Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable
[Four stars]
Atlus/PSP
Rs 2200
You play a Japanese school girl. You go to school during the day, flirt with your classmates in the afternoon and oh, slay demons at night. Welcome to the world of Persona 3 where you don the role of a student moonlighting as a sexy-ish demon slayer.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer comparisons aside, this is one hell of an addictive title just like the PS2 versions before it. While it’s missing the 3D backdrops to dates, classrooms and other activities that were present in the PS2 version, they’ve been replaced with slick 2D art that makes it look all the better. In addition to this travelling from one location to another is much faster given that you just have to point and click rather than walk over.
As if combining the best elements of console Japanese RPGs and dating-sims wasn’t enough, the gods at Atlus decided to top it off with an occult-themed storyline that would give other RPGs an inferiority complex. With a peppy J-pop infused track thrown in, P3P is one of the more unique titles on the PSP to make it out of Japan.
Needless to say if you’re a fan of the PS2 games, like RPGs or just in need of something different for your PSP you can’t go wrong with Persona 3 Portable. Fear not the “3” in its moniker, it’s completely unrelated to the other games in the series.