It’s a full moon again.


I’d like to preface this review by saying that Persona 3 FES means the world to me. You’ve probably heard a version of this statement from a lot of different people about a lot of different games so I’ll spare you most of the details, but for a long stretch of time it was my favorite game of all time and, even though it was eventually dethroned, it’s still sitting very comfortably at number 2. I’ve loved a lot of games, but none have been as formative as P3 FES was to me. I played it when I was young (younger than I should’ve been) and I don’t think a single piece of media has influenced the way I navigate life as much as P3 FES has.

Writing about games I love is always hard because I constantly feel like I’m not doing a good enough job at translating that love into words. It’s difficult. It’s difficult to put into words how much I adore P3 FES to the point where it feels like there aren’t any words that could describe it, so you’re just going to have to take my word for it if I haven’t been convincing enough.

This preface is part of this review because I’m very well aware that no remake of Persona 3 in any shape or form would have ever satisfied me completely. I’m not delusional, even if I had personal input on the remake and decided to keep everything from Yumi Kawamura to the animated cutscenes to the original voice cast intact, I would have still ended up dissatisfied. I say this because I feel like I’m about to rip into Persona 3 Reload, but it all comes from a place of love and I can tell they at least tried to recapture the magic of the original in some areas. Nobody likes being a party pooper and I genuinely went in wanting to love it as much as FES. Even though I didn’t, I still ended up having a great time with it (as can be seen from my score) and I genuinely hope in my heart of hearts that people end up adoring it.

This preface is also here because most of this review is going to be comparing this game to FES. It’s impossible for me to put myself in the shoes of someone experiencing Persona 3 for the first time through Reload nor do I want to, which means it’s also impossible for me to judge Reload as a standalone game. It is a remake and unlike something like Final Fantasy VII Remake which had no intention of being a 1:1, faithful remake of the original, Persona 3 Reload has every intention of being a faithful and modernized version of Persona 3, and I will be judging it as such.

Alright, preface done. Let’s get into it.


You can’t plug your ears and cover your eyes.


Persona 3 FES opens with what honestly might be my favorite cutscene of all time. The intense sound design coupled with the unique framing of everything happening on screen is fucking enchanting. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since. In Persona 3 Reload, this scene is recreated but…something’s missing. The sound design is less effective, the framing is less interesting, there’s now dialogue in it that kind of ruins in the tension, and it’s cut in half with the latter part of the cutscene being replaced with an in-game sequence. This is how I feel about Reload’s presentation in general. It’s mostly not bad by any means, it just constantly feels like something’s not quite right. The cutscene direction is lacking (at times severely) compared to the original (the awakening scene, for example, is nowhere near as effective as the original’s) and the visuals themselves are a mixed bag. Persona 3 FES isn’t the most gorgeous PS2 game, but it’s consistent at the very least. In Reload, it’s very normal to go from an area that looks absolutely gorgeous to something straight out of Pokémon Sword and Shield within the span of seconds. It’s mostly due to the lighting, which ranges from impressive in locations like Gekkoukan High, to “Nintendo hire this man!!” Unreal Engine™ lighting in locations like Tartarus (with the exception of a block or two), to some of the worst, straight up atmosphere-killing lighting I’ve seen in a game in locations like Yakushima and the dorm, the latter of which being the most important location in the entire game. The game’s also obsessed with using green and blue filters, the former of which is used during Dark Hour sequences and looks fine, and the latter being used in some nighttime scenes and looks abysmal. Persona 3/FES had a certain je ne sais quio which managed to elevated its atmosphere that is not only missing from its sequels, but also unfortunately its re-releases.

It's not all bad on that front, though. The new character models need some getting used to due to the change in art style (Soejima is no longer the lead artist) but they look absolutely gorgeous and are among the best I’ve ever seen when it comes to this type of art style, and the UI is absolutely wonderful and manages to, in my opinion, edge out Persona 5’s which is quite a feat. You spend most of your time looking at menus in turn-based RPGs and Atlus is seemingly one of the few companies out there that understand that.

