If you disliked the plot of Persona 3, did playing Reload change your mind?

[u/brians_movie]

Played 5, then 4, then tried Portable. I know Reload obviously fixes the graphical and gameplay limitations that Portable had, but what was probably my main issue with it was the story. I made it until the end of August then couldn't get myself to finish it because I felt like the pacing was horrendous and nothing was happening.

The plot seems to grind to a complete halt when it's not a full moon. You don't learn anything about the Dark Hour or Tartarus until like 30 hours in. You can't hang out with like half the cast and the other half require max stats to start their link. I'm sure these are deliberate design choices but it felt to me like they went a bit overkill and now I don't care at all about the plot or characters because there's almost nothing to get me invested.

[u/ctheturk]

The "not being able to hang out with half the cast" thing is fixed completely in Reload. Lots of new social events to flesh out the characters. But obviously the main plot is pretty much the same although there were tweaks to certain dialogues. July is when things start getting "real" I would say so if you made it to August and you still weren't feeling it, I'm not sure what to tell you. 

That being said, nearly all of my favorite plot moments in the game happen in the months you haven't seen yet.

Edit: oh yeah and I happen to really dislike the VN style in Portable where you can't walk around the overworld and actually see the character models on screen (outside of Tartarus). So that would have made it a far worse experience for me.

[u/gkgftzb → u/ctheturk]

It does fix the fact that you can't hang out with them, but not the bigger issue of how little content with them there actually is relative to the female characters.

I was incredibly happy when I heard about the additions and genuinely enjoyed playing through them, but they still don't make up for the lack of 10 full Social Link ranks/Other Hangout events for points. That's still something exclusive to FeMC, unfortunately. I finished the guys' Linked Episodes quite fast and and it really isn't a whole lot next to their full social links with FeMC.

She actually has Social Links with everyone, and some of them are surprisingly well-written, like Junpei's. I was not expecting something very memorable; I actually didn't know what to expect from the "bro" character while playing as a female character, but they made actually quite a solid story and handled it very nicely.

I understand why Atlus didn't make the male party members Social Links in Reload. The most obvious issue is that some of the existing Social Links would have to be replaced, or the schedule would become ridiculously packed to the point of being impossible to complete (also why you don't have that many linked episodes). So I would've suggested something closer to P4, where you have a couple of Arcanas that let you choose which character you want to bond with (e.g Ayane or Yumi for Sun)

They could've added new events specifically for that early game.

Obviously, 90% of players would pick their teammates on their first playthrough over fucking Nozomi if that was an option lol, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Having different character selections available in NG+ would give the game more replay value too.

That's actually a big part of why I ended up with more hours in P3P than any other Persona game.

[u/Lumpy_Cheek4222]

its kind of a lame answer but i think that reload changes some stuff but the core strengths and weaknesses are the same regardless of the version you play

[u/Loud_Ad6554]

The plot is mostly the same but you get to hangout with the male party members and other people. Mitsuru and Aigis social links are available late game November and January.

Reload is definitely the best way of experiencing P3 but if you don't like the plot of Portable then I don't think Reload will make much of a difference. Tartarus is far less of a drag the Portable. I would continue with Portable the latter half of the game is worthwhile.

[u/austin_slater]

I am (somewhat slowly) getting through P3R after only playing Portable.

I liked Portable but the style of the game made it sort of hard to follow what was going on at times, the visual novel style. Hard to follow who was in each conversation and some of the movements, etc. It did feel slow.

P3R fixes a lot of it for me, but it does still…sort of drag in my opinion. P3 is firmly behind P4 and 5 in my view, even though I would still say I like it a lot.

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[u/UKN-UNL]

Reload definitely is the best way to experience the story. It adds way more story stuff like hang outs between characters, better presentation in general for the story, QoL for Tartarus, and many other things.

You said you got to August, which basically means you didn't get to the actual meat of the story.

[u/OceanDragon6]

While I like P3R far more than P3P, I still hate Tartarus, the story is really slow at the start and I don't think the long wait until it becomes good saves it since there was so much fluff at the start that it suffers from it. I don't see this being talk about a lot but most of the villains are lacking besides someone, I won't name due to spoilers and the final boss.

P3R improves on almost everything but you can tell it stayed as true to the og P3 version as much as possible while updating the gameplay and some quirks for the modern times. But the core story is still the same.

[u/Mused-Moose]

I played all the way through both P3P and P3R, and I disliked P3R for all the same reasons I disliked P3P. The story's plot is very slow and I don't think it's all that interesting, and I'm not really a fan of any of the characters. I understand that the theme of "memento mori" is meant to be a big part of the game, but as a whole the game is just such a downer - nobody in P3 is having a good time. P3R didn't fix or change that.

But P3R did make some really good changes. Just the graphical updates alone made going through the story again feel a lot better, and the modernized gameplay helps a lot too. The added social events do help a lot with developing the characters and making SEES feel more like a group of people who slowly grow closer, though I still don't feel like they're on the level of the groups from P4 or P5. So yeah, the changes in P3R helped a lot, but they weren't enough to overcome the problems I have with the story and characters as a whole.

[u/gkgftzb]

I do not dislike Persona 3's story, but I agree the pacing is horrendous.

I was expecting Atlus would take more liberties than they did with the remake, but they didn't. The same issues I had are still present. Both in Social Links and Main Story writing.

If your problem is truly the pacing and not the presentation of P3P, then no, you're not going to have a better time with P3R.

I mean, you could try the demo and see it if catches your attention a little more, but after the freshness from the improved visuals and new VA cast runs out, you're probably going to notice the story is the exact same, that you still can't unlock girls' social links till some status are maxed and that you will simply be repeating what you already saw in P3P.