This review contains spoilers
Holy fuck.... this game is actually peak Persona. Full disclosure, I am a massive Persona 3 fan. FES is not only handedly my favorite in the series, but it's also just my 2nd favorite game of all time. I have a massive attachment to the characters and themes of that game, and I'm highly critical of any reiteration of it. While Portable and the Movies were solid... they didn't come close to what vanilla/FES gave. So while I was excited for Reload, I was cautiously so... and then my expectations were completely blown out of the water. Spoilers Ahead.
UI/Graphics: Unsurprisingly, this is the one aspect that I knew the game would improve upon greatly. P5 is a game I am kinda mixed on, but it has easily the best menus in any game I've ever seen... that is until reload came in. Blue is already just an amazing color, but the whole water aesthetic makes sense considering the importance of the moon in P3. It also just looks snappy af. The graphics are also better than P5 imo. The models look really good and all of the pre rendered cutscenes are excellent, though I won't lie, I still prefer a good deal of the og ones. Like specifically the opening cutscene and Makoto's awakening. There's a certain chaotic energy that fit the vibes of the og... and it's just not there in Reload. That's kind of a personal nitpick. I also kinda miss the PS2 chibi models, but that's more the nostalgia speaking.
Gameplay/Dungeon Design: My thoughts on the gameplay are complicated. I understand why they made changes from the original; more specifically removing the fatigue system and giving you direct control. It’s just not convenient for the modern audience, and this game was not really meant for me; my only real issues with FES were with the social sim aspect, and even that wasn’t to big of a deal to me since it did tie in with the themes of the game… so I get trying to appeal to the masses, but the fatigue mechanic held a lot of importance in the narrative. Without yapping too much, it’s important to understand how straining it is to summon a persona in this game. There’s a reason Yukari struggles so much with it in the beginning, and after summoning his persona, Makoto is so exhausted he passes out for over a week. It’s supposed to feel like a daunting task to climb Tartarus in the beginning, but as you gain more firepower and get stronger, the fatigue mechanic becomes less of a big deal. It adds a lot to the experience, so it’s a tiny bit of a shame, but I do feel like Reload adds some new mechanics that show off the emotional ties of persona summoning. Party controls on the other hand… look, I know most people are just going to use direct controls, but if any game were to have actually good party AI, it should have been this one and it sucks that they didn’t even try to improve tactics; like the AI cannot use the shift mechanic (a key mechanic in this game) and while they do use theurgies, they do not act to properly fill their gauge conditions. Mods can help with this, but the base game should have at least implemented those with tactics. As for the actual gameplay, it’s pretty fun. I really enjoyed trying out different team compositions and seeing who synergized the best. Theurgies are broken, but it’s a fun system to engage with and I like them a lot more than showtimes. My first playthrough was on hard mode, and I thought it was pretty easy. I finished a Merciless run not too long ago, and while parts were more challenging, Siegfried completely takes any challenge away from the game. It’s not as poorly balanced as P5R and you do have to go out of your way to completely break the game in half, but after October I just didn’t feel challenged by the game at all. As for Tartarus itself, I’m kinda mixed. They spice things up with Monad doors, and I do appreciate the extra bosses, but in general I still much prefer the dungeon design of the P5 palaces. I’m happy they kept Tartarus’ structure faithful (with blocks & guardians) but there is an inherent disadvantage of randomized dungeons. I still think this game is fun, but FES wins the combat war.
Music: It's good. I was kind of conflicted with the new vocalist at first, but she grew on me as I got more accustomed to the game. I still prefer old Mass Destruction and nothing will ever top og Memories of You, but I think I prefer this version of Changing Seasons (the random French is missed though) and the nighttime song is excellent. Most of the other reload tracks are also great. I still prefer og Memories of the City as well as When the Moons Reaches Out Stars and Deep Mentality, but every other track is more or less the same/better (Deep Breath Deep Breath gets better each version I swear).
