Story is generic and cliche but it makes up for it with its fun dialogue and characters. One of the best feeling sidescrollers ive ever played, everything feels insanely smooth and the platforming is reallyyyyy good, especially in the second half. Bosses vary in quality but are mostly good.There were times when backtracking got annoying but it was made up for in my eyes. Only real problem in this game is quarble, FUCK, quarble, i can't stand that red, plump, round, bloated, fat FUCK quarble the fact that he didnt die at the end of the games story is saddening to no end.

Persona 3 has always been a game i was kinda sort of maybe a tad little critical of and maybe undeservedly so but, this remake has managed to flip my perceptions of this entry in its head completely. I think the biggest problem with my initial play through was it being p3p, the presentation was not all that it shouldve been nor could it compare to its fes counterpart (or so ive heard), but thats all in the past.

This game is absolutely stunning, the only times ive ever thought it look bad were with very few poorly made characters and some of the rather not very good looking 3d cutscenes, all of the animations just felt off and the mouth movements especially, it was an eye sore truth be told. Tartarus has never looked better and its never felt better to play either, each area of tartarus has been adapted from what were originally very uninspired layouts to each area have its own unique way of laying its floors, whether it be the large rooms filled with pillars of the 4th block, the tight corridors almost resembling that of the inside of a real life building or the twisting and winding paths of the fifth block, although i believe the most beautifully adapted block to be sixth and final block. The sixth block is to be put it simply really good looking, its a treat for your eyes and you traverse its unpredictable corridors, the white and black mix together do well in its layouts is kind of insane.
Tartarus was originally a very very tedious and boring dungeon, atleast to me, i actually dreaded entering it, the dungeons main downfall was how slowly you moved, the ost didnt help much, (although it didn’t change in reload but was somehow more bearable this time around) it was sleep inducing. Reload’s version if the dungeon gives way to a much faster pace to your movement making for a much more enjoyable experiencing, paired with the improved layouts and some additions to the dungeon crawling, like the repurposement of the monad doors, the greedy hands or the even just the breakable object lying around, it makes for a nice(r) experience, although the first couple blocks can be kind of a drag to get through, they kind of killed my hype for the game when i first started playing.

This games third greatest aspect is its combat, it feels fully realized, it feels like this is what persona’s combat (from 3 and onward) was always meant to be, elevating what in 3’s original was just a lesser press turn into in my opinion something truly special, taking features intoduced in five (showtimes, baton pass) taking away what their main flaws (showtimes being unpredictable, baton passes trivializing encounters) and making them better than they were before. My biggest problem with this games combat is how difficulty scales as you go up and i find that if you really put your mind to it you can begin to overpower most of the games greatly, even the games second biggest challenge the reaper could be beaten with just a little bit of forethought and the final boss was a cakewalk, truth be told the game was easier in its beginning than in its end (although it is important to note i spent the entire game doing all that i could to get my setanta and orpheus to the greatest heights possible, spending millions of yen on gems to get incenses to build up their stats and spending several nights at the arcades getting strength/magic up and spending how of grinding just to get some skill cards to output as much damage as i possibly could BUT i was playing in merciless so eh, you’ll have to decide).

This games music is phenomenal and in my opinion a step up from the original, the upbeat tunes if the initial themes give you a nice feeling as you traverse iwatodai before the new year, although i cant forget to mention the amazing nighttime theme, giving an extremely euphoric vibe as you handle your nighttime activities. I think the music of this game shines the most when it sets up some REAL atmosphere, specifically in the new year.
The atmosphere in the new year is amazing, the change in overworld theme from what was originally very upbeat and cheerful to more meloncholic and somber tunes, it makes you feel the weight of whats happening, the increasing amount of the lost, blending into the grayed out environment and new voice lines from vendors, speaking about your final endevour and how far you’ve come, kind of makes you feel rather determined, not to mention the dorm theme, keeping similar notes and sounds at certain points as the ground floor of tartarus, it makes you feel like youre ready for anything. The best part about all that ive mentioned as that it can get better (in my opinion), the music featured during march gives such an immense feeling of tranquility its unreal, it perfectly communicates the feeling of peace felt after so much struggle, this same feeling is given well in the title screen after the games ending (although i feel to an even greater degree, as it shows the classroom normally present at night during the daytime, paired with the final overworld theme and the sees equipment left on the desk, telling you once again the struggle is over). The last thing i want to mention is persona 3 reload’s frequent and great use of motifs, whether it be the many melodies reminisce of memories of you/joy or the dorm theme using notes and sounds from the tartarus ground floor theme it reuses sounds often and i like it a lot.

