System: Change 2Release date: October 23, 2025Developer: AtlusPublisher: Atlus
The Persona collection has had one thing of a resurgence on Nintendo consoles lately. In 2022, Persona 5 Royal launched on Nintendo Change, and it was ultimately adopted by Persona 3 Transportable and Persona 4 Golden in early 2023. A number of years later, Atlus has now introduced Persona 3 Reload to Nintendo Change 2. It’s a full remake of the unique Persona 3 with graphics, audio, and gameplay extra in keeping with Persona 5. It’s additionally completely glorious – as you may anticipate, it’s very barely compromised on Nintendo Change 2, however it stays completely playable and a incredible JRPG nonetheless.
When you’re studying this evaluate, you in all probability match into one in all two classes: you’ve already performed Persona 3 Reload and are questioning if a double dip is value it, or you performed Persona 5 Royal on Nintendo Change and are questioning if this one is simply nearly as good. To deal with the primary group, Persona 3 Reload runs at 30 frames per second on Nintendo Change 2. That a lot isn’t so dangerous, however some gamers seen body stuttering within the sport’s early builds, which remains to be there within the closing launch – although it ought to be patched later. Mainly, Persona 3 Reload doesn’t appear to attract its frames at a constant charge – there aren’t any body drops, per se, however the pacing is a bit bit off. When you play Persona 3 Reload on Nintendo Change 2 however don’t understand it has body pacing points, it’s possible you’ll very properly not discover them in any respect. However going into it figuring out the issue is there, it’s a little bit noticeable. That being mentioned, I’m somebody who may be very explicit about decision and body charge, and I don’t assume this can be a terribly huge deal – clearly the port might have been accomplished higher (Nintendo Change 2 can actually run this sport at 60 frames per second), however for what it’s, it actually isn’t too dangerous. When you’re nonetheless not sure, there’s a demo of Persona 3 Reload you’ll be able to play without cost. Test it out, and if the demo’s efficiency doesn’t hassle you, then the complete sport received’t both.
Efficiency apart: when you beloved Persona 5 Royal, you’ll completely love Persona 3 Reload as properly. When you’re even the slightest bit excited by Persona video games, I’d extremely advocate diving into this one spoiler-free. There’s a ton of content material on provide, and with customizable problem choices, you’ll be able to select to sail by way of the story at your personal tempo or create powerful challenges for your self. Battles are similar to Persona 5, as you may anticipate, and so they’re as strategic and addictive as ever. It’s enjoyable to shift between celebration members to strike enemy weaknesses, and the animations and menus make fights really feel like they’re of top quality. Not like Persona 5, nonetheless, successful a battle offers you an opportunity to activate Shuffle Time, which helps you to select an additional bonus – for instance, you’ll be able to select to extend the expertise you earned from the combat, or you’ll be able to select to obtain a brand new Persona or more money. This makes battles really feel rather more worthwhile.
Identical to all Persona video games, there’s additionally a heavy emphasis on time administration. After going to high school for the day, you’re given two time slots – after faculty and the night – to do just about no matter you want. More often than not, you’ll be hanging out and establishing social hyperlinks with confidants. Persona 3 Reload has stable confidants throughout the board – virtually all of them have their very own character arcs that you just’ll see unfold over the course of the sport, and spending time with different characters offers Personas you fuse an additional enhance. Whereas we’re speaking about confidants, Persona 3 Reload additionally has good voice appearing that makes the characters extra plausible and simpler to narrate to. When you’re a seasoned Persona participant, you’ll don’t have any bother managing your time and selecting your actions rigorously. When you’re nonetheless new to the collection, you may discover it a tad overwhelming to determine what’s greatest to do together with your time with no information. That’s true of all Persona video games, to an extent.
One factor you’ll discover about Persona 3 Reload proper off the bat is its visually interesting menus and artwork kinds. Persona 5 is well-known for its putting menus and artwork, however I’d truly say Persona 3 Reload is a minimum of on par if not higher outright. Even easy issues just like the merchandise sorting menu is trendy, which helps give the sport that high-quality feeling regardless of its minor efficiency hiccups on Nintendo Change 2. The music is great, too – for me personally, it’s powerful for me to discern the lyrics with out trying them up, however that didn’t cease quite a few tracks within the sport from getting caught in my head. Colour Your Evening, the observe that performs when you’re out and about in the course of the night, is especially catchy – it wasn’t within the unique Persona 3, so it’s unique to the remake.
Talking of the unique Persona 3, Reload makes many modifications to it past the plain graphical and audio upgrades. Characters have new facet tales separate from their social hyperlinks, there are new actions to participate in across the dorm, the community function from Persona 5 has been added, and Shifting has been added to battles (which work the identical as Baton Passes from Persona 5). Moreover, celebration members now not turn into fatigued when exploring Tartarus. When you don’t know this already, Tartarus is a plot-relevant space the place you’ll be spending a lot of your time. It’s an enormous tower with tons of flooring, and over the course of the sport you’ll need to climb it. Every ground has treasure chests and Shadows to defeat. The gameplay right here is stable, however sparsely – the areas are pretty related to one another by way of visuals, so that you may tire of it after exploring 20 flooring in a row.
There’s another factor to notice right here: Persona 3 Reload doesn’t embody the choice to play as a feminine protagonist. This creates an odd scenario the place no model of Persona 3 contains all of its related content material – Persona 3 Transportable does have the feminine protagonist, however clearly it doesn’t have any of Reload’s enhancements. I’d nonetheless say that Reload is well the definitive model of the sport, however it’s a disgrace that it could’t rely as a full alternative because of that obvious omission. The feminine protagonist route did embody totally different social hyperlinks and would have required a ton of further voice appearing, so it’s barely comprehensible as to why it’s not right here.
Persona 3 Reload is a incredible JRPG that can present properly over 60 hours of content material when you see it all over. The Nintendo Change 2 port isn’t good by way of efficiency, however it doesn’t detract a lot from the general expertise. When you’re a fan of JRPGs, Persona 3 Reload is a must-play. Its presentation, gameplay, and story all work collectively to type a superb remake and a necessary expertise for any Persona fan.
Persona 3 Reload copy supplied by the writer for the needs of this evaluate.
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