EDIT: So 100+ hours later I've finished this game and it has firmly planted itself in my top 5 favourite games of all time. My initial thoughts about several characters being quite dull/one-dimensional have been THOROUGHLY humbled out of me -- It seems Atlus know what they're doing with character development as I have since shed actual tears for characters that I absolutely did not care for in the first 20 hours of the game.


Original review:
I've been pleasantly surprised about this. When I first heard it announced I must admit I figured it was going to be a lame cash grab, and was hesitant to buy at this price until I saw the overwhelmingly positive tag last several days - I could not have been more wrong about my hesitance.

I had P3F and P4 on ps2, but didn't really get into either very much but managed to get heavily into P4G on the vita which to this day is in the top 5 of my all-time favourite games. Returning to P3F/P3P and also trying P5 they didn't quite have the same draw for me as P4G between the characters and how the dungeons function.

This remake/remaster has implemented my favourite upgrades to the UI/combat from P5 and integrated them perfectly into a game whose story/characters/dungeon has managed to suck me in more than P5 could. Combined with an incredible face lift to the graphics and far more voice acted lines than I had expected, I'm absolutely blown away by the quality of this remake.

I believe that the characters in P4G blow these ones out of the water [at least of the characters I have met], and I still prefer how the dungeons in P4G work; so personally speaking I still prefer Persona 4 over this game [though, if it could one day get a remake treated with as much love as this, that would be my GOTY with no questions asked] however this version of P3 has sucked me in way more than any prior version and allowed me to actually experience this excellent game.
EDIT: as mentioned, the characters in this game are a slow burn. For many hours I found several characters dull, boring, and shallow. However, some of these exact same characters flourished into being extremely compelling as the story progressed. I recommend to give them a chance to grow on you.

EDIT: So 100+ hours later I've finished this game and it has firmly planted itself in my top 5 favourite games of all time. My initial thoughts about several characters being quite dull/one-dimensional have been THOROUGHLY humbled out of me -- It seems Atlus know what they're doing with character development as I have since shed actual tears for characters that I absolutely did not care for in the first 20 hours of the game. Original review: I've been pleasantly surprised about this. When I first heard it announced I must admit I figured it was going to be a lame cash grab, and was hesitant to buy at this price until I saw the overwhelmingly positive tag last several days - I could not have been more wrong about my hesitance. I had P3F and P4 on ps2, but didn't really get into either very much but managed to get heavily into P4G on the vita which to this day is in the top 5 of my all-time favourite games. Returning to P3F/P3P and also trying P5 they didn't quite have the same draw for me as P4G between the characters and how the dungeons function. This remake/remaster has implemented my favourite upgrades to the UI/combat from P5 and integrated them perfectly into a game whose story/characters/dungeon has managed to suck me in more than P5 could. Combined with an incredible face lift to the graphics and far more voice acted lines than I had expected, I'm absolutely blown away by the quality of this remake. I believe that the characters in P4G blow these ones out of the water [at least of the characters I have met], and I still prefer how the dungeons in P4G work; so personally speaking I still prefer Persona 4 over this game [though, if it could one day get a remake treated with as much love as this, that would be my GOTY with no questions asked] however this version of P3 has sucked me in way more than any prior version and allowed me to actually experience this excellent game. EDIT: as mentioned, the characters in this game are a slow burn. For many hours I found several characters dull, boring, and shallow. However, some of these exact same characters flourished into being extremely compelling as the story progressed. I recommend to give them a chance to grow on you.