Persona 3 Reload (2024)

I'm like 15 hours in and it feels like there's no "story" in comparison to Persona 5. In Persona 5 by this point there was a clear story, X person is bad, did bad things, we have to go inside their personality dungeon to punish them, and we're gonna do this a few times with different bad people.

The Persona 3 story is nonexistent in comparison and I keep waiting for the "real" story to get going.

Love that the cover art is a reference to the original game's Japanese cover art which is my favorite cover art in any game ever. Not too much a fan of the flat color though whereas the OG had the white and blue watercolor background and a somewhat visible floor. Thanatos doesn't feel like it's as much of a towering presence as in the OG which was supposed to be the point. I guess the framing of the Reload cover art was the point of showing the new stuff, but it feels less impactful, less overwhelming.

I remember playing through Persona 3 Portable on my Vita when I still had a commute and enjoying it. But a few years later when I tried replaying, the "point-and-click" overhead style of exploration in that version couldn't sustain my interest long enough to see the female protagonist's story play out.

Earlier this year I tried playing the "FES" version on Steam Deck after seeing a video showcasing various mods to modernize the experience. I liked being able to freely explore, but it struck me how empty the game feels. The "real world" settings seem like hollow facades, Tartarus is boring and repetitive to explore.

I keep trying to return to P3 because it has some story beats and character moments that have really stuck with me. It's disappointing to hear that the remake won't incorporate any content from Portable or FES, but I hope it modernizes everything else enough that I can have fun revisiting the narrative.

So there's a new English voice cast for Persona 3 Reload. Some thoughts.

Allegra Clark could KILL IT as Mitsuru. I just listened to her as Beidou and I am already SOLD on her.

Zeno Robinson definitely has the energy for Junpei. Listening to him as Hawks from MHA, he sounds like a good Junpei. Can't wait for his iteration on a particular scene. Chidori's death

I trust Aleks Le with stuff. I mean he did do this.

And this

All in all, I have a good feeling about the new cast here. I don't know much to say about Dawn Bennett as Aigis or Suzie Yeung as Fuuka or Alejandro Saab as Akihiko, but best of luck to them as well.

Some other thoughts, this is going to be a remake of the ORIGINAL Persona 3 from 2006, not of Persona 3 FES which has the Answer, nor the female protagonist route from Persona 3 Portable. I am bummed out on this aspect. I wanted a more definitive version of Persona 3, one that shuts fans up arguing over which version is better, but I guess we got another hat in the ring. Goddamn monkey's paw.