And before you continue on to read my review, let me get you a warning that the following you're about to read here are SPOILERS related to the Persona 3 game. If you haven't bought the copy of Persona 3 or you didn't play Persona 3 before, BUY IT! I MEAN, RIGHT NOW! But I'll recommend you to buy Persona 3: FES and it is currently available now through PSN! And for those who don't have PS3/PS4, PCSX emulator is your second choice. If you don't have a PC, but you're reading this on your android, play the Persona 3: Portable for the PSP, PSVita(?) and for the PSP emulator as well. But if you don't have any PS consoles, ranging from PS2 to PSVita, but you own a XBox, that's a bad news for you. No Persona 3 for you guys. Sorry.
Alright, enough beating around the bush. Let's focus now on the review.
So, the story has almost the same as the game though. It has the same plot where your character, (insert name here), goes to the dorm and signed a contract. It has also the moving calendar that help you what date it is, and it has the same chores, like going to school, meet new friends to develop a new social link for your Persona, beat the s*** out of those shadows ever dark hour, etc..
But here in the movie, well, on the very first part, it has now explained why the train was "delayed" while you were on the train on the very first cutscene of the game. According to this movie's first part, a one guy who wears a hoodie decided to suicide for unknown reasons. When I watched that scene, I was like... 'huh? Where did he come from? And why did he take suicide?' So, after that, we went to another scene where we saw our protagonist, (insert name here), was listening to "Burning my dread" in his earphones, while riding the train to Iwatodai Station with some announcement that there's a "delay" because there's an "incident" happened on that place. And as the protagonist already touchdown the Iwatodai Station, he looked at the pamplet that shown where our protagonist must stay, at the dorm, and after for a few moments, the dark hour spawns. The same as in the game I've played on P3P, he's just walking calmly until reaches to the dorm. There, he met the mysterious kid, who later name as Pharos, gives him the contract to sign the deal to choose his own will, etc.. thingy. And as the protagonist write his name, it was revealed that his name is "Yuki Makoto". And as the day goes by, he went to school, he met both Junpei and Yukari on the very first day, you did the same assignments as you've played in P3 like, killing the first shadow who climbed to the rooftop of your dorm, killing the shadow who controlled the train, and battling the two arcana at the entrance way of Tartarus.
But there's a difference though, because during the rooftop incident, if you're wandering if the fight scenes on the game (choosing attack, skill etc. to attack the opponent) has the same as this movie. Well, movie newbie to the tie-in games person, you're wrong, silly. We instead watch our protagonist, by name of Yuki Makoto, is going to fight the shadow in a fighting scene just like we're watching "Fairy Tail" or any magical anime shows you can think of. Although, the battle was a bit short but at least, it gave a dramatic style of fighting as we could feel how P3 was like without the "player choosing a tactic to defeat the enemy in the game" style.
The plot here in this anime was ranged from the very first part up only to the part where they've rescued Fuuka Yamagishi from being stuck in Tartarus for 12 days (12 hours in Dark Hour time). And to be honest, it's quite a good start to begin with. But I don't see any memorable moments just like I played the game on my PSP emulator due to the slow pacing of the plot. But at least they bring the stuff from the game and put it into a movie, which is great! And making this movie as a movie rather than a live-action movie is a very good way, AND IT MUST STAY THAT WAY TOO. Because if P3 became a live-action movie, let's face it guys, IT SUCKS. Because if this P3 became a live-action movie just like Attack on Titan did, we might be able to see so many cringe worthy fights and expressions coming from the actors, screaming "YAMETE!" with their horrific dramatic pose as possible, and horrific CGI shadows that will ruin the face of the game itself. And it might cause chaos to some fans of P3, myself included.
Back to the topic, as for the fight scenes, well, the only thing I do like about fighting scenes in this whole movie is that after they rescued Fuuka Yamagishi from Tartarus, the group must fight the two arcanas. But as they struggle to fight back, Yuki came to the rescue from the dorm (yes, the plot changes here for those who wanders) and tries to defeat the two arcanas. As they struggle to fight every inch they've got, Fuuka then soon realize that one of the two arcanas has a weak point. And with that, the group fight back to defeat both of the arcanas thanks to Fuuka's advice. It's not actually on the game though, ESPECIALLY when the time that Yuki is riding Mitsuru's motorcycle. Which is cool though, especially from his entrance from entering through Tartarus, but that's unprecedented to see that. I really laughed when Yuki did that, yeah I know, I admit that was cool, but I don't think that fits on his style as he's a HS student WITHOUT any background to any vehicle he drove. Seeing him in a bike really fucked my mind though... And I really laughed on that scene at the same time... xD I can't take it...
