I’ll readily admit I’m biased when it comes to Persona 3. FES is a game I hold very dearly, still remember first playing it a decade ago now and having no idea about Atlus games at the time. In a way it was even transformative for me in how much it helped grow my interest for anime/JRPGs in general, and one of the rare few games I feel leaves an emotional impact. So Persona 3 Reload, a genuine from the ground up remake for it and not just a basic port (like Portable’s recent release), is like a dream game I didn’t think we’d ever actually get until it was really announced last year. It’s not perfect of course, but the nostalgia and how strongly it still hit me is the same as ever
What it does well
- The most immediately striking improvement from the PS2 original is the presentation overhaul to Persona 5’s standards, bringing with it full scale character models with the very stylish art and UI that made P5 so dazzling. Here P3’s aesthetics have been beautifully updated and the menus are especially immaculate, never getting tiring to look at and browse through. While it can be argued the original’s moody atmosphere is diminished a bit with the new vibrant style, it still wholly fits the game’s somber tone to me
- A big change with Reload that I appreciated actually has to do with the English voice acting, as compared to FES and Portable there’s been an entire recast for the characters (barring one exception with Elizabeth). It’s fair to be apprehensive over this after being used to the original voices for so long, but I felt Reload’s cast did a fantastic job bringing new life to the characters and really making them their own. I’d even go so far as to say this is one of the best dubs Atlus has done, as not only are pretty much all the performances consistently excellent, this is also the first Persona game where every single side character and their Social Link events are fully voice acted! Something that really made a huge difference in how invested I’ve always been on spending time with them. It’s an impressive effort and I hope that’ll be the case for future Atlus games also
- As far as story goes, it’s faithful to the original with the major beats being unchanged, but there’s many new scenes added with better opportunities to bond with the characters now. The dorm feels more like a true home in Reload where you can just hang out and it helps attach you to them in a way that wasn’t quite as fleshed out before. A big omission in FES (the lack of any Social Links for male party members) was also addressed with Link Episodes, which are similar in that it gives them further development but instead ties their events to the story as you progress. They’re not quite the same as full Social Links like with Portable, but it’s a very appreciated change that felt natural and added a lot to their growth
- Tartarus has always been a divisive like it or hate it kind of thing with P3, and it’s more or less the same dungeon with literally over 200 generated floors to climb in Reload. That said it’s been improved with much larger scaled floors and QoL additions, it looks a lot better design wise, and they did add some nice improvements that made it less of a bore to get through like Monad doors (challenges to fight stronger enemies throughout). Combat now also takes directly from P5’s battle system and is basically identical, which gets no complaints from me. There’s party control with new mechanics like Shift (similar to Baton Pass) and Theurgy, it’s really stylish, and it’s much breezier to fight shadows and fly through floors than before which is pretty much all I wanted there. Merciless difficulty was pretty fun too, not very hard but not a joke either which is better than how they had it for P5 Royal, would recommend trying it if used to the combat in these games
- The music is fairly different having been fully remixed with Lotus Juice and a new singer Azumi Takahashi doing vocals, while also adding some original tracks as well. I’ve seen mixed opinions about the OST changes, but personally I got used to it quickly and still think it’s an incredible soundtrack. The new songs “Full Moon, Full Life”, “It’s Going Down Now” and “Color Your Night” are easily among my favorites in the series now too
What could be better
- Obviously Atlus made it clear with Reload they were only focused on remaking P3’s main game with the male protagonist, which means it doesn’t include both The Answer (an expanded epilogue introduced in FES) and the extensive route for the female protagonist that Portable introduced. It does still include smaller additions from both those versions such as Aigis’s Social Link or missing persons to save in Tartarus, but I can understand why people are let down by the major exclusions especially for the price, as without them you might as well say P3 still doesn’t have a true edition that brings all its content together. However as of now The Answer’s currently rumored to be made for Reload as DLC at a later date, so have to see how that pans out I suppose
