The battle system uses the tried and true turn-based Shin Megami Tensei from every Persona game. You need to use attacks enemies are weak against to enable your team to dogpile in and beat them to a pulp with an all-out attack.

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By registering Personas, you can recall them at any time for a price. You must re-register as the Persona levels up and gains more Skills to keep what it has learned, but doing so increases the price.

To say that this remake’s presentation is an improvement over the original game would be the understatement of the century. Persona 3’s graphics have gone from looking like a PlayStation One game to a polished, next-gen HD anime visual fiesta in Persona 3 Reload.

Persona 3 Reload shows there's still a novelty to balancing normal life and relationships with the duties of defeating shadows in the Dark Hour – a mysterious 25th hour where time stops as monstrous forces come out, humans turn into coffins, and your school transforms into a deranged 250-floor tower.

Chasing the truth behind the Dark Hour, the existence of personas, and the rising cases of Apathy Syndrome that’s overtaken the world like a widespread pandemic creates an unmistakable existential dread that lingers over this world.

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.

Reload even makes a concerted effort to address the fact that none of the male party members previously had Social Link routes. While they're not traditionally structured, distinct opportunities to spend time with them now pop up throughout the story and eventually lead to revelatory moments for those characters. Since these are freshly written for Reload, there's a noticeable contrast in quality compared to the original social sim conversations, making me wish the old dialogue had been punched up to match the heights of these new interactions.

And, of course, the glue that binds any Persona game together is its music. At this point, it feels routine to sing the praises of an Atlus soundtrack, but Persona 3 Reload is a case worth examining because of its fusion of the new and old, and the storytelling embedded in the songs themselves. In the mid 2000s, it stood out for having a wild mix of funky J-pop and the nu metal rap rock trend that was prevelant in the years leading up to its release. Yet that’s what has made it stand the test of time; there’s just nothing like it and the more time has gone on, the more it has been ingrained in Persona 3’s identity.

In addition, the original Persona 3’s turn-based combat system and dungeon crawling have been massively enhanced in the remake to be faster-paced and have new mechanics to make them more engaging.

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These new scenes and side stories add additional depth to the persona 3 reload gameplay main plot and made me love the characters even more as they added further depth to their personal histories and psyches than the original game did.

Here's everything you need to know about the P3 Reload release date, including gameplay trailers and latest changes to the PS2 era RPG.