[COLUMN] Persona 3 Reload Made Me Finally Love Persona 3 | by Marty Sliva (Patreon)

When a new video game remake comes along, chances are it’s just going to reinforce an opinion I already have. The Resident Evil 4, Shadow of the Colossus, and Link’s Awakening remakes all reminded me of why I loved the original games which they were built upon. In the case of something like 2021’s Nier Replicant or even this year’s Another Code: Recollection, a remake can shine a spotlight on an underplayed gem of the past and freshen it up for a brand-new audience.

But then we have something like Persona 3 Reload, a remake of the first “modern” Persona game that brings with it so many of the visual, combat, world, and quality of life improvements that the series has added in the wake of Persona 5’s massive success. Reload takes the dark, emotional story of the kids from Gekkoukan High School, injects new life into the presentation, and makes it an absolute blast to play. And it's the first game that finally makes Persona 3 really click with me, and vaults it into the same rarefied atmosphere as 4 and 5.

My entry point into Persona was with the release of 5 back in 2017, and I immediately fell hard for the series. I worked my way backwards through the franchise to consume everything I had missed, not just in terms of the mainline games, but the spinoffs as well. I mapped out dungeons in Q, fought my way through Arena, and danced all night in…uhh…Dancing All Night. I played the original PS1 games, gaining a respect and understanding for where the series came from.

But oddly enough, Persona 3 was the one game in the franchise that I never vibed with quite as hard as I thought I would. I played through both routes of Persona 3 Portable on my Vita, and even bought a used PS3 during the pandemic just to download Persona 3 FES and see what that version had to offer. While I liked the game every time I played it, I never loved it the way I do the games that came after it. I really dug 3’s story and adored its soundtrack, but the rest of the game failed to spark the same joy that 4 and 5 did. Which is understandable, considering that they’re two of my favorite games ever.

Despite being the third (technically fourth, counting Persona 2’s duology) game in the series, Persona 3 very much feels like a proof of concept in the way the original Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted do. It brought the now-familiar ideas of social links, time management, and the general combat flow. And like those other series, the games that followed built upon nearly every aspect of that original foundation and created some of the most memorable gaming experiences of this century.

And so I entered Persona 3 Reload cautiously optimistic – I was a fan of many of the changes Sega and Atlus had been touting since its reveal, but I was prepared to once again be a bit let down. But as the minutes turned to hours, and the in-game calendar rolled from spring into the summer, I realized the simple truth – Persona 3 Reload made me finally love Persona 3.

While the setting of Tatsumi Port Island always felt a bit lifeless and sterile to me, especially compared to the cozy vibes of Inaba and the stylish-sprawl of Tokyo, Reload adds so much flavor to the city. The crowded hallways of Gekkoukan High School and added activities strewn about the shopping centers makes the city feel alive. The Iwatodai Dormitory that houses your party no longer feels like a big, empty, liminal space. There’s a warmth and energy to it, and I love checking in on my crew every night to see how they’re doing.

While the 200+ floors of Tartarus all blended together during my time in FES and Portable, Reload adds texture to the skyscraping dungeon. Each block of floors has a more distinct look and feel to them. New powerful shadows and secrets exist to test my skills. Consumable Twilight Shards can be spent on opening valuable locked treasure chests or giving your party a mid-dungeon crawl HP and SP refill. The longer you last in a single dungeon run, the greater the rewards get. I found the act of grinding so much more enjoyable in Reload because of all of this, plus the additional battle wrinkles like Shift and Theurgy, which act similar to P5R’s Baton Pass and Showtime Attacks, respectively.

But the biggest improvement on display in Reload is that it finally reaches that perfect time-management flow state that 4 and 5 hit so wonderfully. Every single afternoon, evening, and day off from school is teeming with possibility. The choices in a Persona game don’t generally impact the external story like they might in something like Baldur’s Gate 3 or a BioWare classic. Instead, the amalgamation of those micro-decisions mold and shape the internal story of my character and the year I spend with them.

I use my free time to study in the days leading up to exams, trying to reach the next level of my Academics stat before the tests come around because I want to be at the top of my class. Junpei and I spent a night playing fighting games at the arcade, so seeing him alongside me in an all out attack means more. I want to muster the courage to successfully complete the burger eating challenge, because it will impress Elizabeth the Velvet Room Attendant, but also because I like the idea that my character can crush a bunch of burgers.

For me, these games are as much about the overarching story to save the world as they are about the small moments of how a high school kid decides to spend his free time when he has a night off from doing just that.

At the end of the day, the most frustrating thing about Persona 3 Reload is that it solidifies the fact that there is still no definitive version of Persona 3 in the way that Golden and Royal became the absolute tellings of those stories. The wonderful optional Female Main Character and the divisive-but-emotional coda titled The Answer both remain locked behind the Portable and FES versions of the game, respectively. While Reload’s array of improvements more than make up for their absences, the absences remain nonetheless. But if you asked me which version of Persona 3 would I recommend to anyone with even a passing interest in the series? Gun to my head, I’m saying Reload.