But the one song that brings it all together is the banger of an opener “Full Moon, Full Life,” which uses clever melodic and lyrical callbacks to Persona 3’s musical history while representing the message of its story to a tee. So even if the more granular details of Persona 3’s story start to fade, these songs can evoke the memory of an unforgettable journey.

As stated by developer Atlus, Persona 3 Reload is intended to be a remake of its original version, which means the post-game campaign called "The Answer" from Persona 3 FES is not included. That’s disappointing considering the important story context it provided. It also means the optional female protagonist from Persona 3 Portable isn’t included either, which is also a shame since I consider her the best lead in the series thanks to her fun and distinct personality.

Alexander is always on deck to help our readers conquer the industry's most difficult games — when he can pry himself away from Monster Hunter that is! 

The few unlucky humans who don’t get turned into coffins become prey to horrifying creatures called Shadows, who only appear during the Dark Hour.

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.

There's a timelessness to Persona 3 – its story of confronting death with imperfect courage and carrying on in the face of tragedy left an everlasting impact on me when I first played it on PS2, even as RPGs evolved and the Persona series continued to grow. As I've gotten older and experienced the very things it's about, I've grown to cherish the earnestness of its message, the way it's framed, and the characters who embody these struggles even more.

Finally, we have the inclusion of the brand-new Theurgy mechanic. Theurgies are special super-moves that characters can activate after filling up a gauge by attacking an enemy or fulfilling special conditions.

Not to mention that the Fatigue system caused players to miss out on several days of fighting to level up their characters and potentially soft-lock them into unwinnable battles against the full moon Shadow boss fights because they were too low-level.

We got confirmation that you’ll be able to walk around Gekkoukan High School, talk to students, and socially interact with them similarly to the original game, as opposed to the largely menu-based Persona 3 Portable.

Yamaguchi spoke on elements of the game shown in the game's second trailer, confirming that party members Koromaru and Shinjiro Aragaki would have dedicated side-stories outside the main narrative in Reload, with the former's side-story focusing on expanding Koromaru's backstory, while Shinjiro's content would highlight persona 3 reload gameplay his charm amongst the party members. The developers also confirmed that the "Aeon" social link with Aigis from Persona 3 FES would be retained in the game. By this time, Persona 3 Reload had entered its final stages of development.[15] Presentation[edit]

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The last major gameplay component to receive a revamp in Persona 3 Reload is the turn-based combat system. For starters, it has incorporated the quality-of-life improvements from Persona 3 Portable, which allow you to directly control all of your party members instead of being driven by incompetent AI like in the PlayStation 2 version of Persona 3, making combat much less frustrating to sit through.

All in all, my doubts about diving back into Persona 3 territory were shattered from this demo. Persona 3 Reload isn't a remake with a few alterations here and there; it's a sincerely thought-through updated game that can seemingly stand on its own two legs in the competitive Persona lineup.

The Reload naming was conceived as a result of the developers wanting to use another moniker with the letter "R" to convey its status as a definitive edition of Persona 3 as Persona 5 Royal was to Persona 5, feeling as if simply calling it "Persona 3 Remake" was not fitting for the naming conventions of the series. The Reload name was also used to reflect the pistol-like Evokers used by the party to summon their Personas during battle.[13]