Persona 3 Reload

Ever since I got my hands on Persona 3 Reload over the summer, I've described it to folks as «Persona 3 redone in the form of Persona 5 Royal.» While that may be a gross oversimplification, it's also pretty high praise. Longtime fans of the Persona series point towards Persona 3 as the entry that changed the course of the series, pointing it down the path it's been on for nearly the last two decades. While Persona 3 may be the most important entry from a mechanical perspective, Persona 5 has the most mainstream relevance, particularly in 2024.

The mainline Persona series has since made the leap from being largely a PlayStation franchise to finding a home on multiple platforms, with Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal available now on PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo consoles. That opened the series to massive new audiences, but though the newer Persona 4 Golden still feels remarkably playable by modern standards, Persona 3 Portable – by far, the oldest of the trio – sticks out like a sore thumb amidst that collection of classic RPGs as having aged the worst.

While Persona 3 Portable is the PSP version of the title, even the other versions of the influential RPG would feel outdated in several ways by today's standards. "[Persona 3] came out 18 years ago; a lot has changed in 18 years in terms of how you make a game and how you make a game entertaining and increase its usability," Persona 3 Reload producer Ryota Niitsuma says. «Obviously, we've learned a lot over the years from making our other games; we picked up a lot of know-how and information on how to make a game more entertaining to play. We put all of that, without hesitation, into the game.»

«Persona 3 Reload is a title that takes all of the elements and things we've learned from [Persona 4] Golden and onwards and puts them into an accumulation of all of our knowledge to the title,» Persona 3 Reload director Takuya Yamaguchi adds. «I think in terms of playability and fun, this is a great