i changed the title and thumbnail. i genuinely didn't think "missed the mark" would be taken as hostile. the aim was to come off critical, but not spiteful. that message didn't come across very well so i tried to go for something more accurate while still conveying that i'm going to be critical. i like to think my criticisms here were pretty tame here, and i hope i made it obvious that i do like this game. it just won't replace the original for me. (original p3 video: th-cam.com/video/J0wniLnpzmw/w-d-xo.html , patreon: www.patreon.com/bubbletea_)
I pretty much agree with everything in this video ngl, I really like Reload and find it interchangable with FES however the finer details of FES and it's old school experimental charm still hold it in place as my favorite.
I agree with almost everything you said here. There's a bunch of other stuff you could've rly dug in at For some reason people can't seem to understand the idea of critiquing something you love
Ya got me for the cutscene, it is true that they lacked of impact but my guess it that they did changed the scene to be more accomodated to a new public in a world full of technology and social net work. In 2008, there is less of that, and p3 was their Last change to KEEP on doing it. So they put everything they got. However it is true that i prefer ancient cutscene rather than the news one....
i feel like it's gonna be really hard for them to fuck up P4, mostly since it's a lot harder to cut out as much content, and brighter more modern graphics will fit the game's aesthetic more
I kinda see reload how I see the resident evil remakes where you can make the argument that the remakes are better games but the original still has its own identity and provides a different experience while still being the same game at its core
I those are the games that make the concept of remakes feel odd to me Those games make the original not obsolete from from a user experience perspective they're better in universally better ways like less jank and more responsiveness, if p3r was just party control and better graphics everything else about to could stay the same and it would be better than p3
I agree which makes it more accessible but the game being less fun makes for a more compelling metaphor for depression. I don’t think games should have to be fun in a traditional sense if it’s in service of the themes of the story
One thing i really miss from the original is the small special animations from character models during some story events, like akihiko pulling out his evoker when explaining why the mc is the leader, or jumpei sitting at the stairs and drinking juice while waiting for the first full moon operation, or the mc holding aigis hand after the ryoji reveal
I'm glad someone else noticed too! Even in P4 the characters didn't have that many animations but you get to og P3 and you have Yukari over here with like a billion little subtle animations like her doing the little lean in teasing motion to the protag before she runs off to get her wallet.
From what I've heard, the reason for a lot of the extra dialogue is because Reload is based on the Portable script, which has characters say more to compensate for the visual novel format. I haven't played it myself though, so your examples might not have been in P3P. I agree that some fluff from the script could've been cut though.
Yukari's lines from the opening scene are 100% lifted from Portable. And I believe the lines after Tartarus disappears are also from Portable There's also the exchange after the "Don't look up" line during the monorail full moon, which IIRC were recorded for the original, cut, then added back into Reload
Originally I didn't really care about the voiced social links, because usually I can read the dialogue faster than they can speak it. But I found that it actually made me slow down and appreciate the scenes a lot more.
My most favorite part of the voiced stuff when near the last months where everyone was going thru there own things. It was like they wanted to convey to us that eventhough they are in the same room or same residents...they started to get there distance from eachother.
I always got a bit emotional over Shinji in the original game but holy shit man his death scene went so fucking hard in Reload and it actually made me cry. Getting his final liked episode a bit later just adds salt to injury, knowing he had a promise to graduate with Akihiko and Mitsuru and he wanted to go back to school to keep the promise but died before he could do it made me so fucking sad.
I needed time to process when I didn't finish this one Monad dungeon. Apparently, they give one costume for Shinji. The way the game tells me thay Shinji is gone and I got the costume too late, it hits hard.
@@mikyeediaz120 this happened to me too! i had to put down the controller and walk away a bit. Even knowing the story, the improvements they made to Shinji's story made the loss even harder
My biggest gripe with P3Reload is the changes to the anime cutscenes of the original, the original ones give a very big Evangelion/Serial Experiments Lain vibe to them and are so very intense and artistic. I seriously didn't like how the remake chaanged them
The Orpheus Awakening cutscene is so disappointing to me. It lacked the...oomph the original had with Thanatos. The biggest loss for me is how feral Thanatos came off in the original with it's wild movements and heavy breathing it does before crushing the Magician's arm along with the roar it does. In Reload Thanatos' movements feel so stilted and practiced. It didn't feel the same, and it sucks to think that's how people might see the cutscene from here on out. I think even without the original for direct comparison it would be pretty lackluster.
Agreed, I did enjoy the novelty of the shiny but that muted, almost abstract feel of the the og cutscenes - paired with less sound in comparison to the remake - just had this darker, deeper vibe that just can’t be replicated
15:05 I disagree with this, with the baton pass in P5 I felt like it made the game way too easy with its stat increases, I’d rather just have the baton pass be a way of making extra turns
@@KonEl17 P3R felt like a better difficulty, with showtimes in P5R they happened automatically and more so when you were LOSING, essentially baby mode P3R has alot of stuff like strong ass spells that are broken but Theurgy’s being charged is so much better than Showtimes happening automatically, and all the confidant abilities also made the game baby mode, and Futaba protecting you from death was baby mode, previously stated baton pass stat increases were baby mode I played P3R on hard mode first run and man I loved the difficulty it was perfect
@@logogogo4872There's no way you think P5 is easier than P3R. Theurgy attacks ruin the game. It's essentially P5S showtimes but in a turn-based setting, which makes the game a joke. Also, how could Futaba's RNG be more OP than spamming Slphid Aura before every fight, lol.
If the Golden content is not included in the Persona 4 remake, then yeah ATLUS is doing the atlus. I don't want to hear people saying they removed the Golden content because it is accurate to the original because it sounds stupid.
@@fluke7506 I want the persona 4 remake to actually just be a graphical/battle remake off of Golden. Yes Yosuke being homophobic is annoying as a homo, but Sasuke voicing someone who has the persona Jiraiya is ICONIC
the original game's cutscenes is 1 of my favorite parts about it. I love the shiny new look of the new cutscenes, but they rly do let go of the mood that made the og unique. I love it when scenes in media are portrayed in psychologically mind-bending ways, and p3 did that amazingly. hopefully someone will make a mod to patch those cutscenes in, I'd do a replay for that :)
I agree completely on Reload's cutscene direction. There is a big lack of dark, surreal imagery that the original PS2 game had in its scenes. It really added to the tone of the story, and the remake unfortunately feels softer in its tone now because of this lack of strange yet fascinating cutscene direction.
Why are so many people obsessed with remakes? I understand accessibility, but you do realize the game's plot, etc WILL change as a result of varying reasons? What was written in X year might not be present today for example. It will not turn out the same, or might turn out worse. There will not be a faithful adaptation. Just because its remade does not mean it will turn out good. Best to keep the original and not butcher things. Plus not every game needs a remake/remaster, best to leave it be since the series had its run.
@@-Siknakaliux-II I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I think what I realized is that I actually want remakes to change *more*, not less, as odd as that sounds. The thing is, the original will always be there if you want to experience it, so these super-faithful/"beat-for-beat" remakes feel unnecessary to me, and they tend to annoy people who are filled with nostalgia for the original experience. It's cool to have more people get introduced to the series and I understand things like QoL improvements, but P3R has many of the same exact flaws that FES and P3P did (poor pacing, lack of male social links, few nighttime activities). If you're going to remake something, why not take the time to really change it up, y'know? Some people might cry heresy, but oddly I think the further away you get from the original the less people are going to feel that way, because you're creating something entirely new. that's why I actually have a lot of respect for those new FF7 remakes. Without getting too spoilery, they're taking certain things in a VERY different direction, and honestly I prefer that than them trying to somehow recreate the original experience beat-for-beat and just rehash what's already been done. They're trying to be *creative,* instead of just saying "let's do the exact same thing again," and I think that justifies the remake's existence way more (assuming they can pull off the new changes, of course).
@@-Siknakaliux-IIthe change is the reason why we make remakes. Both from a narrative, and a gameplay standpoint, we make remakes because there is also something more/else to do. Sometimes it can just be a spit in the face of the original, others just a different experience that makes the original stand out more, or just be the flat out better version of the original, but they are all made with the idea to change the original in any way, shape or form. That's why there is the separation between remakes and remasters if I remember correctly
I only played P3P once so I felt I really missed out on a lot of emotional segments like Shinjiro's death not being that impactful. However, they fixed that in P3 Reload immensely. There was this bit involving the frozen takoyaki in the fridge. I think if you waited more than a few days, an ally would take the frozen takoyaki and leave a note saying that they ate it and leave another item that resonated with their character, like Akihiko leaving a protein shake. However, I got distracted with Shinjiro's death and decided to check the fridge a few days after I stored some frozen takoyaki. And what I found was a very casual note from Shinjiro apologizing that he took the frozen takoyaki for some cooking ingredients and that he made up for it with some leftovers. That hit me WAY HARDER than it ever needed to that Shinjiro was gone for good after all those times cooking together like damn😭
That was me back when I first played FES when I didn't see the recording of Shinjiro watching TV with Koromaru then pretending to be asleep when the girls walked in until after he died.
The message I got from this was: "play both, you get the best of the old vibes and the new expansions" So thanks, now I have to 80 hour games on my backlog!
This is what I recommend to all new games that are getting amazing remakes, the remake is great and the og game is still great, one isn't necessarily there to replace the other, just play both and enjoy both, maybe you'll like a few things more in the new one or the old one, or swap between which is your favorite, I dont get why people fight and get so mad over remakes when most times they just improve on outdated things and are just as good as the original
I think I’ll do this. Loving the shit out of P3R (my first Psa game) and I’m willing to check out the og (I played it for like 5 hours then stopped, months before the remake announcement)
@Dimebag-wx2rs It's funny cause RE4 remake is the reason I started telling people this cause I saw so many people fight about it, when is actually really good but I can still go back and enjoy og RE4, but also loved the remake as it was just as fun and improved on certain characters
not really classic could be pirated for free and modded where new is egregious $70 + dlc for a weaker experience with prettier visuals but overall casualized making it worse
Giving Shinji auto heatriser and debilitate in his move set is nasty work. Also the controller vibrates as he takes his final breath. That was neat. My play through of P3RE got hampered due to being lvl 99 but worth it since I saw Shinji at his best. There are things from the original that I wish P3RE kept, but I appreciate it for what it is. Even now, I still can’t believe I get to play this game.
One of my nitpick with the Nyx Avatar final battle was the environment. Like with everything in Reload during the Dark Hour, everything is so green. In the original, the top of Tartarus was very grey, dull, and lifeless. It really added to the atmosphere that this is the end. Life is ending. But they made the top of Tartarus like everywhere else. Just green and vibrant.
I’d argue it’s less vibrant and more just bright. Kinda like how the rainbow block was painful to look at. It’s mean to contrast with Nyx’s red and black look. Kind of like a black hole in there middle of an overly bright place. I can see what they were going for.
I feel like persona 3 reload being so incredibly faithful is a great thing. but on the other hand there were big missed opportunites. for example why couldnt the whole shinji ark from the movies happen in the game (showing up a month early and being a big brother figure for ken) As well as that the new link episodes are great but they Eat through so many time slots. and missing a link episode not letting you complete the rest of it is a HUGE L (did they seriously not learn from the FES ELLE-P dates?, and yes im aware you get multiple chances before theyre cut off) Even if it doesnt feel as faithful in some regards (cut features etc) i think its a good game but just short of great.
@@SwizzleMix i played it on gamepass. it was 100% worth the replay. I enjoyed it alot. Its a fantastic game but i feel like so much more couldve been better
Atlus from the beginning said it was going to be faithful. And at least it was more faithful than crap like Pokemon bdsp. Where people went "But where's platinum!" Where the "Faithful remake" wasn't even close to faithful. And actually could have gotten away with more.
For the link dates they kind of did the same thing for the twins and persona 5 Royal. Remember when you used to take them on field trips and if you missed one of them you could not finish them.
I think a lot of people who grew up with/played P3 upwards of several years ago struggle to feel, through no fault of their own, just how utterly slow P3/P3F can feel to someone who was introduced to MegaTen as a whole through P4G or P5R. About 3 years ago I played both P4G and P5R and absolutely adored them and became obsessed with Persona, so I quickly became fascinated by P3 as it was lauded as the one with the best story. I tried and tried to play P3F but I just couldn't get it to grasp my attention and I just couldn't enjoy Tartarus, whether I wasn't playing it right or conditioned to expect Persona games to play differently following several P5R playthroughs. I've found several of my friends to be in the same boat, so we yearned for a P3 remake that would bring that story to the gameplay that made us fall in love with the franchise. After beating Reload, we've all come to find it to be our favorite game in the franchise, by far. While I 100% respect and acknowledge that there's a certain vibe attatched to the original (mostly through it's anime cutscenes) that wasn't, and never will be, truly replicated, I think seasoned reviewers of the series neglect just how different the idea of a Persona game is in the mind of modern fans, not to the crazy extent that causes disputes like "there needs to be a cast in college" or "remove social links," or other radical ideas, but the idea relating to the gameplay attached with our initial impressions that fascinated us and hooked us deeper into the franchise at large.
Frankly, FES is borderline unplayable for huge swathes of people who aren't diehard JRPG fans that grew up with it at this point. So many clunky design choices (which makes sense, first game in this style... but still) which can add to the atmosphere but frankly make it atrocious gameplay wise trying to go back to it.
as someone who's played fes and portable not to completion but halfway through each, reload is superior in nearly every way except the cut scene direction. its bat shit insane to think that fes didn't have direct commands. idgaf if you could "learn" how to play with that, it was miserable. portable mended this and I'm glad it was brought into reload as well. I am never going to use party commands in a game ever again
I started with P4 as my first MegaTen, then played P3 and really loved it, then I played P5, then P1, then P2, and I found that overall I enjoyed the older ones a lot better (2EP is now my favorite) and I had a blast playing through the original two Megami Tensei games on Famicom after I had finished my journey with Persona. I don't think its a matter of where you started with the series that will affect how you feel about them, its a matter of what you value in games.