- While I adore the presentation, there are a few odd quirks to its visuals. Most areas look nice and it even supports 4K/60 with ray tracing on PS5 which was a surprise to say the least, but some areas look sorta… off. Either with its strangely flat lighting (the dorm being an example) or being static to the point of seeming unintentional honestly (calling out Club Escapade in particular). Perhaps it’s due to budget or just cause it’s using Unreal Engine instead of P5’s proprietary one, but feel there could’ve been a bit more polish there
- I’m a bit mixed on cutscenes compared to FES. As rough as they were, the anime scenes did have a very cool grungy 2000s direction to them that made up for the graphics at the time. Instead Reload uses both new anime and in-engine cutscenes throughout similar to P5, which for the most part are fine (I actually like the in-engine ones quite a bit with how nice the 3D visuals are now), but the quality of the anime scenes take a hit in my opinion, more up to date with them being done by Wit Studio but also looking kinda bland in comparison. How they decided between one or the other for story moments is inconsistent also, why is the awakening scene done in-engine and not as anime for instance
- For Social Links the writing is one thing I wish was touched up on more. There’s some notable differences here and there (and thankfully made it so you aren’t forced to romance every girl to complete them), but overall it’s mostly the same and you can easily tell they’re the earliest iteration on the formula with the weaker Social Links still sticking out (Kenji for one). But as mentioned the voice acting elevates them nonetheless, and I still love particular ones like Akinari’s
- You’ll easily max out your social stats and unlock all the extra skills for party members with plenty of time to spare, which means you’ll probably be lost on stuff to do at night in the late months with still only 2 social links available the whole game. There’s a new computer with software to use, but eventually you’ll make full use of that also which basically just leaves Tartarus or stat building for Personas at the arcade. This was an issue with the other versions too and was hoping they would try to adjust it, but guess not
Overall
Some aspects could’ve been improved upon further overall, but really couldn’t be happier this remake was made. As someone who’s played FES, Portable, and watched all the movies (even owning the box set lol), Reload genuinely felt like I was able to experience P3 for the first time again. It doesn’t try to change the original experience at its core and can be said it’s faithful to a fault, but it still develops into a story that remains the most emotionally resonant among the Persona games for me. Where it succeeds is how well it carries over that story to current standards for both new and old fans, doing just enough to expand on it and modernize the gameplay while maintaining why it’s so beloved. Even knowing how it comes together after all these years I was still greatly affected, and given that it remains one of the most meaningful I’ve played
What it does well
- The most immediately striking improvement from the PS2 original is the presentation overhaul to Persona 5’s standards, bringing with it full scale character models with the very stylish art and UI that made P5 so dazzling. Here P3’s aesthetics have been beautifully updated and the menus are especially immaculate, never getting tiring to look at and browse through. While it can be argued the original’s moody atmosphere is diminished a bit with the new vibrant style, it still wholly fits the game’s somber tone to me
- A big change with Reload that I appreciated actually has to do with the English voice acting, as compared to FES and Portable there’s been an entire recast for the characters (barring one exception with Elizabeth). It’s fair to be apprehensive over this after being used to the original voices for so long, but I felt Reload’s cast did a fantastic job bringing new life to the characters and really making them their own. I’d even go so far as to say this is one of the best dubs Atlus has done, as not only are pretty much all the performances consistently excellent, this is also the first Persona game where every single side character and their Social Link events are fully voice acted! Something that really made a huge difference in how invested I’ve always been on spending time with them. It’s an impressive effort and I hope that’ll be the case for future Atlus games also
- As far as story goes, it’s faithful to the original with the major beats being unchanged, but there’s many new scenes added with better opportunities to bond with the characters now. The dorm feels more like a true home in Reload where you can just hang out and it helps attach you to them in a way that wasn’t quite as fleshed out before. A big omission in FES (the lack of any Social Links for male party members) was also addressed with Link Episodes, which are similar in that it gives them further development but instead ties their events to the story as you progress. They’re not quite the same as full Social Links like with Portable, but it’s a very appreciated change that felt natural and added a lot to their growth
