Between 3, 4, and 5, Persona 3 was always my least favourite. Tartarus was a tedious slog, you didn't get to delve very far into your relationships with the people you were closest to, there were bizarrely no option to just be friends with any of the love interests meaning you just didn't get to finish Social Links, and above all there was simply no definitive version of the game with FES and Portable both having features the others lacked. But what Persona 3 did always have was a strong story, a well-defined message, a great main party, and of course, a tremendous soundtrack. While Persona 3 Reload disappointingly lacks a FeMC route, I am happy to say that it features everything else I could want from the game and more, and (unless you want to experience the better main character), the easiest version of the game to point to and say yes, you should play Persona 3.
For the most part, visually it is a stunning upgrade. There are new mo-capped(?) 3D cutscenes for certain moments that feel incredible, and in general the game is also a lot more vibrant while still retaining the colour palette of the original game with lots of blues and greys. You can tell they wanted to adapt a sort of similar style to Persona 5 and it works, with the exception of losing some of the personality in the old character portraits for a more "clean" look.
The soundtrack as expected is fantastic. While many of the less prominent songs are retained in their original version, there are a ton of new remixes. Lotus Juice returns on many of the vocal tracks this time with Azumi Takahashi in place of Yumi Kawamura. It's Going Down Now is introduced as the new advantage battle theme in Tartarus, and Colour Your Night is the new night time theme as Moon's Reaching Out to the Stars is shifted to be only in the day. Colour Your Night in particular is one of my new favourite Persona tracks, I ran around outside at night a bit just to hear it more. While long time fans of P3 might find the new remixes a little hard to adjust to, by the end of the game I definitely loved all of them. Takahashi's voice brings a softer vibe in contrast to Kawamura's, but it is in no way a replacement - they both fit just right.
Similarly, perhaps the thing I was most excited to hear going in was the new voice cast. Many of them feel very similar to their old actors and actresses, while others feel entirely new. Junpei and Akihiko in particular really killed it for me, with the former elevating the character far above what they were previously in my mind. All of the other social links are fully voiced now too, with Yuko and Bebe being big standouts.
P3 Reload also introduces a number of new ways to interact with your party members with new Link Episodes where you spend time with and get to know your male party members better. There's also new activities in the dorm at night that not only are fun little events, but also contribute to their capabilities in battle via their Characteristics. As an example, you can cook or watch DVDs with Yukari enough times, and SP costs of her healing spells are halved, then quartered. These events ALSO will increase your social stats or give you an extra useful consumable, so they do not feel like a struggle to fit into a game with an already tight schedule. It really goes a long way to help them feel like a group of friends who live and fight together, which was sorely missing in the original games.
And finally, we come to Tartarus. It's really hard to make a 200+ floor dungeon feel engaging, and admittedly it still felt a bit rough going in the home stretch, but the new improvements made a world of difference. First off is the visual style. Each block feels wildly different with striking aesthetics so it really feels more like 5-6 different dungeons at times instead of one big tower. Party members have a new theurgy meter which functions as a super and you gain meter for doing something particular to that character (Akihiko having buffs on, Mitsuru inflicting debuffs/ailments, etc.). They are absolutely overpowered and can invalidate a lot of fights, but they look flashy and damn cool so all is forgiven (such is the way in Persona). The Monad depths that used to serve as an end game optional dungeon are now sprinked throughout Tartarus via random doors and fixed passages, offering harder boss fights for reliable major tarot cards in shuffle time and greater rewards/chests. The major tarot cards you can now draw offer a lot of one-time or same-night bonuses in Tartarus such as greater fusion bonuses or getting to draw extra in Shuffle Time. They also even added a catch-up mechanic, where once per-excursion (or maybe Tartarus segment?) you have a chance of having a clock show up after opening special chests. When you touch the clock, you pick two party members that will level up to the MC's current level in the next battle. Something like this is SORELY needed in Persona where most of the time party members will just stay on the bench once they are placed there to avoid grinding. By the end of my playthrough, every single party member was in the mid-70s and I could freely select them as I saw fit for each battle. I remember one full moon fight in particular, I screwed up my team composition and died but that was cool, because I had the freedom to pick a different set of characters in the same night without feeling under-leveled. I really hope we continue to get mechanics like this, because for games with such a good cast as these, it's such a shame to not use more than 3 of them in battle.
