This review contains spoilers
An excellent and surprisingly reserved remake of a game that still feels at odds, in a good way, with persona 4 and 5. For better or worse, reload smoothes out the experience that makes persona 3 so unique and many of the additions feel relatively deliberate and measured to not completely wash out the oppressive feel and emotional plot threads that still managed to break me in the end. The glacial pacing and structure is still there which I don't mind, but I do appreciate the many interactions and events added with SEES in further expanding their team camaraderie and having more to do during the game outside of January. The link episodes are brisk and excellent in fleshing out the male party members, and honestly work much better than dragging out another ten rank social link during the day in a game that could have used more balance between day and night events. Strega is still a one note villain but reload does bless us with Jin and Takaya using the shift mechanic and Takaya pulling out a sick theurgy in his second battle, so it’s still a success for me.
A part of me does feel more could have been done in maintaining the original's resistance within the battling/dungeon traversal as the difficulty suffers quite a lot halfway through, even with Merciless being leagues better and actually operative compared to persona 5's version. As one of ten fans of the original Tartarus, reload's iteration is absolutely beautiful and doubles down to be more gamey and 'addictive' but it does sacrifice the tension and threats of the enemies with the changes to the landscape and battles. The Theurgies are a wonderful treat of power fantasy and spectacle while also adding more interesting dynamics to each member's kit, but I feel that they could have been restricted or handled more conservatively, even if I do enjoy breaking this game in half.
While reload does deliver the darker tone of the original, it's not perfect in translating the dread and oppression well throughout the journey, though this was most apparent to me in specific cutscenes. Take the original and reload's introduction on the train; they follow mostly the same structure but the new animation and direction lacks the bite and visceral feel, specifically in how the original juxtaposes Makoto ominously arriving on the train with Yukari's struggle to summon her persona while Burn my Dread blairs jaggedly and cuts in and out of the scenes. Reload didn't have to replicate this but the new intro feels more standard-fare and less haunting and off-putting, even Makoto's awakening scene falls into this same issue by following the same beats of the original but the transformation of Orpheus into Thanatos ends up being a bit goofy? The cast overall is a dimension friendlier than the original, but I'm not sure this is more due to nuances in the voice direction of the new cast or slight changes in the script, though I feel it is more the former. Still, reload does a solid job with the rest of the cutscenes in the games outside of one of the final animated scenes showing Makoto returning after sealing Nyx. Even some reload iterations I found a bit more memorable than before such as Chidori's sacrifice and Junpai's second persona awakening and Shinji's death (outside of Koromaru low key ruining it with his howling at the end). It's not a complete loss in atmosphere as January itself still encapsulates the impending doom of the fall very well, alongside just turning down the brightness like two-three notches in the options.
Even with the strong effort reload is in delivering persona 3 to the 'masses', it still doesn't strike as a "definitive" version of it, which I think is way better than an end-all-be-all edition ever existing given the small and major differences and interpretations baked into each version at this point. Reload is probably the second best way of experiencing persona 3 as I still would encourage people to play FES if they can. The whole idea of it being "outdated" is categorically false and it still offers so much in its tone and gameplay that reload drastically differs or falters from in many ways. Even still, reload is a wonderful way to experience the best persona game and the 150+ hours I put in on Hard and Merciless have been well worth the return back to Tatsumi Port Island.
And since the remake train has pretty much started with this series now, I should probably run and get a head start on Persona 1 and 2 before those new remakes come out at some point while Persona 6 and its re-released special green edition sits in a cobweb somewhere in the Atlus studios.
A part of me does feel more could have been done in maintaining the original's resistance within the battling/dungeon traversal as the difficulty suffers quite a lot halfway through, even with Merciless being leagues better and actually operative compared to persona 5's version. As one of ten fans of the original Tartarus, reload's iteration is absolutely beautiful and doubles down to be more gamey and 'addictive' but it does sacrifice the tension and threats of the enemies with the changes to the landscape and battles. The Theurgies are a wonderful treat of power fantasy and spectacle while also adding more interesting dynamics to each member's kit, but I feel that they could have been restricted or handled more conservatively, even if I do enjoy breaking this game in half.
While reload does deliver the darker tone of the original, it's not perfect in translating the dread and oppression well throughout the journey, though this was most apparent to me in specific cutscenes. Take the original and reload's introduction on the train; they follow mostly the same structure but the new animation and direction lacks the bite and visceral feel, specifically in how the original juxtaposes Makoto ominously arriving on the train with Yukari's struggle to summon her persona while Burn my Dread blairs jaggedly and cuts in and out of the scenes. Reload didn't have to replicate this but the new intro feels more standard-fare and less haunting and off-putting, even Makoto's awakening scene falls into this same issue by following the same beats of the original but the transformation of Orpheus into Thanatos ends up being a bit goofy? The cast overall is a dimension friendlier than the original, but I'm not sure this is more due to nuances in the voice direction of the new cast or slight changes in the script, though I feel it is more the former. Still, reload does a solid job with the rest of the cutscenes in the games outside of one of the final animated scenes showing Makoto returning after sealing Nyx. Even some reload iterations I found a bit more memorable than before such as Chidori's sacrifice and Junpai's second persona awakening and Shinji's death (outside of Koromaru low key ruining it with his howling at the end). It's not a complete loss in atmosphere as January itself still encapsulates the impending doom of the fall very well, alongside just turning down the brightness like two-three notches in the options.
Even with the strong effort reload is in delivering persona 3 to the 'masses', it still doesn't strike as a "definitive" version of it, which I think is way better than an end-all-be-all edition ever existing given the small and major differences and interpretations baked into each version at this point. Reload is probably the second best way of experiencing persona 3 as I still would encourage people to play FES if they can. The whole idea of it being "outdated" is categorically false and it still offers so much in its tone and gameplay that reload drastically differs or falters from in many ways. Even still, reload is a wonderful way to experience the best persona game and the 150+ hours I put in on Hard and Merciless have been well worth the return back to Tatsumi Port Island.
And since the remake train has pretty much started with this series now, I should probably run and get a head start on Persona 1 and 2 before those new remakes come out at some point while Persona 6 and its re-released special green edition sits in a cobweb somewhere in the Atlus studios.