Before I start, I have to say this: THE STORY WAS FANTASTIC!! THE SOCIAL LINKS WERE AMAZING AND I ENJOYED MY TIME PLAYING THIS GAME, that said, there is a reason why I can't give this game a full 5*, and its mostly down to Atlus' greed
Atlus has this tendancy to rely HEAVILY on releasing a game, then a year or two later, releasing the same game But Better™, we've seen that this year too with Shin Megami Tensei V (2021) and Shin Megami Tensei Vengeance, charging full price for the second title, not including save transfers, but justifying it by including the DLCs and some extra content sprinkled every here and there. While this was needed with Persona 5 Royale, I thought its fucking weird to introduce such monetization system with a game that's supposed to be the "Definitive" Persona 3 experience. The main problem with Persona 3 is that there is no Definitive experience, Portable has its pros and cons, and so does FES, so when Reload got announced, I thought it would finally be the game to break that debate and release the game with all the content, QOL Adjustments, revamped gameplay and such of the two aforementioned titles, but instead what we got was just Persona 3 kinda FES but not really because you have to pay 35 bucks for The Answer lol™
I also noticed the handicapping of the game itself, there's barely anything to do during the night, same thing on off days, at least after you finish the Social Links, besides just idk raising Academics or something, sure you can hang out with different SEES members and unlock different characteristics for all of them, but it takes like 3 hang outs to unlock 1 characteristic, that's not enough to fill up that huge time gap we have by the time you go near the end game, Tartarus also gets very monotone after a while, I know that it was 2006 and Persona was still finding it's footing, but this brings me to my next point, isn't this game supposed to be a remake? I'm not asking to make Persona 4 type dungeons or Persona 5 type palaces, but having to go to Tartarus a lot of the time can be so daunting and exhausting that when Elizabeth tells me someone got lost I genuinely get so upset because I realize I have to go to Tartarus
my biggest problems really just stem from the very obvious signs that theres going to be a Persona 3 Reload Ultimax or some shit that's going to have FEMC, The Answer and things to do during the night and weekends in the late game, and even more improvements to gameplay and Tartarus (like tagging out teammates?? dude Final Fantasy has had this feature in the 90s, why can't i switch Koromaru from Ken mid battle? this is supposed to be a remake, i.e. improvements over original game with the main story elements mostly being intact)
the "expansion pass" is also scummy, as paying 35$ for outfits and music and an extra story element does not mean its fully accepted to actually pay half of the game's original price to experience The Answer, let alone the justification of calling it a "Expansion Pass"
I also had the misfortune of playing this game on PC, which meant Denuvo destroyed the performance horribly during random scenes like idk Koromaru and protagonist going to the police station, or just walking around Tartarus would drop my frames from 120 to 30ish, I hope denuvo leaves this game alone honestly
now beyond that, this game's story is fucking amazing and you owe it to yourself to play it idc, this game's story, music, characters, cast, anime cutscenes, cgi cutscenes, they're all incredible and i'm plenty happy to see it be modernized, i believe its not the definitive edition of Persona 3 just yet, but honestly? its not too far off of it, in due time we should be getting a true "Definitive" persona 3 experience.

One of the best games in 2023 by FAR, but sadly very hampered by things that should get looked at by the developers.

I'm gonna first speak regarding the cons before the pros, since they're fresher in my mind:

The performance issues in this game are horrible. Seriously. A trend ongoing as of late where developers release their games unpolished and unoptimized only to fix it later on is really depressing. I don't have a very powerful rig, I'll admit, a mere 3060 and i5-10400F isn't gonna take me to 4K 144hz, but it still should give me ATLEAST 60 frames using medium settings and low ray tracing enabled. Instead, I'm hit with frames BELOW 30, averaging around 23 frames per second. Audio & subtitle desync is also extremely prevalent throughout this game, almost making cutscenes unwatchable UNLESS you press start the moment the saving icon comes up, it's especially bad during Saga's parts where she moves between locations (Bright Falls to Watery being the worst in my case.)

