megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_3
megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/...
tcrf.net/Persona_3
tcrf.net/Persona_3_FES
tcrf.net/Persona_3_Portable
/ persona_3_vanilla_to_f...
www.gematsu.com/2010/08/atlus...
www.destructoid.com/anime-exp...
gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/932...
www.reddit.com/r/PSP/comments...
web.archive.org/web/202206131...
Mods seen in this video
gamebanana.com/mods/413136
gamebanana.com/mods/348061
gamebanana.com/mods/50322
gamebanana.com/wips/63624
P3F Community Enhancement Pack: p3f.cep.one/install/getting-s...
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:30 - Persona 3
0:54 - Persona 3 FES
4:39 - Persona 3 Portable
6:22 - Cutscene Comparison
7:55 - Post-Cutscene Comparison
15:35 - Persona 3 Portable Remaster
19:36 - Final Thoughts + Mods
Hmmmmmm... This video has a lot to be desired in the information given. For the record, I have played all existing English versions of the game. 0:54 At the time of localization for Persona 3, we have actually not obtained Persona 2 Innocent Sin officially as of yet. So this was a bit confusing for people why they chose to rename the MMO to "Innocent Sin Online" and not "Eternal Punishment Online" at the time of release. 1:03 The append version of FES that released in Japan and Korea and whatnot is largely misunderstood in how it functions. It does not only contain Episode Aigis/The Answer. Rather, it contains all content of The Journey and The Answer that we know and are accustomed to but for a cheaper price. It requires a save from the Vanilla version to boot up, however. This was intended for the people that have already sank in money into buying the Vanilla version beforehand. 1:13 It must be noted how the compendium transfer is a bit of a scam. It does not transfer the personas you have registered alongside all of the skill sets it has in the Vanilla version. Rather, it only transfers if the persona was registered or not. In other words, when you use the Compendium Transfer function, it would show the personas you have but only with its base level, base skills, base stats, base everything. At best, it only really opens up the Fusion Spells available from certain personas for earlier. That or the fusion weapons the personas in question have earlier in a playthrough of FES. 1:21 I think it is a good idea to elaborate on these changes. Some new events like the School Festival Cleanup was an FES addition. The scenes where you see the s.link characters at the first day of school was an FES addition. Chidori revival is one as well as mentioned. They are mild, although very much appreciated in terms of setting the atmosphere. 2:02 Actually, in some cases, they nerfed quite a lot of the phys skills in another way when transitioning from Vanilla to FES. They reduced the critical rates of many skills. That is why a vast majority of them are locked behind 5% critical rates when they weren't beforehand. Myriad Arrows took the biggest hit from this nerf, as it rivaled Deathbound before critical rate wise. A weird example of a nerf is how they reduced Primal Force's base from 600 to 580 for some reason. With the reduced costs and these nerfs, phys overall became much more weaker compared to its previous counterpart overall in many cases. 2:04 This is just blatant misinformation. The regenerate passives were never "nerfed" between the Vanilla version and FES. They were consistently those "new" values the entire time. Another thing to mention is how people think High Counter has a 50% repel rate in Persona 3 for some reason. That is also incorrect, it has been 20% since the very beginning too. Looking into an actually weird Vanilla to FES change is in some ailments. As it is famously known, Shock guarantees criticals (Fear as well does this). But in the Vanilla version, they actually do not do this. It heightens the critical rate to an absurd degree but it does not guarantee it in Vanilla. 2:12 The protagonist can always equip multiple weapons in Vanilla. The best weapon is literally a 2 hd swd in Vanilla due to a *midgame* sword having +10 all stats (Apocalypse) like an ultimate fusion weapon's effect that's introduced in FES. 2:16 Monad also exists in Vanilla. With the same exact condition to unlock as it is in all versions. That is, doing the Obtain a Bloody Button request and reaching the highest floor of Tartarus before 1/31. Or just unlocking NG+ if not done in the first playthrough. Very much incorrect here. 3:21 Bringing a persona of the same arcana has always been a mechanic in Vanilla. 