PLAYED WITH A CUTSCENE RESTORATION MOD
I realize that comparing this to the other entries is doing a bit of a disservice to all of the games but I can't help it, sorry in advance.
Despite having just finished this game after 90 or so hours, I hope the rumored Persona 3 Remake is happening. There's a lot I liked about this game, and a lot I wanted to like about it but one thing or another got in the way. After Persona 4 Golden I wanted more adventures with the Investigation Team, I'd grown endeared to all the characters and the bond they shared going through the events of the game and the bright path forward they had realizing their true selves. After Persona 5 Royal I felt like my time with the Phantom Thieves had a nice ending, everyone figured out their plans for the future and felt like they'd do well on their own going into the future. After the credits rolled and I hit the title screen of P3P, I wanted to revisit the year spent in Tatsumi Port Island. I get the feeling a lot of the interactions hit differently after having gone through The Journey, and want to see what I missed or what ominious dialogue awaits. More than the others I played Persona 3 really feels like the one to be played through multiple times. I'd love to play it again. There's just one issue.
Tartarus fucking sucks.
Tartarus actively worked against my enjoyment of getting through this game. It was such a draining feeling getting through the month, spending time with social links, taking care of the shadow from the full moon, getting more story progression, and then realizing I had more floors to clear. While Persona 5's snappy combat helped me get through the parts of the story I felt were unsatisfying and did not care about. The combat here is fine, I really enjoyed the full moon set pieces like the Love Hotel which is where I imagine is what Atlus used to eventually design the palaces in P4. The boss fights in this are really cool, even the last boss which had me stressed through most of the fight. I'm not even a guy who thinks you have to rush through the palaces to get back to the social sim aspect of the game (I still do all of it on the first day just for efficiency but I do really like the combat in all the persona games). Tartarus is just miserable. Mementos from P5R makes more sense to me now having run through Tartarus and that was one of my least favorite things in 5. Uninteresting floor design, unresponsive strikes in the overworld leading to constant enemy first attacks that put you at a disadvantage immediately. Tons of enemies with no weaknesses besides Hama and Mudo which even if they're weak it still misses 75% of the time wasting tons of SP. Pseudo-Boss fights every 12 floors or so that are scaled horribly. I melted story bosses but every time I'd encounter one of these fights, even if it was the first one of a new block I'd usually get hit with some OTK combo for the first 3 or 4 attempts before getting some RNG that helped me live past turn one. I'm not even sure how they could fix it in a remake but it really outclasses every other issue I had, and by a lot.
I'm not sure how I feel about the story in this game either. I love December and January, they compliment the themes of the game perfectly. I just wish that April through November carried that same weight. October is where it starts to get there but the wheels didn't really feel like they were turning until the full moon in Dec. It might undercut the idea behind the social link system but I just wish I got more time spent with everyone in S.E.E.S. just getting to be teenagers. It's the same issue I had with the Phantom Thieves. Our cast is so preoccupied with the conflict presented that they don't get to enjoy their time together. Which, with the ending of the game I understand it's about how you use your time to forge those bonds but even then a LOT of the social links are lacking that I just want to hang out with everyone more than I really got to, even with what's there I didn't get enough with my teammates. Part of this is probably by design, and the other part is because half of the team's social links is locked behind a second playthrough as the opposite sex. I hope if that remake is real, I get more fleshed out social links. I would've cared more for the big moments with Ken, Shinjiro, Junpei, and Akihiko if they weren't locked behind a 2nd playthrough. Some of my other narrative gripes would require a restructuring of the whole story and while that would be cool I don't expect it and it's not really necessary. Those last two months are better than anything in 5, and the ending has hit me harder than the endings of both 5R and 4G.
I didn't mind the visual novel presentation of it, I did install a mod that restores cutscenes but otherwise it was fine. I never felt like exploring Inaba or Shibuya added much to the experience, though ymmv. Maybe it is more limiting and affected my enjoyment of it.
If that remake doesn't get announced over the summer at any point I'll be playing The Answer later this year when I can handle hearing BABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABY again. I also plan on watching the movies to see if I prefer the story presented that way, after sitting with this ending some more. I want to like this game more than I actually did, but that could change with time. Maybe this game would've hit harder if I played it at a different time in my life.
