ManiacArrest
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i use this mostly for jrpgs, but not entirely. i just don’t add every game i play, not immediately at least, and prioritize jrpgs or other primarily story-focused games.
i use this mostly for jrpgs, but not entirely. i just don’t add every game i play, not immediately at least, and prioritize jrpgs or other primarily story-focused games.
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femc
gameplay: 6/10
both better and worse than fes, but generally, the changes are pretty mundane besides full party control.
characters: 10/10
best cast of all time, portable didn’t ruin this, it honestly made it even better with how good the new social links are. junpei’s and shinjiro’s changed my life.
story: 9/10
same as the original, docked a point for not having the answer. experience it first through fes though, this game’s presentation sucks.
visuals: 5/10
not getting too into this because it’s obvious, but yeah, it’s only half as good as the original in this regard. the overworld sprites are neat though. femc looks like an alien and the new sprites made to convey expressions that one of the original portraits alone are all either really good looking or (more often) really uncanny and weird, often being pretty lazy. play fes.
sound: 9/10
the new songs are all great besides sun, not much to say about any new voice acting. docked a point because the audio files for voice acted dialogue can take a comically long time to finally load and play when playing the game through a umd.
overall average: 7.8/10
persona 3 fes:
gameplay: 6/10
characters: 10/10
story: 10/10
visuals: 10/10
sound: 10/10
overall average: 9.2/10
gameplay: 6/10
both better and worse than fes, but generally, the changes are pretty mundane besides full party control.
characters: 10/10
best cast of all time, portable didn’t ruin this, it honestly made it even better with how good the new social links are. junpei’s and shinjiro’s changed my life.
story: 9/10
same as the original, docked a point for not having the answer. experience it first through fes though, this game’s presentation sucks.
visuals: 5/10
not getting too into this because it’s obvious, but yeah, it’s only half as good as the original in this regard. the overworld sprites are neat though. femc looks like an alien and the new sprites made to convey expressions that one of the original portraits alone are all either really good looking or (more often) really uncanny and weird, often being pretty lazy. play fes.
sound: 9/10
the new songs are all great besides sun, not much to say about any new voice acting. docked a point because the audio files for voice acted dialogue can take a comically long time to finally load and play when playing the game through a umd.
overall average: 7.8/10
persona 3 fes:
gameplay: 6/10
characters: 10/10
story: 10/10
visuals: 10/10
sound: 10/10
overall average: 9.2/10
This review contains spoilers
platinum trophied and generally did the majority of the game’s content. played the ps4 version, i switched to playing it on ps5 through the ps4 version about 1/3 through my playthrough but i don’t think that made much of a difference.
gameplay: 5/10
brining back negotiation was cool but it’s too easy. the whole thing is too easy. the palaces are some of the coolest, most intricate jrpg dungeons i’ve seen but your party constantly interrupts you the moment you glance at anything even remotely resembling a puzzle just to explain the entire puzzle to you and/or give pointless, annoying banter. i like smtsj because it, rated m game it is, chooses not to insult your intelligence, instead leaving you to yourself to figure out how to get through its complex dungeons. i like smtsj, smtiv, p3fes, and p4 for having your party only talk while you’re exploring the dungeons when necessary, dialogue only happening for actual developments, whether the dungeons are good or bad. the combat system has some good aspects but is weighed down heavily by throwing so many gameplay mechanics (partially an issue with royal since it added even more) at you which only benefit you that the game is just too easy. i played the game mostly on hard mode, not using any dlc, and 90% of my game overs came either from the game throwing hordes upon hordes of enemies from me at almost every non-ambush encounter or the protagonist’s death being an instant game over, which even the infamously difficult mainline smt games have dropped long ago. both of those are sources of completely artificial difficulty. i’m generally not a difficultybro but this game’s combat is just so easy that it’s boring, specifically combined with the railroaded dungeons. the social life nonsense is also too easy. most dialogue responses in confidants will give you at least 1 point and the ability for a social link to reverse or break is gone now. it’s weird how the daily life of these games gets more watered down with every entry. too many of the game’s limited confidant slots are wasted, with there being 3 automatically progressed confidants (4 in the original but royal revamped 1 of them), 2 shopkeeper confidants, 2 confidants for characters who are important to the main story, and 2 sidequest-focused confidants (which are admittedly better than p4’s as mishima’s using the sidequests to tell an actually engaging story and the twins’ foreshadows the game’s major twist), leaving none of the typical school confidants and pretty much every confidant-centric character being around the same age (an age which contradicts the game’s awful morals). it feels like there are barely any characters whose presence feel optional, which makes the city feel more empty despite being the biggest one yet.
