This game directly fuels my depression.

Now, this is not a statement about the basic conceit of the game or how well that conceit is adapted into gameplay, but this (and I assume other) simulation of menial labour without any purpose makes me enter a very troublesome state of mind.

The basic gameplay loop of having to clean several giant buildings and vehicles with a basic toolset that barely changes is neither a fun not otherwise satisfying undertaking for me, but that alone doesn’t really trigger negative thoughts, it’s just kind of boring to me. The worst part about it is that despite its very apparent repetetiveness and simplicity it is highly addicting, because the game gives you a neat checklist and small visual and auditory rewards for cleaning every single surface. Every time you clean a surface to an amount the game deems “good enough to be done” (usually a very reasonable estimate by the game devs) a small reward sound plays and the surface in question blinks white, as to suggest that it’s now clean and polished. The game is also not entirely without merits in regards to moment-to-moment decision-making, you can use different nozzles and cleaning agents - not to mention navigating the space to reach the more elusive spots. If you wanted to challenge yourself by speedrunning this game I assume it’d be fun in weird way.

This level of engagement to my reptile brain is just enough to keep going despite not getting any actual fulfillment from it. The problem is obvious: This game traps me. I play this game for 2 hours to clean a carousel and while I do get a momentary dopamine hit for each surface cleaned, this is not an intrinsic reward for me, and it doesn’t even elicit a genuine feeling of accomplishment. It’s just the game telling me: “You’ve done a good job! Here, have a treat.” There is no emotional arc here, there is no relaxation from a real-life work day, and this game just feels like unpaid and unsatisfying labour. In the real world, I could very likely feel a sense of purpose for this work, simply because I’d be materially helping people and restoring real properties to their former beauty, but I do not derive any enjoyment from menial tasks done for the sake of themselves. When you clean a property in this game, it will just stay cleaned in the transient digital void, for no one (not even yourself) to ever appreciate that work again.

I do not believe the makers of this game are incompetent, quite the opposite actually - They tried to build a game for people to relax, give some people a little reward here and there, and if these extrinsic pats on the back actually do it for you and make your day better, I am genuinely happy for you. But I also can’t deny what this game does me. It makes me feel like I wasted hours of my life doing nothing of value. Just the thought of booting it up again makes me feel anxious, because I don’t want to get caught in this loop again. The only thing of value I could extract from this game is that I learned something about myself: I should listen to the warning signs of a mental treadmill like this sooner. That nagging feeling that I’m not actually having fun and just going through the motions is probably right.

In a lot of ways P3R is as good as you could wish for a remake to be, but its visual and auditory shortcomings are hard to ignore. Still this is one of the most fun RPGs you can play and I barely put it down since release.

First thing you'll notice is that the UI and character animations / art are mostly incredible, I love the ocean blue aesthetic for the menus and it doesn't feel too much like a copy of P5's. Gameplay is amazing, incorporating the best mechanics of newer games like the Baton Pass but now with actual balancing. The "Showtime"-esque mechanic with flashy special attacks isn't completely braindead and adds new strategies. This is pretty easily the best combat in the Persona series and every boss fight has been upgraded a lot in terms of gimmicks and challenge, making them stand out more from one another. Tartarus has also been fleshed out considerably speeding up the levelling process. You can mix and match all party members without anyone falling too far behind. P3 already had the best written story but certain characters with less screen time in the original have been given way more attention, and the male members of SEES can be hung out with giving their own bonuses. Finally QOL changes mean the average player will see much more of what the game has to offer in the side content. So both gameplay and story are a huge success here!

Sadly Reload didn't even try to be a definitive version of P3. Besides the obvious missing FES content (likely getting added as expensive DLC) and Portable, there's much more terrible decisions. The most insane is obviously the remixed music. The P3 OST is one of the most beloved of all time and not even having it as an OPTION in the remake is downright criminal. WIthout exception every remix has worse mixing and less power than its original, and the sound effects are weaker too. The vocalist doesn't fit P3's vibe and sounds like she's straight up struggling with the songs. New tracks are decent but again don't fit the mid 2000s vibe and were clearly made without Meguro's involvement. Presentation is also all over the place. It can look really nice in the day sections with the 60fps and raytracing implemented. but a lot of Dark Hour scenes look horrible now. How is it even possible for a PS2 game to have better lighting than a PS5 one? My last major complaint is the new anime cutscenes. Any sense of the raw edginess and symbolism of the original is gone for a much more sterile direction, and the scenes chosen to be 2D animated are randomly chosen like the awesome awakening scene which is now animated in engine and it just kinda sucks.

It doesn't replace FES for me which still reigns supreme in terms of SOVL but it could maybe have been perfect had it been given more time and budget. Now we have 3 completely different versions of P3 :D

P3P is something that would have been a lot more novel at the time of its release. Having this big PS2 game on a handheld in 2009. The actual combat and dungeons are pretty much perfectly converted from the original console versions, but it's outside of this where it falls short. So much impact is lost in the cutscenes with this new visual novel style with no models or animations, or even any detailed drawings for important moments - just screenshots of the PS2 anime cutscenes at most. In general the presentation is a huge step down and can be pretty ugly, eg those abysmal AOA portraits. It's way less immersive with no actual city to run around. So this was fine for existing fans back then, but in recent times this has become the most played version of P3 by newcomers by FAR due to how easy it is to emulate, and since last year it's officially available on all modern platforms. It really sucks because FES is sooo much better overall and it's only purchasable on... the PS3 store.

The most notable change - I don't think Portable's full control combat is necessarily "superior". FES tactics system works perfectly fine if you aren't stupid, and every enemy was designed around that system so the balancing is now a bit messed up. I enjoy the styles of both. There's a decent amount of new content, some great social links added that made me see new sides of certain characters, and the option to play from a female perspective is nice to have even if it didn't change nearly as much as I would have thought. I do love the new songs Kotone has but you can tell Meguro was in P4 mode at this time because they don't really fit in with P3's style. In any case it's still hugely disappointing that we will never see an ultimate version with all content from FES and Portable. Gonna be missing some of this in Reload.

Expected to enjoy this more than I did honestly. Clearly made by a big fan of Sonic, Metroid, Rayman to name a few of the platformers its movement is inspired by, which is very nice. I can see why people liked its style so much. I kinda felt like I was forcing my way to the end after a while. Layouts are just too unorganised and sprawling for my liking, not to say that they're "bad". Clearly they are intentionally chaotic. It just didn't leave an impression on me to want to keep running the stages

Strange Horticulture was a serene experience, its gameplay revolving around identifying plants and solving mysteries that were embedded in the occult. It took place almost entirely behind the counter of a shop, with customers coming in with various requests, the idea to find the appropriate plant for their ailments. Any adventures outside the shop were text based, but that didn't detract from how engaging it was, quite the opposite. Within the first few minutes I knew exactly what I was going to get with the rest of the game: an atmospheric point and click indie about a strange town. Simple, yet effective.

There were even some decisions to make that involved a coven and a cult, both parties at odds with each other. It was well done in its subtle way, but I honestly had a blast just sorting my plants.

Really great fangame, clearly a lot of dedicated people worked on this and I'm glad it finally came out.

Music and spriting are both phenomenal, dialogue and story are mostly good but there's some points that I think were a miss. A lot of the story/character stuff is also heavily loaded into the second half of the game, I think they could've expanded on the ruins section with Dalv and that would have helped a lot. Some of the enemy bullet patterns have difficulty that's all over the place too, I think some of the bosses were really good but some of them definitely needed some improvements. Overall a good time if you're a fan of Undertale.