Persona 3 Reload made me notice what a private expertise the unique launch supplied. It’s humorous, what a distinction practically 18 years could make, and the way little that period of time modifications the components that make up an excellent interactive expertise.
When Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 arrived in North America in late 2006, constructing on contemporary model recognition produced by Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, it provided a compelling RPG expertise like none I had ever skilled. I used to be completely enthralled. Whereas enjoying the revitalized remake, I felt the acquainted magic at work as soon as once more. The explanations for my enchantment had modified typically, as had the sport’s finer particulars and presentation. Largely, these variations make Persona 3 Reload the definitive version of an already excellent sport.
The exceptions to that completely happy rule warrant a particular point out, so let’s get that out of the best way. Persona 3 has seen a number of enhanced releases over time, in Persona 3 FES (additionally launched on the PS2) and Persona 3 Moveable. Each newer releases featured expanded content material. Persona 3 Moveable even lets gamers benefit from the marketing campaign as a feminine protagonist.
Sadly, that expanded content material is absent from the Persona 3 Reload bundle. A few of it ought to seem later in DLC, however it’s not included from the beginning. That omission seems like a missed alternative. It didn’t hassle me a lot as a result of there’s nonetheless a ton of stuff to see and do. I spent 90 fulfilling hours with the marketing campaign as is. I’m completely content material, however I can sympathize with anybody who feels slighted.
![Persona 3 Reload Review Characters In Classroom](https://www.pcinvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/persona-3-reload-review-characters-in-classroom.jpg?resize=1200%2C675)
Character to recollect
Once I performed the unique model of Persona 3 forward of launch, I hadn’t but watched a number of anime. There was a restrict to how a lot stuff was available within the Pacific Northwest, not to mention inexpensive. My lack of familiarity with the assorted tropes — which since then have grow to be well-established — meant a few of the plot beats felt brisker to me. I didn’t notice how a lot the sport seems like a season of anime, proper all the way down to a scorching springs episode.
I’ve broadened my horizons since then, as have most of us. And though familiarity with these traditional concepts prevents them from feeling as new to me as they as soon as did, the brand new presentation makes up for it. There’s a number of spoken dialogue this time round, capably voiced with out lots of the bitter notes that plague different massive productions. The actors actually decide to their roles. I discovered Junpei coming to life as he by no means had earlier than whereas I adopted his emotional journey. I didn’t like him as a lot this time round as I did in my mid-20s, however that’s hardly a mark towards the sport. And I had an analogous expertise with different principal and even secondary characters. Right here, they really feel extra full.
![Persona 3 Reload Review Social Links Yuko Nishiwaki](https://www.pcinvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/persona-3-reload-review-social-links-yuko-nishiwaki.jpg?resize=1200%2C675)
Getting social
As all the time, an enormous a part of the Persona 3 expertise is the “Social Hyperlinks” mechanic. Launched close to the very begin of the sport, this function encourages you to work together with secondary characters reminiscent of a monitor workforce captain, a grumpy monk, a sickly younger man, and others. They’ll by no means be part of your fight celebration, however that doesn’t imply you’re protected ignoring them. Growing a deep relationship grants entry to essential expertise and even monster fusions.
You usually are free to spend time with whoever you want throughout a day’s afternoon and night blocks, supplied their schedule meshes with your individual. Characters are normally obtainable to satisfy throughout sure occasions of the day — and on sure days of the week. They’ll even name you to counsel a gathering, making it straightforward to maintain monitor of who may be obtainable at the moment.
The sensible play is to maintain a calendar someplace, so you might have a greater concept of the place you possibly can spend your time most successfully. Deadlines loom. You may not get to see how one individual’s story ends in the event you waste an excessive amount of time working on the espresso home (as I did) or collaborating in additional dungeon raids than mandatory.
