basically a perfect game. this game borrows extremely heavily from souls but does it in the right way, and makes some of those borrowed elements better by giving them their own unique twist. it's as hard as it needs to be and the parry window is as wide as it needs to be. nice backstory and great characters, not mindblowing but good enough for this game. originally i thought that the themes here (pinocchio steampunk type stuff) were a bit corny but they grew on me eventually as i explored krat.

the combat simply makes you feel like you are Him especially after you get the dragon katana. the weapon system is super creative and a lot of weapons are really fun, and all the enemies keep the game interesting. and the bosses are just great and i would say at the same level as fromsoft.

i take off half a point in the rating because while the game is great, it simply lacks that bit of that souls magic that makes them so special. the environments, while beautifully crafted an detailed, feel same-y after a few hours (compare krat and yharnam and notice how yharnam feels a lot more varied in its design). same with the enemies, a lot of them are just humanoid guys with different movesets. and the level design is a bit too linear and there's not a lot of places to get lost in. these are small complaints and very subjective, but when you borrow so heavily from another series you have to be judged against it.

overall a fantastic game.

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.

fun gameplay and great art style and animations.

as someone new to tactical rpgs (but not JRPGs) i found that even on "tactical" difficulty the game was a bit too easy - you can just throw units at an enemy until it dies. difficulty isnt really explored in this setting until the very end of the game where the final boss forces you to think a little bit about unit composition.

at the same time it felt a bit too long with too many encounters, many of them being "liberation" encounters which are pretty short battles. I wouldve preferred a smaller shorter game with less encounters , but with longer individual battles and more options within the battles to play with and optimize unit comp.