Nocturne is a product of its time and a timeless masterpiece at the same time. The dungeons give you a headache and the random encounter rate hurts sometimes, but the atmosphere, demon designs and graphics (especially for 2004) are great.

Reasons are better than alignment for me because alignments are very much “This one is evil this one nice”, while Reasons have a more varied alignment that the usual. And Nocturne having multiple endings is much better than for example SMT IV’s three basic endings.

If anyone tells you video games can't be art, make them play this game.

I haven't even finished half of it and it by far has exceeded the expectations of any video game I have ever played. The level design is a work of art. At every corner you feel lost and confused yet, somehow, you are always on the right track. The rollercoaster-linearity of the world allows you to follow the narrative so closely while enjoying every secret it has to offer. The excitement from the writers and coders of HL2 shine throughout their own play with the physics THEY created, an experience blind to any book or movie or tv show (in the sense that it is a new world completely given to you requiring no imagination at all? (in a good way!!)). The music is transparent and blends seamlessly into your vision. I can't even begin to dissect the political nuance of its plot as I know nothing about politics but you can feel the irreparable hierarchy the characters in this play are confronted with. Gordon is a hot asf too

I seriously can't express in words how much the original game and this remake mean to me. It's improved over the original in so many ways. Of course, there are things I think the original game/fes did better, but those can't even begin to lower my score or my feelings towards the game. To me, it was just perfect. 


I'm right by your side....
Here to protect you forevermore.

i could tell you about all the shortcomings this remake has, from lack of difficulty compared to the original, to the prerendered cutscenes lacking bite in some areas, to the removal of femc, ect.

none of those really mattered to me by the time i finished. the original persona 3 is one of the most important games of my life, a game that ended up changing how i viewed life and my own existence in it. reload was never, ever going to be anything less than 5 stars from me if they managed to stick the landing.

well, i'm typing this through tears after spending the last 30 minutes sobbing after the ending played, so yeah they stuck the landing. every emotional beat from the original hit me just as hard as they did when i was 15, and that's all i ever wanted. everything else i got was just a bonus.

memento mori

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/

For what it's worth, I think this is a testament to how beautifully this game has aged. It's more of the same Persona 3 that you have played before either through Portable or the original, but sprinkled with fairy godmother dust. It's a gorgeous game, the UI is incredible to just stare at, just like Persona 5.

A lot of people will simplify this to "just Persona 5-ifying Persona 3", and they wouldn't be wrong to make that assumption. Certain QoL features, like the Network surveys, trivialize the need for a guide to follow for quiz answers and what to do on a daily basis. Though most are a welcome addition, such as the limit break like theurgy system, or the Monad Passageways. I played through the game with my party on Act Freely to relive that experience I had just like the first time I played FES all those years ago. The game was easier in the later half once I switched over to direct command.

It's a true remake in the best of case: making the game prettier than ever, while adding minor modern changes to improve that experience for newer fans.