Persona 3 Reload PS5 Review 9.5/10 “A Kind of Magic” 🏫🎒 @Atlus_West #Persona3

Persona 3 was my first experience with the Persona franchise, I remember picking it up on release day, I had no idea what to expect but it was a JRPG - so it didn’t matter, for I consumed anything in that genre. What followed after playing it was a deep love, I thought it was awesome, stylish, cool, and featured a story that to me - at sixteen - felt very adult, tackling some deep issues through the lens of youth, and it resonated with me.

Then, eleven years later Persona 5 was released and it became one of my favourite gaming experiences ever, it is a top 3 game for me and I will gush about it any time I can. So, when this remake was announced I was beyond excited, it was going to be Persona 3 with the Persona 5 coat of paint - how could it not be awesome?

Persona 3 opens with a very stylish opening cinematic, oozing in cool, dripping in the blue colour scheme, my god it builds hype instantly and sets out that, ‘yes, everything that was great about this series is still here and is still awesome’.

You play as a transfer student to Gekkougan High School, and are set up in a dorm, ready to start your school journey. Sadly, it won’t be a normal experience as most students don’t find out that the night contains a secret hour known as “The Dark Hour”, where you are faced with battling beings known as ‘Shadows’ whilst exploring a massive tower know as ‘Tartarus’.

Sadly, not only do you have to do that, but you still have to attend classes and try to keep your grades up, honestly – it’s just one thing after another. The plot is pretty much the same as the original - game characters, events and places are largely the same, voice acting has been redone and is incredible, it is top notch and really helps bring characters to life, whilst places are given a graphical upgrade and look stunning.

Now, this will be my one criticism of the game - and I mean my only one - in the Tartarus they could have made some improvements to the locations making them more interesting and different from the original, just like in other Persona games, they do get repetitive and boring, it is a flaw that has run throughout the series.

What has been upgraded is the combat, to the surprise of no one this gets the biggest Persona 5 coat of paint of the entire game, if you have played five then this should be familiar, and I mean, why wouldn't you use the combat system from Persona 5?

It’s amazing and definitely elevates it from the originals. Not being able to control your party members in the original was tiresome and was a big flaw, being able to control everyone here makes a huge difference, you can also let the CPU control them if you like so you have some options. Shifts and all out attacks make combat fun and engaging, finding enemy weaknesses was always exciting, getting the right attack and learning which moves to use to gain the advantage.

I talked in a review recently how horror games wherein you are chased and thus have to run back and forth to a hiding spot to be a gameplay loop that I really hate, the opposite to that is choosing how to spend your day in the Persona franchise, I absolutely love it, nothing brings me more joy than planning my day and night in Persona.

do I study? Do I make plans with one of the social links? And if I do, which one?

Or should I work to get money to buy new equipment?

To quote Barney Gumble “Just Hook it to my veins” it just makes me so happy. Knowing I couldn’t spend time with everyone makes it really hard, I was torn between, ‘do I spend time with this lovely elderly couple who have lost their son?’ or, ‘do I spend time with this kid who has hots for teacher to see how that plays out?

I know a big criticism is that improving the social links sometimes doesn't boost your Personas enough, but to me just learning about the story is more than enough, I couldn’t wait to see where all these great characters would end up.

I'm going to touch very briefly on the music as it is really simple to sum up… it is amazing. I have a playlist with Persona music, it is just incredible; funky, vibrant, engaging… it embodies everything that is great about the Persona Series.

SUMMARY

I love every single second of this game. Everything I loved about Persona 3 is still here but now it adds Persona 5’s great combat as well, I can’t recommend this game highly enough and it is a hundred per cent going to make my GOTY of 2024.