It... has been a lot of time since I've genuinely felt like I HAD to stop playing because I played too much that day. And even though it is kind of concerning, it's proof of how much of an amazing game Persona 3 Reload is.
I originally played P3P 2 years ago, and even though I did like it, playing it right after P5R made it feel rather underwhelming. However, I thought the ending was really great, and It was in fact what I've been waiting for all those hours (93 if I recall correctly) playing the remake. I'll get to the ending later, though.
P3R, in my opinion, takes everything that made P3 what It Is, and made it a hundred times better, either with new mechanics or QoL improvements.
Tartarus feels much smoother, it has more things that you can do in it, extra minibosses, way cooler tarot card effects, a way to give unused party members XP (even though it wasn't implemented greatly), and really cool aesthetics for each area, especially the final one.
The challenge of the original Is mostly kept for the first half, but It becomes very easy in the last part of the game due to the various new abilities that you can unlock for the characters.
Full Moon bosses were fine, even though some of the areas that you can explore before fighting some of them look pretty ugly compared to the rest.
The calendar (?) part of the game didn't have huge changes. The schedule remained the same I believe, the only changes are that you can do a couple more things at night and that you can do special hang outs with party members that don't have a Social Link (and another type of hang outs to unlock some abilities). I liked both things, especially the first one since in P3P there wasn't much to do at night besides Tanaka's Social Link and going to Tartarus.
The Social Links are good but of course the content of those doesn't change from other versions, aside from sprites and voice lines which were great for all the SLs I did (17 I think, 14 if you don't count the automatic ones).
The art Is great, I especially like the new All-Out-Attack drawings. The menus look amazing as well, even better than 5.
The new music Is ultimately very good, and I know it's controversial but aside from the credits music I think every other remade track Is better here in the remake.
The plot is really moving, and I actually teared up a couple of times. I won't spend more words about It, but It's worth to play It just for plot and characters. It does have anime tropes, but I suggest trying to not give them too much weight as they don't ruin the experience as a whole.
The ending, as I said, Is the highest peak of the story. Having played the PSP version (in which the ending is good but Is technically very limited), seeing the 3D cutscene felt almost like I was watching a different ending in a good way. It seriously Is worth It to play the whole game just to see the ending.
I hope the success this remake is having will lead to Atlus making more products like this in the future, instead of more crappy P5 spin-offs.
I originally played P3P 2 years ago, and even though I did like it, playing it right after P5R made it feel rather underwhelming. However, I thought the ending was really great, and It was in fact what I've been waiting for all those hours (93 if I recall correctly) playing the remake. I'll get to the ending later, though.
P3R, in my opinion, takes everything that made P3 what It Is, and made it a hundred times better, either with new mechanics or QoL improvements.
Tartarus feels much smoother, it has more things that you can do in it, extra minibosses, way cooler tarot card effects, a way to give unused party members XP (even though it wasn't implemented greatly), and really cool aesthetics for each area, especially the final one.
The challenge of the original Is mostly kept for the first half, but It becomes very easy in the last part of the game due to the various new abilities that you can unlock for the characters.
Full Moon bosses were fine, even though some of the areas that you can explore before fighting some of them look pretty ugly compared to the rest.
The calendar (?) part of the game didn't have huge changes. The schedule remained the same I believe, the only changes are that you can do a couple more things at night and that you can do special hang outs with party members that don't have a Social Link (and another type of hang outs to unlock some abilities). I liked both things, especially the first one since in P3P there wasn't much to do at night besides Tanaka's Social Link and going to Tartarus.
The Social Links are good but of course the content of those doesn't change from other versions, aside from sprites and voice lines which were great for all the SLs I did (17 I think, 14 if you don't count the automatic ones).
The art Is great, I especially like the new All-Out-Attack drawings. The menus look amazing as well, even better than 5.
The new music Is ultimately very good, and I know it's controversial but aside from the credits music I think every other remade track Is better here in the remake.
The plot is really moving, and I actually teared up a couple of times. I won't spend more words about It, but It's worth to play It just for plot and characters. It does have anime tropes, but I suggest trying to not give them too much weight as they don't ruin the experience as a whole.
The ending, as I said, Is the highest peak of the story. Having played the PSP version (in which the ending is good but Is technically very limited), seeing the 3D cutscene felt almost like I was watching a different ending in a good way. It seriously Is worth It to play the whole game just to see the ending.
I hope the success this remake is having will lead to Atlus making more products like this in the future, instead of more crappy P5 spin-offs.