characters: 4/10
the worst jrpg party ever. they don’t feel like an actual friend group despite the game aggressively pushing them as such for over a hundred hours. every conversation between the phantom thieves eventually just boils to 1. someone (usually ryuji or yusuke) says some dumbass shit proving how [quirky trait] they are and then 2. a snarkier characters (usually morgana and futaba) going “wow ur so [quirky trait] lol classic [name]” in a way that is both demeaning and annoying, and the 2 characters most often made fun of are the only 2 party members who actually substantially develop throughout the story (something p4 and p5’s parties usually lack, relying on social links, but in the case of p5 the only actually good party member confidants belong to those same 2 characters). no interesting conflict between friends happens like with s.e.e.s. in p3 besides the ryuji/morgana/haru thing, which is every single p5 fan i’ve talked to (a lot of people)’s least favorite section of the game’s story. no characters feel like they’re meant to be hated (apparently haru was going to be like that) besides maybe yusuke and makoto before they join (but the issue is that most of these characters’ developments in the main story happen before they join, and it’s even worse now since the palaces are ultimately focused on generic evil middle aged white (asian) men who aren’t relevant for long), yet they’re almost all hateable anyway. ann is such an interesting and sometimes amazing female jrpg character but is ultimately way too mishandled, miss me with that twerking. only makoto says actually smart, progress-inducing things in conversations for most of the game and i hate her. the confidant characters are usually pretty bland and their confidants themselves are way too formulaic. there’s always some excuse for them to make a deal with you which helps gameplay-wise, and there’s always a mementos mission shoehorned in there which leads to them finding out that you’re a phantom thief but conveniently never making that apparent to anyone (i can’t say the same about the phantom thieves with how obvious they are). in terms of royal’s new characters, sumire is okay but bland and forgettable and maruki is a hecking epic antagonist.
story: 3/10
not getting too into it because my entire thoughts on p5’s story would be longer than your average piece of loud house fanfiction. kamoshida’s arc is so good that it feels like it isn’t from persona 5, plus the oppressive and constantly tense atmosphere is fun and unique (especially for this fucking game). madarame’s arc is okay but overrated and the man himself is a bit too mustache twirling for someone who is arguably the game’s least harmful villain. kaneshiro’s arc is boring filler. futaba’s arc has a good story but bad gameplay. okumura’s arc is boring half filler. sae’s arc is a decent return to form but akechi shouldn’t even constitute as a twist villain. shido’s arc is a good conclusion if not a bit bland and not expanded on. yaldabaoth’s arc is irrelevant trite which just copies p4 again when there wasn’t as much reason to do this same twist. maruki’s arc is so good that it feels like it isn’t from persona 5 (it isn’t).
visuals: 10/10
honestly not my favorite but they’re pretty cool. you already knew that. i’m glad that the characters’ portraits finally have various poses again.
sound: 8/10
music is great but not my favorite and a few of the more popular tracks are pretty overrated. voice actors are good but the direction of the voice acting sucks. why so flat and repetitive.
