And just like watching each of them take an Evoker shot straight to the dome to cast spells, I never got tired of seeing my party’s personas shatter their portrait cutouts when hitting a weakness.

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These new side paths contain special, challenging mini-boss Shadows guarding special treasure chests containing rare crafting materials or powerful items that will make your future battles much easier.

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.

But as shallow or awkward as some of them may be, there are valuable little stories to be found in Social Links that either feed into the broader message about finding purpose or are just entertaining enough to see to their conclusion.

Although I'd argue there's a particular vibe and style to PS2-era RPGs that just can't be replicated, Reload’s visual overhaul is a meaningful way to reframe a world I've spent countless hours in, as if this was how I always wanted these places to look. At first it was a bit surreal to see Tatsumi Port Island recreated and these beloved characters remodeled for a new generation – something as simple as giving them sweet jackets, superpowered armbands, and black gloves are neat touches to complement the fancy new combat animations.

, you choose who you are, how you fight and what you do to write a tale of your own, through and through.

Largely, Persona 3 Reload follows the base game rather closely. As a member of the SEES, you will explore Tartarus, the altered form of the school that is now a dungeon that changes nightly.

Social Links are a key mechanic of the modern Persona series and are closely connected to the calendar system. Social Links are the bonds you create with your friends over the course of the year.

Dungeons now share the perspective of Persona 4 and Persona 5, where the camera is behind the player rather than top-down. Series staples such as recruiting and combining demons are the same as before, though it’s been speculated that there are additional social links.

And, of course, the glue that binds any Persona game together is its music. At this point, it feels routine to sing the praises of an Atlus soundtrack, but Persona 3 Reload is a case worth examining because of its fusion of the new and old, and the storytelling embedded in the songs themselves. In the mid 2000s, it stood out for having a wild mix of funky J-pop and the nu metal rap rock trend that was prevelant in the years leading up to its release. Yet that’s what has made it stand the test of time; there’s just nothing like it and the more time has gone on, the more it has been ingrained in Persona persona 3 reload gameplay 3’s identity.

Reload even makes a concerted effort to address the fact that non-e of the male party members previously had Social Link routes. While they're not traditionally structured, distinct opportunities to spend time with them now pop up throughout the story and eventually lead to revelatory moments for those characters. Since these are freshly written for Reload, there's a noticeable contrast in quality compared to the original social sim conversations, making me wish the old dialogue had been punched up to match the heights of these new interactions.

By pressing the Touch Pad, you can bring up Network Functions. Network Functions show what other players have spent time on that day, as well as what they answered for classroom questions.

Players would get afflicted by this if they stayed in Tartarus for too long, studied for too long in their bedroom, or drew a bad fortune prediction at Naganaki Shrine.