Persona 3 Reload Just Doesn't Hit Like Persona 5 and Persona 5 Strikers Do.

I'm sorry Persona 3 fans, it's just my opinion, man.

Earlier this year Persona 3 Reload came out. It was a significantly upgraded version of Persona 3, a ps2 game from the mid 2000s. I've tried multiple times to play the original both FES and Portable and I just have never been hooked. I have liked Persona games since I played 4 on my PS Vita in the hospital after an MS relapse. I really enjoyed the mystery of 4 so when 5 came out I was fucking hooked. I adored the characters, the story, the depth of the world, and almost everything. So with Persona 3 Reload coming out I was hoping this time i would get hooked. 

To start: Yes, I beat it. A lot faster than i expected but i kept pushing everyday to be able to finish it in a month of gamepass. Now that I've played 3, did I enjoy it? Well… it was okay. The basic gameplay was great, don't get me wrong, but as expected Tartarus was just boring. It was definitely better than FES or portable, but it wasn't as good as 5. 3 definitely had an interesting story, I enjoyed playing through that more than anything. Finally seeing the characters change and face death, different challenges, and the end of the world was really enjoyable, and emotional, but what wasn't enjoyable was the ending. I did like how you got time to be with your friends but I didn't put it together that your character was dying. After the credits rolled I had to look up an explanation because it just wasn’t clear. 

Persona games have one main driver in the games, the story. It's what almost everyone cares about. Sure the gameplay is great, but the story is the most important aspect of the game. So while I understand the game was simply an older game where the story wasn't as explicit, you shouldn't have to look up the ending to a game that's entire point is the story. That's simply bad writing. You're supposed to just take the implications of things but that's also just bad writing. I should be able to finish a game and feel done. Feel like I saw the conclusion to the story. 4 did this better, but had its own problem. The idea of having to complete the game twice to get the real ending was insane. The story was still wonderful and I enjoyed it, but having to play a 50 hr game twice in order to experience the whole story was just a bad gameplay decision. The point that shows that both 3 and 4 had serious issues with storytelling decisions is simple: Persona 5 had neither of those problems. 

Persona 5 came out when I was dealing with another MS relapse. I was still in film school, but I had serious issues doing anything because of the MS. So when it came out I fell in love with the characters and sank deeply into the world to avoid my depression and homework. The story in 5 is much better communicated than 3. Reload did not communicate the story better. It likely did this to be a faithful remake and I get that, but it should have been improved slightly. Something was needed to make the ending more clear, even just a few more lines of dialog would have helped. At the end of the day, when I finished Reload, all I wanted to do was replay Persona 5 Royal and Persona 5 Strikers. So I did.

Persona 3 Reload had great gameplay, it was stylish, satisfying, and interesting, but it wasn't Persona 5. Persona 5 had an amazing opening which 3 did not have, it had the handcrafted dungeons that 3 didn't have, it had the story that kept you wondering what was gonna happen next and what the next dungeon was gonna be like that 3 didn't have, and it had an ending that was explicit in its purpose and told the player what happened. 5 had characters with depth that had an interesting story for each of them and the dungeons that related to them that pushed me and the characters to be curious. Meanwhile, 3 kept the decision to not have confidant ranks with the male characters which is just frustrating especially when compared to the fantastic male confidants in 5. Don't get me wrong, 3 definitely had the mystery to it but it didn't click with me. It just had such large shortcomings that I couldn't ignore compared to Persona 5. They kept me from being able to sink into the world and fall in love with the characters. 

My experience replaying Persona 5 Royal was still just as enjoyable as the first time I played it. I still loved the characters, enjoyed the story, and looked forward to what was next. I still enjoyed the main plot device of retelling what had happened to Sae and then catching up with the retelling, I still enjoyed going through Mementos, and I still enjoyed hanging out with the confidants.

So why didn't Reload evoke the same feelings? I think it has to do with the basis of the story. In 3 you are playing a character who doesn't know what's going on in the world. Who is continuing to push forward without having any real drive besides getting to the top of Tartarus. But the characters in 5 had drive. They wanted to improve the world. They wanted to fix it and make adults confess their crimes. It was incredibly evocative of reality while 3 was much more unique in its world. 3 didn't represent something that could happen, it didn't represent something that normal people have to deal with. Sure, death was a major theme of the game that everyone has to deal with, but death isn't the main driver of the story like changing the world was in 5. 

The ending to 3 made you save the world by sacrificing yourself. It didn't fix something that was inherently broken, it fixed something that had been broken by a science experiment. Again, this is an interesting plot device but it's just not as good of a drive as 5 had. The anarchist themes in 5 were everywhere, putting forth the idea that our basic society is broken. That we can and should fix it and that the next generation is capable of that if they try. 3 didn't have that. I will acknowledge that 3 did show that people are capable of changing and fixing the world, but it didn't show that through depth of the world or the story, it showed that through the depth of the characters and their coping with the death of those around them, again an interesting plot device but not something I clicked with.

Strikers expanded on the basic themes of 5 by allowing the phantom thieves to fix more adults. It provided even more depth to the villains of the world by letting them have trauma that explained their existence. It took what was great about 5 and delved further into the themes of change. The world was not something that was broken by science and could be fixed by just pushing forward into Tartarus and waiting for the next big shadow to show up. 

Now, I understand that 3 is a remnant of the past, a story that was still walking the fine line between older persona games that had more fantasy, and the more modern games that had much more realism. But just because something is from the past doesn't change that it has shortcomings. The developers were still maturing and growing as story writers, but that doesn't change that the game was more shallow than future iterations even compared to 4. It doesn't inherently make the game more interesting. I would argue it adds an asterisk to the game so as to warn possible players that there are large shortcomings based on age even though it now looks like a modern iteration of the Persona series.  

I think Persona is a game series where each one evokes different emotions and has different themes and connects with different people. I think 5 simply connected with me because of who I am. I'm someone who is inherently weird and feels on the outskirts of society, feels like the world has left me behind or that the world purposely tries to beat me down. That's what it's like to be disabled and queer after all. So 5 meets me where I am, it shows me a world where the weird people can actually change things. It makes me feel like anything is possible with some attention and the help of those I surround myself with. 

I think I cannot express enough that 5 and Strikers are paired together perfectly. They compliment each other and show that the world will continue to need fixing, that resistance isn't ever done and we have to keep fighting no matter what and that friendship and life isn't easy, that it's okay to struggle and that doesn't make you less worthy of existence and happiness. 5 shows that power can corrupt and Strikers shows that trauma can scar you, but they both, together, show that the world is fixable if we try. 

I did enjoy my time playing Reload, I did enjoy the characters. If I had to give it a score I’d give it an 8/10, I enjoyed it but I will not be replaying it. But nothing will ever beat the emotions and connection I felt with 5 and even Strikers. I don't know what could.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is coming out soon. It's an exploration of a fantasy setting that the Persona developers haven't had the chance to explore in a while. I'm genuinely looking forward to it (although, not its 70 dollar price tag) and will be writing about it. But it's also possible that it'll simply make me want to re-experience 5 all over again. Emotion is what makes a game’s story, but so is who you are as a person and how you can relate. 

So here at the end, remember, it's okay to experience emotion, it's okay to struggle and have difficult times, and it's okay to resist. Always fight for yourself.

Meow,

Cat