As far as Persona 3 Portable is concerned, the word of the day is definitely streamlined, and legitimately so because the game moves from screen to screen swiftly, even without the optional install.
I got the chance to view a demo of the title today when Atlus harnessed the power of the Internet to give an overview of the game’s most notable new feature, the ability to play as either gender.
The trade off is that “anime” cut-scenes have been replaced with more character portrait interactions, and that players now navigate the world with an icon rather than running around loose in it – well except for the dungeons of course.
Pressing square brings up a quick menu that allows players to jump to different locations now, admittedly making P3P a more ideal game on the go. Whether or not that’s a huge loss is debatable. One could lament that loss of immersion, but at the same time locations are freshened with a new 2D art perspective, keeping the game focused on character interchanges and battling with Persona.
At the end of the day, Persona 3 was a huge success for Atlus, so the logic behind this version is pretty easy to follow. The female narrative potential is a bit of a predictable addition, but at the same time not. Plenty of games come back without an option like that.
In demonstrating this new narrative path, Atlus couldn’t find a guy to hit on at the mall and we had to go clothes shopping instead – maybe I’ll have to watch how much interest I express over this angle.
I very much remember when I picked up Persona 3, and was taken in by everything from the bonus stuffed box it came in to the anime introduction that helped me sink into the couch and begin losing the first of many hours to it. It’s difficult to detach myself from that when talking about this PSP version. There’s a point where you can streamline a game too much, not that I’m saying that’s on display here, just something that’s on my mind.
I do think the intro to this version says something to that thought, that there is such a thing as too slick, but beyond that I’ll just have to wait until I get my hands on a copy of the game.
I own both Persona 3 and P3 FES so I’m set. But trading the anime cutscenes so this could get release on PSP is a biiiig no no.
Comment by EdEN — May 11, 2010 @ 2:57 pm
Seems to have been a consistency issue, not wanting the male path to have cutscenes and the female one not to. The added consolation they offered was that the original voice cast had returned to do added dialogue for the female path, but yea, Persona 3 anime, sigh.
Comment by Jamie Love — May 11, 2010 @ 3:31 pm
I’m not upset about the loss of the anime cutscenes & making it easier to jump around the game world (portable friendly) because I own both P3 & P3 FES also. In fact I don’t mind if they change things up for any “remakes”, because to be honest, I can always go play the original game if I want to. At the same time… whenever remakes or ports are made after the release of the original game… I always hope they take all the best parts of the game and add to it, never detract from it, i.e. make the ultimate version of said game. That never seems to be the case however… everyone has different expectations.
Comment by Ujn Hunter — May 13, 2010 @ 2:00 pm
I think Persona 1 on PSP was a legitimate attempt to just make the ultimate version of a game, to an extent because no one wanted to tackle the dungeon crawling system. Persona 2 is the one to watch, cause with two different releases no one is ever, ever going to agree on that.
Comment by Jamie Love — May 13, 2010 @ 2:03 pm
I’m with Ujn on this: A remake is supposed to add to a game,not take away elements.
Comment by EdEN — May 13, 2010 @ 3:39 pm