On a side note, if you grew up playing the original Persona 3’s English dub version, you may recognize some familiar voices making nostalgic cameos in the remake amidst the NPCs.

Then, once you have knocked down all enemies by targeting their weaknesses, you can finish them off with the classic All-Out Attack mechanic from the original game where all party members gang up on vulnerable Shadows to give them a very satisfying beat down.

The plot can be difficult to grasp at first due to its strange premise and the fact that it spends the first several hours setting the stage and the characters you will frequently interact with.

The audio improvements in this remake are just as impressive as the graphical ones. The English and Japanese voice acting is superb, with every actor bringing their A-game to bring the characters to life with stellar performances.

Though it's based on Persona 5's Showtime, Theurgy attacks require heightened emotional states and have special conditions personalized to each character to activate, so it takes more strategy to pull off. I didn't spend enough time grinding in Tartarus to get to everyone's moves, but from what I did see, the results are devastating for the enemy.

Persona 3 Reload is one of the best remakes of a game I’ve played since Capcom’s Resident Evil remakes and one of the best Xbox games I’ve played thus far in 2024 that both Persona fans and JRPG fans should not miss out on.

After completing the game, I am happy to report that this remake has exceeded my expectations and cemented itself as one of my new favorite Persona games of all time and one of Xbox’s best JRPGs.

So it doesn’t contain the epilogue from FES or the female protagonist from Portable. However, that doesn’t mean that the new additions to the main story that was added in FES won’t be in Reload.”

Persona 3 Reload shows there's still a novelty to balancing normal life and relationships with the duties of defeating shadows in the Dark Hour – a mysterious 25th hour where time stops as monstrous forces come out, humans turn into coffins, and your school transforms into a deranged 250-floor tower.

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Although I'd argue there's a particular vibe and style to PS2-era RPGs that just can't be replicated, Reload’s visual overhaul is a meaningful way to reframe a world I've spent countless hours in, as if this was how I always wanted these places to look. At first it was a bit surreal to see Tatsumi Port Island recreated and these beloved characters remodeled for a new generation – something as simple as giving them sweet jackets, superpowered armbands, and black gloves are neat touches to complement the fancy new combat animations.

Of course, I can’t talk about Persona 3 Reload’s presentation without giving a shout-out to the soundtrack. Persona 3’s beloved hip-hop persona 3 reload gameplay and rap-rock soundtrack has been remastered for Persona 3 Reload and even features a couple of new songs.

Fights come with a swift momentum that's effortlessly stylized to match the kinetic look and pace of combat. And that's key for a turn-based RPG, keeping things moving and never letting you get bogged down as you go through the motions of what could otherwise feel like pretty similar battles.

Over a decade and a half later, Atlus has decided to bring back this beloved title and give it a next-gen makeover in the form of Persona 3 Reload. This remake aims to reimagine the original Persona 3 with improved graphical fidelity, new gameplay mechanics to spice up combat, and quality-of-life improvements from modern Persona games such as Persona 5 Royal to make it more newcomer-friendly.