Persona 3 Reload Review – We’re All Gonna Die Someday

Fortunately, there is no need to introduce the Persona series too much even to Czech players, as its excellent and very successful fifth part cannot be missed by anyone with even the slightest interest in the JRPG genre. A number of new fans gratefully accepted the subsequent release of 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 reworked into a modern form.

• Platform: PS5 (review) PS4, X1, XSX|S, PC
• Release date: 02.02.2024
• Manufacturer: Atlus (Japan)
• Genre: Japanese role-playing game
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: No
• Data for download: 25 GB
• Play time: 70+ hours
• Price: 1739 CZK (Pair)

A philosophical masterpiece or just a group of friends?

The protagonist of the story is a silent schoolboy (whose name and surname are 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 his first trip to the school dormitory, he unintentionally lingers and at exactly midnight he witnesses the onset of the “hidden hour” between the old and new days, when the city stops for an hour and demons enter our 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 demon invasion altogether.

One of the best features of the game is the combination of completely different genres and themes. While half of the game is a complex interweaving 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 random and enjoyable exploration of the lives of a group of boys and girls, including their balancing between school and hobbies, finding first love and so on. During the day, you will go to school, take exams, attend hobby clubs or go to work part-time… only to go into the depths of the demonic labyrinth at night. The entire game is based on a calendar and careful planning of your free time, which is closely related to the central theme of the story, which is none other than the mortality of each of us – although in this case, this limited time refers to the predicted approaching 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 the new day.

However, the great characters and gripping story are the game’s greatest asset, as you’ll sometimes find yourself playing for hours without combat – a lot of time spent talking to characters and exploring the city in the daylight. This makes the pacing a bit unbalanced at times, and some playthroughs can feel quite drawn out. But perhaps that’s why the characters here manage to get under your skin so deeply. This is one of those RPGs where your party members really like you, and their personalities are as well-written as they are played. It also makes any betrayal or loss feel like a very effective blow to you. The game’s ending is one of the best the series has ever offered, and all of your connections to your beloved characters are put to great use, including one of the most famous songs in the series.

A very thorough remake.

This is a case of a remake in which the authors tried 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 have been reworked into full-blooded cinematic animation, either on an engine with game models or in the form of classic “cartoon” anime. All the music has also been re-recorded, as has all the dubbing (with new actors). But none of this affects the personalities of the characters or the tone of the game, the authors clearly took great care to ensure that everything and everyone looks the way fans are used to – only much nicer and more modern in terms of technology. Here and there, some new scenes or additional dialogues are built in, but they fit perfectly into the original mosaic.

So, for those who have witnessed and enjoyed the original, there’s no need to worry about the story, and instead, they’ll enjoy it in an improved form, which makes some parts more terrifying or creepy, and others even more touching than they were back then. The fact that an originally isometric game with limited 2D navigation is now tucked into a modern third-person jacket probably doesn’t need much comment, as it’s the most obvious feature of the remake. But a big question mark hung 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 visually far more interesting than the original game, and a number of small gameplay tweaks make exploring it far more enjoyable. For most of the 70 hours of gameplay, I looked forward to the real-life chatter during combat, and during combat, 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 was completely smooth, I didn’t encounter any bugs, and in the PS5 version, on the contrary, I admired both the beauty of the graphics and the peculiar modern stylization, as well as the smoothness and especially the speed with which the game changes scenes (all movements between locations are smoothly disguised by stylish animations that last only a few seconds or even completely instantaneously). Some fans are unhappy with the fact that the game lacks content from the later edition of the original FES, especially the female character, and the additional epilogue DLC “The Answer”. While I agree with the first point (it would be interesting to play the game a second time with a different character), I’m not so sure about the second: “The Answer” largely ruined the perfect ending of the original game, and I think I’m one of those who thinks it’s so perfect that nothing can be added to it right away.