It feels a little weird having So Much to say about Reload when I only just finished FES this month but I think playing them back to back helped a lot in comparing them.

Reload has some great QoL improvements that make it feel like an overall better experience than FES at times, but presentation-wise I feel like it's lacking in some ways. The in-engine cutscenes are occasionally impressive but the animated ones just don't match what was originally done in Persona 3, like they're missing a vibe that gave the game a lot of its identity.

Theurgy is a good idea on paper but it feels like something to lean on more than an actual tool, and it doesn't help that using it against the final boss genuinely makes it a joke of a fight in the second phase (I was also maxed leveled but even when i played FES I wasn't that far behind since I Did go out of my way to fuse Messiah there too).

All in all they're just nitpicks, and I think Reload as it stands is still a good remake of Persona 3, even if I do think FES is still perfectly playable as is. I'm really happy I finally got to experience Persona 3 to the extent I did, it's been in my backlog for a long time.