Gameplay is where Persona 3 Reload shines bright and completely eviscerates its prior iterations. I’ve never hated FES’ gameplay (I’m pretty sure 95% of the people that had issues with the party being controlled by AI never actually played the game and were regurgitating what they heard online because the game was balanced around it, but I digress), but Reload plays like butter. Tartarus has been given a facelift worthy of being on a second season of a Real Housewives franchise, the combat is snappy and really fun to look at (SHIFTing feels so much better than Baton Passing and it’s all in the animations), the fatigue system has been thankfully removed, teleporters are a lot more plentiful and a lot of the additional content from P3P has been carried over like rescuing people that have wandered into Tartarus. All of the quality of life improvements on the life-sim side that were introduced in Persona 5 have been carried into Reload as well, which makes that portion of the game feel a lot smoother as well. Out of all the improvements, Social Links now being fully voiced might be my favorite one. It genuinely breathes life into characters I never cared for in the original and it’s going to be tough going back to earlier Persona games which only had voice acting for specific ranks. Not forcing the MC into a romantic relationship with female Social Links is also a fantastic change.

The new “Linked Episodes” introduced in Reload are absolutely fantastic. I still wish the male party member Social Links were carried over from the FeMC route, but this is a good enough compromise and to my surprise, most of it is actually brand new stuff and not distilled versions of their Social Links from P3P. I found Ken’s Linked Episode in particular to be fantastic. The new Strega scenes are a nice touch as well, though they do little to improve on what has always been the weakest part of Persona 3’s story. Still, they’re relatively harmless so it’s ultimately a good addition.

Next up is music and well, this one’s a bit of a doozy.

Yumi Kawamura is Persona 3. She was always Persona 3. She will always be Persona 3. End of Statement. For those that have never played a Persona game and don’t understand the importance of the vocalists in these games, they are what Utada Hikaru is to Kingdom Hearts, except if you heard Utada’s voice most of the time while playing through the games instead of just the openings and endings. Yumi, Shihoko and Lyn (alongside Shoji Meguro) were all integral to their respective games. Replacing them would be unthinkable and yet, with Persona 3 Reload, the unthinkable has happened. Yumi Kawamura has been replaced with Azumi Takahashi and in a ballsy move, they sound completely different than one another. Gone are Yumi’s rough and energetic vocals, replaced with Azumi’s soft and youthful vocals instead and the results are, well…interesting to say the least.

In new tracks composed specifically for Reload, Azumi shines. Tracks like “It’s Going Down Now” and “Color Your Night” sound absolutely wonderful, the latter of which has become one of my favorites from the entire series. Things get complicated, however, when we look at the tracks that were initially composed with Yumi Kawamura in mind. Tracks like “Want to Be Close” still manage to sound absolutely wonderful, but not all of them were so lucky. Tracks like “Memories of You” and “Paulownia Mall” lack some of what made the originals amazing but still sound relatively good while tracks like “Mass Destruction” completely miss the mark. “When the Moon’s Reaching Out Stars,” one of the best songs from the original game, got dealt the worst hand. I truly haven’t heard a song get this butchered since Fergie sang the national anthem at that NBA game.

Since we’re on the topic of audio, let’s discuss Reload’s English dub.

Persona’s dubs have always been exceptional. Persona 3’s dub was very impressive at the time, Persona 5’s dub was fantastic, and Persona 4 might genuinely have my favorite dub of all time. They’ve never been perfect, mind you, as there’s always been a character or two that had weird or funky dubs like Fuuka in Persona 3/FES, Chie in the original Persona 4 (I said it!) and some of the confidants in Persona 5, but in general it wouldn’t be controversial to say that the Persona franchise was the gold standard when it came to this type of stuff.

It pains me to say that Persona 3 Reload’s dub is extremely hit-or-miss. Atlus West and Sega, for some odd reason, decided to go against what Atlus Japan did and overhaul the entire cast, recasting all of the characters in the process and the results are all over the place which, for a franchise like Persona, is a little shocking. There are some characters that are straight-up upgrades from the originals like Yeung’s Fuuka, some that are indistinguishable like Clark’s Mitsuru and Robinson’s Junpei and some that sound completely different but still end up working like Saab’s Akihiko, Solcum’s Shinjiro and Lee’s Ken.

And then there are Yukari and Aigis, two wonderful characters with troubling performances (for different reasons) and the reason this has its own section in the review. Let’s investigate.