3:48 Funnily enough, it did fix a bug involving split up. Before, it has a chance for members to be completely blind to the stairs or the teleporter. But this has been completely rectified in FES. Although the introduced bugs can be hilarious as well. For example, Vorpal Blade as a skill wasn't meant to be uninheritable in FES. It sure was not in Vanilla. And it sure was not intended to have a bugged version that appears in the mutation pool. Overall, however. FES is much more polished than the Vanilla version. Vanilla runs slower and has more egregious things to point out. 5:06 there has been a lot of copy pasting of the FES script for the English versions so some incorrect descriptions managed to slip by. This persists to the current PC ports, it's honestly sad. 9:46 I'm not sure where this information is obtained, you can get all fusion weapons in any difficulty. Just that the timing when is much more restrictive for the likes of weapons like Metatronius. But they are possible to obtain. If anything, it would be much more apt to mention how Nihil Weapons being slightly changed to only have one copy of each, counting the nameless weapons restricts what kind of numerous effects from weapons you can have in a single playthrough. As an example, you can have a nameless sword with +10 Ma by using Black Frost as material. In FES you can get another nihil sword to create another 1 hd swd with +10 St this time by using Ose as material. But in FES, a void sword will not spawn anymore since it counts the Black Frost sword as a void sword equivalent. So you have to sacrifice the Black Frost sword to create the Ose sword. You can't have both normally in P3P now. 10:27 It must be noted how the vast majority are not taught how tactics work that well by the game. And the people that recommends it to be experienced doesn't tell the main trick as to how it works. Scanning is key. As it makes the AI generally smarter (except in one case, which is likely a bug. Involving Counter passives). Also this applies to bosses. So scanning a boss has its benefits even though it looks like it doesn't do anything at a first glance to a first player. I personally don't mind either but I believe it's best mentioned to anyone playing with tactics only. Even with Act Freely (which gets too much hate too, frankly. It's actually competent with scanning), you can get by. It is not exactly inherently harder. It all goes into experience. P3P removed this aspect and gave the game some really bad tactic options. So if anyone is interested playing P3P, do not use those at all. They are essentially non functional. 12:32 There is a reason for this. Buffs in general are well, buffed. Beforehand they were doing 1.25x increases. While Portable added in P4's buff increases of 1.33x. So this was a slight balancing decision. 16:07 Persona memory toggle was added. This and Reload's the only Persona 3 versions that has this. Very minor, but it helps a lot for having personas with Auto-Ma buffs. Hopefully these comments are informative for some of these points.
Seriously, portable being the only re-release is a crime.
Yes, but it was either this or another SMT3HD, because both ps2 games use RenderWare, which is why they actually used a new engine for portable and persona 4: Golden. You can thank EA for that, because they own Criterion who made the engine. Yes that Criterion of burnout fame.
@@SpeedsterBlur I wish they would just open source the engine since its not being used or updated anymore, but EA doing something like that is slim unfortunately.
I wish they combined portable content and fes but they’re lazy
Obviously the best thing that they could’ve done was to combine the two into one version or to port them both, but I think that if they had to pick one then they made the right choice. More content, faster pace, party control, more streamlined. It just made sense.
@@dachking6657 and this could be serving as a stopgap for a remake
"When you split up in tartarus, party members who find money give it to you now instead of taking it" Lmao
I can't be too upset by this release as P3P was my introduction to Persona as a whole but the audio issues and AI upscaling producing some genuine errors is a shame.
You started with the remastered version then? Because there was no AI upscaling on PSP
@@thatperson1022 They never implied that they started with the remastered version, they just said that it's a shame the remastered version has those issues
If having full access of your party means I can’t choose my main weapon …yeah no..especially if they keep the the threes type of physical damage
So in other words... thank the lord for Reloaded
Was not expecting this many cameos, this man did his research
Phoenix spotted!!
A remake may be in the works!
my english teacher finished persona 3 portable 2 days before reload was announced, he was not happy
He didn't lose anything, he experienced the awesome old game. I was playing P3 FES after the release. I didn't care about the new game, I still wanted to play the old one first. I think after playing p3 portable I will play Reload last
@@_Kaori_Miyazono_ he didnt like portable. He only chose it because it was the only version of persona 3 on modern consoles at the time, he didnt like the fact that it was basically a visual novel and how clunky it was. So when reload was announced 2 days after he finished portable (which he did only because he was so invested in the story) he was upset.
Addendum Corrections: The protagonist can wield any weapon type in vanilla P3. This wasn't a new addition to FES. Portable is the only version where you can't use other weapon types.
