4Gamers – Live Preview | Lots of improvements in Persona 3 Reload

Earlier this year, it was announced that Atlus will be remaking the original Persona 3 game that was released for PlayStation 2 in 2007. This remake is Persona 3 Reload. Here, Atlus is focusing on recreating the essence of Persona 3, and we don’t get content from Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable. We had the chance to play Persona 3 Reload for half an hour at Gamescom.

In the 30-minute demo, we had two options: New Moon and Full Moon. We started first with New Moon, where we can explore the multiple levels in Tartarus with completely new graphics. In Full Moon we explored the monorail where we had to defeat the first boss in the game. I was invigorated seeing all-new graphics and backgrounds, with the classic Persona 3 blue feel.

Also new to Persona 3 Reload is the combat system. Combat remains turn-based, of course, but you can have all characters perform actions from the start, which wasn’t the case with the original Persona 3. This is definitely a good quality of life update that offers a little more variety.

What we’ve noticed in both Tartaros and Monorail is that everything looks pretty empty, except for a few repetitive elements. You’ll continue to encounter the same mini-bosses on every floor or train car, making you perform the exact same combat sequences. We only had half an hour, but we had already had the same mini-boss fight a few times, so we didn’t have time to finish the boss fight on the monorail.