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A remake of an iconic 2006 jRPG, developed by Atlus and running on the Unreal Engine. Persona 3 Reload has us playing as a Japanese high school student, facing monsters known as Shadows during the night. It's set in a fictional Japanese town of Iwatodai, home to an unusual phenomenon. Every day a Dark Hour occurs at midnight, an additional hour during which most people turn into coffins. The exceptions are several students from Gekkoukan High School, who have other issues to deal with during that time. Each Dark Hour their school turns into a massive tower called the Tartarus, filled with monsters called Shadows. They're opposed by the SEES (Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad), a group of students tasked with fighting the monsters. They fight using the titular Personas, reflections of their hearts which reveal themselves in face of danger. We play as one of the members of the SEES. During the day he's a regular student, while during the night he climbs Tartarus, fighting Shadows. It's up to us to maintain balance between both of his lives. It's a third-person game (TPP). The gameplay is divided into two layers, the first being ordinary school life. During the day we must attend classes, take exams, attend school dances or participate in sports competitions. We must also establish and maintain friendships and relationships. During the night we battle Shadows alongside our classmates, using our Personas. Battles are turn-based. To succeed, we must skillfully use the abilities of the party's different Personas. The events during the day have an effect on the might - some of our party members may be unavailable, busy studying or recovering from an illness. Maintaining our bonds with them makes them stronger too. Progressing through the game develops our character and grants new Personas, which can be fused together into more powerful forms. Compared to the original game, the remake contains new scenes, events and gameplay changes, mostly involving the combat system. It runs on the Unreal Engine. The game retains the original's colorful, manga-like artstyle, though the visuals have been refreshed and are now more detailed. The audio was also changed; the soundtrack consists of new tracks and remixes of the original songs, while the English voice cast was entirely recast. |