Pin this comment so it doesn't get lost
Portable is not persona 3
@@sakuyaizayoilamaid8373 I mean it's literally called persona 3 lol, you hit the same plot beats as the original
@@ThatOneLegendEmerald The same as the gba visual novel version of silent hill, so they're pretty much the same game despite changing 99% of the stuff
Portable is a remake of Persona 3 for the PSP. It *is* Persona 3... retold. FES is the true enhanced version of P3 but P3P is also pretty good.
I love the female route too much to go back to FES for a long time but I really wish they’d have brought back the 3D environments for this release. Just watching this video reminded me how much atmosphere they added.
Seriously they have enough people in their teams to at least bring back the 3d aspect of FES
@@jspantonio8807 I would love to just have the P3P upgrades in FES, like, I would like to play the female protag route without the P3P downgrades, and Atlus absolutely could have justified doing basically just that, making basically a definitive edition of P3 by having the best parts of both FES and P3P, and while sure its near impossible to make it perfect for everyone, I'm sure it would be very popular compared to any of the other versions if they did the 3D of FES and the gameplay changes of P3P, but now instead we still have the same choice as before but P3P is easier to get
shame lol
From a gameplay perspective, I can see why they would port P3P. But not restoring the visuals is really frustrating. I get that that would have been a lot of work (since they would have to make new cutscenes for the female route and everything else that has been added since Fes), but it really seems to enrichen the experience. And there is simply no need for the big cursor circle on modern consoles. Thank you for this comparison! Very Insightful, even for someone who hasn't played P3 yet (but thinks about getting the remaster)
In my opinion, they should've mixed the good parts of portable and fes and mix it together for the remake so people don't have to argue so it can be labeled as the definitive version of persona 3. Update: well damn, Reload doesn't even do the bare minimum for a "definitive expirence" ya still gotta play fes and portable. Eh, I'll still buy it but leaving out content is disappointing. Re-Update (I'm very funny): ok so the answer is gonna be in reload, that's pretty cool. Sucks that FEMC isn't gonna be there, I'm pretty bothered by it, it's pretty lame that she's stuck on a shoddy remaster
I mean, that's just impossible. You can't mix the two because they are just fundamentally different in core ways that you need to remake from the ground up, FemC route characters don't have models for instance and the gameplay is just different even if you do make Party Control a thing with stuff like no Defend option in FES or Portable equipment being different. We'd all love a combined version obviously, but that is a LOT more work then they spent on anything else in this whole thing.
Atlus only want money
Hope P3 Reload does this
@@TopCape same
@@TopCape it’s confirmed there Will be no femc and The Answer wont be included. Maybe dlc? :/
A few corrections about vanilla Persona 3: - Monad Depths don't exist in the original, it was a FES addition. Also, if you use a cleared P3 vanilla save file in FES, Monad won't be unlocked from the start. EDIT: I was wrong, you actually unlock Monad in vanilla when reaching the end of Tartarus like he mentioned in the video. The thing about the cleared save file is right, though. - The protagonist actually could use any type of weapon in vanilla P3 (except Koromaru's and Aigis'). This was only removed in P3P, as it was the same way in Persona 4. EDIT: There was one more thing I forgot when I wrote my comment: -In vanilla P3 hanging out with a social link while having equipped a persona of the matching arcana gives you extra points (Except for Devil and Sun), this wasn't a FES addition as you mentioned. Also, in Portable the persona doesn't have to be equipped, having it in your inventory is enough, just like P4. Anyways, this was a great job, I've never seen someone go so in depth in the differences between the three versions in a video. Already looking forward to the P4 and 5 video ^_^
I feel it worth mentioning that, in the original and fes, mitsuru's weapon type was classified as "1-handed swords" as well, meaning any weapon in portable exclusive to the protagonist used to also be equippable by mitsuru, and weapons exclusive to mitsuru used to also be equippable by the protagonist. as a result both the male protag and mitsuru end up with less weapon options than any other characters. IIrc, an indirect result of this is some stretches of gameplay where mitsuru (who specializes in magic) has access to weapons with higher attack than makoto. This change, mixed with the antiquated skill inheritance system, also means portable greatly hinders your ability to deal with enemies who have certain physical weaknesses. The video also fails to mention while you can get up the same turn you are knocked down, it uses persona 4's "dizzy" system instead, which imbalances certain boss fights. This is likely the only reason portable now has a "guard" command in place of "wait," as preventing a party member from getting hit by their weakness is now sometimes literally not possible.
