Persona 3 FES is my favorite game of all time. It's the oldest of the modern three, but it always meant so much to me. The game has objective problems such as a singular, repeating dungeon and no party control, and while I unapologetically like these "issues", the game delivers the most profound story I've ever seen. This shouldn't be a review of the original PS2 game, as much as I could talk about that, but the remake that I've been wanting for so long.

I think it's easy to misinterpret persona 3 as a game about death, however it's themes rely upon the natural beauty of life, the hardships of it, how life is extremely fragile, brief and finite, yet it's still worth living. Persona 3 shines in its characters and their flaws, more than anything. The main cast includes a robot struggling to understand humanity, a dog looking for somewhere to reside, a traumatized elementary student, unable to seek revenge or sympathy. To see each characters faults, and their understandings of each other throughout the story creates a much more natural progression than most jrpg party systems. Life is unfair, but it's still beautiful.

Persona 3 Reload improves upon many of the originals faults, while including more modern systems into its mechanics. Full party control, as well as mechanics from newer titles, ultimate attacks, etc, really make climbing Tartarus much more fun. Tartarus itself has also gone through a massive rehaul. Repeating floors are improved by interactable objects, optional areas, randomized floors, and unique designs. Reload is much easier than the original, however, even on harder difficulties.

The calender system of Persona 3 feels so much more natural after replaying this story that I realized it just retroactively ended up becoming a series staple, yet it fits the goal of this one in particular much better. There is always an endgame in sight, there is always a reason to keep going, and time never waits.

The new music arrangements are very good as well, and while I can nitpick and prefer some minor details of the original, Reload captures the essence of dread so well. The lighting and attention to detail looks so good here, and the team passionately and faithfully retained the original vision. Reload also introduces an entirely new voice cast. Minor details such as Aigis sounding more "human" as her story progresses is still maintainted, and most of the original 2005 cast reprise their roles as smaller characters, feeling bittersweet, as well as a nice passing of the torch.

Persona 3 Reload deserves the highest possible score I could give a game. I don't believe theres a story as emotionally impactful to me as this one. In life, we are born to live, to cry, to feel pain, to laugh. The journey of this game is one I will always cherish, and one I'll keep close.

i, for one, am thoroughly appalled that this series would ever have the audacity to feature a player character who isn't a totally morally righteous person. this is a travesty. completely out of touch

and the gameplay? it's such a shameless ripoff of the last acclaimed silent hill project that was released. what the fuck were they thinking?

i'm going to go return to silent hill 2 now - the most subtle and least blunt horror game ever created. at least that game doesn't have sticky notes with "bullying" written on them (granted, this one doesn't either, but that's not what i heard from the people who didn't play it, so it must be true)

Yakuza/Like a Dragon has been my favorite gaming series since a few years now and naturally I've been very hyped for Infinite Wealth. So much that I didn't watch any trailer past the first 10-minute reveal of the game and muted Yakuza related keywords on social media. I usually never do this for a game, but the urge to see Kiryu's fate by myself was strong, since that's a key selling point for this entry.

The new characters are great and became some of my favorites in the series, but it was also nice to see how Infinite Wealth expanded on the previously established characters from Yakuza: Like a Dragon in meaningful ways. This is especially noticeable with Ichiban himself, since he really gets to shine in many different aspects here - whether he is serious about the things that matter the most to him or if he is just goofing around with his friends, he just feels like a great guy to be around overall. There's something about him that just feels so human and real.

I always felt like the combat in Yakuza 7 was a bit janky, but I excused it since it was RGG's first attempt at creating a turn-based game. Fortunately, Infinite Wealth follows up on the foundation that's already there and adds some tactical elements like moving during turns, guaranteed crits when attacking from behind and combo attacks with party members. It really makes a big difference and makes the combat flow a whole lot better. Balancing is also just right for the most part and the DLC classes have good basegame integration this time around. No more solo-ing bosses with the comically overpowered Head Trauma move in the previous mainline game.

Story is enjoyable for the most part. There are some plotholes and other minor nitpicks that bother me, even so it's still an enjoyable ride overall with some good supporting characters and villains along the way. Pacing is a bit wonky in a way that there are some instances where you have to follow a very linear route across half the map to get to your destination while avoiding random encounters left and right. This makes sense with the narrative context in those situations, but it's rather dull from a gameplay perspective, considering you just have to beeline from A to B without being able to do anything else for that time (without prior warning). It's not a major flaw, since it only occurs a few time in the game, but what's really bugging me is that the narrative unfortunately has a lot of wasted potential, keeping it from being one of the best ones in the series. Some seemingly "major" characters are especially undercooked, which is a shame given their assigned roles in the story.

Now for some positivity again, one of the biggest highlights in Infinite Wealth for me is Kiryu's involvement. Having to come to terms with his own mortality, he decides to seek out friends and locations from the past one more time. It's really cool to see so many returning characters from the Kiryu games and what they're up to now; the little flashbacks to past Yakuza games you can see at various points scattered across the cities are also neat fanservice. While this aspect falls pretty flat for those who got into the series with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, it feels like a nice reward for all long-term fans and might even motivate some of the newer fans to go back to the Kiryu saga!

Overall, Infinite Wealth feels like a big step up from Like a Dragon into the right direction and is worth your time. It's not just a good game for Yakuza fans, but for JRPG fans in general with the amount of effort put into this game. Now onto Persona 3 Reload, another game I've been looking forward to a long time!

Thanks for reading.