Persona 3 Reload Thoughts

 So I finished Persona 3 Reload last week, and figured I’d do a quick write up of my thoughts. For context, my first Persona game was Persona 5, followed by 5R, then 4 Golden, and now 3R. I also played SMT3, 5, 4, and Apocalypse, in that order, between Persona 5 and 5R, and a little bit of Vengeance after 4 Golden. So I started playing them relatively recently in the history of the series, but I’ve played at least one version of every “modern” one since the two series defining entries, SMT3 and Persona 3, now.

The first thing which struck me was how the game in general feels like it has a much creepier tone than later Persona games, closer to SMT, especially early on but throughout. The dungeons vibes are generally weirder, as are the enemies at least than Persona 5 since P5 decided to use the SMT system of Personas and Shadows being one in the same design wise, the setting and tone feel creepier than 4 which was loads creepier than 5, and adding to it is in general, especially early on, character seemed far more likely to simply no sell bizarre occurrences or respond to them cryptically, whereas I feel in 4 and especially 5 reactions are more naturalistic. Although I think that makes 5 a bit more accessible and easier to digest and understand than 3, I think I actually prefer 3’s vibe, much like I prefer SMT’s far more cryptic, creepy, and inaccessible vibe than Persona. I’m a big fan of weird stuff, and SMT is just weirder than Persona, and Persona 3 is weirder than Persona 5, and I like that. Hell, you get a dog, a kid, and a robot in P3, P5 all you get is a talking cat. Talk about a downgrade.

Another thing I noticed which I have to admit, I am not entirely sure I’m right about, but I felt in Persona 5, most supports followed a pattern of you get to know them, become trusted, you discover some problem they have which can only be solved by beating some dude in Mementos, you do that, and then you finish the support, whereas Persona 3’s all seem to follow a different pattern, namely, you get to know them, they have some problem, you either egg them on to make that problem worse (which consistently gives the most relationship points) or you advice against it (and thus have to make up those points otherwise) and then eventually there is a reversal, where they discover they’ve been fucking up and change their ways, and then they thank you for supporting them the whole time. I find this interesting because it really made me feel like I was actively making these peoples lives worse, even if they ultimately got happy endings. Part of this might just be a consequence of me using a guide to choose my responses and thus maximize points - people who choose dialogue options without a guide might read it as you simply connecting with troubled people, but since I was optimizing my time (so I could see as many of the supports in one playthrough as possible, my priority) I was consistently encouraging these people to ruin their lives. Yes, ask your teacher out. Yes, run away from your parents, child. Yes, keep running on that knee until it snaps. Yes, keep gorging yourself to the point of vomiting, its fine. There are a couple exceptions, but it definitely felt like a very high percentage of supports followed this same pattern, and it honestly made me feel really evil, and in turn made it less surprising to find I had been the host to the avatar of death the whole time. I don’t really know if that was the intent - I feel like probably not? But it was interesting. I didn’t hate it.

Another thing I noticed was just how much Persona 4 and 5 cribbed straight from 3. Elements from Fuuka were brought down and became Futaba and Haru, who also borrowed some of Mitsuru’s plotlines. Most of the rest of Mitsuru’s traits and personalities went to Makoto. Junpei become Yosuke became Ryuji, becoming dumber but mildly less pervy each time, but also getting less of a redemption arc each time - low key I love Ryuji but he never really learns anything, whereas Junpei starts off awful but I legit liked him by the end due to his changes over the course of the game. Ryuji also has a lot of Kanji in him, although I don’t know if there is a good parallel for him in P3. Akechi is a mash up of Naoto and Akaya. And so on and so forth. It kinda feels like they have a list of necessary elements for a Persona game, and they just kinda mix and match who gets what traits and roles in the plot each time. This did not at all ruin the experience of Persona 3 for me, but it definitely did make Persona 5 seem shittier in retrospect, seeing just how derivative it really is. Its still probably the best of them simply because it is the same formula refined, but it does make me hope that Persona 6 will take some risks to make it not just Persona 3 for the fourth time.

Overall, though, I enjoyed Persona 3 a lot, and its problematic portions were so much less problematic than those in 4 that I don’t even feel I need to qualify it like I would with 4. It did kinda creep me out that Chihiro’s final platonic support had her get mad about a poster declaring Teacher/Student love as bad, though, even moreso than the Hermit support or the Magician support, which more directly dealt with that, since how dare they put those words in her poor naive mouth. I’m not sure if I’ll play the Answer - I’ve heard its bad and I have kinda lost motivation, but since its a separate thing I can really play it anytime, so maybe I’ll get around to it. I honestly hated the post ending content in both 4 and 5 though which AREN’T widely thought of as trash, so I’d hate to see how bad one that people actually dislike is.