Thank you for the correction on the weapons you could use in P3, I'll put that in an addendum comment. Monad 100% exist in vanilla P3. I could believe a vanilla P3 save wouldn't unlock it, though lol
@@AustinSV in vanilla P3, Monad Block is unlock once you reach the top of Adamah Block right before Nyx battle if not mistaken.
@@player2-lightwater914 so, it’s a New Game+ thing?
@@paperluigi6132 Yes and no. For vanilla P3 and FES, Monad Block can be unlocked in first playthrough but Elizabeth's battle can only be fought in New Game Plus. In Portable, Monad Block and Elizabeth/Theodore's battle can be unlocked in first playthrough instead of New Game Plus. Same goes to Margaret's battle.
1:45 Unless you’re talking about something else, Burn my Dread was not removed in FES. It and the new opening alternate with each other if you idle on the title screen for too long.
Nope, wasn't talking about the Burn My Dread opening. This one kzhead.info/sun/ltR-hcyxfHOnp5s/bejne.html
The more I hear about the game, the less I feel knowledegable about it. This deserves a replay for me. My biggest deal-breaker for the steam version was the missing 3d environments, cutscenes, animations and the answer epilouge. When realizing it was a port of P3P, I knew it'd be asking a lot but I really did wish the release somehow had the best of both worlds, but seeing how different the games were each version- it's no wonder they make a revised version right after release. Each iteration feels so different and fresh, even if it's the same base game.
P3P is a black sludge on P3's otherwise perfect history. Nobody should play P3P, apart from maybe doing a second run. FES should always be the defacto method of playing the game, especially so in the case of your first time playing
@@x24b3 Well that’s just your opinion. FeMC, the new music, and being able to control party members are all pluses.
@@SteelSpurs FeMC is an unnecessary addition. How can you defend that route when it just breaks so much of the story. Shinjiro’s [YOUKNOWWHAT] being avoided dulls the story, and a Junpei romance is even worse. Don’t get me started on the social link with the 10 year old boy. Unless you like that. The new music, while good, wasn’t anything better than anything included in the original, or even added in with FES. And if you need to control your party then stick to KZhead lets plays you smooth brain.
@@x24b3 The female route adds a new perspective and does not break the story. The romances (including Ken) are optional, and it's not even a proper romance if you actually look at the cutscenes. And just because people want to control their party members doesn't mean they're smoothbrains. Just say you don't like it instead of saying things suck when they really don't.
@@SteelSpurs it sucks!! P3P is the worst way of playing P3!!! Hell OG P3 is better. You lose the overworld and the game is now a visual novel, and I believe overworld exploration is a core part of modern persona that You SHOULDN’T water down. Your protag is limited on the weapons they can use now, I get they tried to be like P4, but why change this in the first place? You lose the Answer, but this isn’t even a big nitpick. The gameplay was sluggish, but the story and music was phenomenal. On the positive, I will say the new art is gorgeous.
Crazy good work on this, very comprehensive. Thanks!
I personally recommend fes for a first playthrough, and it’s still my preferred version, with a controllable party hack even if I don’t think uncontrollable party members is that bad. Fes just has a much better presentation and it makes the story hit harder then it does in portable
Fes is leaps and bounds better than portable based on it being a 3d environment like every other persona. Portable isn't a bad option but ehhhhhhhh unless you're playing female protag just play fes
This is so well done, so depth, I love it. Great job man
17:23 the logo isnt upscaled, the P3 part is on purposely squiggly, (you can see the logo in bigger quality in the artbooks) a lot of P3 logo fan recreations use a certain font that makes it look flat. But this is an amazing comparison of ports, i didnt even know about the social link meetup limit in original vanilla
Thank you for this! I was worried about this video the most since this game series above all others has some SPICY discussions about version differences and all that, not to mention modding discussion was gonna be brought up and all that and I was worried that was gonna deter from it being a neutral point of view.
Thank you so much, now I know which version I'd get! There are some crucial info right in there.
a correction about P3 FES, it runs at 640 x 448 interlaced just like Persona 4 does.
