In all the ways that really matter, Persona 3 Reload on the Nintendo Switch 2 is exactly the same as Persona 3 Reload on other platforms. By that I mean it offers the same narrative (with Reload itself not really touching the narrative of the original game). Ultimately, if you’re not playing a Persona game for the story, you’re probably playing it for the wrong reasons. For that reason, Persona 3 Reload on the Nintendo Switch 2 is essential.
I’ve already reviewed this game, so I won’t retread my analysis of its narrative, but what I will say is that I’ve loved having yet another excuse to wade through one of the more philosophically dense JRPGs. Persona 3 is raw and unfiltered compared to the relatively light tones of Persona 4 and 5 (I do mean relatively), and while I wouldn’t characterise it as the ball to play that the later Personas became, it’s still a tour de force of memorable characters, exceptional narrative beats and a situation that you become genuinely invested in.
Unfortunately, the quality of the port to the Switch 2 is… rough. It might well be fixable via patches, but people who have issues with framerates and blur are going to have enough issues with Reload that it might be better to go back to Persona 3 Portable (also available on Switch) instead.
The performance issues aren’t the kind of thing that will make a game like Persona 3 unplayable. After all, it’s a turn-based JRPG where the timing and precision of what you do is rarely a factor between success and the game-over screen. But the problem is that Persona, as a serie,s has spent the last decade or so positioning itself as the epitome of slick. The UI is meant to be a combination of some of the richest colour you’ll ever see (with a focus on blue in Persona 3), and that does look good on the Switch 2’s screen, but this is then let down by an overall sluggish feeling that comes from a game that is meant to run at 60 frames per second and is now running at 30.
As anyone reading DDNet knows, I’m very rarely a person who complains about frame rate, but Persona is meant to be so smooth and slick, and the slight sluggishness when interacting with the menus is enough to disrupt the suspension of disbelief that can typically drag you so deeply into this series. Then there’s the motion blur to consider, too, which acts to undermine the exceptional art direction.
On the other hand, if you can put these issues aside, you can play Persona 3 Reload in handheld mode, anywhere in the world, which you can’t do with your PlayStation 5. It’s hard to complain about that.
Now that I’ve had some time to reflect on Persona 3 Reload, between the first time I played it and now, I wanted to use the rest of my review to reflect on some things when it comes to remaking something like this. One of the things I rather like about the original Persona 3 is how primitive it looked. Because the characters were fairly blocky and the environments were rather simple, there was a quality about it where you’d fill in the blanks yourself. You’d see the awesome character portraits and then let your imagination run wild about their adventure and the world around them.
With far better and more detailed graphics, Persona 3 Reload loses some of that quality. This is by no means a criticism of what the developers have done – the characters are exceptional, and the environments have a vibrancy that really brings them to life. But it’s definitely filling in more blanks and leaving less open to the imagination. For a game that is as immersive as a good book at its best, there have been times when I’ve preferred the original. I don’t think this of all remakes or reboots, but just those in which I’ve built up my own picture of what’s going on over the years.
In some ways, I had a similar response to the Final Fantasy VII remake, though in that case, the narrative was so wildly divergent at times I eventually settled on the idea that they’re both separate games. Persona 3 Reload isn’t that. It’s asking more directly that I put aside my vision for the developers.
The reason I bring all of this up is because a remake of Persona 4 is also on the way, and Persona 4 is one of my top three or four games of all time. On one level, I do, of course, look forward to seeing the gang (especially Risette) in all that detailed glory for the first time. On the other hand, I have such a clear picture in my head of all these characters (especially Risette), that I’m not sure I’ll be able to enjoy putting that aside to experience the developer’s idea of them. Just like how I’ve never loved a film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, my favourite book of all time, because they’ve never quite managed to find a Cathy and Heathcliff that matches with the Cathy and Heathcliff in my head.
This has been quite the non-review, I know, but then I don’t have anything to say about Persona 3 Reload that I haven’t already said, other than to note that it’s not quite as refined, smooth and slick as it is on PlayStation 5. It’s a slight enough degradation that I have no issue recommending the game anyway, though. More broadly, I guess the retro gamer in me does miss the days when meaning in video games was a collaboration between the player and the limitations the game developer worked with. Nowaday,s games are so cinematic that we’re not asked to do so much work ourselves, and there are times that is a pity.