overall average: 6/10
gameplay: 5/10
brining back negotiation was cool but it’s too easy. the whole thing is too easy. the palaces are some of the coolest, most intricate jrpg dungeons i’ve seen but your party constantly interrupts you the moment you glance at anything even remotely resembling a puzzle just to explain the entire puzzle to you and/or give pointless, annoying banter. i like smtsj because it, rated m game it is, chooses not to insult your intelligence, instead leaving you to yourself to figure out how to get through its complex dungeons. i like smtsj, smtiv, p3fes, and p4 for having your party only talk while you’re exploring the dungeons when necessary, dialogue only happening for actual developments, whether the dungeons are good or bad. the combat system has some good aspects but is weighed down heavily by throwing so many gameplay mechanics (partially an issue with royal since it added even more) at you which only benefit you that the game is just too easy. i played the game mostly on hard mode, not using any dlc, and 90% of my game overs came either from the game throwing hordes upon hordes of enemies from me at almost every non-ambush encounter or the protagonist’s death being an instant game over, which even the infamously difficult mainline smt games have dropped long ago. both of those are sources of completely artificial difficulty. i’m generally not a difficultybro but this game’s combat is just so easy that it’s boring, specifically combined with the railroaded dungeons. the social life nonsense is also too easy. most dialogue responses in confidants will give you at least 1 point and the ability for a social link to reverse or break is gone now. it’s weird how the daily life of these games gets more watered down with every entry. too many of the game’s limited confidant slots are wasted, with there being 3 automatically progressed confidants (4 in the original but royal revamped 1 of them), 2 shopkeeper confidants, 2 confidants for characters who are important to the main story, and 2 sidequest-focused confidants (which are admittedly better than p4’s as mishima’s using the sidequests to tell an actually engaging story and the twins’ foreshadows the game’s major twist), leaving none of the typical school confidants and pretty much every confidant-centric character being around the same age (an age which contradicts the game’s awful morals). it feels like there are barely any characters whose presence feel optional, which makes the city feel more empty despite being the biggest one yet.
characters: 4/10
the worst jrpg party ever. they don’t feel like an actual friend group despite the game aggressively pushing them as such for over a hundred hours. every conversation between the phantom thieves eventually just boils to 1. someone (usually ryuji or yusuke) says some dumbass shit proving how [quirky trait] they are and then 2. a snarkier characters (usually morgana and futaba) going “wow ur so [quirky trait] lol classic [name]” in a way that is both demeaning and annoying, and the 2 characters most often made fun of are the only 2 party members who actually substantially develop throughout the story (something p4 and p5’s parties usually lack, relying on social links, but in the case of p5 the only actually good party member confidants belong to those same 2 characters). no interesting conflict between friends happens like with s.e.e.s. in p3 besides the ryuji/morgana/haru thing, which is every single p5 fan i’ve talked to (a lot of people)’s least favorite section of the game’s story. no characters feel like they’re meant to be hated (apparently haru was going to be like that) besides maybe yusuke and makoto before they join (but the issue is that most of these characters’ developments in the main story happen before they join, and it’s even worse now since the palaces are ultimately focused on generic evil middle aged white (asian) men who aren’t relevant for long), yet they’re almost all hateable anyway. ann is such an interesting and sometimes amazing female jrpg character but is ultimately way too mishandled, miss me with that twerking. only makoto says actually smart, progress-inducing things in conversations for most of the game and i hate her. the confidant characters are usually pretty bland and their confidants themselves are way too formulaic. there’s always some excuse for them to make a deal with you which helps gameplay-wise, and there’s always a mementos mission shoehorned in there which leads to them finding out that you’re a phantom thief but conveniently never making that apparent to anyone (i can’t say the same about the phantom thieves with how obvious they are). in terms of royal’s new characters, sumire is okay but bland and forgettable and maruki is a hecking epic antagonist.
story: 3/10
not getting too into it because my entire thoughts on p5’s story would be longer than your average piece of loud house fanfiction. kamoshida’s arc is so good that it feels like it isn’t from persona 5, plus the oppressive and constantly tense atmosphere is fun and unique (especially for this fucking game). madarame’s arc is okay but overrated and the man himself is a bit too mustache twirling for someone who is arguably the game’s least harmful villain. kaneshiro’s arc is boring filler. futaba’s arc has a good story but bad gameplay. okumura’s arc is boring half filler. sae’s arc is a decent return to form but akechi shouldn’t even constitute as a twist villain. shido’s arc is a good conclusion if not a bit bland and not expanded on. yaldabaoth’s arc is irrelevant trite which just copies p4 again when there wasn’t as much reason to do this same twist. maruki’s arc is so good that it feels like it isn’t from persona 5 (it isn’t).
visuals: 10/10
honestly not my favorite but they’re pretty cool. you already knew that. i’m glad that the characters’ portraits finally have various poses again.
sound: 8/10
music is great but not my favorite and a few of the more popular tracks are pretty overrated. voice actors are good but the direction of the voice acting sucks. why so flat and repetitive.
