the only major failure of Reload is its inability to conclusively provide a definitive, objectively best way to experience Persona 3, though not through lack of trying.

ATLUS's dedication to a faithful remake forced me to concede the plausibility of other approaches, such as rewriting and reordering certain social links from the ground up. what truly stops Reload from attaining the same level as the original for me is a simple difference in vibes: in-engine cutscenes, while now plentiful, don't capture the same abstract as their original animated counterparts, and its no secret that a lot of the track remixes are hit or miss, yet the game's new content and its perfect alignment with P3's original thematic writing easily makes up for this.

there's not much else I can say about Reload besides. it's still Persona 3, and I know it to be such because it found new ways to break me; a simple 'Thank you.' was all it took to incapacitate me as I collapsed onto my desk and sobbed my heart out.

cheers, ATLUS. now kindly leave it at that and never make another P3 spinoff ever again.

a powerful game reinforced by fantastic audio/visual concept -- were that there was more of it.

Quantum Break feels like a game made by a studio that didn't want to make a game, and not in usual fashion of auteurship we're used to. the story's dimensions are directly linked to live action television sections that intersect its five acts to usually present a B-plot with characters who pretend to be as relevant as an already unimpressionable cast.

the gameplay all of this is built upon is serviceable, playing more with the concept of irregular time freezing rather than active travel, both in its combat and platforming segments. Quantum Break is easily at its best when it uses this to create destructive spectacle, but rarely in a way that it's an active threat to the player. much like the live action show, its meant to be more seen than felt.

the fantastic sound design and art style would normally make this forgivable, but the gunplay is missing too many pieces otherwise: i.e. not being able to switch weapons while reloading, a pool of 11 gun types only having one that's viable at long range, and an underwhelming amount of enemy types. meanwhile, the player gains all possible "time powers" pretty early on in the game, making the rest of it feel repetitive.

these issues and others are all things that could have been avoided with a bit more polish and a lot more ambition, but such holes are instead filled by an absurd amount of readable emails filled with eleven paragraphs with company chaff and one guy's horrible screenplay that ironically would have been a more interesting watch than the actual inter-episode productions.

there's just not enough gameplay in Quantum Break to begin with, and certainly not enough to justify replaying it while making different choices along the way.