With regards to the social links voice acting, I agree that making them all voiced goes a long way to make them better overall, in particular the Moon Social Link, somehow the eay he speaks about himself is very self deprecating and its conveyed much better that his eating habits is a way for him to escape his problems rather than true enjoyment
Such a nice way to express an valid opinion and sure reload could've been better but what we got is great and he definitely shows that from shinji to link episodes to the water design...etc Thank you for the vid goat
Personal gripes aside, I'm so glad that they cooked with how they tackled the ending of 3 in the remake. Having Aigis' monologue play over a fully rendered cutscene pushed the feels into overdrive. And thank god they nailed the Memories of You remix.
I think one of the reason multiple weapon types was removed and keep in mind this was removed in P3P was that there was such a huge gap between the MC and party members that legit it was better a lot of the time to ditch your party and solo everything. This was especially true as you unlocked stronger fusion spells. So in P3P the MC was heavily nerfed by being locked to only swords and fusion also became super lame because they were single use items. Reload rolled this back a bit by tying fusion spells to theurgy and allowing you to use any Persona in your compendium which I think is a better choice. With the addition of theurgy and personalities, they definitely want you to feel like your party members are contributing instead of being a burden which is how FES felt.
Even in original FES i eventually abandoned every party member besides 3 that I'd keep trained up for the final boss. Of which I basically solo'd anyways.
I genuinely don't see this perspective at all, the party isn't some burden 🤨 Even in FES functioning entirely on Ai they carry plenty of the weight in battle and can be great assists and DPS and you get way more opportunities to take action and buff with them around as well. Like obviously, the MC is strong as hell as they are in literally every persona game when you break the fusion system and make cracked personas, but taking away your party is not only going to slow your battles to a crawl but also give you less opportunity to do good buff rotations efficiently without letting the enemies do it themselves.
The reason they took away the multiple weapon system for P3P was time and resources. If they wanted to add it they would have to animate and model every single weapon type for the FEMC model, and that is pretty time consuming for a basic port.
hmm i think they should keep it but making it unlockable in the tartarus or night activites. would be pretty neat. we have mc training other weapon while conversing with other party member why they are specialized in that weapon
Just wondering: how does everyone feel about Yukari's new voice actor/portrayal? To me, it feels her like recasting was the most controversial with some people not liking how nice she is now and others saying it's an improvement and she's more likable now. Personally, Reload was my first time experiencing this game so I didn't have any pre-conceived notion of her going in, but I ended up really liking her, if you couldn't tell. I know the reason most people don't like how nice she is in Reload is because her sass showed her grief but I think she's still a compelling character and her grief is still shown in her attitude. It's clear that her cheery personality is just a facade she puts on to hide her inner turmoil. While she's popular at school and mentions her off screen friends, she doesn't really seem close with any of them. This is likely because she doesn't want to feel lonely but also can't connect with any of them or show them her true self, but she can with Makoto when she learns that his parents are also dead. Something I didn't even catch on my first playthrough is that the hotel mission gives some insight into the issues she's bottling up at that point in the story. The hotel definitely reminds her of her mom which she mentions "throwing herself at men" to Mitsuru during the Kyoto trip. Yukari clearly values deep, sincere love a lot and that combined with her respect for her dad is what lead to her hatred for her mom. So when the Lovers tried to force her to sleep with Makoto, her feelings boiled over, causing her to blow up at the Lovers and her theurgy gauge to immediately fill up. Maybe I'm reading too deep into that scene but I thought it was a neat way to build character, as that mission also shows her stubbornness when it comes to Junpei's teasing. I also think the reduction of her sass is over exaggerated just a bit. She's still pretty snappy with Junpei and is still really passive aggressive with Mitsuru for the first half of the game. Overall, I liked her in Reload and I think I liked her the same way she was intended to be liked in the original game.
This is all subjective of course but my issue with the personality changes in Reload is that it makes the group dynamic more bland and sterile. Yukari lost her semi savage mean girl energy in Reload. That energy created a very entertaining dynamic between her and junpei in FES. Their FES dynamic helped carry things while the plot took its very sweet time to take off. It's been so attenuated in Reload that when she does refer to Junpei as Stupei, it almost feels out of character. Their general dislike toward one another in Reload feels unnecessary because there's no narrative purpose or weight behind it. Junpei feels more like a musical theater kid in Reload. Gross. That used to be my favorite character in the series RIP. Akihiko lost his 1 dimensional righteous stoicism to become more of a goofy boi like Junpei! All ingredients designed to craft a story for the P5 16-25 year old mainstream audience.
with scenes that are basically the same with the new English voice actors, specifically yukari, just don’t hit the same. They make Yukari sound way too nicer making her lose her snarkiness. So whenever there is a scene of dialogue that’s kept from the older games they just sound out of place (for example the stupei line just sounds out of place/character for her with the new VA and the voice direction) especially with her interacting with other characters ESPECIALLY with junpei. Like the other reply said reload makes it where these conversations don’t have much weight to them with how they toned down characters (yukari) and even how they overtuned characters (junpei, like some scenes and dialogue just sound too happy? For example a hospital scene with chidori in the original junpei sounds more mellow when talking with her. In reload he sounds like how he would talk with the MC.)
I honestly think very little changed with Yukari. The main difference is the original’s voice direction with Michelle Ruff, she uses her voice to make Yukari sound very firm so she comes off sassier. Heather Gonzalez doesn’t read her lines with the same firmness so she reads a bit more “delicate”, and maybe that creates this idea of Yukari coming off “nicer” but the sassiness is still very much present in my eyes
I personally prefer the newer portrayal, since the original made her come off as your typical bitchy mean girl and her moments where she tries to be nicer are forced and half-assed in a misguided attempt to make her look good. In the original she felt like someone who'd hold a grudge against you over something insignificant. This one falls more in line with the original Japanese characterization, whereas the original missed the mark with wanting you to sympathize and connect with her, but failing miserably, because she can't be happy unless she puts someone else down.
I have to agree with you on the cutscene direction. In general, I think the aesthetics were polished a bit too much and they lost the edge of the original. The og cutscenes kinda looking like serial experiments lain was something I really liked. Imo it felt like they were trying to make a game adaptation of the movies (aesthetic wise) rather than the ps2 game. Besides that and gameplay being a bit too easy, I don't have any other major gripes and I think it was a pretty faithful adaptation of my favorite game. I didn't ask for it, but I'm glad it exists.
I'm very glad that you showed the difference in the cutscene direction. That's such a hard point to get across to people who have never played the original, but it's absolutely crucial to the Persona 3 experience. The cutscene direction is definitely a downgrade in Reload.
I played persona 3 portable twice and noticed the se things as well. One thing I do miss from persona 3 portable was when you got a team member social link to a certain point they could step in for you and help you double attack an enemy for guaranteed knockdown. With the shift system there's no need for this but it was just one of those things that kind of made social linking with teammates a more viable thing. Not the persona 3 reloaded didn't make more times for you to take advantage of working with a teammate but that'll always bring me back to the psp version along with being able to pick more clubs. I don't know about you but exploit Tartarus for money was way easier in portable than it was in reloaded.
Great video! As someone who came into the series with P5R and had learned at least the basic story of P3 from videos, I really have been looking forward to hearing refined takes on how this version changed things, for better and for worse. You absolutely provided that so thank you for helping me contextualize the wonderful time I had with Reload! All that said, even as someone who had never seen the original cutscenes before, the one feeling I couldn't shake while playing through the story parts of the game is that I might have been missing something; that maybe the feelings and emotional mood from the original weren't fully represented. Super glad you helped me resolve that notion via well developed critique!
Loved the video! Your videos are always so consistently high quality. I pretty much have the same opinions on Reload with it’s issues. The difficulty with the very recent games will always be a big issue for me sadly and due to p5 being so popular and easy I worry all future Atlus games will share the same fate. I loved the AI tactics in FES, my first Portable playthrough confused me a lot when I realised you could use direct commands. Reload is still a great game but I will always love FES more. One thing that completely ruined the games difficulty for me in my reload challenge run was realising how many bosses are just scripted patterns, almost all of them even including Nyx are 100% pattern based and the same with the Fortune wheel, which spins 7 times each time being the same result in an order then it gives up and uses wind only. It honestly feels like Atlus are scared to make a hard game anymore. I also noticed you used my footage which made me very happy. Might seem dumb but as someones content that I really enjoy even playing a small part towards it made my day seeing it. If you’re ever doing a video and need any other footage feel free to use any of it!
I personally don't mind reload being easier. Imo, it definitely had less frustrating gameplay aspects than FES, so I will probably never play that version. I much prefer portable and reload. However, I understand
A few things about the cutscenes lacking subtlety. It’s not so much that reload decided to add new lines cause they didn’t think players would get it. It’s actually portable that added a lot of those things and reload takes from portables script more. Which I’m pretty sure was done because visual novel not as much on screen to show and not “tell” but yeah. For instance that scene where Makoto comes back after the battle with nyx and everyone gathering around saying how happy they are is taken straight from portable. And then there were other cutscenes where they just decided to do it like how the movies did it.
I wish one of those scenes from the movie was how they introduced aigis because in the original and reload its so lackluster. She shows up and then BAM. part of the party now. Barely any explanation on what she can do or her weapon capabilities. You see her shooting water out of her hand guns before you see bullets being fired.
Kinda hate how you can't criticize Reload on Twitter without getting yelled at by fans, not even criticizing the price 😭😭 it is obviously bad to be paying $105 to play a full FES remake when in the pas FES + The Answer retail price was $30!! People was so condescending towards Larrue when he said he hated The Answer being separated as DLC, acting like he was a tourist bitter FEMC fan or whatever when he's pretty much an Atlus historian and never had a strong opinion for FEMC Edit: omg his nude frost collection is here!!!
@@soapy8917 See this is what I was talking about lol. Atlus was literally on a verge of bankruptcy when making Persona 3 yet they still sold FES + The Answer on retail price at that time. Meanwhile Atlus right now is on a much better place because of Persona 4 and 5's success yet they're not satisfied with the already steep $70 price. I promise you shitty anti-consumer practice isn't an attack on Reload as a game, just like how even tho Sims 2 is a masterpiece and the expansions are amazing I still thought it was scummy to separate them as DLC, which eventually snowballed into the hell that is Sims 4
@@catloaff I'm not defending the pricing, it's too much for a game like persona, but are you sure you are taking into account inflation? Cuz i'm pretty sure 30$ then does not translate into 30$ now, but I could be wrong.
Im so glad he discussed the direction of the cutscenes. In fairness all of them arnt bad per say but, the first cutscene is just embarrassing. For some reason they overact when yukari is like "just put it to my head... And pull the trigger...THERE IS NO WAY I CANT!" It just sounds like they were overdoing the bit for some reason. And the awakening scene is just bad. Not much redeeming there. Its just animated poorly since its WAY too smooth. And they removed all the flair with how scary Thanatos is. But its a fine game overall, but I just wish it could have been perfect.
@@digimonlover1632 Overall tone of new awakening is more "look how cool and kind I am, I am so powerful that my physical body can't handle it" instead of "I think that this can help us survive, but I guess I kinda like that edgy shi- oh, something is *really really* wrong" that was before
One thing that really confuses me about new the additions to reload is the way they handled platonic relationships. Not the ones you get if you reject them at the end of rank 9, those make perfect sense in the difference between romantic and platonic, but the ones you get for ignoring their feelings in rank 7 or 8 For those who don't know, this game has "romance flags" before the obvious one at rank 9, if you give some specific answers during those moments the game gives you an alternate rank 8 and 9 (and the same rank 10 platonic you get for reject them if you get the decision at rank 9) instead of the original from previous versions, and those new scenes were honestly pretty good (at least the ones i got, i don't know if some girls don't have them or if i just missed them). Some of those scenes really helped raising my opinion on certain characters, especially Yuko. I used to call Yuko's SL "2 incomplete SLs" because of some writing decisions that i always found odd, and the new rank 8 completely changed that perspective, to the point i now really like her SL. Which brings me to my problem. Why are these new scenes missable? and why do i have to choose that i don't like a girl, to get a scene that made me like the girl? It's a little backward in my opinion, i don't get to know a character as much because i'm interested on that character? that logic really confuses me. I don't really care about the romance part of persona, and even so i was still confused why they choose to handle the new scenes that way. My main theory is that they considered doing changes to the social links, but they were afraid of not being a "faithful remake" and they just hid these new scenes instead, and if that's the case, it's a little disappointing, as some of P3 Sls could use some changes. Also as a separate thing to say, great video, it's really refreshing to see someone pointing at the negatives of a game in a way i can clearly see you care about the game, instead of just doing it for the sake of being negative.
Yeah I wish they fixed Nozomi’s SL. He’s ok until the cult becomes relevant. Little cringe but kinda fun. But once the cult is introduced he goes from a person I wouldn’t mind hanging out with to being someone I refuse to spend time with. It sucks cus his issues with food and his trauma are good things that could’ve been handled way better. Better than Odagiri at least, I stopped hanging with him rank 2
@@BelBelle468 I'm perfectly find with SLs being someone who i wouldn't hang out normally, as long as their story and/or writing is good enough to keep me invested on learning more about them. In fact, i find it more enjoyable that way, otherwise it would get kind of repetitive. However, i do agree Nozomi's SL has some problem. First time i played i was really invested in his story, but once it gets to the cult part the SL becomes a mess of pacing + having to many plot points without giving enough attention to anything. Odagiri's SL is pretty decent. My only real issue is that i feel like the ending relies a lot in the friendship between him and the MC, and that part is not exposed enough during the SL itself, other than that i like his story.
