Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 has the player take the role of a male high-school student who joins up with other members of SEES — the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad — to attack Shadows and other beings that emerge during the “Dark Hour”, a time period between each day which only few humans are aware of. The player uses weapons and magical abilities gained by the use of “Personas” to defeat foes in a turn-based combat system. An iconic feature of the game is the method by which the members of SEES release their Personas: by firing an Evoker, a gun-like object, at their head, which does no damage but causes sufficient emotional stress to cause the Persona to appear. In addition to typical RPG elements, the game includes elements of dating simulation games.

FES, in addition to adding a great deal of content (both game play and storyline-related) to the main game, includes a continuation of the story entitled Episode Aegis, totaling for an extra thirty hours of game time. When starting a new game, the player is prompted to select Episode Yourself (known as “The Journey” in the US version) or the aforementioned Episode Aegis (”The Answer” in the US version). Episode Yourself is the original game with added quests and events, whereas Episode Aegis can be considered a sequel, featuring Aegis as the main character, and the true ending. FES also contains extra costumes and a new weapon synthesis system, twenty-three more Persona, and a “hard” difficulty setting (the original Persona 3 came available with only Easy and Normal modes).

Trailer

Gameplay