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 It's a good thing, too, because you're going to be seeing a lot of combat. Encounters are random, and their rate of occurrence is sky high. This would be tolerable if they were just in dungeons, but you'll have to contend with demonic aggressors every five seconds even wandering about town. In an odd turn of events the only break from these battles is on the game's map screen.
Some of the other games in the franchise have done things like this, but it's particularly burdensome when coupled with the detective premise that sometimes requires mucking about town aimlessly in search of clues. The difficulty is up there, too, which makes things even harder. Plan on healing after every battle or deal with some frustrating unexpected deaths.
The compound the bad news, the lack of production value is really startling. All of the game's backgrounds are pre-rendered. This usually means that the 3D actors on these 2D sets get a boost in detail, but in this case they're no more impressive than any other PS2 RPG. The streets are littered with a good deal of pedestrian hustle and bustle, but only a small number of the characters can be interacted with, and none of them have any clipping, meaning you can walk right through them like ghosts. The pre-rendered backgrounds don't even look especially good, and certainly not enough to justify the sacrifice.
Just as striking is the complete lack of any voice acting. I don't just mean in the body of the game, I mean anywhere. Even in the rendered cut scenes and key plot sequences, there's just an oppressive silence and the ever-present musical score. As in all too many Japanese RPGs, the main character has no dialogue (a convention filched from Dragon Quest) leaving the player to imagine a personality for his in-game avatar. At least the tunage is the typical techno-rock fare that works so well in this series, now infused with some hints of jazz.
I hope Atlus is willing to explore this new branch of their series a bit further. While the encounter rate can really make it a chore at times, the combat is a hoot and the setting is a nice change of pace. The obvious corners cut on the sights and sounds do lend it an unfortunate budget game feel, and I might be kinder to this game if it were priced as such, but there's still some fun to be had, even if it is ultimately an appetizer for the main course that is Persona 3.
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