I may enjoy reload more but honestly I think it's pretty fair to say that some of the originals personality was lost in translation, be it from the difficulty being toned down to the lack of more abstract and artistic imagery, as well as many other points you listed. Those aspects were part of P3's identity, and that identity is what made it stand out from the crowd, it's even partially the reason why Persona even exists as a series today, so it's not a stretch to be disappointed some of that has been toned down or outright removed. Great video homie, special thanks to you too for making such great content ❤
I think you hit it pretty much on the mark. Many cutscenes while decent lacked the impact of their original counterparts, Theurgy's trivializing the late game, but a decent overall game with both points in favor and against. It almost felt like the developers themselves feel that the fan base for the modern Persona series would dislike too many elements of the original, so the forsook them in favor of mechanics from P5. I would never call it a bad game, it just doesn't hit the heights FES does. Also I hope that future Persona games forsake party social links in favor of Link events, it gives the party reason to have development happen outside of social links which the games past P3 sorely lack.
As you mentioned, these critiques didn't really affect my enjoyment as a 'first time' persona 3 player, but it is really interesting to see what long time fans thought of this game. Personally loved it, but I totally get the issues everyone has with this game; it isn't perfect. I do plan on going back and playing portable and FES just because playing the games in reverse order sounds kinda fun, and I really just wanna play a 'hard' version of this game. Great video though
Persona has always had a lot of clunky expositional dialogue, I think the addition of Yukari talking in the opening cutscene was completely unnecessary. Why did they feel the need for her to go "Noo! I can't do do it!" We can perfectly see that communicated in her actions and body language, in case people didn't get it?
35:11 I truly respect that cutscene without a single word everyone smiling except aigis who can sense human heartbeat and fuuka who can't sense the mc presence anymore
Wow, going in, I wasn't sure what to think with the title. But honestly, I think I agree with just about everything in this video. I thought a lot of the same things when I was playing the game myself, like with the details of the feathers in Tartarus. Excellent video, my favorite take I've seen on Reload, so far.
I will say that the one thing I disagree on is that, despite its issues, Reload is probably still my favorite version of Persona 3. Not in the sense that I see it as a complete replacement, just that it would likely be the version I'd choose first on a revist. The ease of access and upgraded presentation (aside from the questionable changes in the cutscene direction) just nudge it a bit ahead for me. That's obviously subjective though, no hate on anyone who feels otherwise.
To me, the gripes I have for Persona 3 Reload are the missing opportunities to improve the Persona 3 story. I love Reload, but it feels kinda too faithful to the original game's story even when there are parts when the P3 Movies did much better. I feel like I wanted Persona 3 Reload to feel more like the writers looking back at the story to see how it could explore the characters more deeply than not. The Social Events are nice added on content and of course the dorm activities. But they do not impact the base game's greatly enough to make it feel completely satisfying to me. I kinda wanted Fuuka and Natsuki's story to give more insight onto why Natsuki was angry, Ken and Shinji to appear more early so they can be setup, the whole THE WORLD IS GONNA END FROM NYX reveal just doesn't hit as hard in Reload when you actually watched the movies explore the characters hesitation and fears on the world actually ending. I love Persona 3 Reload. But it definitely doesn't feel like the most inspired remake to ever have been made. I'm not asking for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth revisions, but I definitely would've wanted some neat changes that would serve the story more. The game is very fun.
From the beginning Atlus said it was a faithful remake. Yet people out here acting like Atlus didn't say it from the beginning that *No new stuff* beyond hanging out with male party members.
@@Nightxx9199 Yeah that's fair. But for a company that likes to make revisionist updated ports of their games, I just think it would've been more engaging if they tried to use more of the elements from the movies. Atlus said it was a faithful remake, but I can still criticize at how faithful it is to its detriment. Being faithful doesn't always mean a positive thing.
Yeah, my main issue with the game is the reveal of Nyx and everyone's death. I never learned truly why Ikutsuki believed he would somehow be able to rule a world where everyone was dead?? Then my teammates had incredibly mature reactions to being kidnapped and utterly betrayed by the only adult they trusted. It feels like the only one who actually had a realistic reaction to the end was Junpei.
I agree. It's hard for me to criticize the general direction Reload took because it's sort of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation with changing story elements, but playing through Reload made me remember how much I disliked most of P3's narrative. I really wish the pacing and researcher sub-plots were better addressed.
@@MHMichaelHooper Yeah, I kinda wish Ikutsuki had a more personal connection at least with the P3 protag. Like I feel like they could've done more to make him seem like a friend to Mitsuru and the protag with how he is recruited. It would've done more to show off how he is pretty much grooming children to end the world without them knowing about it. The one extra scene was pretty good though. Where he praises the P3 Protag for being the one that is pushing the plan forward. It would make the p3 protag and Aigis relate because they are both characters that want to meet the expectations of others (which is hinted in the P3 movies to me a lil)
Completely fair critiques and conclusion! I agree with basically everything you said in this video, it’s my personal favorite version of the game (and what got me to FINALLY love P3 as much as everyone else), but there are also a lot of small nitpicks and areas that are a straight downgrade. It’s definitely not a definitive version which is mildly disappointing… but still very worthwhile I think. Some of the most fun I’ve had with an RPG in years regardless
i agree with most your criticisms (although, keep in mind, before reload, i had only played p3fes for about 20 hours, so idk if my opinion holds any weight) i still do think p3 reload is amazing and deserves the praise its gotten. banger video regardless though
Something about the cutscenes and the added talking I noticed (and the script in general) is that a lot of it is based on Portable (aka, the one that added dialogue to make up for a lack of cutscenes). So they probably based Reload’s script off of Portable’s which is why the scenes are like that.
I still loved it since I love persona 3, but yeah, it just felt like something was missing for reload. I replayed portable last year when it got rereleased and that had way more of an impact on me than this did for some reason
@@spinballproduction9678he has so many good portraits in tactica. My friend and I played the game together and we couldn’t stop grinning every time he was on screen for like the first few hours
31:44 God THANK YOU for putting into words what I struggle to. It's not like the scenes were completely wrong but they just lack the weight of the original
The irony is that the dated FES version with older tech was able to portray emotion artistically than the modern version of the game (Reload). Soooo grateful to see others picking up on this as well. Glad to see that people aren't NPCs or robots lol
The subtlety and pacing giving room for the scene to breath really helps bring out the full atmosphere and mood of the situations that the characters find themselves in. Kinda sad that most people won't see them unless they actively go back to look at them now.
@@kazuMT You must be high because reload actually has facial expressions. While every fes cut scene has someone looking confused with their mouth open.
The edge was great in og p3, it sugarcoats a lot of the scary spectacle had. And the lighting in Reload is also weird, very colorful, as in P5 colorful but that might be just me. Nostalgia can be one hell of a thing but these are the points I stand on. Outside of that Reload is great imo
I feel like the clickbaity title doesn't do this video justice. People will assume you're a FES fanboy blindly hating on P3R for existing. Something to the tone of "the ups and downs of Persona 3 Reload" probably would've been better?
i didn’t watch it because i thought he was just hating to hate, i see a lot of videos like that. in this case, it actually does the opposite because wont want to sit thru a 50min video of someone rage baiting
The way I see it, I think it's cool there are now 3 amazing versions of P3, FES, Portable, and Reload and they all offer different but equally valid ways to experience the game and there's a reason to play all 3. Which I think is cooler than had Reload just invalidated the other two
I'm a big fan of the Portable version, played it after i fell in love with the Catherine Classic port on Steam, and Persona 3 helped me a lot through depression during the pandemic. Reload also came out at a time of my life where i lost my brother to an accident, so playing a game that's all about acceptence of death is helping me during this difficult time. Yes, Reload was less edgy than the original, specially the cutscenes which took a lot of inspiration from the movies(which are really good by the way). But i do think it's an amazing game, the BEST version of Persona 3 and it's a Remake like Dead Space or Resident Evil 1, where they didn't changed the story but added a lot of new things.
The only issue is the tone shift, it's a to bright when it should give a more dull or melancholy feel. And they made the game to easy those are pretty much the only issues, oh they should have added more things to do at night. Edited. Why remove the choice of what school sport to play then remove Kendo but also take different weapons for the MC. Was it so difficult to say hey i use a sword in Tartarus maybe we shiuld keep the Kendo class a an option lol.
With social links being fully voiced now, they probably cut that choice down since they'd otherwise need to voice several not doubled but tripled up sets of dialog for two full and one partial link (it affects Hayase and Yuko as well) It's the same with not usually offering the gender option - they don't put the effort into these things. They say they'd rather focus on polishing the content they *do* include. We definitely needed more things at night. Imho the link episodes should've been night-exclusive (atleast mostly) since there's often just nothing to do at night.
If there is one thing i hate about reload is that every single time you find a chest, the stairs, a teleporter, ANYTHING in tartarus. The Party will keep saying one of the five lines programmed in. Every. Single. Time. They will not shut up and apparently there is no option to lower the odds of these lines popping up.
@@Noname72105 if it counts, I played quite a bit of Tarturus with just Makoto, Junpei and Yukari early on. Those line will start to repeat when only having those two available with you the more you play.
This video is absolutely on point, I especially agree with cutscenes being changed with more watered down and less impacful versions of the OG one. I think this is the primary gripe I had with the game, rest of the "modernisations" are understandable from a objective perspective.
@@ShadowOfMassDestruction I get what you mean, I just enjoy nuanced discussions about games I enjoy. Whether I did or didn’t agree the opinions are welcome nonetheless imo.
@@Tasty_Tango45 I'm sorry but Snickety's take on the remake was borderline childish. I love some of his content and know he can do so much better. But he chose to do a lazy rage bait video, with inaccurate information just because he hates remakes. I agree that it's important to have different perspectives and I think this video did a great job for the most part explaining some of its criticisms
So many of this game's issues can be traced back to changes that Portable made. It is more accurate to say that it's a remake of Portable than of FES or the OG.
@@mondo1371 The entire script is adapted from Portable. Every single change that Portable made to every scene is copied here. Notice all the random VN dialogue things that they for some reason forgot to cut where it's basically just characters just describing what's in front of them. Lots of animations that were in FES only and not Portable were cut.
@@TehAJ34it’s even weirder that they used “it’s a faithful remake of fes” to not include the femc I feel like it was cover up for the actual reason and it was because of short timing/too much work
I think Moon could have been a night time social link with the strip open at night. They’d have to explain being away from his family but Star could have been a night social link too.
Yeah, the voice acting really carried the SLs on their backs. The old couple were so wholesome and bruh IT MADE MY HEART BLEED FOR NOZOMI LIKE WTF (he may have a very warped vision of himself and people around him, partly thanks to cult brainwashing, but at least it didn't feel I was enabling him as much as Kenji or Kazushi). And c'mon, what else could I say about Akinari that hasn't been said already? Special mention to his Japanese VA Hirofumi Nojima btw. Same boat with you about Tanaka, it made me despise him. But hey, that means the VAs did their job, in spades. The cutscenes direction was obviously not gonna be the same because, as you have said in your previous videos, Persona 3 is a reflection of early 2000s anime and that's not something we're gonna see replicated with today's animation. And they didn't exactly "dumb down the scenes", Reload uses P3P's script, which detracted from the more show-don't-tell scenes from P3/FES given P3P's VN presentation anyways. With that said, I'm curious as to how they're gonna make Episode Aigis: The Answer's most famous bosses look (you know which 2 I'm talking about) since the anime cutscenes were done by Wit Studio, because let's just say a certain anime under Wit Studio's belt makes me think Atlus picked them especifically because of that anime. What was it again? Uhm, something about... an "attack" and a... "titan"?
Not being able to choose clubs is my biggest gripe with the game. Minato being in kendo makes so much more sense than being in track. Especially sense Atlus made his weapon a sword. It also gives ample reason why he is one of the best in the club, given his nightly/multi-weekly/once-monthly excursions into tartarus, getting genuine experience and being so much better than everyone else who only knows what they were taught. Although the star social link and being "rivals" in kendo never made sense to me, unless the guy was just walking around at night pucking fights with everyone using a bat like a sword. And it makes more sense for him to be in a music club considering he never takes out his damn headphones unless the plot demands it, or hes directly talking to someone. And i also like to think he has a genuine interest in music, so the music club is kind of an introduction to being a musician in a sense.
Taking away choice is a painful adjustment to make. I know people these days prefer the MCs to be more pre-defined characters, but it’s in the options where players like you and I can pick something different because it makes more sense to us as individual players. Homogenized content that was originally varied kinda blows
i feel the same way you do about the cutscenes, the abstract nature and the direction that trusts the audience is so lost in the remake - and im worried the answer is gonna be worse in that regard. I can see why they'd write it in this fashion tho, media literacy is basically dead these days LOL
I enjoyed my time with Reload, I don't think it was perfect and didn't recreate my experience when I first played this game - but I had a good time. It was a fun time, and now I'm playing SMTV to keep the ball rolling.
They also downgraded/ oversimplified some ost Like battle of everyones souls All you hear is the guitar and a lot of the distortion are literally gone or how they would change pits of some parts of the guitar to make it sound Like i said Distorted Which helped a lot with the atmostphere of nyx And call me a bitch or whatever I prefer the "voiceless" version of nyx It really showed that ryoji was gone and all that was left was a being that only had one purpose , The fall Funny how they have the Va say the arcana is the means by which all is revealed fazter after the first time Also GIVE BACK NYX'S DOUBLE TURN AND ALMIGHTY ATTACK I WANNA SEE PEOPLE SUFFER CUZ HIS SWEEP AND SUNDER ARE PHYSICAL AND YOU CAN BLOCK IT AAAAAAA Also althought her ai is better It is still dumb, like it wastes any killing potential it could have had Grim transcendense on death phase is literally a joke She still uses tretakarn and makarakarn Which are u s e l e s s
I think Theurgy’s are a great mechanic and makes party members unique. However they are so busted and not balanced. I think the fact that all of them ignore enemy weaknesses puts too much into the player’s favor. Just the fact that you use the theurgy meter instead of using SP is already a good perk, ignoring weaknesses is just overkill. Yukari and Mitsuru by far have the best Theurgy’s besides Makoto since their conditions are ridiculously easy and trivializes the difficulty. I think if you had to consider an enemy’s weakness before using the theurgy, it would’ve been a much better system, considering in the later game, most characters have almighty damage theurgy’s so it would’ve been an excellent reward for going out of your way to rank up their dorm activities.
