Game of the Year: #10 - Persona 3 Reload

Locked and reloaded

by Robert Ramsey 4pm

Game of the Year: #10 - Persona 3 Reload 1 — *Image: Push Square*

High quality remakes of classic games have become quite commonplace over recent years, and for our money, Persona 3 Reload is one of the best around.

This revival of the iconic 2006 PS2 RPG is, in a word, immaculate. From the refined art direction and visuals to the many mechanical improvements under the hood, Reload is both a reminder of how great the original release is, and a near perfect remix of its gameplay formula.

The remake does stick rather rigidly to the overall flow of Persona 3, and so it doesn't sport the same kind of system-level depth and overlap as the outstanding Persona 5 Royal — but there's something to be said for the more streamlined structure that Reload thrives upon.

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Reload adds to the existing body of Persona 3 as well. It expands upon party member interactions, giving a greater degree of nuance to its already intriguing cast of characters. It revamps the turn-based combat, pinching various quirks from the aforementioned Persona 5 Royal to create a more involved and tactical system. There are welcome improvements across the board.

And all of this is held together by utterly sublime visuals. Unreal Engine 5 gives Reload an incredibly crisp edge across every facet of its artistic endeavours. It's one of the most visually cohesive and obsessively crafted remakes we've ever seen.

The remixed soundtrack deserves a special mention, too; neatly retuned — and even rewritten in parts — to better suit the remake's moody, blue-coded atmosphere.

Persona 3 Reload is a beautiful recreation of a PS2 classic, and it's quite possibly Atlus' most pristine release to date.

Push Square's Game of the Year top 10 is decided by votes coming from internal staff and regular contributors. Our community Game of the Year poll also factors into the result. Feel free to agree or disagree with our list in the comments section below.

You can check out all of our Game of the Year coverage by clicking the link.

Robert (or Rob if you're lazy) is an assistant editor of Push Square, and has been a fan of PlayStation since the 90s, when Tekken 2 introduced him to the incredible world of video games. He still takes his fighting games seriously, but RPGs are his true passion. The Witcher, Persona, Dragon Quest, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy, Trails, Tales — he's played 'em all. A little too much, some might say.

1
Jey887
4:02pm

Great pick. Played it earlier in the year as my first experience with Persona 3. It will probably be a little higher on my personal list but glad to see it here.

Original was the worst of the modern Persona (3,4,5) and the remake did not help. 6/10

3
Deadlyblack
4:07pm

I still need to play it, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

4
Dalamar
4:09pm

Great remake. Looks good, plays good, many nice additions but doesn't turns into fanfic like some other jrpg remake.

5
Azex
4:21pm

One of my favorite games of the year; but out of principle, I think relatively faithful remakes should place lower on GOTY lists so #10 is perfect imo

6
dskatter
4:21pm

Such a well done remake of an already excellent game.

Persona 3 set the stage for so much RPG goodness and showed us that Persona OSTs are truly top tier.

For me personally id say it's in the right place, however good I found it i would place it lower just because of their scummy DLC practice. The DLC should have been included with the game.

That aside, the game was really good, some nice additions, visuals were great and ran well performance wise. Only real negative is that the dungeon design was a bit boring and repetitive but most of us knew that before starting.

8
Cloud39472
4:47pm

Hard to say whether it should be higher or not, depends what's above it. Persona 3 is my favourite in the series and I thought it was a mostly brilliant Remake. I just can't help but feel we were nickle and dimed a little by The Answer being cut and sold as DLC.

9
Mikey856
6:04pm

Never played a Persona game so would this be a good place to start? I’m assuming as it’s on the top 10 the answer would be yes

As a Persona fan, that’s absolutely fair. It’s arguably the weakest of the 3 Atlus JRPGs released this year. It’s spectacular in a lot of regards, but it still has a good chunk of issues with pacing, dungeon design, and activities. The fact that the remake also didn’t truly unify all versions of P3 also stings a bit. Still a great thing but I think #10 of the year is absolutely fine.

Can you control your party members in this version? Tried the ps2 version years ago and had to put it down. Not being able to directly control your party members was a nightmare. Would love to give it another go if improvements have been made.

@Ultimapunch You can control party members

Its a superb JRPG. Better than P4 but worse than P5.
Im glad that Remake exists. I missed it when it came out and wouldnt have played it otherwise.

@Mikey856 id jump right on to P5 if i were you. Fantastic game and imo better than P3 without a doubt. Story doesn't follow on so each game is stand alone.