Persona 3 Reload retains its core hybrid of traditional role-playing and social simulation gameplay, but is overhauled aesthetically, graphically and mechanically to integrate systems and features that have been introduced to the Persona series since the original Persona 3's release, specifically deriving from quality-of-life improvements first implemented in Persona 5 (2016). In addition to foundational overhauls, Reload refines numerous elements of its graphical user interface to reflect the updated presentation of subsequent entries. For story-sensitive tasks, objective descriptions have been added below the display for the date, time of day and moon phase that list actions that must be performed to progress the narrative, which is functionally similar to Persona 5's heads-up display.

I fully appreciate this improvement to the presentation, as the well-done voice acting made the Social Link interactions much more enjoyable to sit through and had me more invested in their stories than in the original version, where they were mostly unvoiced.

Escape: Attempt to run from battle. The party will try to run from battle three moves after you choose escape. Not always a reliable way to escape.

They are well-written and honestly touching at times, finally allowing your bros to be fully realized characters. And some scenes get other party members involved to showcase a better group dynamic that feels like a natural extension of Persona 3's ethos.

The soundtrack is just as incredible to listen to as ever – providing a relaxing atmosphere during calm moments, tension and dread during serious moments, and blood-pumping excitement during boss battles. The soundtrack has even managed to make me feel emotional during the sad and poignant parts of the story.

Something as simple as study sessions at the dorm help you upgrade your academic stat quickly, but more importantly, come with endearing scenes of the crew interacting with each other in believable ways, helping out with math formulas or just venting about the mundane.

Also, thanks to all the quality-of-life improvements and new combat mechanics, Persona 3 Reload’s difficulty is much more lenient than the original game, even when played on the harder difficulty modes. While old-school fans of Persona 3 may be disappointed by this, I didn’t mind it as Persona 3 was only as difficult as it was because of the aforementioned Fatigue system and that you couldn’t control your AI-driven party, which tended to do inane things like waste healing items or attack enemies resistant to their special moves.

The next major gameplay component of Persona 3 that Persona 3 Reload revamped was the dungeon crawling. I remember Tartarus in Persona 3 FES being a repetitive slog as every floor from top to bottom was a never-ending series of samey corridors with different colored wallpaper.

Next up we have the addition of new combat mechanics such as Shift, which functions like the Baton Pass from Persona 5 Royal. After landing a critical hit or hitting an enemy’s weaknesses, you can activate the Shift mechanic to swap to another party member even if their turn has already passed to allow them to attack again.

Plenty is different back in the outside world, too. First and foremost, I can physically run around 3D city streets and classroom hallways, as opposed to moving a cursor to callout bubbles in a relatively static environment like in past Persona 3 iterations. In general, the camera maintains a tighter shot, making bouncing around locations feel more intimate and nearly first-person.

You can choose whether or not to carry over New Game Plus data, but some things will always transfer to a new playthrough. If you start on Merciless difficulty, nothing will be carried over (except if mandatory). This section goes persona 3 reload gameplay over what gets carried over and what is new.

There are three Status Parameters that are exclusive to Joker. They have six ranks each, and they need to be at a specific rank to take certain actions or to rank up certain Social Links. They can be ranked up in a variety of ways.

features ongoing updates which will keep bringing you more engaging content that will expand your legend as time marches on.

Players would get afflicted by this if they stayed in Tartarus for too long, studied for too long in their bedroom, or drew a bad fortune prediction at Naganaki Shrine.