Persona 3 Reload

Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC
Buy it from: Amazon | Best Buy | Humble Bundle
Current goal: Make it to September

I like Atlus RPGs in general and enjoy the Persona games in particular. I began with Persona 4 Golden on Vita, played a bit of Persona 2: Innocent Sin on the PSP, and poured about 20 hours into Persona 5 on the PS4. They’re all great games and I liked them just fine, but none pulled me in like Persona 3 Reload has. I’d be lying if I said I knew exactly why that is.

Maybe it’s the modern graphics and old-school design sensibility hitting a sweet spot in my nostalgia, like I’m experiencing a lost game from the late aughts that I always wanted to play but never got to. Or it could be that the more melancholy, blue-tinted mashup of chill vibes and menacing macabre undertones is more my style than the other Persona games. I even find grinding the endless procedural dungeons oddly satisfying, giving me a modicum of exploration, progression, and jazzy combat without making me feel like a mouse being led through a laborious maze in search of an old bit of moldy cheese.

I can sit down at the end of a long day, turn the lights off, get in, vibe out, and then cut loose after just a few days have passed on the social calendar. It helps that the soundtrack is top notch. The epilogue DLC is out in just a month. I probably won’t be done in time, which is fine. I’m in no rush. Relishing the Persona 3 slowburn has been half the fun. —Ethan Gach