Customer Reviews

Persona V.3

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I felt compelled to write this in response to Kinetic Man's review, because what he's reviewing is not this collection. His review refers to the 18 track bonus disc that was bundled with the first release of 'Persona 3'. This is but a taster for what is included in the full-length release.

What Amazon is selling here is a two disc collection imported from Japan, with a sum total of 58 tracks. Composed and arranged by Shoji Meguro, 'Persona 3' features a musical palette that is equal parts fresh and frustrating.

The melodies woven for this game are quite modern. There's a fair amount of rap and pop vocals, and the musical style ranges from hip hop to techno to grunge metal (much more of the former and the middle than the latter). There are very few classical arrangements on this album, and in that respect it stands apart from many of the JRPG games on the market at the moment.

The unfortunate downside is that this game more than any other in the 'Shin Megami Tensei' series suffers from a nail-biting level of looping. Certain tracks play a scant few bars over and over. And over. It's enough to drive one mad, and it's more than enough to cause a person to keep their thumb on the "skip forward" button.

The battle songs -- Mass Destruction, Master of Shadow, Master of Tartarus, Poem of Everybody's Struggle -- are quite good and don't suffer as badly from looping as some of the ambient tracks, but the Tartarus block themes are immensely repetitive, and the music used in school can start to grate after two minutes.

If you're a hardcore fan of the 'Persona' series, you'll probably get this anyway. But the level of looping that occurs throughout most tracks is a major hindrance, and while there are some very good tracks (the opening and ending themes included), there might not be enough to hold your interest if you're not into game music.

Incidentally, since Amazon.com doesn't provide a track list for this two CD set, I'll add one here:

DISC 01
01 - Burn My Dread
02 - Poem of Everyone's Soul
03 - Beginning
04 - This Strange Sensation
05 - Want to be Close
06 - Troubled
07 - Crisis
08 - Shadow
09 - Invoke Persona
10 - Unavoidable Battle
11 - Peace
12 - When the Moon's Reaching Out Stars
13 - Iwato Dormitory
14 - The Voice Someone Calls
15 - tartarus_0d01
16 - Mass Destruction
17 - After Battle
18 - p3ct004_01
19 - Deep Breath Deep Breath
20 - Master of Shadow
21 - Paulownian Mall
22 - tartarus_0d02
23 - Unsettling Premonition
24 - Fearful Experience
25 - Calamity
26 - Junior Exam...
27 - Adventured act:
28 - Joy
29 - tartarus_0d03
30 - Deep Mentality
31 - The Path is Open
32 - The Path Was Closed

DISC 02
01 - Changing Seasons
02 - Basement
03 - Master of Tartarus
04 - This is Fine...
05 - Living With Determination
06 - tartarus_0d04
07 - Kyoto
08 - Afternoon Break
09 - Current Net Price
10 - tartarus_0d05
11 - Remembrance of 10 Years Ago
12 - Mistic
13 - Power of the Heart
14 - Street of Memories
15 - Memories of the Academy
16 - Living With Determination - Iwato Dormitory Arrange
17 - tartarus_0d06
18 - The Thing Comes From the Darkness
19 - Battle for Everyone's Souls
20 - Nyx
21 - Determination
22 - Burn My Bread -Last Battle-
23 - Bonds
24 - Because I Protect
25 - Memories of You
26 - Blues in Velvet Room