There are few series in the broad genre of JRPGs that are as globally acclaimed as Persona. Atlus knew how to create a global phenomenon with Persona 5, crystallize its idea and take it to the extreme with Persona 5: Royal. A huge game with dozens of hours of story, combat and overwhelming personality that ranks among the best in the genre in history. But to get to Royal you had to travel a path. A journey that Persona began with an important step with the release of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 in 2006. The connection of the life of a student at Gekkoukan Academy with that of a member of the SEES (Extracurricular Shadow Execution Society) was a crucial point in the series, allowing the development of a narrative and a depth of characters that already represents an identity in the saga . Persona 3 Reload, finally doing a story justice, is the best approach you can have to the beginning of anything.
Before I continue, I have to warn you that this was the first time I played Persona 3’s story. Therefore, you won’t see an exhaustive comparison here between what the original did and the changes in Reload. Yes, I’d like to mention some issues that have undoubtedly been carried over and others that this version carries over from more modern deliveries. But Persona 3 Reload speaks to us players as if it were the original installment it always wanted to be, and will now receive the attention it deserves from the general public.
Persona 3 Reload (hereafter P3R) begins brilliantly, throwing you into a mystery as you arrive on the island where your new high school, Gekkoukan Academy, is located. You get off the train and immediately a really strange atmosphere arises. Glowing red coffins are everywhere, and the otherwise busy train station and streets of Iwatodai are now deserted. You make your way to your apartment and upon entering are greeted by a sinister child who says all sorts of cryptic things about danger and potential.
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It turns out that on your first night you entered the so-called Dark Hour, a hidden period of time between night and the next day in which shadows emerge from a giant tower in the center of the island to kidnap people. Who else is? awake. Only a few people are allowed to be awake during this hour, including you and other roommates. Their home is actually the headquarters of some sort of group called SEES (Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, or something like that). Shadow running party after school), who enters the tower called Tartarus, fights the Shadows and attempts to end the threat of the Dark Hour. To do this, they use personas, which are spirits or appearances of themselves with special abilities. You can capture multiple Personas in Tartarus and combine them to create even more powerful Personas. Our protagonist begins by signing the contract with Igor in the Velvet Room (another common character and location in the series) and calling on Orpheus, his inner representation.
In Persona 3 Reload, you have to use Personas to summon them an atmospheric one, a weapon with which you have to “shoot” yourself in the head. Don’t worry if you don’t know terms, people or words, because in the main menu there is an option called Dictionary that allows you to consult the “lore” of the game. And since we’re talking about terminology… Why is it called “Reload”? Actually it is a new feature, Rewind, meaning that every time the game is saved, a small section of the game before that moment is also saved. This allows you to explore other options or choices, but you must remember to save your progress again. It’s a very useful tool, especially if you want to save just before a Dark Hour boss fight or find a more efficient alternative activity for your character during the day.
As you already know if you know the series, Time is constantly movingSo you need to think about how to use it most efficiently. Should you talk to the locals and build a bond with them (this will give you advantages later when creating new personas)? Or should you engage in activities that make you more academic, charming, or courageous? The latter are three key abilities that determine what you have access to in the game. At the same time, the activities also affect the Tatars. Tartarus, and therefore the central plot, follows the phases of the moon, so that the shadows of the big “bosses” emerge from Tartarus and wreak havoc during the full moon. The time and date are therefore crucial for the success of the game.
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It’s all a pretty exciting setup and it works quite well as the story progresses. The game’s gothic and slightly dark atmosphere is also praiseworthy. However, it is fair to criticize some key aspects of the game. One of them is that the game takes a long time to start. There isn’t much real story in the first 20 hours. You spend most of your time getting to know people, and unlike Persona 5, where you quickly have interesting conversations with others, in Persona 3 it’s the “social links” – that is, the side stories of your SEES friends and other people in the city Pretty boring at first. This makes the game a bit slow for the first few hours after an excellent start.
However, it becomes much more exciting once you have the first 20 hours behind you. There are rescue missions in Tartarus and the tower changes in many ways. New doors open and you face greater challenges. You also go on vacation with your friends, where the plot progresses even further. In short, the formula is shaken up a bit and the game starts to become more dynamic. The story evolves, new faces appear and the player becomes more involved. This is very positive, because the game is not only borderline monotonous, but quite interesting. If you’ve played the series before, it shouldn’t be news to know that these things take time, so patience is also part of the design.
The characters in Persona 3 Reload are great. We have a nice team of roommates and a few additional characters. The characters of the Iwatodai Residence are the ones you care about the most because they will be your allies in battle and who you will watch grow in their own narrative line. Mitsuru Kirijo, Akihiko Sanada, Junpei Iori j Yukari Takeba (who are the first ones you fraternize with) are fun and have fantastic progression over the course of the game, although I may have had a harder time getting into it here than in Persona 5, but I attribute that to the fact that the Phantom Thieves completely stole my heart in his time and to this day.
He Battle has managed to maintain its identity while adopting the agility and fluidity that worked so well in Persona 5. Everything is based on executing a “rock, paper, scissors” competition with the enemy’s weaknesses. For example, if the enemy has fire abilities, they are likely resistant to fire but may be weak to ice. Once you defeat all enemies, you can perform a combo attack like in Persona 5. Your entire team also has special ultimate abilities they can use. These abilities recharge when performing certain actions. For example, your healer/archer Yukari Takeba can deal massive wind damage that, once healed, ignores that type’s attack resistance. As for the fight, Persona 3 is as modern and stylish as you would expect. The only thing I wished was that it was more spread out over the months of play.
But if so Something I will always remember from Persona 3 Reload is the soundtrack. Once again Atlus has managed to create an OST that is almost a genre of its own, this time with a bit of rap. I’m not confident enough to say it surpasses its predecessor’s melodies or Lyn’s lyrics, but I’m sure you’ll be humming it and streaming it on YouTube in a few months.
Although the concessions in increasing the scope of the game are necessary (it is still a remake, and lengthening it or adding too much content can compromise the strength and coherence of the story), graphically it is a new milestone for the persona- Row. As I have already seen. I saw it months ago when I first saw it at Gamescom. Persona 3 Reload is exactly what we all wanted: a modern take on an incredible story that takes just enough of the masterpiece that is the latest title installment to date and gives it a slight twist that makes it worth charging full price. It’s all there, so I’m happy to sign this contract again with Igor.
