DISTURBING THE PEACEEEE! LOOK INTO MY EYESSSSSSSSSSSSS!

I can gladly say that Persona 3 Reload is a really really great remake of Persona 3. Everything imo is elevated, which makes the game much more enjoyable. I can honestly say that I had a much more enjoyable time playing Reload than any of the three times I played FES. Going to keep this spoiler-free!

Let's start with the story. Honestly, nothing changes, but really nothing needed to change with the story, it was great as it is. This game probably has the best story out of three main persona games, and I see why people were so high on this game (although it might be my 3rd out of the three major persona games, that doesn't take away my enjoyment of it!).

Mechanically, social links are great. I am glad that they got rid of the Reverse system and the jealousy system because that really annoyed me in FES. I hate how I would be trying to complete every social link and I would accidentally neglect one and then they would reverse, and I would just give up on them entirely. This game does away with that, and it's honestly for the better. Speaking of social links, now that every social link is fully voiced, it makes a world of differences. It elevates each social link and makes me actually care about them (except two of them but I won't specify which because spoilers). Some of the dialogue options in the social links are brutal but I think that's a good quirk for the protagonist to have.

Coming off of social links, I want to talk about link episodes. I still think it's a crime that half of the playable characters do not get a social link. However, link episodes give us a great alternative, and probably the second best option. You get to bond with those party members that you wouldn't usually be able to thanks to the link episodes. The one gripe I had with this system was that there were some personas locked behind the completion of each characters link episodes, and I had only completed one characters link episodes (guess it's a me problem but I wanted to finish every social link so I had my priorities, will definitely do them on a replay). All in all, a great addition to Reload that it needed.

Music. Honestly, I don't really have that much of an opinion on the music in this game because I've barely listened to them except It's Going Down Now, but I love how they kept a lot of the original songs and just remade them. Although I definitely miss the old songs like When the Moon Reaches for the Stars, they do not take away from the new music.

Tartarus, probably the beefiest section. I will make it a fact that I dislike Tartarus with a passion, and having to go through it three times in FES just made me dislike it even more. Like, I honestly hate this more than P4 and P5s versions because of HOW MANY FLOORS there are. What Reload did made me slightly enjoy Tartarus more. Firstly, the inclusion of destructible objects in Tartarus made me so much happier because I wouldn't have to scrounge for chests on each floor to get money. I could just get the Devil Main Arcana card from shuffle time and get 100,000 yen per run of Tartarus. For some of the blocks of Tartarus I believe there was just no way to make them play well, so for those sections I just barely went to Tartarus unless I had to. The inclusion of Monad Doors made breezing through floors not a priority, and to instead take down a Monad Door whenever I saw it. I thoroughly enjoyed them. I also enjoyed that each block of Tartarus had a Monad Corridor (I don't remember the name it's been a hot minute). I enjoyed getting new Main Arcana Cards and challenging fights from these sections of Tartarus that made it also more enjoyable. Ambush was also a good addition to make fights go much more smoother, but I am sad that they removed the choice for the Navigator to change the soundtrack (unless I'm dumb and just couldn't figure out how to do it). The inclusion of twilight fragments was very meh for me, I barely used them at the end because it just wasn't worth it. I liked how on some floors we could pay to heal with twilight fragments instead of consuming SP. Finally, the inclusion of the EXP door (I don't remember what it's called) was great because it allowed me to have two other party members keep up with my main party, and allowed me to switch out party members without being at a disadvantage because they're so low level. Overall, I enjoy Tartarus much more in this game, but I still dislike it for how many floors there are.

Gameplay, hoo boy. I just love Persona and SMT gameplay, so to see it improved makes me so happy. I enjoyed hanging out with each party member in the dorm which gives them characteristics, that just makes some of them unbelievably busted. I enjoyed the addition of Theurgy's and the way that they avoid resistances, and just let you do some insane damage. I also enjoyed how every party member gets more than one theurgy after specific story events, it's great symbolism. The protagonist keeping some of the fusion spells from original P3 is great, and I love the little animations for them between each persona pair. Finally, this game has skill assignment and you don't have to rely on RNG to give you the skills you want (I believe this was a thing in P3P but I will not be going back to P3P after playing this game, it'll be way too weird). The addition of more personas and more skills allowed for more broken builds and thats such a treat. Also gotta talk about my 1 hour fusing sessions in the velvet room, humming to Aria of the Soul, it was great, except when you fusion accident into a Slime. Great gameplay, and would probably replay the game just to make weird builds.

It does suck that The Answer comes as DLC and that we won't be getting FEMC, but this doesn't destroy the game for me, because it was a pleasantly enjoyable 90 hour experience. This was a great game to start the year off with, and I implore anyone reading this if you haven't played this game to please play it, you will not regret it!

Also, the ending was 10/10.