It's been a few years since I played FES, and in that review I specifically said a remake of Persona 3 would make the game so much better. Which it did.
This is a story about a group of young people accepting death, overcoming the struggles that come with loss, and ultimately finding their own reasons to live. At its core, it is something anyone can relate to in some way. And let me just say that the final ending scene, after everything you've gone through, is very bittersweet.
The plot is very much left as it was. The portrayal of characters feels so much better thanks to the voice acting and small differences in personality, as well as new events where you spend time with your team which were never present before. They're short scenes but doing them even leads to unlocking unique passive abilities for everyone so it's definitely worth it.
That's just one of the new things though, they expanded upon the combat by adding in light and dark as full elements, and a new system called Theurgy was introduced. A passive meter fills during battles, and once it is full you are able to use a unique ability for everyone, some of which are absolutely broken. They improved upon the life sim elements too, making more places accessible at night, no longer forcing you into a relationship with every woman you ever speak to and they added Eminem to club escapade selling bootleg software for the laptop in the dorm.
There is certainly a tonal shift from FES though, the game is brighter for one and the sprites look different too, no doubt due to the influence of Persona 5. The soundtrack compared to the original is also hit and miss for me. None of the new tracks are bad, and some are actually amazing, but others don't quite hit the same (Mass Destruction). Difficulty wise, even Merciless is more forgiving than Hard was in FES, but that's to be expected from modern game design I suppose. No more sleeping table fuck unfortunately.
So yeah. Basically. It's peak and you should play it assuming you're okay with walking through 260 corridors for a year.
This is a story about a group of young people accepting death, overcoming the struggles that come with loss, and ultimately finding their own reasons to live. At its core, it is something anyone can relate to in some way. And let me just say that the final ending scene, after everything you've gone through, is very bittersweet.
The plot is very much left as it was. The portrayal of characters feels so much better thanks to the voice acting and small differences in personality, as well as new events where you spend time with your team which were never present before. They're short scenes but doing them even leads to unlocking unique passive abilities for everyone so it's definitely worth it.
That's just one of the new things though, they expanded upon the combat by adding in light and dark as full elements, and a new system called Theurgy was introduced. A passive meter fills during battles, and once it is full you are able to use a unique ability for everyone, some of which are absolutely broken. They improved upon the life sim elements too, making more places accessible at night, no longer forcing you into a relationship with every woman you ever speak to and they added Eminem to club escapade selling bootleg software for the laptop in the dorm.
There is certainly a tonal shift from FES though, the game is brighter for one and the sprites look different too, no doubt due to the influence of Persona 5. The soundtrack compared to the original is also hit and miss for me. None of the new tracks are bad, and some are actually amazing, but others don't quite hit the same (Mass Destruction). Difficulty wise, even Merciless is more forgiving than Hard was in FES, but that's to be expected from modern game design I suppose. No more sleeping table fuck unfortunately.
So yeah. Basically. It's peak and you should play it assuming you're okay with walking through 260 corridors for a year.