Social Links: just better in every way. I mean, the sheer addition of voice acting just adds so much more personality. I've always liked the Old Couple and Maiko, but they still felt sort of dry until the remake. Actually hearing the tones of their voices makes them feel so much more alive and it also kind of makes me care about their problems. Despite playing P3 like 84 times before this, I guess I never registered just how sad these links were, but hearing these characters cry or feel anxious just reels you in a lot more. Akinari was already perfect, but the addition of audible coughs and his softer voice just brings so much more. All of the girls SLs vastly improved too with the addition of optional romance. Chihiro always felt really shallow and kinda creepy to me, but a few lines about her fear of men relating to her experiences with her father gave so much depth and some of the off-putting moments (like the part where she said she had dreams about us) were changed and made so much more charming. Same with Yuko... these small changes emphasized the character's actual story and issues over being a dating simulator where they just revolved around Makoto. In the og, I feel like Yukari and Aigis were the only ones who balanced a "natural" romance with Makoto and an SL story that explored aspects of their characters (and I think that's because they just naturally had established chemistry with Makoto in the story). I think P3P added more to both Fuuka and Mitsuru since in the FeMC route they focus more on what bad cooking/lack of social awareness meant for their arcs, but Reload brings that and more to the table. Also, all of the SEES party member links were great. Akihiko was the one I was the most worried for, and it has some rough moments, but I overall did like it. We get to see firsthand how much his sister's death impacted him and why he pushes himself to such lengths while training. Sure, this stuff was mentioned in the story, but we never got to explore it to the extent we should of. I thought it was sweet to see how much Aki admires Kurosawa (even if he is a cop lmao). And the addition of him being adopted by a wealthy couple (something that was in his conceptual character bio) was really nice imo... it's nice to see that he has great parents who love him, but it doesn't take away from any of the pain/trauma he has. Him having great parents kinda adds to the guilt he feels over his sister's death and the way Shinji lives now. Speaking of depth, I loved seeing how much Akihiko admires Makoto as a leader.. it explains so much about his behavior in the Answer. Junpei, Koro, and Shinji all had excellent SLs in P3P, so I was un-shocked by the quality of their links here. I liked learning about the senpai trio's origins and really liked seeing how much involved Mitsuru was. I feel like they didn't explore the relationship between the three senpai in any of the P3 media out there, but the three of them really were a team and it just meant something to me that it was that way. I think Ken had a good SL in P3P... but unfortunately some creepy dev decided you should be able to romance the child and that kinda overshadowed the good aspects. But he's got such a sweet bond with Makoto and dear god that one event where he wants to buy Mitsuru tea just melted my heart. The only problem I had with Koro was the fact that he is not a real dog and I cannot physically squish his face, so incoherently squealing at the tv will have to do. Junpei probably had the weakest one, but I feel like that’s because he’s so strong in the main story, there wasn’t much too add.
Characters/Story/Theme: It's basically the same as FES, so that means it's peak by default. None of the changes really impacted the narrative, so I don't have much to add here. The stuff with Takaya was kind of intriguing... Strega is still kind of underwhelming since they basically drop that plotline after 10/4. I still feel like they could have explored more of the whole "experimentation" thing, but this game took me over 90 hours... it did not need to be longer. Strega is not the main focus here, it's SEES and they are perfect. Yukari, Junpei, and Aigis were all perfect in FES imo. They had amazing backstories, connected to the themes very well, and felt complete by the end of their arcs. Mitsuru and Shinji were also quite good, but they felt a tad disconnected, however I feel like the exploration SEES past added more to them. While I liked Fuuka and Ken, I feel like after their respective arcs were done, they didn't have much reason to stick around in SEES other than them having personas (or maybe I just hated their English VA performances), but the small additions to their links made me appreciate them. Koro's expanded bond with Makoto also gave so much depth to him, which is insane considering he doesn't actually speak. Akihiko is an odd one to tackle… he’s up there with Yukari as my favorite, and he has some of the strongest moments in the story, but I always felt like they could have done more with his character, and they didn’t really do that in Reload, which is a bit disappointing. They did nail all of the moments with him that they needed to nail though. Yeah, Persona 3 is still incredible and that ending had me sobbing as usual. I can easily recommend this to a newcomer (I might refer them to some of the og cutscenes though).
Misc: The english dub is pretty good. My first playthrough was in Japanese because I let changes heavily distract me and I wanted my first reaction to not be impacted by stuff like that. But I did my NG+ in english, and while I do miss some of the old voices, I think the new cast does a great job. I'm still not big on Ryoji. He's certainly more intriguing than before, and I enjoyed how fruity he was, but he still feels less like a character and more of a plot device; I think Aigis does his schtick way better. That said, his linked episodes are really beautiful. Elizabeth is as fun as the og and I appreciate that her quests are now focused less on fetch quests and more on world exploration.
