"His tears became a sparkling lake, around which grew beautiful flowers, and a tree that bore delicious fruit... ...none of them knew the alligator had created it, or that he was gone."

***I have to preface this review by saying I would give a "mixed/neutral" rating if possible***

I started my Persona journey with Persona 4 Golden when I first got my PSVita. I then played Persona 3 Portable, then emulated the PS2 version as well as The Answer. Then I played Persona 5 when it first came out by borrowing my friend's physical copy of the game and skipped the Royal version. Finally, we come to Persona 3 Reload.

Persona 3,4,5 all have very distinct themes from one another, but I think many would definitely say Persona 3 has the darkest atmosphere and theme. However, I feel after the gradual increasing popularity, success and recognition in the mainstream after P5, they made Persona 3 Reload more "family friendly" or just friendly for new comers. My intention is not to gatekeep P3, but with a game that centers around the theme of DEATH, many changes were made to have a more lighthearted atmosphere, (I would say) to the game's detriment.

Most of the quality of life changes were welcome changes. The new "look" of the game is great. They added Voice acting to all of the minor social lines and interactions. They added a mechanic that allows you to select 2 party members to be raised to the MC's level (as non-party members don't get experience this was potentially great, but I ended up sticking with the same 4 the whole game). The new look of each section of the main dungeon - Tartarus, was amazing and adds much visual diversity compared to the original. The theurgy system adds charm and highlights the uniqueness of each character's playstyle and fed into the core gameplay loop; these are usually really powerful attacks that ignored the enemy's resistances. However, this brings us to another issue, the game felt a bit too easy and I played on Hard. The amount of QoL features at benefit the player are unbalanced compared to how the bosses were originally designed. Even disregarding the removal of the fatigue system from the original, the addition of "baton pass" from P5 and the overhaul of the Shuffle time system from the original are a clear attempt of making the gameplay smoother. However, the fact the enemies and bosses did not get any "buffs" or changes and stuck to their original gimmicks were disappointing to say the least. To those who would say "just don't use theurgy attacks, etc.", I don't want to not interact with a part of the game just to enjoy myself more, that's just counter-intuitive.

Personally, a huge issue I have is the OST, I would say overall I prefer the original OST to Reload's. Sure there were some outliers such as the battle theme, which as much as I and many P3 fans enjoyed meme-ing the "baby,baby,baby" OST, the new one was a welcome improvement and I don't think I ever got tired of it. And especially the added vocals on "Changing Seasons" were amazing. But classics such as Iwatodai Dorm, Living with Determination, When The Moon’s Reaching Out Stars and the Final boss OST (both "Battle Hymn for the Soul" and "Burn my Dread") lost a lot of their IMPACT. The tone felt more "smooth"and more "pop-y", which reinforces my point of how they wanted to make P3 mixed with P5 as to not alienate the huge audience they got from the mainstream.

Overall, as this was the only Persona game that I've played both the original and the remake, I understand that I am wearing rose-tinted glasses partly due to nostalgia. However, my main issue is how scummy the business practice of the game's release was. They released a remake of Persona 3 Portable a short while before releasing Reload, while having no significant improvements, and if anything it was a downgrade even compared to emulations. Moreover, P4 and P5 both can say they have a definitive edition, which are Golden and Royal respectively. While P3 Reload's BASE GAME is not, as they have taken "The Answer" and more and put it into an "expansion pass" which costs basically half the price of the base game is ridiculous. The worst bit is even if you bought the most expensive Digital Premium Edition which says includes "DLC pack", it does NOT include the expansion pass - "Episode Aigis" (which is The Answer content). This is blatant dishonest sales tactic.

The game is good, and I do want people to experience P3's story. BUT the price is INSANE, get it on sale or not at all. The fact SEGA or ATLUS, on the Persona 5 Royal page on Steam, bundled P5R WITH P3 Portable instead or Reload highlights how consumer unfriendly this game is.

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