I was presented with the Character Creation/Selection screen after selecting a channel. The CBT featured gender-locked classes, meaning that you couldn’t be a male Hunter class for example. This was simply to allow for the least amount of resources in the game while still allowing testing, the full game is assumed to have classes for all genders. Creating a character on RO2 was an interesting experience; You pick a Combat Class which you use for fighting, and also a second class called a Life Class. The Life Classes are used to create items such as weapons, potions, and clothing; They are essentially a way for you to earn money with your character. Your also allowed to customize your characters appearance, such as their eyes, hair, and clothing patterns. Once my character was created I was ready to get down to business and begin trying out the game itself.

The gameplay is very addicting and keeps you busy; There always seems to be a quest ready to be completed or a monster ready to be fought. I’ll admit though that sometimes it did feel a bit repetitive, but that’s to be expected from a closed beta with such little content. The game world’s environment is very beautiful, walking into Prontera was simply amazing and took me back to the original feel of Prontera from RO. The layout of the city was almost the same as the original.

Let’s be honest here, I hold the original Persona 3 very close to my heart…and wallet. So much that I’ve purchased the game on three separate occasions: the original PS2 version, FES and now Persona 3 Portable (P3P). So you might be asking, what on Earth would possess me to buy it yet again? Simple answer, the brand-new female arc. After all, Persona 3 is among my top five video games list of all-time, right behind Xenogears, Ever 17 and Persona 4.

One of the largest changes Atlus had to make though was eliminating the free-roaming aspects of the game due to the hardware limitations of the PSP. No longer will you be running around the city or see character models during event scenes. Cutscenes are limited to a visual novel style presentation, which may or may not turn some players off, while traveling is done mostly via image maps as you guide your cursor to the location you want and click. That said, the game lends itself perfectly to the genre as it’s very anime-heavy and doesn’t lose any of its emotional impact in the process. Lastly, for those of you wondering whether or not P3P includes the bonus expansion the Answer, unfortunately no it doesn’t. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth the purchase. In fact, it’s quiet the opposite as it’s still a great recommendation for any PSP owner. Especially if you haven’t played the original.