The only one with an Almighty Theurgy (other than MC) is Mitsuru. The rest get physical/elemental or support second Theurgies. Theurgies were conceived so your party members would always be able to contribute somehow in battle even if their normal kit was unfit for the current battle. To be honest being able to ignore weakness is fine. They could've balanced them another way, such as nerfing their damage, not letting skills boost them, not letting a Theurgy be able to crit/inflict knockdown (unless specifically noted like Jack Brothers) or just making them something you have to actively improve over the game, such as through hanging out with them ala Confidant skills in P5 or something.
@@tsf9600 Thanks for the correction. You brought up some good points. I still stand on Theurgy’s should consider enemy weaknesses but I like your idea of nerfing the damage output a bit. That way, if you want boosted damage, you’ll have to buff and concentrate and use some SP to maximize its effectiveness. Considering by late game, SP management is not a problem.
Very good video. Though I personally enjoy Reload more than the original, I'm happy that you actually gave a good explanation as to why you view things differently instead of just "New thing bad; old thing good".
@@bubbletea_ No problem. I just really dislike it, when people talk about bad things in modern games and it boils down to "It was different in the original", without ever explaining WHY the change was bad. Especially, since most of the time, it's people complaining about things being "easier" nowadays. And then the "easier" part, is stuff like you can now select skills when fusing Personas, instead of clicking back and fourth for half an hour until you get what you want. The older version is not "harder", this doesn't take any skill, it's just a good QoL-change that makes you waste less time. Stuff like that, is what I'm fed up with and I'm glad you managed to avoid falling into that pitfall.
The Original was more Avant-garde in it's presentation they definitely made reload more skewed towards a general audience. Which does suck but I really do think reloads extra moments with the characters in the daily life segments really does make you feel like you've lived with these characters. Hoping P6 keeps up with that because I think it's the best thing about reload other than looking very pretty most of the time.
Very valid criticism of the game. Actually looks at all elements that, unfortunately, adds up. I, too, still think FES is the best way to enjoy Persona 3. Both pay attention to detail but FES does it much better, and is able to do it in such an iconic way that it's still dicussed to this day. But that's not meant to downplay Reload whatsoever. Just means that Reload doesn't really do P3 justice even though it's a fun game. Overall I enjoyed this video 👍
Since 5 started the trend of the party getting "mission uniforms" for when they visit their respective alternate worlds, I can't help but wonder what they'll have the Investigation Team wear in the TV World, if they even give them uniforms in a hypothetical 4 remake. Persona 5 had that whole symbolic comic book-esque costumes deal, & 3R has that secret agent aesthetic to it. Maybe instead of the uniformity of the SEES fits, everyone will get more unique stuff. Like Chie could wear gi pants with her jacket, Yosuke could get a Naruto-ish fusion of shinobi gear & streetwear. It's cool to imagine.
Honestly, this was a really nice video. As someone who loves and cherishes every incarnation of Persona 3 I was initially worried by the title that it was going to be an hour long fest picking apart Reload regardless of it's merit but I can genuinely see the amount of heart and thought that's gone into it and for the most part I do feel the same way. I think Reload is a fantastic version of Persona 3 and easily the most accessible but it's within the small details FES still holds the highest regard for me. What I am most looking forward to though is the Answer because if there's any part of FES could use the benefits of the kind of additions Reload has bought to the table it's Episode Aegis. If they can further flesh out and establish the emotions of the cast and the conflict at the heart of the story I think it could really shine in a way it's never had the chance to.
One thing you didn’t mention which was a big deal for me was the new OST. It’s so hit or miss for me. I would’ve liked to have been given the option to switch to original tracks. Kinda sad they let you buy P5 and P4 tracks but you can’t do P3.
I agree, I missed the harsh and grudgingly live the music was. The instrumentation in some of the new tracks aren’t hitting with me sadly I am pretty happy that others are enjoying the music 👌
I was very surprised by the way Junpei's "death" was handled. The way they present it to you is so good... I genuinely thought I did something wrong or skipped some important task before that day. I genuinely thought bro was dying xD
ok, ok, trust me - two years later they will release Persona 3 Reload Blue Waterfall With Pink Sakura Leaves Edition that will add FeMC to the game for the humble price of 80$
to make it accessible is how I see it, I will be going back to the PS2 game myself but I'm very happy at the idea that people who don't emulate or try to score >$200 retro games can finally experience the full story
FES pretty much was the same as original P3, just with The Answer. So making it a DLC makes sense in 2024, where DLC is way more prevalent and easier to make. It also saves you from having to buy P3R again at full price
@@BahamutCeroXmore fusıon spells and star socıal lınk and many other thıngs reload ıs the ınferıor versıon thıs ısnt from nostalgıa as ı fırst played ıt two years ago on hard
Still will prefer fes over reload personally. Not to mention that the combat menus make me motion sick. I personally just like fes overall more. (Also 105€ for the full story is just a ripoff)
@@mallorycarll6280 I guess it’s personal preference, but nah I think FES handled it amazingly. The way the cutscene and relief of the team was basically conveyed with sound and visuals, and them putting focus on aigis crying does not hit the same way in portable where they just talk about how they feel.
@@postcents In my opinion, I love the scene of Aigis running in Reload, if they had only expanded upon that idea, not make them just stand there, and kept it in 2d. It would've EASILY been my favorite depiction of it.
Between work, school and a new baby I've not had the time to sit down and play reload, but have watched many reviews to get a feel for if I will pick it up or just be happy dusting off and replaying FES on my PS2, and I think the greatest decider you highlighted was the cutscenes. From the snippets you showed the original just did so much better of a job of showing and not telling in their cutscenes than Reload did. I still think I'll get Reload eventually, but no longer feel that rush to need to get it sooner. Would love to see all the details added to expand out the male characters from SEE that never were really as fleshed as out as the female social links allowed. Maybe in a year when it potentially comes out on the Switch 2 or whatever it ends up being I'll pick it up. Hands down this is still my favorite Persona game and glad to see it getting so much love and attention again for a potential new generation that never got to play the original.
Another thing that was removed was how your teams would react when you changed their gear. Espeally with hi-cut armor. Like Yukari would get pissed if you have her that but it you were her boyfriend at that time she would be embarrassed but still do it for you. Kinda sucks that’s not in reload
Excellent information and explanations. You're very well spoken and well versed in all facets of Persona knowledge. I also checked out your commentary on the endings of the 3 core games. Long content like this is right up my alley. Keep it up!
I finally truly got into the series last year and played portable and its one of if not my favorite games, and this game i think is something i love equally, with each having things i like and dislike, but i think its still has the roots of what made the original so great to me
I still find the 3D cutscene for the awakening to be really lame and janky in reload. It's like the animator ran out of time to make it really good. I was really excited to see a stylized 3d version of that shot of thanatos swiping his sword with a red background behind him before it cuts to a shot where the magician arcana shadow's mask is cleaved in half sigh... Aside from some of the cutscenes overall the remake is alright
Oh boy. I wonder how many people are going to dislike without even watching the video based on the title alone. It's a shame, because the video is very well put together as always, and not on the whole very negative
great video as always, i always appreciated how you'd talk about some of fes's nicher/less talked about gameplay stuff like the bonus effects from store bought equipment, and how tartarus's structure works within the game's loop, hearing you call tartarus a 'playground' was so cathartic!!
I'd have to agree with your points about the scene direction, for me at least it is the biggest issue I have with the remake. After multiple instances of noticing the remake choosing to show less and tell more, only to culminate into arguably the most beautiful and emotional scene in the game (34:58) getting gutted for exposition mush, it certainly soured my opinion for a good while after I played it despite what I loved about the remake
I think what the dev team said applies on the Reload development a lot. They wanted to bring the game back remade, but they also wanted to soon focus on the new persona title. So this game was developed to meet the wishes the players had but wasn't as fully realized as P3FES due to resources and they had to cut some content out. I'm personally fine with this and in the end this gives the player another new experience when going back to the original games.
Thank you for touching on the lack of "edge" in P3R! This is something that seriously bothered me when discussing with friends during the hype of P3R. Rather than in game though, I'm talking about music. P3R has this whole "chill lofi playlist" vibe to it's songs, which is not bad on a separate standard. But P3's OG music is SO EDGY. It has a funk and spark that P3R just does not match up on.
I'll leave some of my own opinions not really mentioned in the video down here in the replies. It's inevitable for a game built ground up. But holy shit the dorm lighting. Home base, new features, rewards for spending time there, and good GOD it just was not done justice. It seems like a lack of time or an incredible oversight last second.
P5 faceless characters. I love that more space is taken up in P3R. It gives the story more volume and really makes every area feel a little more personal to the player. But a lot of cutscenes with randoms being so lesser in detail makes it hard to take it serious. I don't want completely personable characters, but at least given a similar amount of even facial details as the main characters. I like the emphasis on how much they don't matter, but I wish they were even slightly given the amount of hair/face details as the main characters. I only ever really felt like there was space taken up at the last month of the game. The cult posters and increase in apathy syndrome only then started to really shift the environment for me. In the rest of the game they just didn't really make a difference.
The talk about shinji was on point, i've never had to stop playing a game because of how emotional i got until the end of his linked episode. Literally saved the game and stopped playing for the day. Phenominal writing.
The difference it atmosphere is definitely the biggest miss in reload and that's definitely due to the cutscenes :/ they looks like genshin impact characters, lowkey if they just hand animated all the cutscenes likes in the og it would be soo much better
Atlus has no excuse to have not included FeMC. Anime cutscenes are expensive, but they could've just replaced anime cutscenes in the male route with in-engine cutscenes for FeMC. They already did this for a ton of cutscenes, so there's no excuse. It wouldn't have cost THAT much more.
I don't fully agree with the criticisms or the conclusion (I am someone who sees P3R as the best version of P3), but this is the fairest I've seen any critic of this game be to P3R with mostly pretty good criticisms that are well-substantiated. Take that thumbs-up fam and keep up the good work.
![The Best OP Nobody Explained Right-But I Will [Persona 3 Reload]](/img/n.gif)
i changed the title and thumbnail. i genuinely didn't think "missed the mark" would be taken as hostile. the aim was to come off critical, but not spiteful. that message didn't come across very well so i tried to go for something more accurate while still conveying that i'm going to be critical. i like to think my criticisms here were pretty tame here, and i hope i made it obvious that i do like this game. it just won't replace the original for me. (original p3 video: th-cam.com/video/J0wniLnpzmw/w-d-xo.html , patreon: www.patreon.com/bubbletea_)
I pretty much agree with everything in this video ngl, I really like Reload and find it interchangable with FES however the finer details of FES and it's old school experimental charm still hold it in place as my favorite.
@@ShadowOfMassDestructionfacts
I agree with almost everything you said here. There's a bunch of other stuff you could've rly dug in at
For some reason people can't seem to understand the idea of critiquing something you love
In original getting to level 99 add our hp and pc to 999😂😂😂 not in reload 😢😢😢.
Ya got me for the cutscene, it is true that they lacked of impact but my guess it that they did changed the scene to be more accomodated to a new public in a world full of technology and social net work. In 2008, there is less of that, and p3 was their Last change to KEEP on doing it. So they put everything they got. However it is true that i prefer ancient cutscene rather than the news one....
A few years later:
How Persona 4 Rewind Failed to BROADCAST the Magic of The Original
Persona 4 rewind is such a hard name
@@AWOCENWhat about Persona 4 ReRun?
@@AWOCENMakes it sound like a trashy late night MTV show fueled by celeb rumors, which is very much on theme with the Midnight Channel
@@ShadowOfMassDestruction Not a competition here. They both slap.
i feel like it's gonna be really hard for them to fuck up P4, mostly since it's a lot harder to cut out as much content, and brighter more modern graphics will fit the game's aesthetic more
I kinda see reload how I see the resident evil remakes where you can make the argument that the remakes are better games but the original still has its own identity and provides a different experience while still being the same game at its core
Definitely not the same level of quality as the Resident Evil remakes though
@@athoremI’ve been loving it more turn the original
This is the best take I’ve seen so far. Reload is its own experience just as much as it is a remake of the original in my eyes
But RE1 remake is better than the OG tho. Like it is what P3 Reload should have been
I those are the games that make the concept of remakes feel odd to me
Those games make the original not obsolete from from a user experience perspective they're better in universally better ways like less jank and more responsiveness, if p3r was just party control and better graphics everything else about to could stay the same and it would be better than p3
As a fan of fes and portable, I say this with the upmost sincerity… reload is the amazing persona 3 story, but the game is actually fun to play 🤯
Way more fun then I had playing fes that’s for sure
the only issue i had is i felt we should of included more simbolism of suicide to get the message of how finite life is and why should value it.
@@SergioBocanegra Chidori
I agree which makes it more accessible but the game being less fun makes for a more compelling metaphor for depression. I don’t think games should have to be fun in a traditional sense if it’s in service of the themes of the story
@@SergioBocanegrathe games themes are about as subtle as a brick to the face
One thing i really miss from the original is the small special animations from character models during some story events, like akihiko pulling out his evoker when explaining why the mc is the leader, or jumpei sitting at the stairs and drinking juice while waiting for the first full moon operation, or the mc holding aigis hand after the ryoji reveal
I'm glad someone else noticed too! Even in P4 the characters didn't have that many animations but you get to og P3 and you have Yukari over here with like a billion little subtle animations like her doing the little lean in teasing motion to the protag before she runs off to get her wallet.
what's bizzare is a lot of those animations are left in the files but unused in reload
@@Bidderuni it is weird, makes me think some parts of development were probably rushed
Makoto not grabbing Aigis' hand in reload is still bothering me
Can someone tell me when the aigis hand hold was in the original? I cannot remember for the life of me
From what I've heard, the reason for a lot of the extra dialogue is because Reload is based on the Portable script, which has characters say more to compensate for the visual novel format. I haven't played it myself though, so your examples might not have been in P3P. I agree that some fluff from the script could've been cut though.
