Absolute Velvet Adventures (Persona 3: Reload)
Man, I've always wanted to check out the rest of Persona games, the 5th one was too hard edge, too flashy, too depressing, it was all over. Of course, that's me nagging and I know for a fact that it is the best one out there. The prior games, I kind of wish I started there, trickling to their roots.
Persona 3: Reload is a complete remake, not the first one, but on its own a modern remake that does supersede the 5th one in many ways. The recurring themes are presented with its main color scheme, which is the color of blue. But this time if they rendered it with HDR on and just put a shiny tint on everything. Visually glowing, scintillating even.
Do be wary, this isn't the ideal remake. The original had newer releases with more content added, this is like the base version of P3 cooked up with UE4 engine, and updated character design. I dig it, I think it spices up the gameplay while revisiting something familiar too. Also no FMC, sad.
Ah, the early to late 2000s, MP3 players, social stability, things that are kind of easy to figure out and get the hang of before all the modern collapse, but it doesn't start off peaceful of course. My first day of arriving and I see blood everywhere on train station and coffins on the streets.
Eerie suspense of disbelief, with various strange happening that has set the mood early on, and right when I've arrived at the dorm, a little boy in prison garments told me to register my name. I didn't have anything in particular, so I just wrote default character's name. Sadly I've also realized they don't pronounce it just as they did in P5, another thing they left out.
The game doesn't try too hard to set its intro, within the hour, I am acquainted with two main characters, enter my school for the first time, interact with people I know I'll be talking throughout the game, and the music is really good stuff.
One of the other things I've noticed about P3R are the visuals, like they've implemented ray-tracing reflections, but outside that, not much else is different. The character details look very definitive, texture and environment are sharp especially with cell shaded art style.
And continuing to play, I've realized just how somber and less anthropophobia I feel about its atmosphere. It makes sense considering when it takes place, but I really find this refreshing. P5 is great for lot of things, but it get so intense easily that it goes over multiple information so fast. This one set the basics within 5hrs of time. And I am already invested in knowing who's who.
Though, serious question, when does it get fun? Well, that actually takes a while. I had the displeasure of starting the game with 3 characters, as the 4th one (dude with white hair) got injured and is now on recovery till the next mid-terms. Finesse needed was compensated by Junpei.
Yes, my dude Junpei, the absolute high spirited radbro, with Takebi, a girl with well-placed sensibilities have so much banter because of how opposite the two are. And I have to say, it's not only the writing that helps ease in conversations, the ENG voice-acting is a whole other thing.
Characters here grow on me, one of the best things that the remake has done. But there's this problem where the game lags a bit regarding development, it's not until the 4th character becomes playable from the party is when things get really interesting and taking to places. Where the game world opens up and new quest NPCs to connect through the social link.
By large, it is similar to P5, some of the characters are grouped up rather than separated individually, like the SEES party that is us, the school council led by Kijiro, among others. It's different here, and also pretty easier to develop relations with each social link, as for combat, here's how it is.
In P3, we have Tartarus, instead of going downhill, we climb up the stairs, battling every shadows as they progressively gets challenging, multiplying our reward pool longer we stay, and easier to understand and grasp considering it is a simplified in certain ways.
The core gameplay is similar, but has different variations of the progression system and battle design. You don't capture shadows, basic attack exist either as slash, blunt, or ranged attacks which each is fitted for specific party members. End battle rewards are based on a card shuffle system, enemies do not represent personas, and terminologies for similar game designs are different.
For example, tags in P3 are called Shifts. When someone knocks an enemy down and get a One More, their power levels are up and Shift transfer turn and power boost. It's easier here, and works for me considering I mostly used tag as an excuse for Persona Skills.
Now the card system is crazy, like I've noticed based on how I play the game, if I outdo the enemy in damage or do proper All-Out Attacks, I get to choose rewards from a shuffle of few cards. It gets overwhelmingly hard to pick, it's rewarding EXP, money, HP heals, Personas, etc, and they stack up.
Another thing is Arcana Burst, basically having 3 or 4 Arcana cards pushes the reward pool harder for these cards. I got to 16hrs so far, and almost 50 floors of Tartarus, and this card system is just bonkers. And honestly speaking, I prefer this system than P5's mementos.
It's also a case of endurance run, if you know, playing here longer isn't possible, due to the limited SP points available. But it's possible to keep the run going through various means of replenishing both HP and SP. Plus, more rewards the longer I play, and less time I have to go back to Tartarus while I deal with my social side of things. But it does take a while till things get even better.
Can I reiterate just how easy and seamless it feels to get into the game? From ranking social links, doing errands, growing my MC's social stat, and there's no overwhelming nature of the map or the feeling that I forgot something. That 16hrs had cut out almost 2 months time in-game.
And in that 2 months time, I already met so many people. Grown that relations, and while there isn't as much depth as the ones in P5 do, for interactions based on late 2000, it has its moments. This remake added more to enrich the experience instead of bringing a 1:1 do-over.
Even more, to top it off, there's no sidekick constantly mouthing you off telling you what to do. No offense Morgana. Also, there's a future pet member of the party, a dog. Hearing that alone makes me want to put the hours in with more enthusiasm. There's also this new gameplay feature called Theurgy. Which works as a power move for each member when their meter is filled.
If there's somethings I could pick on, nitpicks and such, one would be the velvet room. It's super basic right now, mostly for fusing. Maybe it does get better, one thing that bothered me was not being able to check my skill cards before doing the business.
This installment is just relaxing to play, it gets better the more hours are put into. Obviously Persona games are really long, but this one can easily be finished in less than 100hrs with some extra stuff done. Understandably though, without some of the content from FES and no FMC choice.
I have a feeling those might be DLC addition, could be. There's no way Sega/Atlus are going to chuck them out. There is another issue I want to discuss about, I have mentioned that it takes awhile till the good stuff comes by. The other issue is that this is not worth the 70 USD price tag. It seems a bit excessive for this game. It's a remake, P5R also exists and the envelope is pushed further by that.
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I've had my eye on this game for a while because I've played Persona from other generations. Looks amazing! thanks for share!
I'm looking forward to this one, but I want to rest first from such long games, I come from Baldurs 3 and the last Yakuza, I need some time before getting into another long game haha. From what you're saying, it's really making me want to play it, but like you, I don't think it's worth 70$ either. I've seen a bit of it on streams/videos and yeah, it's great, but you can tell it's an old game in a lot of ways. I'll probably take advantage of it being on Gamepass.