Persona 3 Reload

[HandsomeDead]

I was pretty close to just bumping the old thread because man, is this Persona 3.

 

I'm sure there are plenty that want a remake as faithful as this but I was more on the side of using the opportunity to take a second run at it and tighten it up a bit and improve some of the story of the game.  

 

There are quite a few changes to the dungeon crawling element, a lot of additions in presentation and mechanics such as the ability to pass a turn to another party member after hitting a weak spot which makes the game easier.  But I was a bit disappointed with the AI party members since there are less tactics than the original and they don't use the new mechanics.  Just for nostalgia's sake I tried to play it the old way but it's so not optimal.  It just seems to be thoughtlessly added and it's clear they're really expecting people to play it with direct control of the party.  I just always thought it was cool to be the leader of an autonomous group and it's just faster too.  But oh well!

Bosses haven't really been touched very much either, mechanically, despite those getting quite a bit better in later games is a big missed opportunity too.

 

Other difference is it obviously looks better... actually, I dunno, it doesn't have the creepiness of the original to me, something to do with some of the colour grading maybe.  Looking too clean isn't hitting quite right.  More of the game is voice acted, I think it might be a little rewritten but I'd have to look at side by sides to be sure but it's mostly the same stuff happening and even acted out the same way.

 

I'm not new to this game but I think to someone that is or is coming from Persona 5 it's still gonna feel like an older iteration despite the new coat of paint.

 

It's still one of my favourite games, and I've barely stopped playing it but it's my fault, I did at one point dream of a game that felt like a sequel to P5 but with P3's story and it isn't that.  It's P3 with some modern concessions.

[Maf]

I’ve “played” the tutorial up to the first fight. So, a lot of reading and pressing A every now and then.

 

I agree that the creepiness of the game is gone/lesser. It doesn’t feel as dark or as devilish as the original. In particular the first “fight” cutscene at the beginning of the game doesn’t have the same effect as the original.

 

I do wonder is some of that is because already knowing the game and what happens. If you go in blind, maybe it’s more like WTF

 

Definitely feel like the production value of the game is hit and miss too. Some of it looks great, some of it looks very cheap. 

 

Having said that, I love being back. This is still my favourite Persona game and it’s been so long I actually want to go through the whole thing again. Even if the dark side of the game feels weaker, the more vibrant, city life vibe is still refreshing and fun. Every time the song Moon Reaching for the Stars kicks in I just start bobbing in my chair.
 

The one change I really like is the in game cutscenes. TBH I wish all the cutscenes were like that, I think Persona’s actual anime video parts have always been ugly, and the less of those the better.

 

I dunno. Only an hour in and haven’t done any fighting yet. 
 

From a style perspective, which is so big on these games, it’s certainly not a home run, but I still like it a lot and for me just being back here is really nice. I wasn’t especially excited about Reload, but now playing it, I’ve missed this actually. 

[Nag]

1 hour ago, Maf said:

I do wonder is some of that is because already knowing the game and what happens. If you go in blind, maybe it’s more like WTF

 

I may be able to answer that at some point... I've downloaded it from Game Pass and hopefully I'll get round to it at some point (I didn't play the original) but I'm enjoying being Batman a little too much at the moment. 

[HandsomeDead]

I got one shot by a random enemy after spending ages in Tartarus 🙃 

It's still P3 alright.

 

I think I got too comfortable because at the point where I'm at it's where enemies have Hama and Mudo, light and dark instant kill moves.  They've added new light and dark moves to Reloaded that just do damage and I've yet to see an enemy with Hama/Mudo.

 

But physical attacks while you have status ailments are still an absolute run killer it seems

[Maf]

Wow, how far have you got already. I’m about to do the second boss (On my first night, though, so not bad progress)

 

This game fucking sick. I don’t know how they make turn based combat feel so slick/powerful 

 

I love the new shift thing. Actually I like all the new stuff here

[HandsomeDead]

Literally just hit my third roadblock on floor 68.  I'm efficient okay 😅

[Maf]

How far are you through the year? 

[HandsomeDead]

June

[Maf]

Man said “I played this one before watch this speed run”

 

I beat 3 bosses in the first night I was allowed, that really drained me of resources

 

This game fucking sick. I love this game

[Maf]

I’m currently caught in a trap of constantly replaying every day to try maximise every thing I can do and figure out what the differences are in activities 

 

I found this out earlier - when doing an activity the game will put 1-3 musical notes (essentially points) above the MC’s head, so one thing might give 1 point to academics and another will give 2 points to academics

 

But it turns out not all points are created equal. I did one activity that gave me 1 point and my stat didn’t level up, then tried a different activity and got another single point and then my stat did level up

 

This has put me in a state of crisis and doubt. And I’m more or less trying everything, everyday trying to figure out what’s best.

 

The only one I find I’m not doing is karaoke. It only gives you one point, and who knows how good of a point it is, but often I can get 2 points in that stat, or one point in 2 stats at the same time.

 

I now know why the game is called Reload.
 

A little joke for me and you 😁

 

This game is awesome. I will probably buy a PS5 copy later in the year to add to the shelf. 

[HandsomeDead]

I think there was some of that in the original too where some activities levelled stats up faster but it isn't clearly indicated.  There probably is some hidden maths going on.  But I'm not worried about it because there are so many more ways to get stat points now it'd be hard to finish not maxing them out.  I'm level 4 on all three in July so I'm easily gonna be covered for when those stat checks are needed.

