You would think having experienced this game across 3 separate iterations, 4 movies, a (brief) skim through the latter half of the manga, and an unhealthy amount of revisits of the game's strongest moments in the span of 2 months would result in just being sick of what the story has to offer at some point, or at least a temporary burn out and move on to another series for a time. Instead I came out of this even more confident in the feelings FES had already brought out by the time the credits rolled.

I already held Persona 3's story, tone and characters to a higher standard than the other two modern games, with the only real problems I had being the sheer amount of dead time during day and night and the eventual feeling that despite the randomized nature of Tartarus, every visit felt the same. And that wouldn't be a problem if the gameplay loop for the first half of FES is some of the most exhausting shit ever as a result of the fatigue system paired with the nigh incomprehensible AI decisions that disregarded any tactics you employ under certain circumstances. That aside its still hard for me not to recommend FES before or even after playing reload for the sake of noticing the subtle (and not so subtle) differences between the two. The main thing to really consider about Persona 3 Reload is that it is not a remake of OG, FES or Portable; its an amalgamation of every official version of this story that even takes liberties from the movies and the Femc route of Portable. I'd go farther to say that Reload's biggest issue is something brought about by Portable's existence: cutscene direction. While it doesn't hurt the narrative in the long run, I can't help but wonder why these changes had to exist in the first place. The immediate scene that comes to mind is Aigis' resolution in December. Aigis is a character I am completely normal about and totally have not formed a confirmation bias regarding the structure of her character and shared fate with the main character being turned on its head by November into being the most natural and heartwarming relationship between a silent protag and party member in the series. That aside, while her awakening is still fine when it comes to the back and forth between her comrades (I'd even go as far to say her new voice actress kills these scenes and especially her social link), the tone and shot direction of the original is axed in favor of this static conversation on the couch with the most expression being Aigis standing up and sitting down (but eventually smiling so I again I can't fully hate the scene lol). In comparison OG makes use of the cramped setting of the dorm to give this inherently dramatic composition paired with an emotionally distant Aigis who isn't looking any of her teammates in the eyes, all the while holding her wrist close to her chest (something she does in Reload eventually but again the problem is THIS scene specifically), eventually leading to her outright falling to the ground, paralyzed in fear of death, not of her own concern, but because of everybody that has allowed her a chance at life, despite her contradictory existence. Again this point gets across in Reload as well, and at the end of the day this is pretty nitpicky considering how many cutscenes are revamped to give more dynamic expressions and animations for the cast, Strega and the social links especially are noticeably given love in this area, as well as them now being fully voiced for every rank.

Brainrot aside, the gameplay side of Reload is something I was expecting to be more mixed about. Instead I just had a good ass time making stupid ass builds no different from FES and Royal. Of course Reload may be a bit overtuned for the player if you aren't on merciless but like, so was FES if you put in enough time in those tartarus visits. I was especially confused as to the discourse around Nyx's difficulty, which I probably don't have the right to speak on as I was overleveled every time I fought them. Point is I don't see the same problems in the scaling as FES fans do, its all up to your agency to grind in advance to hitting the eventual wall or just saying fuck it and beat your head against every wall until you've gotten past everything on your own terms, a mindset that will most likely be carried on to this games version of The Answer, which day one content aside, I hope is handled well.

The daily sim of these games was always something I'm pretty indifferent to overall, mainly due to how much dead time can build up for the sake of giving the player time to rationalize the situation at hand (October through December). Social links have always been hit or miss in all of these games, Akinari and Aigis being the only ones I could confidently call great in FES, and still honestly believe after accidentally doing a max social link run this playthrough. However, voiced social links through every rank did wonders for characters like Bebe, Yuko, and the party members, especially when paired with platonic routes that alleviate how awkward the transition towards romance is handled in this series, even if Yukari should have enough chemistry with the mc in the main story to negate this, it still ends up not landing for me most of the time personally. Naturally this also means the jealousy system is gone entirely and with it Fuuka is automatically much better for not bricking my save file by October and forcing me to drop two entire social links in fortune and strength like she did in FES. Linked Episodes are also a welcome addition but not really something you can implement naturally without there being prior knowledge of who even is a social link in the main game. Overall an improvement from prior games but can be infinitely expanded upon if Atlus so wishes.

The main story is mostly untouched, outside of the aforementioned changes in direction, and animated cutscenes (and lack thereof in certain places) that pairs with the more familial bond SEES has throughout the game that FES had more than enough time to expand on. Strega is given much more attention, with Chidori specifically getting just a bit more to do with Junpei in her closing moments (disregarding the revival event which I still like) and explicitly mirrors the main character's final moments on Graduation Day, somehow making this entire stretch hit even harder than it did any other time previously.

I'm sure there's much more to mention but I'd just be recounting all of the best moments these games highlight enough in a given playthrough, so I'll just close with the soundtrack honestly containing my favorite tracks in any game I've played so far. Memories of the School was given so much justice to the point it outright surpasses its original composition to me, Color your Night is just peak and nobody should question it, and this game's version of Burn my Dread Last Battle adds a more somber tone from the perspective of the mc alongside the swan song feeling the original gave from the perspective of those that gave him life.

Overall an amazing remake given form by its predecessors, not made for the purpose of replacing any version previous regardless of your opinion on it, but instead made to stand alongside its roots while hopefully paving a new standard for the future games to inevitably not follow up on.