Case 001: The Case of Heather Gonzalez’s Yukari Takeba

Due to the way it’s structured, Persona 3 has some of the franchise’s best character arcs because it doesn’t rely on social links/confidants for character progression and instead does all of it in the main storyline, which is something that P4 and P5 mostly moved away from to their detriment. Yukari’s arc is simple but effective, and I’ve always thought she was a shockingly realistic portrayal of someone who has gone through a lot of trauma. Michelle Ruff’s performance in the original Persona 3 perfectly straddles the line between mean and sincere and is genuinely a perfect fit for the character. Yukari in general is, in my opinion, one of the original game’s best parts.

I say all of this because Yukari in Persona 3 Reload is not nearly as good of a character and it is solely due to Gonzalez’s performance.

I don’t know whether to pin this on Gonzalez’s performance or Arem’s direction, but…there’s no way around it, Yukari in P3R just sounds poor. Not only does Gonzalez fail to straddle that line, it feels like she never even attempted to get on it. The cadence in which she read her lines in is incredibly annoying, her vocal fry sounds unpleasant and feels put on, and her acting in general feels like it’s a step below the rest of the cast. She sticks out like a sore thumb and it’s heartbreaking. I’ve seen and heard a lot of recasts in my life and I’m not being hyperbolic when I say I’ve never seen one completely demolish a character and their arc like this. None of Yukari’s emotional moments (like her wonderful scene in Yakushima) are as effective as they should be because the performance is just not up to par.

Case 002: The Case of Dawn M. Bennet’s Aigis

If Yukari is one of Persona 3’s best parts, then Aigis is unequivocally the best part of Persona 3. She’s the heart of the game and probably has the best arc in the entire series (she also happens to be my all-time favorite Persona character so I’m a bit biased). One of the best parts about her character was her voice, which slowly and subtly transitions from extremely robotic to almost human. It legitimately is one of my favorite parts of FES and a large part of why I adore the character.

In Persona 3 Reload, Aigis does not sound like a robot. Her voice has been changed to sound like a modern AI’s (which doesn’t make sense because the game still takes place in 2009, but sure) and the slow transition, while not completely removed, has been downgraded. This is not on Bennet nor Arem, but instead on the Japanese team that wanted the performances to be more faithful to their Japanese counterparts^, because Aigis’ voice slowly transitioning was a fucking masterful decision that was made by the localization team back then. Now that it’s no longer there, it feels like part of the character has been completely gutted and it sucks. Unlike Gonzalez and Yukari though, Bennet’s performance is actually quite good. It’s just the shift in performance that’s a shame.

^This is speculative on my part, but Atlus Japan was pretty hands-on with Persona 5’s dub based on some interviews I’ve read and seen (see: SEH-Kamoto gate), and I assume this carried into Reload.


The Arcana is the means by which all is revealed.


In 2009, Atlus released a version of Persona 3 that ultimately failed to capture a lot of what made Persona 3 special due to extremely scaled back presentation. Still, it’s worth a play due to all of the additional content and much improved gameplay. It is an okay version of Persona 3, but FES is still superior.

It is now 2024.

Atlus has released a version of Persona 3 that ultimately fails to capture a lot of what made Persona 3 special due to extremely different presentation. Still, it’s worth a play due to all of the additional content and much improved gameplay. It is an okay version of Persona 3, but FES is still superior.

So where does this leave us? A version of Persona 3 with all of the original creative intent including voice acting, dialogue and general presentation in addition to an epilogue but relatively dated gameplay, a version of Persona 3 with modernized gameplay but presentation that fundamentally changes the entire game feel for better and for worse, and a version of Persona 3 with a completely unique protagonist that has a different set of socials links that cuts back on the visuals in a major way to its detriment.

There is still no definitive way to play Persona 3. Moreover, the best (in my opinion) version of the game is still (and now forever will be) stuck on the Playstation 2 with no modern ports. I can’t lie and say this isn’t endlessly frustrating. The charitable read on this, however, is that Persona 3 has three different versions that all genuinely offer completely different experiences. I really can’t think of anything like it. I know this, though: if there’s any game worth experiencing three times in three completely different ways, it’s Atlus’ magnum opus.

I won’t sugercoat it, though: if it hasn’t been clear already, I think Persona 3 Reload fails to hold a candle to Persona 3 FES. The new visuals and lighting kill some the atmosphere, some of the new performances disappoint, the quality of the redone music is inconsistent and it overall just feels a bit…cheap at times. I think Persona 3 Reload is the best way to play Persona 3, no question about it, but I’m almost prepared to say it’s the worst way to experience it, though I’d have to revisit P3P before putting a statement like that out into the universe.

