This review contains spoilers
Great remake of a very good game. I will say this solidified P3's spot as the weakest out of 3, 4 and 5 for me after having not played it in at least a decade but it was still nice to re-experience it. The process of building social links, dungeon crawling and filling the compendium is still very enjoyable but P3 hits a few snags that drag it down a bit.
Tartarus is notably more bland than themed dungeons and goes on longer than it should but the remake at least introduces some nice additions like the monad doors for extra challenges and the giant clock to make trying different party members less obnoxious. Theurgy attacks are also a stylish addition that put a bit more flare into the combat. It also feels real good to collect major arcana to make long tartarus dives feel more and more rewarding.
Social links, particularly those for the party members, are relatively simple and a lot of the time require the player encouraging characters' bad tendencies which doesn't make for a very satisfying experience. There are still some good ones like Akinari and Tanaka but a lot of the time it's just like "hey man I wanna bang a teacher" "sweet dude go for it" RANK UP. The daily life aspect is also hampered by frequent nonsensical interruptions that only serve to annoy the player like the typhoon and having to work at McDonalds for a week. These exist in the other games obviously but the lack of fun bonding scenes with the party members just makes it feel like a waste of time.
The story is still fairly good with a strong melancholy atmosphere, particularly in the last parts of the game, but the pacing is really all over the place. Party members are just kind of casually dropped onto the team without much fanfare and while they all get their moments, Junpei is the only one that feels consistently developed throughout the entire game. Link episodes help a considerable amount, especially for Shinji, but overall it was just hard to feel a strong bond with the SEES crew. The villains were also pretty weak with Ikutsuki's betrayal ending anticlimactically right after it began and Takaya's reasoning falling completely flat so a lot of the conflict and tension relied heavily on the ominous nature of the major shadows themselves.
The visuals of the remake are a straight upgrade and it was nice getting to move around 3D spaces since I had only previously played P3P. I really like a lot of the new music as well. I do miss some of the old voice actors, particularly Aigis and Akihiko's which are just way too distinct to be naturally replaced, but the new ones do a fine job.
I guess this is just another one of my rants made up of 90% complaints but really I had a great time. It's pretty much the only thing I've been playing for like a week. Fuuka cute!
Tartarus is notably more bland than themed dungeons and goes on longer than it should but the remake at least introduces some nice additions like the monad doors for extra challenges and the giant clock to make trying different party members less obnoxious. Theurgy attacks are also a stylish addition that put a bit more flare into the combat. It also feels real good to collect major arcana to make long tartarus dives feel more and more rewarding.
Social links, particularly those for the party members, are relatively simple and a lot of the time require the player encouraging characters' bad tendencies which doesn't make for a very satisfying experience. There are still some good ones like Akinari and Tanaka but a lot of the time it's just like "hey man I wanna bang a teacher" "sweet dude go for it" RANK UP. The daily life aspect is also hampered by frequent nonsensical interruptions that only serve to annoy the player like the typhoon and having to work at McDonalds for a week. These exist in the other games obviously but the lack of fun bonding scenes with the party members just makes it feel like a waste of time.
The story is still fairly good with a strong melancholy atmosphere, particularly in the last parts of the game, but the pacing is really all over the place. Party members are just kind of casually dropped onto the team without much fanfare and while they all get their moments, Junpei is the only one that feels consistently developed throughout the entire game. Link episodes help a considerable amount, especially for Shinji, but overall it was just hard to feel a strong bond with the SEES crew. The villains were also pretty weak with Ikutsuki's betrayal ending anticlimactically right after it began and Takaya's reasoning falling completely flat so a lot of the conflict and tension relied heavily on the ominous nature of the major shadows themselves.
The visuals of the remake are a straight upgrade and it was nice getting to move around 3D spaces since I had only previously played P3P. I really like a lot of the new music as well. I do miss some of the old voice actors, particularly Aigis and Akihiko's which are just way too distinct to be naturally replaced, but the new ones do a fine job.
I guess this is just another one of my rants made up of 90% complaints but really I had a great time. It's pretty much the only thing I've been playing for like a week. Fuuka cute!