(I played the undub patch btw I couldn't take the game seriously in English LOL)

Welcome to my rushed, not proofread review.

I was both scared and excited going into this. I had recently finished Yakuza 0, a game that I frequently think about and appreciate more and more as time passes, and was eager to explore the rest of this series that so many of my friends adore. I was scared, however, of the chance that I’d get scared off by Yakuza 1 due to how much older it was. I mean, I play PS1 dungeon crawlers for fun so I definitely didn’t have much to worry about, but still. I was adamant to play PS2 rather than Kiwami, both because I planned on playing Kiwami afterwards to see the differences, and so that the notorious age gap between K2 and Yakuza 3 wouldn’t strike me as hard as it did many others.
I was quickly surprised at how familiar Yakuza felt. I’m genuinely impressed at how much of the series identity and feel had already been captured by RGG in the very first entry. Running around Kamurocho felt like I was coming home after years, probably just like how Kiryu must’ve felt. Though I will say the side-content wasn’t too compelling. I don’t think I can remember a single substory, though perhaps a part of that is due to me deciding to completely focus on the main quest partway through.
I’d like to talk about that main quest now, actually. It’s pretty decent overall, albeit held back by a multitude of factors. This game is no longer than 20 hours yet it somehow still feels really padded. There are a lot of useless quests throughout the game that make you run around all corners of the map that are very obviously there to increase your playtime, and it always kept me from staying engaged. I thought the story was good though, particularly in the final stretch which seems to be a pattern in these games. It was certainly what kept me coming back to this one.
I don’t think I articulated my thoughts on the combat in my Yakuza 0 review very well, so I’ll try my best to do better here. Yakuza combat, on a systemic/mechanical level is good fun! But the enjoyment of its combat is directly tied to the battle design, which can unfortunately get really poor at many points during this game’s runtime. Yakuza PS2 shines when you’re fighting a small amount of enemies at once, both due to the game’s general clunkiness and because the battle arenas are almost always a little too small for the amount of foes the game loves to throw at you. For this reason, I was enjoying battles the most during the fights against Shimano, for example. It was just a good fun brawl, but I’m sad to say that these fights are in the minority. Most of them are just the game spawning a dozen goons in a tiny-ass room with half of them armed with guns that’ll stunlock you and prevent you from doing anything. Enemies armed with pistols in Yakuza 1 might be the worst ever. I hate them with a deep, burning passion. The combat would be infinitely more fun without them. The ‘difficulty’ in this game barely ever feels like a true challenge, it’s just armed goons who won’t let you make a single move without knocking you down for seconds at a time over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and…. Yeah, I think you get the point. This game’s combat is the definition of hit-or-miss.
Also, I’d like to give a quick shoutout to that car chase mission in chapter 10. It sucked. I hated it. Chapter 10 was the worst part of any Yakuza game I’ve played the controls sucked so bad I wanted to jump off the nearest building like a full swan dive. But I digress.
On the whole, I think this game is decent. It has a cool story and can be quite fun at times. I think it’s aged a lot better than you’d assume, though it definitely has a lot of annoying clunk. This game is held back by a multitude of issues that I don’t think are tied to its age, its more of a general design thing. I do plan on playing Kiwami someday, so I’ll know if those issues ever get fixed then. But yeah, I don’t really have too much to say. It’s just a decent game. Very excited to play Yakuza 2 I hear its #fire.

