(Note: if you were curious and clicked on the spoiler warning tag without playing the game, the final paragraph of this review is entirely spoiler free, is my tl;dr thoughts on the game along with who I would recommend it to)

This review will be talking about the journey and the answer together, as I have recently beaten the answer and after playing through the journey in reload, I have thoughts on this package as a whole. This will contain full spoilers for both games. If you aren't bothered to check my individual ratings on both the journey and answer on my page, my ratings of both games are:
The Journey: 7/10
The Answer: 5/10
Averaging them both out leads to a 6/10, which is also coincidentally what I currently feel comfortable giving FES as a whole.

Persona 3 as a whole, not just fes or reload (the 2 versions I have played as I haven't done portable yet), is not only one of the most overrated RPGs I've ever played, but one of the most overrated games I've ever played. Now as someone who's third favorite game of all time is persona 5, I think I really need to preface that what I'm saying isn't necessarily a bad thing, and is just my personal opinion. In the grand scheme of things I can see a lot of people praising this game like I praise p5, p4, catherine classic, and nocturne (all games that I would consider as some of my favorites of all time). This game for a lot of people was their introduction to the persona series, and even potentially an introduction to jrpgs as a whole. I say this because for me persona 5 was my intro into both the jrpg genre and the megaten series, and because of that I have no problem with people saying it's their favorite persona game, despite its flaws.
However, there are 3 main factors that went into my playthrough of p3fes that led me into having a mixed bag experience with this entry into the persona series:
1. I started this game about 10 days after beating persona 4 golden, after finding out it was on the ps3 eshop and not wanting to wait for p3reload to come out.
2. I was spoiled on the ending of the journey (MC's death), and later knew the main plot of the final hour of the game, from the ending of the nyx fight to the end credits scene.
3. I put lots of pressure on myself in the month it took me to beat the journey specifically, and as a result genuinely did not enjoy this game for the first half of its run time.

I guess to start off with the negatives, the structure of the main dungeons in both the journey and the answer, both tartarus and the abyss of time, is unfathomably boring. Both dungeons decide that to keep players engage, they will slightly change the backing music track and colour pallete when players enter a new section or block of the dungeons. Both dungeons also incentivize incredibly boring and tedious grinding, and I had multiple moments in both campaigns where I wanted to drop the game completely. The genuine only reason I actually managed to stick with the end is because of the sunk cost fallacy, and that I had made an excel spreadsheet of my gamelog that until recently, had a strict rule where games I started earliest on my log had to be beaten before other games I started.

However that isn't to say the gameplay wasn't completely unfun. I enjoyed a good amount of playtime in both campaigns, and this typically came when I was at a challenging but fair fight. I got this out of a lot of the main story bosses, along with some of the dungeon bosses in the answer as well (key word: some). However a lot of the bosses in this game really make you just do the most boring and unfun strategies you could possibly do in order to succeed, whether that be praying to rng gods that it does the moves you want it to do, or just continually knocking down the enemy in a 30 minute fight to stop it from moving at all.

The story in this game however (specifically the ending) is the main reason why this game just didn't click with me as hard as p4 and 5. It's good don't get me wrong, but the fact I was spoiled on so much of the end game just made me feel empty and almost sad that I didn't get to experience the emotions people had when the credits scene rolled. I feel like I am the only person in the world that didn't cry at the end of the journey because I was genuinely so disconnected from the story and stakes of the game, even on the reload ending that from what I've heard even made fans of the og experience similar emotions. I feel like an insane person that I'm just missing something with aigis speech, and I just got lost in the fact that I already know what happens in the end so I don't really feel anything at the end, and that is primarily the reason why I just cannot connect with this game as much as I've seen so many other people.

As far as the story on the answer goes, I similarly felt apathetic to the plot, but for different reasons. The answers plot isn't really the most stellar thing in the world, and while I didn't know most of the things that went on which made a bit more engaged in what I was experiencing, the dead pacing the game has (which I didn't even mind that much) just lost any care in the world that I had for the game. Metis is an annoying character I didn't care for at all, and outside of the confrontation scene near the end of the game, I don't think there was a single moment in the answer's story that I felt was engaging or interesting to some degree. I felt disconnected from the plot of both games, but for different reasons, which is why the story didn't really factor into much of my opinions on the game. I didn't like or dislike it, I just didn't care for it.

