I think, in addition to this being an excellent remake that is authentic in all the ways that matter (and every change made to the source material feels like its so at home that youre surprised it wasnt there to begin with), this remake was also exactly what the Persona franchise needed at this point in a post commodified-P5 era.

Ive always thought favorably of P3 in its black-sheep status amongst the Persona games but getting to experience Persona 3 in this modern, polished light in a post P5 world has quickly shot it up to my favorite Persona game, and the blueprint in terms of quality that Id want any future Persona game to follow. More natural focus on characters, more attention paid to pacing and themes, just an much more back-to-basics mentality.

More or less encapsulates everything I dislike about ATLUS games released during the 5th generation. Sterile, boring and clinical 3D environments running at abysmal framerates; Ear grating MIDI sampled music; Tedious mechanics that seem to exist only to waste your time as much as humanly possible; Paper thin storyline with only hints of greater meaning; This game pretty much has them all.

I can try to give as many back-handed compliments as I can to try to understand the appeal, like pointing out obvious observations such as "Kazuma Kaneko's designs are good" or "It is interesting to see a 1997 take on the internet and VR" and "It is nice to see ATLUS try more fleshed out and fun characters", but the fact of the matter is that none of these things make this an enjoyable experience when it otherwise struggles to keep my interest in a way that none of its contemporaries really struggled with.