But I don’t know, I don’t think I’ve been entirely fair if I’m being honest.

Playing through Persona 3 Reload was joyful in many ways and heartbreaking in many others. How can I fairly judge a remake of something that I’m as intensely connected to as Persona 3? It’s a nigh impossible task. Even after all of this, I still don’t know how to feel about Reload, not really. I don’t even think I ever will but that’s okay, because regardless of what version of Persona 3 I’m playing through, the first three notes of Memories of the School are enough to make me well up. Maybe, because I love Persona 3 so much, I’m getting too caught up with what Reload is going to mean to other people versus what FES meant to me. Maybe, because I don’t think it’s as artistic, atmospheric, emotional and effective as FES, I’m scared people won’t like it as much.

But maybe I should be thankful that Reload was at least good enough to not sever the connection I have to Persona 3. Maybe that’s all I needed it to be.

Maybe that’s enough.

The wind... It feels so nice...

are you using your time to properly think and talk with art? are you listening? or do you plug your ears anytime it tries to talk with you, to challenge you and make you rethink what you're engaging with?

i don't think i have any common ground with most people who like videogames, actually. but i don't think this is just videogames anymore, this is endemic in all of the arts. people stopped being listeners, started being consumers. no long a plot twist will make your heart skip a beat, now it's the author "betraying" your trust. no longer can complicated concept be presented before your public, now you're "fumbling", "overdesigning" or whatever new word people will invent to use as analytical shortcuts. like, really, you spent 90h with this game and all you could get back from it was that it has "Ubisoft-like" design because it has towers? i don't care if you gave the game 4 or 5 stars or if that was a compliment, is it that hard to think more about it? am i setting the bar too high? probably.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is not a product, it's an art piece which you converse with (that's honestly 99.9% of games too btw). hefty admission price for sure, but it does not need to cater to you at any moment. it needs to be heard, seen, felt, I think running around the grasslands felt incredible and vibrant, i love how every map changes its whole design based on the chocobos, i love how sidequests have their own little songs to them with battle music included, i love how every character gets explored a whole ton more because now they have the time to do so, I love how Tifa can be herself instead of Cloud's past, I liked every change, I think this game is probably one of the most courageous games ever made and that will ever be made and people won't appreciate it enough, but that's fine because I will.

the more i think about it, the more i think about its last hours, the more i think how they handled -that moment- the more I like it. I like this and Remake for entirely different reasons, but Rebirth made me feel things I don't think i was even aware I could feel playing a game and I don't mean crying i cry for everything and i cried super hard at several moments in this game, it's something else, which i would only dare to explain if I had spoilered this text but i don't want to do so.

like i said i think i finally realized my lack of common ground is what makes it really hard to talk about videogames outside of my circle, people who only wear "videogames are art!!" as a mantle for feeling validated, but not really treating them much differently than the hamburger they'll buy for lunch. i don't mind if you didn't like the game but i only ask for something of substance, an interesting read, at the very least a personal perspective, not internet gaming buzzwords i can see in like 60 other reviews. i just want to think and challenge myself and i feel like i'm always going into a hivemind. but i guess that's fine i get to cherish good things when i see them at least.

i just need to remind myself of this

The good news is that Persona 3 Reload is a faithful remake of a fairly landmark game, retaining what's great about the original while adding smart quality-of-life features that streamline the experience, making it much more enjoyable to play. The bad news is that Persona 3 Reload is a faithful remake of Persona 3 original, meaning much of the later P3 content has been largely ignored, and aspects of the game's design feel trapped in the era in which it was conceived.

To the credit of Atlus, they've done an admirable job of trying to fill in some gaps created by the dissonance of what Persona games were in 2006 and what they are now. Combat, in particular, is where most of the QOL features can be found, with full party control and baton passing now standard, along with the addition of super attacks called Theurgy (which can kinda trivialize battles at times but at least they're fun). Pulling up your item menu in battle also defaults to the item you most likely need in that situation, which blew my mind; if your ally is poisoned, the curing item goes to the top of the list, or if the enemy is weak to fire, then here's the fire gem. Why don't more games do this?