 

I've not restarted, I've just been rolling with it.  But it sucks when you mess up a social link but I've mostly been solid with them.  I've got two nearly maxed.  I take the sociopath route and tell them what they wanna here even with a dipshit like Kenji but that magician arcana has good Personas tied to it 😇

[Maf]

1 minute ago, HandsomeDead said:

I take the sociopath route and tell them what they wanna here

 

I remember learning that in P5, I think. The best way to make friends is not to tell them the correct thing, but just to agree with them

 

And they say the game isn't realistic 

[Maf]

Ok, so I promise this is the last thing I have to say about the game until next weekend 

 

But this the fucking sickest fucking shit I ever fucking sick and fuck 

 

Yukari is the best girl in games

 

People shooting themselves in the head, then a big messed up looking demon and glass lightning coming out of them is just the coolest. 

 

And this lyric in the battle theme Now tell me the things you blabbing about behind my back.

 

That’s not even what I thought it said until I just googled it but damn it’s so good when the team is kicking ass

 

It’s not that there aren’t better games, in some ways the original was definitely better for the time

 

But the cool factor of this game can’t be calculated. And that’s what most important in video games

 

The only things I dislike so far are these purple floors are garish, and fuck metal slimes

 

Aside from that god damn. I wish I had a week off to play it 

[Maf]

Played this for 6 hours straight and had a really good run. So gameplay spoilers but 

 

Spoiler

The way the game works is there’s a tower with a 100 floors and periodic story events. The tower is limited by the story events, so for example the furthest that can be reached before story event 1 is floor 25 or something. However, the first available night after story event 1 I managed to get right to the next limit which was 43! Took a lot of managing the team’s MP and such, and used a lot of items as well, and my team was fucked up, but managed to do it. 
 

But because I done it straight away I did it with 3 characters. When I started playing today I got a 4th character, and now when going back into the tower to grind for money and Personas it’s a piece of piss. 

I was trying to get the MC to level 20 because that was the next “gate”, essentially, to making more Personas. I then got a floor that had 5 Gold Hands on! (Think Metal Slimes), and I found their weakness earlier. Use the lower evasion spell with Yukari and the Light magic attack for their weakness and just blow them up and get tonnes of cash and exp. 
 

I think I’m probably a touch behind on Social Links and doing ok with stats. Got top 10 on the first school exam. 
 

Just finished the day by doing the second story event. 
 

Playing more of it, the game definitely feels so much smaller than Persona 5. Not just locations but even just things to do. At this point the game feels tiny. But I dunno. This is one of the best times I’ve had with a game for ages. Even though the social sim, dungeon crawling and monster collecting only feed in to each other in a few, limited ways, it’s just such a satisfying loop of having such different gameplay/game systems that all feed into the same progression. Each aspect of the game has its own goals but they all fit hand in hand to this larger progress and it’s just such a good idea. 
 

I’d just forgotten how fun this is. When was Persona 5? 2017? And even though 3 is much smaller than that game, and Reload is missing some spooky vibes and mystique of the original - this game’s a fucking blast and I can just play it for 6 hours at a time no fuss. It is 9/10 excellent and still top 5, maybe top 3 JRPG I’ve ever played. 

[mfnick]

Quick question. Does this have the boring bland, repeatable and repetitive dungeons of P4 or is it more like P5?

[spatular]

Yeah im interested if there are any improvements to the dungeons, or if there is at least some non dungeon stuff to do along with the big dungeon grind sections?

 

i can say the older versions the dungeons are very much like the p4 ones, possibly even more boring and bland. If youre into dungeon grinding sessions the old game is probably fine but im mainly playing for the story and there are large parts of the game where no story stuff happens and you just do the dungeon stuff for ages, made it really difficult for me to get through. I always say this but i think the old versions of p3 theres a good game in there but the pacing/how the story/dungeon stuff is split up is really bad. So hopefully this new version is that good game.

 

people seem to be really enjoying this, so i probably will give it a try at some point.

[Maf]

2 hours ago, mfnick said:

Quick question. Does this have the boring bland, repeatable and repetitive dungeons of P4 or is it more like P5?

 

Oh, boy, does it! Much smaller world map, too. 

 

I think the combat is so fun in this game, though, grinding the tower is fun. It's also challenging to see how far you can get in one night 

[HandsomeDead]

It's like fuller version of Mementos, especially the higher you go.  It's more dynamic than what was in the OG P3 and P4.  But it's still one of the best combat systems out there I've never felt bored in them, even the older ones.

 

I'm near the end now.  I won't go into it too much now but I've appreciated some of the little additions to the story, and especially add what was needed to one character in particular.  

I found a little overwhelmed in the second half of the game where it gives you a lot of activities to do with your dorm mates and found myself having difficulty balancing with raising stats.  But it's a good problem to have because there was a bit too little to do at this point in the OG.

 

It's weird because despite that I think I've done better than I had originally with social links.  It probably is impossible to max out all of them in a play through but I've got more than half done so I'm rocking a mean team of Personas going into the end.  I'm just hoping then end boss is less of a problem this time because... oof 😐

[Maf]

16 minutes ago, HandsomeDead said:

It's like fuller version of Mementos, especially the higher you go.  It's more dynamic than what was in the OG P3 and P4.  But it's still one of the best combat systems out there I've never felt bored in them, even the older ones.

 

I totally forgot about Mementos. 

 

But also the part I put in bold - word to your mother this shit is sick 🤚

[mfnick]

Thanks, I don’t need to worry about getting to this anytime soon then. I just couldn’t push through it in 4 at all. Doesn’t matter how good the combat and story is.

 

I’ll still give it a go but I can put it further down my to play pile now.