There's a lot more I didn't talk about in this massive review of Persona 3 Reload, but above all I can now happily say I consider it one of my favourite Persona experiences alongside Golden and Royal. I'm sure it'll still get a re-release down the road as is the way with Atlus, but for now anyone looking to try out Persona 3 - this is the one to go for. You won't be disappointed.
For the most part, visually it is a stunning upgrade. There are new mo-capped(?) 3D cutscenes for certain moments that feel incredible, and in general the game is also a lot more vibrant while still retaining the colour palette of the original game with lots of blues and greys. You can tell they wanted to adapt a sort of similar style to Persona 5 and it works, with the exception of losing some of the personality in the old character portraits for a more "clean" look.
The soundtrack as expected is fantastic. While many of the less prominent songs are retained in their original version, there are a ton of new remixes. Lotus Juice returns on many of the vocal tracks this time with Azumi Takahashi in place of Yumi Kawamura. It's Going Down Now is introduced as the new advantage battle theme in Tartarus, and Colour Your Night is the new night time theme as Moon's Reaching Out to the Stars is shifted to be only in the day. Colour Your Night in particular is one of my new favourite Persona tracks, I ran around outside at night a bit just to hear it more. While long time fans of P3 might find the new remixes a little hard to adjust to, by the end of the game I definitely loved all of them. Takahashi's voice brings a softer vibe in contrast to Kawamura's, but it is in no way a replacement - they both fit just right.
Similarly, perhaps the thing I was most excited to hear going in was the new voice cast. Many of them feel very similar to their old actors and actresses, while others feel entirely new. Junpei and Akihiko in particular really killed it for me, with the former elevating the character far above what they were previously in my mind. All of the other social links are fully voiced now too, with Yuko and Bebe being big standouts.
P3 Reload also introduces a number of new ways to interact with your party members with new Link Episodes where you spend time with and get to know your male party members better. There's also new activities in the dorm at night that not only are fun little events, but also contribute to their capabilities in battle via their Characteristics. As an example, you can cook or watch DVDs with Yukari enough times, and SP costs of her healing spells are halved, then quartered. These events ALSO will increase your social stats or give you an extra useful consumable, so they do not feel like a struggle to fit into a game with an already tight schedule. It really goes a long way to help them feel like a group of friends who live and fight together, which was sorely missing in the original games.
And finally, we come to Tartarus. It's really hard to make a 200+ floor dungeon feel engaging, and admittedly it still felt a bit rough going in the home stretch, but the new improvements made a world of difference. First off is the visual style. Each block feels wildly different with striking aesthetics so it really feels more like 5-6 different dungeons at times instead of one big tower. Party members have a new theurgy meter which functions as a super and you gain meter for doing something particular to that character (Akihiko having buffs on, Mitsuru inflicting debuffs/ailments, etc.). They are absolutely overpowered and can invalidate a lot of fights, but they look flashy and damn cool so all is forgiven (such is the way in Persona). The Monad depths that used to serve as an end game optional dungeon are now sprinked throughout Tartarus via random doors and fixed passages, offering harder boss fights for reliable major tarot cards in shuffle time and greater rewards/chests. The major tarot cards you can now draw offer a lot of one-time or same-night bonuses in Tartarus such as greater fusion bonuses or getting to draw extra in Shuffle Time. They also even added a catch-up mechanic, where once per-excursion (or maybe Tartarus segment?) you have a chance of having a clock show up after opening special chests. When you touch the clock, you pick two party members that will level up to the MC's current level in the next battle. Something like this is SORELY needed in Persona where most of the time party members will just stay on the bench once they are placed there to avoid grinding. By the end of my playthrough, every single party member was in the mid-70s and I could freely select them as I saw fit for each battle. I remember one full moon fight in particular, I screwed up my team composition and died but that was cool, because I had the freedom to pick a different set of characters in the same night without feeling under-leveled. I really hope we continue to get mechanics like this, because for games with such a good cast as these, it's such a shame to not use more than 3 of them in battle.
There's a lot more I didn't talk about in this massive review of Persona 3 Reload, but above all I can now happily say I consider it one of my favourite Persona experiences alongside Golden and Royal. I'm sure it'll still get a re-release down the road as is the way with Atlus, but for now anyone looking to try out Persona 3 - this is the one to go for. You won't be disappointed.