When I first played Persona 3 FES in 2020 during covid lockdown, it did not hit especially hard for me. In contrast, my time spent with Persona 3 Reload is something I think I’ll hold dear for many years to come. How can such a 1:1 remake of a game, played only a few years apart leave me with such a different takeaway? I’ve played a lot of remakes, and I’m not sure that this has ever quite happened to me before. Sure, there are some remakes that I prefer to the original, but usually they’re those that make such drastic changes that they feel like a completely different game, but Persona 3 Reload is more or less The Same Game as Persona 3 FES. I think this difference in personal reception is due to a mixture of things. Namely, the exact nature of the changes made in Reload, but also how much I’ve changed as a person in the last 4 years.
Every change here is made with exacting precision in order to maintain the more minimalistic approach to the modern Persona formula that is necessitated by the thematic and narrative needs of Persona 3. Nothing feels like a cynical change made just for the sake of smoothing the edges off for Persona 5 fans, and the game never approaches the maximalist cacophony of mechanics and style of P5. Everything seems to have been done to make Persona 3 Reload feel like its more of itself than any of its previous iterations could have been, and I think the changes allowed me to connect with the narrative on a much deeper level, despite it being largely the same as P3FES in that regard. This feels like one of the most thematically complete games in the genre, both in terms of gameplay and narrative, which is something I’ve come to value much more highly over the years since I played FES.
I’ve touched on this in previous reviews, but the last few years have been a time of rapid change for me. Both in terms of my taste in games, but also life at large. When I first played FES I was just starting to dip my toes into the wider world of JRPGs, coming off of my revelatory experiences with Dragon Quest XI S, and Persona 5 Royal, and the glut of free time I had as a result of being in covid lockdown. This was a time before I had explored the world of Shin Megami Tensei proper, or really understood the appeal of endlessly crawling dungeons, but now that I’ve had all those experiences the previously perceived “rough edges” of P3 have faded into the background for me. The endless slog of Tartarus, though improved in some ways in Reload, now feels like a necessary piece of the puzzle of the story being told, rather than something that’s getting in the way of the daily life stuff I was there for before.
On a more real note, 2020 was obviously an extremely depressing time for me, covid lockdown and the loss of a close friend to suicide exacerbated the crushing loneliness I already experienced due to difficulties with anxiety, and the future seemed utterly hopeless. Reading what I just wrote after finishing Persona 3 for the second time has me realizing that, of course I was not ready for what the game was trying to say at that time, because I was in the midst of living through it. In hindsight, and now being at a better place in my life, conquering my anxiety and having much closer relationships with people than I feel that I was capable of before, it’s obvious how powerful the message of this game is. There were many times while playing that I would relate to something a character was going through via an experience I’ve had in the last 4 years. How could I possibly find Junpei unilaterally annoying as I had in the past when I’ve shared in his experiences in the interim? There’s something that makes me feel a little angry that it took until I was almost 27 years old to find a common ground with a game made with a target audience of teenagers in mind. Why have I not been able to relate to these things before, is something wrong with the way I’ve lived my life? But I think that if Persona 3 has anything to teach the player it’s that there isn’t just one right way to live your life, there’s always going to be experiences you miss out on as you march towards the inevitable end. You just have to make the most of the time you have, and connect with others in the most authentic and vulnerable ways that you’re capable of, and I’m working towards that every day.
Every change here is made with exacting precision in order to maintain the more minimalistic approach to the modern Persona formula that is necessitated by the thematic and narrative needs of Persona 3. Nothing feels like a cynical change made just for the sake of smoothing the edges off for Persona 5 fans, and the game never approaches the maximalist cacophony of mechanics and style of P5. Everything seems to have been done to make Persona 3 Reload feel like its more of itself than any of its previous iterations could have been, and I think the changes allowed me to connect with the narrative on a much deeper level, despite it being largely the same as P3FES in that regard. This feels like one of the most thematically complete games in the genre, both in terms of gameplay and narrative, which is something I’ve come to value much more highly over the years since I played FES.
I’ve touched on this in previous reviews, but the last few years have been a time of rapid change for me. Both in terms of my taste in games, but also life at large. When I first played FES I was just starting to dip my toes into the wider world of JRPGs, coming off of my revelatory experiences with Dragon Quest XI S, and Persona 5 Royal, and the glut of free time I had as a result of being in covid lockdown. This was a time before I had explored the world of Shin Megami Tensei proper, or really understood the appeal of endlessly crawling dungeons, but now that I’ve had all those experiences the previously perceived “rough edges” of P3 have faded into the background for me. The endless slog of Tartarus, though improved in some ways in Reload, now feels like a necessary piece of the puzzle of the story being told, rather than something that’s getting in the way of the daily life stuff I was there for before.
On a more real note, 2020 was obviously an extremely depressing time for me, covid lockdown and the loss of a close friend to suicide exacerbated the crushing loneliness I already experienced due to difficulties with anxiety, and the future seemed utterly hopeless. Reading what I just wrote after finishing Persona 3 for the second time has me realizing that, of course I was not ready for what the game was trying to say at that time, because I was in the midst of living through it. In hindsight, and now being at a better place in my life, conquering my anxiety and having much closer relationships with people than I feel that I was capable of before, it’s obvious how powerful the message of this game is. There were many times while playing that I would relate to something a character was going through via an experience I’ve had in the last 4 years. How could I possibly find Junpei unilaterally annoying as I had in the past when I’ve shared in his experiences in the interim? There’s something that makes me feel a little angry that it took until I was almost 27 years old to find a common ground with a game made with a target audience of teenagers in mind. Why have I not been able to relate to these things before, is something wrong with the way I’ve lived my life? But I think that if Persona 3 has anything to teach the player it’s that there isn’t just one right way to live your life, there’s always going to be experiences you miss out on as you march towards the inevitable end. You just have to make the most of the time you have, and connect with others in the most authentic and vulnerable ways that you’re capable of, and I’m working towards that every day.