Yeah in p3p the characters have to explain what’s happening since all the animated cutscene are missing
that and bloating the game to incentivize its over price of $70 + dlc
thats the real reason
Yukari's lines from the opening scene are 100% lifted from Portable. And I believe the lines after Tartarus disappears are also from Portable
There's also the exchange after the "Don't look up" line during the monorail full moon, which IIRC were recorded for the original, cut, then added back into Reload
Originally I didn't really care about the voiced social links, because usually I can read the dialogue faster than they can speak it. But I found that it actually made me slow down and appreciate the scenes a lot more.
My most favorite part of the voiced stuff when near the last months where everyone was going thru there own things. It was like they wanted to convey to us that eventhough they are in the same room or same residents...they started to get there distance from eachother.
especially the sun social link
I always got a bit emotional over Shinji in the original game but holy shit man his death scene went so fucking hard in Reload and it actually made me cry. Getting his final liked episode a bit later just adds salt to injury, knowing he had a promise to graduate with Akihiko and Mitsuru and he wanted to go back to school to keep the promise but died before he could do it made me so fucking sad.
Spoiler much?
I needed time to process when I didn't finish this one Monad dungeon. Apparently, they give one costume for Shinji. The way the game tells me thay Shinji is gone and I got the costume too late, it hits hard.
@@hazelbagels024why are you watching this video in the first place? Getting spoiled is on YOU.
@@mikyeediaz120 same thing happened to me, the only monad dungoen i forgot to do before the next full moon aswell. i just slumped into my chair lmao
@@mikyeediaz120 this happened to me too! i had to put down the controller and walk away a bit. Even knowing the story, the improvements they made to Shinji's story made the loss even harder
My biggest gripe with P3Reload is the changes to the anime cutscenes of the original, the original ones give a very big Evangelion/Serial Experiments Lain vibe to them and are so very intense and artistic. I seriously didn't like how the remake chaanged them
Yeah same here. I thought I was the only one who was reminded of Eva from the PS2 cutscenes
Everything else is perfect imo
The Orpheus Awakening cutscene is so disappointing to me. It lacked the...oomph the original had with Thanatos.
The biggest loss for me is how feral Thanatos came off in the original with it's wild movements and heavy breathing it does before crushing the Magician's arm along with the roar it does. In Reload Thanatos' movements feel so stilted and practiced. It didn't feel the same, and it sucks to think that's how people might see the cutscene from here on out. I think even without the original for direct comparison it would be pretty lackluster.
Og cutscenes were mostly poorly drawn and faint, so that's not a big deal. Though i agree that some new are lacking the same energy.
the original animation is pretty intense, new 3d animation doesnt have the same impact since it is too clear and game model.
Agreed, I did enjoy the novelty of the shiny but that muted, almost abstract feel of the the og cutscenes - paired with less sound in comparison to the remake - just had this darker, deeper vibe that just can’t be replicated
15:05 I disagree with this, with the baton pass in P5 I felt like it made the game way too easy with its stat increases, I’d rather just have the baton pass be a way of making extra turns
Honestly P5 was easy and P5R even easier, been the trend since P3
@@KonEl17 P3R felt like a better difficulty, with showtimes in P5R they happened automatically and more so when you were LOSING, essentially baby mode
P3R has alot of stuff like strong ass spells that are broken but Theurgy’s being charged is so much better than Showtimes happening automatically, and all the confidant abilities also made the game baby mode, and Futaba protecting you from death was baby mode, previously stated baton pass stat increases were baby mode
I played P3R on hard mode first run and man I loved the difficulty it was perfect
@@logogogo4872
Then Okumura happens, and MERCILESS becomes the easiest difficulty.
@@catalyst539 exactly
when your game becomes easy even on the hardest difficulty thats the biggest sign theres a problem 😭
@@logogogo4872There's no way you think P5 is easier than P3R. Theurgy attacks ruin the game. It's essentially P5S showtimes but in a turn-based setting, which makes the game a joke. Also, how could Futaba's RNG be more OP than spamming Slphid Aura before every fight, lol.
I shudder to think of a Persona 4 remake solely because of the reactions of Persona 4 fans
The rage will clog up reddit for years
I don't think reddit will survive that long lol.
I think a P4 remake would actually work better then this P3R. P4 and P5 are more alike then then P3 is.
if they make the game actually good (they change it)
the persona 4 fans go beserks
if they change nothing
the persona 4 fans go beserk
If the Golden content is not included in the Persona 4 remake, then yeah ATLUS is doing the atlus. I don't want to hear people saying they removed the Golden content because it is accurate to the original because it sounds stupid.
@@fluke7506 I want the persona 4 remake to actually just be a graphical/battle remake off of Golden. Yes Yosuke being homophobic is annoying as a homo, but Sasuke voicing someone who has the persona Jiraiya is ICONIC
I didn’t realise how drastically different the original cutscenes were. Might honestly warrant a play through just to see them
you mean a google search lol
@@anonwalkerr Why not both?
the original game's cutscenes is 1 of my favorite parts about it. I love the shiny new look of the new cutscenes, but they rly do let go of the mood that made the og unique. I love it when scenes in media are portrayed in psychologically mind-bending ways, and p3 did that amazingly.
hopefully someone will make a mod to patch those cutscenes in, I'd do a replay for that :)
should, original is better by a mile
that + modded is still the best way for P3
nah remake is better people only love atmosphere if you dont care about that reload is the better game @@marcusclark1339
I agree completely on Reload's cutscene direction. There is a big lack of dark, surreal imagery that the original PS2 game had in its scenes. It really added to the tone of the story, and the remake unfortunately feels softer in its tone now because of this lack of strange yet fascinating cutscene direction.
Why are so many people obsessed with remakes? I understand accessibility, but you do realize the game's plot, etc WILL change as a result of varying reasons? What was written in X year might not be present today for example. It will not turn out the same, or might turn out worse. There will not be a faithful adaptation. Just because its remade does not mean it will turn out good. Best to keep the original and not butcher things. Plus not every game needs a remake/remaster, best to leave it be since the series had its run.
@@-Siknakaliux-II I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I think what I realized is that I actually want remakes to change *more*, not less, as odd as that sounds. The thing is, the original will always be there if you want to experience it, so these super-faithful/"beat-for-beat" remakes feel unnecessary to me, and they tend to annoy people who are filled with nostalgia for the original experience. It's cool to have more people get introduced to the series and I understand things like QoL improvements, but P3R has many of the same exact flaws that FES and P3P did (poor pacing, lack of male social links, few nighttime activities). If you're going to remake something, why not take the time to really change it up, y'know? Some people might cry heresy, but oddly I think the further away you get from the original the less people are going to feel that way, because you're creating something entirely new.
that's why I actually have a lot of respect for those new FF7 remakes. Without getting too spoilery, they're taking certain things in a VERY different direction, and honestly I prefer that than them trying to somehow recreate the original experience beat-for-beat and just rehash what's already been done. They're trying to be *creative,* instead of just saying "let's do the exact same thing again," and I think that justifies the remake's existence way more (assuming they can pull off the new changes, of course).
Remake gonna happen cuz atlus need the bag duh
@@-Siknakaliux-IIthe change is the reason why we make remakes. Both from a narrative, and a gameplay standpoint, we make remakes because there is also something more/else to do. Sometimes it can just be a spit in the face of the original, others just a different experience that makes the original stand out more, or just be the flat out better version of the original, but they are all made with the idea to change the original in any way, shape or form. That's why there is the separation between remakes and remasters if I remember correctly
I only played P3P once so I felt I really missed out on a lot of emotional segments like Shinjiro's death not being that impactful. However, they fixed that in P3 Reload immensely. There was this bit involving the frozen takoyaki in the fridge. I think if you waited more than a few days, an ally would take the frozen takoyaki and leave a note saying that they ate it and leave another item that resonated with their character, like Akihiko leaving a protein shake.
However, I got distracted with Shinjiro's death and decided to check the fridge a few days after I stored some frozen takoyaki. And what I found was a very casual note from Shinjiro apologizing that he took the frozen takoyaki for some cooking ingredients and that he made up for it with some leftovers. That hit me WAY HARDER than it ever needed to that Shinjiro was gone for good after all those times cooking together like damn😭
That was me back when I first played FES when I didn't see the recording of Shinjiro watching TV with Koromaru then pretending to be asleep when the girls walked in until after he died.
Ikutsuki took mine. He left a Precious Egg, but... of all the people.
There are romance flags that trigger the platonic or love routes so there is actually a third route were Mitsuru for example doesn’t have a confession
do you have any video of it? cant find anything
Someone didn't get the joke. The joke is that nobody would ever want platonic mitsuru
@@reksraven yeah I did not 😭😭
@@reksravenI'm the John Cena here to ask you *Are You Sure About That?*
@@reksraven I do. I love the 3 routes
The message I got from this was: "play both, you get the best of the old vibes and the new expansions"
So thanks, now I have to 80 hour games on my backlog!
This is what I recommend to all new games that are getting amazing remakes, the remake is great and the og game is still great, one isn't necessarily there to replace the other, just play both and enjoy both, maybe you'll like a few things more in the new one or the old one, or swap between which is your favorite, I dont get why people fight and get so mad over remakes when most times they just improve on outdated things and are just as good as the original
I think I’ll do this. Loving the shit out of P3R (my first Psa game) and I’m willing to check out the og (I played it for like 5 hours then stopped, months before the remake announcement)
@@kuroganeyukia579I feel this about RE4R. Some remakes earn their place
@Dimebag-wx2rs It's funny cause RE4 remake is the reason I started telling people this cause I saw so many people fight about it, when is actually really good but I can still go back and enjoy og RE4, but also loved the remake as it was just as fun and improved on certain characters
not really
classic could be pirated for free and modded where new is egregious $70 + dlc for a weaker experience with prettier visuals but overall casualized making it worse
The water aesthetic is also related to tidal wave, which ties to the moon cycle, perfectly fitting for P3's motif
Giving Shinji auto heatriser and debilitate in his move set is nasty work. Also the controller vibrates as he takes his final breath. That was neat. My play through of P3RE got hampered due to being lvl 99 but worth it since I saw Shinji at his best.
There are things from the original that I wish P3RE kept, but I appreciate it for what it is. Even now, I still can’t believe I get to play this game.
One of my nitpick with the Nyx Avatar final battle was the environment. Like with everything in Reload during the Dark Hour, everything is so green. In the original, the top of Tartarus was very grey, dull, and lifeless. It really added to the atmosphere that this is the end. Life is ending. But they made the top of Tartarus like everywhere else. Just green and vibrant.
I’d argue it’s less vibrant and more just bright. Kinda like how the rainbow block was painful to look at. It’s mean to contrast with Nyx’s red and black look. Kind of like a black hole in there middle of an overly bright place. I can see what they were going for.
I feel like persona 3 reload being so incredibly faithful is a great thing.
but on the other hand there were big missed opportunites.
for example why couldnt the whole shinji ark from the movies happen in the game (showing up a month early and being a big brother figure for ken)
As well as that the new link episodes are great but they Eat through so many time slots.
and missing a link episode not letting you complete the rest of it is a HUGE L (did they seriously not learn from the FES ELLE-P dates?, and yes im aware you get multiple chances before theyre cut off)
Even if it doesnt feel as faithful in some regards (cut features etc)
i think its a good game but just short of great.
Yeah seriously, I skipped over this because I already played P3. Why should I pay $70 + tip to play it again?
@@SwizzleMix i played it on gamepass.
it was 100% worth the replay.
I enjoyed it alot.
Its a fantastic game but i feel like so much more couldve been better
@@SwizzleMixthis is more like hey new people play and old people new paint.
Atlus from the beginning said it was going to be faithful. And at least it was more faithful than crap like Pokemon bdsp. Where people went "But where's platinum!" Where the "Faithful remake" wasn't even close to faithful. And actually could have gotten away with more.
For the link dates they kind of did the same thing for the twins and persona 5 Royal. Remember when you used to take them on field trips and if you missed one of them you could not finish them.
I think a lot of people who grew up with/played P3 upwards of several years ago struggle to feel, through no fault of their own, just how utterly slow P3/P3F can feel to someone who was introduced to MegaTen as a whole through P4G or P5R. About 3 years ago I played both P4G and P5R and absolutely adored them and became obsessed with Persona, so I quickly became fascinated by P3 as it was lauded as the one with the best story. I tried and tried to play P3F but I just couldn't get it to grasp my attention and I just couldn't enjoy Tartarus, whether I wasn't playing it right or conditioned to expect Persona games to play differently following several P5R playthroughs. I've found several of my friends to be in the same boat, so we yearned for a P3 remake that would bring that story to the gameplay that made us fall in love with the franchise. After beating Reload, we've all come to find it to be our favorite game in the franchise, by far. While I 100% respect and acknowledge that there's a certain vibe attatched to the original (mostly through it's anime cutscenes) that wasn't, and never will be, truly replicated, I think seasoned reviewers of the series neglect just how different the idea of a Persona game is in the mind of modern fans, not to the crazy extent that causes disputes like "there needs to be a cast in college" or "remove social links," or other radical ideas, but the idea relating to the gameplay attached with our initial impressions that fascinated us and hooked us deeper into the franchise at large.
Frankly, FES is borderline unplayable for huge swathes of people who aren't diehard JRPG fans that grew up with it at this point. So many clunky design choices (which makes sense, first game in this style... but still) which can add to the atmosphere but frankly make it atrocious gameplay wise trying to go back to it.
I agree with the stuff about the cutscene direction though, that was straight up superior in FES.
as someone who's played fes and portable not to completion but halfway through each, reload is superior in nearly every way except the cut scene direction. its bat shit insane to think that fes didn't have direct commands. idgaf if you could "learn" how to play with that, it was miserable. portable mended this and I'm glad it was brought into reload as well. I am never going to use party commands in a game ever again
It's like quick sprints in P4 vs. Long marathon runs to prep for in Tartarus. A full moon to prep for.
