And you thought your school was tough

You've had a long day at school: The teacher yelled at you, the other students made fun of you, and you lost your lunch money. What's the cure? Just shoot yourself in the head! Or, for a slightly less lethal way of relieving stress, you could get a video game character to do it instead, with a nice play of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3.

For those who don't know, Persona 3 puts you in the shoes of a young high school student - taking classes, making friends, and building up meaningful relationships. Of course, that's only by day; by night you join the other members of the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (SEES) as you investigate the Dark Hour - you know, the period of time between day and night. There you will find the evil creatures known as Shadows, which must be fought using your Personas. And how do you summon those Personas? Simple - you take out a special gun, point it at your temple, and BANG!

Okay, so why exactly am I talking about Atlus' 2 year old school sim/turn-based dungeon crawler? That's because it's being re-made, this time for Sony's portable console. An ad was spotted in Japan's Famitsu magazine, giving us November 1st as the release date. That's the release date in Japan, mind you. Not only will this version (entitled Persona 3: Portable) contain a whole new opening sequence and playable character, it will also include a few revisions to the gameplay, such as the ability to instantly move to any location via the menu (better for the portable format), and the option to give direct commands to teammates, as opposed to programming them beforehand.

Now, as exciting as this game may sound, I mustn't forget one thing: I already own a copy of Persona 3: FES (the special edition version) for PS2, I've just never played it. My girlfriend gave it to me last Christmas, and while my intention was to start it fairly soon, I've just never felt in the mood to launch into a 100+ hour long RPG (from what I understand, anyway). However, I'm a lot more inclined to complete long games if they're portable, so this PSP version might be just what I need. Unfortunately, there's been no announcement of a Western release, and since it's now on my mind again, I may see that PS2 disc making it's way into my aging system before long. Not before I finish that other Shin Megami Tensei game, though....

Here's the new opening sequence to get you in the mood: