In 2006, essentially the most unrealistic elements of role-playing recreation Persona 3 had been the monsters. The key Darkish Hour that plunges the world beneath a sickly inexperienced moon at midnight. A supernatural realm, hidden within the fictional Japanese city of Tatsumi Port Island. However that was 18 years in the past. In ground-up remake Persona 3 Reload, you’ll as a substitute droop disbelief on the considered frequently consuming at eating places, or your entire pals being free on the identical days.
Unrealistic or not, we did all of that and extra in our newest hands-on with Persona 3 Reload. If you happen to’re not acquainted with the unique recreation, by day you reside a slice-of-life fantasy as a scholar at Gekkoukan Excessive College, hanging out with friends and retaining on high of faculty work. By night time, you and a band of scholars head into the Darkish Hour to slay Shadow monsters and save the city.
Our time in Reload begins on the finish of a faculty day, round 5 hours into the complete recreation. Our final preview was spent battering Shadows and swooning on the recreation’s gothic makeover, so this time, we’re right here to social gathering – and by that, we imply doing every little thing however saving the world.
Earlier than stepping foot out of the classroom, we’re invited to sports activities follow and a visit to the arcade. Each are attractive affords, however we’re dying to discover Tatsumi Port Island. A contemporary-day graphical overhaul with a beautiful lighting system means the world has by no means appeared this good, and there’s a lot to maintain you busy. We spent our afternoon shopping for weapons from a shady policeman and assembly a faculty good friend for dinner, however because the in-game days unfurled we additionally squared as much as misogynists, had our fortune informed in the midst of a nightclub, and found the epic highs and lows of highschool monitor staff follow. We additionally spent a complete day becoming a member of a restaurant’s on-line fan membership, however the much less mentioned about that one, the higher.
In final 12 months’s re-release of Persona 3 Moveable, Tatsumi Port Island might solely be explored in 2D. Reload brings issues up to the mark by making the soar to 3D. It’s an enormous enchancment – as with Tokyo in Persona 5, and 4‘s sleepy city of Inaba, with the ability to transfer round and see what’s occurring every day is a blast. Nevertheless, Persona 3 Reload director Takuya Yamaguchi tells NME that Reload’s solid – and the island itself – has had a little bit of a progress spurt since our final go to.
“After we had been engaged on the brand new city and every little thing, one of many key modifications was altering the scale of the characters to be extra real looking, says Yamaguchi. “As a result of they’re now just a little bit taller, we modified the size of the city to suit that. One factor that we had been actually cautious doing was not [going] ‘Oh they’re taller now, it’s real looking, photo-realism completed!’ We wished to maintain the texture of Persona 3 – we had to ensure while you’re strolling round it felt like the sport, so we made certain to stability that and look very fastidiously after we had been engaged on the atmosphere.”
When you’ve got performed the unique recreation, it is best to nonetheless recognise its upscaled locales. But whereas some areas of Reload search to protect components of the unique recreation, don’t anticipate every little thing to be as you bear in mind.
“Persona 3 [has] an incredible story and core gameplay,” explains Yamaguchi. “We tried to not change that in any respect actually, however what we did was add a variety of new components and facets that made the sport hopefully really feel recent for veterans of this sequence.”
Our first style of this comes when Mitsuru Kirijo, the pinnacle of Shadow-fighting vigilante group SEES (Specialised Extracurricular Execution Squad), invitations us to discover Tartarus after college. Right here, we get to play with Reload’s all-new Theurgy system, which affords highly effective strikes that can be utilized when “feelings run excessive” in battle. Every member of SEES has their very own Theurgy transfer, and everybody has a novel means of charging them up. It provides a variety of texture to Reload’s dungeon crawling, and it’s the addition that Yamaguchi is proudest of.
“I feel [Theurgy] is absolutely cool for 2 causes,” he says. “The primary being that it helps spotlight and emphasise what makes every character particular person – I feel that’s superior. It additionally helps make the battles much more attention-grabbing, and dynamic, as nicely.”
It’s true – Theurgy, together with an up to date battle interface that’s extra in step with 4 and 5’s fashionable aesthetics, vastly improves turn-based fight compared to the unique recreation. New battle theme ‘It’s Going Down Now’, which pairs returning rapper Lotus Juice with singer Azumi Takahashi, captures the easy cool that the Persona sequence has come to face for. We catch ourselves head-bopping alongside a number of occasions throughout the preview, however we’re in good firm – Reload producer Ryota Niitsuma tells us that it’s the music he’s been listening to essentially the most.
“We took a variety of the weather that made the unique battle music, and we integrated them and adjusted, upgraded, and added new components to it,” he says.
It’s a philosophy that’s been utilized to the remainder of the sport. From every little thing we’ve seen in our hands-on, Reload takes the soul of Persona 3 and uplifts it in each means. A few of these modifications – like with the ability to run as a substitute of stroll via Tartarus – are small enhancements. Others, just like the elimination of 3’s punishing ‘Drained’ system that made exploring the Darkish Hour a chore, are game-changing.
We solely performed Reload for an hour – a drop within the ocean, contemplating Persona 5’s playtime clocks in at round 100 hours – however because it stands, all indicators level to this being an exceptional remake. Can February roll round just a little sooner, please?
Persona 3 Reload launches on February 2 for PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