I started with P4 as my first MegaTen, then played P3 and really loved it, then I played P5, then P1, then P2, and I found that overall I enjoyed the older ones a lot better (2EP is now my favorite) and I had a blast playing through the original two Megami Tensei games on Famicom after I had finished my journey with Persona.
I don't think its a matter of where you started with the series that will affect how you feel about them, its a matter of what you value in games.
With regards to the social links voice acting, I agree that making them all voiced goes a long way to make them better overall, in particular the Moon Social Link, somehow the eay he speaks about himself is very self deprecating and its conveyed much better that his eating habits is a way for him to escape his problems rather than true enjoyment
Such a nice way to express an valid opinion and sure reload could've been better but what we got is great and he definitely shows that from shinji to link episodes to the water design...etc
Thank you for the vid goat
Personal gripes aside, I'm so glad that they cooked with how they tackled the ending of 3 in the remake. Having Aigis' monologue play over a fully rendered cutscene pushed the feels into overdrive. And thank god they nailed the Memories of You remix.
I think one of the reason multiple weapon types was removed and keep in mind this was removed in P3P was that there was such a huge gap between the MC and party members that legit it was better a lot of the time to ditch your party and solo everything. This was especially true as you unlocked stronger fusion spells. So in P3P the MC was heavily nerfed by being locked to only swords and fusion also became super lame because they were single use items. Reload rolled this back a bit by tying fusion spells to theurgy and allowing you to use any Persona in your compendium which I think is a better choice. With the addition of theurgy and personalities, they definitely want you to feel like your party members are contributing instead of being a burden which is how FES felt.
Even in original FES i eventually abandoned every party member besides 3 that I'd keep trained up for the final boss. Of which I basically solo'd anyways.
I genuinely don't see this perspective at all, the party isn't some burden 🤨
Even in FES functioning entirely on Ai they carry plenty of the weight in battle and can be great assists and DPS and you get way more opportunities to take action and buff with them around as well.
Like obviously, the MC is strong as hell as they are in literally every persona game when you break the fusion system and make cracked personas, but taking away your party is not only going to slow your battles to a crawl but also give you less opportunity to do good buff rotations efficiently without letting the enemies do it themselves.
The reason they took away the multiple weapon system for P3P was time and resources. If they wanted to add it they would have to animate and model every single weapon type for the FEMC model, and that is pretty time consuming for a basic port.
Unfortunately this isn’t the actual reason why they didn’t add the other types it’s mainly because they didn’t/couldn’t model them for Femc
hmm i think they should keep it but making it unlockable in the tartarus or night activites. would be pretty neat. we have mc training other weapon while conversing with other party member why they are specialized in that weapon
I could never beat the original and had to force myself to try and get through it, started reload last week and haven’t put it down! Such a fun game
Just wondering: how does everyone feel about Yukari's new voice actor/portrayal? To me, it feels her like recasting was the most controversial with some people not liking how nice she is now and others saying it's an improvement and she's more likable now.
Personally, Reload was my first time experiencing this game so I didn't have any pre-conceived notion of her going in, but I ended up really liking her, if you couldn't tell. I know the reason most people don't like how nice she is in Reload is because her sass showed her grief but I think she's still a compelling character and her grief is still shown in her attitude.
It's clear that her cheery personality is just a facade she puts on to hide her inner turmoil. While she's popular at school and mentions her off screen friends, she doesn't really seem close with any of them. This is likely because she doesn't want to feel lonely but also can't connect with any of them or show them her true self, but she can with Makoto when she learns that his parents are also dead.
Something I didn't even catch on my first playthrough is that the hotel mission gives some insight into the issues she's bottling up at that point in the story. The hotel definitely reminds her of her mom which she mentions "throwing herself at men" to Mitsuru during the Kyoto trip. Yukari clearly values deep, sincere love a lot and that combined with her respect for her dad is what lead to her hatred for her mom. So when the Lovers tried to force her to sleep with Makoto, her feelings boiled over, causing her to blow up at the Lovers and her theurgy gauge to immediately fill up. Maybe I'm reading too deep into that scene but I thought it was a neat way to build character, as that mission also shows her stubbornness when it comes to Junpei's teasing.
I also think the reduction of her sass is over exaggerated just a bit. She's still pretty snappy with Junpei and is still really passive aggressive with Mitsuru for the first half of the game. Overall, I liked her in Reload and I think I liked her the same way she was intended to be liked in the original game.
This is all subjective of course but my issue with the personality changes in Reload is that it makes the group dynamic more bland and sterile. Yukari lost her semi savage mean girl energy in Reload. That energy created a very entertaining dynamic between her and junpei in FES. Their FES dynamic helped carry things while the plot took its very sweet time to take off. It's been so attenuated in Reload that when she does refer to Junpei as Stupei, it almost feels out of character.
Their general dislike toward one another in Reload feels unnecessary because there's no narrative purpose or weight behind it.
Junpei feels more like a musical theater kid in Reload. Gross. That used to be my favorite character in the series RIP.
Akihiko lost his 1 dimensional righteous stoicism to become more of a goofy boi like Junpei!
All ingredients designed to craft a story for the P5 16-25 year old mainstream audience.
with scenes that are basically the same with the new English voice actors, specifically yukari, just don’t hit the same. They make Yukari sound way too nicer making her lose her snarkiness. So whenever there is a scene of dialogue that’s kept from the older games they just sound out of place (for example the stupei line just sounds out of place/character for her with the new VA and the voice direction) especially with her interacting with other characters ESPECIALLY with junpei. Like the other reply said reload makes it where these conversations don’t have much weight to them with how they toned down characters (yukari) and even how they overtuned characters (junpei, like some scenes and dialogue just sound too happy? For example a hospital scene with chidori in the original junpei sounds more mellow when talking with her. In reload he sounds like how he would talk with the MC.)
I honestly think very little changed with Yukari. The main difference is the original’s voice direction with Michelle Ruff, she uses her voice to make Yukari sound very firm so she comes off sassier. Heather Gonzalez doesn’t read her lines with the same firmness so she reads a bit more “delicate”, and maybe that creates this idea of Yukari coming off “nicer” but the sassiness is still very much present in my eyes
I personally prefer the newer portrayal, since the original made her come off as your typical bitchy mean girl and her moments where she tries to be nicer are forced and half-assed in a misguided attempt to make her look good. In the original she felt like someone who'd hold a grudge against you over something insignificant. This one falls more in line with the original Japanese characterization, whereas the original missed the mark with wanting you to sympathize and connect with her, but failing miserably, because she can't be happy unless she puts someone else down.
And now to the comments, let's see what the experts think
I have to agree with you on the cutscene direction. In general, I think the aesthetics were polished a bit too much and they lost the edge of the original. The og cutscenes kinda looking like serial experiments lain was something I really liked. Imo it felt like they were trying to make a game adaptation of the movies (aesthetic wise) rather than the ps2 game.
Besides that and gameplay being a bit too easy, I don't have any other major gripes and I think it was a pretty faithful adaptation of my favorite game. I didn't ask for it, but I'm glad it exists.
I'm very glad that you showed the difference in the cutscene direction. That's such a hard point to get across to people who have never played the original, but it's absolutely crucial to the Persona 3 experience. The cutscene direction is definitely a downgrade in Reload.
because of 10/4 i like the ability to change weapons instead of certain weapons becoming pointless
I played persona 3 portable twice and noticed the se things as well. One thing I do miss from persona 3 portable was when you got a team member social link to a certain point they could step in for you and help you double attack an enemy for guaranteed knockdown. With the shift system there's no need for this but it was just one of those things that kind of made social linking with teammates a more viable thing. Not the persona 3 reloaded didn't make more times for you to take advantage of working with a teammate but that'll always bring me back to the psp version along with being able to pick more clubs. I don't know about you but exploit Tartarus for money was way easier in portable than it was in reloaded.
A review that actually gives valid criticism on the game instead of blatantly hating on it, what a rare sight especially in the persona community
Great video! As someone who came into the series with P5R and had learned at least the basic story of P3 from videos, I really have been looking forward to hearing refined takes on how this version changed things, for better and for worse. You absolutely provided that so thank you for helping me contextualize the wonderful time I had with Reload! All that said, even as someone who had never seen the original cutscenes before, the one feeling I couldn't shake while playing through the story parts of the game is that I might have been missing something; that maybe the feelings and emotional mood from the original weren't fully represented. Super glad you helped me resolve that notion via well developed critique!
Loved the video! Your videos are always so consistently high quality. I pretty much have the same opinions on Reload with it’s issues. The difficulty with the very recent games will always be a big issue for me sadly and due to p5 being so popular and easy I worry all future Atlus games will share the same fate. I loved the AI tactics in FES, my first Portable playthrough confused me a lot when I realised you could use direct commands. Reload is still a great game but I will always love FES more.
One thing that completely ruined the games difficulty for me in my reload challenge run was realising how many bosses are just scripted patterns, almost all of them even including Nyx are 100% pattern based and the same with the Fortune wheel, which spins 7 times each time being the same result in an order then it gives up and uses wind only. It honestly feels like Atlus are scared to make a hard game anymore.
I also noticed you used my footage which made me very happy. Might seem dumb but as someones content that I really enjoy even playing a small part towards it made my day seeing it. If you’re ever doing a video and need any other footage feel free to use any of it!
I personally don't mind reload being easier. Imo, it definitely had less frustrating gameplay aspects than FES, so I will probably never play that version. I much prefer portable and reload. However, I understand
A few things about the cutscenes lacking subtlety. It’s not so much that reload decided to add new lines cause they didn’t think players would get it. It’s actually portable that added a lot of those things and reload takes from portables script more.
Which I’m pretty sure was done because visual novel not as much on screen to show and not “tell” but yeah.
For instance that scene where Makoto comes back after the battle with nyx and everyone gathering around saying how happy they are is taken straight from portable.
And then there were other cutscenes where they just decided to do it like how the movies did it.
I wish one of those scenes from the movie was how they introduced aigis because in the original and reload its so lackluster. She shows up and then BAM. part of the party now. Barely any explanation on what she can do or her weapon capabilities. You see her shooting water out of her hand guns before you see bullets being fired.
Kinda hate how you can't criticize Reload on Twitter without getting yelled at by fans, not even criticizing the price 😭😭 it is obviously bad to be paying $105 to play a full FES remake when in the pas FES + The Answer retail price was $30!!
People was so condescending towards Larrue when he said he hated The Answer being separated as DLC, acting like he was a tourist bitter FEMC fan or whatever when he's pretty much an Atlus historian and never had a strong opinion for FEMC
Edit: omg his nude frost collection is here!!!
thats an older game that didnt cost at all as much to make as p3r.
@@soapy8917this might be the worst take lmao defending Atlus for their shitty business practices is insane
@@soapy8917 See this is what I was talking about lol. Atlus was literally on a verge of bankruptcy when making Persona 3 yet they still sold FES + The Answer on retail price at that time. Meanwhile Atlus right now is on a much better place because of Persona 4 and 5's success yet they're not satisfied with the already steep $70 price. I promise you shitty anti-consumer practice isn't an attack on Reload as a game, just like how even tho Sims 2 is a masterpiece and the expansions are amazing I still thought it was scummy to separate them as DLC, which eventually snowballed into the hell that is Sims 4
@@catloaff cook
@@catloaff I'm not defending the pricing, it's too much for a game like persona, but are you sure you are taking into account inflation? Cuz i'm pretty sure 30$ then does not translate into 30$ now, but I could be wrong.
Im so glad he discussed the direction of the cutscenes. In fairness all of them arnt bad per say but, the first cutscene is just embarrassing. For some reason they overact when yukari is like "just put it to my head... And pull the trigger...THERE IS NO WAY I CANT!" It just sounds like they were overdoing the bit for some reason. And the awakening scene is just bad. Not much redeeming there. Its just animated poorly since its WAY too smooth. And they removed all the flair with how scary Thanatos is. But its a fine game overall, but I just wish it could have been perfect.
Using p3p script as a base for reload backfired heavily on many scenes
@@losharikovedI don’t see how since I think they’re pretty good.
Imagine thinking that the awakening scene is bad because it’s too smooth. You have nostalgia goggles on.
@@digimonlover1632 p3p broke "show not tell" rule a lot of times out of necessity, reload is breaking it just because p3p did
@@digimonlover1632 Overall tone of new awakening is more "look how cool and kind I am, I am so powerful that my physical body can't handle it" instead of "I think that this can help us survive, but I guess I kinda like that edgy shi- oh, something is *really really* wrong" that was before
One thing that really confuses me about new the additions to reload is the way they handled platonic relationships.
Not the ones you get if you reject them at the end of rank 9, those make perfect sense in the difference between romantic and platonic, but the ones you get for ignoring their feelings in rank 7 or 8
For those who don't know, this game has "romance flags" before the obvious one at rank 9, if you give some specific answers during those moments the game gives you an alternate rank 8 and 9 (and the same rank 10 platonic you get for reject them if you get the decision at rank 9) instead of the original from previous versions, and those new scenes were honestly pretty good (at least the ones i got, i don't know if some girls don't have them or if i just missed them).
Some of those scenes really helped raising my opinion on certain characters, especially Yuko. I used to call Yuko's SL "2 incomplete SLs" because of some writing decisions that i always found odd, and the new rank 8 completely changed that perspective, to the point i now really like her SL.
Which brings me to my problem. Why are these new scenes missable? and why do i have to choose that i don't like a girl, to get a scene that made me like the girl?
It's a little backward in my opinion, i don't get to know a character as much because i'm interested on that character? that logic really confuses me. I don't really care about the romance part of persona, and even so i was still confused why they choose to handle the new scenes that way.
My main theory is that they considered doing changes to the social links, but they were afraid of not being a "faithful remake" and they just hid these new scenes instead, and if that's the case, it's a little disappointing, as some of P3 Sls could use some changes.
Also as a separate thing to say, great video, it's really refreshing to see someone pointing at the negatives of a game in a way i can clearly see you care about the game, instead of just doing it for the sake of being negative.