Now, the place where this game shines its brightest is without doubt its storytelling, it manages to keep you very engaged in the story of your party, their troubles and how they feel the game handles all of this very well, the main highlights being at yakushima and in kyoto(?), i forget the name, mainly between mitsuru and yukari. The games home to some of the best emotional moments in the series, whether it be the transpirings of events either during the full moon or a random night in november, or even the new link episodes given to party members, the stories given to you by this games are phenomenal and it only gets better with how well voice acted these scenes can be and just how good the dialogue can get. Takaya Sakaki has quickly become one of my favourite antagonists in all of persona not only thanks to his immaculately written dialogue and his stellar voice acting from Daman Mills but hes a great character at his core, his hypocrisy in criticizing makotos “saviour complex” just develop his own, the way he and makoto stand as two opposites a true and false messiah, his charisma and how deep he is into his delusions, hes such an entertaining character, Jin and chidori also have great voice work by Chris Hackney and Merit Leighton but it kind of pales in comparison to Takaya’s. Another great point of this games story is how party members conflict with each other, its something present in just about every game but i think it was executed especially well here.

The social links of this game are great and do well to not only make it feel as if you are building a bond with a character but making you invested in that characters story, or it can be really funny like Tanaka. Although, my favourite social links are probably the ones where once you finish them you dont get to see those characters anymore, all youve really got left of them is your memories of them, a lot of if not most people that you meet dont really stick around, theyre there for small parts of your life and once theyre gone, all you really have left of them is your memories with them and you should cherish those memories, i think thats beautiful and p3 manages to reflect this aspect of life well. This also applies to applies to any experience, say you go to one place a lot then one day something happens and you cant or wont go there anymore, its pretty much the same thing. Truth be told though i think the whole cherishing memories things applies to everything, whether its still present in your life or not. My favourite social links this applies to are probably Maiko, Mutatsu and Tanaka, two very heartwarming links and one very very fun social link.

Lastly, i want to speak about this games ending, this games ending was beautiful on all regards, the music, the visuals, the dialogue, the emotions it was all amazing and its not only what makes it my second favourite persona game but it’s what makes me feel like this game is oh so special, even among its own franchise its something truly amazing and it stands out for good reason. This game is amazing.

This is one of the funniest games ive ever played, its "gameplay" is very simply drag and drop giving you enough freedom to do whatever and net you a multitude of different endings but thats no where it shines the most.

This game shines the most in its character interactions and flawless spritework, there are mountains of loveable characters with all their own fun interactions, whether that be with some of the other characters or just you the player and the comedy is handled with an air of silliness sometimes and while it is a very funny game it does take itself seriously when it needs to, having a very heartfelt ending about regret, moving on and mending mistakes.

I ran out of things to say broken heart emoji

Overall its a pretty good vn, great sprite work, fun characters, great ending blah blahh blah

This is a great game but it is very flawed, there is far too much backtracking and walking to the point its very tedious, it tries to do what sotn does with two castles except sotn's two castles concept worked because you didnt have to fucking backtrack between the castles to reach different areas, causing (often) tedious and unnecessary walking and backtracking.

The game itself is also much more confusing when compared to other entries, the most confused i ever was in game was in Dawn of Sorrow but i was never stuck for long and it always still flowed really nicely but hod just doesnt feel like that, it can be confusing and not in the way that you have a lot to explore and thats cool and as you explore you open up more to the games story and progress, its just confusing.

The environments arent much to look at either and pale in comparison to previous entries, along with the fact the music while good at times is still lacking, although the game like all castlevanias has amazing art direction with beautiful sprite work on items, portraits, enemies, Juste himself, weapons, spells, etc

This game may have some of the most boring boss fights of any metroidvania possibly even game ive played, so much of the bosses in this game just feel sort of the same or boring, whether it be their simple easy to dodge moveset or the designs themselves the bosses leave a lot to be desired. The bosses' being as lackluster as they are is unfortunate when taken into consideration the one thing about this game that stands out, the combat, the dodges are changed from only having a backdash to a forward and backdash, which in my opinion is pretty good addition since i used to run in the wrong direction and dodge into the boss. The second part of this game's combat which i am a fan of is spell books, elemental types that create different spells for each subweapon (can be toggled on and off) it makes for a pretty good addition and is probably my favourite castlevania subweapon system behind souls. Theres also different types of whips, like elemental whips although i dont think they do much, theres also a weapon that lets you charge an atteck a whip that adds a material on its tip flatly increasing the damage its nothing special.