Another thing I'd like to mention is that after seeing some different opinions on the games tactic system, I've come to the conclusion that it is flawed but works. The game has its moments where yukari will use wind break on an enemy rather than just healing my team, or junpei deciding to use a medical powder on someone who lost 20 health rather than using marakukaja, but aside from this I found that putting people out of act freely and onto what I more want them to actually do usually lead to cool experiences where I felt like the leader to my group. I actually got up out of my chair and paced around like a coach commenting on my characters moves, seeing how much damage I did and quickly reacting to my enemy's plays, which is one of the coolest things I've ever done in any game ever. It's not perfect, but I don't think it's so fundamentally flawed that some people think a direct commands patch is necessary to beat the game. On normal I think the game challenged me enough to where I became as a whole better at turn based combat, and made me realize just how easy reload is comparatively (not to say it's not fun as it is but I found myself not struggling that much on most encounters in that game)

From what I've seen the soundtrack of this game is a bit of a contentious point as some people love it and others hate it so I'll say this: I like it. It's my least favorite modern persona trilogy soundtrack and also my least favorite megaten soundtrack that I've listened to (so smt3, both catherines, p4 and p5 >) but I like what it was going for. Standout tracks include master of shadows, changing seasons (even though reload version mogs) and memories of the city. Aside from that every other track is ranges from pretty good to okay, and the only track I really dislike is (hot take) deep breath deep breath as the vocals for the chorus are weird and me no likey. Some people say that it gets repetitive which I see what they mean after playing nocturne, as you only really hear a handful amount of tracks for the majority of the game, but I don't think the problem is THAT bad as I liked the tracks anyway so I didn't mind to much. I like a lot the remixes reload's soundtrack made but SOME of the versions are awful, specifcally MOTC which even mentioning makes me angry.

I'll close out the review section by stating that the social links in this game were fine. The stories of some characters were really cool but due to the strict requirements for maxing out specifically the female characters in this game, I didn't really do much of them and instead opted to do a max social link run on reload instead. Because of this I won't really say much on them as a whole, as I like 4 and 5's approach in giving bonus rewards outside of extra fusion exp that incentivized me to talk to different characters I otherwise wouldn't for their rewards.

And one last thing just to finish it off: the final month arc of the game is so much unfathomably better in this game compared to reload. Maybe not gameplay wise but atmosphere especially. The final month's arc is genuinely one of the best I've seen in a game, and while I didn't care for the ending, the entire build up and again the atmosphere around it was just incredible. I spent nearly a quarter of my playtime alone in that arc. Reloads take on it was genuinely so bad that it almost ruined it for me, and is the main reason I put it behind both 4 and 5, as it just pissed me off so much how badly they ruined the atmosphere of the dorm, and specifically THE NEW REMIX ON MEMORIES OF THE CITY. HOLY SHIT IT IS BAD. This part is unhinged but idc I had to fit it in somewhere. Anyways back to conclusion

Overall I liked my experience with persona 3 fes. I think it was a quality game that had cool moments in both the journey and answer. I'd recommend it to someone who either a) can't afford reload and wants to play persona 3 or b) has already played portable or reload and wants to see how the game holds up today, or just wants to play the answer before it releases. However, If you have the money or gamepass, I would much rather recommend you play reload instead. Minus the difficulty being almost completely removed, and some of the remixes on the soundtrack being awful compared to the original (memories of the city specifically), it is generally a good upgrade on the base game that is mostly faithful, and when I eventually get my hands on a physical copy (as I played it on gamepass) It will definitely be my preferred way of experiencing the journey of persona 3. While I recognize the qualities of Persona 3, It just wasn't the game for me, and is my least favorite game in the modern persona trilogy.

(note: if you were curious and clicked on this review without playing the answer, scroll down to the final paragraph for a spoiler free review of the answer if you either a) just beat the journey on og or FES, or b) beat the game on portable or reload and are considering playing the game before the dlc drops later this year)
(more notes: This review contains full spoilers for p3, the journey and the answer, BUT ALSO MINOR SPOILERS FOR Persona 4. I should also preface that I used the "Ultimate_Sora" gamefaqs guide for a lot of my run as I did not want to put myself through more pain than necessary to get through this epilogue. I say mostly because some of the guide was kinda ass in the personas that it wanted me to use, so through most of the early game and mid game I was experimenting with cool personas I had on hand that the guide didn't mention. This was my favorite part of the epilogue as the rest was either mindless grinding, bashing my head at bullshit bosses, or using the meta strat of odin's thunder reign to kill most of the end game bosses)

I have incredibly conflicted feelings on this epilogue campaign to one of the most overrated jrpgs of all time.

