When was persona 3 released

Yukari wants this alternative because she wants another chance to save the protagonist, which Mitsuru supports her on. However, the rest of the team feels this is too dangerous, which spurs tension between the group. Now unable to agree on how to use the keys, SEES determine that they must fight each other to decide. Aigis, Metis and Fuuka claim all eight keys, which fuse into the Final Key.

Yukari attempts to steal the key from Aigis, but Metis reveals that it's impossible. Yukari finally admits her grief over the protagonist. She made a promise as well, but unlike Aigis, it was to herself. She promised to try to change the world into a peaceful one to make people stop wishing for the Fall , but admits she can't be that person and doesn't care about anything but seeing the protagonist again.

The party, feeling her sorrow, comforts her. With her resolution strengthened, she decides to respect Aigis' decision of leaving the past the way it was. After debating on what to do now, they discover a third, new door in the Abyss of Time, which the group uses without the Final Key to travel to the moment the protagonist sealed Nyx from the world. Metis explains that the purpose of the seal created by the protagonist was not to seal away Nyx herself who is not inherently evil , but to prevent humanity's despair from calling out to Nyx and bringing about the Fall once more.

The subconscious will of mankind to despair and wish for death constantly rebirths a monster called Erebus that summons Nyx to destroy the world; Metis implies that Erebus's contact with Nyx is what caused the Fall that was prevented by SEES.

SEES realizes that the wishes that created Erebus also came from them, and so they fight it, and are able to defeat it. Mitsuru points out that Erebus will return regardless, as humans will never stop wishing for death. It is here they learn of Metis' true origins: that she is a manifestation of a part of Aigis's personality.

Distraught over the death of the protagonist, she no longer wanted to live like a human, and wished to return to being a machine. However, after being set free from the Abyss of Time, Aigis changes her mind, deciding to continue to attend school like before.

The Journey , also known as Episode Yourself in the Japanese version, is an enhanced version of Persona 3. It includes the entire original game, but with several changes:.

Unfortunately, in doing so, they release the herald of Nyx , the Anthropomorphic Personification of death, who had been split in twelve by Aigis and sealed inside the protagonist ten years ago. Graduate from the Story : Features this in both the good and bad ending, even though the hero and the majority of the team are not graduating that year. In the Japanese version, Mitsuru will sometimes speak in this manner, reflecting her cultured status.

The soundtrack is full of these, thanks to the vocalists, especially Lotus Juice. Gratuitous Foreign Language : Almost the entire soundtrack is in English, despite being sung entirely by Japanese people. Lotus Juice's rapping doesn't sound too bad because he was raised in America, but Yumi Kawamura's vocals can be very, very difficult to make out.

The only Japanese vocal songs in the game are the credits themes of both the Journey and the Answer , and "Soul Phrase", the new intro theme for the Portable remake. Mitsuru occasionally speaks English in the Japanese version. Changed to French in the English release. Bebe, the foreign exchange student who mixes Japanese in with what seems to be Bebe doesn't have any voice acting, all of his dialogue coming in text boxes a French accent.

In the Japanese version, his speech uses a lot of katakana implying odd stressing as well as using odd, archaic pronouns referring to himself as "sessha" and tagging "-dono" when referring to the protagonist. The song "Changing Seasons" contains French proverbs in the breakdown section, and the street names in the town map are also written in French. Even Spanish shows up occasionally in the English version. After finishing a battle, Shinjiro may quip "Adios, asshole," and late in the game Aigis may yell " Hasta la vista!

Bebe will also start using "Hasta la vista" if the protagonist tells him that phrase when he asks how to say "goodbye" in Japanese. Grief Song : The credits theme, "Memories of You". The Grim Reaper : An incredibly strong Bonus Boss called Death stalks Tartarus and will chase you down if you remain on a floor for too long. He forgoes the Sinister Scythe in exchange for dual revolvers.

Said revolvers also have 3 foot long barrels. Nyx Avatar is the Anthropomorphic Personification of death. Interacting with the TV after each dungeon will show the same news report. Group Picture Ending : The remaining members of S. Subverted however, since they quickly found out that their task was not over. Guest-Star Party Member : Shinjiro Aragaki is this in a roundabout way, as he's only available for one in-game month before his Plotline Death. This is covered up by the fact that his Persona, Castor , can learn a full list of skills up to Level 70, whereas your other party members will learn their last skill in the mid 40's, and cannot learn more until they obtain their Ultimate Personas , but chances are he won't learn them unless you deliberately go and level grind him.

