Persona 3 Reload Review

If you own a popular gaming franchise, now is the time to decide whether you can repackage it, upgrade some textures, or completely reinvent the title for the 2020s. Atlus’ Persona games are one of those enduring series, and the company has already relaunched the last three entries on current-gen consoles, almost entirely unchanged from the original releases.

But with Persona 3 Reload, the company chose the most confusing (and influential) entry to redo. There are some big changes that you might not even notice if you haven’t played the 2006 original recently, with new English voice actors (all Japanese VAs returning from the original) and, interestingly, the most dubbed scenes of any game in the series. Persona series.

Most of the time, the only way to tell if it’s a remade game is the anachronistic gimmicks it contains. Flip phones of course, wired headphones everywhere, standalone MP3 players, DVD players, internet cafes, desktop computers as standard. Is 2006 retro now? If so, I’m going to throw up.

In reality, he’s just a magnificent version of himself. Reload isn’t it a total remake like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, so environments are limited to those found in the original, including a world map for fast travel between them. There’s a bit of Unreal Engine shine, and while nothing is absolutely stunning outside of the battles, some parts, like the sun-drenched classroom, look better than anything in Character 5real-world environments.

Reload has the graphical fidelity needed to do justice to Shigenori Soejima’s original character designs – no more almost chibi-style character models. The difference between 2D art and 3D models is often imperceptible.

The graphics upgrade is the biggest change; the remaster takes advantage of the technological advances of the three generations of consoles launched since the launch of the original game on PlayStation 2. Character 3 was criticized for its repetitive environments and battles and, although Reload don’t try to solve the first one, the battles are improved.

Visually, even compared to Persona 5 Royale, the characters are more detailed and smoother, especially during their anime-style attacks. Characters – the magical spirits you use to wield magic, defy fate, and all things Atlus – also look and move better.

The game also went through a Character 5 filter in a way too. The menus and battle results screens are now dynamic and vivid, with an aqua blue color palette fitting the theme of the third game. So yes, Atlus has done it again: they made the menus cool. There are also new animated scenes, while some old scenes have been recomposed with the latest game engine.

The fights also look better and play better too. It’s still a turn-based RPG, in which enemies and allies take turns attacking each other. In Persona games, the combat dynamic relies on hitting an enemy’s weak point, allowing additional attacks and interrupting their turn. P3R incorporated some of the series‘ quality of life improvements, including the ability to “pass” your turn to another player (if you hit an enemy’s weak point), who may be able to hit harder or knock back one of the other enemies.

Additionally, more often than before, when your character lands a critical hit or knocks down an enemy, you’ll get an anime-style close-up of the character’s face and a more dynamic Persona summon. I love it. Critical attacks have also been made more cinematic, and these improvements help make what can be repetitive fights a little more entertaining. Finishing attacks (all-out attacks involving the entire party) result in a sleek victory screen like this. Character 5.

Theurgy is the new combat dynamic introduced in Reload. It’s best to think of them as ultimate (or limit) attacks: powerful attacks that take time to build up before you can unleash them. Why call them Theurgy? The word means “the effect of supernatural or divine action in human affairs”, which is the jam of the Persona series.

Although these attacks will charge according to typical combat behaviors, each character has a particular trait that, if relied on, will charge the gauge much faster. On the one hand, it could be a status effect on an enemy. On the other hand, it could be about improving the characters in the group. Regardless, it’s often worth performing these specific actions instead of what you planned to do, if only to harness a powerful attack more quickly. I was pleasantly surprised at how often I could unleash these special attacks. The protagonist is unique, so he gets a selection of different Thuergy attacks based on the multiple Personas he unlocks over the course of the game.

Social Links are the backbone of the game and how your character spends time between supernatural fights. Unlike recent Persona games, improving your relationships with NPCs in the world of Persona 3 doesn’t give you many advantages in your fights. However, improving your connection can also be done through new “Link Episodes” available to certain party members and NPCs. Participating can lead to new Persona creations and even stat upgrades. Oh, and a deeper story.

Most combat takes place in Tartarus, a dizzying tower divided into different sections but generally offering the same thing no matter what level you’re on. This component of the Persona experience is also familiar (you’ve probably played Hades or any roguelike from the last five years) and frustrating. This can get boring quickly, especially if you’ve played the original game, which I’m sure many have. This is also where the least amount of effort has been put into improving this game. It’s repeated corridor mazes, with treasure, enemies, and other distractions scattered around. Sometimes there are Treasure Monsters – high-stakes, high-reward enemies that will often run away unless you defeat them quickly – and the Reaper, a powerful enemy that will steamroll you until you you wield end game weapons and high enough level. .

It’s a shame. With Character 5, the exploration and combat zones were themed around the antagonist of that chapter. There were puzzles to solve, parts of the level changed, and even resting places were factored into the level design. Then there was Mementos, built around the randomly generated levels you’d expect from a Persona title. In this remake Character 3you run through the same highly repetitive environments (with slight cosmetic changes) spread across over 250 staircases.

This won’t put off Persona fans; they know what a Persona game looks like. There are enough quality of life improvements to make it worth a replay if you’ve played the original over the last… two decades. I’m glad these improvements include a “network connection”, also taken from Character 5which shows you what other players are doing each day of the calendar, helping you know how you’re spending your time/helping with tricky school tests.

I was hoping for a new, more complex level design combined with turn-based RPG battles and the frivolity of friendship simulations, but that would have resulted in an entirely new game. I will have to wait Character 6 – or possibly look elsewhere.