Wow.
I played Persona 3 FES in early 2023, soon after wrapping up my playthrough of the incredible Persona 4 Golden. What I found was a game with a lot of wonderful qualities, including but not limited to the story and characters, which was held back by many factors.
The gameplay, while far from bad, didn’t quite hook me. Tartarus was great at first but it quickly lost its flair. The daytime activities were decent, though it felt like something was missing. It was their first attempt at the new calendar system, so I get it, but the qualities I enjoyed were certainly weighed down. I wasn’t able to connect with the game the way so many others did. So, for me, Persona 3 was a game that I liked, one that I had a profound level of respect for, but not much more.
Fast forward a few months later and Persona 3 Reload was announced during Microsoft’s showcase for Summer Games Fest, and to say I lost my shit would be an understatement. I was hyped for this game, and each subsequent infodump only skyrocketed my excitement even further. This game had the potential to smooth P3’s rough edges so its highs could shine even brighter than before.
And for the most part? It really did.
I want to start on something I didn’t like before gushing about how much I do like. One part about vanilla P3 that I had a deep adoration for was its art direction. It had this surreal, dreamy and eerie vibe that the others didn’t. From the Dark Hour music (I’m a big fan of how vanilla P3 utilised reversed kicks) to the cutscene direction (which sorta reminded me of Evangelion, actually), it was a part of the game that I loved start-to-finish. I can pretty safely say that it has my favourite opening cutscene out of any game I’ve played, it set the tone perfectly.
Unfortunately, this is one aspect where Reload falters. That opening cutscene? Completely nerfed. Everything that made it great was gone. I would genuinely call it horrible. The direction for Reload’s cutscenes in general is inferior to vanilla. It doesn’t ruin the experience, but its definitely disappointing. I will say, however, that the UI design and how it brought in a new water motif was great.
And on that note, this game is PRETTY. Like, actual eye candy. The environments are detailed, the character models for this game are the best in the series, etc etc etc. Don’t get me started on how Tartarus looks in this game. For me, it’s Reload at its very best visually. The environmental design of each block is perfect, the lighting is BEAUTIFUL, the team did an incredible job adapting it into modern technology.
But visuals aren’t the only thing Reload’s rendition of Tartarus excels at. It’s actually everything. I would go as far as to say it’s my favourite dungeon in modern Persona, even including P5’s palaces. It’s so endlessly fun to just run through, fighting enemies and collecting items while basking at how good everything looks. There is something comforting about just grinding through blocks of Tartarus, I don’t fully know how to explain it. I loved P5R’s Mementos, and this is just everything good about that dungeon but elevated even further. I was enjoying the dungeon crawling from the very beginning, but it truly became something special when Monad doors and passages were introduced. Anything that gives me an excuse to engage in combat is a plus for me.
Speaking of combat…
Persona 3 Reload carries over P5’s additions to the One More system. This battle system was pretty barebones in vanilla P3 and P4/P4G but it truly came into its own as something that could stand alongside mainline SMT’s Press Turn system with P5. Reload’s combat is just as satisfying as P5’s, with the added benefit of not being as piss-easy as the latter. I mean, it’s still a lot easier than it should be but I’m glad to say there were a lot more game over screens and boss battles that made me break a real sweat. The new addition, which replaces Showtimes from P5R is Theurgy. Theurgy attacks are pretty similar, but this system is a lot more developed. For starters, each party member fills their Theurgy meter through actions that match their personality (for example, Yukari charges her meter through using healing spells), and that is the greatest possible way to handle it, ties the characters to the gameplay mechanics so well. The actual Theurgies are a lot more varied than Showtimes too, rather than exclusively being big damage moves (which does still apply to most of them), they can also provide huge stat boosts. It adds to the strategy of battle. Overall, the combat mechanics complement each other quite well and are very satisfying to use, the only thing I’d change is the game’s difficulty. Though I would say that is a balancing issue rather than a problem in the mechanics themselves. I will say the early game bosses had a really satisfying level of challenge, even with Theurgy, though the game quickly became a cakewalk. I did spend a lot of time grinding in Tartarus and fusing personas, however, so I’m sure a part of that difficulty drop was my fault.
That’s enough about the dungeon crawling, though. I now want to focus on the other half of the game, that being the social sim. Fully voiced Social Links are one of Reload’s greatest additions, I found myself enjoying and looking forward to them a lot more. Characters I already liked, such as Yuko and Akinari were only made better, especially because their respective voice actors absolutely killed their roles. Even people like Nozomi were more enjoyable due to the voice work. No complaints here, Social Links in Reload are great. Aside from that, there is a lot more to do in general, particularly at night, which made me really happy to see. New restaurants provide more opportunities for levelling up social stats, and you can work part time jobs for some quick cash (I can’t say I’m a big fan of the related achievement, though). Being able to use software bought at the net café on the dorm computer is a good addition too. Upgrading Makoto’s ambush ability in Tartarus through software in particular was a great use of this mechanic, and I’m glad it’s more balanced than Royal’s Ryuji’s instant-kill. I think I prefer this method of upgrading and gaining abilities compared to tying them to Social Links, as I felt as though P5’s approach trivialised a lot of confidants for me. Fusion bonuses are more than good enough.
I’d also like to highlight the new Linked Episodes. I’m a big fan. I’d go as far as to say party members shouldn’t have social links, I prefer this approach. The main reason is that it allows their stories to intertwine with the main plot, rather than being a self-contained arc that doesn’t impact their character in the main story. They give player opportunities to really delve into how a character is feeling regarding current events, it’s awesome. The greater focus on interacting with your fellow SEES members, through Linked Episodes and the new dorm hangouts actually made the main story hit even harder for me.
It’s been about a week since I beat Reload now. I’ve given myself time to sit on it, and let the initial hype wear off before I give a concrete opinion.
I liked Persona 3. But now? I adore it. At the time of writing this review, I’d say it’s my second favourite in the series.
This remake certainly isn’t perfect, it does miss deliberate design decisions and smooths the rough edges of P3 a bit too much, even the edges that were designed to be rough (does that make sense?). It’s not a definitive version of P3. But I don’t think wanting remakes to be 100% definitive is a good way to look at them. This is simply another interpretation of the Persona 3 experience. And it’s a damn good one. It improves in some areas, falters in others, but it adds its own identity, nonetheless. Just like any other remake.
I fully understand people who still view FES as their favourite version, though for me, this is the game I’ll replay when I want to experience this story. The Royal team cooked yet again, and now I’m even more excited to see what they do with Persona 6. Thank you for reading my review.