The role-playing genre became a huge success once Final Fantasy VII was released all those years ago on the PSOne. I remember the pre-Christmas advertisements and in my opinion it had the best ever games-related television advert. But a lot of people tend to forget that there were six previous Final Fantasy incarnations, along with the many other RPGs that had been released. A lot of games delve into the RPG genre, such as Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Parasite Eve and even Half-Life. All the games I have listed have brilliant stories, backed up by skills and/or weapons that you upgrade so that you can progress further within the game, along the way you find out more about the situation you are in and also, importantly, the characteristics that make up the avatar you control. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 is a game that holds all these RPG elements in place whilst adding some very inventive ideas to the RPG concept, making it a game that you need to experience.

Persona 3 is very much like Final Fantasy in terms of the way you control it. You are shown a 3D view of the character(s) as you move around towns, schools, buildings and so on. Sometimes you can move the camera a full 360 degrees, whilst in other areas the camera is set at one point, usually slightly above the characters from an isometric view. As this is a game of Japanese origin, a lot of the graphics, cut scenes and character traits reflect an anime style, which continues throughout the game. This follows the same kind of vein as the previous Shin Megami Tensei games, if you have ever had the privilege of playing them. However, I will warn you now, the way you unlock your power/Persona during battle is by shooting yourself in the head! Yes, there are a few areas in this game that are little weird - to say the least!

You take on the role of a nameless high school student (remember the surname is the first name when you edit it, unless you like being called by your surname for the next fifty hours!) who has arrived in Tokyo to attend Gekkoukan High School. After a weird meeting with a strange boy who tells you to sign a contract, you meet Yukari, who tells you to sleep before your first day at school. While everything seems fine at first glance, your character quickly finds out that things become a whole lot weirder and more dangerous at the school and in the city of Tokyo. Supposedly, every night at midnight, the world finds itself stuck between other dimensions in a phenomenon called The Dark Hour. At this time humans are transmogrified into coffins and strange beings known as Shadows roam the land, looking for people who are still awake to feed upon. However, a select group of people (including your character) can avoid this imprisoned fate at midnight, fighting the Shadows and thus stopping them from attacking people, using special abilities known as Personas (very similar to the Summon Materia in Final Fantasy), which are manifestations of a character's psyche. Luckily, this group also attends your high school and is known as S.E.E.S. - The Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad - whose entire purpose is eliminating the Shadow threat from the world.

The action within the game follows a day/night cycle through the course of the school year. Each day in your 'life' is divided into several parts, from early morning as you go to school to hours after classes. Most of the time you can't freely control the flow of time, since the game automatically goes through it. However, there are certain points in a day that you can roam around the location you're in or through the world map. This is where the game gets interesting, because what you do in the day affects you night-time abilities. For example, if you have lectures in school, answer the questions correctly and you will increase your charm. You also need to enhance your relationships with other characters, as well as your own attributes. You're also spending the days talking to other students, making friends, joining clubs and even gaining girlfriends (and just like in real life, if you have more than one girl on the go this will cause you problems, so make sure they never meet!) There are lots of people to talk to, but you can only spend your time with one person or group at a time. As you progress through the game you'll become increasingly torn, as you have to make a decision and choose who to go out with on each day, knowing that it will affect the side stories you have become immersed in. Trying to fit everyone in is impossible, so I suggest picking a few story/group routes and sticking with them, because you'll learn more about a particular character and get more out of it. You can always replay the game too, which is another bonus with Persona 3, as you could argue that there is at least fifty hours in a quick play of the game; if you attempt to uncover every story arc then you'll lose yourself within literally hundreds of hours of involving gameplay. Your choices to most of the questions asked of you will also impact your growth, but not necessarily your progress in the story. In the early part of the game there are only two places in the mall where you can either increase your courage (the Karaoke Bar) or your Charm (the Café). At night, if your condition is good, it's a good idea to study before sleeping, to increase your academics.

The "Social Links" you enable during the day increase certain parts of your attack strategy at night when you have to face the Shadows. As you strengthen these links you can to create and summon new Personas that belong to that particular class. For instance, speaking to someone online will give you access to the Hermit class of Personas, while talking to people in the Student Council may unlock the Emperor class for your character. As you gain new Personas you can start to mix them together, generating even more powerful hybrid Personas. Funnily enough, 'accidents' can happen when mixing the Personas, producing unexpected results. The problem I found with this part of the game is the lack of an explanation in regards to what will happen when you mix one persona with another, and the same can be said with some of the moves and spells that a Persona gains. A little more description concerning these abilities would have been a positive inclusion, because at times it becomes quite confusing as you try to figure out what each action does.