P3 was also very limited in scope in terms of its world and activities, but there are some new ones here sprinkled in, and engaging in them with your party members can also unlock new passive abilities in combat. Anything that reinforces the core theme of these games that the bonds you form with people are your strength goes a long way with me. Still, much like the originals, you'll probably find yourself lacking in things to do toward the end of the game, defaulting to a lot of the same activities and locations over and over.

That feeling carries over into the core gameplay loop of Tartarus, which has also seen changes - but ones I don't think go far enough. Sometimes random little events would spawn on a floor to keep things interesting, and they've spliced in new ones like giant rare hands to chase down or side paths you wander in to fight harder enemies for shiny loot. They even gave every block of Tartarus a facelift, and your party regularly engages in conversations to help distract from what is largely the same tedious grind of the original P3. It's not that I don't enjoy a good dungeon crawler, and Persona's excellent combat system goes a long way in mitigating the monotony, but Tartarus still comes up well short of the standard set in Persona 5 with its bespoke, handcrafted dungeons. And there are still too many damn floors.

I know perhaps it was unrealistic to expect a full overhaul to bring Persona 3 closer in line with what Persona 5 offered, as their goal was rather to present the experience largely as-is, just with a modern coat of paint. There's value in that, but it's frustrating to think that even with Reload, you still cannot say with absolute certainty this is the definitive version of Persona 3. You're always going to have to qualify that with "Yeah, you should play this one, but..." I know it would have been a lot of effort but the Portable campaign with the female protagonist should have been here. Hell, that arguably has the better social links, and while Reload does offer a replacement in terms of its Linked Episodes (featuring new storylines for the party members who don't have social links), it's still absolutely baffling that half your party is missing from what is the core conceit of these games.

All this is to say that yes, Persona 3 is still a great game, with a strong story featuring an extremely well-developed cast and the continued gold standard for turn-based combat. Reload does an excellent job of capturing what you enjoyed about the original and presenting it in a more accessible form. However, it's still a shame this era of Persona remains as convoluted as ever, and if someone ever asks me what version of 3 they should play, I'm likely to throw my hands up in the air and walk away.

It’s not peak fiction, but you can see it from here.

Yakuza: Like A Dragon — referred to as Yakuza 7 from here on — was pitched to me by a couple of friends as one of the greatest games ever made. That’s a tough sell, largely because I’m a miserable dickhead who seriously (don’t laugh!) writes about video games. Putting forth anything as being one of the best is a fucking gamble, because you’re not playing with good odds. There are a lot of works out there, and only a couple get to be the best. It tends to make it hurt worse when, almost inevitably, it’s not actually one of the best; you get your hopes up, and then the work doesn’t live up to the inflated goals you set for it, and then you’re left feeling disappointed.

Luckily, though, that’s not the case here. I don’t think Yakuza 7 is as good as I was told it was, but it’s certainly still pretty good. Great, even! There are some pacing and writing issues that drag it down, but what’s here is legitimately impressive. I don’t really care for RPGs as a genre, and I especially don’t care for games that ask for thirty to forty hours of my time, so the fact that this is still scoring as high as it is may as well be a sign of the end times. The four horsemen are a yakuza, an ex-nurse, an office worker, and a triad boss.

It’s immensely funny that, in an era where the largest development studios are playing it as safe as they possibly can, RGG Studios decided that Yakuza is no longer an action game. It’s such a ridiculous fucking idea. Some positive reception to an April Fool’s joke was all they needed to go all-in on this? What the fuck? You aren’t supposed to make games like this. And yet, they did; and yet, it works. It works really well, actually. There’s a bit of a problem that AoE skills are absurdly good compared to their single-target little brothers; obviously the single-target skills are king in boss fights, but those are pretty far and few between. Autobattling still takes a while and uses up precious items, and low-level mooks don't run away even when you've got a massive numbers advantage over them; most of the street fights are little more than time wasters, ultimately. Expect to spend the majority of the endgame running away from random encounters simply because they don't pay out in resources more than they take.

