http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/4...onanza2006.jpg

A picture of the Persona 3 part of the Atlus booth at E3. Just have to hope they don't edit anything now.

I'm reviving this topic with some scans and screens that have surfaced in the past months or so:

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/2...3scan192ij.jpg

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/6...3scan206qg.jpg

http://www.the-magicbox.com/0606/game060612c.shtml

http://image.www.rakuten.co.jp/edigi...0072182145.gif

Also, the official site has been updated with some more character movies.

http://p3.atlus.co.jp/

I hope that Aegis (the blonde robot) gets to become a real little girl by the end of the game. She looks and sounds so sad. :(

The first two images are pretty lol-bad quality. The graphics still don't look like they've improved since that big trailer Atlus released earlier this year.

Still very interested in this. I really need to finish Persona 2.

There was a guy who was hosting quite a few good, very high-res scans, but then he took them down, and I didn't save them. :(

I just beat Persona 2: EP today. I had been putting it off for months...

Someone please tell me that Nocturne becomes easier to understand as it goes along. You want an outlandish premise, fine, but the way of introducing the player to it is NOT to drop everything in his fucking lap at once.

Where are you in the game? It does get easier as you go along, since you get used to your surroundings and some terminology is explained in more detail, but overall Nocturne is fairly short on exposition and much longer on introspection. (One of the optional areas in the game, however, will give you some background information on certain characters and events that otherwise pretty much go unexplained.)

am I the only that the new graphic style for persona3 bother a little? I don,t know it look to much anime style, even if the style is good (I really like the first big trailer in anime style they did) I miss the persona 2, with "demons persona" that look much "scarier". like those 2 that I did in a sig sometime ago.

Quite some time ago, there was an announcement that there would be an online Shin Megami Tensei game. Not much was known about it at that time, but some new info was posted on RPGfan a little while back:

As for what I think of it, the story is what can be expected from a SMT game, and I really hope that they can adapt the various choices that a traditional SMT game gives you, in a satisfying way. As for the gameplay, not much is out about that yet, bt I'm glad that they kept the negotiating, since it's one of the most interesting parts of a SMT game.

Since I haven't posted in this thread before... a few thoughts about Persona stuff in general.

I absolutely loved the style/story that Persona 2 had. But, after playing it for quite a while, I just couldn't bear the dungeons any longer. Random encounter after random encounter, and having to actually endure all of them to not only level up but to collect the cards necissary to progress and be able to beat the next boss. I really really wanted to find out what happened next, but the gameplay kept getting in the way of me actually progressing further.

Regardless, I'm really looking forward to Persona 3. The game is just dripping with style, and I really love the design. The combat system actually looks quite entertaining. But the key factor in my attraction was the fact that enemy encounters are seen on the map ahead of time. Now, maybe there's just an assload of enemies in dungeons, but at least this prevents the Persona 2 syndrome of fighting literally every 3-4 steps you took.

And finally, a question: Considering that I love the overall style that the Shin Megami Tensei games have, would it be worth it for me to play through the two Digital Devil Saga games? I've been considering it for some time now, but feared that the P2 syndrome would kick in and I wouldn't be able to progress very well at all.

Do it! I really mean it. If you say you like SMT in general then you have to play DDS. For me personally, the game flow was very good. I didn't run in to any areas where i was completely stuck and wanted to throw the ps2 controller at the tv.

Playing it will also get you one of the best stories/plots in recent times.

Now I am not gonna lie to you, but expect there to be alot of dungeon crawling and alot of leveling up to do if you want to collect all the mantras and max out your stats. But as you progress throughout the game, leveling up will become easier and easier and by the time you reach a decent lvl in the final dungeon leveling up will become a breeze. Battles are over in like 10 seconds. Atleast they were for me.

But seriously, to like SMT and not play DDS would be a crime. Go for it! :)

I really suggest Digital Devil Saga for the story and style and all but yeah the persona 2 syndrome like you called it is there, some donjon are ok and it doesn't really bother you, but other god, there'S time I entered in a abattle every 2 step >.>

Haha, fair enough. I'll give 'em a shot once I'm done playing through my current RPG :D Thanks for the recommendations. Maybe the battles will be enjoyable enough that I won't get as frustrated with the encounter rate ;)

So, I've been playing Nocturne recently.

