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.

I have some issues with the boss design, with a lot feeling like trial and error due to the tricky timing of telegraphed attacks, everything else here is fantastic. It's a familiar experience if you're a veteran of the Soulsborne genre, but it's well executed and it's clear the developers love these games.

The combat system incentivizes you to use all of your tools, from guarding to parrying to dodging, to light attacks to heavy attacks, and to even your weapon arts and consumables. Everything looks and sounds good, the games presentation and audio design/ost being phenomenal. The pacing is smooth and the level design is consistently engaging and makes you want to keep playing, its linear nature helping out here.

My favorite aspect, however, was the world and its narrative. Lies of P isn't just Edgy Pinocchio, it utilizes the mythos of Carlo Collodi's classic story as well as referencing various other tales to great effect. Taking "Pinocchio needs to stop lying if he wants to be a real boy" and flipping it on its head to tell a story about what it means to be human works very well, with a cast of characters that aren't particularly stand out but a lot more compelling than you'd likely go in expecting.

This is a must play entry if you like Soulsborne games.

Not a fan of musou titles but this one is fairly unique in that regard. Iori is far less powerful than the standard character in the genre, fighting smaller waves of enemies with less outright brokenness, causing things to feel more like an ARPG at times.

The stances and skill system give combat a nice sense of progression, though I did start to get bored of it by the end of my first run. Bosses were similarly engaging at the start, being very punishing and showing the difference in a normal human and a Servant, however by the end some of the encounters felt so long and dragged out (on hard at least) that I began to lose interest in those as well.

Unfortunately the game necessitates a NG+ run so despite not caring for the combat much at that point, I continued for the sake of the story, which is well worth experiencing. This game serves as a great entry point into the franchise for those afraid to read Stay Night, and a good entry in the series regardless. It has everything you'd want from a Fate title, though its pacing can be a little off at times. The cast is especially great, while some of the characters feel underutilized the main cast is plenty memorable and there are some excellently choreographed cutscenes along the way. The true NG+ ending is especially worth playing for.

Even if you're not a musou fan this is still worth a playthrough if you are a fan of the series or have been wanting to get into it.

I actually really enjoyed the platforming segments here. They're difficult but that made them rewarding to complete, the added stress of just always barely falling off while scaling the towers is something that adds a lot to the experience.

Unfortunately once you get up those towers you're met with some of the worst designed challenges I've ever experienced in a game, culminating with Master King Koco's gigantic "fuck you" boss rush. The difficulty in this comes from the fact that the game wants you to perfect parry enemies that were not designed with timing based parries in mind. You're not struggling against the boss, you're struggling against the game's awful telegraphs and, in the case of wyvern, screen clutter. If you were just fighting the bosses back to back that would be one thing, but the fact you have to do the run up to the boss still is what kills it. The bosses take forever, the run up takes forever, and then if you need to retry that's all your time wasted. It's massively disrespectful in regards to the player's time and by the end of it all you only feel relief, not satisfaction.

The final boss isn't much of an improvement from the original's either. It's just as easy to mash through as Supreme was and the perfect parry gimmick is basically pointless with how quickly you can get through its health bar. The cinematics in the fight are as top notch as the other titans, but after all the trials I just wanted to be done with the game.

The new playable characters are enjoyable enough, Amy especially stands out as having a really fun move kit that isn't inherently broken, but ultimately I found this update to be a far worse product than the original and something that will likely have to be patched as the poor design really sticks out, something especially shocking to hear in a Sonic game.