You would think having experienced this game across 3 separate iterations, 4 movies, a (brief) skim through the latter half of the manga, and an unhealthy amount of revisits of the game's strongest moments in the span of 2 months would result in just being sick of what the story has to offer at some point, or at least a temporary burn out and move on to another series for a time. Instead I came out of this even more confident in the feelings FES had already brought out by the time the credits rolled.

I already held Persona 3's story, tone and characters to a higher standard than the other two modern games, with the only real problems I had being the sheer amount of dead time during day and night and the eventual feeling that despite the randomized nature of Tartarus, every visit felt the same. And that wouldn't be a problem if the gameplay loop for the first half of FES is some of the most exhausting shit ever as a result of the fatigue system paired with the nigh incomprehensible AI decisions that disregarded any tactics you employ under certain circumstances. That aside its still hard for me not to recommend FES before or even after playing reload for the sake of noticing the subtle (and not so subtle) differences between the two. The main thing to really consider about Persona 3 Reload is that it is not a remake of OG, FES or Portable; its an amalgamation of every official version of this story that even takes liberties from the movies and the Femc route of Portable. I'd go farther to say that Reload's biggest issue is something brought about by Portable's existence: cutscene direction. While it doesn't hurt the narrative in the long run, I can't help but wonder why these changes had to exist in the first place. The immediate scene that comes to mind is Aigis' resolution in December. Aigis is a character I am completely normal about and totally have not formed a confirmation bias regarding the structure of her character and shared fate with the main character being turned on its head by November into being the most natural and heartwarming relationship between a silent protag and party member in the series. That aside, while her awakening is still fine when it comes to the back and forth between her comrades (I'd even go as far to say her new voice actress kills these scenes and especially her social link), the tone and shot direction of the original is axed in favor of this static conversation on the couch with the most expression being Aigis standing up and sitting down (but eventually smiling so I again I can't fully hate the scene lol). In comparison OG makes use of the cramped setting of the dorm to give this inherently dramatic composition paired with an emotionally distant Aigis who isn't looking any of her teammates in the eyes, all the while holding her wrist close to her chest (something she does in Reload eventually but again the problem is THIS scene specifically), eventually leading to her outright falling to the ground, paralyzed in fear of death, not of her own concern, but because of everybody that has allowed her a chance at life, despite her contradictory existence. Again this point gets across in Reload as well, and at the end of the day this is pretty nitpicky considering how many cutscenes are revamped to give more dynamic expressions and animations for the cast, Strega and the social links especially are noticeably given love in this area, as well as them now being fully voiced for every rank.

Brainrot aside, the gameplay side of Reload is something I was expecting to be more mixed about. Instead I just had a good ass time making stupid ass builds no different from FES and Royal. Of course Reload may be a bit overtuned for the player if you aren't on merciless but like, so was FES if you put in enough time in those tartarus visits. I was especially confused as to the discourse around Nyx's difficulty, which I probably don't have the right to speak on as I was overleveled every time I fought them. Point is I don't see the same problems in the scaling as FES fans do, its all up to your agency to grind in advance to hitting the eventual wall or just saying fuck it and beat your head against every wall until you've gotten past everything on your own terms, a mindset that will most likely be carried on to this games version of The Answer, which day one content aside, I hope is handled well.

The daily sim of these games was always something I'm pretty indifferent to overall, mainly due to how much dead time can build up for the sake of giving the player time to rationalize the situation at hand (October through December). Social links have always been hit or miss in all of these games, Akinari and Aigis being the only ones I could confidently call great in FES, and still honestly believe after accidentally doing a max social link run this playthrough. However, voiced social links through every rank did wonders for characters like Bebe, Yuko, and the party members, especially when paired with platonic routes that alleviate how awkward the transition towards romance is handled in this series, even if Yukari should have enough chemistry with the mc in the main story to negate this, it still ends up not landing for me most of the time personally. Naturally this also means the jealousy system is gone entirely and with it Fuuka is automatically much better for not bricking my save file by October and forcing me to drop two entire social links in fortune and strength like she did in FES. Linked Episodes are also a welcome addition but not really something you can implement naturally without there being prior knowledge of who even is a social link in the main game. Overall an improvement from prior games but can be infinitely expanded upon if Atlus so wishes.

The main story is mostly untouched, outside of the aforementioned changes in direction, and animated cutscenes (and lack thereof in certain places) that pairs with the more familial bond SEES has throughout the game that FES had more than enough time to expand on. Strega is given much more attention, with Chidori specifically getting just a bit more to do with Junpei in her closing moments (disregarding the revival event which I still like) and explicitly mirrors the main character's final moments on Graduation Day, somehow making this entire stretch hit even harder than it did any other time previously.

I'm sure there's much more to mention but I'd just be recounting all of the best moments these games highlight enough in a given playthrough, so I'll just close with the soundtrack honestly containing my favorite tracks in any game I've played so far. Memories of the School was given so much justice to the point it outright surpasses its original composition to me, Color your Night is just peak and nobody should question it, and this game's version of Burn my Dread Last Battle adds a more somber tone from the perspective of the mc alongside the swan song feeling the original gave from the perspective of those that gave him life.

Overall an amazing remake given form by its predecessors, not made for the purpose of replacing any version previous regardless of your opinion on it, but instead made to stand alongside its roots while hopefully paving a new standard for the future games to inevitably not follow up on.