I’m struggling to think of something to start this review with. So I’ll just say that P3 Reload is probably the best game I’ve ever played. I loved Persona 3 Portable when I played it last year, despite its flaws such as some underdeveloped characters and tedious gameplay, but Reload absolutely knocked it out of the park and make the ultimate persona game.

The story is the same as the original, but they’ve added a few new scenes involving Strega, but they’re just kinda there and Strega are still underdeveloped and flat antagonists unfortunately. Definitely the weakest aspect of the game but not bad by any means, they’re just a very noticeable 7/10 in a game full of 10/10’s.

Not much to say about the characters, but the fully voiced social links make them so much more enjoyable to experience. Ken and Fuuka are also more engaging than in Portable. I think a lot of people on social media’s are now starting to appreciate Fuuka a lot more, and all it took was a design glow up and good voice acting (no disrespect to the original). The SEES are all great and the new voice actors are all amazing. I was really worried about Alejandro Saab’s Akihiko but he ended up being one of my favourites in the game alongside Mitsuru and Junpei.

And then there’s the soundtrack. It’s amazing obviously but I am mixed on the updated songs. Pretty much all of the instrumental tracks are better than the original (except Battle Hymm of the soul with is slightly weaker), but the ones with lyrics are very all over the place. Mass Destruction, Burn my dread -last battle-, and When the moon’s reaching out stars are incredibly weaker, Changing seasons is a massive improvement on the original, Iwatodai Dorm and Want to be close are a bit better, but I wasn’t a fan of them in the original. And of course, there’s Memories of you. It’s a tad weaker, but it’s still one of the best songs in the series.

But the new songs? Colour your night and It’s going down now are easily top tier songs in the series. Full moon full life is an amazing opening, not as good as Burn my dread though and is on the same level as Soul Phrase. And I guess there’s The meaning of the Armbands which is a banger despite only appearing once.

And of course, they made Tartarus fun to explore. The gameplay is very addictive and the longer you spend there you get more and better rewards with the Arcana system, the Monad doors are a cool and challenging with great rewards and it features the baton system from P5 except it’s not as broken. I would still say Royal has better gameplay due to how fun it is to exploit it, but getting 425K exp after using Armageddon on the reaper is peak gameplay.

To end this; Persona 3 Reload is amazing. It’s undoubtedly the best Persona game and is an absolute masterpiece and one of the best JRPG’s ever made. Hopefully they’ll add The Answer from FES as DLC so I can play that, and maybe they’ll as the female protagonist from Portable.

In conclusion, I want Mitsuru to step on me


Also here’s my portable review if you are interested in my complete thoughts: https://www.backloggd.com/u/RVWhitkerFE/review/1137550/