god i really wish there was a 4.9 option on backloggd, because that's exactly where persona 3 reload sits for me. the original shook me to my core in high school, and getting to experience it all over again these years later was such a great experience. i do have a few nitpicks (which ill get to) but ill get the good stuff out of the way first.

the soundtrack, to nobody's surprise, is fantastic. a majority of the songs here feel improved upon compared to the original, and while it took some getting used to, the new singer was great, alongside the always fantastic Lotus Juice. gameplay is just a persona 5'd version of the original game (compliment), with improvements to make each party member viable and good. theurgies and personality traits are the star of the show here, and are such a cool mechanic. the new arcana cards in tartarus were so busted and so fun.

each social link is fully voice acted which is a SHOCK, though i guess some of them are shorter in dialogue than others so it probably wasnt too bad to do. the main cast VAs all do a really good job though. i dont know how crazy i was about Akihiko and Yukari's voice actors, but i got more used to them as time went on. the dorm hangouts were pretty neat, and the male party member "social links" were great also, giving way more screentime to all of the SEES group.

and with screentime as a topic, lets segue into... the bad parts!! strega got more screentime here, which i was excited for initially since Chidori was the only real 'developed' character from the original cast. however, now that ive beaten the game, the extra screentime for those 3 was not a lot, and was like 90% focused on Takaya. Jin barely gets anything and strega as a whole dont really feel any more in-depth than they were originally.

the story of persona 3, as awesome as it is, suffered from HORRIBLE pacing problems. reload seemed like the new party hangouts at the dorm would fix that, along with new story moments, but... its still pretty rough man. it got a lot better towards the end of the game (probably when shinji died?) but those first couple months are still ROUGH, especially April-June. Tartarus got a SERIOUS visual facelift here (which is awesome btw), but even with its new gameplay additions I still feel like its missing something. I would've enjoyed maybe an optional area below tartarus, or something similar to the challenge doors in p3p (though i guess thats what the monad doors are?). much better to go through comparatively, but i still feel like there could've been juuuuuust a bit more meat to tartarus.

the last of my negatives go into more nitpicky areas: Aigis, aka the best persona character ever made, had a very good transition from Robot to Human in the original game, with her entire suite of dialogue during battle be replaced and revoiced with less robotic tones. reload does not do this, and she still has some of those voice lines, in and outside of battle. She does a fantastic job in her Social Link, and in the story towards the end of the game (especially the ending), so its not the worst thing ever. i anticipate to see what she'll be like in the inevitable Answer DLC. difficulty in this game was also pretty negligible: I played on hard (not merciless but ive heard the same sentiments) and only really had trouble with like, two boss fights the entire game. I havent fought Elizabeth though so that number probably will go up to three.

the wall of issues and nitpicks would make you think id rate this as NOT five stars, but the sheer power of this games themes and messages moved me six years ago, and moved me AGAIN even more so six years later. this is a game that will stick with me for the rest of my life, and i cant recommend it enough to any JRPG fan. looking forward to the persona 4 remake in this engine as well!