There's actually a lot more here than just the fanservice. Yeah that's a pretty big part, but a lot of the game are these surprisingly well written visual novel parts and the core cast is surprisingly deep. The hanzo girls especially all have their own insecurities and issues that they're dealing with on top of being ninjas in training that really adds to the experience. Hibari's massive inferiority complex in particular does a lot to elevate her character beyond just being "the dumb one". The Hebijo girls aren't quite as fleshed out in this game, but Deep Crimson would help with that. The gameplay is also pretty cool for a 3DS game. It's this frantic, air combo heavy, 2D beat em up that's almost like a side scrolling Dynasty Warriors. Even with the frame rate issues, I honestly think this game feels the best to play out of the series.

In addition to the mechanics, presentation, and QOL features copied directly from P5(R), the tone of P3R is also nearly identical to P5(R). This is a problem because the story of P3 really lends itself to a darker, more melancholic tone. Just watch the opening cutscenes from each game back to back. (P3 , P3R). The original opening scene is so much darker and tense. Why is Yukari talking so much in the new one? It doesn't work for me and many of the changes are like this.

P3R is essentially P5(R) DLC (credit @mikesinouye). Folks from ATLUS gave an interview about how careful they were to not change too much, but playing the game makes me laugh at this. Like they changed nearly everything mechanically to be like P5(R), even in cases where it doesn't make sense. The example in the article of what they preserved is keeping cell phones the same lmao. It's just silly.

Some of the changes are good and the game is good overall. But by mashing together the gameplay/tone of P5(R) with the story and setting of P3, the result is worse than the sum of their parts.

Also, 'So dance, while I put you in a trance' with that fucked up vocal performance is actually absurdly good. And 'So dance if you want, go ahead / Free to do whatever, I'm chilling on my bed' in monotone mumble rap is trash and makes me cringe every time I hear it.

While the Persona battle system is the best it's ever been, I can't say the same for the rest of the game. The plot feels like it's building to something that never actually happens the entire game, with the interesting stuff happening before the game begins or all at the end of it, leaving the player with 50 hours of the regular persona loop, which while good, gets tedious. Tartarus is a chore, making me miss Persona 5's actual dungeon designs. The social links also feel less rewarding, with most of them offering no extra gameplay benefits than the standard increased fusion bonus. The cast is likeable enough, though not being able to rank up any of the male teammates is unfortunate. Overall, I should've just played Persona 5 again.