Persona 3 Reload review – We’re all going to die someday

Fortunately, there is no need to introduce the Persona series in too much detail, even to Czech players, since its excellent and highly successful fifth installment will not be missed by anyone with even the slightest interest in the JRPG genre. A number of new fans were grateful for the subsequent release of the updated third and fourth volumes on all modern platforms. Most players were fascinated by the combination of dark fantasy with the ordinary life of high school students in modern Japan. The third part is in many ways the most important for the series, so now, in the era of all sorts of remakes, it has been completely redesigned into a modern look.

• Platform: PS5 (review) PS4, X1, XSX|S, PC
• Publication date: 02/02/2024
• Manufacturer: Atlus (Japan)
• Genre: Japanese role-playing game
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: No
• Download data: 25 GB
• Game time: 70+ hours
• Price: 1739 CZK (Pair)

A philosophical masterpiece or just a group of friends?

The main character of the story is a silent schoolboy (whose first and last name is chosen by the player), who in 2009, ten years after the tragic accident of his parents, returned to his hometown to finish his studies. However, during the initial trip to the school dormitory, he inadvertently lingers and at the stroke of midnight witnesses the arrival of the “hidden hour” between the old and new days, when the city stops for an hour and demons enter our room. world. But there is an organization of equally gifted schoolchildren called SEES, who will accept your hero into their ranks and together try to slow down, investigate and, if possible, stop the demonic invasion altogether.

One of the best features of the game is the combination of completely different genres and themes. While half the game is a complex weave of modern psychology with deep dives into all sorts of mythologies, building consistently strong philosophical ideas and themes, the other half of the game is a completely casual and enjoyable exploration of the life of a group. boys and girls, including balancing school and hobbies, finding first love, and so on. During the day you will go to school, take exams, visit clubs of interest or go to work… only to go into the depths of the demonic labyrinth at night. The entire game operates on the basis of a calendar and careful planning of your free time, which closely ties into the central theme of the story, which is none other than the mortality of each of us – although in this case it is a limited time. refers to the predicted impending end of the world if the demons are not stopped.

The stroke of midnight marks the beginning of the “hidden hour” between the old and new days.

However, the great characters and compelling story are the game’s biggest selling points, to the point where you’ll sometimes find yourself playing for hours without a single fight – a lot of time is spent talking to characters and exploring the city in daylight. Because of this, the pace of the game is sometimes somewhat unbalanced, and some passages can be quite drawn out. But perhaps that is why the heroes here manage to penetrate your soul so deeply. This is one of those RPGs where your party members really like you and their personalities are written as well as they are acted. This also makes any betrayal or loss a very effective blow to you. The game’s ending is one of the best the series has ever offered, and all the connections you have with your favorite characters are put to good use here, including one of the most famous songs in the series.

A very thorough remake

This is a case of a remake where the writers have taken care not to spoil the charm of the original with excessive changes, especially when it comes to the plot. It is present here in almost the same form as in the original 2006 game, but a number of key scenes are reworked into full-blooded cinematic animation, either in an engine with game models or in the form of a classic “cartoon” anime. All the music was also completely re-recorded, as was the entire dubbing (with new actors). But none of this affects the personalities of the characters or the tone of the game, it is obvious that the writers really wanted everything and everyone to look the way fans are used to – only much more beautiful and modern in terms of technology. In some places some new scenes or additional dialogues are built in, but they fit perfectly into the original mosaic.

Therefore, witnesses and fans of the original should definitely not worry about the story, but on the contrary, they will enjoy it in an improved form, which makes some passages more terrifying or creepy, and others even more touching than then. The fact that a originally isometric game with limited 2D navigation is buried in a modern third-person jacket probably doesn’t need much comment, it’s the most obvious feature of the remake. But there was a big question mark hanging over the gameplay, and specifically over the exploration of the only (but thankfully variable) dungeon in the entire game. While the infamous Tartaros is still a series of several hundred generated floors, it’s much more visually interesting than the original game, and a number of small gameplay tweaks make exploring it much more fun. For more or less the entire 70 hours of the game, I looked forward to the reality chatter during fights, and during them I looked forward to returning to the dungeon. In short, both parts of the game work well and complement each other perfectly.

The authors tried not to spoil the charm of the original.

From a technical point of view, my playthrough of the game went completely without problems, I didn’t encounter any errors, and in the version for PS5, on the contrary, I admired both the beauty of the graphics and the unique modern style, as well as the smoothness and especially the speed with which the game changes scenes (all movements between locations are smoothly disguised by stylish animation, lasting only a few seconds or even completely instantaneous). Some fans are unhappy that the game is missing content from the later edition of the original FES, especially the female character, and the additional epilogue DLC “Response”. While I agree with the first point (it would be fun to play through the game a second time with a different character), I’m not sure about the second: “The Answer” pretty much ruined the original game’s perfect ending, and I think I’m among those who think it’s so so perfect that you don’t immediately add anything to it.