So yeah. Lightfall happened LOL

I'm sure I don't need to talk about the story of this expansion, because everyone in and out of the destiny fanbase surely heard about it at the time. This + the quality of the raid (which is slightly overblown if you ask me) had people up in ARMS calling this the worst destiny expansion to date, even though it's very clearly FAR from that. Neomuna was a great destination, with Strand being the obvious carrier of the expansion, and the QOL changes that came with this expansion as well made gameplay itself probably the best its ever been in destiny. Nobody talks about Veil Containment either when they're trashing the story, as that was arguably one of the best story beats to come out of this entire YEAR of destiny. But after how Lightfall butchered Calus and didn't really progress the main story of destiny at all? I don't necessarily blame them. You can definitely tell they split the story of this expansion and (presumably) The Final Shape into two different things.

The following seasons of Lightfall were.... okay. Much like how the story of Lightfall got the community in a ruckus, plentiful other things did as well as the seasons progressed. Season of Defiance was probably one of the better seasons about it?, but the passing of Lance Reddick definitely hurt things a bit. Season of the Deep saw people up in arms about the repitition of Seasonal Gameplay loops after big promised changes, which isnt the most unjustifable thing, but people definitely were taking it way too far. Season of the Witch/Wish (since it kinda happened inbetween these two seasons) saw the biggest uprisal with Bungie laying off numerous employees (fuck you bungie!), causing loads of people to take a break or quit the game entirely. Being a destiny fan was extremely rough throughout this year of the game, probably the roughest its ever been if im being honest.

But! The pure gameplay of Destiny 2 throughout these seasons was still REALLY good. I would go as far as saying that looking at pure gameplay alone, this was probably the best year we've ever had. The new dungeons were fantastic, the seasonal content started evolving with Rougelike and minor Deck-Building elements, and The Coil might honestly be the best activity they've ever had in a season (maybe not better than menagerie still but i digress).

The story of the seasons is alone what's keeping me from having this listed as four stars: since Bungie probably had no idea how to bridge Lightfall and TFS together narratively after splitting them into two seperate expansions (and i dont blame them), a lot of the narrative this time around felt VERY character focused. I'm never against building characters in destiny, especially because Bungie is really good at it, but when the legit END of your 10 year story is coming up? It felt very awkward, especially since the plots of each season weren't really progressing us any further to the witness (or if they were it was VERY incrementally.)

I probably should include Into The Light as part of this review, but I have yet to fully dive DEEP into it since I was out of the country when it dropped. However, it looks fantastic and I've really enjoyed the bits of it I have played, and community sentiment feels fairly high, especially since it seems Bungie is beefing up for TFS.

Speaking of which: I really really hope Bungie knocks it out of the park with The Final Shape. They very clearly need a win ANYWHERE right now, and it while Into The Light seems like it's helping, it probably isn't enough for a lot of people. I really don't know how to end this, other than saying goddamn why are the destiny worms still inside of my brain. Curse you John Bungie!!!

TL;DR: Story way down, gameplay way up. Please let the next expansion, and whatever follows it, be a banger.

god i really wish there was a 4.9 option on backloggd, because that's exactly where persona 3 reload sits for me. the original shook me to my core in high school, and getting to experience it all over again these years later was such a great experience. i do have a few nitpicks (which ill get to) but ill get the good stuff out of the way first.

the soundtrack, to nobody's surprise, is fantastic. a majority of the songs here feel improved upon compared to the original, and while it took some getting used to, the new singer was great, alongside the always fantastic Lotus Juice. gameplay is just a persona 5'd version of the original game (compliment), with improvements to make each party member viable and good. theurgies and personality traits are the star of the show here, and are such a cool mechanic. the new arcana cards in tartarus were so busted and so fun.

each social link is fully voice acted which is a SHOCK, though i guess some of them are shorter in dialogue than others so it probably wasnt too bad to do. the main cast VAs all do a really good job though. i dont know how crazy i was about Akihiko and Yukari's voice actors, but i got more used to them as time went on. the dorm hangouts were pretty neat, and the male party member "social links" were great also, giving way more screentime to all of the SEES group.

and with screentime as a topic, lets segue into... the bad parts!! strega got more screentime here, which i was excited for initially since Chidori was the only real 'developed' character from the original cast. however, now that ive beaten the game, the extra screentime for those 3 was not a lot, and was like 90% focused on Takaya. Jin barely gets anything and strega as a whole dont really feel any more in-depth than they were originally.

the story of persona 3, as awesome as it is, suffered from HORRIBLE pacing problems. reload seemed like the new party hangouts at the dorm would fix that, along with new story moments, but... its still pretty rough man. it got a lot better towards the end of the game (probably when shinji died?) but those first couple months are still ROUGH, especially April-June. Tartarus got a SERIOUS visual facelift here (which is awesome btw), but even with its new gameplay additions I still feel like its missing something. I would've enjoyed maybe an optional area below tartarus, or something similar to the challenge doors in p3p (though i guess thats what the monad doors are?). much better to go through comparatively, but i still feel like there could've been juuuuuust a bit more meat to tartarus.

the last of my negatives go into more nitpicky areas: Aigis, aka the best persona character ever made, had a very good transition from Robot to Human in the original game, with her entire suite of dialogue during battle be replaced and revoiced with less robotic tones. reload does not do this, and she still has some of those voice lines, in and outside of battle. She does a fantastic job in her Social Link, and in the story towards the end of the game (especially the ending), so its not the worst thing ever. i anticipate to see what she'll be like in the inevitable Answer DLC. difficulty in this game was also pretty negligible: I played on hard (not merciless but ive heard the same sentiments) and only really had trouble with like, two boss fights the entire game. I havent fought Elizabeth though so that number probably will go up to three.

the wall of issues and nitpicks would make you think id rate this as NOT five stars, but the sheer power of this games themes and messages moved me six years ago, and moved me AGAIN even more so six years later. this is a game that will stick with me for the rest of my life, and i cant recommend it enough to any JRPG fan. looking forward to the persona 4 remake in this engine as well!