Persona 3 Reload Review

https://nichegamer.com/reviews/persona-3-reload-review/

When Persona 3 came out in the summer of 2006, it was a major paradigm shift for the franchise and Atlus overall. It became one of the hottest PlayStation 2 RPGs; spawning manga, anime movie adaptations, a ton of merchandise, and even a stage play based on it.

Persona 3 was a very edgy and fresh concept in its day. The story deals with heavy themes of existentialism and isolation as a teenager with death looming over the narrative as it unfolds. Bleak though it may be, Persona 3 is also about finding meaning and connection in the face of those challenges. It explores friendship, acceptance, and the courage to live life to the fullest, even when you know it’s finite.

For a while, you only had the PlayStation 2 version or the hopelessly gutted PSP port. While you could play the definitive version of Persona 3 on PlayStation via PSN, the time has come for a remake that aims to match the production values of Atlus’ latest games. Is this the ultimate Persona 3 experience? Did this need to be remade? Find out in our Persona 3 Reload review!

Persona 3 was such a big deal that it supplanted Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei series, the very franchise that Persona spun off from. With every sequel, the series would further become more stylish and would center on managing daily life routines as an anime high school student while leading a double life as a persona user.

Before Persona 3, there were two Persona 2 games(Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment), and both of them featured a cast of adults. Looking now, it’s hard to imagine the franchise being anything other than what it is known for today. The double life and Jungian symbolism of masks seem like it was always a part of the franchise, but it was the third game where it all came together satisfyingly.

Persona 5‘s distinct style and presentation became one of its defining characteristics. The newspaper clipping-style fonts and typesetting, coupled with the graffiti-like flourishes, made the game stand out. Even navigating menus felt engaging due to their animation and audible feedback, which extended to the battle interface as well. Persona 3 Reload takes this design philosophy and applies it to the classic Persona 3 experience.

Persona 3 Reload centers on the mystery behind the Dark Hour and Tartarus. The Dark Hour is a hidden period of time unseen by most, where Shadows roam the world shrouded in darkness and people become coffins. Tartarus is a massive tower, the source of the Shadows, which the party will engage with.

The unnamed protagonist is recruited by S.E.E.S., the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, a group of students who have the power to fight these Shadows. This power comes in the form of Personas, manifestations of their inner selves. By wielding Evokers – magical pistols – they can summon their Personas to combat the threats.

The story follows your character as they navigate a double life: attending school, building relationships with classmates, and venturing into Tartarus to fight Shadows alongside SEES. As you delve deeper, you uncover the secrets of the Dark Hour, the origin of the Shadows, and a looming threat with dire consequences.

The SEES companions delve deeper into the tower, facing stronger Shadows and encountering figures who may hold the answers. The story also explores how the characters confront their mortality and the inevitable approach of a special date linked to their destinies. This setup takes several hours to establish and for the next 20-something hours, there is no story until July-August, which is when the plot finally begins to form.

A pro-Shadow cult gets introduced and while they do push the game towards having some plot, they aren’t the main antagonist. The motivations of the true villain are saved for the twilight hours of the game and it can take a long time before there is any idea of what the point of anything is. The wait is worth it, but it will demand some patience.

The main plot is not the reason why anyone would get absorbed by Persona 3 Reload. The heart of this game is its characters and human side stories that flesh out the setting. The Social Links each have a mini-narrative that drives the game’s core themes. The power of friendship makes sense since the world around them is shaped by belief and the collective unconscious. Friendship is a power, as is religion and other forms of belief.

Persona 3 Reload‘s story is understandably the same as it was in 2006 but with weaker voice acting and some questionable casting choices. Akihiko’s voice is way too deep. Yukari lacks curt and harshness in her performance. There are even some bizarre instances of self-censorship in some of the rewritings of some scenes that make no sense.

Some may say that they recast the English actors for new talent, but they didn’t recast Elizabeth’s voice for some reason. It is interesting how she is the best actor in Reload, yet is also the only returning performer from the original.

The real failing of Persona 3 Reload, is that it is a completely unnecessary remake. The major draw is that there are some new social links and the presentation has been updated to be more in line with how stylish the series has become.