Starting with negatives, metis is one of the most annoying characters I've ever seen in a game. I genuinely think she is a hand crafted combination of all the worst qualities in Marie from p4 and morgana from p5, and gave off probably the worst first impression I've seen a character give in any game I've played. She is kinda saved near the end of the game but she still comes off to me as what people think (and what I mostly think) of Marie from p4.

Secondly, after coming off playing through the incredibly well paced megaten games of nocturne, catherine, and getting into the first few hours of iv and base v, this game ham fisted me with some of the most tedious and boring grinding sessions I've experienced from my limited experience with JRPGs. After playing nocturne, a game that's main gameplay loop was working out interesting ways to deal with boss scenarios, this game and what i've expereinced of smtV has made me realise that having damage tied to your characters levels is one of the lamest ways to encourage players to grind. It is bullshit, unfun, and again nocturne made me realise that without this bullshit gameplay feature, turn-based combat can be challenging, engaging, and fun at the same time.

On top of this, the reason why you have to do so much grinding in the first place is because this game essentially acts as a challenge mode for those who liked the gameplay of the journey first, and a bonus epilogue to the events of the journey second. This basically means that players are pushed to understand p3's take on the one more battle system more than ever, as the game is locked on hard mode and the bosses force players to learn the ins and outs of this system in order to succeed. While at its best it creates interesting scenarios where I really feel like I am a leader commanding my team to battle and using strategies that I wouldn't have normally used in my journey run. When it's at its worst though, the game makes you either do boring grinding for hours on end or bash your head at poorly designed bosses that require genuine luck to best (I FUCKING HATE THE YUKARI MITSURU BOSS)

Lastly to get my main negative and mixed critiques out of the way, the story was kinda mid. I didn't really get what they were saying most of the time because a lot of the dialogue was braindead and confusing, and not in a good or mysterious way. My favorite part in the story was when the group got their keys and disagreed what they wanted to do with it. It reminded me a lot of the hospital scene in Persona 4, and I just generally love when these groups actually disagree on what they want to do and have in fighting. It wasn't as good as that hospital scene in P4, but was still pretty fire. However the way yukari acted in this scene was kinda out of nowhere and weird. I understand her motivations behind it but she was wayyyy more of an asshole than she needed to be, which I think was their goal but they went a little bit too overboard with it imo, as it felt out of character and made me think about how the fandom sees her character as one dimentional, often categorising her as "bitch" when interacting with junpei (i disagree with this as I think its clear that they are just mean to eachother as they are good friends and the one time she goes out of line junpei calls her out of it which was one of my favorite scenes in the journey). Outside of this however I think the pacing was kinda braindead, but I didn't really mind it that much as I saw it was mainly focused on the gameplay of p3, which is what I focused on and appreciated more anyway. I also liked the slowness in the journey too so idk take that how you will. Finally, I thought the ending was okay. I didn't really understand the whole sentiment that MC's sacrifice was unnecessary, as I didn't get that impression from that cutscene and saw it as his goal wasn't to seal nyx but stop the doggy monster from attacking it (i dont remember the exact reason as to why as I was tired when watching that cutscene but it was something like that). I don't think it harms the ending of the base game, at very least that much, but the ending overall to the answer was fine. It had some kinda dumb moments at times but the final bit with everyone leaving the dorm together and yukari and aigis's dialogue was nice.

While this review is mostly negative, I do need to preface that for my 26 hour long run, I did probably at least have 5 hours of genuine fun in my playthrough, and probably another 7 where it was kinda okay. There were some great boss fights that didn't result in me needing to grind or use meta builds to defeat them, and got me to stray away from the guide to come up with my own strategies (i liked using magic and attack mirrors near the end of my playthru as i didnt really fw them in the base game). I also found SOME of the grind sessions therapudic and while the abyss of time is just tartarus but arguably more bland, I learned the VERY CRUCIAL TIP that if you split up your party at the start of a floor you entered and dont move your character, they will find the stairs on their own and shadows outside of nearby rooms to you will NOT spawn. This made reruns of the abyss of time VERY fucking easy as I could just watch a yt video while my party makes its way back to the save point with full hp and sp after a grind session. Not having a teleporter system until after the boss was kinda strange but i didn't hate too much as again it wasn't THAT hard for me to get back to areas using this tip I learned from a youtube video on p3 (thank you Tony4You).

