Review | Persona 3 Reload - Back To School
The words “from the ground up” are becoming a cliché - however, Persona 3 Reload has clearly been remade from the ground up. Reload is simultaneously a faithful and ambitious remake. There’s a level of sheen and polish on the graphics that makes it look even better than the most recent entries in the series. At least, with the assets in the foreground. Look harder at the textures and you’ll notice some barren and plain environments and set pieces, while the very stiff animations outside of battle leave something to be desired.
Thankfully, this is something you’ll barely notice as you get sucked into the world and characters. Reload, like most Persona games, really shines in its atmosphere and world-building. I'd consider it the strongest in the series. The darkness surrounding the generally bright and colourful Tatsumi Port Island is intriguing, straight from the haunting intro cutscene. People becoming coffins in the Dark Hour, Apathy Syndrome affecting people all over the city, and high school kids pointing guns at their heads and shooting to summon their persona create some powerful imagery.
The characters are written in a way that’s relatively grounded and believable. They’ll get frustrated with choices you make, and have clear interests and motivations, while interactions with each other feel natural. The only strange part is how articulate, communicative and emotionally intelligent these high schoolers (and an elementary schooler) are throughout the game. In spite of this, Atlus chose to keep a lot of questionable behaviour that high schoolers (boys specifically) could show, such as implying Junpei would try to look up Yukari’s skirt and very tasteless objectification of young girls at their beach vacation. It would be one thing if these were used as teaching moments, showing the problems with acting this way. Instead, it’s more of a “boys-will-be-boys” mentality that’s not only dated but unhealthy. However, I know there’s no winning for Atlus in this situation since people would cry censorship if they removed these things..
Regardless of these oddities, the characters’ relationships with the protagonist are a highlight of Reload. The social link system really shines here, which is an impressive feat for the first iteration of this mechanic. They modernized the links in the vein of Persona 4 and 5, no longer requiring romantic relationships with every female character after reaching a certain level, but otherwise left dialogue largely unchanged. Several characters feel a little shallow with conversations that only span a sentence or two, but most are fleshed out in a way that genuinely feels like you’re building connections with these people. You have conversations about trauma, death, abuse and other sensitive topics that are tastefully and meaningfully explored. The only criticism here is that these characters largely have conversations with themselves, as the protagonist rarely speaks, creating an odd disconnect.
As you build your connections, you’ll also get bonuses to the persona arcana associated with each character and their personality. This helps the personas level up faster and also speeds up establishing your relationships. These interconnected systems help to make the RPG mechanics feel dynamic, as the social links and the battles complement each other. As you progress through Tartarus, the only dungeon of Persona 3 Reload split between different segments, you’ll slowly unlock more complicated systems that continue building on what you’ve already learned. The game does a great job of not overwhelming you with tutorials about each system, pacing them out in a way where it knows you’ve mastered what it’s already thrown at you.
Unfortunately, even with these continued systems that build upon each other, Tartarus feels like a slog in the latter half of the game. Playing a single dungeon across this 60+ hour journey with little changing except the scenery is a tough sell. Given that, they do a fairly decent job keeping the battles fun and loot feel rewarding. The battle system of exploiting weaknesses to get extra turns has always been a satisfying part of the SMT and Persona series.
Persona 3 Reload is a solid turn-based RPG made great by its grounded characters and the relationships you form with them. It’s a bold and ambitious remake, showcasing a level of polish that surpasses the previous entries. Despite some stumbles, Reload's worldbuilding and atmosphere immediately draw you. The repetitive nature of Tartarus may test your patience - but, in the end, Reload marks a great addition to the series.