There is no question that Persona 3 Reload‘s UI design is first-rate. It is sleek and cool, and the new character models are some of the best examples of how to do anime-style shading in 3D. No matter what angle you look at them, they always look excellent and better than anything Atlus has done so far.

Regretfully, this remake is not always consistent. While the characters look amazing, the environments can be very hit-or-miss. The Gekkoukan dorms are a perfect example of how the artists missed the point of the original’s dark and moody ambiance. In Reload, the dorms have very flat and sterile shading. The results make it look lifeless and boring.

Not only are some of the visuals not as appealing as the PlayStation 2 original, but Atlus failed to address the shortcomings. Tartarus was made up of repetitive recycled halls and rooms. It was a trade-off because Persona 3 was a mid-budget PlayStation 2 JPRG, so you ended up with a very boring dungeon in your elaborate life-sim RPG.

Persona 3 Reload missed the opportunity to redesign Tartarus with new ideas and potentially make it engrossing. The developers did try to make the repeating halls have more variety, but there is no disguising it. They could have had some insane M.C. Escher-inspired designs or utilized Unreal Engine 4’s ability to distort space as seen in Psychonauts 2. Tartarus could have been anything.

All the enemies still have the same issues from the PlayStation 2 carried over. They are nondescript Shadow enemies that don’t have a lot of variety among them. Persona 5 was smart to utilize the demonology from Shin Megami Tensei for its foes, but Reload does not follow suit. There could have been more unique designs for all the shadows, but they are still utterly stifled by the same few concepts.

This was the chance to make Persona 3 all it could be and push the series forward. Instead, it falls into a lot of the same traps as its predecessors. The unbearably long introductions, the daily school life, social links, and the metaverse; it’s becoming tired and generic. Worse yet, Persona 3 FES is still widely available on PSN for cheap if you still have your PlayStation 3.

The combat blends elements from Persona 3 through 5, offering a “greatest hits” of proven mechanics. Atlus wisely preserved this core aspect, applying some twists to existing strategies to complement new features. Persona 3 veterans will be especially satisfied.

The turn-based battle system is a variation of the press-turn mechanics seen in the Shin Megami Tensei games. Hitting enemies with their appropriate weaknesses will grant the player one extra turn and send the foe into a fallen state. Getting all enemies fallen allows players to do an all-out attack for major damage.

Something to always consider is that enemies can put party members into a fallen state too or missing causes them to slip as well. There is just enough randomization to keep battles interesting, but there is always an opportunity to turn things around. The drawback is that Reload ends up feeling like a cheap rehash of Persona 5 rather than feeling like a remake of Persona 3.

Regretfully, Persona 3 Reload has a substantial amount of cut content which is going to be sold as DLC. The Answer was a lengthy bonus scenario where Aigis, the party’s cyborg, becomes the main character. This arc is standard in Persona 3 FES on PlayStation 2 and is the version that is available for $9.99 on PSN for PlayStation 3 users.

Reload cuts this sequence out and will be sold as DLC when it already is priced at $69.99. The new social links and added production values are genuinely impressive, but they are not worth $69.99 when the game is still a PlayStation 2 game at its core, especially when the original is still out there for a fraction of the price and is complete and uncut.

Cutting out The Answer is unforgivable for a AAA price, especially since Reload does not justify itself. If you’re a fan of Persona 3, chances are you already have FES and would be better off replaying it because Reload has more in common with Persona 5.

Reload is not different enough where it counts and fails to honor the original intent with some of its many alterations. This remake lacks ambition where it could have addressed the shortcomings of the original game and its new content is hardly worth the price of admission. Some of the new visuals are great, but there are several instances of the art being a step backward.

Environments are still small areas that need to be loaded. Most story scenes unfold like a visual novel with big portraits and text. Tartarus is still a randomized assortment of samey halls. You can’t go fishing or play arcade mini-games. There isn’t even any close-up of detailed food models. You never feel like you see the money on screen.

Persona 3 Reload is a cynically made cash grab that has no wow factor. It’s peak remake culture where a lot of the edge gets sanded off to be in line with “modern audience expectations”. It may look great (in parts), but it lacks the vision to realize the full potential of what a modern Persona 3 could be. Even if it didn’t cut content, it is still a grossly overpriced remake that still feels like a PlayStation 2 game. Go play Persona 3 FES instead.