Persona 3: FES (Append Edition)

The occult-themed Persona series makes its PlayStation 2 debut with a distinctive visual style that closely mirrors Japanese anime. Once again the setting is high school, where a group of special teenagers band together to fight enemies after hours by tapping into the demon personas lurking within. Parties of up to four characters can freely explore their 3D environment, but only one, the lead protagonist, is controllable during combat. Battles are initiated by approaching the onscreen enemies, with turn-based attacks involving swords, bows, and personas available to eliminate the opposition.

Each enemy type has a particular weakness against certain elements, and players will be able to outfit their character with more powerful weapons and persona types by collecting cards at the end of each battle. Persona 3 features a day-night cycle that has players focusing on building relationships with fellow classmates and tending to schedules or hobbies during the day, while exploring an alternate dimension at night.

Each visit to this dimensional portal offers hundreds of randomly generated floors, but players have a limited amount of time to explore them before having to return to their academic studies. "FES" is meant to indicate "Festival," according to translations of comments made by director Katsura Hashino. Released in North America about eight months after the original, the "FES" edition of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 includes an enhanced version of the original game along with expansion pack material that adds a new episode, boasting 30 more hours of role-playing adventure complete with its own story, cut-scenes, and musical score.