Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 - Gameplay

Gameplay

Combining elements of traditional role-playing video games and simulation games, the gameplay of Persona 3 involves following the day-to-day life of the game's protagonist, as he attends school and works to build relationships with other people. Each day is broken up into several periods of time, such as "Morning", "After School", or "Evening"; certain activities are restricted to certain times of the day. Free time can be spent engaging in a number of activities, including participating in a sports team or club meeting, seeing a movie, eating at a restaurant, or spending time with someone to improve a Social Link.

Social Links are of friendship the Protagonist formed other characters associated with Major Arcana of the Tarot deck. Each Link has its own narrative arc, starting at Rank 1; spending time with a Social Link character progresses their story, and increases the Rank of the Link. Increasing Social Links usually needs certain conditions - attributes, friendship points, or require other Social Links or items. Bringing the Persona with the same Arcanum to the Social Links will increase friendship level better, although it is not a must to achieve the Social Link. It is noted that leaving a Social Link unattended for too long, or doing something like meeting multiple girlfriends or selecting incorrect option in some Social Link may get the Arcanum reversed, preventing the Protagonist to summon that arcana's Personas unless it reverses back again. The worst case, however, may "break" the Arcanum, which cannot be reversed again through the game.

The Protagonist has three social attributes—Academics, Charm, and Courage—which can be improved by engaging in specific activities. For example, studying after school or at night will increase Academics, correctly answering a question during a class increases Charm, and singing karaoke at night will increase Courage. Some Social Links cannot be started unless a specific attribute is at a certain level.

At night, the player may enter Tartarus, the primary dungeon of Persona 3. Tartarus is a tower containing over 250 floors, divided into several "blocks" . The floors of Tartarus are randomly generated, each containing chests with money or items inside, enemies to fight, and a stairway to the next level. Certain floors contain mini-bosses that must be defeated before moving on, or having road-blocks that is inaccessible without certain movements in story, along with a teleport point which allows the player to return to the entrance of Tartarus (or returning from the entrance to that point). To fight Shadows, the player may bring into Tartarus up to three members of SEES, in addition to the Protagonist and the supporting-member (which is fixed and only changed once as story's movement) who did not engage in battles; these five characters comprise the player's "party". The condition of members of the player's party will worsen as they continue to participate in battles. A "tired" or "sick" character will perform worse in battle, and must be given time outside of Tartarus to recover. Every full-moon day's midnight the story's plot will have a big movement, which they're usually accompanied with boss battles, which may, or may not happen in Tartarus.