Those that have called this a soulless cash grab really haven't played more than a handful of hours, initially I was rubbed the wrong way as well because the change in atmosphere is immediately noticeable, though I don't think you can keep that same feeling it originally had considering the evolution of gaming and the time gap of release, recently noticeable with the Resident Evil 4 remake as well. The more I played it the more I loved it and while I still prefer FES, it's better to look at Reload as a companion piece rather than a replacement.
A lot of problems the mass had with the original release have been fixed to a certain extent here, people griped about Tartarus always feeling the same, the Tactics system not allowing for creativity (there's even a well known mod to allow for controllable party members in FES), the general lack of content in spare time you had to experience, but Atlus listened to a lot of the criticism and touched upon what's dated. I love Persona 3 for all of its flaws and it wouldn't be the same game without some issues, so to say Reload is Persona 3 "perfected" would be an overstatement as it has an equal amount of problems, but that's moreso because it's Persona 3.
I appreciate Reload so much for offering a different perspective on the characters and story, one easier for modern audiences to get to experience while delivering the same emotional response that it's always had with its gut-wrenching final month and more importantly, I think Aigis was done better in Reload which is arguably the most crucial aspect to what makes the game as impactful as it is, for its core themes. There's so much more optional character interaction this time around that really fleshes out the main cast, and even Takaya believe it or not.
Is it the "definitive" version people have sought out ever since the release of Portable? It's still a difficult question to answer even now... I think you can't go wrong with Reload if you don't like the idea of going back to an older release, though if you're patient and want to answer the "definitive" question yourself, play FES and then Reload in the future.
A lot of problems the mass had with the original release have been fixed to a certain extent here, people griped about Tartarus always feeling the same, the Tactics system not allowing for creativity (there's even a well known mod to allow for controllable party members in FES), the general lack of content in spare time you had to experience, but Atlus listened to a lot of the criticism and touched upon what's dated. I love Persona 3 for all of its flaws and it wouldn't be the same game without some issues, so to say Reload is Persona 3 "perfected" would be an overstatement as it has an equal amount of problems, but that's moreso because it's Persona 3.
I appreciate Reload so much for offering a different perspective on the characters and story, one easier for modern audiences to get to experience while delivering the same emotional response that it's always had with its gut-wrenching final month and more importantly, I think Aigis was done better in Reload which is arguably the most crucial aspect to what makes the game as impactful as it is, for its core themes. There's so much more optional character interaction this time around that really fleshes out the main cast, and even Takaya believe it or not.
Is it the "definitive" version people have sought out ever since the release of Portable? It's still a difficult question to answer even now... I think you can't go wrong with Reload if you don't like the idea of going back to an older release, though if you're patient and want to answer the "definitive" question yourself, play FES and then Reload in the future.
3 Comments
Thanks! Yeah I agree with your opinions, a lot of the remixes of older tracks didn't really do much for me so I'd go with the FES track all day but there's some very good new tracks I loved like "Color Your Night" and "It's Going Down Now", and for sure you get caught up in this loop of making new demons because you constantly get better ones so there's no point to hold onto any of them until you get close to the level cap, in general I think Persona has become a pretty easy series in difficulty and I don't believe I died once in my run, which is partially because of fusing like you mentioned @Shenobi though from memory SMT V didn't have the fusion and difficulty problems so I wonder why it tends to just be Persona nowadays.
I hadn't considered SMT V and that's a very valid point, because the difficulty was stratospheric compared to P4>P5>P3R. It could just be a really strong attempt on the part of Atlus to push for accessibility to larger consumer bases -- which again, is fine by me because if they grow, maybe they take on more interesting projects, like Metaphor: ReFantasio, for instance. That being said, I'd still pick up P6 as a Day 1 purchase when it inevitably happens.
And yeah, same boat as you, I didn't die once, with the exception of when I attempted Quest 101 and got absolutely bodied for walking in there unprepared.
And yeah, same boat as you, I didn't die once, with the exception of when I attempted Quest 101 and got absolutely bodied for walking in there unprepared.
Shenobi
3 months ago
Give me Reload with the FES soundtrack (and "Color Your Night" from Reload because that might be my favorite track from all the games) and all the QoL changes that Reload brought to the table. I don't mind the "casualization" of the game by making it more accessible to people, it felt like a great experience (minus the guilt-trip feeling of the "Missing Persons" side quest making me feel obligated to do those, even if the rewards were mostly nice).
I'd say my only gripe with the evolution of the Persona series to this style in regards to difficulty (and the same "issue" that P5 had) is that because it's harder to really break the game wide open with careful fusion choices and planning and because many demons have been nerfed over time, it's hard to really connect to a persona enough to want to hold onto them because most of them feel disposable and just like an ingredient to be discarded as soon as the next slightly-better thing comes around. Maybe that's the curmudgeon in me remembering how cool it felt to fuse majin back in Nocturne and how you could reach that point where you might have eight demons on your roster that you absolutely did not want to drop but were obligated to so you could make space for something else that was also cool as hell. I do miss that feel and FES definitely is closer to that number-crunching, careful-fusing era, so I can see the appeal of FES over Reload in that respect.
I'm just glad the game still hit me just as hard at the ending on my fifth playthrough of an iteration of P3 as it did the first time.