Persona 3 is one of my favorite games of all time. I was so excited to play this and have a lot to say now that I’ve finished this version.
A visual facelift is a mandatory thing for a remake. It looks in line with 5 which is good. Lighting could be darker to match the overall tone of the original game but otherwise everything is good in this department. Not much else to say here.
Reload brought with it various quality of life improvements that it really needed. Annoying AI control of you party members is gone (but credit to portable doing this first), skill inheritance is no longer random even though it was easily manipulated with reloads, social links are no longer breakable, Tartarus is better (more on that later), the annoying fatigue mechanic is gone, the ability to rewind to prior days and many more small things I can’t even think of off the top of my head. They add up to it being a more polished game then its original..
I did not mention the combat additions like shift and theurgy among the quality of life mechanics as I have more mixed feelings there. Shift is welcome in so far as it brings combat in line with 5 given its essentially the baton pass mechanic, however its presence from early on make random battles much more trivial as setting up all out attacks before enemies can even do anything is quite easy with it. The theurgy mechanic is the main new addition that is way too powerful for this game. They’re super moves each party member can do and the level of burst damage they allow is absurd and can trivialize bosses. I think all these things are cool conceptually but without adjusting balance for them they just make the game quite easy on normal difficulty in comparison to the original game. It's not pokemon easy or anything but if you played any Persona before you’ll notice the balance being off. For that reason I’d recommend at least trying higher difficulties though I know people who usually enjoy those also say these mechanics make those easier then they should be as well.
Tartarus was the biggest issue with the original game as its 200+ floors of samey randomized hallways. Conceptually it's still the same here but each major area is a bit more visually and structurally unique which is welcome compared to the original and they’ve added some small things to make exploring the tower interesting. Also the removal of fatigue and the game giving so much sp recovery items that it feels much less like a chore to get through. It's not as radical as some may have wanted, such as making sections more like 5’s palaces, but if you're familiar with the original this is still much better.
Nothing significant was changed about the main story or the social link aside from rewrites to romanceable ones so you can now remain friends instead of being forced to be a cheating asshole if you do all their social links. 3 does have an issue with packing most of its story into the last few months but that story is fantastic. This does cause interesting story development to be slow at the start but the payoff is absolutely worth it with the best ending of any of the modern persona games. Nothing else to say there as the journey shouldn’t be spoiled. For social links leaving most completely untouched is admittedly more of a mixed bag. 3 was the first Persona to do them and as a result many are not as good as future social links end up being (looking at you Moon). But there are bright spots like the Sun here which is possibly the best social link these games have ever done.
I should note, while male party members do not have social links the game did add new events for each of them to fill in that gap. This can’t have an arcana associated since all those are taken here but they do make sure you have a chance to further bond with them anyway and even give rewards like small stat boosts and unlocking a persona at the end of their storylines. Only issues with these are they are time sensitive so possible to miss out on whole storylines if you don’t know that and the personas unlocked were not locked in the original which can cause issues making special fusions that call for a persona locked behind those. Aside from those there's small events you can have with each party member where you can read, watch tv or garden together at night which can unlock special passive abilities for everyone if done enough.. It’s a welcome addition given how little to do there can be at night.
This remake is what I’d endorse as the best version to play but unfortunately I must recognize it continues the problem of not having all previous versions content as the female main character and her unique social links are absent. P3 Portable will always have a reason to be played if you’ve never seen that. Even so Reload still gives the complete original story with FES’s additions and new ones of its own and many quality of life changes so if anyone was looking to play 3 for the first time Reload should be the easy pick to point them towards.
A visual facelift is a mandatory thing for a remake. It looks in line with 5 which is good. Lighting could be darker to match the overall tone of the original game but otherwise everything is good in this department. Not much else to say here.
Reload brought with it various quality of life improvements that it really needed. Annoying AI control of you party members is gone (but credit to portable doing this first), skill inheritance is no longer random even though it was easily manipulated with reloads, social links are no longer breakable, Tartarus is better (more on that later), the annoying fatigue mechanic is gone, the ability to rewind to prior days and many more small things I can’t even think of off the top of my head. They add up to it being a more polished game then its original..
I did not mention the combat additions like shift and theurgy among the quality of life mechanics as I have more mixed feelings there. Shift is welcome in so far as it brings combat in line with 5 given its essentially the baton pass mechanic, however its presence from early on make random battles much more trivial as setting up all out attacks before enemies can even do anything is quite easy with it. The theurgy mechanic is the main new addition that is way too powerful for this game. They’re super moves each party member can do and the level of burst damage they allow is absurd and can trivialize bosses. I think all these things are cool conceptually but without adjusting balance for them they just make the game quite easy on normal difficulty in comparison to the original game. It's not pokemon easy or anything but if you played any Persona before you’ll notice the balance being off. For that reason I’d recommend at least trying higher difficulties though I know people who usually enjoy those also say these mechanics make those easier then they should be as well.
Tartarus was the biggest issue with the original game as its 200+ floors of samey randomized hallways. Conceptually it's still the same here but each major area is a bit more visually and structurally unique which is welcome compared to the original and they’ve added some small things to make exploring the tower interesting. Also the removal of fatigue and the game giving so much sp recovery items that it feels much less like a chore to get through. It's not as radical as some may have wanted, such as making sections more like 5’s palaces, but if you're familiar with the original this is still much better.
Nothing significant was changed about the main story or the social link aside from rewrites to romanceable ones so you can now remain friends instead of being forced to be a cheating asshole if you do all their social links. 3 does have an issue with packing most of its story into the last few months but that story is fantastic. This does cause interesting story development to be slow at the start but the payoff is absolutely worth it with the best ending of any of the modern persona games. Nothing else to say there as the journey shouldn’t be spoiled. For social links leaving most completely untouched is admittedly more of a mixed bag. 3 was the first Persona to do them and as a result many are not as good as future social links end up being (looking at you Moon). But there are bright spots like the Sun here which is possibly the best social link these games have ever done.
I should note, while male party members do not have social links the game did add new events for each of them to fill in that gap. This can’t have an arcana associated since all those are taken here but they do make sure you have a chance to further bond with them anyway and even give rewards like small stat boosts and unlocking a persona at the end of their storylines. Only issues with these are they are time sensitive so possible to miss out on whole storylines if you don’t know that and the personas unlocked were not locked in the original which can cause issues making special fusions that call for a persona locked behind those. Aside from those there's small events you can have with each party member where you can read, watch tv or garden together at night which can unlock special passive abilities for everyone if done enough.. It’s a welcome addition given how little to do there can be at night.
This remake is what I’d endorse as the best version to play but unfortunately I must recognize it continues the problem of not having all previous versions content as the female main character and her unique social links are absent. P3 Portable will always have a reason to be played if you’ve never seen that. Even so Reload still gives the complete original story with FES’s additions and new ones of its own and many quality of life changes so if anyone was looking to play 3 for the first time Reload should be the easy pick to point them towards.