Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 preview

The Shin Megami Tensei series of RPGs is hardly unknown in the West these days, thanks to the Digital Devil Summoner lineage and its well received brand of mind-bending RPG complexity. Persona 3, released to massive acclaim last year in the US, has nothing to do with those games beyond the stat-juggling, existing in its own bizarre world where school kids battle the forces of darkness in the invisible hour between day and night. And just for good measure, they shoot themselves in the head on a regular basis.

Words by Colin Whiteside , playing on a Sony PlayStation 2.

The magic system revolves around the characters' hidden Personae, that must be released by using the Evoker, an instrument that looks for all the world like a Derringer pistol. Instead of spreading the delightfully miserable-looking cast's brains about the levels, it releases the power within, a headline-grabbing gimmick that seems to have scored more attention than the gameplay mechanics themselves.Throw in a bit of dating-sim social interaction between battles and a plot as endearingly barking as any others in the series and you've got all the makings of a cult classic. Undoubtedly one of the last quality PS2 releases on the horizon, this looks like a bit of a must-buy for RPG fans, and hopefully those who take a shine to the old-school RPG stylings won't have long to wait until the FES expansion pack is released this side of the pond.