One of my favorite stories ever told in a piece of media. Persona 3 tackles the subjects of life, death, and grief in a unique way that I've yet to see any other piece of media do. On top of that, Portable's visual novel format enhances the P3 story a lot, and makes it feel more immersive than the PS2 version ever could be. Another alteration to P3P is the new female protagonist. The female protagonist's route is a great addition to the game, aside from adding replayability, all of her social links are rewritten, allowing you to immerse in the world of Persona 3 without the outlandishly terrible writing of the male protagonist's social links. This is one of my favorite games ever and I highly recommend people check it out.

This game is very unique, and there's no other way to play it than on DS. This game uses the DS's two screens for almost everything, whether it be battling as two characters at the same time or seeing two different perspectives in a cutscene, it's a very unique experience that you won't find on any of the watered down ports or middling sequel.
The personality of the game is also unmatched by any other I've played. TWEWY fully embraces the era it was released in, from how the characters talk, the at the time current trends, the art style, and even the overall soundtrack. It feels like a time capsule for the mid-late 2000s, and for me it creates a feeling of nostalgia.
The story is pretty good, but I didn't find it to be anything special. The biggest strength of the writing is how the characters are written. The main characters themselves feel very real, they aren't written with any specific tropes in mind, instead the game focuses on making sure that these characters feel like they've lived full lives before the game even started. Their history, their struggles, how they talk, the actions they choose, it all feels like something real people would do. This game doesn't rely on generic character tropes like newer characters from the remakes and sequel do.
Overall, TWEWY is a very unique product that I recommend everyone check out, and please play the original DS version if possible. It offers a unique experience in gameplay, aesthetic, and writing that I've never seen any other game offer.

One of, if not, the best of the Search Action genre. While Metroid on NES popularized Search Action, this game defines it. Atmospheric environments and music, memorable locations and bosses, intentionally designed sequence breaking shortcuts that allow for a sense of freedom while exploring, all while collecting items to gradually become overpowered as you play the game. Super Metroid has everything that would go on to define what it means to be a Search Action game. I love every single detail of this game. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a fun immersive game to play!

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.