Nocturne is the game that signaled a profound change and revolution at Atlus, and it's one of the developer's most important titles. Many of the systems in this game returned in subsequent games, and many of the themes and even the structure of what came later resonate with what Nocturne established. We even got a soft sequel in V, 18 years later.

Considering this, it was expected that when they remastered it, they would take more than minimal care to perhaps modernize one thing or another, but that didn't quite happen. After all Atlus does quite a lot to change their games in re-releases. Indeed, visually, the game has aged very well and looks even more interesting at higher resolutions. The addition of voice acting was a good choice, and eventually, they added a mechanic for inherited skills via patches, like in modern games. But beyond that, this release was pretty barebones, with obvious problems like the framerate not exceeding 30fps and the soundtrack using the same hyper-compressed tracks from the PS2 version.

But that's not a problem, as dedicated fanbases often save this kind of inadequate re-release, and that's exactly what happened with Nocturne HD Remaster. Unlocked framerates, HD audio for the OST, and a myriad of QoLs can be found in the Quality of Death modpack. Some options modernize the game, others make some things that are overtuned in the original less overtuned, and others are sensible changes like Focus (as we didn't had Concentrate yet in this one) and Pierce working with spells. Best of all, everything is modular, so if you think something will change the spirit of the original too much, you just delete the specific .dll file, and that's it.

As for the game itself, it's Nocturne. It's still that completely transcendent experience, still that wonderful phenomenon of unconventional but intriguing narrative, full of nuances, multiple paths, and that maximalist, complex, varied gameplay, both in the battle system and in the quantity of dungeons, bosses, and memorable moments.

And of course, the unbeatable pacing, the danger around every corner of those corridors, the dangerous and sometimes infuriating Fiend bosses, the head-scratching labyrinths and while I have some reservations about the Amala ones in particular (especially the backtracking on the third and fourth Kalpas), aside from that, only Wild Arms rivals it in dungeon quality. Some places like the Amala Temples and the prison were the most immerse I was in any videogame I've ever played. The remarkable, alien, enchanting soundtrack, and a completely unique visual style, from the characters to the monsters to the environments. It's hard to mistake a screenshot from Nocturne; you know it's Nocturne. It feels like the game had a laser-focused intent in practically everything related to gameplay. In a really new formula at that time. You'll always will catch or be close to fusing that necessary monster that will be the perfect counter for that next tough boss. It's so impressive how they nailed so many things so meticulously, even though the game was a soft reboot of the series and the first truly 3D game in it.

And of course, we have the Press Turn System here. I don't believe anything will ever engage so many gears in my brain while playing video games as this system. It should be mandatory for every turn-based JRPG developer to at least know about press turn. Not necessarily to copy it but to understand what is the best in JRPGs when it comes to combat.

Nocturne really has it all. It's been five years since I finished Nocturne for the first time, and being someone who spent my childhood and adolescence obsessed with Digimon (and to a lesser extent, Pokémon), Megami Tensei as a whole was there, ready, just waiting to be discovered by me. Even after all this time (and so many games played), it still remains the best this series has offered me and the only game that rivals Legend of Dragoon as my favorite game of all time. And now it's in a better, modernized, eternal version. Just as this game deserves.

This is the game that introduced the press turn combat system, and everyone agreed it was good enough that every mainline should use it from then on (and every spinoff should use some variation of it).

The combat in this game is very good but, unsurprisingly, very hard. Sometimes I'd go into easy mode for a bit just to give myself a break, especially when the random encounters got to be too much (although never for bosses). Unlike earlier games in the series, you can't really auto-battle your way through random encounters unless you're way over-levelled since you need to take advantage of press turn if you want to get anywhere in combat.

The story hits you like a brick out the gate. You're a normal student for all of 5 seconds and then suddenly the world ends with very little buildup. It's pretty ridiculous but that's not necessarily a bad thing. From then on, the story is fairly minimal and only occasionally pokes its head into your gameplay up until the end.

The post-apocalyptic overworld is fine although it gets samey and old after a while. I thought the dungeons were pretty good, ESPECIALLY the Diet Building which I think is one of the best dungeons in the whole series. I also thought the Labyrinth of Amala was very good, feeling like a dungeon from the earlier games in the series translated to 3D.

Everyone online said you should go for the True Demon Ending so I did and actually regretted it. I mean, the bonus content you do to get the ending was all really cool, but the conclusion to the story felt unsatisfying. I actually fulfilled the requirements to get the Freedom ending if I hadn't gone for TDE and kinda wish I had just done that instead. None of the other endings appealed to me really, I couldn't really see why I would go for any of them unless I was just trying to get them all. Especially Chiaki's, fuck Chiaki (I won't spoil why but there is really good reason to hate her).

Also, SO Many of the iconic demon designs from the series originated in this game. No longer bound to pixel art, Kaneko really knocked it out of the park with this one.

We are forever cursed to wonder what a definitive version of Persona 3 would look like. To echo the sentiment of everyone: the decision to not include the female protagonist from P3P or other additional content from P3 FES was bizarre, and it's a decision that haunts an otherwise incredible remake.

I finished Persona 3 FES on PS2 a few years ago, and warts and all, I found it to be a really profound experience. I'm really happy more people will get to experience this narrative, and I hope they find it to be even half as cathartic as I did.

It's a game centered around death that makes the case our lives are beautiful because they end, and that the day-to-day moments where we find small joys and connections amount to something in total we have no words for.

If you enjoyed P4G or P5R, definitely give this one a chance. And while you're at it, maybe play FES and P3P too. Perhaps it's fitting we now have three versions of 3.

What an absolutely goated game. I recently watched a youtube video essay about the amount of detail that was put into the overworld of this game - about the amount of effort the devs put into parking lots and inside areas of building no one was ever going to visit. I just think it was super interesting how (sometimes) things like that can be reflections of the love and effort that was put into the game overall. You could argue that one thing takes away from the other - nice details in the overworld vs good gameplay for example. You usually can't have both, but this game is weird because it really gives you the best of all worlds. This game has great gameplay and it is a great joy to play AND you can see the 3D modelled coffee cups inside gas station dinners in the game.

It's probably just my nostalgia speaking though idk.