If I could, I'd like this video twice! Extremely useful.
I will say new moon's balance changes allowed me to finish the answer without feeling like I wanted to die, so thats something to consider if youre playing fes specifically for that content. it won't fix the fact some of those bosses feel designed just to make you mad, but it will make it a little more bearable
After watching many videos, best review for the game by far, Thank you Austin.
One detail you missed is that in FES, weapons and armor (including footwear) found in Tartarus, as well as certain purchases from Officer Kurosawa, will have random beneficial effects applied to them. These ranged from additional max HP/SP, dodge [element], evade [element], resist [element] (which could negate party member weaknesses), varying chance of ailments on weapons, strong vs [arcana], and deadly vs [arcana] (which can stack with other damage multipliers for colossal damage). These random benefits aren't present in P3P and its ports, instead it only gets a few additional weapons and costumes with guaranteed benefits, with most armor and non-fused weapons having no additional effects.
Great video as always! Honestly I've been enjoying P3P on my Switch a good bit, the extra exp and difficulty of Maniac Mode has made it fun to play through again, though I think I still love FES more on the principle of me having played it first Also, to be technical for the upscaling stuffs the logo wasn't actually hit with the upscaler, the font for all the P3 logos has always been that smoothed pixel look
The dialogue in portable reminds me of Fire Emblem Awakening/Fates/Echoes. Characters pop into frame when speaking and slightly fade before changing expression or pose. They’ll make small grunts and sounds when saying certain things in text boxes or say certain important lines in full spoken sentences. There are also full cutscenes, but since Path of Radiance, they have been in 3D. Until Fire Emblem Three Houses, when major cutscenes are animated and drawn out.
dude I was genuinely waiting for this.
Good video all around! I'm coming back to revisiting my old Persona 3 roots and finally figuring out what was the real difference between Fes and the portable version. I had no clue the portable had a "remastered" for the current-gen console and PC. I think I will still play fes since I never played the Aigis story mode. I don't know how much more additional story it adds after the main story ends but I'm excited to get more out of Persona 3 content after I finish playing Reloaded of course.
was literally thinking the other day that it would be cool if you'd do a video on persona games
Thank you for this video!
Awesome video, thanks for all the effort! Can't wait for the videos for 4 and 5. Keep it up!
Thanks for the immense and understandable details! Now it all makes sense and will help me access p3 better.
A very comprehensive comparison vid! Looking forward to the Tales of Symphonia one
That one's gonna be brutal on the switch version.
Thanks for making this important video
As someone who has played every version released from P3FES onward since 2008, this is a great breakdown. IMO, the best experience really is P3FES emulated and modded, and it's easy to mod. The atmosphere really is better in FES, and The Answer is worth a play at least once imo. If you can't play modded for whatever reason, P3P's 'HD' ports are fine but really should've been better. However if you're a Persona fan in general, P3P is worth a play at least once no matter what just for the FeMC route. The PS3 storefront version of P3FES is also a really solid way of playing on a CRT """"as intended""" if you're someone who likes to play games that way.
That's what I kinda did actually lol, Emulated with Party control and the HD Mod in, I greatly enjoyed P3 for a first time playing it like this!
Could you please share a thought on P4? Is it a safe choice that I grab the original PS2 version on PS3(which is the most convenient for me)? I'm thinking if I'd enjoy it so much I could always go for P4G after that.
@@jamesliu8101Play P4G instead. It has dual audio and is missing no content from the original, it only added new stuff.
Ohhhhh, should've waited another 3 months.
You're forgettin that in Portable, around the 3rd semester Margaret shows up to introduce herself and a new feature where you can refight bosses from previous full moons in the game.
I played FES on emulator and downloaded a bunch of mods that were recommended. I didn’t even realize direct control wasn’t included in it originally until this video lol.
This video is no joke! Super extensive!!!!!!!
holy crap i had no idea the answer was 30 hours long nor that they sold it separately in japan, crazy
TLDR emulate the modded FES version that lets you control party members, use your pick of ost, and allows you to undub
17:16 ah classic graphys comperssiron, when you need to zoom and search for specific pixel to find the differance =)
Honestly a fantastic video. While I myself prefer Portable from a gameplay, soundtrack and protagonist perspective I honestly can't say the same for an immersion perspective. Playing both games is highly recommended for anyone diving into the series as FES does receive it's own follow-up in the form of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and P3P gets something of a follow-up for Kotone in Persona Q2 one of the best games in the series.
