The Persona series has come a long way since it started, and Persona 3 was an important step in that journey. Unfortunately, while many of the changes can be credited to Persona 3, it has flaws of its own, and doesn't hold up all that well in comparison to Persona 4 or Persona 5.
The game is the story of a high schooler with the power to summon Personas who joins a group dedicated to fighting Shadows to stave off Apathy Syndrome. While the plot is fairly compelling, with rich themes such as facing death, atoning for the past and dealing with seemingly hopeless situations, it isn't very well-paced. Unlike subsequent installments, which have more concrete goals of clearing the dungeons, you're generally expected to explore Tartarus and prepare for the full moons, when you have boss monsters to face. The pacing especially drags near the end of the game, when after a series of events shakes the team to the core, you more or less wait for things to happen for the last three months.
As for Tartarus, it's basically a tower full of randomly generated levels with the occasional mini-boss. It's a good place to level grind, and to search for rescue victims, but subsequent installments' dungeons were better-designed and more fun to explore.
The combat system, which strongly emphasizes good strategy and exploiting enemy weaknesses, is fairly engaging, even if things can go wrong almost instantly if you have a mistake or experience bad luck. That being said, one downside of the original version is that you can't directly control your party members, and can only give them certain suggestions as to what to do, such as go on the offensive, heal party members, or conserve SP. Since turn-based RP Gs generally require you to have a careful plan of attack and to use all your party members' turns well, this can be more than a little frustrating.
The Persona system allows for a good amount of strategy, as you can choose whichever Persona has the right skillset and resistances for the job. The only problem is that whenever you fuse two Personas, you have very little direct control over which abilities get inherited by the Persona that is created. Naturally, this makes it difficult to effectively build your Personas, or complete certain side quests that require Personas with specific abilities.
If you're familiar with the other Persona games, you may know about the Social Link system, in which you befriend (and possibly fall in love with) certain individuals, strengthening the Personas you create. Said characters tend to vary in personalities and how interesting they are, for better or worse. One advantage the Portable version has is that the female protagonist's route replaces some of the more forgettable Social Links with your party members, helping flesh out some of your companions.
While Portable makes a few improvements to the original game, it isn't without its drawbacks. The graphics are notably worse than the original, and the non-dungeon crawling segments play more like a visual novel than an RPG. It also lacks the extended Playable Epilogue known as "The Answer," although considering how controversial "The Answer" is (for reasons that involve plot spoilers), it's debatable as to how bad of a thing that is. All three versions of Persona 3 also lack some of the features introduced in the fourth and fifth games, such as the ability to tell whether a Social Link will rank up before you spend time with that person.
In short, Persona 3 is enjoyable in its own right, but doesn't quite compare to the fourth or fifth games. I'd recommend playing it if you enjoy JRPGs or the Persona series, but wouldn't recommend it as your first Persona game.
Portable: A Good Game That Hasn't Aged Well
The Persona series has come a long way since it started, and Persona 3 was an important step in that journey. Unfortunately, while many of the changes can be credited to Persona 3, it has flaws of its own, and doesn't hold up all that well in comparison to Persona 4 or Persona 5.
The game is the story of a high schooler with the power to summon Personas who joins a group dedicated to fighting Shadows to stave off Apathy Syndrome. While the plot is fairly compelling, with rich themes such as facing death, atoning for the past and dealing with seemingly hopeless situations, it isn't very well-paced. Unlike subsequent installments, which have more concrete goals of clearing the dungeons, you're generally expected to explore Tartarus and prepare for the full moons, when you have boss monsters to face. The pacing especially drags near the end of the game, when after a series of events shakes the team to the core, you more or less wait for things to happen for the last three months.
As for Tartarus, it's basically a tower full of randomly generated levels with the occasional mini-boss. It's a good place to level grind, and to search for rescue victims, but subsequent installments' dungeons were better-designed and more fun to explore.
The combat system, which strongly emphasizes good strategy and exploiting enemy weaknesses, is fairly engaging, even if things can go wrong almost instantly if you have a mistake or experience bad luck. That being said, one downside of the original version is that you can't directly control your party members, and can only give them certain suggestions as to what to do, such as go on the offensive, heal party members, or conserve SP. Since turn-based RP Gs generally require you to have a careful plan of attack and to use all your party members' turns well, this can be more than a little frustrating.
The Persona system allows for a good amount of strategy, as you can choose whichever Persona has the right skillset and resistances for the job. The only problem is that whenever you fuse two Personas, you have very little direct control over which abilities get inherited by the Persona that is created. Naturally, this makes it difficult to effectively build your Personas, or complete certain side quests that require Personas with specific abilities.
If you're familiar with the other Persona games, you may know about the Social Link system, in which you befriend (and possibly fall in love with) certain individuals, strengthening the Personas you create. Said characters tend to vary in personalities and how interesting they are, for better or worse. One advantage the Portable version has is that the female protagonist's route replaces some of the more forgettable Social Links with your party members, helping flesh out some of your companions.
While Portable makes a few improvements to the original game, it isn't without its drawbacks. The graphics are notably worse than the original, and the non-dungeon crawling segments play more like a visual novel than an RPG. It also lacks the extended Playable Epilogue known as "The Answer," although considering how controversial "The Answer" is (for reasons that involve plot spoilers), it's debatable as to how bad of a thing that is. All three versions of Persona 3 also lack some of the features introduced in the fourth and fifth games, such as the ability to tell whether a Social Link will rank up before you spend time with that person.
In short, Persona 3 is enjoyable in its own right, but doesn't quite compare to the fourth or fifth games. I'd recommend playing it if you enjoy JRPGs or the Persona series, but wouldn't recommend it as your first Persona game.