Great Persona experience. Fun and engaging story, relatable characters, excellent music, visuals, presentation and voice acting. Classic MegaTen combat which doesn't get old. Very worth playing for newcomers or veterans of the series.
Two complaints which knock this title down by one star:
1. Its annoying that I cant complete all the social links without hyperspecific planning ahead and potentially spoiling myself (I didn't play original release) on a first playthrough. At the end of the game I had 4 incomplete social links, even though they were my main priority, with my second priority being linked episodes and social stats. It feels even more annoying when the last two months of the game you have so many free evenings with fuck all to do.
2. Tartarus kinda sucks. There isn't really anything to make it interesting or enjoyable. Halfway through my ascent I was already starting to feel burned out on it, and by the last two months I was completely over it and just started to skip most battles altogether. It gets even worse when every shadow is a reskin of every other shadow, which makes general combat by the end of the game feel extremely dull. Considering this was a full on remake of P3, I think there was room for improvement to Tartarus that was not explored. For example: add puzzles, challenges. Add more setpieces. Connect the current area of Tartarus with current events in the story. Add movement mechanics, like Persona 5's grappling hook, or maybe lite platforming. And obviously add a bigger variety of shadows. All of this could be doable and still keep the spirit of the original Tartarus. Unfortunately the core gameplay of exploring Tartarus falls extremely short of most modern RPG standards.
Two complaints which knock this title down by one star:
1. Its annoying that I cant complete all the social links without hyperspecific planning ahead and potentially spoiling myself (I didn't play original release) on a first playthrough. At the end of the game I had 4 incomplete social links, even though they were my main priority, with my second priority being linked episodes and social stats. It feels even more annoying when the last two months of the game you have so many free evenings with fuck all to do.
2. Tartarus kinda sucks. There isn't really anything to make it interesting or enjoyable. Halfway through my ascent I was already starting to feel burned out on it, and by the last two months I was completely over it and just started to skip most battles altogether. It gets even worse when every shadow is a reskin of every other shadow, which makes general combat by the end of the game feel extremely dull. Considering this was a full on remake of P3, I think there was room for improvement to Tartarus that was not explored. For example: add puzzles, challenges. Add more setpieces. Connect the current area of Tartarus with current events in the story. Add movement mechanics, like Persona 5's grappling hook, or maybe lite platforming. And obviously add a bigger variety of shadows. All of this could be doable and still keep the spirit of the original Tartarus. Unfortunately the core gameplay of exploring Tartarus falls extremely short of most modern RPG standards.