At 1:45 the video mentions that a hidden opening was removed in FES? Ive never heard of this. I do know FES contains both the new opening and the original opening if you let the game idle on menu.
There were 2 openings in the original base release: the one that's still in FES and a different one for idling on the title screen.
@@Neoaltmint i see. i think i found, i guess its this one: kzhead.info/sun/ltR-hcyxfHOnp5s/bejne.html
@@pedrozanon7245 Idk if anything similar exists in the original JP release, but that "opening" was just a trailer created before the game's release. Atlus has officially uploaded it here: kzhead.info/sun/h5xuXbOar2ufeHA/bejne.html Original Persona 4 also had something similar, where one of the game's trailers played if you waited on the title screen. As I said, I don't know if anything specific was there instead for the original JP releases, as obviously they wouldn't just have english trailers, and the JP trailers were different.
Option 3: wait until early 2024
Great video! Just started Persona 3 Portable! Just finished Summer Vacation!
how did you download it?
@@DarkKnight-kr1me it's in the PS store
as the one who only finish fes (journey) seeing you explaining that p3p can continue from the highest point that not check point is new to me
It's really odd Mega Man ZX & ZX: Advent (Nintendo DS games) have uncompressed audio dialogue/voice acting (and cutscenes) for the Legacy Collection, thanks to Capcom's preservation, but Atlus didn't use or preserve high quality assets for P3Portable. Then there's cases where the audio is worse than the original PSP release. What the heck? To play devil's advocate, obviously ZX had a lot less HQ Assets to keep track of compared to a JRPG. ZX has less cutscenes than Persona 3. But the idea they didn't think a rerelease would get rereleased is ridiculous.
Too be honest I think it was inti creates that saved the old files not capcom.
Got a good news for you. It's getting a remake
If they had to choose once to port, for me personally, I am happy that it was Portable. As a female player I *really* appreciate the inclusion of FeMC. And I don't own a PSP. But... I do own a PS2, and I get that FES has a lot of important things in presentation/story that P3P doesn't. So I'll be looking for a PS2 copy of FES for the first-time playthrough, before doing P3P FeMC second.
Thanks for the video
I came here for the latest update in the last persona 3 reload game that is releasing now, so Ill watch the video and then pray that an update comes out soon
My preferred style was the HD mod and party control mod for FES. Party control just was more fun and strategic for me
They really should've combined FES and Portable together for the 2023 release Add back in 3d cutscenes, 3d exploration, all the things that the psp couldn't handle bc of hardware
Please do a Tales of Symphonia comparison!
22:53
@@jeanbiroute Looking forward to it :D
I enjoyed your comparison of Persona 3 versions. Are you going to a comparison when Persona 3 Reload comes out in 2024? I was going to purchase Persona 3 Portable on Steam but decided to wait until next year when Persona 3 Reload comes out. I am hoping that Reload may have a combination of FEZ and Portable when it comes to options?
For first playthrough FES is a must play. Optionally with party control hack You literally don't have cutscenes in portable, only VN approximation of them
Yeah, I would not even play a max difficulty Persona game without controlling every party member. At max difficulty one bad move it's game over.
Nah people should play the version with a better gameplay experience for this GAME first as visuals aren't everything, especially for a game that has already aged anyways graphically...
@@V-Jes It's a story based game where over half the experience is about the overarch story and the characters. The better visuals are not just sharper graphics, it goes WAY beyond that. The better visuals are fully 3D environments, the game is much more dynamic with it's storytelling with 3D graphics because moments like Elizabeth dancing, or balancing on the bars in the park are completely absent, and text can only do so much to express what the PS2 version actually showed you. Or Koromaru's final dog walking where every character is doing their own thing without a single line of dialogue needed to express what is going on. Beyond that the ending is so much more powerful seeing Makoto passing away on Aigus' lap, rather than just seeing Aigus' character portrait. And the whole game is like this, it's not just a visual downgrade, it's a storytelling downgrade too. Also the gameplay is at best a side-step, not an upgrade, and at worse it's also downgrade like the visuals and the story.
