With the recent release of Persona 4 and the fact that I've finished Fallout 3 and have no desire to pick The Last Remnant back up for a while, I decided to delve back into the world of Persona 3:FES. I've tried several times to get through this great game, only to set it down for the new sexy and forget where I'm at, only to be overwhelmed to start over.

But not this time. This time, I will get through P3.

Sure, I've already got a lot of different things going on. The almost nightly Left 4 Dead versus games. The recently started Chrono Trigger DS game I'm on/off playing. Christmas shoppi...oh, wait, I'm done with that. Achievement whoring in Fallout. Reading Battle Royale. Watching horrible movies on Netflix. Many things.

But I'm dedicated this time. I will grind and grind and school and grind. I will fuse and quest and study and link. I will buy and sell and game and grind. And grind and grind and grind.

Yes, I've once again realized what a great dungeon grinder Persona 3 is. Personally, I really don't mind grinding. There's something soothing and relaxing to me about grinding for hours at a time. Except not so much in P3. I actually have to think about what I'm doing when I move on to higher floors here. It's not just "hack/slash/rinse/repeat" here, it's "find weakness/exploit weakness/try not to die" on a lot of the fights. The bosses, so far, are stronger than I am and not afraid to kick me in the face.

Now, keep in mind the farthest I've reached in this game is about two months in. That equals out to roughly twenty hours of time I've spent in front of the PS2 playing. This is the....third of fourth time I've started playing, so technically, I should be almost done with it, not back at the beginning. It's just that it's so deep and complex that I can't in good faith just "pick up" where I was without knowing how I got to that point, which in all actuality is pretty f'n cool. It just sucks forgetting.

Then again, it can be fun forgetting too. Like, I'd forgotten how much I love the soundtrack to P3. I was seriously on the cusp of buying a copy so I could listen to it all the time when I remembered I still had shopping to do for family and stuff. So it'll have to wait a while before I can jam it in my car, but I can still enjoy it while I play. I'd also forgotten about how much I love Junpei. It's nice to have semi-realistic kids in a game, and not "kids", like in most JRPG's.

So, if y'all don't see me 'round the 360 for a little while, it's because I'm starting to get back on a nice little PS2 JRPG kick. I'll miss the achievements, but the memories will stay until I drink them away.