Guide Dang It! Made slightly easier and slightly harder for the female protagonist's route as more social links are available at night but she has two links Shinjiro and Ryoji which have a set time frame one month for both to max out. The female protagonist's few romantic social links can be difficult to turn in that direction, especially in comparison to the male protagonist's automatic romances. Though Shinjiro's is often cited because one would not usually spend time with a Social Link after raising it to maximum , Akihiko deserves a mention because he requires multiple flags, and a single mistake will keep them friends only.

For even more fun, it's possible to completely break that Link altogether. In addition to the flags for Akihiko, if the player reaches rank 7 of his Link before the October Full Moon event , then it freezes until after the event ends, coinciding with Shinjiro's death.

This can trip up many first-timers doing a blind run. As for Ryoji 's Link: Anyone who played the original P3 or FES would realize that he only shows up for a month and thus would want to take the opportunity to spend time with him whenever possible , but woe unto someone who thinks that, oh, they have plenty of time.

It is very easy to make their Link impossible to finish if the player doesn't take, and accept, every chance to hang out with him.

If one of the unsaid rules is broken, the protagonist will immediately be hit with a Megidolaon that does damage — and their health caps at There is a pattern to the attacks, if one even makes it far enough to pick it out, but that doesn't make things much easier. Guilt-Based Gaming : Social Links are largely this, as it fits standard Dating Sim mechanics, including choosing the best response to advance the link and avoid hurting feelings, as well as choosing whom to spend time with wisely to avoid jealousy and other unfortunate episodes.

The game also guilts trip you for refusing a Social Link's offer to spend time with them, especially if the player refuses to spend Christmas Eve with another character. The Bad Ending is certainly this, as it involves you deciding to erase everyone's memories of the game's events so that they can live blissfully ignorant of the apocalypse until it happens.

However, the ending sees fit to show nothing but scenes of the main cast gleefully chatting and jovially laughing about their "bright" future. And Aigis who is a machine and thus exempt from the memory erasure makes a sad appearance watching over doomed friends who never knew her. Guns Are Worthless : Aigis and Takaya use firearms as their primary weapons, but they aren't especially powerful. Though in cutscenes, Takaya kills both Shinjiro and Junpei who manages to get better with minimal shots from his revolver.

Gun Twirling : The MC and Mitsuru do this when they use their Evokers; seeing as how they're not guns either way, gun safety isn't that much an issue. Guys Smash, Girls Shoot : With the exception of the protagonist, all male party members use melee weapons, Yukari and Aigis use ranged weapons. Then this trope is played straight if you recruit Akihiko and Aigis in your party.

Happy Ending Override : At the end of the main storyline, Aigis, while obviously a bit saddened by the protagonist's death, seems to have been expecting it and accepts it. By the time of The Answer , which was only added as part of the Updated Re-release , Aigis has completely lost herself with him dead, and our hero's death was completely unexpected by both her and the rest of SEES. This is to offset the plethora of Anti-Frustration Features that are added to the same game. Hard Work Hardly Works : This is averted when it comes to increasing the hero's non-combat statistics.

Before exams, he'll need to have studied quite regularly to get the most out of it, and one of the characters even tells him that studying a bit each day rather than just cramming will go further. Headphones Equal Isolation : At least at first. The protagonist is shown listening to a remix of "Burn My Dread" in the first scene, but his headphones become an accessory after that.

Hellhound : Although Cerberus appears in nearly every game in the MegaTen family, this is one of the few games where he actually looks like his mythological namesake: a three-headed hound.

Naturally, his elemental affinities are Dark and Fire. Hell Is That Noise : While you're exploring Tartarus , if you spend too much time on any given floor, Death a Bonus Boss that's powerful enough to be a Hopeless Boss Fight for the vast majority of the game will spawn.

And start chasing you. When Death spawns — and for as long as it's following you — it makes the very distinctive noise of rattling chains. When you hear that noise, it's time to run. The Hero Dies : Loosely implied in the good ending, where the main character uses a move that requires all of his HP to seal Nyx away. Then when the game picks up again a month later, he keeps thinking to himself how very tired he is and the game ends with him closing his eyes and finally "falling asleep" in Aigis's lap as the light shines on him and the screen fades to white.

