Persona 3 Portable Revises Battle System, Adds Quests, Names Elizabeth’s Replacement

By Spencer . September 4, 2009 . 9:53pm

Persona 3 Portable Revises Battle System, Adds Quests, Names Elizabeths Replacement

Persona 3 Portable learned a thing or two from Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4. The evolved battle system allows players to control their teammates and adds partner attacks.

 

Allies can also cover the protagonist from a fatal blow, another Persona 4 move which was learned in that game by establishing a social link. Wait, could that mean P3P has different social links? Or did Junpei learn this skill another way?

 

Famitsu details other new features like a missing person quest where the SEES squad has to save a person trapped in Tartarus.

 

Finally, we know the name of Elizabeth’s male replacement. Theodore, or Theo as he’s called in the text box, replaces Elizabeth in Igor’s Velvet Elevator.

 

New characters like Theodore and the female lead means the game also needs new voice actors. That might make the wait for Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 a bit longer than text-only Atlus releases like Devil Survivor even though Atlus has part of the localization work done. The Japanese version will be ready on November 1.


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  • beeegh

    So… is P3P is like a parallel world from P3?

  • Cloud_ST

    So,the female scenario of the game is gonna be the only choice or what?,I've never played P3 so I want the original scenario as well.

  • Celedin

    You choose at the beginning who you want to play as.

  • CrisSpiegel

    I think I'm the only one on earth who likes the fact that the player cannot control the rest of the party in PS2 P3, although I can't imagine myself playing P4 in the same way because of the guard feature. While PS2 P3 had no guard at all, P4 demands the player to choose exactly when to guard.

  • lostinblue

    I refuse to call this a “ultimate” version; graphics are worse, the new character seems uninspired, the changes are petty changes… and I never wanted to control manually all the characters; the game was clearly set up and balanced so you had to control them with the AI (final boss battle even proved this)… it wasn't a shortcoming, or if it was it was a predetermined one.

  • lostinblue

    You're not alone. I think Persona 4 expanded well upon the P3 system, sure, but I never wanted to play P3 like that (just like I don't want to play Persona 4 without controlling all my party) it's simply part of what the games are, and Persona 3 is meant that way.

    I don't like this change.

  • doubleO7

    Just like in P4, you'll probably be able to choose whether you control your teammates or not.

  • QBasic

    And you DO realize that can be toggled on and off in tactics…right?

    Don't like it? Don't use it.

  • http://www.siliconera.com Spencer

    Maybe not parallel world, but a “what if the lead was a female character” scenario.

  • http://www.siliconera.com Spencer

    You can choose to let your party members act on their own or control them in P3P.

  • CrisSpiegel

    If they re-balance the game so total control works well, then it won't be so good to let the party on auto. Will there be a Guard option? If so, it will be more like P4. The need for guarding begs for manual. I'm not saying this is bad, but I imagined lots of people cheering the change while I thought I was the only one who liked the original way.

    Ok, in fact, I do believe the limitation imposed on the player was good, as weird as it may sound. But once I've already played the original way, I'm ok with the additions.

  • QBasic

    Dude, there's FIVE difficulty settings. I'm fairly certain you'll be able to play the game however you want to without having any balance snags.

  • Scypher

    Yeah, P3P has added Guard.

  • shion16

    junpei being a friend of a girl…..i cant imagine that

  • Chow

    I can imagine the story going by having post-P3 Minato experiencing the female's game, then ending with Igor telling him that she's always been there in him, like a persona or something cheesy and persona-story-like. ;)

  • CrisSpiegel

    It's not only about difficulty. It's about game mechanics and overall feel. But I'm not complaining about anything. I was only talking about my impressions of PS2 P3 and P4 and what I shall expect from P3P.

    What I really want to see is P5, but we'll have to wait a lot for that one.

  • http://www.siliconera.com Jenni

    The more I hear about Persona 3 Portable, the more I want it. It just sounds too cool.

  • lostinblue

    I know, but I still don't like the fact you now have the option on a game that was specifically designed not to have it.

  • mooncalf

    I would have been fine with P3's original party system if they just had a competent healing AI. The AI would only cast the multi heals if there were 2 or more party members with below 50% health, so if you had someone at 40% and someone at 60% health they would only cast a single heal.
    It was annoying because you would fuse awesome attacking persona and rarely get to use them in boss fights because you were stuck playing healer.

  • cowcow

    I think I'm just gonna skip Persona and wait for this

  • fuzaku

    Huh? Did you even play P3?

  • geosaferi

    lol

  • geosaferi

    poor choice.

  • QBasic

    No. A braintarded choice.

  • Astronica

    i don't understand you gamers you have the option and freedom to choose and yet you bitch about it. Grow up times have changed.
    Move with the flow bro.

  • lostinblue

    Well, It's still my opinion, sue me.

  • cowcow

    You wanna fight about it??

  • cowcow

    You wanna fight about it??

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