As you explore Tartarus, you occasionally encounter roadblocks that impede your progress. These roadblocks can only be removed by defeating special boss Shadows, appearing only when the moon is full.

So it doesn’t contain the epilogue from FES or the female protagonist from Portable. However, that doesn’t mean that the new additions to the main story that was added in FES won’t be in Reload.”

All those additions become part of the daily routine and add a genuine texture to characters I thought I knew so well already. But the tangible reward comes in the form of combat perks like permanent stat buffs and status effects, and more substantially, extra Theurgy attacks – basically new Limit Break-style moves that each party member can unleash. It's one convincing way for the power of friendship to be made manifest.

For me, the most potentially exciting changes to life outside of hunting Shadows were made inside the dorm that make it feel like the main character actually co-exists there with a half-dozen classmates. The rooftop, the kitchen, Fuuka's DVD player, and the bookshelf are all now available to use in one's free time for gardening, cooking, or watching movies, or reading with a friend or reading to improve your three character traits.

So far, it all sounds the same as before, but we’ve also noticed some new features in Persona 3 Reload. The most notable for long-time fans is some back story for the villainous group known as Strega, who wish for the Midnight Hour to continue as they would return to being nothing more than social outcasts without their Persona powers.

Reload also includes fully voiced Social Link scenes for the first time, and that works wonders in terms of giving them more weight and value. All romances are optional as well, which wasn't the case in previous versions of Persona 3 (except when playing as the Persona 3 Portable-exclusive female protagonist), and it's pretty wild to think back and realize you used to be forced to have a relationship with every female classmate you got to max rank.

Of course, I can’t talk about Persona 3 Reload’s presentation without giving a shout-out to the soundtrack. Persona 3’s beloved hip-hop and rap-rock soundtrack has been remastered for Persona 3 Reload and even features a persona 3 reload gameplay couple of new songs.

The last major gameplay component to receive a revamp in Persona 3 Reload is the turn-based combat system. For starters, it has incorporated the quality-of-life improvements from Persona 3 Portable, which allow you to directly control all of your party members instead of being driven by incompetent AI like in the PlayStation 2 version of Persona 3, making combat much less frustrating to sit through.

But the one song that brings it all together is the banger of an opener “Full Moon, Full Life,” which uses clever melodic and lyrical callbacks to Persona 3’s musical history while representing the message of its story to a tee. So even if the more granular details of Persona 3’s story start to fade, these songs can evoke the memory of an unforgettable journey.

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On top of all that, you also juggle your ordinary life as a high school student during the day and a monster hunter during the Dark Hour.

She’s a member of SEES as a Persona-user, and after she and the Protagonist have a close call with a Shadow, she reconsiders her lack of battle experience and joins him on the front lines.

This was the first entry in the Persona series to use the school calendar system and social sim elements as a foundation to move through its story, planning activities during the day and going dungeon crawling at night.

The character models are richly detailed, and the cutscenes and battle special effects animations are well-done and flashy, with vibrant and eye-catching environments. Tartarus, in particular, received the most significant visual enhancement, as each major section of the dungeon is now richly detailed with unique architecture, map layouts, and art styles to make them look more distinct, alleviating repetition while exploring them.