Persona 3 Portable is my favorite game ever, so this review will have an extreme bias. I'm very conflicted on Reload. On it's own, it's a good RPG with okay remixes of music and good writing, but when compared to the original versions of Persona 3, it feels inferior. A lot of how I feel is subjective, but I feel like Reload misses the mark as a remake.
With the drastically altered art direction and the removal of several mechanics, as well as other smaller visual elements, and the significantly decreased difficulty, Reload feels like a watered down version of the original Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable that it's inspired by. Instead of being a faithful interpretation of Persona 3, it tries to "modernize" Persona 3 for the newcomers who only played Persona 5. I feel like in the process of doing this, Persona 3 Reload lost a lot of Persona 3's identity.
There are good changes here, like dating now being an optional mechanic and the removal of the jealousy mechanic. The new hangout events with your party members and new story scenes with Strega are a good addition as well. That being said, I feel like the good additions just aren't enough to justify how much was lost in the process of remaking this game. Battles no longer have psychedelic environments, the Dark Hour has a strong (and quite frankly, gross) green tint over it, killing the atmosphere in many scenes, the Monad Depths were cut entirely in favor of having them randomly show up in the main floors of Tartarus, weapon fusion no longer exists, I could go on and on about how much was altered or removed. My biggest gripe though has to be in the difficulty. Persona 3 FES and Portable were both pretty difficult games, mainly due to the enemy AI being somewhat smart. You had to plan and strategize for every enemy encounter, even on Normal mode. With Reload however, enemies go down almost instantly, and their AI is very dumb. On top of that, the new Theurgy mechanic lets you one shot just about any boss you encounter, since Theurgies ignore resistances. I played Reload on Hard mode and still found it to be pathetically easy due to the Theurgy mechanic.
I think that most these changes hurt Persona 3. A game once known for its strong identity and difficulty was turned into another Persona 5. I really, really wanted to like this remake. I love Persona 3, I love the world and characters of Persona 3, but I just can't bring myself to fully enjoy this remake knowing that it could've been better. I'd recommend Persona 3 Portable over this if you want to experience Persona 3. Maybe try Reload for a second playthrough. It's not a bad game by any means, but it could've been so much more.
With the drastically altered art direction and the removal of several mechanics, as well as other smaller visual elements, and the significantly decreased difficulty, Reload feels like a watered down version of the original Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable that it's inspired by. Instead of being a faithful interpretation of Persona 3, it tries to "modernize" Persona 3 for the newcomers who only played Persona 5. I feel like in the process of doing this, Persona 3 Reload lost a lot of Persona 3's identity.
There are good changes here, like dating now being an optional mechanic and the removal of the jealousy mechanic. The new hangout events with your party members and new story scenes with Strega are a good addition as well. That being said, I feel like the good additions just aren't enough to justify how much was lost in the process of remaking this game. Battles no longer have psychedelic environments, the Dark Hour has a strong (and quite frankly, gross) green tint over it, killing the atmosphere in many scenes, the Monad Depths were cut entirely in favor of having them randomly show up in the main floors of Tartarus, weapon fusion no longer exists, I could go on and on about how much was altered or removed. My biggest gripe though has to be in the difficulty. Persona 3 FES and Portable were both pretty difficult games, mainly due to the enemy AI being somewhat smart. You had to plan and strategize for every enemy encounter, even on Normal mode. With Reload however, enemies go down almost instantly, and their AI is very dumb. On top of that, the new Theurgy mechanic lets you one shot just about any boss you encounter, since Theurgies ignore resistances. I played Reload on Hard mode and still found it to be pathetically easy due to the Theurgy mechanic.
I think that most these changes hurt Persona 3. A game once known for its strong identity and difficulty was turned into another Persona 5. I really, really wanted to like this remake. I love Persona 3, I love the world and characters of Persona 3, but I just can't bring myself to fully enjoy this remake knowing that it could've been better. I'd recommend Persona 3 Portable over this if you want to experience Persona 3. Maybe try Reload for a second playthrough. It's not a bad game by any means, but it could've been so much more.