Overall, I am happy with how Reload turned out. It’s not a replacement for the original, but I feel like the developers more or less got it, and if you haven’t played P3 yet, then I think this game does a good job of conveying everything the original did. Best remake I’ve played in a while :)
UI/Graphics: Unsurprisingly, this is the one aspect that I knew the game would improve upon greatly. P5 is a game I am kinda mixed on, but it has easily the best menus in any game I've ever seen... that is until reload came in. Blue is already just an amazing color, but the whole water aesthetic makes sense considering the importance of the moon in P3. It also just looks snappy af. The graphics are also better than P5 imo. The models look really good and all of the pre rendered cutscenes are excellent, though I won't lie, I still prefer a good deal of the og ones. Like specifically the opening cutscene and Makoto's awakening. There's a certain chaotic energy that fit the vibes of the og... and it's just not there in Reload. That's kind of a personal nitpick. I also kinda miss the PS2 chibi models, but that's more the nostalgia speaking.
Gameplay/Dungeon Design: My thoughts on the gameplay are complicated. I understand why they made changes from the original; more specifically removing the fatigue system and giving you direct control. It’s just not convenient for the modern audience, and this game was not really meant for me; my only real issues with FES were with the social sim aspect, and even that wasn’t to big of a deal to me since it did tie in with the themes of the game… so I get trying to appeal to the masses, but the fatigue mechanic held a lot of importance in the narrative. Without yapping too much, it’s important to understand how straining it is to summon a persona in this game. There’s a reason Yukari struggles so much with it in the beginning, and after summoning his persona, Makoto is so exhausted he passes out for over a week. It’s supposed to feel like a daunting task to climb Tartarus in the beginning, but as you gain more firepower and get stronger, the fatigue mechanic becomes less of a big deal. It adds a lot to the experience, so it’s a tiny bit of a shame, but I do feel like Reload adds some new mechanics that show off the emotional ties of persona summoning. Party controls on the other hand… look, I know most people are just going to use direct controls, but if any game were to have actually good party AI, it should have been this one and it sucks that they didn’t even try to improve tactics; like the AI cannot use the shift mechanic (a key mechanic in this game) and while they do use theurgies, they do not act to properly fill their gauge conditions. Mods can help with this, but the base game should have at least implemented those with tactics. As for the actual gameplay, it’s pretty fun. I really enjoyed trying out different team compositions and seeing who synergized the best. Theurgies are broken, but it’s a fun system to engage with and I like them a lot more than showtimes. My first playthrough was on hard mode, and I thought it was pretty easy. I finished a Merciless run not too long ago, and while parts were more challenging, Siegfried completely takes any challenge away from the game. It’s not as poorly balanced as P5R and you do have to go out of your way to completely break the game in half, but after October I just didn’t feel challenged by the game at all. As for Tartarus itself, I’m kinda mixed. They spice things up with Monad doors, and I do appreciate the extra bosses, but in general I still much prefer the dungeon design of the P5 palaces. I’m happy they kept Tartarus’ structure faithful (with blocks & guardians) but there is an inherent disadvantage of randomized dungeons. I still think this game is fun, but FES wins the combat war.
Music: It's good. I was kind of conflicted with the new vocalist at first, but she grew on me as I got more accustomed to the game. I still prefer old Mass Destruction and nothing will ever top og Memories of You, but I think I prefer this version of Changing Seasons (the random French is missed though) and the nighttime song is excellent. Most of the other reload tracks are also great. I still prefer og Memories of the City as well as When the Moons Reaches Out Stars and Deep Mentality, but every other track is more or less the same/better (Deep Breath Deep Breath gets better each version I swear).