Yeah I wish they fixed Nozomi’s SL. He’s ok until the cult becomes relevant. Little cringe but kinda fun.
But once the cult is introduced he goes from a person I wouldn’t mind hanging out with to being someone I refuse to spend time with. It sucks cus his issues with food and his trauma are good things that could’ve been handled way better.
Better than Odagiri at least, I stopped hanging with him rank 2
@@BelBelle468 I'm perfectly find with SLs being someone who i wouldn't hang out normally, as long as their story and/or writing is good enough to keep me invested on learning more about them. In fact, i find it more enjoyable that way, otherwise it would get kind of repetitive.
However, i do agree Nozomi's SL has some problem. First time i played i was really invested in his story, but once it gets to the cult part the SL becomes a mess of pacing + having to many plot points without giving enough attention to anything.
Odagiri's SL is pretty decent. My only real issue is that i feel like the ending relies a lot in the friendship between him and the MC, and that part is not exposed enough during the SL itself, other than that i like his story.
I may enjoy reload more but honestly I think it's pretty fair to say that some of the originals personality was lost in translation, be it from the difficulty being toned down to the lack of more abstract and artistic imagery, as well as many other points you listed.
Those aspects were part of P3's identity, and that identity is what made it stand out from the crowd, it's even partially the reason why Persona even exists as a series today, so it's not a stretch to be disappointed some of that has been toned down or outright removed.
Great video homie, special thanks to you too for making such great content ❤
I think you hit it pretty much on the mark. Many cutscenes while decent lacked the impact of their original counterparts, Theurgy's trivializing the late game, but a decent overall game with both points in favor and against. It almost felt like the developers themselves feel that the fan base for the modern Persona series would dislike too many elements of the original, so the forsook them in favor of mechanics from P5. I would never call it a bad game, it just doesn't hit the heights FES does.
Also I hope that future Persona games forsake party social links in favor of Link events, it gives the party reason to have development happen outside of social links which the games past P3 sorely lack.
As you mentioned, these critiques didn't really affect my enjoyment as a 'first time' persona 3 player, but it is really interesting to see what long time fans thought of this game. Personally loved it, but I totally get the issues everyone has with this game; it isn't perfect. I do plan on going back and playing portable and FES just because playing the games in reverse order sounds kinda fun, and I really just wanna play a 'hard' version of this game. Great video though
Persona has always had a lot of clunky expositional dialogue, I think the addition of Yukari talking in the opening cutscene was completely unnecessary.
Why did they feel the need for her to go "Noo! I can't do do it!" We can perfectly see that communicated in her actions and body language, in case people didn't get it?
35:11 I truly respect that cutscene without a single word everyone smiling except aigis who can sense human heartbeat and fuuka who can't sense the mc presence anymore
So as I said repeatedly to my friend reload is simultaneously worse and better than p3
Wow, going in, I wasn't sure what to think with the title. But honestly, I think I agree with just about everything in this video. I thought a lot of the same things when I was playing the game myself, like with the details of the feathers in Tartarus.
Excellent video, my favorite take I've seen on Reload, so far.
I will say that the one thing I disagree on is that, despite its issues, Reload is probably still my favorite version of Persona 3. Not in the sense that I see it as a complete replacement, just that it would likely be the version I'd choose first on a revist.
The ease of access and upgraded presentation (aside from the questionable changes in the cutscene direction) just nudge it a bit ahead for me. That's obviously subjective though, no hate on anyone who feels otherwise.
To me, the gripes I have for Persona 3 Reload are the missing opportunities to improve the Persona 3 story. I love Reload, but it feels kinda too faithful to the original game's story even when there are parts when the P3 Movies did much better. I feel like I wanted Persona 3 Reload to feel more like the writers looking back at the story to see how it could explore the characters more deeply than not.
The Social Events are nice added on content and of course the dorm activities. But they do not impact the base game's greatly enough to make it feel completely satisfying to me. I kinda wanted Fuuka and Natsuki's story to give more insight onto why Natsuki was angry, Ken and Shinji to appear more early so they can be setup, the whole THE WORLD IS GONNA END FROM NYX reveal just doesn't hit as hard in Reload when you actually watched the movies explore the characters hesitation and fears on the world actually ending.
I love Persona 3 Reload. But it definitely doesn't feel like the most inspired remake to ever have been made. I'm not asking for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth revisions, but I definitely would've wanted some neat changes that would serve the story more. The game is very fun.
From the beginning Atlus said it was a faithful remake. Yet people out here acting like Atlus didn't say it from the beginning that *No new stuff* beyond hanging out with male party members.
@@Nightxx9199 Yeah that's fair. But for a company that likes to make revisionist updated ports of their games, I just think it would've been more engaging if they tried to use more of the elements from the movies.
Atlus said it was a faithful remake, but I can still criticize at how faithful it is to its detriment. Being faithful doesn't always mean a positive thing.
Yeah, my main issue with the game is the reveal of Nyx and everyone's death. I never learned truly why Ikutsuki believed he would somehow be able to rule a world where everyone was dead?? Then my teammates had incredibly mature reactions to being kidnapped and utterly betrayed by the only adult they trusted. It feels like the only one who actually had a realistic reaction to the end was Junpei.
I agree. It's hard for me to criticize the general direction Reload took because it's sort of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation with changing story elements, but playing through Reload made me remember how much I disliked most of P3's narrative. I really wish the pacing and researcher sub-plots were better addressed.
@@MHMichaelHooper Yeah, I kinda wish Ikutsuki had a more personal connection at least with the P3 protag. Like I feel like they could've done more to make him seem like a friend to Mitsuru and the protag with how he is recruited. It would've done more to show off how he is pretty much grooming children to end the world without them knowing about it.
The one extra scene was pretty good though. Where he praises the P3 Protag for being the one that is pushing the plan forward. It would make the p3 protag and Aigis relate because they are both characters that want to meet the expectations of others (which is hinted in the P3 movies to me a lil)
Completely fair critiques and conclusion! I agree with basically everything you said in this video, it’s my personal favorite version of the game (and what got me to FINALLY love P3 as much as everyone else), but there are also a lot of small nitpicks and areas that are a straight downgrade. It’s definitely not a definitive version which is mildly disappointing… but still very worthwhile I think. Some of the most fun I’ve had with an RPG in years regardless
i agree with most your criticisms (although, keep in mind, before reload, i had only played p3fes for about 20 hours, so idk if my opinion holds any weight) i still do think p3 reload is amazing and deserves the praise its gotten. banger video regardless though
Something about the cutscenes and the added talking I noticed (and the script in general) is that a lot of it is based on Portable (aka, the one that added dialogue to make up for a lack of cutscenes).
So they probably based Reload’s script off of Portable’s which is why the scenes are like that.
I still loved it since I love persona 3, but yeah, it just felt like something was missing for reload. I replayed portable last year when it got rereleased and that had way more of an impact on me than this did for some reason
Unrelated ik but I really love that Mona sprite from P5T it’s very amusing
@@spinballproduction9678he has so many good portraits in tactica. My friend and I played the game together and we couldn’t stop grinning every time he was on screen for like the first few hours
@@memebait I also really love Ren's blank "Damn I think I left the oven on" expressions.
31:44 God THANK YOU for putting into words what I struggle to. It's not like the scenes were completely wrong but they just lack the weight of the original
The irony is that the dated FES version with older tech was able to portray emotion artistically than the modern version of the game (Reload). Soooo grateful to see others picking up on this as well. Glad to see that people aren't NPCs or robots lol
The subtlety and pacing giving room for the scene to breath really helps bring out the full atmosphere and mood of the situations that the characters find themselves in. Kinda sad that most people won't see them unless they actively go back to look at them now.
@@kazuMT aint no way ur calling people npcs
What weight? You think bad animation has weight?
@@kazuMT You must be high because reload actually has facial expressions. While every fes cut scene has someone looking confused with their mouth open.
The edge was great in og p3, it sugarcoats a lot of the scary spectacle had. And the lighting in Reload is also weird, very colorful, as in P5 colorful but that might be just me. Nostalgia can be one hell of a thing but these are the points I stand on.
Outside of that Reload is great imo
I feel like the clickbaity title doesn't do this video justice. People will assume you're a FES fanboy blindly hating on P3R for existing. Something to the tone of "the ups and downs of Persona 3 Reload" probably would've been better?
Agreed, the title definitely feels misleading when this video is mostly pretty grounded.
"Missed the mark... for me" would even be a tad better
@@MaxusFox23 Yeah , like did it really miss the point?
i didn’t watch it because i thought he was just hating to hate, i see a lot of videos like that. in this case, it actually does the opposite because wont want to sit thru a 50min video of someone rage baiting
@@WeWantBearsstill the same thing
The way I see it, I think it's cool there are now 3 amazing versions of P3, FES, Portable, and Reload and they all offer different but equally valid ways to experience the game and there's a reason to play all 3. Which I think is cooler than had Reload just invalidated the other two
I'm a big fan of the Portable version, played it after i fell in love with the Catherine Classic port on Steam, and Persona 3 helped me a lot through depression during the pandemic. Reload also came out at a time of my life where i lost my brother to an accident, so playing a game that's all about acceptence of death is helping me during this difficult time.
Yes, Reload was less edgy than the original, specially the cutscenes which took a lot of inspiration from the movies(which are really good by the way). But i do think it's an amazing game, the BEST version of Persona 3 and it's a Remake like Dead Space or Resident Evil 1, where they didn't changed the story but added a lot of new things.
The only issue is the tone shift, it's a to bright when it should give a more dull or melancholy feel. And they made the game to easy those are pretty much the only issues, oh they should have added more things to do at night.
Edited. Why remove the choice of what school sport to play then remove Kendo but also take different weapons for the MC. Was it so difficult to say hey i use a sword in Tartarus maybe we shiuld keep the Kendo class a an option lol.
With social links being fully voiced now, they probably cut that choice down since they'd otherwise need to voice several not doubled but tripled up sets of dialog for two full and one partial link (it affects Hayase and Yuko as well)
It's the same with not usually offering the gender option - they don't put the effort into these things. They say they'd rather focus on polishing the content they *do* include.
We definitely needed more things at night. Imho the link episodes should've been night-exclusive (atleast mostly) since there's often just nothing to do at night.
If there is one thing i hate about reload is that every single time you find a chest, the stairs, a teleporter, ANYTHING in tartarus. The Party will keep saying one of the five lines programmed in.
Every. Single. Time.
They will not shut up and apparently there is no option to lower the odds of these lines popping up.
Oh look, a treasure chest!
@@Noname72105 if it counts, I played quite a bit of Tarturus with just Makoto, Junpei and Yukari early on.
Those line will start to repeat when only having those two available with you the more you play.
This video is absolutely on point, I especially agree with cutscenes being changed with more watered down and less impacful versions of the OG one. I think this is the primary gripe I had with the game, rest of the "modernisations" are understandable from a objective perspective.
First Snickety Slice, now BubbleTea, it’s refreshing to see different opinions on something that is so continually praised over and over.
Snickety Slice was very hyperbolic though, BubbleTea was very fair and had very valid complaints that even I agree with.
@@ShadowOfMassDestruction
I get what you mean, I just enjoy nuanced discussions about games I enjoy. Whether I did or didn’t agree the opinions are welcome nonetheless imo.
@@Tasty_Tango45 I'm sorry but Snickety's take on the remake was borderline childish. I love some of his content and know he can do so much better. But he chose to do a lazy rage bait video, with inaccurate information just because he hates remakes. I agree that it's important to have different perspectives and I think this video did a great job for the most part explaining some of its criticisms
So many of this game's issues can be traced back to changes that Portable made. It is more accurate to say that it's a remake of Portable than of FES or the OG.
“Remake of Portable”? As if! Where’s the rest of the changes Portable made besides controllable party members and locking Makoto to one weapon type?
@@mondo1371 The entire script is adapted from Portable. Every single change that Portable made to every scene is copied here. Notice all the random VN dialogue things that they for some reason forgot to cut where it's basically just characters just describing what's in front of them. Lots of animations that were in FES only and not Portable were cut.
In several cases I honestly think they didn't even look at the original scene for reference and just used Portable to build it. It's a bizarre choice.
@@TehAJ34it’s even weirder that they used “it’s a faithful remake of fes” to not include the femc I feel like it was cover up for the actual reason and it was because of short timing/too much work
If only they moved some social links to the night time slot.
I think Moon could have been a night time social link with the strip open at night. They’d have to explain being away from his family but Star could have been a night social link too.
@@Asianwaste Also the old couple, maybe Maya but you'd lose out on there only being two Sunday SLs
Yeah, the voice acting really carried the SLs on their backs. The old couple were so wholesome and bruh IT MADE MY HEART BLEED FOR NOZOMI LIKE WTF (he may have a very warped vision of himself and people around him, partly thanks to cult brainwashing, but at least it didn't feel I was enabling him as much as Kenji or Kazushi).
And c'mon, what else could I say about Akinari that hasn't been said already? Special mention to his Japanese VA Hirofumi Nojima btw.
Same boat with you about Tanaka, it made me despise him. But hey, that means the VAs did their job, in spades.
The cutscenes direction was obviously not gonna be the same because, as you have said in your previous videos, Persona 3 is a reflection of early 2000s anime and that's not something we're gonna see replicated with today's animation. And they didn't exactly "dumb down the scenes", Reload uses P3P's script, which detracted from the more show-don't-tell scenes from P3/FES given P3P's VN presentation anyways.
With that said, I'm curious as to how they're gonna make Episode Aigis: The Answer's most famous bosses look (you know which 2 I'm talking about) since the anime cutscenes were done by Wit Studio, because let's just say a certain anime under Wit Studio's belt makes me think Atlus picked them especifically because of that anime.
What was it again? Uhm, something about... an "attack" and a... "titan"?
Memento mori folks. Live your life to the fullest, forget reading comments on social media and take this moment to engage with someone you care about.
Not being able to choose clubs is my biggest gripe with the game.
