Persona 3 Reload

As a player who could not stand to play portable when he tried it last year on the switch, P3R is a breath of Fresh Air to me, making the original P3 more accessible to the modern audience. I have not even completed the game yet, so I can guarantee this is pretty spoiler-free, but nevertheless I will highlight the game as best I can being about 30hrs in.

The main traits as to why I love this game all revolve around the quality of story made modern through better gameplay. The story of P3 is incredible, and when the graphics are good and the dub acting far exceeds that in the original (especially for Fuuka) this becomes incredibly obvious. I like the fact the game isn't afraid to make characters less likeable or nice to define them properly as characters, and the realism in that you will not be best buds and have a social link with everyone in S. E. E. S. (the main cast of the game) - the fact the game does this adds to its realism, but the changes made in P3R to better incorporate characters into the setting without giving them a strict link aids the quality of the character building, something which Persona does so well time and time again.

The plot itself is unique, well-directed and with twists and turns throughout - I am yet to get to the point in which a clear main antagonist, and yet I feel the menace and stakes. I love how the game makes you save random civilians in Tartarus, and these minor details once again, immerse me into the game. These features in many ways make me enjoy this game more than the previous Persona games, allbeit that is controversial.

The graphics and acting, as mentioned have stepped up. A great new feature is that social links have consistent voice acting, making them more immersive. And some of the acting in this game is incredible, let me tell you - the character variety from monks to random kids to running prodigies to just a straight up dog is wild. The graphics are incredible, especially in Tartarus with the exception of when you're in cutscenes with unnamed or lesser characters, who they don't bother to render, and in many of the places around town where the people are like faceless silhouettes - this being said, when compared to the alternative of low framerates and loading speeds I can live with this.

Finally, and I think the best change is the improvement in gameplay. Original P3 gameplay is... frustrating, to say the least. It's not particularly difficult necessarily, it's just that so much random stuff can wipe your team it's unfairly imbalanced because of many of your team's low damage outputs. In P3, not only is the damage tweaked (i.e. We still take a lot but we can deal a lot with the right buffing) but the new "Theurgy" mechanic is a strong idea, giving us a new win condition for many fights. None of the characters feel unusably weak because of this, and it allows you to shape your teammates around their Theurgy, fixing many issues in the original gameplay I encountered.

Other minor ease of access tweaks coming with a more modern game aside, this is about it for the changes! Not many really, but they make a difference when playing. This is a game I have invested some 30hrs into over through the past week or so and I do not regret it.

10/10. Already a very good game.

I love anime, especially when it involves some unusual, post-apocalyptic, dystopian, or otherwise surreal world. P3 has that.

I love turn-based combat, especially when it feels fluid and responsive. P3 has that.

I love many procedurally generated games (especially rogue-likes and rogue-lites, but any game where the dungeons are replayable because they're different every time). P3 partially has that.

I love games that place a heavy emphasis on story, allow for some exploration without going full-on open-world. P3 partially has that.

Yet, this was probably still the most boring game that I've ever pushed myself to actually complete.

The combat is uninteresting - none of the special abilities have any real meaning aside from 'find the weakness, hit that, and you win'. The few marginally interesting effects that are there, only normally work on low level enemies you can defeat outright anyway. So, it's pretty dull from that perspective.

The procedurally generated parts are of extremely generic and repetitive rooms, with no secret areas and nothing you can really interact with. So, there's no real need to bother trying to explore; and the surroundings get dull very quickly.

More importantly, there are 260+ floors, with 6 variants in style but effectively identical within each style. And, while that would be plenty if that was the a whole game, it's not. Instead, you have to replay half of them again and again and again before the game finishes.

And, worst of all, the more day-to-day school drama of the story, is dragged out by fixing it to a calendar that ticks away one day at a time. The stories are interesting enough and help develop the characters, although some are a bit stereotypical and shallow anyway. But, you don't progress through the story by playing. You progress by moving through the calendar. If you get things done quickly, too bad, you'll just have to click through extra meaningless days to get to the next important plot point some 15-30 days later.

Finally, the one thing that keeps the game feeling addictive despite it all, is the card collecting. It's that little dopamine hit from gradually unlocking more and more summon cards as you go. But even that has no real values. The actual abilities are essentially the same stock set of about 20 not very different ones, named differently as their power level increases to seem like there are more, and they're effectively interchangeable. Any card you collect can have pretty much any ability. So, it's not like you're ever unlocking one that feels special - i they're just different skins.

To be fair, I was able to play it right through - it's not a terrible game. It's just far more dull and repetitive than it should be given all it's got going for it.

I tried Persona 5 a few years ago and while I can instantly see why it's hailed as a classic, I got distracted by other games and gave up about 30 hours in. My friend and I both play on PlayStation and he had asked for Reload as a birthday gift. I got it for him and this meant I'd be able to play it as well. A few hours in and I was hooked.

This game is insane. There's so much you can do, but not in an intimidating way. Catchy music accompanies you as you attend Gekkoukan Academy, form bonds and relationships with other people, and spend your nights ascending the tower Tartarus. The action in this game is SO well done and makes the dozens of hours you'll spend in Tartarus way more enjoyable.

The characters are so well written. I found myself genuinely interested in their lives and stories, whether it was learning about them through combat/cutscene dialogue, or simply cooking a meal with them in the dorm. By the time I beat the game I felt a little sad. Not by the game's ending, but because it had ended. I was going to miss cooking meals with these people and shopping around town with them. The only other game that made me sad to beat and part with its characters was Red Dead Redemption 2.

I really have no complaints about this game. It's beautifully made. I never played the original release of P3, not FES, but I feel like I got the Persona 3 experience and more. There's so many good games that released this year, but this one takes the cake for me. Thank you, Atlus. I'm finally playing Persona 5 again and I'm going to beat it this time. Until next time, S. E. E. S.!