overall average: 6/10
in the second half of the game right now, but i made an account on here because i wanted to post my thoughts on it so far as someone whose favorite game of all time is, by far, persona 3 fes. this review will be messy but i do not care.
i think that reload is fantastic gameplay-wise, by leaps and bounds the best in the series in that regard even though it’s very easy, but i have very mixed feelings otherwise.
i barely like a single thing about the game visually, the original atmosphere is COMPLETELY drained and i feel like the atmosphere was just such a big part in establishing the original’s identity. it doesn’t even feel like p5, it’s just bland.
i dislike the new menus, the usage of 3d is way too obvious and in general i’m just not sure why they’re focusing so much on 3d visuals in a series acclaimed for its 2d visuals (the characters’ normal 3d models have some decent facial expressions in cutscenes but the characters’ facial expressions in normal dialogue are so flat and rarely changing that i usually laugh when i focus on them during dialogue. in generally i find myself laughing at this game much more than i have with like… any other game? and more often than not it doesn’t feel like i was meant to). it also feels like, outside of maybe the social link menu, there just isn’t enough… progression, perhaps, when you go deeper into the different menus like there is in p5. it reminds me of strikers’s menus, albeit nowhere near as bad. but there’s no distinct style to the menus, they just throw a bunch of samey silhouetted 3d models of roger at you. the system menu looks nice though. the game also pretty much completely murders the yellow used in the original menus which sucks, making everything blue as fuck doesn’t make it p3.
the portraits can be very hit or miss, they can feel very skinwalkery (especially in the case of yukari and junpei, whose characterization also feels skinwalkery. they felt more hateable in the original when they were meant to be hated and felt likeable in the original when they were meant to be liked, so they just feel very mundane and neutered in comparison, which sucks because they’re my 2 favorites in the game, the 2 earliest party members in the game, and arguably the game’s 2 most developed characters. the other party members’ characterization is mostly fine but akihiko’s new portraits and voice alone give off such a different vibe that i think i hate him now. fuuka’s original portraits aren’t exactly pleasing to look at but they undeniably fit her perfectly while the new ones simultaneously look moe as all hell and… weirdly bitchy/judgy? natsuki looks like a fucking duck now but nobody cares) but some characters like akinari, shinjiro, mitsuru, and chidori look much better now with their new portraits.
in terms of reload’s voice acting, besides akihiko (who i already mentioned) and junpei (whose new voice feels both very similar and very different from the original at the same time, making it uncanny valley to me), the voice acting is generally fine but really bland. the original voices could sound really trashy but in a way that feels real, making them charming, and that feeling of shitty, charming, realisticness is the defining trait and appeal of p3 for me, while now, the voicework is pretty much your average very competent anime dub (sidenote: i don’t hate dubs, i experience japanese games and animation through the dubs whenever they’re at least okay. i just think that it’s what reload’s voice acting sounds like, and not what the original game’s voice acting sounds like). kenji, yuko, akinari, ikutsuki, and shinjiro are the only real standouts for me so far but the first 3 don’t have any old voices to compare the new ones with and shinjiro sounded a bit animeish in the original anyway. the (as far as i know) one voice actor they brought back so far, elizabeth’s, sounds really grating, although i don’t really remember her talking in the original and i find all the dialogue from her that i’ve heard from her so far to be pretty grating in general anyway so maybe that’s why.
for one last take on the visuals, the only other parts that i particularly enjoy visually so far are the anime cutscenes. i find their artstyle to look very appealing and it makes me want to see what else that studio has animated, but despite looking alright, they seem to lack any and all of the interesting direction and editing which they sometimes had in the original game, barring maybe the new meaning of the armbands cutscene but that one feels like a kind of random addition anyway. i also question some of atlus’s decisions. when i heard every single review website mention that junpei’s perviness was toned down, the only scene that came to mind as too uncomfortable for me and something i think p3 could possibly benefit from the removal/neutering of is the scene of junpei rating how the girls look in their bikinis, which reload instead… gave the anime cutscene treatment??? p5 era atlus moment.
