Persona 3 Reload captures the heart and soul of the original games (minus FEMC) and elevates it with stylistic graphics, new music tracks, and added gameplay complexity to make it a very solid overall experience.
Some pros: I enjoyed the story minus a few story beats that require you to suspend your belief in order to get to the conclusion and receive the message that the writer wanted to give in the first place. The new music tracks are amazing and add a breath of fresh air to an otherwise short and repetitive soundtrack for a 50+ hour game. The new theurgy system and returning baton pass system from P5 is a welcome addition to the combat system that separates it from P4. Voice acting is amazing, and everyone was cast very well, I have no complaints in that department. The story had a darker tone than 4 and 5, which I enjoyed, and I liked how the ending was played out.
Cons: Too many Tartarus floors. At least in P5, mementos was broken up by the palaces, but this game is all mementos style gameplay, which was my least favourite part of 5. Let me listen to or reread active voice dialogue in Tartarus because they get cut off by every little thing that happens (how does dialogue not have priority over "theres a shadow!" for the 500th time?). Pacing can be weird sometimes, and Strega kinda suck as antagonists because their motives are so shaky (they went from trying to prevent Nyx's return to actively trying to stop you from fighting it?) And small gripe, the monad passages are annoying to traverse through if you want to save between each boss, and the fact that it asks you if you want to return to entrance before you open the chests instead of after, is annoying. Lastly, the social links are a big weakness in this game. Many are quite uninteresting, and also require you to make morally questionable decisions to gain the most social points, instead of being honest or trying to set the person on the right track.
Some pros: I enjoyed the story minus a few story beats that require you to suspend your belief in order to get to the conclusion and receive the message that the writer wanted to give in the first place. The new music tracks are amazing and add a breath of fresh air to an otherwise short and repetitive soundtrack for a 50+ hour game. The new theurgy system and returning baton pass system from P5 is a welcome addition to the combat system that separates it from P4. Voice acting is amazing, and everyone was cast very well, I have no complaints in that department. The story had a darker tone than 4 and 5, which I enjoyed, and I liked how the ending was played out.
Cons: Too many Tartarus floors. At least in P5, mementos was broken up by the palaces, but this game is all mementos style gameplay, which was my least favourite part of 5. Let me listen to or reread active voice dialogue in Tartarus because they get cut off by every little thing that happens (how does dialogue not have priority over "theres a shadow!" for the 500th time?). Pacing can be weird sometimes, and Strega kinda suck as antagonists because their motives are so shaky (they went from trying to prevent Nyx's return to actively trying to stop you from fighting it?) And small gripe, the monad passages are annoying to traverse through if you want to save between each boss, and the fact that it asks you if you want to return to entrance before you open the chests instead of after, is annoying. Lastly, the social links are a big weakness in this game. Many are quite uninteresting, and also require you to make morally questionable decisions to gain the most social points, instead of being honest or trying to set the person on the right track.