The battle system follows the turn-based strategy format, but with some novel twists included. First of all, most of the battles occur during the Dark Hour in an arena of sorts called the Tartarus; this resembles a dungeon that has been built within a hotel! It changes its environment every time you enter it, so you can never truly map it, adding freshness to the battle. This is where the Shadows appear and thus this is where your battles commence. The game benefits from the fact that you can see the Shadows before you fight them, so there's no that random battle syndrome to contend with. Using stealth you can strike the Shadow first, which allows you to gain a pre-emptive attack in the resulting turn-based battle. Battles strike a fine balance between being very fast and being very tactical, and the game is intuitive enough to make weak enemies run away from you.

Secondly, during the battle sequences you actually only control yourself, but you can issue instructions to your fellow team members. There are a few group attacks that you can use once an enemy has been upended, which are quite fun to see and very anime in their execution. Lastly, due to the day/night cycle, you need to choose when you enter the Tartarus carefully; too much time in there will leave you exhausted for school the next day. I think this part of the game works really well and adds something new to the genre. You cannot spend hours levelling up your characters because it'll have a detrimental affect to your condition in the normal world. The fighting landscape is a little bare, but the characters and animations are very bright and in your face, which suits the battle situations. Checking the status and equipping of your characters isn't as smooth as you'd think either - well not as easy as any of Final Fantasy games - you won't need to spend hours sorting out this bit, but it can get a little frustrating. The Shadows themselves are morbid looking fellows that do generate a sense of fear as you battle through, especially the weirder ones - I do hope whoever designed these monstrosities is getting some medical help!

Just like most turn-based battles, after defeating your enemy you pick up items, weapons and/or personas. However, the little twist here is that you don't just pick them up automatically. For example, three tarot cards will appear - one with a Persona, one with a coin (i.e. money) and the other one is blank. The cards then shuffle and change places, so you need to keep tabs on the card you want and hope you pick the right one. You even have the chance to double up and gain two cards, if you think you're good enough. But beware of the Death card; if you pick this then you better get out of the Tartarus quickly! This adds an additional skill element to the game and it makes you actually care whether you pick the right card or not, although some more clarification on what some of the symbols mean would have been useful. There are even side quests that you can choose to complete, but then if I start getting into these we'll really be here all day!

Visually, Persona 3 is good, if not great; the approach of artistic merit over quantity should be applauded. As I mentioned earlier, the monsters, personas and characters are well developed, following anime stylings. The animation to evoke your Persona could be a little disturbing for some, but hey, that's why there are age restrictions. The characters range from the weird and wonderful to the downright disgusting, while the school is decorated quite well, with the mall changing ambience and colour depending on the time of day. The anime cut scenes are involving and have the same vibe as the likes of Akira; suitably spine chilling throughout, but they don't get in the way of the gameplay. The characters are beautifully drawn and you can feel the sunny/warm feelings they are trying to portray.

The voice acting is really good too, with excellent Japanese to English translation - sure, some of the lines are a little weak, but that happens even within the most literary of games. There seem to be hundreds of different voices that are varied enough so that you don't get bored of listening to what the many characters have to say. You can hear the emotion in the voices and it's as good as any I have heard in a game when you consider the major characters you interact with. The voices employed suit the character models on show, which makes the experience even more believable, which considering the content of the story is a fantastic achievement! The expressive animations coupled with the voices during school time are a real highlight. The background music is not as good as the rest of game; you do have a CD player but most of the background tunes seem to loop quite quickly, whilst Japanese pop has never been one of my favourite genres. Nonetheless, when the game gets to the important parts, the music entices you into the sinister story once more, making it an audio experience that you won't forget any time soon.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 is one of the best games I have ever played and I hope you take the time to experience it. The RPG and turn-based elements might put you off those who aren't fond of the genre, but the game excels in storytelling, story arcing, animation and character building so well that it's worth taking a chance even if you're not a fan. Persona 3 is a behemoth of gaming pleasure that will keep you immersed for months if you let it and the replayability will keep you busy for years! It's also a game that will need to be completed several times before you feel completely satisfied - it's addictive, compelling, immersing stuff and no mistake.

Reviewed by Christopher McNally for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).