the new soundtrack is fine, i didn’t hate it as much as i expected to. in terms of the few completely new songs, it’s going down now is an incredible battle theme, whenever i hear it in game it feels so badass and is easily my favorite normal battle theme in the series, although for whatever reason it feels comparatively pretty lame whenever i try listening to it outside of the game. i’m not sure how it of all songs got a hundred distinct "clean" versions on youtube before the game came out and it’s honestly comical since it turns out an entire unique verse of the song was withheld from prerelease promotional materials (worst part of the song anyway but whatever). color your night is incredible, lotus juice normally singing can sound great and at its best in this song, i want to hear him cover soul phrase next. on the other hand, when the moon reaches for the stars and mass destruction got two of the worst remixes i’ve ever heard, not sure why they got a vocaloid to replace the female vocals in those. it sucks because those were quite possibly the 2 songs you hear the most in the original game, but at least the aforementioned 2 good new songs happen to cut the time you have to hear those remixed versions of them in half. i get why they didn’t add the ability to hear the original game’s music though, since there are entirely new songs. sure, p2p did this over a decade ago after learning from p1p’s reception, but those releases didn’t add much new music to the main gameplay. the only other remixes that i think sound much better so far are those of master of tartarus, iwatodai dorm, deep breath (which is heard twice so it’s irrelevant), and changing seasons. the rest are just bland, often slightly inferior remixes.
as one random last thing, the july and august full moons are so much more fun to go through now, they were neat at first in the original but became kind of a dreadful slog upon a revisit but i looove the new details they added.
to sum it up, the game is great fun but the embodiment of a soulless remake that fails on nearly every level to accurately capture the appeal of the original (it also has all of the content from fes and portable besides the only 2 things that made people want a remake of p3 which can finally be the definitive version with both the answer and the female protagonist, which is an… interesting decision? literally the bdsp of persona. but the answer will be sold to us alongside what im guessing will be dlc costumes, tracks, and personas from persona 1/2 as an expansion pass for a total of $30, so it’s okay, guys!), therefore making it worse as a first p3 experience than fes is.
persona 3 fes:
gameplay: 6/10
characters: 10/10
story: 10/10
visuals: 10/10
sound: 10/10
overall average: 9.2/10
persona 3 reload:
gameplay: 10/10
characters: 8/10
story: 10/10
visuals: 4/10
sound: 5/10
overall average: 7.4/10
i think that reload is fantastic gameplay-wise, by leaps and bounds the best in the series in that regard even though it’s very easy, but i have very mixed feelings otherwise.
i barely like a single thing about the game visually, the original atmosphere is COMPLETELY drained and i feel like the atmosphere was just such a big part in establishing the original’s identity. it doesn’t even feel like p5, it’s just bland.
i dislike the new menus, the usage of 3d is way too obvious and in general i’m just not sure why they’re focusing so much on 3d visuals in a series acclaimed for its 2d visuals (the characters’ normal 3d models have some decent facial expressions in cutscenes but the characters’ facial expressions in normal dialogue are so flat and rarely changing that i usually laugh when i focus on them during dialogue. in generally i find myself laughing at this game much more than i have with like… any other game? and more often than not it doesn’t feel like i was meant to). it also feels like, outside of maybe the social link menu, there just isn’t enough… progression, perhaps, when you go deeper into the different menus like there is in p5. it reminds me of strikers’s menus, albeit nowhere near as bad. but there’s no distinct style to the menus, they just throw a bunch of samey silhouetted 3d models of roger at you. the system menu looks nice though. the game also pretty much completely murders the yellow used in the original menus which sucks, making everything blue as fuck doesn’t make it p3.
the portraits can be very hit or miss, they can feel very skinwalkery (especially in the case of yukari and junpei, whose characterization also feels skinwalkery. they felt more hateable in the original when they were meant to be hated and felt likeable in the original when they were meant to be liked, so they just feel very mundane and neutered in comparison, which sucks because they’re my 2 favorites in the game, the 2 earliest party members in the game, and arguably the game’s 2 most developed characters. the other party members’ characterization is mostly fine but akihiko’s new portraits and voice alone give off such a different vibe that i think i hate him now. fuuka’s original portraits aren’t exactly pleasing to look at but they undeniably fit her perfectly while the new ones simultaneously look moe as all hell and… weirdly bitchy/judgy? natsuki looks like a fucking duck now but nobody cares) but some characters like akinari, shinjiro, mitsuru, and chidori look much better now with their new portraits.