![Persona 3 Reload Review Schedule Tool](https://www.pcinvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/persona-3-reload-review-schedule-tool.jpg?resize=1200%2C675)
Fortuitously, there are helpful instruments obtainable that will help you use your time extra successfully, so you might have a greater probability of maxing out your numerous bonds. You now have the choice to “Rewind” occasions a brief distance. As an example, in the event you give a pal a tricky speak and it seems they’re not prepared for blistering honesty, you possibly can attempt once more and select a gentler response.
Though Persona 3 is a single-player expertise, it has an elective social side in addition to the social hyperlinks. Once you hook up with the community upon first loading the sport, you possibly can see a report in your actions on a selected day and examine it to what different gamers are doing with their time. Perhaps if I had paid extra consideration to that function a bit of earlier in my classes, I’d have prioritized just a few issues otherwise and had a neater time attending to know all of the NPCs with out butting up towards deadlines.
However that’s life, actually, and Persona 3 Reload does a commendable job of simulating the social existence. The stress and the danger of loss solely spotlight the sport’s timeless themes (reminiscent of mortality and the worth of a life properly lived). A few of these essential themes resonated with me now in methods they merely couldn’t 20 years in the past. It’s to the sport’s credit score that its design works on a number of ranges.
![Persona 3 Reload Review Tartarus Exploration](https://www.pcinvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/persona-3-reload-review-tartarus-exploration.jpg?resize=1200%2C675)
Crawling in dungeons
Once I suppose again to Persona 3 as I remembered it, two issues come to thoughts most readily: the social interactions and the dungeon crawling. A central level of the plot is {that a} handful of gifted youths should scale a towering construction that solely seems within the ‘Darkish Hour’ most of us won’t ever see. The upper they climb, the extra they arrive to grasp about that nightly occasion, themselves, and the horrible finish that may await everybody in the event that they don’t placed on their hero footwear.
There are dozens upon dozens of flooring to see, they usually’re procedurally generated every night time you go to the tower, which is named Tartarus. As a result of the ground layouts aren’t fixed, in addition they have a tendency to not be particularly attention-grabbing. For me, they form of blur collectively. This was all the time an issue with the sport’s design, however it’s one which the brand new sport addresses by providing comfort options and even destructible pedestals you possibly can break for treasure. For somebody like me, the pedestals work brilliantly. I ran round, smashing every little thing, and I not often left a flooring till I had explored it fully. I’d attain the staircase to the subsequent degree and test my map to ensure I missed nothing.
Exploration of elective areas in dungeons has expanded from what I keep in mind the primary time round, as properly. Varied occasions come up periodically so as to add curiosity, together with particular uncommon enemies that provide hefty rewards when you defeat them. No two runs are prone to be fairly the identical.
One significantly essential change is that it’s now straightforward to roam to your coronary heart’s content material, with out having to fret that your characters will grow to be fatigued and want to go away earlier than you’re completed exploring. I typically performed round in Tartarus for the higher a part of two hours on a single go to, which made it simpler to extend character ranges, collect loot, and fuse extra monsters. The gentler restrictions left me with extra time to discover social hyperlinks between scripted occasions.
![Persona 3 Reload Review Yukari Shift](https://www.pcinvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/persona-3-reload-review-yukari-shift.jpg?resize=1200%2C675)
The monster mash
Enhancements to the dungeon crawling lengthen to the fight itself. You’ll nonetheless meet a number of the identical monsters, simply with completely different names, coloration palettes, and elemental attributes to think about as you ascend to the tower’s larger flooring. Nevertheless, battle needn’t be monotonous, because of a few neat tweaks.
The primary tweak is the Shift mechanic. When a celebration member hits a monster’s weak point, that monster turns into surprised and the participant can go once more. It’s potential to maintain hitting enemy weaknesses to disable a complete enemy squad. Then your workforce can set off an All-Out assault. Any celebration members with out standing illnesses can then gang up on the enemy for giant rewards. This was true even within the authentic model of the sport. The distinction is that now you possibly can ‘Shift’ between celebration members to extra completely exploit enemy weaknesses. It’s unlikely a single celebration member can hit each weak point that may have an effect on an enemy group. As a substitute of creating the follow-up transfer, they will hand it off to somebody higher outfitted. This twist may appear minor, however it will possibly make an enormous distinction in the way you strategize.