Is there any changes that could help differentiate the movie to the game? Yes. Too lazy to write this so I just took it from the "http://megamitensei.wikia.com/". So here's the ff. difference from the movie to the game:
- All the major characters appear in the movie intro (except Aigis), while the anime cutscene at the beginning only shows the Protagonist, Yukari, Pharos, and Mitsuru.
- Makoto doesn't interact much with other social link characters, only a few.
- It is revealed in the movie that the first victim devoured by shadows in the anime cutscene was named Sakata Masashi.
- In the anime cutscene he appears in Tatsumi Port Station, but in the movie, he appears somewhere in Port Island Station.
- Some characters make a cameo appearance:
- Bunkichi and Mitsuko make a cameo appearance during Fuuka's visit at their
bookstore.
- Koromaru and Maiko Oohashi make a cameo appearance together.
- Ken Amada also appears briefly.
- Kenji Tomochika appears in the arcade and after exam results are posted.
- Kazushi Miyamoto makes a brief cameo after exam results are posted.
- Hidetoshi Odagiri appears while interrogating one of the students of class
2-E.
- Nozomi Suemitsu makes a brief cameo in Wild Duck Burger.
- Aigis appears in a post-credits scene.
- When the Shadow attacks the dorm, the Protagonist stops to look at the full moon outside the window. Yukari asks him if he cares if he dies, and the Protagonist says he doesn't and he asks her if she's scared of death. A Shadow attacks the window and Yukari dives to save the Protagonist. In the process, her leg is cut by a glass shard and bleeding. None of this occurs in the game.
- Junpei's Believe or Don't was told in May instead of June 1.
- While discussing about the ghost rumor from 2-E, their meeting was in Wild-Duck Burger instead of the dormitory.
- Makoto does not accompany SEES during the June full moon operation due to his personality until he fully realizes his friends are in danger and he goes to save them.
- This is first time where Makoto and Natsuki interact with each other, whereas that was not featured in the game.
- In the movie, Natsuki heard the voice after witnessing the school transforming into Tartarus, but she heard it in the dormitory in the game.
For the art, the characters' appearances here are heavily modified though from light colors from the PS2 game to dark colors to this movie. And as for the scenery of this anime, it's pretty good. Overall, it was a fantastic art to see here.
The sound here is remarkable though. Because when it comes to OSTs, they bring some of the P3 soundtrack to the movie, which really gives a nostalgia feeling to some viewers who've played the game. As for the VA, to be honest, I felt like kinda uncomfortable when I watch this on English sub rather than the dub because, the dub version on the game is pretty good. But when it comes to Japanese dub in this movie, it seems kinda odd, I never heard what they'd sound like in Japanese. But I'd say it's quite good nonetheless. But as for the MC, Yuki, well, it's kinda a bit-odd also seeing the first time my character talks, but in a quiet fashion rather than his personality in the game who sounds like more energetic and has a colorful life.
Speaking of personality, the character development here didn't do much here at least. Especially Yuki, who is an introvert, one-sided guy who doesn't care about anything. To top it all off, Yuki, unlike on my character on P3, he's more like a selfish type of guy and doesn't talk too much. He doesn't even show some emotions and whether they're already nearing at the signs of danger, just like on the train scene, he looks calm and collected rather than he's going to panic and don't know what to do. But his character just changed at the ending of the movie where he smiles after he rescue Fuuka. But it still doesn't change the fact that Yuki is still raw when it comes to the development. And as for the other characters here, again... ALL OF THEM have no development whatsoever. Maybe we'll going to see that on the next film.
Overall, the movie was good. I don't expect much of the change here. But I was intrigued and enjoyed at the same time. Hope there's more changes on the next film just like this one, and I hope it's better than the first one.
