I've been continuing on with Persona 3 Portable (I had rented Halo: Reach recently just to try it out but I found that, like most shooters, it's not my thing. Just like Halo 3 wasn't my thing. So I sent it back in the mail and then quickly returned to Persona 3). I'm currently in July 2009 in the game so I take it I'm about 1/3 the way in seeing as how the game ends in January. I've explored Tartarus (the game's dungeon) up to level 55 thus far.
My assessment of the game is even more positive than my first impressions. The social interaction part to the game is fun. My only complaint is that you can't explore social links with Mitsuru and Yukati right away in the game if you are playing as a male character. Those are my favorites, especially Mitsuru. I've been building up my Academics and Charm stats in the mean time so that I can get my MC to tap those chicks later on in the story. The Kenji social link scenario is quite hilarious. That guy is annoying but his story arc is quite entertaining to watch enfold. I'm also going on dates with that team manager chick (Yuko?) but she's just something to occupy my time until I can go do S-Links with Mitsuru and Yukati.
I kinda regret not following the 100% S-Link guide on GameFAQs because I know I haven't been the most efficient with my time in the game. Having the strongest S-Links possible would make the fights in Tartarus easier. When Tartarus is unstable, the enemies can really put a hurting on you. What's worst is that I'm kinda of a cheap skate by nature so I didn't bother to stock up much on Revival beads and those items that allow you to flee dungeons (I think they sell them at the pharmacy).
When Tartarus is unstable, that dungeon can be really annoying if you don't have plenty of those items on hand. I just lost about 15 minutes progress in Tartarus (I leveled up a full two levels during that time due to getting lucky with experience bonuses and fighting high xp enemies so that 15 mins lost is worse than it sounds). I thought this wouldn't happen because I thought "oh there are entrance portals at every level" but then when one of your characters gets knocked out and you have the choice between going through enemies (who will fuck you up since you aren't at full strength) to try to find the entrance portal or taking the stairs that you just found, you're going to take the stairs and just pray that you have a easier time of finding the entrance portal on the next level up.
Overall the dungeon crawling segment is as I said it was, challenging without being too punishing. No "press X/A for attack" bore fests. And the encounters are not excessive. Low-level monsters that aren't worth your time will avoid you like the plague (which will save you the trouble of sitting through more loading times and battles than necessary). Too often I find that dungeon exploration in jrpgs is tedious as hell with the excessive battes. P3P is also a good example of how you can take supposedly outdated turn-based combat and basic dungeon crawling and make it an enjoyable, challenging experience. Too often I see jrpgs this gen (and even previous gens) experimenting with real-time or action-oriented combat or needlessly inventing all of these crazy battle systems and overcomplicating the hell out of things to try to make things interesting.
I also like the Persona collecting aspect to the game (just like how I like collecting Pokemon in Pokemon and Golems in Enchanted Arms).
