You’ll have to excuse the odd comparison, but Persona 3 Reload reminds me a lot of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX in the sense that as a remake, it doesn’t change much, but what it does change does wonders for the game’s enjoyability. Persona 3 Portable was an absolute drag to play through, and the only reason I forced myself to finish it was to see how it would stack up against Reload, which I knew would be releasing a few months later. The main thing holding Portable back, as I outlined in my review for that game, was Tartarus. If Tartarus’ two-hundred fifty plus floors of randomly generated dungeon didn’t already set you off, the accompanying boss fights that more often than not preferred to act as HP-sponges rather than anything that would encourage the player to take advantage of the game’s (rather basic) elemental weakness mechanics definitely did. Normally, I would complain about the way Reload addresses these issues, opting to give each party member a nuke attack and changing the layout style every block instead of properly rebalancing the bosses and crafting a more thoughtfully designed dungeon, but if it works, it works. Tartarus in Reload doesn’t make me want to tear my hair out, so I can’t complain too much.
The other nice thing about not absolutely dreading the gameplay segments is that it frees up my headspace to actually appreciate the writing. The main cast of Persona 3 Reload is absolutely stellar, a fact which didn’t fully click with me during my playthrough of Portable. The character writing has consistently been the strongest part of the modern Persona trilogy, to the point where I honestly find it hard to declare a favorite cast out of the three. What sets Persona 3’s cast apart from 4 and 5’s is how fleshed out they all are as individuals. All of their personal struggles are well-established not only through the conflicts that the plot throws at them, but also through their clashes with each other, both past and present.
I already talked about it in my original review, but I would be remiss not to once again single out Aigis’ character arc as one of the strongest, if not the strongest in the series. Her learning to come to terms with the two initially irreconcilable halves of her identity through her time with Makoto is not only a unique take on the “robot with feelings” character archetype, at least as far as I’m aware, but also serves to make the game’s ending all the more devastating.
That all being said, a few of my complaints with the original game do still stand. The game’s plot is weirdly back-loaded, and the twists are still for the most part poorly foreshadowed. Takaya is largely uncompelling as a villain, spending the first half of the game seemingly baffled at the idea that other people might not want power, and just generally not showing any real human emotion besides mild irritation until the very end of the game. It doesn’t help that he looks like Jesus. Finally, the rest of the main party being as fleshed out as they are, this is the Persona game where the protagonist being silent works the least—there’s still a part of me that wishes Aigis was the main protagonist. It’s things like these that still make Persona 3 feel like the scrappy black sheep of the modern Persona trilogy, in spite of the fresh coat of paint that Reload gives it.
I hope that returning to Persona 3 for this remake has reminded Atlus of what Persona 3 does uniquely well compared to its successors, so that they might borrow more heavily from it for Persona 6. Finishing Reload, what strikes me the most is how many interesting and unique ideas it has in terms of its story. Persona 4 and 5 lean so much into their characters that as a result, I think their stories become a bit boilerplate. Characters are everything when it comes to storytelling, of course, but Persona 3 is a very character-centric story, so it's not like they would have to throw away all the experience they’ve gained in terms of character writing over the years to follow in Persona 3’s footsteps. As I’ve said, I think Persona 3 in structure alone is just a bit too rough around the edges to put it above the pinnacle of JRPG polish that is Persona 5 Royal, but a game with Persona 5 Royal’s polish and Persona 3 Reload’s ambition would be one for the history books, indeed.
I couldn’t fit this anywhere else in the review, but I have to say, I find it incredibly funny that the two best characters in the Persona series are the robot and the dog.
The other nice thing about not absolutely dreading the gameplay segments is that it frees up my headspace to actually appreciate the writing. The main cast of Persona 3 Reload is absolutely stellar, a fact which didn’t fully click with me during my playthrough of Portable. The character writing has consistently been the strongest part of the modern Persona trilogy, to the point where I honestly find it hard to declare a favorite cast out of the three. What sets Persona 3’s cast apart from 4 and 5’s is how fleshed out they all are as individuals. All of their personal struggles are well-established not only through the conflicts that the plot throws at them, but also through their clashes with each other, both past and present.
I already talked about it in my original review, but I would be remiss not to once again single out Aigis’ character arc as one of the strongest, if not the strongest in the series. Her learning to come to terms with the two initially irreconcilable halves of her identity through her time with Makoto is not only a unique take on the “robot with feelings” character archetype, at least as far as I’m aware, but also serves to make the game’s ending all the more devastating.
That all being said, a few of my complaints with the original game do still stand. The game’s plot is weirdly back-loaded, and the twists are still for the most part poorly foreshadowed. Takaya is largely uncompelling as a villain, spending the first half of the game seemingly baffled at the idea that other people might not want power, and just generally not showing any real human emotion besides mild irritation until the very end of the game. It doesn’t help that he looks like Jesus. Finally, the rest of the main party being as fleshed out as they are, this is the Persona game where the protagonist being silent works the least—there’s still a part of me that wishes Aigis was the main protagonist. It’s things like these that still make Persona 3 feel like the scrappy black sheep of the modern Persona trilogy, in spite of the fresh coat of paint that Reload gives it.
I hope that returning to Persona 3 for this remake has reminded Atlus of what Persona 3 does uniquely well compared to its successors, so that they might borrow more heavily from it for Persona 6. Finishing Reload, what strikes me the most is how many interesting and unique ideas it has in terms of its story. Persona 4 and 5 lean so much into their characters that as a result, I think their stories become a bit boilerplate. Characters are everything when it comes to storytelling, of course, but Persona 3 is a very character-centric story, so it's not like they would have to throw away all the experience they’ve gained in terms of character writing over the years to follow in Persona 3’s footsteps. As I’ve said, I think Persona 3 in structure alone is just a bit too rough around the edges to put it above the pinnacle of JRPG polish that is Persona 5 Royal, but a game with Persona 5 Royal’s polish and Persona 3 Reload’s ambition would be one for the history books, indeed.
I couldn’t fit this anywhere else in the review, but I have to say, I find it incredibly funny that the two best characters in the Persona series are the robot and the dog.
theadhdagenda_
30 days ago