In another of what seems to be an unending supply of updates regarding our progress through Persona 3 FES, we’ll take a thrilling look at the character Steve Tomson and his tag-alongs in Tartarus. We played for a good five hours this time, accomplishing much in that timespan. Aided by Diet Coke and a sweet fan to cool down the sweltering heat in my upstairs game room.

This time we see the stunning conclusion to our current BFFL Kenji’s story of love and forbiddances. While at the mall, we noticed that Kenji’s lover, Emiri, was standing at the stairs with another guy. We overheard her conversation with him about leaving the school and running off to marry him. A brokenhearted Kenji was consoled by Steve Tomson, and our social link for the Magician Arcana was complete, though with an unhappy ending for our friend Kenji.

With that social link complete, we began on a quest to become Best Friends Forever ™ with the manager of the swim team, Yuko. At first she seemed a little reluctant to engage in any sort of flirtatious activity, but after some careful poking and prodding (and possibly a little stalking) she gave in to our “would you please walk home with me and stop and get something to eat” request. Also, we hung out with the swim team captain, so we’re quickly on the road to becoming best friends with that guy too. All in all, a pretty successful run as far as friendships go.

Earlier in the game there was mention of a character named Fuuka. She came back into play this time, as someone who’s been captured. Well, we managed to save her (she was trapped inside Tartarus due to a prank played on her. Not very nice.) and she joined our team, taking the place of Mitsuru as the spotter. This gave us with five characters, and only four slots to place them in. Junpei fans will be angered to hear that we did in fact replace him with the newly combat ready Mitsuru. Sorry, dude. Yukari was making fun of him anyway, calling him “Stupei, Ace Defective” when he insisted he be called “Junpei, Ace Detective.”

As far as stats go, we boosted our charm level to “Confident,” and our academics to “Above Average,” assuring our place as the coolest kid in school. After seeing a few Steven Segal and Jean Claude-Van Damme movies, we managed to get courage to a level defined as “Ordinary.” Not too bad, and we’re definitely on the road to improving all three of those.

We gained many levels and fused many Personas in this time. The Jack Brothers spell proved devastatingly effective when used on man enemies at once, since it knocks them all down and leaves them vulnerable to an all-out attack.

Our epic play session came to a close as once again, real life came into play. We’ll be back shortly though, after these messages.