r/persona3reload

So I recently decided to pick the game back up and try to go for 100% (like I do with all Persona games) and remembered Orpheus Telos exists. Do I have to do all the linked episodes as well as all confidants or no?

Hi guys I wanna try à persona game but I don't where to start. For the Steam sale I I plan to buy one of them but I'm hesitating between 3 or 5. Do you have advices for me?

My gf and i just finished our first ever persona game (p4g) and we just started p3r and i feel like in p4g there was a more clear objective sooner than here or maybe more different type of stuff to do unlike in p3r im already on floor 17 on the tartarus and i still dont know where this is going or for how long imma have to do that dungeon, like i dont know how much tartarus i have to do till something else happens, maybe its just me being impatient but i feel like this game may be slower or maybe doesnt guide u as much as p4g?

https://preview.redd.it/ulnzicx8ndbh1.jpg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=623ddcb24cea3c7be93af66a11f4eb932ba58b53

https://preview.redd.it/gy3piyz6ndbh1.jpg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=37f19d3e39ce0978e598d08b612ca41169b242f5

If I'm not, what level would you recommend I get to and what Personas should I fuse? I'm currently playing on merciless and I'm at Tartarus level 82, about 10 below the border floor. Thanks.

I have been a fan of the franchise for about 15+ years now, I've played P3FES, 4 oirginal, 5 original as well as 4 Arena and Ultimax.

I had no real idea if I was going to play the remake of 3, until I was watching IHeartJustice's stream (In March, fittingly enough) when he raided into Zyzx_ stream during the end game, right in the epilogue during the follow up to the Sun Social Link.

Needless to say, bracing to see some of the most gutwrenching narrative after being away from P3 for over a decade, particularly because I've experienced tragedy and death in my own family since them. (Also, bearing the brunt of the tragedy in P3 right before I went to bed was probably not a good idea for risking actual genuine trauma when I'll trying to go bed and was already not all there mentally.)

When Episode Aigis was coming out in September 2024, after putting it off all year round, I finally jumped in around August, even making a dread-filled post about starting it on this subreddit scene here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PERSoNA/comments/1epwe3o/i_am_so_scared_yall/ I got through most of the events of the game in that same year, and as I got towards the end of September and started through October, something that I had been experiencing here or there, but never to the same degree as I started to enter the end of the second act.

With Persona 3: Reload, I have encountered some of the most genuinely crippling choice paralysys and fear of missing out more than any other game I have played in my life, including other Persona games, Including Metaphore: Refantazio, incuding when I went through Persona 3: FES all thosee years.

This is where the spoilers come in: Naturally, I am well-aware of the game's themes about life and death, about tragedy and loss and moving on, all underlined by not only the sctructure of the main threat and how it informs the story, but how the story ends with>!the death of the main character.!<

This obviously where the narrative elements of tragedy and perserverence really shine in a deeply poingiant way and it is also where the lion's share of my anxiety about playing the game really, really starts to become unavoidable. Much of the game's story revolves around needing to keep going through life despite the innevetability of death, but the factuality of death in this story makes decision making about how I manage my time with my different relationships so weighted that it makes the act of continuing to play the game increasingly difficult for me.

The knoweledge that parts of my playhtrough would end unfinished and having to play triage with which relationships I could reach a conclusion with is becoming so deeply uncomfortable for me that it has taken now years IRL to get through even a few monthes in game, just because the knowledge of death and how it hangs over the narrative is so exestential in how ever-present it is in my head.

I know, at the end of the day, it's just a video game. But part of the genius of Persona 3 (and Persona overall) is the ability for these games to make you care. I know that loose ends in a given playthrough are normal, I know that in the overall canon, all the different social links and relationships are pursued to their conclusions in that nothing is actually missed in canon. I know similarly, there are guides to minmaxing every social link that nothing is missed for the player if need be, but there's a larger thing at play here.

I want desperately to be able to finish this game, I am realizing now even more than when I originally beat FES how much this series means to me and how much P3 means on a deeply human level; It's considered the best of the franchise for a reason, after all.

This, however, brings me to the other plot element at play regarding P3, the one that is informing a lot of the choice paralysis I am experiencing.

