this game wonderfully executed the descent of madness in solitude. while i haven't played the other endings, i was quite satisfied with what i did experience. i plan to go back and replay for the rest.

the art style is wonderful. it's hard to go wrong with low poly, as many mainstream games neglect it in favor of high definition 3D models. but what i've always admired about low poly 3D styles was texture over detail. they manage to do this without making the environment monotonous. at times, the texture can be muddied, especially in the more horror sections but this is so little of the time that it's easily forgivable.

the game never rushes you to continue on, and for the most part they make it clear when progression will occur. it felt very self-motivated. i liked taking my time to check the island for any secrets that lay hidden.

the part that people complained about most was the camera. but to be honest it was a matter of figuring out how it worked (which did not take long). so i think people just have a common misunderstanding and write it off as horrible controls without even giving it a try. after learning exactly what changed, the chases became kind of fun. i feel the worst part was the filter, but even then it wasn't a big deal.

while i have not completed the rest of the endings, i adored the story. its slow start ramping up into a nightmare was one of its best qualities. it intentionally keeps some parts vague, but less of a pretentious way and more of a way to leave up to interpretation. so fun and so underrated

happy march 5th everyone today is the day i decided to finish persona 3 reload. i heart you persona 3 forever and ever

having played portable and fes before, i can safely say that gameplay wise, reload had the most fun factor with a lot of the mechanics they added. the quality of life improvements from previous games also felt refreshing, for example i hated that on holidays i could not simply leave the dorm and come back lest it turn to night. not the only thing they changed, but one of the bigger ones. however, i feel atlus may have overdone it at times. i actually enjoyed the fatigue system in portable, as i felt it contributed to the game’s themes of managing your time wisely. your time with your friends mattered just as much as trying to end the dark hour. while many players tend to rush tartarus in one day anyways, it would have been enriching for those experiencing the game for the first time to have to manage their time and fatigue. i also felt as though there was too much handholding, a curse that plagues this generation of gaming. at times there are puzzles in which the player is simply handed the answer instead of coming to their own conclusions. playing games is about feeling good about clearing obstacles, and when the bar is clearly set lower it doesn’t feel rewarding. one thing that i did feel needed to be easier were some of elizabeth’s requests, however. in older versions of p3 it was so unnecessarily difficult to find the specific items she requested, but with the exclamation points as markers for request events it makes more sense.

the art direction is of course wonderful. while i love the original art style, it’s nice to see updated sprites. i love the way they made tartarus in reload as well. in previous versions it often felt very monotonous and dull but now the environment, despite feeling grim and threatening, is full of life. some areas were not as fortunate though, there were parts where the quality of cutscenes dropped. but i also loved seeing new animations and designs for the shadows. some of the animations outside of the shadows are very stiff, however, often weightlessly running and the stroke of their legs not matching the distance the model has traveled, or was choppy and looked uneven. not that i think it matters too much. i also appreciate the detail in facial expressions on the characters especially during social links, i was surprised that side characters were given that level of detail. and everyone has said something about the ui. something as mundane as ui receiving art direction is incredibly important to not only create a menu that is comprehensible and concise, but also make it pleasing to the eye.

the music is honestly hit or miss. the new singer, azumi takahashi does not sound bad in general. it is just that her voice does not fit the songs she is trying to sing. yumi kawamura had a certain style in her vocals, full of vibrato and a bit of bounce in her voice. takahashi’s voice is much smoother in comparison and that style of singing does not fit the origjnal p3’s style. her voice is more suited for jazzier songs, which is why she doesn’t sound too bad in any of reload-exclusive music (it’s going down now, color your night, full moon full life). and how could anyone replace the rap in iwatodai dorm…such a shame lotus juice how could you. the music overall isn’t bad and a lot of it still keeps a similar feel from the original, evolving to be a little smoother.

the little ways in which atlus has fleshed out the characterization in this game is incredible. the text message system is a fun way to add bits and pieces to an individual’s personality, and the special interactions you can have in iwatodai dorm truly make it feel like home. in some ways, it feels a little too nice and cozy though. yukari and junpei (possibly other characters as well, but these two were the most notable) had interactions in previous versions that were biting and a little mean. but such banter only showed how close they were. there are boundaries to every friendship, and if you’re able to jokingly insult a friend or beat on them without overstepping such boundaries it feels more intimate. not to mention it’s less funny. i enjoy the extra mechanics that make the characters feel fresh, but i do wish they were a little more faithful to their original personalities. just a bit.

strega was given a bit of a mini arc and i loved seeing more, we had so little about their motivations in previous versions of persona 3. i love being able to sympathize with villains it makes them so much more interesting.

to be frank, some of the voice acting in the original was horrible. kind of charming and nostalgic, but simply not great. and while it wasn’t all of the characters, those who did have horrible voice acting were extremely noticeable. reload has a wonderful new cast, but i do think yukari leans more into whiny, rather than sassy.

i have watched all of the persona movies thrice, played the games twice over. yet this was still able to make me feel as though i was experiencing it for the first time. the scenes do not feel like they were blankly repeating what happened in the original games; there was thought and care put into the direction. it's wonderful that i could reexperience it this way.

as a femc fan i do think it sucks. it really does. i would have waited as long as i could if it meant that this could be the definitive edition of persona 3, complete with femc’s route and the answer. but deadlines are deadlines i suppose. i can’t say the game is complete without these things, but it doesn’t mean that the game lacked any value or that i had any less fun playing it. while it isn’t a perfect remake, reload was an immersive game that took the criticisms of the original game and improved upon it, creating a fresh experience that both old and new players could enjoy.

it was just ok. the gameplay and aesthetics were only kind of interesting and has an unsettling atmosphere with wonderful art to match.

in all honesty, it almost felt like a hodgepodge of inspiration slovenly thrown together. it was like they wanted you to hear the words silent hill, evangelion, ghost in the shell, etc. the aesthetics are fine but nothing that is very subversive or groundbreaking so it overall just looks boring. much of the enemy design was just “crazy robot woman.” the random words in several different languages that popped up on screen felt more like garnish for a story that wasn’t there, rather than actually contributing to a cohesive plot. and the story was quite literally crumbs until the end. im all for environmental storytelling and a mysterious world, but the worldbuilding tries to keep itself too vague to the point where its structure is unstable and hard to parse. the lack of cutscenes for most of it do not help either; in fact it very much hurts it. as the player, it is hard to connect to elster at all because she barely speaks. there is hardly a cornerstone of development for her to even grow from because for the most part she seems like a blank slate. the characters get a few lines once every couple hours of gameplay, and that is about it for story outside of documents and the endings. it seems a significant portion of the playerbase has to watch a video or go through the wiki for the story to be understood at all.

the puzzles were at least interesting but the combat and exploration weren’t. there were many times where it was just a little fetch quest chain to go from key to key. it made the exploration more of a slog to go through rather than feeling like i was actually making discoveries.

i quite like the character designs in this futuristic setting, but the monster designs are underwhelming and it takes away from the horror they are trying to convey. the lack of variation in “mob” monsters make them an eyesore to encounter again. as someone who enjoys humanoid robot aesthetics, it would have been nice for them to lean more into body horror and elements of uncanny valley in these designs.

it honestly felt like people saw the word “lesbian” in other reviews and decided that was all they needed to be a good game. i love lesbian media but there has to be a point where you can say the writing was not the best. how far can tropes and aesthetics take you? i guess for this game it seems pretty far.