Outright confirmed in The Answer , where the main character's death is the main source of conflict. Completely averted in the manga adaptation. The entirety of SEES undergoes one after Shinjiro's death and later learning about the upcoming apocalypse. Heroic Sacrifice : Ryoji in one ending, the Main Character in another. Prior to either, Mitsuru's father and Shinjiro.

He makes references to events that involve his own then-upcoming adventure. Hidden Heart of Gold : Shinjiro Aragaki. Residential badass foul-mouthed punk in imposing clothes , enjoys and fosters an extremely intimidating image and would rather be seen that way, even by SEES, with a soft spot for dogs and cooking.

If you spend time with him, he tells the protagonist to take care of their health and enjoy their life after recovering from a cold.

It's rather ironic, seeing as they both make a Heroic Sacrifice. The Moon S. Link clarifies that the jerkassery is more or less a facade with good reason. He drops the act completely when he spends time with the heroine, and even has a fairly attractive smile. It's even called as such by Ikutsuki in a cutscene very early in the game. Ikutsuki : "The Dark Hour occurs every day at twelve midnight: you could say its the 'hidden' hour. Tropes I-L. I Am Spartacus : Happens twice between a member of S.

Junpei claims to be the leader of his group, which causes Chidori to kidnap him though this seems to be a case of him trying to impress her. Then during October 4, Ken claims himself to be the Mission Control , and he would have been shot by Takaya if not for Shinjiro's sacrifice. However, the two are reversed. Boaz is supposed to be on the left and Jachin on the right. Idle Animation : The male protagonist in the PS2 versions will perform several idle animations when standing still for a given period of time, such as stretching his arms to his shoes, will put his hands in his pockets, and then look around, yawn, and stretch.

In all versions of the game during battle sequences, the characters will also have idle animations while waiting for their turns, such as Aigis doing her iconic robotic pose. Ignorance Is Bliss : Lampshaded by Ken in the dorm during December where the "normal people" don't even have to worry about the coming of Nyx and The Fall. Ryoji also makes this case to the protagonist shortly before Nyx's arrival, and the ending you get is determined by whether or not you agree with him. Immunity Disability : One of the reasons why fighting the Bonus Boss is hard and tedious.

You can at most resist her attacks. If you happen to null, absorb or reflect the element she's going to use, you get a damage Megidolaon to your face instead. This is an exception however, as other times being immune will greatly help you throughout the game. Implausible Hair Color : Everyone but Aigis and Bebe is Japanese, thus logically should have dark brown or black hair, but The female MC has a fairly light auburn.

Mitsuru's hair color is a fairly dark red. Chidori's is a very bright red, though given her style , it's likely dyed. Yukari's hair is a light brown. Improbable Weapon User : For every weapon type, there are one or two gag weapons, all of them silly, yet most of them are rather powerful.

The highlights include a toy bow with suction cup arrows, a baseball bat with nails used as a two-handed sword , a bus stop sign used as a hammer , umbrellas used like Mitsuru's rapiers , a steel pipe used as a one-handed sword , some kitchen knives, a broom used as a spear , a bone for Koromaru , a Rocket Punch for Aigis , Jack Frost plush toys used as boxing gloves, of all things , and in the PSP version, there are lacrosse sticks and hockey sticks for the female protagonist.

The bus stop sign, which only Shinjiro can use at least in the PSP version is the most famous one; it reappears in Persona 4 and makes some funny cameos in a CD drama and a light novel, where Shinjiro actually wields it. Infallible Babble : In the beginning of the game, while you're being told things like "Time never waits, it delivers all to the same end," you're also told that the main character has one year. Even if you did read it in the beginning, the meaning you get from it would be painfully different from what actually happens.

You will occasionally hear students talking about rumors in the entrance of the campus. Most of which reflect the current state of the city, or plot. While some would give a hint about newly-introduced characters, clubs, or stores - a clue about a potential Social Link that you might unlock from that day onwards. And once the screen fades to black, Igor waxes poetic on the Main Character's death, as stated by the introductory quote of this page.