- Tartarus has always been a divisive like it or hate it kind of thing with P3, and it’s more or less the same dungeon with literally over 200 generated floors to climb in Reload. That said it’s been improved with much larger scaled floors and QoL additions, it looks a lot better design wise, and they did add some nice improvements that made it less of a bore to get through like Monad doors (challenges to fight stronger enemies throughout). Combat now also takes directly from P5’s battle system and is basically identical, which gets no complaints from me. There’s party control with new mechanics like Shift (similar to Baton Pass) and Theurgy, it’s really stylish, and it’s much breezier to fight shadows and fly through floors than before which is pretty much all I wanted there. Merciless difficulty was pretty fun too, not very hard but not a joke either which is better than how they had it for P5 Royal, would recommend trying it if used to the combat in these games
- The music is fairly different having been fully remixed with Lotus Juice and a new singer Azumi Takahashi doing vocals, while also adding some original tracks as well. I’ve seen mixed opinions about the OST changes, but personally I got used to it quickly and still think it’s an incredible soundtrack. The new songs “Full Moon, Full Life”, “It’s Going Down Now” and “Color Your Night” are easily among my favorites in the series now too
What could be better
- Obviously Atlus made it clear with Reload they were only focused on remaking P3’s main game with the male protagonist, which means it doesn’t include both The Answer (an expanded epilogue introduced in FES) and the extensive route for the female protagonist that Portable introduced. It does still include smaller additions from both those versions such as Aigis’s Social Link or missing persons to save in Tartarus, but I can understand why people are let down by the major exclusions especially for the price, as without them you might as well say P3 still doesn’t have a true edition that brings all its content together. However as of now The Answer’s currently rumored to be made for Reload as DLC at a later date, so have to see how that pans out I suppose
- While I adore the presentation, there are a few odd quirks to its visuals. Most areas look nice and it even supports 4K/60 with ray tracing on PS5 which was a surprise to say the least, but some areas look sorta… off. Either with its strangely flat lighting (the dorm being an example) or being static to the point of seeming unintentional honestly (calling out Club Escapade in particular). Perhaps it’s due to budget or just cause it’s using Unreal Engine instead of P5’s proprietary one, but feel there could’ve been a bit more polish there
- I’m a bit mixed on cutscenes compared to FES. As rough as they were, the anime scenes did have a very cool grungy 2000s direction to them that made up for the graphics at the time. Instead Reload uses both new anime and in-engine cutscenes throughout similar to P5, which for the most part are fine (I actually like the in-engine ones quite a bit with how nice the 3D visuals are now), but the quality of the anime scenes take a hit in my opinion, more up to date with them being done by Wit Studio but also looking kinda bland in comparison. How they decided between one or the other for story moments is inconsistent also, why is the awakening scene done in-engine and not as anime for instance
- For Social Links the writing is one thing I wish was touched up on more. There’s some notable differences here and there (and thankfully made it so you aren’t forced to romance every girl to complete them), but overall it’s mostly the same and you can easily tell they’re the earliest iteration on the formula with the weaker Social Links still sticking out (Kenji for one). But as mentioned the voice acting elevates them nonetheless, and I still love particular ones like Akinari’s
- You’ll easily max out your social stats and unlock all the extra skills for party members with plenty of time to spare, which means you’ll probably be lost on stuff to do at night in the late months with still only 2 social links available the whole game. There’s a new computer with software to use, but eventually you’ll make full use of that also which basically just leaves Tartarus or stat building for Personas at the arcade. This was an issue with the other versions too and was hoping they would try to adjust it, but guess not
Overall
Some aspects could’ve been improved upon further overall, but really couldn’t be happier this remake was made. As someone who’s played FES, Portable, and watched all the movies (even owning the box set lol), Reload genuinely felt like I was able to experience P3 for the first time again. It doesn’t try to change the original experience at its core and can be said it’s faithful to a fault, but it still develops into a story that remains the most emotionally resonant among the Persona games for me. Where it succeeds is how well it carries over that story to current standards for both new and old fans, doing just enough to expand on it and modernize the gameplay while maintaining why it’s so beloved. Even knowing how it comes together after all these years I was still greatly affected, and given that it remains one of the most meaningful I’ve played