Persona 3 Reload tries to balance the serie’s light and dark sides

I had never played Persona 3 until almost exactly one year ago. I remember loading up its Switch rerelease during a long, cross-country plane ride and finally digging in after years of curiosity. I adore Persona 5 and love the vibe of 4, so I figured I knew what to expect when I started my save file. I was dead wrong. The vibrant, plucky world I’d grown accustomed to shattered the first time I watched one of my characters put a gun to their head and pull the trigger.

Persona 3 is a dark game. It’s pitch black compared to the entries that succeeded it. That makes the idea of its modern remake, Persona 3 Reload, a bit of a challenge for Atlus. It’s clear that the goal of the project is to create parity with Persona 5, bringing its signature style to the game that paved the way for the series. But can you really slap one game’s spirited panache onto a much more haunting story?

The answer, so far, is both yes and no. I went hands-on with an hour-long slice of Persona 3 Reload, which would take me deep into Tartarus and have me completing a few social links. While it’s difficult to glean too much from that short time, the remake looks to balance the light and dark parts of the RPG series. That’s great news for Persona 5 fans, but the jury’s out on how it’ll land with Persona 3 evangelists.

• Persona 3 Reload will release during a surprisingly packed February 2024
• Persona 3 Portable’s modern remaster shows how far the series has come
• Persona 5 Royal owners on PS4 can’t upgrade to PS5 version

Softening up

My demo dropped me right in the heat of the action, a few hours into the story. By that time, my party had already explored Tartarus and was well established. I’d spend my first few days exploring the newly built versions of classic locations, from Gekkoukan High School to Naganaki Shrine. It’s a delight to see those spaces polished up to a modern shine while still being immediately identifiable as locations from the original.

That’s largely the nostalgic vibe