Persona 3 Portable

Persona 3 Portable (ペルソナ3ポータブル, Perusona 3 Pōtaburu) is an enhanced port of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, released for the PlayStation Portable. The game allows the player to choose the gender of the protagonist, which possibly opens up new routes and scenarios in the story. The theme of the game revolves around the "butterfly effect", reflecting the changes that happen should the player pursue the path of one protagonist over the other.

Release Date

 * Japan: 1st November 2009

Gameplay
The setting takes place according to "the Journey" of Persona 3. The presence of the female protagonist means that there will be considerable amount of change in the story, such as new social interactions as well as Social Links. Even so, the Persona of the female protagonist appears to be very similar to Orpheus, albeit changes in appearance to make it feminine-like. The Velvet Room, if the player pursues the female protagonist path, will have the choice of selecting Elizabeth or a male-equivalent named Theodore to be Igor's assistant.

"The Answer" (Episode Aegis) mode, exclusive to P3FES, isn't available in the P3P. The Desert of Doors will still appear however in an extra feature known as the "Vision Quest".

World
Navigation in P3P overworld is menu based. Players could not roam around as in the PlayStation 2 version, although interactions still retain the "visual novel" feel. Overworld characters are rendered in sprites.

The facilities in town where the player can increase the protagonist's social stats still function the same way, but some of them even offer part-time jobs at certain days, which pays a large amount and can increase two social stats instead of just one.

In Paulownia Mall, the Police Box is now the only place where you can buy equipment and sell items. Aohige Pharmacy is now a buy-only store, and Be Blue V is now just a part-time work site.

Battle
The game features five difficulty settings from easiest to hardest - Beginner, Easy, Normal, Hard and Maniacs. In Manics, enemies deal twice the damage, and certain weapon fusions cannot be performed. Moreover, when starting a New Cycle from any difficulty level to Maniacs, no data from the prior game carry over to the new one.

New battle costumes have been added: Butler Costumes for the male party members, and Santa Costumes for the female party members. Battles now adopt the Persona 4 approach; the "Guard" command is added to the battle menu, and other characters besides the protagonist can be controlled by selecting the "Direct Command" in the Tactics option. There is also a 'Go away and leave me!' option, which makes all Party Members run off for the rest of the fight. When they return to battle after using the aforementioned command however, they will revert to being AI-controlled.

In Tartarus, returning to the main lobby no longer automatically restores the HP and SP of party members. Healing can be availed via the Save Point, and now costs money (the amount varies between the date and current status deficits).Also, when leaving a block via a one-time access point, the team can return to the last floor they escaped from by using the entrance. There is no longer a stamina limit for explorations, but exiting Tartarus will automatically inflict "Tired" status on all party members. An exception to this would be when leaving the night before a Full Moon Operation.

Music
Music is written by Shoji Meguro. The official soundtrack will be released on 25th November 2009. New tracks have been composed for the female protagonist's path.