Social Links: just better in every way. I mean, the sheer addition of voice acting just adds so much more personality. I've always liked the Old Couple and Maiko, but they still felt sort of dry until the remake. Actually hearing the tones of their voices makes them feel so much more alive and it also kind of makes me care about their problems. Despite playing P3 like 84 times before this, I guess I never registered just how sad these links were, but hearing these characters cry or feel anxious just reels you in a lot more. Akinari was already perfect, but the addition of audible coughs and his softer voice just brings so much more. All of the girls SLs vastly improved too with the addition of optional romance. Chihiro always felt really shallow and kinda creepy to me, but a few lines about her fear of men relating to her experiences with her father gave so much depth and some of the off-putting moments (like the part where she said she had dreams about us) were changed and made so much more charming. Same with Yuko... these small changes emphasized the character's actual story and issues over being a dating simulator where they just revolved around Makoto. In the og, I feel like Yukari and Aigis were the only ones who balanced a "natural" romance with Makoto and an SL story that explored aspects of their characters (and I think that's because they just naturally had established chemistry with Makoto in the story). I think P3P added more to both Fuuka and Mitsuru since in the FeMC route they focus more on what bad cooking/lack of social awareness meant for their arcs, but Reload brings that and more to the table. Also, all of the SEES party member links were great. Akihiko was the one I was the most worried for, and it has some rough moments, but I overall did like it. We get to see firsthand how much his sister's death impacted him and why he pushes himself to such lengths while training. Sure, this stuff was mentioned in the story, but we never got to explore it to the extent we should of. I thought it was sweet to see how much Aki admires Kurosawa (even if he is a cop lmao). And the addition of him being adopted by a wealthy couple (something that was in his conceptual character bio) was really nice imo... it's nice to see that he has great parents who love him, but it doesn't take away from any of the pain/trauma he has. Him having great parents kinda adds to the guilt he feels over his sister's death and the way Shinji lives now. Speaking of depth, I loved seeing how much Akihiko admires Makoto as a leader.. it explains so much about his behavior in the Answer. Junpei, Koro, and Shinji all had excellent SLs in P3P, so I was un-shocked by the quality of their links here. I liked learning about the senpai trio's origins and really liked seeing how much involved Mitsuru was. I feel like they didn't explore the relationship between the three senpai in any of the P3 media out there, but the three of them really were a team and it just meant something to me that it was that way. I think Ken had a good SL in P3P... but unfortunately some creepy dev decided you should be able to romance the child and that kinda overshadowed the good aspects. But he's got such a sweet bond with Makoto and dear god that one event where he wants to buy Mitsuru tea just melted my heart. The only problem I had with Koro was the fact that he is not a real dog and I cannot physically squish his face, so incoherently squealing at the tv will have to do. Junpei probably had the weakest one, but I feel like that’s because he’s so strong in the main story, there wasn’t much too add.
Characters/Story/Theme: It's basically the same as FES, so that means it's peak by default. None of the changes really impacted the narrative, so I don't have much to add here. The stuff with Takaya was kind of intriguing... Strega is still kind of underwhelming since they basically drop that plotline after 10/4. I still feel like they could have explored more of the whole "experimentation" thing, but this game took me over 90 hours... it did not need to be longer. Strega is not the main focus here, it's SEES and they are perfect. Yukari, Junpei, and Aigis were all perfect in FES imo. They had amazing backstories, connected to the themes very well, and felt complete by the end of their arcs. Mitsuru and Shinji were also quite good, but they felt a tad disconnected, however I feel like the exploration SEES past added more to them. While I liked Fuuka and Ken, I feel like after their respective arcs were done, they didn't have much reason to stick around in SEES other than them having personas (or maybe I just hated their English VA performances), but the small additions to their links made me appreciate them. Koro's expanded bond with Makoto also gave so much depth to him, which is insane considering he doesn't actually speak. Akihiko is an odd one to tackle… he’s up there with Yukari as my favorite, and he has some of the strongest moments in the story, but I always felt like they could have done more with his character, and they didn’t really do that in Reload, which is a bit disappointing. They did nail all of the moments with him that they needed to nail though. Yeah, Persona 3 is still incredible and that ending had me sobbing as usual. I can easily recommend this to a newcomer (I might refer them to some of the og cutscenes though).
Misc: The english dub is pretty good. My first playthrough was in Japanese because I let changes heavily distract me and I wanted my first reaction to not be impacted by stuff like that. But I did my NG+ in english, and while I do miss some of the old voices, I think the new cast does a great job. I'm still not big on Ryoji. He's certainly more intriguing than before, and I enjoyed how fruity he was, but he still feels less like a character and more of a plot device; I think Aigis does his schtick way better. That said, his linked episodes are really beautiful. Elizabeth is as fun as the og and I appreciate that her quests are now focused less on fetch quests and more on world exploration.
Overall, I am happy with how Reload turned out. It’s not a replacement for the original, but I feel like the developers more or less got it, and if you haven’t played P3 yet, then I think this game does a good job of conveying everything the original did. Best remake I’ve played in a while :)