I realize that comparing this to the other entries is doing a bit of a disservice to all of the games but I can't help it, sorry in advance.
Despite having just finished this game after 90 or so hours, I hope the rumored Persona 3 Remake is happening. There's a lot I liked about this game, and a lot I wanted to like about it but one thing or another got in the way. After Persona 4 Golden I wanted more adventures with the Investigation Team, I'd grown endeared to all the characters and the bond they shared going through the events of the game and the bright path forward they had realizing their true selves. After Persona 5 Royal I felt like my time with the Phantom Thieves had a nice ending, everyone figured out their plans for the future and felt like they'd do well on their own going into the future. After the credits rolled and I hit the title screen of P3P, I wanted to revisit the year spent in Tatsumi Port Island. I get the feeling a lot of the interactions hit differently after having gone through The Journey, and want to see what I missed or what ominious dialogue awaits. More than the others I played Persona 3 really feels like the one to be played through multiple times. I'd love to play it again. There's just one issue.
Tartarus fucking sucks.
Tartarus actively worked against my enjoyment of getting through this game. It was such a draining feeling getting through the month, spending time with social links, taking care of the shadow from the full moon, getting more story progression, and then realizing I had more floors to clear. While Persona 5's snappy combat helped me get through the parts of the story I felt were unsatisfying and did not care about. The combat here is fine, I really enjoyed the full moon set pieces like the Love Hotel which is where I imagine is what Atlus used to eventually design the palaces in P4. The boss fights in this are really cool, even the last boss which had me stressed through most of the fight. I'm not even a guy who thinks you have to rush through the palaces to get back to the social sim aspect of the game (I still do all of it on the first day just for efficiency but I do really like the combat in all the persona games). Tartarus is just miserable. Mementos from P5R makes more sense to me now having run through Tartarus and that was one of my least favorite things in 5. Uninteresting floor design, unresponsive strikes in the overworld leading to constant enemy first attacks that put you at a disadvantage immediately. Tons of enemies with no weaknesses besides Hama and Mudo which even if they're weak it still misses 75% of the time wasting tons of SP. Pseudo-Boss fights every 12 floors or so that are scaled horribly. I melted story bosses but every time I'd encounter one of these fights, even if it was the first one of a new block I'd usually get hit with some OTK combo for the first 3 or 4 attempts before getting some RNG that helped me live past turn one. I'm not even sure how they could fix it in a remake but it really outclasses every other issue I had, and by a lot.
I'm not sure how I feel about the story in this game either. I love December and January, they compliment the themes of the game perfectly. I just wish that April through November carried that same weight. October is where it starts to get there but the wheels didn't really feel like they were turning until the full moon in Dec. It might undercut the idea behind the social link system but I just wish I got more time spent with everyone in S.E.E.S. just getting to be teenagers. It's the same issue I had with the Phantom Thieves. Our cast is so preoccupied with the conflict presented that they don't get to enjoy their time together. Which, with the ending of the game I understand it's about how you use your time to forge those bonds but even then a LOT of the social links are lacking that I just want to hang out with everyone more than I really got to, even with what's there I didn't get enough with my teammates. Part of this is probably by design, and the other part is because half of the team's social links is locked behind a second playthrough as the opposite sex. I hope if that remake is real, I get more fleshed out social links. I would've cared more for the big moments with Ken, Shinjiro, Junpei, and Akihiko if they weren't locked behind a 2nd playthrough. Some of my other narrative gripes would require a restructuring of the whole story and while that would be cool I don't expect it and it's not really necessary. Those last two months are better than anything in 5, and the ending has hit me harder than the endings of both 5R and 4G.
I didn't mind the visual novel presentation of it, I did install a mod that restores cutscenes but otherwise it was fine. I never felt like exploring Inaba or Shibuya added much to the experience, though ymmv. Maybe it is more limiting and affected my enjoyment of it.
If that remake doesn't get announced over the summer at any point I'll be playing The Answer later this year when I can handle hearing BABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABY again. I also plan on watching the movies to see if I prefer the story presented that way, after sitting with this ending some more. I want to like this game more than I actually did, but that could change with time. Maybe this game would've hit harder if I played it at a different time in my life.