Poll: Is Persona 3 Portable for me?

[Divine-Devil]

Hello all! I'll begin by saying that I'm a long time RPG nut, playing all of those Final Fantasies, Dragon Quests, Golden Suns and more. I like both the old systems of combat and storytelling as well as the new ones (ala, FF13).
There's been a lot of praise recently for a couple of games that seemed fairly unheard of, that being the expanding Persona series.

I played what I thought was the first game on the PS2 a while ago (Shin Megami Tensei something something, but it had Dante in it) and while I sold it before it was finished, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Summoning devils and such was a blast in the combat.

Now, I hear heaps of praise going out to Persona 3. After doing a bit of sniffing around, I found that it had a Japanese highschool aesthetic. I was into my Cowboy Bebop, Trigun and Tenchi Muyo back in the day; but I really wanted to know whether all of this stuff is off-putting? I want to be saving a paradoxical world from demons, not play a bloody dating sim!

So anyway, if I could get some advice, that would be a great help. I've put a poll up also.
Is the combat well worth the experience, knowing that I'm still fond of turn-based strategical combat? Is the Japanese culture layed on too thick?

Thanks for the help!

 

[MisterShine]

but I really wanted to know whether all of this stuff is off-putting? I want to be saving a paradoxical world from demons, not play a bloody dating sim!

The 'dating sim' part is about half the game, and doing it lets your combat and persona abilities get stronger. And while I've never really played a dating game, I wouldn't say that Persona 3 is like one. Many of your social links (the people you form relationships with), are not romantic in any way. Each is about how that person isn't dealing with their issues, or not facing themselves and what they want. Each is about you helping them through these issues and giving advice and such. Most of them are pretty interesting, and I guarantee at the end of at least a few of them, you will really care about these characters, most especially your party members. If you care at all about likable characters, I would recommend the series.

And if you do care about story and characters, this game will hit you. Hard. Fair warning.

So anyway, if I could get some advice, that would be a great help. I've put a poll up also.
Is the combat well worth the experience, knowing that I'm still fond of turn-based strategical combat? Is the Japanese culture layed on too thick?

Thanks for the help!

Honestly, the culture isn't too thick. They use honorifics (-kun, -san, etc.) fairly often, and sometimes refer to japanese foods and celebrations. Though they're fairly well explained, or not that important. Unless anything not in your culture disgusts you I can't imagine it would take away from the experience.

One thing I will add, I would not recommend getting Persona 3 Portable over P3: FES for the PS2, unless you MUST play as a female main character. The loss of the anime cut scenes for the wham-moments of the games is a pretty big loss, honestly.

I'd be happy to answer any other questions, P3 is honestly one of the best games I've ever played.

 

[Divine-Devil]

Thanks for the answer, I'm leaning towards buying it now! Seeing as no Aussie stores currently seem to have it, I'm checking up on ebay.

I just wanted to get some other opinions also, so cheers people!