Ichiban is a wonderful character, and it's frankly no surprise that many people have latched onto him as hard as they have. Most of the cast is strong, really. I certainly wasn't expecting this to handle social issues as well as it did. It's more than a little hamfisted at times — discussions about "gray zones" and "bleaching white" tend to lean on wordplay a bit too heavily — but it's a pretty solid takedown of blind idealism. Bleach Japan's goals sound, from the outset, to be pretty reasonable. It's only once you dig in and find out what they're actually working towards that it becomes apparent that they're interested solely in enforcing laws, not in ensuring that people benefit from the law. Sure, women being forced to turn to sex work is bad. Homeless people not being able to find a safe spot to sleep is bad. Yakuza gangsters shouldn't be running the streets. The solution, though, is not to deport them, arrest them, and incite a gang war in the hopes they all kill themselves off, respectively. The gray zones are astronomically far from perfect, but blindly adhering to already-oppressive laws serves only to worsen the problem. It's rare to find a work with a positive view on criminal activity that isn't individualistic "fuck-you-I-do-what-I-want" id slop, but rather calls into question the legitimacy of the laws being broken.

I do have a problem with the writing in that it feels mean, sometimes. It happens often enough to be noticeable, and it clashes hard with a lot of what's written elsewhere. Nanba, for example, never really stops being a "homeless guy", even after he manages to get two(!!!) different houses that he stays in. The game just keeps reminding you how bad he smells, because he's homeless: he can debuff enemies because he stinks; he can breathe fire because his breath is just that potent; he can revive allies because none of them want him to give them CPR. It's weird. I don't really feel a sense of malice here, because the game is otherwise pretty fair to homeless people — certainly more than most, as low of a bar as that is. It's more like the game needs a smack upside the head and for someone to tell it that it's not being funny. I feel like it'd smarten up pretty quick.

Yakuza 7 has a bit of a habit. It’s definitely not a good habit, but I’m a little hesitant to call it a bad habit. Yakuza 7 just really loves killing off characters. Whenever a character’s arc comes to a close, they just get merked. The Geomijul goon who shakes down the bar owners? Shot to death. Arakawa? Shot to death. Hoshino? Shot to death. Ogasawara? Probably shot to death. Characters just start dropping like flies the second that they’ve served their narrative purpose. I guess I can understand it, considering that this is ultimately a game about organized crime — nobody walks away from Goodfellas wondering what was up with all of the indiscriminate murder — but it makes it a little difficult to stomach the feel-good ending that follows in the wake of such a bloodbath. Yakuza as a franchise is kind of renowned for being over the top, so this might just be a case of me going to a steakhouse and complaining that they don’t have enough vegetarian options, but I think there’s a bit too much melo in this melodrama.

Where it really came to a head for me was in the final stretch of cutscenes — as good a place as any for it to come to a head, I suppose. After going through a lengthy boss sequence, and then a second boss sequence, and then a third boss sequence, Ichiban finally manages to corner his young master. Masato pulls a gun, points it at Ichiban, and then points it at himself; his life as he knows it is over, and all of his hard work has been pulled out from under him, and he sees no reason to go on. Ichiban, who’s spent the entire game desperately trying to make this fucking stupid asshole see the light, breaks down in tears. He tells Masato that he would have done anything for him, that Masato needs to start over, that he believes Masato can turn a new leaf and be a better person. He caps it off with the line “please don’t make me watch my brother die”, which is so insanely good that I’m getting choked up again writing it out. It’s a phenomenal sequence. It’s written really well, it’s paced really well, and it works. It works better than any single moment in the preceding thirty hours.

Masato then gets stabbed by a lackey and bleeds out. Ichiban punctuates the moment with a slow-motion “NOOOOOOOOOOO!”. I roll my eyes because the game is now being stupid. Take it down a notch. You had something really good going, with the whole “choosing to be a better person after spending twenty years fucking up” angle. You don’t need to spoil it by going full soap opera, pretending like you’re gonna kill off the character after all of that. Just roll these obviously fake credits, and show us the scene where Masato is out of the hospital, and — oh, no, you actually killed him off. Jesus. Really? What a waste. I can’t really articulate why this complete bloodbath bothers me so much if not for the fact that it all feels at odds with the fact that this is supposed to be a happy ending. I guess when you’ve got a franchise that’s been running for this long without the universe being reset, it does you well to just kill off as many named characters as you can; people who play the next game won’t be asking where the old characters are if they know that they’re all turning into compost.

A severe difficulty spike right near the end also necessitates a good dose of grinding to get to a point where you can (un)comfortably clear it, which doesn't help the pacing much. You're more-or-less forced to complete the battle arena at least once, and then subsequently forced into the Kamurocho sewers to farm Invested Vagabonds. It's certainly not as egregious as some other RPGs when it comes to how much grinding you're expected to do, but it's still a hefty ask for a game that's already about thirty hours when you're going straight down the critical path. Add in the obscene amount of substories and minigames — some of which are great, some of which very much aren't — and this is a long game. I was definitely starting to lose patience with it by the end.

