I honestly belive that Persona 5 is a curse for Atlus, in a way that no matter how much they try, they can't escape the Persona 5 narrative style and gameplay. I don't feel like it's their fault, but something they coercively have to do in order to please their new fans.

By the score you can already tell that i hate Reload, and no i don't hate it because i'm a Persona 5 hater or anything, i actually love Persona 5, i hate it because the Reload strips Persona 3 from every single thing that made me fall in love with it.

When i played Persona 3 FES i enjoyed the empty and grey city representing loneliness, isolation and sorrow through the protagonist eyes, how characters like Mitsuru were described like an Elegant, powerfull aura women and every time she entered the classrom to talk with the party everyone in the class looked at her, how the few NPCs interact with you in different ways acording to your social stats, the alternative sports Social Link, the different weapons the protagonist could use, not limiting yourself to a 1h sword, how tartarus felt like an opressive place with the thight hallways, the major silence and the omminus music playing, how some dungeons had i little puzzly thing like the motel, i liked the raw and violent animations of summoning your personas, i loved the fact that the most colorful place in the game was the dormitory representing a safe place to you and your friend, and above all, i loved how the party seems to like each other, seeing them always interacting and such, gave me a feeling of a group that trully enjoys each other presence and friendship in a multual way, different from P5, on that game the characters seems more of an Joker friend (or fan) than friends of each other, i enjoyed the Fatigue system, it's a good implementation on the thematic of balancing your relationships, study with the horrible part of fightin in tartarus, i liked the tatics system, even if it could be frustrating from time to time, it was not actually a problem since the game was balanced with that in mind, also, it gave the party a lot more personality and it was a good representation of the leadership from the protagonist, how the fallen apeared in a disturbed zombie like way scattered in every single place in the city... And most importantly my favorite thing from P3 Fes, was Aigis voice, man, i LOVED how Aigis voice subtly lost it's robotic effect every single time she presented an human behaviour, i still got chills just remembering the animation fight agains Thanatos, where her voice loses the robotic modifier and trembles while she says "i'm scared", and also, i don't understand the choice of having less animated scenes...

So.... Persona 3 Reload takes all of this away, i was sad when i finished P3R, because it has absolute nothing of the game i loved, P3R eliminates every single one of the mechanics and details i mentioned i detriment of a Persona 5 style of gameplay and narrative, Batton Pass is back and makes the game easy and boring, no weapons arsenal for the protagonist, the new summoning animations (yeah they are pretty) not having that violent and raw style animation is sad considering the game theme, the fact that you CAN'T play with the old tatics style because there are fewer options to order your party and the turn starter is choosen with the AG status in mind (so you can start a fight and see Junpei killing it self using a Physical skill on an enemy that reflects melee), the swiming club dosen't exist, Tartarus is an On foot version of the P5 version of Metaverse where your party is always making quirky no sense comentaries, talking about quirky and nonsensical, now every time a character has a emotion burst on the story they use a "critical animation" before anything is said, it's comically bad and annoying imo, the characters personalitys are not directly reflected in how they are presented in the scenes and the game, Aigis voice is normal from the beginning, the world is extremely colerful, full of people, the Fallen are now just faceless background npcs that most of the time can't even be seen, some character were basically rewriten, for example, Revolver Jesus is now some dumb fuck twitter right wing that makes stupid analogys with cars and act in a stupid nonsensical way, some of the characters got more screen time beacause atlus tried to over explain their action and in consequence you got a lot of dumb dialogues, like Junpei saying "forgetting everything is not so bad right? and 2 seconds latter saying "Yeah, i don't want to forget everything", the new scenes with Jin, Chidori and Tayaka just made the characters seem stupid and ripped off every single subjective interpretation that the player could have with this moraly grey (no not moraly grey anymore, just evil and dumb) characters, the new interactions with Ryoji, Pharos and the Chairman with the solely purpose of exposing what the characters are before the time is just infuriating, the new Aragaky sidequest has good intentions but it feels weird because, i mean, Arakagi acts with the protagonist in a better and more compreensive way than with their old friends... In fact, the new writing and narrative style of Persona 3 getting inspired by Persona 5 makes again, the party don't feel so friendly with each other, the characters now feel like an "Yes man" that it's statisfied with everything you do, a good example is that new interaction with Junpei where he says (You should make the choice man) regarding the Ryoji incident, the new boss dungeons are just straight forward boring corridors for the bosses, like, the monorail having no Enemies on the corridors, no enemies on the motel and Fukka giving the player the answer for the puzzle and the mirrors locations, the new tartarus sidequests of saving people are just boring, and the Monado doors and the clock are good QoL to mitigate part of the grinding, i enjoyed some new songs like "it's going down" but hated the remixes, what they did with Changin of Seassons is a fucking crime