Another thing I really liked about this epilogue pack were the animated cutscenes. These cutscenes in this pack are genuinely beautiful, and shit like the final cutscene for the credits and shadow MC's death are jaw droppingly well made. The animated cutscenes in p3 as a whole are probably my favorite in the modern persona trilogy due to how gritty they are, but holy shit this just takes it to another level, and is one of the main reasons I stuck with this game till the end.

In conclusion, If you played og or fes version of the journey, and did not like the tartarus grind or tactics system AT ALL; LIKE AT ALL in your playthrough, I would personally not recommend this epilogue to you, and tell you to wait for it to drop later this year. If you played portable or reload and just couldn't wait for the dlc to drop later this year, I would say try the game out for the first few hours and see if it's your cup of tea. You can tell VERY early on what type of game this is and if it tickles your fancy. If your main problem is that you can't get used to the tactics system, I'd either say to a) refer to the first sentence of this paragraph, b) (i would never recommend this to a first time journey playthrough otherwise but only for this group of people) download a mod that lets you play the game with direct commands, or c) play through the first few bits of the journey on FES to get yourself more well equipped to its mechanics, as I think the sentiment that "characters never do what I want them to do" doesn't apply to 99% of scenarios and is only consistently ran into when dumb fucks keep their party on "act freely". Finally, if you were like me and felt a mixed set of emotions when playing through the journey, and liked some aspects of the gameplay while not liking others, I'd say to give this campaign a go as I got a good amount of enjoyability out of it. The final thing I will say that I mentioned in my full spoiler section of this review is that this game AND the journey as a whole is made much easier exploration wise if you use a crucial tip that I learned from youtuber Tony4You, that if you get to a new floor, don't move, and split up your party (using the square or x button depending on if you're emulating it or playing it on hardware), shadows that aren't in rooms right next to you won't load, allowing your party to freely without trouble find the stairs to a floor in the abyss of time (the answer's dungeon) or tartarus. This makes navigating to specific floors 10 times easier and is the main reason why I didn't want to blow my brains out by the end of my playthrough, like I did in the journey. Overall while I am glad that I played this epilogue as I saw how the original persona 3 story ends, but I am NEVER going to play this version of the answer EVER again.

After beating Animal Well earlier this may I decided to come back to my hollow knight playthrough i started years ago and finish it up, as it had been one of the longest games that had been on my backlog; being on there for at least 3-4 years.

Hollow knight is a really well made game but it has a few flaws that hold it back from being one of my personal favorites. My main issue with the game is less a direct thing, but mainly just the entire jelly fish area. I hated going through the area as it's purpose is to get players experienced with not having access to a map to a specific area for the majority of the game, as while it is the 3rd area you go to, you're only meant to go to the first 2 rooms to get to the queen station, so you can then go to the mushroom area which is the actual proper 3rd level of the game, as the rest of the area is meant to be returned to much later in the game, at around the 2 thirds-3 quarter mark of its runtime. I hated fighting the enemies in this area as the big jellyfish could easily kill you if you're not careful, and I found its gimmick to be really annoying and iffy. It's definitely what I feel like is the least polished area of this game and the part of the game I dread replaying the most.

However outside of that, this game has some of the most fun and well made levels and bosses I've experienced in a game. I've played a fair few of games similar to hollow knight in its approach to difficulty (that being challenging but fun gameplay that rewards player skill and perseverance), but one common problem with a lot of these games is that they choose to hone in and focus on either level or boss design, leaving the other aside as a second thought. For example: DMC 1 and Demon's Souls both put a heavy emphasis on their environments, but are lacking a lot in the boss department (with some exceptions of course, but not the rule). Comparatively, DS3, DMC3, and MGR:R have a heavy emphasis on making great and memorable boss encounters, but subsequently lack quality in their areas and environments (again with some exceptions, but in DS3's case especially the areas in the first half of that game suck ass to traverse through). However there are exceptions to this rule, resulting in some of my favorite games of all time, that being Elden Ring, and my tied favorite game of all time with TOTK, Dark Souls 1. Hollow knight manages to fit into this rule along with these phenomenal games, and the 9/10 rating I'm giving the game is frankly because while I did get AN ending to this game, my time with it is far from over. Compared to my 270+ hours in DS1 and my 170+ in Elden Ring, I only have a measly 26 hours in Hollow Knight as of writing this review. When I go back to this game to explore more of the endings, (and maybe do the really hard boss rush mode if I feel like it), along with the countless replays I can already see myself doing with this game, I am far from over with my time in it, and I can very easily see this game become one of my personal favorites of all time. However for the time being, it will just be among some of the great games I finally got around to beating this year.

Very excited for silk song now that I finally beat this game