It's not perfect, but it's not far from it. There's a lot here to love. I think if this had ended somewhere around the halfway point, I wouldn't have a single bad thing to say. The first ten or so hours of Yakuza 7 are masterful, and the remaining minimum twenty are only pretty solid. It's easy to be a lot worse than this.

Don't piss me off. I'm close to leveling up and you look like just enough XP.

I was walking in circles around my room for over an hour after finishing it last night and am still trying to collect my thoughts. A beautiful finale to the entirety of Xeno and everything I could have ever asked for.

I have never felt such satisfaction upon finishing something before and am so glad I played Gears and Saga beforehand. I played this series, especially 3 and FR, at the best possible time in my life, purely by chance, and don't think its themes would have resonated with me as deeply as they did had I played it at any previous point in my life. I'll never forget what it has taught me and will forever treasure it. Sagabros we won

P.S. DABURU SUPININGU EJJI

If Tetsuya Takahashi wanted to end Future Redeemed in a way to satisfy fans in the beyond after XC3's incredible ending. Well spark, my dude. You exceeded my expectations and then some. As a fan of the Xeno games since the time of Xenogears. Future Redeemed encompasses all the necessary callbacks, references, easter eggs, and precious moments we were waiting for.

I was captivated by the countless affinity scenes(moments you can see out in the world without any level or party member requirement) that struck me the most with the experience of all the past Xenoblade Chronicles games. And while, I wish there were even more to the point of fan service. I understand why Monolith Soft didn’t do so. It’s a delicate thread to balance for the fans to an extent they will be satisfied without over-gorging too much. And yet I am astounded at how great these scenes I saw within the expansion that evoked a sense of satisfaction. Some were bittersweet, some heartwarming, and some I couldn’t help but be amused at the sheer cheekiness. It is Xenoblade through and through. So you will experience a wide range in the emotional spectrum.

Gameplay didn’t change much like in Torna. The Xenoblade 3 combat system makes a welcome return, with the addition of unity combos and unity setups to mix things up a bit. Familiar and a mix of unfamiliar systems in place to capture player interest more into the gameplay-focus of Xenoblade. I thought the systems were decent. Didn’t need to go too complex or too simple. There is plenty of customization here as well. And I felt the tutorials do a good job explaining the old and new mechanics. Music as expected of Monolith Soft's composer team hits all the right notes. Players will recognize familiar tracks and new tracks.

I greatly appreciate the interconnected zones here, than in Torna due to the implementation of an increase in platforming and secrets. It’s not as deep as the intricate layers you see in Dark Souls. But zones flow seamlessly into other regions you will traverse and I found them to be a good length to explore and fight in. It’s not super large; to the extent you need to spend ‘x’ hours to reach one end of a zone into another zone. There is careful thought and precision by Monolith to make beautiful environments and secrets worth finding feel natural as past Xenoblade games were designed. And the expansion flourishes as a result. You do have new field mechanics to play around with, to reach new areas like repairing broken ladders. And other methods which I won’t say since it's better to experience that in-game. But suffice it to say I had fun exploring once again in Future Redeemed just like the past entries. Including X.

One last bit of praise. It is an absolute pleasure once again to see two familiar characters. There are so many moments, I have wished so hard in the past to witness and it has come to fruition now in Future Redeemed. So their presence creates a new dynamic I don't often see in Jrpg's or DLC expansions.

Moving on, while I consider the expansion excellent. There were some things that did tickle my mixed feelings. I don’t consider it a positive or a negative, but for the sake of transparency, I'm noting the qualities to let readers know ahead of time.

Certain unlocks for the characters you play are locked behind some side quests and through exploration, in secret areas, and opening relic chests. These will unlock gem unlocks, accessories, affinity growth charts, and arts. several can be easy to spot and therefore unlock whatever the above for each character at your leisure. But a small to decent chunk can be a bit tricky to spot. By the endgame, I had mostly everyone’s slots unlocked. With only a couple of my party members features locked since I wasn’t as thorough in exploring everything. Despite the fact I cleared 90%+ of every zone and completed I would say 95% of all sidequests. So this mix of forcing the player to unlock their innate features for each character feels a bit forced to make players explore. This is fine for me because I love to explore, except I also want to get most of my party member's abilities and features through natural-based progression. Meaning when a new chapter begins. Release a third of my parties accessories, arts, gems, and affinity growth charts locked status. I can understand why Monolith Soft tried to shake things up with this approach to encourage exploration which is worth seeing. Except for me, I’m left shaking my head at the potential my party could’ve had naturally instead of being forced to explore.