@@RegalPixelKing Aand most of that story is just the characters waiting for a full moon and maybe adding a new Persona user to the group if they find 1, with the actual story itself being identical in all versions, while considering how often everyone who brings up FES being "superior" also brings up a mod/hack to the combat just shows how much better the combat is in P3P overall...
@@V-Jes I mean that's all of the modern Persona games overarching plots. The characterization is really where the 3D environments shine. Also I actually enjoy the AI party mechanic and prefer it over P3P. The game was balanced around that mechanic and that mechanic also serves the story and characters better as well because it contextualizes Makoto as the party leader. In the heat of a real-life fight you wouldn't be able to tell somebody what to do, but you can point them in the direction of what they should be trying to achieve. I could write a whole ass nerdy essay on why FES' battle system slaps harder than my dad, but I can't be bothered right now.
Answer: wait for Persona 3 Reload
Yep
Knowing Atlus they will probably do a Royal with P3Reload years later.
3:23 Small mistake but the matching arcana bonus actually was in the original p3.
One day I hope for one big mod, that uses all the good mods to enhance FES without the struggle. Because oh god it IS hard to mod it and make it work properly.
If only renderware was updated to modern standards
Damn I did not realise that Portable removed most of the 3D areas. Still haven't played the game, I'm sad there isn't a "definitive edition" to play
P3fes is literally the definitive edition lmao
Boy do I have some information for you
I wish there was a version that combines FES visual presentartion with Portables gameplay upgrades. I hope that rumored remake is real.
Well nice break trough not aware with those changes Auto subscribe lmao
Gonna need an update in a year!
While i played person 4 quite alot ill give persona 3 portable a shot in the ps4 (i have fes on the ps3 to appreciate both sides of the coin) thank you very much for the comparison review
With the remaster, this video will be soon out of date.
I must be weird, but I actually like the PSP version with the visual novel style
Can you please do the new Tales of Symphonia remaster? Octopath Traveler 2 would also be very interesting.
7:10 This is actually really interesting. As a P3P fan, I never could put my finger on why I preferred its style of cutscenes to FES (aside from the more appealing text box and choice box), but I get it now. The pacing is so much fucking better. It eliminates the awkward pauses that plague even the more modern games. Even between lines that don't have any animation, but _especially_ when they do
I just started playing p3p 2 days ago. I dont mind the lack of 3d exploration but now knowing it was a thing leaves me feeling like....Why?! I dont care if it was "longer" ive spent so much time with 4 and even longer in 5 i enjoy it. So other than that im enjoying p3p. My first intro to persona was the fighting game p4arena cause i love fighting games. Its cool to see the the story the characters in the fighting game come from.
Can't wait until we have this whole argument over which is the definitive edition again next year.
I don't mind Visual novels and I like a few of them, but it's a different case for P3. I got bored of it and couldn't pay attention to the story so I dropped it (after 20 hours of gameplay) and moved on to P4. Then I find out a couple months later, how much I'm missing out on the FES 💀
Really amazing comparison video! I still don't get the party control thing bothering so many people. When I played through fes it felt fine. The game is balanced around it, so I enjoyed it plenty.
It depends on how much control they like. The AI party members works well as long you scan the enemies (so they learn weaknesses) and use the Tactics properly. I find that using Tactics cut down the "Mitsuru spam Marin Karin" because you tell her to focus elsewhere.
@@dojiz7242 gameplay tip for anyone reading this who goes on to play FES, scanning also tells the AI about ailment resistances, even though the player can't see this. this means mitsuru won't use marin karin at all if it can't hit, and "act freely" mitsuru will use it significantly less if charm is highly resisted. If you still wanted her to go for it "heal/support" mitsuru will often do so, provided her own sp isn't low enough to trigger spirit drain and nobody's hp is low enough to trigger diarama/diarahan. For the same reason, it also stops koromaru from spamming evil smile, but I've never actually heard anyone complain about him doing that.
@@Namingway248 Mainly because you don't always run Koromaru in case the enemies can't be Mudo'd and he have his weakness to Hama (instant death). So you're better of bringing your own, or just use Junpei for Agi spells (when it's not your turn). Plus you know, because people don't know, they're likely annoyed by Mitsuru using Marin Karin instead of Bufu.
