A sadly unimportant addendum to a story that felt ultimately conclusive in its message. The gameplay is as sharp as ever, the visuals remain top-notch, and it's hard to not get at least somewhat delighted to see that cast return.

I just can't shake the feeling that I'm not supposed to be back in this moment. I felt the same way about Echoes of the Fallen that released a few months ago.

I had my emotional conclusion with these characters. Playing as Clive again, speaking with Joshua, hanging out with Jill... I'm not supposed to be here, right? This feels like a great expansion for players playing through it for the first time, but as someone that got every second out of FFXVI as it was willing to give me, I feel like I'm watching a Weekend at Bernie's style performance of a cast of characters and a world that shouldn't look like this anymore.

Also, the Leviathan boss fight is some bullshit (even if the music kicks ass.)

I didn't really like this game very much! I think the Persona series has the same issue every series that tries to be different in tone/story between entries has: the first one you play is usually the one you like the most. Persona 4 was the first Persona I played - and it's my favourite. I didn't go into Persona 3 expecting the same thing; I knew it was darker and more challenging narratively, and I was excited for that. The problem is that it takes 30 hours to get there.

Persona 3 Reload is a very slow burn. You'll spend hours getting to know these characters on the periphery of their lives, with only a brief window into their inner thoughts and feelings popping up between long runs of very simple rock-paper-scissors, elemental affliction abuse focused, turn-based combat.

That said, when it gets there... it's probably one of the most affecting stories about death and loss and grief and life and friendship that any video game I've ever played has tried to tackle. There's one character in particular that, without spoiling anything, may be incredibly distressing if you have experience with friends/family that have lived through serious medical complications. Really distressing and beautiful and heart-wrenching stuff.

It's interesting that when I reflect on this game, there are two aspects of it I recall. The first are the hours spent doing tedious combat, or grinding away at the slow days that meant nothing; the days where you hung out with someone you didn't even particularly like just to make the hours pass so you could get to the next one; especially the days during the summer, with no structure or opportunities, or even people to hang out, where all you had were meaningless tasks to pass the time. The others are, of course, the important moments where everything changed for a character, or I learned something important about them that made me change my own personal way of thinking. The moments where I started wondering to myself who's going to remember me after I'm gone, and if the person I am now is the person I want them to remember.

I recall both the mundane and innately important, not because they're of equal weight in terms of quality or success or some quantifiable statistic of worthwhile time, but because they both shaped the story. As boring as they were in the game, the days where you look for ways to kill time in anticipation of a beautiful tomorrow made those beautiful tomorrows all the sweeter. I remember the first day back from the depressing summer vacation of chores and clearing out Tartarus, and entering the hallway after class to see a character that had a really fun social link and I was legitimately excited to see them. I felt like a kid again. It made me think of friends I hadn't thought about in a really long time.

I hope Jasper's doing okay. I miss Pieter.

Persona 3 Reload is the kind of work that acts as both a memento mori and a practice on fighting the nihilism inherent to that. A game that begs the player to ask the hard questions like: is anything worth doing? do things require a value to be done? is the sheer act of being able to do something not proof of its worth?

Maybe that's a little pithy, and I'm sure when I read this back in a few months I'll bemoan my inability to just get across a thing rather than express its emotion in the hopes that someone can read between the lines, but that's just how I'm feeling about Persona 3 Reload.

I hope that when my life reaches its sunset and I reflect on the (hopefully) very long time it took to get there, that the good days I recall are numerous, and that the people I spent them with remember them as fondly as I do.

A game about friendship, love, and finding joy in the creativity that we share with others. The platforming, gliding and climbing are surprisingly tight as you trek through a wilderness park that has been transformed by the fictional world you and your friends have crafted in it. You fight as the hero through a magical world of your imagination, filled with friends and enemies (they're just cardboard cutouts with slimes and skeletons painted on them) to complete your ultimate goal: getting your older sister to play with you again. It's hard to not love this.