Secondly, I am flabbergasted by an important scene that was not properly labeled on the map with a giant exclamation point or affinity scene after witnessing a story cutscene in chapter 4. Which revealed massive lore context we needed from XC3. Without going into spoilers too much. Visit someone's(not going to say the name of the character’s) workshop after viewing the story cutscene on a mountain(located at a high elevation) in chapter 4. This will happen naturally, but players need to go back to the workshop to notice the scene. The map does not display it. Hopefully, this is a bug and the developers missed it. But as a Xeno lore dude, I'm shaking my head, if people miss the scene. So please don’t forget about checking the workshop!

Another point of mixed feeling would’ve been further time to flesh out two characters. Not going to say names, since this is a non-spoiler review. But, I consider two of the cast within the expansion, somewhat needing extra development and cutscenes to shine. There are familiar cast members that kinda take out the spotlight from the two characters and as a result, they don’t shine as much in my eyes. While understandable due to other characters' sheer presence, I think additional affinity scenes could’ve been used to delve deeper into the bonds of our party and create a cohesive party at hand. Thereby, allowing the cast to bond thoroughly and make the endgame stand out a just a little bit larger.

Not a nitpick at the endgame chapters. Since I consider it a fitting farewell to the trilogy. The expansion has the weight and reach of the first game. The grand presence of the second game and the lessons learned from Torna in creating side quests that are not needed to progress through the story by community levels. Expands what we already know in the third game, Delving deep into the missing context and cues we so desperately needed and wished for. And I would say the developers delivered so much. It is exactly what I needed from Takahashi and his team. The connection of the past and future is connected, all while capturing the wonderful magic that is unique in every Xeno game. With a great main cast and soulful music once again struck me deep in the heart. Satisfying gameplay loop and worthwhile cutscenes every Xeno series fan needs to experience. It’s been an incredible journey seeing how far they’ve come since the first Xenoblade game and from the time of Xenogears. For any Xeno series fan. This expansion is easily a must-play. And for us long-time fans since Gears and Saga. One to not miss out on.

9/10

Edit: Grammar and replacing repeated words
Edit 2: On my 2nd point above regarding a scene not being labeled properly. It actually is labeled on the map. The point of interest is covered by a hammer icon. Thanks to my friend @TehLostOne for the correction.

i love this stupid fucking game

i love the fact that they copied things wholesale from donnie darko and twin peaks

i love some of the cringetastic dialogue

i love the fact that the relationship between the two leads ended up being genuinely touching and ended up making me legitimately invested in what happens to them

this game is an anomaly...absolutely nothing should work, but somehow, it did for me, and it remains as close to a guilty pleasure as i'll allow media to become (like what you like, people...fuck 'em)

I'll start with the good, which is the fact that this game is absolutely gorgeous, and the gameplay's great. Most of the maps are pretty good, and the combat improvements are wonderful. I liked Three Houses' combat system, but I'm glad they brought back the weapon triangle. Break is also a pretty interesting mechanic and the engage mechanic, while absolutely broken at times, is always fun to use. This game feels like it should the blueprint for FE going forward gameplay-wise.

Then there's everything else.

I have no idea what happened, but in terms of story, characters and writing, this is easily the worst in the franchise (from what I've played) and a huge step back from Three Houses. The main premise of the plot feels like it came straight out of a Musou/Warriors game in the worst way possible, the tone is half saturday morning cartoon half anime political thriller (it's as terrible as it sounds), the characters are incredibly lifeless and unbelievably boring, and the writing is laughably bad. This is all incredibly shocking especially after Three Houses, which absolutely nailed those things imo. I still remember Three Houses' cast (Black Eagles forever). I'm going to be shocked if I remember any of the characters in this game by the end of next week.

As I said, the gameplay's fantastic but the absolutely awful, bottom-of-the-barrel...everything else makes this my least favorite Fire Emblem game I've played.