[10] The player is unable to contact the Navigator (between Mitsuru Kirijo and later Fuuka Yamagishi) in Tartarus to change the dungeon's background music like in the original game, nor is the player able to direct the party to split up and find hidden Treasures and Shadows scattered on the current floor. The party is also able to either walk or fully sprint when traversing the dungeon, but doing the latter also increases the chance that Shadows patrolling the current floor are alerted to the party's presence.[11]

For me, the most potentially exciting changes to life outside of hunting Shadows were made inside the dorm that make it feel like the main character actually co-exists there with a half-dozen classmates. The rooftop, the kitchen, Fuuka's DVD player, and the bookshelf are all now available to use in one's free time for gardening, cooking, or watching movies, or reading with a friend or reading to improve your three character traits.

You can take your party members on individual activities, too, like gardening or cooking together to get new health items, which also lets them open up to you in ways they hadn't before. Watching a scary movie with my cheerful bestie Yukari or reviewing boxing matches with my gym bro Akihiko don’t just offer social stat points, they give a bit of insight into their personalities.

The first Persona that awakens within him is Orpheus, but he turns out to be a special case who can swap between multiple Personas at will, giving the player great flexibility in battle strategy.

In addition, the technical performance of Persona 3 Reload on Xbox Series X is of a high standard. The game ran smoothly during my playthrough at a 1080p resolution and 60 FPS with pelo framerate drops.

My biggest and most personal gripe with Persona 3 Reload is that if the main character falls in battle, it's game over, and you have to begin again from your last save point or restart the battle you died in persona 3 reload gameplay from the beginning. This ‘game over’ condition has been a mainstay in the Persona series (and its big brother franchise, Shin Megami Tensei) and I’m disappointed to see it is still here as it’s a nonsensical and cheap way to artificially increase the difficulty. It goes against the ‘power of friendship’ message the Persona series is based on.

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.

That said, much of the dialogue and many of the Social Links were significantly overhauled for the female lead in Portable, so it would’ve been a tall task either way.

Some sources suggest that Max Charm gives a 1.51 multiplier to Social Link points. Unfortunately I haven't been able to confirm this, but this mechanic has been confirmed to exist in Portable which makes it likely this mechanic exists in this game as well.

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I played the expanded version of the original Persona 3 called Persona 3 FES in 2009 and haven’t replayed it since. So, I was excited about this remake to see if it could improve aspects of the original game that hadn’t aged well or introduce new elements to make it fresh.

While players have subsequently been introduced to new iterations of Persona 3, including Persona 3 FES and P3 Portable, Persona 3 Reload is solely a remake of the original title, meaning some elements, such as the choice of a female protagonist, won't be present.

Dungeon crawling through Tartarus is now more rewarding. There are many interesting new activities to do during the daytime to strengthen your party before the deadline for the next full moon Shadow boss fight arrives.

It finally feels like I'm truly exploring, experiencing, and learning the geography of Tatsumi Port Island instead of merely hovering above it. I didn't feel the limitations of a small town in the same way I did prior, where moving from place to place felt more like data entry than a game as the hours wore on. And: I can get a part-time job at the movie theater!