Instant Death Bullet : Junpei gets shot by Takaya once and dies immediately. He gets better, though. Doubly dubious in that he had no trouble with Chidori stabbing him with axes just five minutes earlier thanks to Gameplay and Story Segregation. Averted by Shinji. It takes two, and even then he still has enough energy to get up and walk a few steps away. Interface Spoiler : Played straight at times and averted at others.

There's a First-Episode Twist in that the full moon counter is visible in the corner of the screen from the very beginning, even before the full moon has any significance whatsoever. It's also easy to get suspicious of the game being almost over on two counts when you beat the last full moon Shadow.

First, you still don't have a maxed Fool link at Rank 6 before the fight , which is independent of your actions, and second, the aftermath of Shinjiro's death has each member of SEES beginning to find their resolve and gain their Ultimate Personas. When you face the November full moon Shadow, only Akihiko, Ken, and Fuuka have them; in fact, if you talk to Aigis one night after Fuuka's transforms, she'll even mention that more transformations are on the way.

On the other hand, the game goes out of its way to avert this by adding useless information to the interface in order to make it consistent. Fuuka and her Persona have a full set of battle stats even though she never enters battle.

Similarly, Shinjiro's Persona has a full set of skills he can learn as he levels, even though he'll die before learning most of them unless the player goes out of their way to level-grind him during the month of September. Another aversion comes in hiding the true length of the game by the amount of learned skills.

For cast members, you might underestimate how far they'll meaningfully progress but you later unlock the second form of the characters' personas, which opens spells further than they would otherwise have learned. A Double Subversion comes in when the game attempts to hide how long the game is playable. Normally, a player would expect the game to go through every day up until the end of the game, but this is not the case. Additionally, the month of January is the last month fully playable if on the Good End.

However, the game skips to March 3 in both endings and plays until March 5 March 4 is only playable in the Good End , which is significant since this is before the Graduation Reception, a diverging point in both the Bad End and Good End.

Even though the protagonist faces Nyx by himself, his social links and fellow S. The game announces when the "clock" progresses to the next time of day or the next day. Feel free to take the monorail back and forth across the city as many times as you want while doing Fetch Quests; it takes no time. But leave your dorm on Sunday, realize right outside the door that you forgot to do something, and try to go back in? The act of walking through the door will take all day, and it'll be evening by the time you make it inside.

Irony : The bad ending is basically your former party members discussing the future, eventually deciding to celebrate it with a karaoke session. They're all about to die, along with the rest of the world , and no one knows this. At all. And it's all your fault. Knowing that the Messiah Persona is based from Jesus Christ , it can be ironic to look at the Persona's skills and know that it is immune to Pierce attacks. Irrelevant Sidequest : Justified by having either Elizabeth or Theodore wishing to test your resourcefulness and power or just indulge their curiosity about the outside world, such as ordering you to obtain a takoyaki.

Most of the time the result is a fairly generic weapon with a special effect dependant on the Arcana of the Persona used, but certain combinations will yield mythological weapons which are easily the best in the game. It Makes Sense in Context : "The Fall" is not a term that's mentioned a lot, but it is very significant.

It's All Upstairs from Here : Tartarus is the first, last, and pretty much only dungeon in the game. However, this only works once per battle. It's about as strong as you'd expect. The "severe damage" forms of the elemental spells, only available from high-level personae that mostly require you to finish a social link to unlock.

All except the fire spell are single-target only, but by that point you should have the SP to spend quite comfortably. Last Disrespects : During Shinji's service, you overhear two upperclassmen complaining about how they don't want to waste time sitting through it, and that he was probably 'just some punk'. One then asks your hero if he happened to know the guy, then dismisses the possibility, as you're just a junior. Lawful Stupid : Mr. Ekoda, the classic literature teacher with seniority in Gekkoukan High.

He does what he believes is in the best interest of the school and his students, which includes covering up the disappearance of Fuuka caused by bullies to save the bullies ' reputation, 'and suspending Saori because of a gossip magazine's false story about her being promiscuous, and nearly suspending the main character, just for being her only friend.

