great!!ish!! definitely largely because, as far as I'm concerned, hoenn is the be all and end all of pokemon. simply adore just about every single aspect of this place and just about every one of the creatures inside of it, too much water be damned. it's really nice to see such great designs in a 3D space, and the locations themselves have a good sense of atmosphere. I think this place works simply because of how... worldly it is. diverse biomes that just WORK. we also get some good updated mechanics and systems that the nerds can tell you more about... but definitely a supplementary experience. character models are a little weird and there's just simply nothing that matches the original gen 3 experience. really liked it though and was happy to experience the world again in a new way.

shout out to RANDLE (sceptile), GULLIVER (pelliper), DEZZY (manectric), BALDUR (groudon), RABBIT (linoone) and BARRACOWDA (camerupt) for being my final team, loved you all

hard to really justify much of a review. anything substantial has already been said, it's undeniably an important, big, piece of history, but fuck me has it aged like milk. combat is pretty horrendous, missions tedious and frequently fail for the silliest of reasons. I actually do like the RPG elements, especially as a something different, but to introduce things like the territories so early on... to also remove them early on? and send you across the country, never to engage with ever again until the very end of the game WHERE YOU HAVE TO RE-CLAIM AREAS YOU'VE ALREADY TAKEN OVER?

it's a great sandbox, but without that childish openness it's hard to really take advantage of. I couldn't even enjoy using cheats playing on steam deck (poor me). limp story, cartoonish characters, it's just not the same as what rockstar would do in the years to come. even GTAV might be better at this point?? at least I wouldn't dread playing it dragging my feet all the way to the end.

hard to really justify much of a review. anything substantial has already been said, it's undeniably an important, big, piece of history, but fuck me has it aged like milk. combat is pretty horrendous, missions tedious and frequently fail for the silliest of reasons. I actually do like the RPG elements, especially as a something different, but to introduce things like the territories so early on... to also remove them early on? and send you across the country, never to engage with ever again until the very end of the game WHERE YOU HAVE TO RE-CLAIM AREAS YOU'VE ALREADY TAKEN OVER?

it's a great sandbox, but without that childish openness it's hard to really take advantage of. I couldn't even enjoy using cheats playing on steam deck (poor me). limp story, cartoonish characters, it's just not the same as what rockstar would do in the years to come. even GTAV might be better at this point?? at least I wouldn't dread playing it dragging my feet all the way to the end.

rating stands for reload specifically; think it's a pretty terrible swing at a definitive version of a game that, I guess, now, still doesn't have one. am I annoyed that I played through portable, a port they just released, twice, a year before they released this? yeah for sure. did I let it affect how I felt about this? honestly maybe a little, but what's shocking is how many issues I have with this. death from a thousand cuts type stuff.
like, this was never going to be my favourite persona release anyways; I knew they were never gonna radically re-shape the story and I think it's both the weakest and the corniest of the 3 Katsura Hashino titles... but for the script to be almost identical to the Portable one? a script that's fine in portable, it's a visual novel; but now where you can just see characters standing around, awkwardly monologuing and delivering pretty direct exposition? (also worth mentioning here I have also played FES)

I think there's a number of interesting changes and additions to this release, I prefer the implementation of Monad doors within Tartarus over the bonus dungeon approach, even if it's just okay. I love the revamped and improved shuffle time feature, especially with the bonus arcana cards, it's one of my favourite things about 3 and 4. but then theurgies are awkward. as an idea? sure, but they're badly balanced and make an easy game even easier. similarly, I like that there's more things to do at night... but only in the dorm. small events like cooking or watching DVDs with other SEES members is neat. but when there's also smaller social events designed to cover the absence of FEMC's links with the male party members (we'll get to that) that actively hinder your progress in levelling your stats so you can complete the ACTUAL social links? it's messy, and there's not much of an incentive to properly engage with dorm activities on a first playthrough until you're done levelling academics or charm at one of your part time jobs because you're too busy preparing to hang out with Mitsuru et al. it's really cool that these can tie back in to the theurgies and traits, creating some kind of cohesion, but it's so whatever and rarely rewarding in any way other than making an easy game easier.
with these additions though it's still not a FIX to the sheer balance issue to the calendar system and day/night link scheduling. can't help but think it's such a massive missed opportunity to something "definitive" when we're still burdened with events that take up entire WEEKS of your year for such little reason. does anyone give a shit about the sports week? the trip to kyoto with obligatory hot springs scene? can't really find a place to put this in either but honestly?? looks better on PS2. everything here is so bright, unshadowed, it really strips the moody identity and EMO feeling the original had and made its own, a selling point of sorts. Reload on the whole doesn't seem to care a whole lot for its source, maybe a little embarrassed by the dungeon crawling by making Tartarus so much easier and by trying to push a friendlier spin on SEES. the angst is what made it special.

I just think there's too much that's too identical to the original release(s) and what's new isn't necessarily better either. but it's a really bad product to actively leave out The Answer as an epilogue, except as pretty expensive DLC. and, sure, I can kind of get why they didn't bring FEMC back but I don't SEE why. partly bias I guess, but I think she's by far the best of the persona protags (even if she's also a little less emo). her exclusion makes even less sense when considering this game is literally re-using the portable script -- the version she's in. it's just more and more mounting issues, small to medium complaints, that hold this back. it fails to be a definitive edition. there's still just as much reason to gravitate towards FES or portable because this doesn't unify the titles in any meaningful way. it's provided a persona 5 experience in a persona 3 skin and little more.
is this going to be my preferred way of playing persona 3 from now on? hell, it probably might be, it's the breeziest, but can I recommend it over any of the other versions for a legitimate reason? not a chance.