Minato being in kendo makes so much more sense than being in track. Especially sense Atlus made his weapon a sword.
It also gives ample reason why he is one of the best in the club, given his nightly/multi-weekly/once-monthly excursions into tartarus, getting genuine experience and being so much better than everyone else who only knows what they were taught.
Although the star social link and being "rivals" in kendo never made sense to me, unless the guy was just walking around at night pucking fights with everyone using a bat like a sword.
And it makes more sense for him to be in a music club considering he never takes out his damn headphones unless the plot demands it, or hes directly talking to someone.
And i also like to think he has a genuine interest in music, so the music club is kind of an introduction to being a musician in a sense.
Taking away choice is a painful adjustment to make. I know people these days prefer the MCs to be more pre-defined characters, but it’s in the options where players like you and I can pick something different because it makes more sense to us as individual players. Homogenized content that was originally varied kinda blows
Minato who?
@@n0tf1sh40 Minato Arisato is the original name of Yuki Makoto in the persona 3 manga. Hardcore fans who read the manga call him minato.
i feel the same way you do about the cutscenes, the abstract nature and the direction that trusts the audience is so lost in the remake - and im worried the answer is gonna be worse in that regard. I can see why they'd write it in this fashion tho, media literacy is basically dead these days LOL
I enjoyed my time with Reload, I don't think it was perfect and didn't recreate my experience when I first played this game - but I had a good time. It was a fun time, and now I'm playing SMTV to keep the ball rolling.
They also downgraded/ oversimplified some ost
Like battle of everyones souls
All you hear is the guitar and a lot of the distortion are literally gone or how they would change pits of some parts of the guitar to make it sound
Like i said
Distorted
Which helped a lot with the atmostphere of nyx
And call me a bitch or whatever
I prefer the "voiceless" version of nyx
It really showed that ryoji was gone and all that was left was a being that only had one purpose ,
The fall
Funny how they have the Va say the arcana is the means by which all is revealed fazter after the first time
Also GIVE BACK NYX'S DOUBLE TURN AND ALMIGHTY ATTACK I WANNA SEE PEOPLE SUFFER CUZ HIS SWEEP AND SUNDER ARE PHYSICAL AND YOU CAN BLOCK IT AAAAAAA
Also althought her ai is better
It is still dumb, like it wastes any killing potential it could have had
Grim transcendense on death phase is literally a joke
She still uses tretakarn and makarakarn
Which are u s e l e s s
I think Theurgy’s are a great mechanic and makes party members unique. However they are so busted and not balanced. I think the fact that all of them ignore enemy weaknesses puts too much into the player’s favor. Just the fact that you use the theurgy meter instead of using SP is already a good perk, ignoring weaknesses is just overkill. Yukari and Mitsuru by far have the best Theurgy’s besides Makoto since their conditions are ridiculously easy and trivializes the difficulty. I think if you had to consider an enemy’s weakness before using the theurgy, it would’ve been a much better system, considering in the later game, most characters have almighty damage theurgy’s so it would’ve been an excellent reward for going out of your way to rank up their dorm activities.
The only one with an Almighty Theurgy (other than MC) is Mitsuru. The rest get physical/elemental or support second Theurgies. Theurgies were conceived so your party members would always be able to contribute somehow in battle even if their normal kit was unfit for the current battle.
To be honest being able to ignore weakness is fine. They could've balanced them another way, such as nerfing their damage, not letting skills boost them, not letting a Theurgy be able to crit/inflict knockdown (unless specifically noted like Jack Brothers) or just making them something you have to actively improve over the game, such as through hanging out with them ala Confidant skills in P5 or something.
@@tsf9600 Thanks for the correction. You brought up some good points. I still stand on Theurgy’s should consider enemy weaknesses but I like your idea of nerfing the damage output a bit. That way, if you want boosted damage, you’ll have to buff and concentrate and use some SP to maximize its effectiveness. Considering by late game, SP management is not a problem.
I just finished the game like an hour ago im still crying and the first thing recommended to me by youtube is how the game missed the mark lol
Lmao
Very good video. Though I personally enjoy Reload more than the original, I'm happy that you actually gave a good explanation as to why you view things differently instead of just "New thing bad; old thing good".
thank you
@@bubbletea_ No problem. I just really dislike it, when people talk about bad things in modern games and it boils down to "It was different in the original", without ever explaining WHY the change was bad.
Especially, since most of the time, it's people complaining about things being "easier" nowadays. And then the "easier" part, is stuff like you can now select skills when fusing Personas, instead of clicking back and fourth for half an hour until you get what you want. The older version is not "harder", this doesn't take any skill, it's just a good QoL-change that makes you waste less time. Stuff like that, is what I'm fed up with and I'm glad you managed to avoid falling into that pitfall.
The Original was more Avant-garde in it's presentation they definitely made reload more skewed towards a general audience. Which does suck but I really do think reloads extra moments with the characters in the daily life segments really does make you feel like you've lived with these characters. Hoping P6 keeps up with that because I think it's the best thing about reload other than looking very pretty most of the time.
Very valid criticism of the game. Actually looks at all elements that, unfortunately, adds up. I, too, still think FES is the best way to enjoy Persona 3. Both pay attention to detail but FES does it much better, and is able to do it in such an iconic way that it's still dicussed to this day. But that's not meant to downplay Reload whatsoever. Just means that Reload doesn't really do P3 justice even though it's a fun game. Overall I enjoyed this video 👍
Since 5 started the trend of the party getting "mission uniforms" for when they visit their respective alternate worlds, I can't help but wonder what they'll have the Investigation Team wear in the TV World, if they even give them uniforms in a hypothetical 4 remake.
Persona 5 had that whole symbolic comic book-esque costumes deal, & 3R has that secret agent aesthetic to it.
Maybe instead of the uniformity of the SEES fits, everyone will get more unique stuff. Like Chie could wear gi pants with her jacket, Yosuke could get a Naruto-ish fusion of shinobi gear & streetwear. It's cool to imagine.
Honestly, this was a really nice video. As someone who loves and cherishes every incarnation of Persona 3 I was initially worried by the title that it was going to be an hour long fest picking apart Reload regardless of it's merit but I can genuinely see the amount of heart and thought that's gone into it and for the most part I do feel the same way. I think Reload is a fantastic version of Persona 3 and easily the most accessible but it's within the small details FES still holds the highest regard for me.
What I am most looking forward to though is the Answer because if there's any part of FES could use the benefits of the kind of additions Reload has bought to the table it's Episode Aegis. If they can further flesh out and establish the emotions of the cast and the conflict at the heart of the story I think it could really shine in a way it's never had the chance to.
One thing you didn’t mention which was a big deal for me was the new OST. It’s so hit or miss for me. I would’ve liked to have been given the option to switch to original tracks. Kinda sad they let you buy P5 and P4 tracks but you can’t do P3.
I agree, I missed the harsh and grudgingly live the music was. The instrumentation in some of the new tracks aren’t hitting with me sadly
I am pretty happy that others are enjoying the music 👌
I was very surprised by the way Junpei's "death" was handled. The way they present it to you is so good... I genuinely thought I did something wrong or skipped some important task before that day. I genuinely thought bro was dying xD
ok, ok, trust me - two years later they will release Persona 3 Reload Blue Waterfall With Pink Sakura Leaves Edition that will add FeMC to the game for the humble price of 80$
And now they're adding The Answer to essentially replace FES
to make it accessible is how I see it, I will be going back to the PS2 game myself but I'm very happy at the idea that people who don't emulate or try to score >$200 retro games can finally experience the full story
@@BidderuniFES wasn't too expensive when I bought it as a modern fan, but to be fair, this was pre-Royal
FES pretty much was the same as original P3, just with The Answer. So making it a DLC makes sense in 2024, where DLC is way more prevalent and easier to make.
It also saves you from having to buy P3R again at full price
@@BahamutCeroXmore fusıon spells and star socıal lınk and many other thıngs
reload ıs the ınferıor versıon thıs ısnt from nostalgıa as ı fırst played ıt two years ago on hard
Still will prefer fes over reload personally. Not to mention that the combat menus make me motion sick. I personally just like fes overall more. (Also 105€ for the full story is just a ripoff)
this is a really great video, ive not finished reload but I've played fes like 6+ times. you're spitting.
THANK GOD someone else agrees with how much they butchered the scene of makoto returning from sealing nyx
That's from Portable. If anything, blame whoever decided to lift extra dialogue from Portable.
It's from Portable but even then... I think Portable handled it better. It's like 20 seconds of dialogue that are appropriate for the characters.
@@mallorycarll6280 I guess it’s personal preference, but nah I think FES handled it amazingly. The way the cutscene and relief of the team was basically conveyed with sound and visuals, and them putting focus on aigis crying does not hit the same way in portable where they just talk about how they feel.
@@postcents In my opinion, I love the scene of Aigis running in Reload, if they had only expanded upon that idea, not make them just stand there, and kept it in 2d. It would've EASILY been my favorite depiction of it.
Between work, school and a new baby I've not had the time to sit down and play reload, but have watched many reviews to get a feel for if I will pick it up or just be happy dusting off and replaying FES on my PS2, and I think the greatest decider you highlighted was the cutscenes. From the snippets you showed the original just did so much better of a job of showing and not telling in their cutscenes than Reload did. I still think I'll get Reload eventually, but no longer feel that rush to need to get it sooner. Would love to see all the details added to expand out the male characters from SEE that never were really as fleshed as out as the female social links allowed. Maybe in a year when it potentially comes out on the Switch 2 or whatever it ends up being I'll pick it up. Hands down this is still my favorite Persona game and glad to see it getting so much love and attention again for a potential new generation that never got to play the original.
Another thing that was removed was how your teams would react when you changed their gear. Espeally with hi-cut armor. Like Yukari would get pissed if you have her that but it you were her boyfriend at that time she would be embarrassed but still do it for you. Kinda sucks that’s not in reload
This feature was partially cut in P5R as well :(
Lots of unused dialogue for costumes.
Excellent information and explanations. You're very well spoken and well versed in all facets of Persona knowledge. I also checked out your commentary on the endings of the 3 core games. Long content like this is right up my alley. Keep it up!
I finally truly got into the series last year and played portable and its one of if not my favorite games, and this game i think is something i love equally, with each having things i like and dislike, but i think its still has the roots of what made the original so great to me
My biggest complaint is that they removed the hug during Aigis rank 9 social link, despite being present in the game files. We've been robbed.
Oh I waited so much for this😻
// Damn I want an early SEES spin off wt Mitsuru, Aki and Shinji soooo much
I still find the 3D cutscene for the awakening to be really lame and janky in reload. It's like the animator ran out of time to make it really good. I was really excited to see a stylized 3d version of that shot of thanatos swiping his sword with a red background behind him before it cuts to a shot where the magician arcana shadow's mask is cleaved in half sigh... Aside from some of the cutscenes overall the remake is alright
Oh boy. I wonder how many people are going to dislike without even watching the video based on the title alone. It's a shame, because the video is very well put together as always, and not on the whole very negative
great video as always, i always appreciated how you'd talk about some of fes's nicher/less talked about gameplay stuff like the bonus effects from store bought equipment, and how tartarus's structure works within the game's loop, hearing you call tartarus a 'playground' was so cathartic!!
I'd have to agree with your points about the scene direction, for me at least it is the biggest issue I have with the remake. After multiple instances of noticing the remake choosing to show less and tell more, only to culminate into arguably the most beautiful and emotional scene in the game (34:58) getting gutted for exposition mush, it certainly soured my opinion for a good while after I played it despite what I loved about the remake
I think what the dev team said applies on the Reload development a lot. They wanted to bring the game back remade, but they also wanted to soon focus on the new persona title. So this game was developed to meet the wishes the players had but wasn't as fully realized as P3FES due to resources and they had to cut some content out. I'm personally fine with this and in the end this gives the player another new experience when going back to the original games.
Thank you for touching on the lack of "edge" in P3R! This is something that seriously bothered me when discussing with friends during the hype of P3R. Rather than in game though, I'm talking about music. P3R has this whole "chill lofi playlist" vibe to it's songs, which is not bad on a separate standard. But P3's OG music is SO EDGY. It has a funk and spark that P3R just does not match up on.
I'll leave some of my own opinions not really mentioned in the video down here in the replies. It's inevitable for a game built ground up. But holy shit the dorm lighting. Home base, new features, rewards for spending time there, and good GOD it just was not done justice. It seems like a lack of time or an incredible oversight last second.
P5 faceless characters. I love that more space is taken up in P3R. It gives the story more volume and really makes every area feel a little more personal to the player. But a lot of cutscenes with randoms being so lesser in detail makes it hard to take it serious. I don't want completely personable characters, but at least given a similar amount of even facial details as the main characters. I like the emphasis on how much they don't matter, but I wish they were even slightly given the amount of hair/face details as the main characters. I only ever really felt like there was space taken up at the last month of the game. The cult posters and increase in apathy syndrome only then started to really shift the environment for me. In the rest of the game they just didn't really make a difference.
The talk about shinji was on point, i've never had to stop playing a game because of how emotional i got until the end of his linked episode. Literally saved the game and stopped playing for the day. Phenominal writing.
thank you P3R because now people recognise my chidori cosplay
The difference it atmosphere is definitely the biggest miss in reload and that's definitely due to the cutscenes :/ they looks like genshin impact characters, lowkey if they just hand animated all the cutscenes likes in the og it would be soo much better
Atlus has no excuse to have not included FeMC. Anime cutscenes are expensive, but they could've just replaced anime cutscenes in the male route with in-engine cutscenes for FeMC. They already did this for a ton of cutscenes, so there's no excuse. It wouldn't have cost THAT much more.
I´ve been waiting for this!
I don't fully agree with the criticisms or the conclusion (I am someone who sees P3R as the best version of P3), but this is the fairest I've seen any critic of this game be to P3R with mostly pretty good criticisms that are well-substantiated.
Take that thumbs-up fam and keep up the good work.
So happy to see an entire section dedicated to the greatest sees member