Persona 3 Reload is an interesting remake to me, I played Portable not too long ago and while this version is definitely superior I’ve realized that even at its core Persona 3 is both amazing and flawed.
To start positives the game is so much smoother. I could handle the visual novel feel of portable but it was clearly inferior and seeing it all in a modern light is amazing. All the voice work is great, and Tartarus is a definite improvement. Going from tolerable in P3P to pretty fun with all the elements brought in from P5.
However there are some things that held Portable that are somehow still present here. The pacing is still bad, taking waaay too long to get good. The tweaks made to shuffle time make the game way easier, and there simply not enough things to do during the night with only 2 social links and social stats leveling up super fast.
Overall for a first timer, playing this version is 100% the way to go. I still wish it shook more things ups, and both of its sequels feel like better games but you can’t deny how perfectly it comes together by the end.
To start positives the game is so much smoother. I could handle the visual novel feel of portable but it was clearly inferior and seeing it all in a modern light is amazing. All the voice work is great, and Tartarus is a definite improvement. Going from tolerable in P3P to pretty fun with all the elements brought in from P5.
However there are some things that held Portable that are somehow still present here. The pacing is still bad, taking waaay too long to get good. The tweaks made to shuffle time make the game way easier, and there simply not enough things to do during the night with only 2 social links and social stats leveling up super fast.
Overall for a first timer, playing this version is 100% the way to go. I still wish it shook more things ups, and both of its sequels feel like better games but you can’t deny how perfectly it comes together by the end.