I finally finished Persona 3 Reload. I would guess my total playtime was around 120 hours. I don't know the exact number because I left it on quite a bit and with farting around I think I was at 136. It definitely "felt" quite a bit longer than Persona 4, though I don't mean that as a criticism in the way that Persona 5 Royal or Last Of Us 2 drags. I just mean the story was longer/larger in scope.
If I could compressed my feelings into a single thought of good/bad, in visual - I was a pretty bummed because I made a pivotal mistake early on in the game. I focused on finishing out a couple character stories and spending my freetime maxing out my social stats because I thought I didn't have anything better to do. Unfortunately it turned out there was a story that doesn't open up until you get part way into another character story. I wouldn't have ever known if I hadn't been snooping online. This led to me finishing the game with a single storyline unfinished and a mere 3 Personas missing out of the hundreds needed to complete the game 100%. This led me to very nearly for the first time starting New Game+ because I really wanted to finish everything.
I think thats a recommendation. If I, of all people, was on the edge of restarting the game at midnight then it's probably a good game.
By the end of it the game still managed to do a bit of compelling character development. Still no where near the level of Persona 4 or 5 however. I liked all the characters, but they never felt interconnected. There's a scene at the end where they're all together and it's supposed to be meaningful, but as it played I thought..is it? Do these characters have any reason, outside of love interests, to talk to each other now that the battle is over? They never really shared any interpersonal experience outside of "we did battle together.". It reminds me of my Dad talking about how his army buddies would seek him out every so many years and he just has nothing to say to them. Nothing in common.
I think thats where Persona 4 and 5 make the largest improvements. In those games much of story "revolves" around the characters sharing their inner lives with each other where as a lot of Persona 3 Reload is just you the protagonist getting prompted to go do a personal cutscene with each character.
Still all the stories are solid and the gameplay is exactly what you want from a Persona game.
If we're doing points I'm taking 2.
If I could compressed my feelings into a single thought of good/bad, in visual - I was a pretty bummed because I made a pivotal mistake early on in the game. I focused on finishing out a couple character stories and spending my freetime maxing out my social stats because I thought I didn't have anything better to do. Unfortunately it turned out there was a story that doesn't open up until you get part way into another character story. I wouldn't have ever known if I hadn't been snooping online. This led to me finishing the game with a single storyline unfinished and a mere 3 Personas missing out of the hundreds needed to complete the game 100%. This led me to very nearly for the first time starting New Game+ because I really wanted to finish everything.
I think thats a recommendation. If I, of all people, was on the edge of restarting the game at midnight then it's probably a good game.
By the end of it the game still managed to do a bit of compelling character development. Still no where near the level of Persona 4 or 5 however. I liked all the characters, but they never felt interconnected. There's a scene at the end where they're all together and it's supposed to be meaningful, but as it played I thought..is it? Do these characters have any reason, outside of love interests, to talk to each other now that the battle is over? They never really shared any interpersonal experience outside of "we did battle together.". It reminds me of my Dad talking about how his army buddies would seek him out every so many years and he just has nothing to say to them. Nothing in common.
I think thats where Persona 4 and 5 make the largest improvements. In those games much of story "revolves" around the characters sharing their inner lives with each other where as a lot of Persona 3 Reload is just you the protagonist getting prompted to go do a personal cutscene with each character.
Still all the stories are solid and the gameplay is exactly what you want from a Persona game.
If we're doing points I'm taking 2.
- It makes that Classic RPG mistake of only allowing you to use one group of characters at a time. I spent a ton of time leveling up and unlocking abilities and equipment for 9+ whatever characters and only used 4 in the final battles. I even upgraded one character in particular in the last days of the game to not even end up using them. Persona 5 fixes that.
- It's a more classic dungeon crawler with near entirety of combat taking place in a Tower that ends up having 257 floors. It makes up for this with some variation of floor aesthetics and most floors can be cleared in under 5 minutes, but it still at times felt like quite a drag. I actually took a break from the game in the last 20 hours, just due to burnout on the Dungeon. Persona 5 fixes this by breaking the game up into Castles for some diversity.
But man, this just tickles my PS2 nostalgia while firmly rooting itself in modern gaming smoothness.