Truly, the lack of 3D areas, and cut-scenes is a much bigger deal breaker.
Yeah, but people are just used to having control over all their party members in traditional RPGs. It doesn't bother me, it kinda reminds me of Kingdom Hearts party members and how you can have them focus on healing/attacking/defence based on what you'd like. People are just used to having direct control and feel like something was taken away, even though it wasn't.
Does anyone know if P3P Remaster has been updated? I saw this SMT-focused account claiming that their sources confirmed a patch was coming to fix stuff like the audio compression, but I don't know if that was legit.
TIME TO PLAY THE P3 REMAKE BABYYYYYY LETS GOOOO
Looking forward for the update/remake of this video in a few months :) Will be interesting to see if P3R is going to completely replace FES and making it a question of "Play P3R, then Portable for the female protagonist". But who knows, maybe they'll blunder it and make FES, Portable, and Reload all still must-play games for the full experience.
There may or may also not be Kotone anime Cutscenes in the works 👀. Good vid! (While I may have gotten the remaster... It's still worse then the psp version in terms of audio and other misc stuff, only got for molding purposes)
Well, now that P3 Reload is announced, I can understand why they ported P3P and not FES and why it wasn’t tuned more .
Gotta update this video now!
21:22 Gotta love that Trollface mod! 😆
I was wondering why everything was 2d when I played P3. I came off of playing P4G and P5, so my reaction to the 2d was "damn, this game old as hell if there's no 3d" and got confused when guides online we're saying mitsuru was doing Marin Karin constantly on her own. I just thought they were stupid and didn't know that the tactics button was there. This clears up a lot.
Yeah a new video😃😃
Get this out of my face, I'm waiting for P3 Reload
Will you do Persona 1 and 2 as well?
Why are you showing Yuko when you mention the Persona 4 cameo? Besides, there are two of them, a different one depending on if you play Makoto or Kotone.
3:15 PFFFFFFFFFT Okay that's hilarious. Freaking Tanaka, I knew he was untrustworthy even BEFORE knowing he was a sequence break.
AI upscaling is such a cheap thing to do... Thanks for the video, I'm confident I own the best version of the game now.
If I still had a PS2 I'd buy a copy of FES instead of buying the remaster after seeing this honestly.
i actually like the P3P grainey lower quality music more cause it fits the lo fi rap better imo
If you have a strong enough computer to emulate PS2 games, I highly recommend Persona 3 FES modded. There are some amazing mods out there ranging from game-changing to QoL.
I have a phone who can emulate ps2 and tnx I'll try the ps2 version
when atlus remastered and some remake the p3 for psp they was re-used some ideal with some content from P4
If you cover all ports of Persona 5, I hope you title it "All will be reviewed!" Although to do that on a 150hr+ game is insanity
Personally fes ps2 was all i needed to appreciate p3, I found more about femc from Q games and watching vids.
Kinda curious of which version to get, if any here. I got the psp version cheap in a used games bin waayy back and it seems this is just that game only prettier. I won't like that I don't take out my PSP as often as my Switch... but even then it feels like this game on Steam could get mods that sharpen some of those AI-backgrounds. But do I really want to spend money on a game just to get a slightly prettier version when it'a functionally about the same as the PSP version? Decisiona, decisions...
There's already P3P Cutscene mod for PSP (even though it's only English Dub) and PC Remastered (Dual Dub, JP & ENG) Version, restored pretty much half of the experience of the original storytelling even though it's still lack of 3D environmental except Tartarus. And also the Manual Skills Inherit mod also on the way which the remastered still lack of compared to other remastered. Better get FES smh.
Moving on from final midtasy to peaksona
I once played P3 in the PSP and did not like it, because the story is presented more like a VN and I cannot even remember any single moment in it. However, when I played the game again on FES version, i like it a lot more because of the 3D cutscenes + the 2D anime cutscenes makes it a lot more more memorable. I can live with having AI-only allies if I can have more memorable experience with the story and characters in it
I think I'll grab FES on my PS3. It really sucks they remastered Portable instead of just adding improvements from Portable to FES and then remastering that.
A great video. Personally I just think Portable is better in pretty much every way, but I know that's not the popular opinion.
Thank god we have the remake coming, it's the first good version of the game since the PS2.