Well, I just finished Persona 2 and I didn't even realize this thread was here. >_> Although EP was the first Persona game I've played, it definitely got me into the series in general with the dark and mature themes. And I didn't think it was god awful like some people here expressed it to be. I didn't have anything to compare it to and I thought it was great. I've read up on wikipedia that IS and EP both had very drastically different storylines (especially regarding the Suou bros), so it's not necessary to play IS to enjoy EP. That part is true since I didn't feel like I have some need to play IS.

It was a good thing I played it on an emulator, because gollllllly those dungeons can be a pain in the ass. I just sped it up to twice the speed (by turning off sound) to whiz through them. And thankfully for mutations, I can just quickly reload the last attack of the battle to see if I can get persona rank +2 (or mutate to a higher level persona). And other various tricks and things I learned while using the emulator. ;)

If you can't stand a random, sometimes annoying, battle every five seconds, then I suggest playing with an emulator. Now this got me considering if I should play Nocturne or DDS, especially if "leveling" will be a painful experience since I can't emulate PS2 games. Regardless, if it's good, I'll play it.

By the way, is there a difference between the SMT and Persona series? I'm new so I don't quite understand any details of the franchise.

Persona 3 looks awesome, but the character designer is different from the really offsettling creepy designs that got me attracted to EP. I mean, those character/persona designs are bad ass. Regardless, the videos on IGN look really hot. Is the battle theme really hip hop? And blasting a bullet into your head is probably one of the more creative ways I've seen of summoning something. That's going to hold well with emo kids. I just hope the US version doesn't edit that out with a lollipop or something.

It is actually quite easy with the right setup of demons. The reason most people think its difficult is because they haven't customized the party properly. That's a nice party you have there btw.

Dang I love the soundtrack of this game...it is so "snazzy" persay. Very creative, I highly anticipate this game; it is so far away though T-T (February 2007 blah!)

*Just bought DDS and Nocturne (incredible games with such a baroque feel...props to Atlus...now to Wait for Devil Summoner Raidou for October)

I lost motivation with SMT III Nocturne - I want to get back into it. It was the first megaten game i played. Guess I need to customise my party a lot more

I LOVED DDS 1 (it only just came out). I thought it was better than III and I loved the characters. The one thing I hate is silent main characters - there boring and and unrealistic (unless they are given a reason to be mute). Though I can't help but like Serph.

I want to play DDS 2 (just hope it isn't a dissapointment)

One thing I want to change - Shoji Meguro, ok he's good, but where are the other classic atlus composers?

Well if you liked DDS1, DDS2 will definitely not disappoint. It is a direct sequel afterall.

I don't know how could you lose interest with such fantastic game, but then again, that's just me.

If you love DDS1, you'll surely love DDS2.

Also, Shoji Meguro is not the only composer on Nocturne or the DDS games; there are three composers in the soundtracks: Shoji Meguro is the main guy, there's also Tetsuya Shibata, and forgot the name of the last one. Guess those two add something "different", for so to say, to the music.

I had a question about this series.. I keep hearing about it, but I'm not familiar with it. Was Shin Megami Tensei the original RPG (how many games were there or was it just one?) and Digital Devil Saga and Persona spin offs?

Devil Summoner, is that a spinoff too? What's the difference between the games? Do they all just share the same backstory and world in Shin Megami Tensei? Been trying to do some research online so I got a bit confused :)

Persona 2 had several characters from Persona 1. Might have taken place in or near the same places too, don't know. I don't know about the rest of the series', you'll probably find little homages like that rather than a continuous storyline. So if what you're wondering is whether you can appreciate a game without playing the predecessors, the answer is yeah, you won't be missing much plot-wise.

Ahh thanks :) I'm just kind of curious, I tend to play games by series and know the entire series in and out, if I don't, I feel like I'm missing something. Even if it's a standalone game, I feel like I need to get the entire experience. This sucks when it comes to RPGs since I have no time to play through everything.

Why all the spinoffs? Was the original series just that good? I do like RPGs, but it turns out that I'm pretty oblivious to the rest of the genre and just focus on the ones I like :p

Persona 1 ---> Persona never translated into English ----> Persona 2. There's a middle game we never got that ties the games together.

no, there's two Persona 2s that were connected together, Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. I don't know whether Innocent Sin had much more connection to Persona 1 than Eternal Punishment did, but it wasn't part 2 of a 3 part series.

Innocent Sin was connected tightly with Persona 2, I know that. And I know it happens BEFORE Eternal Punishment, and is connected to 1. (thank you, guide) so I assume it flows the way I said.