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The Persona series is a beloved series of JRPGs that blends dungeon crawling with a social life simulator into an interesting mix. The original Persona 3 released in Japan in 2006 and introduced the Social Link system to the series, helping to define one of the key elements of the Persona series. I never experienced the original version of Persona 3 and so I was very excited to get my hands on this remake. Persona 3 Reload elevates the PS2 game to the polish present in the more recent entries in the series, all while preserving the style and character of the original iteration. As this is a game that is very story focused, I will be avoiding specific story spoilers.
Burn My Dread - Story
Whilst I never played the original Persona 3, I have played the PSP version a few years ago, so I am familiar with the story and gameplay. The scenario of Persona 3 Reload sticks closely to the original, with the main focus being the exploration of Tartarus, a bizarre tower that appears during the mysterious ‘Dark Hour’. During this hidden hour, those who have the potential can summon a Persona and use this supernatural ability to fight back against the Shadows that populate Tartarus. The player character joins a group of other students, brilliantly named the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (S.E.E.S.), to investigate the mysterious tower with the goal of understanding the Dark Hour. I found the scenario to be really intriguing once again and throughout the game, there are revelations, dark events, and moments of light heartedness. Of all the Persona games I have played, I did find this game’s story to be one of the strongest.
Mass Destruction - Battle Systems
The core gameplay of Reload is split between two pillars: battling Shadows while infiltrating Tartarus, and managing your school and social life. From a gameplay perspective, Tartarus is a dungeon made up of many floors to advance through, with the bulk of floors being randomly generated with boss rooms acting like checkpoints, plus the ‘dead ends’ that open once you progress through the story. If you have played Persona 5, this is very reminiscent of the Mementos dungeon which served as the side quest area in that game.
Battles in Reload stick to the turn-based system that the series is known for, with your party of students taking turns to attack and summon their Personas for special moves. The flow of battles usually consist of trying to figure an enemy’s weaknesses to knock the enemy down to get a ‘Once More’ extra turn, and potentially switching to another party member. Knocking every enemy in battle down lets you pile on with an All Out Attack, and as always in a Persona game, it is hugely satisfying! Your character has the ability to switch between multiple Personas, making them very versatile in battle and able to cover a wide range of skills. You can have up to 3 other party members at once and blitzing through battles with your party is great fun.
A new addition to Reload are the Theurgy skills, powerful special moves unique to each character that charge up faster when you fulfill conditions based on their personality. For example, the upbeat Junpei gets a bigger boost when he gets a critical. These moves are all fantastically over the top and you trigger them a good amount of the time, but not so much that you want to skip their animation which I would say is the perfect balance. The power level of these moves is also high and I believe that is the biggest reason as to why I found Reload to be more forgiving than I originally found the PSP’s Portable version.
Exploring Tartarus is an interesting aspect to the gameplay loop. I tended to dive into the dungeon for a while, aiming to get as far as I could in one night before reaching a dead end or running out of SP for Persona specific skills that are essential for downing enemies. Tartarus itself starts to become quite grind-heavy further into the game so my mindset of ‘go until you can’t go any more’ becomes a bit repetitive for one extended session. Thankfully, each zone of Tartarus is aesthetically different and it is not impossible to avoid encounters when you just want to progress to the next floor. It is also worth saying, you do not have to follow my example of going as far as you can in one go!
Want To Be Close - Social Life
Now the reason for my extended Tartarus trips is a simple one: as a busy student, I simply had to prioritise cramming as much as I could into my social life! The other pillar of Reload’s gameplay loop is working out how to spend the time you have outside of school and dungeon crawls. Generally, most days you have an after school block of time followed by a night one. You will want to spend your time wisely between hanging out with your Social Links and leveling up your social stats to make sure you can hang out with new Social Links that you discover. The gameplay benefit of this is to increase the amount of experience you get when fusing Personas of that particular link’s arcana (each Persona and Social link has an arcana based on a tarot deck such The Fool or The Chariot). I found myself really enjoying the links in Reload, a lot of them are brilliantly written and I found myself desperate to experience the stories of these characters. From the excitable exchange student enjoying his time in Japan to the elderly couple running a second hand bookshop, I found myself being more invested in these characters than the Persona fusion benefits! The fact that these are now fully voice acted breathes more life into these stories. A lot of these are also quite melancholic; some characters are going through rough periods, while others are doing their best following other hardships and I found these really compelling. There are a couple of links that I was less keen on and they were certainly pushed to one side while I focused on more likable links, but the majority are excellent.
New to Reload are the new hangouts that flesh out the male party members, who were missing Social Links in the original version. These are not tied to arcana like the normal links but I loved
getting to see more of these characters outside of the main story. It felt odd when I played the portable version (having had Persona 5 as my first entry into the series) that half the party were missing out on these moments. These are all gradually unlocked through the game and often directly reference the main plot, building upon it. Without going into specifics, one really gave more context to the character and their past decisions. The only minor drawback with these is that the biggest in-game rewards for completing these come far closer to the end of the game than the normal links, but this feels secondary to the story elements.
Full Moon Full Life - Presentation
Reload is an incredibly stylish game throughout, from the phenomenal opening sequence (every time I booted up the game I had to fully watch it), to the catchy music, the whole game is packed with so much charm and character. As I always find with Persona games, the soundtrack is fantastic and I found myself humming along to tracks well after finishing the game - I’m sat listening to it as I write this now. The game is complete with updated versions of the original soundtrack, alongside new tracks, with Japanese rapper Lotus Juice returning. I will say the first time I heard some new arrangements of the older songs, it did take me an initial listen for it to click, but I often find this can be the case with remixes. On the subject of the game’s audio, there is a huge amount of voice acting present at all levels of the game. From the dungeon banter to running into your Social Links, there is a far greater level of voiced lines. The new voice cast do an excellent job throughout of capturing the essence of the original, especially the members of S.E.E.S.
There is a deliberate stylistic choice to preserve the feel of the original and it really does evoke the early 2000s PS2 vibe. The graphics have been brought up to the level of Persona 5, yet there are still old-school elements preserved throughout, especially in the menus and other UI. The zoomed out map with the little marker that moves between locations is one of the stand-out examples of this. There are some aspects that do feel a little dated as a result - the lack of unique abilities being unlocked from Social Links like in the more recent games is especially noticeable - but you have to admire them sticking to the feel of the original. The other omission is that Reload does not contain the extended features present in later versions of Persona 3, such as the female protagonist of Portable or the extended epilogue of Persona 3 FES - although that epilogue will be available as DLC later this year.
Conclusion
Persona 3 Reload is a fantastic remake of a beloved JRPG which brings the story of S.E.E.S. to a modern standard while maintaining the essence of the original. While at present it may be missing some of the bonus content present in other adaptations, this feels like the definitive version. The dungeon crawling elements are engaging, if a little grindy in extended sessions, and the social life aspects that the Persona series is known for is an addictive counterpart to the battles. Years on from its original outing, the main story is still very compelling and whether this is your first time experiencing it or the tenth, I would recommend playing this remade version.