It may seem like every single thing i said is "nitpicking" and even if they are, i can't help but feel disapointed with it, as i said, this were the things that made me fall in love with P3, the details, art style, feeling of the city all the things i mentioned and more are the reasons that a i enjoyed FES so much, and yeah, i'm frustrated, sad, disappointed that this things are not present in the remake, just so the "new version" could please the P5 Style fanbase (i don't even wanna mention the 30 bucks Persona 5 DLC pack)

With that said, you like P5 or don't care for any of the things i mentioned, Persona 3 Reload is a pretty well rounded game were the core story and meaning are still there (the performance is pretty weird on pc so be warned), it is in fact a good game, a shame that it is not the game i loved.

What is the worst fear of an artist?

Sam Lake transforms the nightmare of a Creative Block in one of the best and most creative Survival Horrors of the story, making Alan Wake 2 be not only of the best games ever made but also a history that feels like one of the most personal games i ever played.

Alan Wake 2 feels like a deep dive on Sam Lake's mind and soul where he made the player experience the fears of an artist passing through a violent Creative Block represented by the extremely creative game mechanic where Alan has to desperately write to progress in the game.

Every single part of Alan Wake campaing feels like walking around trying to find inspiration to finish an story that is getting bigger than the artist, while you watch the terror and despair of or protagonist repeatedly failing it's duty of creating a book that will "save everyone"

It's mesmerizing how Sam Lake insert itself as one of the characters (Cassey) who dresses an act like Max Payne representing his past self and constatly faces off his modern Creation, every single second of the game feels like a deep talk of Sam lake with it's past self and it's past self with the player, it's amazing how the process of failed creations is represented on puzzles that completely change the map and how the story goes, not only that but the way you visit and look in to the scenery itself while talking with Cassey to find new inspirations to don't "blow up" the story and keep progressing through the "darkness". You can see in horrible ways how the process of a Creation Block is a literal nightmare for an artist and how that affects not only himself and the art but every single one close to him.

Alan Wake 2 ends up being Remedys best game yet, one of the best and most creative survival horrors that take inspiration on the classic games of the genre and evolving upon them, it's the best game of the generation, a technical and mechanical show case being the best looking game i ever played, the most creative within it's genre and giving of the most unique narrative experience.

What happens when you get a historical JRPG franchise and try to make it appealing to the western?

You get a 2018 gow like with a Final Fantasy Skin.

Final Fantasy 16 is such an weird and underwelming enter on the Final Fantasy franchise that calling it a RPG game would be a fucking stretch, for example, the franchise core things no longer exists.

> There is no party
> Usable itens are only cures or limit breakers recharge
> Every single weapon has the same move set
> There is no development on the gameplay, your move sets are the same from the start of the game to the end of it
> Itens are so useless that they might as well not exist
> Craft system that is useless as the itens
> A skill tree that is so fuckin bad that makes RPG AC's ones look good
> There is no classic spells in the game
> there is no classes and again absolutely no variation of the gameplay

in the end, every single mission consist of runing in corridors and killing enemies with a bare bones Hack n slash like gameplay from start to finish. It baffles me that people like so much of this game or worse, considered it the best Final Fantasy. But of curse, i still gave it 2,5✩ what are the good points? Well, the game looks good, the bossfights and QTE are pretty cool too and the story is fine, every single character is extremely likable, and i really loved how the story develop itself, it was satisfying and it's well worthy the playthrough, but the "let's kill a god" JRPG cliche with the cheap ass existentialism makes me feel like i already played that same plot so many fucking times.
Overall i can't put my head through why people love so much a game that can't even scratch FF 6/7/7R/9/10/12/14 in therms of quality, i honestly think that people who love this game doesn't actually like Final Fantasy or JRPGs

Note that besides all that the game runs like TRASH on the PS5, low res gameplay upscaled with FSR and an average of 45fps.

Despite it's problems the gameplay is bearable, the game looks good and the story is worth watching, if that your thing go for it.

"People only know about themselves through how others perceive them... The existennce of our ego originates in others, we compare ourselves to others, and we are conscious of how our image is perceived when we are among others... That's when we really start to be created, i think that means for every person we meet, we have yet another 'self' formed out of their perceptions"


"However small they may be, reach out your arms and hold on to your dreams. Then, even in the darkest times, the stars will shine above you, making you the master of your own destiny"

THE ONLY THING I KNOW FOR REAL
THERE WILL BE BLOOD-SHED
THE MAN IN THE MIRROR NODS HIS HEAD
THE ONLY ONE LEFT
WILL RIDE UPON THE DRAGONS BACK
BECAUSE THE MOUNTAINS DON'T GIVE BACK WHAT THEY TAKE