Persona 3 Reload - The Magician | Part 1
8I'm really into Persona, have been since playing the original Persona 3. So naturally I'm playing the remake. Don't get surprised if these videos get taken down at some point because aaaaaallllll the music triggers copyright. That also means no monetization, so any ads you see aren't my doing. But that also basically removes my reason to pace these out, so I may as well put them up as soon as I make the videos. I pity the people that make a living out of playing games like this and learned about the copyright protection the hard way.
As usual with Persona games, it takes a bit before we get to some proper action. Hell in this whole video we only have one fight that you can win without even trying. The biggest thing they changed from other P3 versions is the graphics, it's very much prettied up in the unreal engine with some very smooth animations. Overall I like it, but when actually running around in Tartarus it feels a bit too much like "any given unreal engine game". Hard to explain, but Persona 5 had a more distinct animation that made it feel unique that's kind of been lost here.
A lot of the gameplay elements and story beats are all exactly from P3, although I don't remember it perfectly so any minor changes may be a bit harder to spot. But there are some QoL things for sure. Most notably is the Baton Pass mechanic from P5 returning as "Shift" in this. Although we won't be seeing that in use until a ways away from now.
The cutscenes look pretty good with the new graphics, the protag awakening to his Persona definitely feels more impactful with the better visuals. I never realized how Evangelion-esque it all feels, taking keys from the first fight right down to crushing the enemy's arm... Maybe that's just me though.
There's two big gripes I have with the game so far, so we'll go over the first one that only matters if you played the previous Persona games. The entire voice cast was changed. Not a single voice is the same, which is very jarring when 3 out of the 4 versions of Persona 3 that have been released have a consistent voice cast, including any spin-offs and cameo appearances (P3/4 MCs even came back to voice them for their boss fights in Persona 5). But I suppose this is only a problem if you've been a long time fan of the games. On their own, the voices are all fine--good, even. It's just, you can really tell majority of them are mimicking the original voices. So it just makes you think "why are they different then"? and then you think of stuff like "well it must be to save money by hiring cheaper VAs" and then now you're thinking about that every time someone speaks. Really takes you out of it. That's how it is for me anyways. But to some people, this won't even be an issue if this is their first exposure to P3 or if they're a weeb that plays with JP voices.
Oh yeah, I cut it out of this video since it wasn't really worth wasting the 45 seconds it takes to go through it all, but the first screen is the game giving a warning about it having themes revolving around "violence, bullying, and suicide", followed by an epilepsy warning. Our culture is so damn cautious now.
Edit: I looked into it a bit and some of the original voices do return, just not in the main cast's role. Which is...weird. Elizabeth's VA returns to voice her, but she also voiced Mitsuru originally, and now Mitsuru's being voiced by someone who sounds almost exactly like the old Mitsuru. Others of the original cast are voicing in more minor roles. I guess they just decided since they needed to replace some of the core cast, may as well replace them all. Not the direction I would have gone, but it is what it is.