Here’s a glimpse into what’s new and what’s returning to the social half of Persona 3 Reload (2024).
What is Persona 3 Reload?
After the mysterious formation of an entire labyrinth rooted in the human condition, the students of Gekkoukan High known as the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad aim to find what’s at the top of this mysterious building during the dark hour, along with their powerful companions known as personas. Follow the protagonist as he moves to a new school, and meets a mysterious band of misfits who seek to topple the mysterious events that happen between one day and the next.
Persona 3 Reload is the long-awaited remake of Persona 3 (2006), with a new art style, stylish UI, engine, and gameplay tweaks. With the success of Persona 5 (2017), and Persona 5 Royal (2019), many fans began demanding a new version of the beloved third story. The audience will finally be able to live this fantastic experience again on modern platforms. This turn-based JRPG phenomenon mixed with the aspects of a social simulator will not be a game to miss.
Along with Atlus’ more down-to-earth advertisement, they’re trailers also provide a peek into the core gameplay. Recently, Atlus Japan dropped a small trailer showing clips of new additions to the school, dorm, and daily life of the protagonist. These little clips help to detail the social simulator half of the game, and pique the interest of prospective fans.
What’s New?
Some of the better implementations carried over from the franchise include sharing food together, growing plants on the roof, and the important text message system, now implemented as an email to fit the time period of the early 2000s.
Along with a more streamlined presentation of social links, there are now more benefits to hanging out with fellow S.E.E.S members. Ken, Akihiko, and even Mitsuru, are given more scenes with different benefits, such as coffee or tea. Some events even grant the player items for use in Tartarus, a system that will prove useful when scaling floors.
An underrated but all too critical implementation is network features, gathering player data to show the most voted answer in classroom scenarios. Carrying over from Persona 5 (2017), players will now have the opportunity to double check themselves in order to maximize their knowledge stat. A very welcome addition, especially when there’s now less work needed to ace an in-game exam.
Fans can also cross-reference what fellow players decided to do on a given day, social link recommendations, and other online features previously absent from Persona 3.
What’s Returning?
The entire roster of social links are back! Within each returning scene, there’s a lot more to appreciate. Both new sprites and full voiceovers give the lovable companions much more charm. The real shift to quality of life improvement comes when looking at the older versions of Persona 3, especially in comparison to the line of Persona 5 games.
It’s great to see a fresh new look with returning favorites Chihiro, Kenji, Hidetoshi, Kazushi, Maya, and everyone’s favorite sketchy salesman Tanaka. Each of these stories will benefit the player in a different way, adding to or introducing new abilities as their stories progress. The visual novelesque system is given enough love and time to put these fan favorites into a more defined spotlight.
As is to be expected of the series, social stats are back! Instead of taking a wider approach, Persona 3 Reload focuses on the original three: academics, charm, and courage. Now in a fresh user interface, these core abilities serve the same purpose as in the original game. This includes the benefits that come from working at the coffee shop, or hanging out with an old couple. Each decision made will raise one of these three, but now with benefits in combat after hanging out with confidants.
The balance between the two halves of the game now serves as a bridge between both day-to-day life and the dark hour, with returning features tweaked in a way to benefit the player outside of just one story. Someone’s advice may pay off in the midst of a brawl with a shadow.
Where to Find Persona 3 Reload
I can’t wait