I Am Thou, Thou Art Entertained
Persona is a series that has always fascinated me. A spin off of the Shin Megami Tensei series than has debatably superseded its origins. Persona is an RPG that borrows many of its systems and monsters from it’s parent series. While having dark moments the tone of Persona is typically a little lighter. With a real focus on the day to day lives of the characters you control. Staying true to turn based game play unlike modern RPG’s, that are increasingly taking an action based route.Persona 3 Reload is a remake that sets out to modernise while retaining its original vision. Initially launched last year on consoles to the praise of critics and players, we will be looking at the upcoming port release for the Switch 2.
The narrative follows the protagonist (named by the player) returning to their home city. Upon returning not everything is as it seems. A green light reflected from a moon of equal hue. Motionless upright coffins with a concerning lack of population. Pools and splatters of blood across a lifeless city. This is discovered to be what is known as the dark hour, a 25th hour of the day after midnight that only certain individuals seemingly experience. The protagonist joins S.E.E.S a group who all experience the dark hour and are actively uncovering its mystery.The story is largely unaltered from the original game. Ultimately no changes needed to be made. For the most part it is very well paced, treating you to enough mystery to keep you engaged.
The core gameplay loop is split into two very distinct halves, the RPG dungeon crawling and the day to day life simulation. The dungeon crawling largely takes place in Tartarus, a massive ever changing tower that appears each dark hour over the protagonist’s school. Every time you choose to explore it the floor plan will be randomly generated. Offering different layouts, shadows to fight, treasures and most importantly stairs to progress your journey. With 264 floors to conquer you will be spending a lot of time in the eerie halls of Tartarus.
In your time climbing Tartarus you will fight a lot of shadows. Persona 3’s turn based combat is truly a joy and a real stand out in the genre. The combat system has been very similar for decades but if its not broke don’t fix it. Each character has an attack and the ability to summon a persona (creatures that cast spells and abilities). If you inflict damage a shadow is weak to they will be stunned and you will get another attacking turn. The system encourages experimentation with each new shadow you fight to try and gain the upper hand. If the player manages to stun all shadows in a battle you can launch an all out attack. This is where your whole team attacks the whole shadow team dealing a high damage output. Although not the most complex battle system in the genre its an incredibly enjoyable one which has aged like a fine wine.
Speaking of persona’s during your time in Tartarus you will find more that join your team. The protagonist has the unique ability that he can hot swap his persona’s and abilities in battle. So collecting multiple persona’s to exploit enemies weaknesses in battle is a must. You also have the ability to fuse two persona’s into a stronger one. A very interesting mechanic that keeps you changing and improving your abilities as the game goes on. It nothing new to this series but still to this date is a fresh twist on creature collecting.
The other half of the gameplay loop is the life simulation. Persona 3 runs on a day by day calendar system where the player chooses how the protagonist spends their time. After attending school you have two time slots to fill with whatever you desire. After school and evening often have different activities that can progress the story, the protagonist skills or social connections with other characters. Having explorable environments to find activities to fill the protagonists time. All activities or socialising have the chance to improve both the protagonists stats or social links that boost persona’s in battle.
Virtually all of them play out in a visual novel style that can be very wordy. Not all of which impact or further the main plot. While I can see that some gamers could get frustrated with the sheer amount of these, I would argue they are well worth your time. Many of the social scenes add so much character and charm to the experience it would be a shame to skip them. The writing is often so great you can’t help but care for these characters which in any other game would be glorified stat trainers.
Graphically the game has had an extensive overhaul. Taking clear inspiration from the insanely popular and stylish Persona 5. Highly detailed 3D anime models for the characters. Environments oozing with small details and polish, especially if you can read a bit of Japanese. Not only does it graphically borrow from Persona 5 but also in its user interface as well. Menu’s are beautifully animated with changing 2D anime visuals, adding an ungodly amount of style to what would normally be a mundane stat or inventory menu. Even the UI in battles has had the stylised revamp to. It sounds incredibly shallow but these changes alone make Persona 3 Reload the definitive way to experience this game.
Sadly the optimisation for the Switch 2 is below par. Locked at 30FPS with very poor frame pacing makes a beautiful game seem rather janky. With other similarly powered handheld machines on the market being able to play the game a lot smoother and at higher frame rates. With the nature of the game it shouldn’t be a deal breaker if you wish to play it on switch though. Without the need for any precise inputs Persona 3 remains more than playable. It’s just a little disappointing it wasn’t smoother out of the box. Hopefully updates in the future will tighten the performance on what should be a portable must play.
The Switch 2 version appears like its going to have all of the console DLC as day one purchases. With Reload being over 18 months old it would have been nice to have the complete package. With all of the costumes and Episode Aigis (Story DLC) its easy to spend the asking price of the base game again for all the content. Saying that Persona 3 is content rich and will easily take up plenty of your spare time as it is.
Code Provided By Atlus For Review. This Review Is Featured On OpenCritic
