If there ever was a gaming franchise that I wanted to be a part of, it was always Persona. Though I’m not a girl who’s really into anime, it’s always seemed very appealing to me. Admittedly, when I was in high school, I was a bit jealous of just how fun others either in my friend circle or online were having in Persona 5.

Now, I’m not a total noob when it comes to the history of this series, so when I heard about Persona 3 Reload releasing, I finally saw my in and took it. So, let’s talk about what I thought of it.

Story and Gameplay

Besides me not being huge on anime, another thing that always put me off about Persona, in general, was the fact that it was turned-based. I’m just not huge on that gameplay style, but am trying to break that feeling. Luckily, Persona 3 Reload is exactly what a gamer like me needs to not feel like a total outsider when it comes to turn-based JRPGs.

For better or worse, P3R is a pretty streamlined experience gameplay-wise. One half of the day has you walking around the school campus and town talking with classmates and townsfolk, just getting to know them and building your relationship with them as well as your skills.

When the lights go out, things change though, as you’ll be going against enemies during Dark Hour. The combat is easy to understand here and is pretty reminiscent of games like Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon, if you’re like me and those and Dragonball were the furthest you ever went into anime as a whole.

It has that familiarity of being able to summon different Personas to use to attack those who wish to do you harm. I enjoyed it, especially thanks to the developers thinking about us noobs and adding not only an Easy difficulty but even a Peaceful one.

Another way the devs have thought of gamers is by integrating the ability to fast-forward through dialogue or just keep it rolling with an auto-advancing setting. This is something that I wish every single RPG had available. I love gaming, but often don’t have the time to just sit there as side characters ramble on.

Graphics and Audio

Though I’m not a huge anime fan, this is a fricken gorgeous game. Whether you’re talking about character models, their talking sprites during dialogue, or the menus, this P3R is one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played. There’s no denying that the developers behind this game know what they’re doing. Atlus is legendary in the JRPG gaming space for a reason.

Something that I enjoyed about P3R is that there’s a ton of voice work going into each character, both in English and Japanese. I was pleasantly surprised. Though I love writing, reading isn’t my favorite thing to do these days, so I’m very happy when an RPG makes immersion all the more welcoming.

Feedback

Though there’s a lot of voice-over work that’s gone into P3R, I wish that every character was treated with it. There are moments in-game where you feel taken out of the experience because you’ll go from one beautifully-acted conversation with one character and then go into a silent one with another. It’s jarring.

As someone who knows a lot of lore about Persona 3 from before this Reload version, I was excited at the thought of being able to play as Kotone Shiomi, the Persona 3 Portable’s female protagonist. Unfortunately, Kotone isn’t here, so players are only to play as the male lead, Makoto Yuki. He’s a great character, but even just the option to play as a female would’ve been amazing for my first venture into the series. As a woman, I just feel kind of left out.

Conclusion

There’s no doubt that Persona 3 Reload is a fantastic experience for new and old fans alike. But P3R really goes out of its way to be welcoming to the former, making gameplay extremely accessible and fun. It also offers players many gameplay additions that should be in more games these days. If you’re someone like me who’s been looking in from the outside, Atlus has opened a window for us.