Another big problem within this game is the very big power imbalance within the game, Alan is extremely underpowered and confusing due to the fact that his guns are dogshit and theres usually too many enemies. HOWEVER! Unlike games like Resident Evil 2 where dodging enemies is an option, there's points within this game that FORCE YOU to keep fighting which on a high difficulty almost seems impossible due to Alan getting up on the same pace as your grandma when she falls down the stairs and the taken beating your ass as if you went to the wrong ends and you looked at the wrong people funny. Funnily enough, I didn't die ONCE as Saga due to Saga's combat almost being too easy through every part including the boss fights. Level design is confusing, you'll sit there for a while trying to find the answer to something only for it to be

now for the pros?

The story is almost perfect, the disparity between Initiation and Return, the horror atmosphere, the unique combat idea of using flashlights to reveal/weaken enemies is fantastic. The story switching between Saga's Thriller Horror to Alan's Psychological Horror is just fantastic. Without revealing too much, every chapter makes no sense at first, only to be taking you through a whirlwind of emotions and ends with ending it in a way that makes you wanting more. Honestly if the cons get polished up (which it can be after release easily, mostly) then this would be a definite 5* . Despite that, it rightfully earned its place as a game of the year contender for 2023. 4/5 for me.

jesus fucking christ, where do i even begin with this game.

this game is RGG's second game in the year, launching ahead of Like a Dragon 8 in early 2024, the purpose of this game is to bridge the gaps between Yakuza 6: The Song of Life and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, as well as introducing the "Like a Dragon Gaiden" subseries, which are dedicated to telling small scale stories regarding key figures in RGG's story. This entry not only did that, but outdid itself on every possible scale expected out of a smaller "Like a Dragon" game.

Without spoiling, it answers many of the questions that players had playing the series in numerical order between 6 and 7 (aka Yakuza: Like a Dragon). As well as introducing new areas, points of interest, the Akame Network system and a new fighting style with its own level of depth in the "Agent Style", which allows you to use 4 different high-tech gadgets during fights, the Coliseum is introduced as well as this game's fighting arena, where you'll be able to recruit new members and go into massive fights with your comrades, or fight in 1v1 fights against other arena contenders. The ability to customize Kiryu's clothing is also introduced for the first time in this game (without the need of a New Game+), among other returning minigames, a revamped arcade, a whole SEGA GENESIS in the hideout, and other insane features.

Despite its shorter storyline, it fleshes out many characters, which honestly is impressive for an RGG game with only 5 chapters. This game broke many of RGG's traditional storytelling methods as well, which I can't get into due to not wanting to spoil this fantastic entry.

My biggest criticisms are honestly regarding the upgrading path, as the game requires both Akame Points and Money to upgrade, at the beginning, I realized Akame Points are my biggest hurdle, but by the mid to end of the game, my biggest problem was the money, as the game would demand like 3 million for extra heals or a new heat action but you'd barely even be able to scrape together 1 million as is.

That, as well as not giving certain characters a dynamic intro for their fights.

This game's soundtrack and ending are fantastic, everything regarding this game is beautiful, and honestly sits up there for me as one of the best games of 2023. if you haven't played this yet, you HAVE to.

for as much as i loved the vibes of this game, the intro to this game is way better than a good chunk of it, economy needs a rework and movement feels extremely weird on consoles, almost like i have a massive weight strapped to my ankles, its really unfun & puts me off of playing the game. the storyline at the beginning was extremely fun but sometime later it just got... convoluted almost? and very template-like, for instance, you'll meet someone who's supposedly gonna help you w your problem, but they'll ask you to run a job for them, you damn near almost die, then they'll jus be dickheads and tell you to fuck off with minimal knowledge of SHIT

basically, the worst parts of red dead redemption 2 but for the ENTIRE game, the music is great tho