in terms of reload’s voice acting, besides akihiko (who i already mentioned) and junpei (whose new voice feels both very similar and very different from the original at the same time, making it uncanny valley to me), the voice acting is generally fine but really bland. the original voices could sound really trashy but in a way that feels real, making them charming, and that feeling of shitty, charming, realisticness is the defining trait and appeal of p3 for me, while now, the voicework is pretty much your average very competent anime dub (sidenote: i don’t hate dubs, i experience japanese games and animation through the dubs whenever they’re at least okay. i just think that it’s what reload’s voice acting sounds like, and not what the original game’s voice acting sounds like). kenji, yuko, akinari, ikutsuki, and shinjiro are the only real standouts for me so far but the first 3 don’t have any old voices to compare the new ones with and shinjiro sounded a bit animeish in the original anyway. the (as far as i know) one voice actor they brought back so far, elizabeth’s, sounds really grating, although i don’t really remember her talking in the original and i find all the dialogue from her that i’ve heard from her so far to be pretty grating in general anyway so maybe that’s why.
for one last take on the visuals, the only other parts that i particularly enjoy visually so far are the anime cutscenes. i find their artstyle to look very appealing and it makes me want to see what else that studio has animated, but despite looking alright, they seem to lack any and all of the interesting direction and editing which they sometimes had in the original game, barring maybe the new meaning of the armbands cutscene but that one feels like a kind of random addition anyway. i also question some of atlus’s decisions. when i heard every single review website mention that junpei’s perviness was toned down, the only scene that came to mind as too uncomfortable for me and something i think p3 could possibly benefit from the removal/neutering of is the scene of junpei rating how the girls look in their bikinis, which reload instead… gave the anime cutscene treatment??? p5 era atlus moment.
the new soundtrack is fine, i didn’t hate it as much as i expected to. in terms of the few completely new songs, it’s going down now is an incredible battle theme, whenever i hear it in game it feels so badass and is easily my favorite normal battle theme in the series, although for whatever reason it feels comparatively pretty lame whenever i try listening to it outside of the game. i’m not sure how it of all songs got a hundred distinct "clean" versions on youtube before the game came out and it’s honestly comical since it turns out an entire unique verse of the song was withheld from prerelease promotional materials (worst part of the song anyway but whatever). color your night is incredible, lotus juice normally singing can sound great and at its best in this song, i want to hear him cover soul phrase next. on the other hand, when the moon reaches for the stars and mass destruction got two of the worst remixes i’ve ever heard, not sure why they got a vocaloid to replace the female vocals in those. it sucks because those were quite possibly the 2 songs you hear the most in the original game, but at least the aforementioned 2 good new songs happen to cut the time you have to hear those remixed versions of them in half. i get why they didn’t add the ability to hear the original game’s music though, since there are entirely new songs. sure, p2p did this over a decade ago after learning from p1p’s reception, but those releases didn’t add much new music to the main gameplay. the only other remixes that i think sound much better so far are those of master of tartarus, iwatodai dorm, deep breath (which is heard twice so it’s irrelevant), and changing seasons. the rest are just bland, often slightly inferior remixes.
as one random last thing, the july and august full moons are so much more fun to go through now, they were neat at first in the original but became kind of a dreadful slog upon a revisit but i looove the new details they added.
to sum it up, the game is great fun but the embodiment of a soulless remake that fails on nearly every level to accurately capture the appeal of the original (it also has all of the content from fes and portable besides the only 2 things that made people want a remake of p3 which can finally be the definitive version with both the answer and the female protagonist, which is an… interesting decision? literally the bdsp of persona. but the answer will be sold to us alongside what im guessing will be dlc costumes, tracks, and personas from persona 1/2 as an expansion pass for a total of $30, so it’s okay, guys!), therefore making it worse as a first p3 experience than fes is.
persona 3 fes:
gameplay: 6/10
characters: 10/10
story: 10/10
visuals: 10/10
sound: 10/10
overall average: 9.2/10
persona 3 reload:
gameplay: 10/10
characters: 8/10
story: 10/10
visuals: 4/10
sound: 5/10
overall average: 7.4/10