Reload is a really conflicting experience for me. At its core, it's still Persona 3, one of the most important games of my life. The message is still the same, the core character arcs haven't changed, all of the broad strokes are there. But there's a lot of small tweaks to the experience that really drag the game down for me, things that I can understand others seeing as nitpicks but for me are notable enough to comment on.

My biggest issue with the game is the characterization. Yukari's new voice direction makes her feel a lot less grounded, her snark is gone and is replaced with a much friendlier persona despite her dialogue being mostly the same. Akihiko is another character subject to a change in voice direction that leads to a vastly different take on the character, but he and Mitsuru are subject to a bigger issue: Persona 4 Arenafication. Akihiko lost a lot of his charm and has had it replaced with being a gigantic meathead who shovels protein into his mouth nonstop, Mitsuru going from a somewhat aloof rich girl into a full on ice queen; both changes that have been character traits since Arena/Q that weren't anywhere near as prevalent in their original appearances. I don't take any issue with the new cast, I think they all do an excellent job (especially Junpei, I have some issues with him being a bit friendlier at the start as well but his voice actor is a perfect fit), but the direction does make them feel fairly different from the version of the cast that I hold so dear. I do think Ken is an overall upgrade though, his new voice makes him a lot more sympathetic and his link episodes feel like natural additions to his character.

Beyond my issues with the character writing there are also changes in regards to the game's identity and visual direction that detracted from the experience for me. The menus are very pretty, yes, but the lighting outside of Tartarus feels very flat and boring, which is an issue when you spend the majority of your time in these areas. The new anime cutscenes, despite having a more polished artstyle than those of the original game, lack any sort of interesting direction and are all fairly static and bland to look at. A lot of the bigger scenes in the story went from anime cutscenes to in-engine ones as well, making me wonder why they even bothered this time around. The first cutscene you see is a perfect example of this, gone is the intrigue and tense direction of the original, replaced with a boringly lit sequence that opted to keep Yukari's dialogue from Portable (as this game's script is largely based on that release as opposed to FES) which takes away a lot of the intensity from the sequence. It's not just the anime cutscenes though, some of the in-game ones also feel lacking in execution. Akihiko and Ken's resolutions both have worse camera angles and cut out the characters getting frustrated and punching their nearby scenery, very tiny changes but ones that make the scenes so much less impactful.

There are some changes I enjoyed. Social links being fully voiced also adds a lot to some of the less memorable ones, with Strength becoming a lot more compelling due to how good Yuko's voice actor is, with the best ones such as Sun becoming even greater thanks to the addition. Also, despite my issues with the writing in some link episodes, I do think it's nice being able to spend more time with the members of SEES. The gameplay as a whole is also a vast improvement, with Tartarus being a lot more enjoyable to explore and party members feeling all around more balanced (although Akihiko continues to get the short end of the stick in this game, being absolutely gutted compared to his original toolkit). Speaking of balance though, this is the easiest Persona game bar none. In an already easy franchise, Reload takes the cake due to theurgies absolutely breaking any semblance of strategy.

Oddly enough, the one thing I believe the game was in most dire need of improvements towards went completely untouched. The story's pacing is still garbage. The first 2/3s of the plot contain absolutely nothing of note, with very little happening until October besides your once-a-month Full Moon fights. Considering how they decided to stray from faithfulness in regards to the characterization, it really baffles me why they didn't put any focus into improving the most glaring flaw of the experience.

Overall, I think it's a disappointing remake from the perspective of somebody who holds the original in as high regard as I do. If you've never played any earlier versions of the game, this is a great game. You'll still get the core story and the themes are all still there and still excellent. Characters may have changed a bit but the cast is still largely the same and you get to spend more time with them than you could before. It's a much more accessible experience and I'm not crazy enough to tell you you have to play FES instead, I know it's dated. But the tiny things lost were important things to me and part of why I found the game so cool before. I wish I could love this version as much as I do FES or Portable. I'm happy it exists because it will give a lot more people the opportunity to enjoy a story that means a lot to me, I'm just disappointed that some of what resonated with me the most was lost in the polish.