Persona 3 Reload (Switch 2)

As a fan of the original Persona 3 release, I have to say this feels like its been a long time coming. The Persona 3 Reload has been rebuilt from the ground up to match modern gaming standards, with higher resolutions, new portraits, character models and surroundings. As my original platform of choice was the PSP, I do miss the Portable's extra features such as the female protagonist and additional story elements. 

The original game made a huge splash in large part to the almost effortless sense of style that oozed from every pore of the game - everything from character designs to outfits were just unlike anything we'd seen before, especially the way in which personas were released - shooting yourself in the head. It was shocking imagery and really captured the imagination.

Cut scenes are gorgeous and really sell the characters

The gameplay was no less compelling. Taking the role of a student operating as a member of S.E.E.S (Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad), you and your fellow students are tasked with investigating a mysterious hour that occurs after midnight that has been designated the "Dark Hour". Every full moon, a shadow falls over Tatsumi Port Island and the Tartarus Tower appears in place of the school, inside which reside evil shadows that must be defeated.

Essentially a resource management game by day, which operates on a calendar system within which you plan activities to build social links with other characters, and combat RPG by night. During the mysterious "Dark Hour" you'll need to scale the floors of Tartarus defeating enemies and discovering treasure, repeating the process every full moon. This gives the game a cyclical quality that keeps building your relationships, abilities and powers in a satisfying manner.

The cast of Persona 3 are still fun to hang around with, creating much of the game's charm

With all that said, being an early entry in the franchise there are areas that subsequent games have improved and that Persona 3 still lacks. The story really doesn't get interesting until after the beach chapter, so the early interest is hard to maintain - the substance really comes in the latter half of the game, something P4 and P5 corrected wonderfully. Tartarus can also get a bit monotonous, it lacks the variety and ingenuity of later entries, but once you're "in the loop" everything becomes second nature and it's a terrific game for a handheld where you can just dip in and out when you have the time, as I did on PSP many years ago.

Turn-based battles are deftly handled, the presentation still head and shoulders above many competitors

Sadly, the port for Switch 2, which should be a doddle given the available system resources, isn't what it should be. It's locked at 30fps and since I've never been a 60fps purist I've no issues with that, but wandering around you do detect the system struggling to render at times. I gave the demo on the Steam Deck a whirl and that manages just fine at 60fps, so I can't explain why this port didn't come out as well as it should, though I have some hope that Atlus will release some patches to bring it up to speed - many Switch 2 fans will want to support releases like this, so I hope the developer does right by them - it wouldn't exactly be the first time a game has been released in a sub-standard state only to be awesome a short while later. Games like Cyberpunk 2077, which utilises DLSS (AI upscaling) to achieve incredible results. Clearly that's not in play here.

So that leaves me in a bit of a quandary -Persona 3 Reload is a great game and all of it is here to enjoy on Switch 2. Unfortunately it's not the best way to experience the game as it stands. General producer Yoshihro Komori has stated that Atlus are working to resolve the frame rate drops specifically in an interview with Nintendo Life, so the developer is aware and working on the issue. Whether you wait for that or dive in now is up to you - be aware that the physical release is just a game key card, so either way you're buying a digital copy of the game.