Unfortunately the story in this game isnt very good, although i've never LOVED these stories (besides Aria of Sorrow and a little bit of Dawn), theyve always had great dialogue and cool interactions (especially sotn) but this game's story is just bland, its pretty predictable and just doesnt leave a good taste in my mouth.

Overall Harmony of Dissonance is a good game albeit very flawed and it brings down the experience a decent chunk

This game features a standard story with troupey villains that had potential but didnt fulfill it, with fun sometimes challenging boss fights and fun exploration, a good overall soundtrack and it has systems that i think it executes pretty well, the weapon crafting line system made getting your weapons feel even more rewarding and left you with a nice feeling when you did finish a crafting line, the souls system is just as amazing as it was in aria of sorrow although i feel that the games art style lacks in comparison to pretty much every single entry

(This review is written from the perspective as someone whos only played this games story mode)

I actually really like this game, i thought that it'd be much less of a product than i was getting when i first bought it. The first seven missions are some of the least fun ive had in my entire life, with weird enemies that arent to fight and a zone control game mode that turns it from an action game to a strategy game which i wasnt a fan of, although after the first seven missions it doesnt make another appearance except for another mission where its a much more enjoyable time,

The controls are similar to the dmc games in how you lock on and then use simple directional inputs like back or forward to determine what moves you use, the combat can be very fun and for the most part it is, but, the combat is too clunky, a lot of moves dont flow together very well (atleast on sol who you play as most of the story), the worst case of the clunky combat is how long you arent really able to move after you input some moves, you do the move and then youre left sitting there for much longer than you should be, although i think if this game were made today my issues listed might not even exist.

This games music is phenomenal and of the entries that i've played (strive,xrd2 and +r) it is very easily my favourite soundtrack and the designs are top notch at virtually every corner (ky's sucks), sol, sin, izuna, paradigm, valentine its banger after banger after banger with these things and the art style is amazing especially of the sprites with sol and sin's being my favourites.

I actually ended up liking the story quite a bit, the characters have some very fun interactions and even some well written scenes i feel, Sol and That Man's interactions making for some of the best, Valentine falls flat for me but makes up with it for her significance to sol.

The most surprising thing to me when playing this game was the voice acting, i think that just about every character is given great voice actors (especially sin and that man with yuri lowenthal) that deliver amazing performances.

This game also houses some amazing boss fights with amazing scores, the three best being Sin,That Man and Valentine's second boss fight, withh Valentine mark 2 being one of my favourite fights not just in its music but in spectacle aswell, truly a great game and i would love to see a game like this return as a future (spinoff) title

Beginning with what i didn’t like, the encounter rate was far too high, it got kind of obnoxious at times and it probably would’ve been a much less enjoyable experience without estoma. The way status effects changed whether or not you were able to use items wasn’t something that left a good taste in my mouth especially while i had to backtrack to the start of the dungeon because there was no way to cure my ailments, and the exploration is definitely not a strong suit (although it has helped me get used to first person dungeon crawling a lot) a lot of the dungeons are pretty large and the relatively slow pace your character moves at doesn’t help with the amount of enemies you’ll be encountering,this was definitely a much bigger issue in the final dungeon which was so unbelievably vast you’d spend a good chunk of time just walking and the game could be pretty confusing, in the last dungeon especially considering its never really (to my knowledge) hinted you had to enter the heart of the cathedral from a certain side, not even a slight mention inna dialogue box or something.

The combat is pretty standard for the most part, nothing very offensive, bosses in this game are relatively standard,my only complaint being that none of them really ever felt too special to me and were far too easy(95% of them could be beaten with simply stun locking with zionga and stacking buffs), even the final boss. The dungeons aren’t very special to me but they definitely didn’t upset me bar the final one and how tedious it could be. Now with what i actually do like, this game boasts a pretty interesting plot (although with an ending that left me unsatisfied),a vast world that changes as your story progresses and amazing art work but what stands out the most to me is its music and how it sets atmosphere/tone, whether it be the intenseness of the ginza track, the tranquility of the mansion theme or the feeling of impending doom given by the chaos theme,also this ending theme rules