• Persona 4 (PS2) - bonus CD soundtrack included in every copy; Persona 4 Visual Data, full color, 100 page 7''x10'' art book included in pre-orders
• Luminous Arc 2 (DS) - bonus CD soundtrack included in every copy; Luminous Art book, full color, 7''x10'' featuring characters from the entire series included in pre-orders
• Eternal Poison (PS2) - bonus CD soundtrack included in every copy; Librum Vespera full color, 5''x8'' art book included in pre-orders

The bulk of the content on the disc is the original 80+ hour Persona 3 game, dubbed "The Journey" in FES. You play as a transfer student who quickly discovers that his school is the epicenter of a phenomenon known as the Dark Hour, a "25th hour" during the day where time stops for the unaware and a huge tower named Tartarus erupts from the school, the source of an evil plague of beings known as Shadows. Only once you realize you harness the ability to wield the titular entities called personas do you join a crew of your fellow persona-wielding classmates to climb Tartarus and cleanse it of the Shadows over the course of a school year.

It's Japanese, but you get the idea.

P3's combat may at first glance look like a typical turn-based RPG, but it has a few key differences that make it unique. First, you only directly control your character in the four-person battle party. You can give them general commands to focus on healing or attacking a specific enemy and while it works most of the time there will be instances where they don't quite do what you wanted. Also given that you and your members are made up of high school students that still have studying on their minds, tiredness can set in, which puts the character at a significant disadvantage. This is bad news because many of the fights in P3 – boss or otherwise – are rather brutal and require both adept strategies and focused, healthy party members to win.

The most significantly unique trait of Persona 3 is of course in its titular persona system. Personas come in the form of characters from myth and legend and when equipped on your character give him specific weaknesses, strengths, and special moves. Your character is the only one who can choose from well over one hundred personas and choosing the right one for specific situations is a key part of the battle strategy due to the system of strengths and weaknesses. Hitting an enemy's weakness gives you an extra turn and knocks the enemy to the floor – knock them all down and your party can perform a devastating and satisfying "all-out-attack" that cannot be blocked. Of course, if you get hit by your own persona's weakness you too will fall down and waste a turn, leaving you wide open for attack - the pendulum can swing the other way at any moment in P3, which keeps battles tense.

Don't mind if I do.

P3 does not forget that you are cast in the role of a high school student and the social aspect of which is simulated in its Social Links system. Akin to a dating simulator, the Social Links or S. Links allow you to hang out with your fellow classmates and other dubious characters in amusing cutscene sequences. How you react to their problems is key to how you grow in these relationships and as the S. Links level up, so does the arcana or class of persona they represent, which will give your corresponding personas an experience boost when you fuse them in the Velvet Room. Seeing your friends to the end is encouraged as not only will personas of their same arcana know all of their abilities right off the bat, you'll also have access to fuse a special high level persona that you wouldn't be able to otherwise. When you don't feel like hanging out, you can always study, sing karaoke, or watch a movie – all designed to increase your personal attributes which will allow you access to more S. Links. Everything you do outside of Tartarus has an effect inside of Tartarus, so there is plenty of incentive to keep yourself occupied.

While the bulk of the content in The Journey is the same as the original release including the superb-to-adequate voice acting and strangely infectious soundtrack, this FES edition contains a new S. Link in the form of a particular character from the original, makes certain other S. Links easier to complete, adds a number of new personas, and other things like new cutscenes and costumes. Additionally, you can carry over your save data from the original game and import your personal statistics/persona compendium for a new round in FES, which is a wonderful bonus for those of you who spent hours mastering the fusion system and collecting your favorite personas.

Look after him - he's your baby.

Despite some setbacks in its new content, FES is still a worthwhile experience for those who have already played Persona 3 to death. Its $30 price point is chump change to experience a 80+ hour main game with a dearth of new content and a flawed but playable 30+ hour extra chapter.  Persona 3 is easily one of the best RPGs to come out of Japan in years and FES is without a doubt its definitive form.