Mitsuru's punishment for him of the former act, and Miss Ounishi and Toriumi, his two kohai, brushing him off to support Saori's Moment of Awesome wholeheartedly were definitely well deserved. Er, we mean Hell Biker. Bonus points for its original Japanese name being Hell's Angel. The Gigas Shadows are blatantly patterned after Hulk Hogan. When it appears to Junpei and Akihiko that the main character has "picked up" Aigis, Akihiko complains that the protagonist didn't even say anything. If you try to add Ken to your party in The Answer , he will sometimes mention that he needs to be stronger because his level is low.

Leeroy Jenkins : Junpei gets suckered into doing this during the monorail incident. Naturally you end up having to catch up with him and help him out, but he isn't too happy about it. Leitmotif : The main melody of the ending song, Memories of You is part of the song that plays during Social Link scenes, Joy.

Let Them Die Happy : Essentially the motivation behind Ryoji's request to kill him — doing so would erase everyone's memories of the Dark Hour and their knowledge of their own doom. Level Grinding : The whole point of Tartarus, lampshaded frequently. Unless you level grind, the Full Moon Shadows and quite a few Guardians will kill you.

A somewhat justifiable point of contention with this game is that the game pretty much has the Dating Sim phase and the Level Grinding phase. Level-Up at Intimacy 5 : the Social Links. You can also screw up your links and reverse the related arcana, meaning it can't be leveled up until you fix it.

Screwing up then means you Break it, which is not good. Yukari occasionally mentions having friends outside the group, but is never shown with them. Living with the Villain : Major plot twist. Locomotive Level : The first boss of the game, Priestess, hijacks a train you're investigating.

Lonely Piano Piece : "Living with Determination", which plays during sad scenes both in the main story and in Social Links. It receives a Triumphant Reprise as the dorm theme for the final month of the game. Losing the Team Spirit : Following the Protagonist's death, the group broke up into factions and started fighting each other, setting up the story for the Answer.

Lovecraft Lite : Mankind accidentally summons an Eldritch Location from the sea of humanity's collective unconscious that slowly starts consuming the minds of everyone around it and turning them into The Heartless.

While the game can be at times depressing, and death is a major theme of it, ultimately the game is optimistic enough that it falls under this rather than an outright Cosmic Horror Story. While it does come at a cost, the bad guy is able to be defeated, no apocalypse comes, and peace is restored to the world. Love Hotels : One Boss Battle takes place inside one.

Ironically enough, it takes place on July 7th, the date of the Tanabata festival. Non-ironically, it involves the battle against the Lovers arcana. Love Hurts : As demonstrated by The Answer, where Aigis and Yukari are both plagued by painful memories of the protagonist. Love Makes You Crazy : Yukari's attempt to win the key and go back in time to see the Main Character again even if it might undo their victory over Nyx and doom the world. Lucky Translation : Starvicks is described as being a combination of "coffee" and "cough" syrup.

Naturally even funnier in English than in the original Japanese. Lyrical Dissonance : "When the Moon Reaches for the Stars", the standard Port Island theme, is a happy-sounding J-pop with lyrics about a person who Cannot Spit It Out to a crush and feels incredibly depressed about it.

It doesn't help that Yumi Kawamura's extremely thick accent makes the English lyrics hard to make out. Said proverbs are about grief and loneliness. It's an upbeat and cheery tune MacGuffin Melee : The Answer has one point where all of the main party members are fighting each other over their individual pieces of the Key of Time. Magikarp Power : Odin is pretty unremarkable at first well, by the standards of a level 63 persona , anyway If that doesn't kill the enemy outright, it's also guaranteed to put them in Shocked status, meaning any subsequent physical attacks against them will critical.

Daisoujou hardly seems worth the effort to fuse The Best Persona Songs On Spotify You Can't Overlook Persona soundtracks are iconic for good reason, but some of the series' lesser known entries have incredible songs, too. Persona 3 animated film out this November in Japan Adaptation of Persona 3 video game may be first in unspecified number of films.

Persona 4 gets PS Vita version, fighting game spin-off Atlus teams up with BlazBlue developer for brawler; Persona 5 also in the works with series director, lead character designer, and composer returning. Show me more. Use your keyboard! A PlayStation Network download version is also expected. The Collector's Edition includes a page hardback art book, an A3 poster, a slipcase and other gubbins. P3P, as it's abbreviated, has been out in Japan and the US for ages.

Luckily for importers it's region free. Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our policy. Jump to comments Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable.