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.

[66] PlayStation Universe's Joe Richards complimented the game's blending of the style used in Persona 5 with that of the original game, calling it a "masterclass in design" with "some of the most elegant menus in RPG history".[82] Sales[edit]

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You can take your party members on individual activities, too, like gardening or cooking together to get new health items, which also lets them open up to you in ways they hadn't before. Watching a scary movie with my cheerful bestie Yukari or reviewing boxing matches with my gym bro Akihiko don’t just offer social stat points, they give a bit of insight into their personalities.

There are also some new gameplay features as part of Persona 3 Reload that weren’t in the original games. You can now access a communal kitchen, a DVD player, a library of books, and a small garden.

The video contains spoilers for the opening parts of the game, so it is recommended that those who wish to experience it for the first time in-game refrain from watching.

This takes places directly outside of the Velvet Room, but Elizabeth will offer requests to complete. These can range from Persona fusions to obtaining specific items. Elizabeth will provide new requests depending on story progress and completion of other requests.

While attending Gekkoukan High School, the in-class questions from the subject teachers have been redone from scratch, with none being repurposed from the original game. Exploration both around Tatsumi Port Island and within Tartarus is now done from a third-person perspective with the camera now being positioned directly behind the protagonist, and now enables free camera control for the player to get better views of their surroundings. The overworld map is now fully rendered in 3D, and has an additional button prompt for displaying information on the protagonist's current location, or other areas they can visit. Expanding on Persona 3 Portable's fast travel function, the player is also able to immediately fast-travel to any specific location within the highlighted area directly from the map itself as opposed to within the location.

And yet it's all so familiar at the same time; the normal attack animations are true to form, the battle portraits are identical, and how your crew blast themselves in the head with an Evoker remains the sickest and best in-lore way to summon a persona. The fresh aesthetics and stylings more akin to Persona 5 also make these characters cooler than I could've ever imagined them to be.

Not to mention, I didn’t have to fret about starting the entire game over again because the Fatigue system punished me for wanting to be extra prepared.

Beyond Tartarus, bespoke story-centric boss fights await you on each full moon throughout the story. Although they're relatively persona 3 reload gameplay quick in how they unfold, all the new mechanics and visual flourishes of Reload give these battles a bit more gravity and spectacle, especially as you inch closer to Persona 3’s bold, daring, and moving conclusion.

Its social life mechanics were the new unique hook, providing a palette-cleanser from its relentless turn-based RPG fights and procedurally generated dungeons.

Reload removes the ability for the player to completely break Social Links with supporting characters as was possible in both Persona 3 and Persona 4 (2008), although the player is still able to reverse them through choosing the protagonist's dismissive responses to interactions.[7] A new social element will be introduced, that exists separately from Social Links. It is meant to contextualize supporting characters who weren't as prominent in previous iterations of Persona 3, through the inclusion of side-story arcs that will deepen the protagonist's relationship with them, which will also extend to the male party members due to the lack of dedicated Social Link stories for them.[8][nove][10]

The revamped RPG also comes with a preorder bonus, giving fans the Persona 4 Golden BGM set with several battle themes and the results music.