Topic: Persona 3 Reload Worth Getting?

Hi guys. I have heard that Persona 3 Reload releases on Switch 2 this week. Is the game worth getting if I have never played a Persona game before? Where is a good place to start with this game series, and what are the games like? Thoughts and help appreciated

I would wait for reviews on this one - having played on Xbox, I can say the game itself is great, but the Switch 2 demo had some strange performance issues so hopefully those have been resolved for the final release.

I think you can't go wrong starting with 3, 4 or 5 to be honest. They are all solid games and ask for no prior experience with the series.

That said, I would personally recommend 5 Royal as I find it to be the best of the three, and really took the series to another level IMO. 3 Reload and 4 Golden are both great games but show their age in some ways (particularly the dungeon design), even if 3 Reload is a fantastic remake.

I'd just echo Buizel here.

Persona 3 is fantastic, Reload is a great remake and this is a great starting point. Mileage may vary, but personally I think it has the best story (four has the better cast, imo).

Waiting on reviews isn't a bad idea, given the performance — though if handheld is a big upside to you (or if you don't have other means to play it), I'd say it's worth it.

The series entries are entirely standalone (bar some pretty basic references), so no game is bad as a starting point.

There's quite a lot of reading, as it's borderline a Visual Novel as much as it is a JRPG — with quite a nice amount of choice in how you spend your days once out of the (long) start of the game.

Outside of if there is glitches or updates. The choice to buy is your choice and not everyone likes what you like in games for Nintendo. Nintendo gamers are not a monolith they range from age to ethnicity to Country Regions with different gaming habits.

I'd also recommend start with Persona 5 Royal first. I think it has the best battling system, dungeon-crawling, and daily-life events.

After 5, I'd recommend continuing with Persona 4 Golden, simply because it's an older game that is missing some Quality of Life features that might be more annoying to get through if you've experienced modern Persona (5 Royal and 3 Reload) before playing. However, if you do choose to play it last, try to push through the annoying grinding, because the story and characters are fantastically charming. Again this is all just personal opinion, start with whatever game you want and play whatever way you want to play, but this is just what I'd recommend.

As for the games themself, they are amazing stories, with a lot of regular daily life stuff that help with a lot of world-building and making you feel like you really are part of the world instead of just a character who has a role to play. Getting to know your peers, becoming closer with them, building your social stats, and most importantly, using your Persona, they all make Persona such a great experience.

I haven't been looking too much into the performance of 3 Reload on Switch 2, I heard it wasn't as impressive as other versions, but I would personally say portable is the best way to go for these games. I played Persona 5 on PC, and, as Filthy said, there's a lot of reading. Not boring reading, but enough for me to be like "I wish I was cozy in bed reading this rather than sitting at my desk." I played Persona 4 on Switch and yeah, I enjoyed playing it in bed a lot more lol

There's a free demo, so download that and give it a play.

It has got some performance issues with occasional frame rate dips and slow loading but, being a turn-based RPG, they're not exactly show-stoppers when it comes to the gameplay. The developers promised to address this in the final release, so yes, waiting for the reviews to come in probably isn't a bad idea if that's putting you off.

In my opinion I think Persona 4 and Persona 5 serve as better entry points than Persona 3. But of course, that's just me.

Personally, I didn't like Persona 3 even with the remake. It takes a really long time for anything super eventful to happen story wise.

I freaking loved persona 5 (my first persona game) and persona 5 royal so much I bought persona tatica and strikers.

I would ger persona 3 reload, but there are just too many games coming out between now Oct 23 and December. Age of imprisonment, Dragonball sparking zero, two point museum, Metroid prime 4, Octopath traveler 0, and assassins creed shadows, to get or afford persona 3 reload

I have mixed feelings on recommendations. Setting aside the different variations of each game, all three entries have virtues and vices. If I had to make a call, I'd say "Persona 4", because its the most fun and accessible ( compared to the more undeveloped 3 and actively unpleasant and oppressive 5 ), but that means putting up with worse writing than 3 and more primitive mechanics and presentation than 5.

I'd wait until they fix the frame pacing. I don't really care if it's 30fps, it's a turn based JRPG, it doesn't need it and so long as it's smooth it's perfectly fine, but the choppy frame pacing is really jarring to look at

You have to played Persona games to enjoy these games each game from each franchise sings to a different gamer and what one like isn't the same for another. I played Persona series and like their style and game play just takes some getting use to their mechanics but I like it just when you have backlogs picking and choose which game at what times would be the harder choice.

For me, one of the biggest reasons for buying Persona 3 Portable when it was released for the Switch was that it allows you play either as boy or a girl, which is not an option in Persona 4 and 5. Personally I don't like RPGs that force you play as one gender (usually male), so I was happy there was a gender option in P3P. And I was disappointed to learn that this option was not included in Persona 3 Reload, so once again you're forced to play as a male character. Unless they add the female protagonist in some future update, I'm not gonna be buying this remake.

So, this might sound a little weird, but. . .

If you like Persona, or at least the idea of Persona, and are okay with action RPGs? I highly recommend giving Tokyo Xanadu a try. It is by Falcom ( the studio behind Ys and Trails ), and could be roughly summarized as "Budget Persona as Action RPG". However, while it definitely is that, IMO it has much better quality writing and world-building than the actual Persona games. Not as stylish and "artsy", but more effort at actually having authentic-feeling characters with a sense of existence beyond "appendages to the MC".

It's a solid game, but you're better off buying it for PC for a good discount than on the Switch 2. The latter has performance issues and also comes on a game key card. If on-the-go playing is your go-to, only then would I recommend it.