Persona 3 Reload (2024)

One of the best JRPGs I've ever played, and my first step into a larger series. I played a little bit of the OG Persona 3 on PS2, but bounced off it pretty quickly. What a mistake. This was incredible. Probably the best silent protagonist in any video game, and that's a trope I definitely don't care for.

Wonderful plot, wonderful characters, wonderful atmosphere. 70-ish hours and I got all the Steam achievements, so this is well worth your time. Amazing themes about making connections with others and facing death. Really some hard hitting emotional moments in the story beats and I was always enthralled. To anyone who tried this and gave up, I encourage you to play this version and give it another shot. It's definitely worth it. Can't wait to play more of these Persona games and SMT in general.

Slight spoilers, maybe?

Been stewing on this game for a while now. On one hand, it does a good job developing the main team, letting them have their own development through the story that constantly changes. This is something P4 and P5 fails to do, it's mostly letting them have their arc once you meet them and then a social link/confidant to explore them a bit further, but then they stay mostly the same when you're doing the main story. On the other hand, some baffingly world breaking stuff happens in P3 that is just never discussed. The world is falling apart, and I sure appreciate the characters questioning themselves and what they want to do, but I just wanted them to talk a bit more about the world and how it is affected. The game is decent, and I enjoyed my time with it even with it's hangups.

Just finished the game, and have to say it definitely hit me in a great way. Having never played the original before, it lived up to the expectations set upon it.

A couple random thoughts:

1. The story is incredibly backloaded, things only really get going once you get to Act 3 but once you get there it is an emotional rollercoaster.
2. This game somehow has some of the best and worst social links. On one hand you have Akinari, and the interaction with his mother after his passing, as one of the best links in the whole franchise. The other hand, you have creeps like Suemitsu and Kenji that were a chore to sit through.
3. As someone who played the other "neo-Persona" games before this one, not having social links with guys in your party was strange. I'm glad they changed that in later entries, I like getting to know all of the party on a personal level.

I feel like all of the "neo-Persona" games all have something that I like about them the best:

• P3: Story
• P4: Characters
• P5: Gameplay and Style

Only a few hours in, but a few thoughts:

• The updates to the combat are definitely welcome. Can't abuse knockdowns quite as much as you used to be able to. I think I actually liked the game's prior fatigue system compared to its current iteration of being restricted by how much SP you have to spare.
• The tone of the game feels a little too clean compared to the original. The songs all sound a little more light and cheery compared to the original game's darker tone - Meguro's original songs really had a grittiness to them with their hard hitting kick drums. The new OST simply sounds like it's missing its grit, and there's no option to swap to the original despite the fact that the game supports alternative soundtracks from the other Persona games. Example tracks:
  • Mass Destruction: the new version features a lot more soft piano and the trumpets sound a lot more MIDI-like (even though both are clear synths). The drop at the end of the verse into the chorus is really lacking the percussive hit that made the first work so well. The new version has a Lotus Juice verse that's pretty damn good, though.
  • Unavoidable Battle: borderline butchered. The opening line was messed with in a way that takes away from the intensity as only the bass is playing the first four eighth notes for no reason. The drums are far quieter, taking away from the tension of the song.
  • Joy: the trumpets sound like they're ripped straight from the most basic MIDI, and the drums have been completely neutered.
• Gameplay wise, they've mixed up which shadows are weak to what, so the game has the sensation of not knowing exactly what to do at each encounter, which is nice
• The controls are actually great on PC. Many Japanese devs don't do great PC ports, but Atlas nailed this one.

Going to need more time to the game to solidify my opinions, but so far so good minus the music. Hoping modders fix it.