Theurgy skills are a second worthwhile tweak. Consider them as uber-abilities you possibly can solely execute when you fill a meter. The varied skills generate power otherwise, reminiscent of an motion taken in battle. As soon as a meter fills, you possibly can execute a strong, character-specific transfer. Sometimes, this implies you launch an assault that ignores elemental weaknesses. Good gamers can stockpile their numerous Theurgy skills and roll them out in live performance to show the tide of an arduous battle in a single flip. Extra highly effective Theurgy skills materialize all through the marketing campaign when you get to know the assorted characters by collaborating in occasions that happen between every little thing else.
Common fight can get tiresome, however I discover the circulate much less tedious now than it as soon as was, because of the Shift means and the Theurgies. Rewards for benefiting from your sources in fight are additionally extra beneficiant, and I produced them rather more steadily. Shuffle Time occasions on the finish of an efficient battle help you snag a number of playing cards that provide substantial advantages you should use properly after your Tartarus run ends. In practically all features, the sport is extra beneficiant with the rewards, in order that the grind doesn’t really feel as extreme.
![Persona 3 Reload Review Classroom Lecture](https://www.pcinvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/persona-3-reload-review-classroom-lecture.jpg?resize=1200%2C675)
Trying good
Video games are lots prettier now than they had been 16 years in the past, a lot of them. Persona 3 Reload isn’t prone to shock anybody with how good it seems to be in 2024, however I appreciated the various enhancements throughout the board. The lighting is nice, with shadows transferring realistically and environments feeling extra dynamic. I’d discover reflections in glass in numerous backgrounds, which add element to acquainted environments like school rooms and the assorted space hubs. After we play remade variations of video games we beloved years earlier than, it’s straightforward to recollect the previous video games trying higher than they really did. To me, Persona 3 Reload now seems to be just like the model of Persona 3 that existed in my thoughts as I performed the unique. The distinction is that now it really seems on-screen, moderately than merely occupying my creativeness.
Redrawn character portraits function extra element and extra sensible proportions. As you roam dungeons, the heroes resemble those featured in a more moderen sport reminiscent of Persona 5. You possibly can equip numerous costumes for them to put on, and see your selection mirrored each in battle and in conversations and such that happen elsewhere. There are a number of little touches alongside these strains, with previous and new parts mixing naturally. Even the persona portraits (in addition to their presentation throughout battle) have improved. A number of the authentic animated story sequences really feel much less refined now than they as soon as did, however that disparity solely highlights how a lot the sport’s presentation has improved general.
![Persona 3 Reload Review Tartarus Lobby](https://www.pcinvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/persona-3-reload-review-tartarus-lobby.jpg?resize=1200%2C675)
A bittersweet finish
Persona 3 all the time benefitted from the power to shock gamers with the assorted twists it provided alongside the best way. Its core concepts, as soon as thrilling, have had time to grow to be much less exceptional. Nevertheless, I’m completely happy to report that the builders went again to a really robust basis and improved on it in all the appropriate methods. Fight is faster-paced and presents better rewards. Exploration is much less of a slog. The characters are extra vividly drawn than ever, figuratively and actually. There’s a degree of polish right here that creeps up on an individual till they take it with no consideration, which is what I like after I’m having fun with a remake.
If you happen to’re like me and also you first performed the unique model of Persona 3 years in the past, there’s lots concerning the expertise you might need forgotten and can now discover fulfilling over again. And in the event you simply by no means bought round to it the primary time round, there’s by no means been a greater time to dive into one of many meatiest and most fulfilling RPGs of the PlayStation 2 period, now with extra advantages. I’ll have already spent 90 hours with Persona 3 Reload, however that hasn’t stopped me from beginning a second run to expertise these previous couple of issues I carelessly missed alongside the best way. If you happen to attempt the sport for your self, don’t be shocked in the event you don’t need it to finish, both.