A fantastic remake of one of my favorite games of all time, becoming what might just be my favorite game of all time.
The main story is virtually unchanged. but the game adds optional hangouts for the male cast and new scenes with previously lacking characters (i.e Strega). These were all great, especially the new Strega scenes which really makes me appreciate them more. The social links also now have full voice-acting, which is honestly just amazing. It gives all the characters added depth, and made me love certain social links a whole lot more. Besides all of that, there's the main story, which is fantastic in my eyes. While none of it was new to me, the major plot moments still hit me, and the last scene in particular was done spectacularly. It's amazing how I've experienced this game about 5 times at this point, yet it's still able to hit me.
The gameplay was hit with the "modernization" beam, which is for the best as this game is definitely more fun than the original in my eyes. The Persona 5-like gameplay is like drugs to me, and putting that in the Tartarus setting makes this game excel at every other aspect of gaming that trounces everything else in my opinion. The added things like Theurgies were neat, even if they felt way too powerful. The added things in Tartarus were also fun additions, and I like how they chose to incorporate Monad into the game and giving tougher enemies. I will say, however, that I feel like they totally fumbled on trying to let you use every party members easily. They could've just done shared EXP across the entire team like in 5, instead opting into a CHANCE to level up your party members a certain level. I just stuck to my team of 4 instead of bothering, but it isn't a huge deal in my eyes. You don't need to use EVERY party member.
The music is very conflicting for me. All the non-vocal songs and the new vocal songs are great, but some of the original vocal songs were definitely botched in my opinion. Mass Destruction, A Deep Mentality. and Burn My Dread -Last Battle- were the ones off the top of my head that suffered the most, as I feel they completely butchered them. The rest of the new mixes range from serviceable to actually pretty good, with the few new vocal tracks being absolutely legendary.
My biggest problem with this game is simply the fact that it just isn't new for me. I know that's completely my problem, but I've played this game too many times so not many things felt special, it just felt like I was watching the past while the plot beats were occurring. That past, though, was magnificent. I already found the original game fantastic, so playing that game but BETTER didn't feel real, and I don't know if it ever will. I remember when the game footage was first leaked, and the game was announced, and I wasn't very pleased. It didn't have everything I wanted, and wasn't even sure if I was gonna buy it. However, as time went on, I found myself being fine with this fact, and remembered how much I loved the original game, and how much I wanted to play the remake. So, I did. Even though it still doesn't have everything I'd like (miss you, FeMC <3), I'm not gonna call this not perfect because of it. It's a fantastic remake, and even if I feel like it could be better for me, I can still safely say that this is one of, if not, my favorite game of all time.

The fact that this team had gone from only really making the Lethal League games to this is a crowning feat. A fully-realized open-area action game focused on fluid mobility and style is something that even AAA studios have trouble nailing. And these guys did it confidently.

This feels like a game from a bygone era. A truly complete, artistic vision that works to its strengths and always keeps a steady pace. It really is special, and it makes me just want a sequel where they iron out some of the more awkward elements (i.e. the wanted system and combat) and really go crazy with the level design possible in this kind of game.

It deserves to stand on its own because it really is just that good.

You could have fooled someone easily by telling them this is the latest From Software title as Lies of P is the closest that these soulslikes not made by From have gotten to their formula. The best part of this game are the weapons, the storyline (with a great book at the end) and how optimized it is. However, the level design pales when compared with anything made in Bloodborne/Sekiro/Dark Souls as most of the levels are quite easy to traverse and not visually striking. Alongside this flaw, the enemy design gets a bit repetitive and the game doesn't have as many bosses as your regular Souls game, which correlates with the shorter duration in comparison to the from titles. In any case, this Is an easy recommendation if you wish to play an alternative souls game.