Additionally, for those who are looking for fearsome adversaries to reach an even greater glory, they can also look forward to player-versus-player battles that will go down in the history books if they so choose to wage them.

Through the fusion system, which allows your main character to wield different personas Pokemon style, you can unlock a bunch of unique Theurgy attacks, and some of them are as destructive as they are hilarious. Those who've played Persona 5 will recognize the Shift mechanic, too, which works just like the Baton Pass; when you hit an enemy weakness, you can pass the extra turn to a different party member who can keep the pain train rolling or hit remaining foes even harder.

Persona 3 Reload is one of the best remakes of a game I’ve played since Capcom’s Resident Evil remakes and one of the best Xbox games I’ve played thus far in 2024 that both Persona fans and JRPG fans should not miss out on.

All that time you spend with these characters in Reload, learning about them and going through a typical day together, shows the value of a normal life. But they weren’t brought together by choice; at critical moments in the story, their complicated histories create a believable tension that boils over, sometimes harboring resentment for each other and doubting their trust.

During battle, both the ability to take direct control over party members as in Portable, as well as enabling the CPU to dictate their behavior as in the original game and FES, are available. The battle user interface has been completely overhauled to take functional and stylistic inspiration from Persona 5, with the commands "Persona", "Item", "Guard" and "Attack" each corresponding to different buttons in a similar fashion. In addition to the returning "Analyze", "Tactics", "Target" and "Rush" commands from prior iterations of Persona 3, a "Survey" and "Assist" function have also been added. Persona 3 Reload implements an improved variation of the "Baton Pass" skill from Persona 5 in the form of the "Shift" ability mapped to the left trigger. "Shift" enables the current active party member to pass their turn onto another character after successfully landing a hit on a Shadow enemy that knocks them Down, allowing the next party member to potentially knock other enemies Down if they are in certain formations.

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 over what gets carried over and what is new.

While the difficulty isn’t as challenging as the original Persona 3, that didn’t stop me from having a blast playing this game.

In my playthrough that ran more than an hour, though, I didn't feel at all like Reload was covering the same ground, even if it basically is. The added gameplay elements, updated graphics, tweaked areas and social links compel me to sink another handful of months into getting to the bottom of Apathy Syndrome with the S.E.E.S. crew.

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.

Your browser isn’t supported anymore. Update it to get the best YouTube experience and our latest features. Learn more

In addition, while the standard version will just have the game, the Digital Deluxe Edition will include a digital artbook and a digital soundtrack for this remake.

Not to mention that spending time with party members in Linked Episodes will reward you with healing items to help you survive longer in battle.

Reload removes the ability for the player to completely break Social Links with supporting characters as was possible in both Persona 3 and Persona 4 (2008), although the player is still able to reverse them through choosing the protagonist's dismissive responses to interactions.[7] A new social element will be introduced, that exists separately from Social Links. It is meant to contextualize supporting characters who weren't as prominent in previous iterations of Persona 3, through the inclusion of side-story arcs that will deepen the protagonist's relationship with them, which will also extend to the male party members due to the lack of dedicated Social Link stories for them.[oito][nove][10]

That same day, a Twitter user uncovered a registered web domain named "p3re.jp", which was speculated to be connected to a Persona 3 remake due to its shorthand abbreviation potentially referencing the game and following previously registered web domains for projects persona 3 reload gameplay in the Persona series.[34]