People who are versed on the events of Persona 3, 4 and 5 are likely well-aware of a very contentious plot element in the background of Persona Lore, the one that The Answer sets up as an epilogue to the events of P3 which>!hint at the main character being brought back from death.!<More over, these plot elements are actually paid off, or are at least hinting at a pay off, in P4 Arena through the plotline involving Elizabeth and>!her quest to free Makoto Yuki from the Great Seal.!<

Now, I know for a fact that this premise has been a source for contraversy for die hard fans of this game and my stance on the matter is like this: I write regularly in my free time and have been able to work on various projects online. I have long-held to the idea that actually following through on the premise of>!bringing Makoto Yuki back post-P3!< would not do a thing to impact the ending of 3 whatsoever.

Just like how we know in Star Trek canon that Spock eventually being brought back to life in Star Trek III does not erase the impact of his famous death in Star Trek II, the same rule applies here. Persona has proven itself quite adept at story-telling and there is no reason whatsoever to assume fufulling the premise of Elizabeth's questline couldn't be done tactfully. I've always believed this, as I've grown and learned more as an author, I only believe it even more so and as of the ending of P3 Reload, which takes an already legendary ending and executes it even flawlessly (minus some points here or there we can maybe argue about), it has resoundly reinforced the idea that Elizabeth's storyline could be done and it STILL not take away from P3.

That part, specifically, is why I am having so much trouble playing P3 Reload myself.

For the longest time, the argument for most would be: "You can't actually follow through on Elizabeth without messing up the ending.", my counterargument would be "You cannot, in fact, mess up the ending for how well-done the ending of Reload is, therefore you can follow through on Elizabeth." But, therein lies the problem.

It's been pointed out before, mostly by critics of The Answer, that the reveal of>!The Great Seal!< kind of kneecaps the point of the ending in that it specifically lingers when the whole point of the story is about accepting death and moving on. As much as I agree that The Answer's plot and core conflict is kind of nonsense and contrived, I personally don't agree that revisiting P3 is undermining its' own narrative. The throughline that The Answer posits that accepting death is much easier said than done and likely something you have just have to grapple with as you live your life is very real.

Just as well, the note that The Answer is very obviously done so that P3 can end on a more optimistic, with the members of SEES remembering to keep there evokers to the final messege from Metis, all are very overtly written to signpost these plot elements being revisted.

This is further confirmed not just by the introduction of Elizabeth's plotline in P4 Arena, but by the fact that this plot line is deliberately referenced multiple times across every time ATLUS has revisited P3; From Dancing in Moonlight to the ending of the last Anime movie, all the way to P3 Reload itself not only containing copious and frankly suspicious amounts of retroactive references to future events and character arcs specifically in P4 Arena and Ultimax, but by far the most overt reference to Elizabeth and her character arc in Arena at the end of her personal side story in P3 Reload.

Clearly, ATLUS is invested in keeping this plotline active for the future.

But until that plotline actually manifests again, the story of P3 is functionally unfinished.

So much so, I can't play P3 Reload without constantly being reminded of it.

This has been in the back of my head ever since I saw the ending of P3 Reload, since before I made that post here on reddit right before I started playing it and it's almost the only thing I focus on every time I try to go back. The fact that there can only be relationships left unfinished in the game and how that makes the decisions you do make that much more impactful with the knowledge of how brutally the game ends, all keep pointing back to the gaping plot hole waiting for me at the end of The Answer.

I finally kind of get the argument against The Answer's prescence in lore; even the original ending without the context of The Answer argubly includes the premise that >!Makoto Yuki and all of his friends and family will reunite in the afterlife eventually, Sea of Souls and whatnot,!<which would keep in line with the themes of death. But as it is with the context of The Answer, the knowledge of>!Makoto Yuki being stuck in purgatory in the Great Seal!<for presumably for an innevetable pay off later only really works as a cliff-hanger if the pay off is actually realized.

I never realized how much this cliff-hanger stuck with me; I managed to avoid the more infamous video game cliff-hangers everyone remembers, be it Beyond Good & Evil, Half-Life and countless others. As much as P3 Reload has made me fall in love with the game all over again, it has also underlined a very vitally critical lack of a resolution to the end of P3.

I want the members of SEES to have their faith rewarded.

I want to see Elizabeth achive her sweetist victory

I want to see how it impacts the setting over all.

I want to see how it intersects with the cast for 4 and 5 and 6 and beyond.

And I want to give Makoto Yuki one final swan song>!even if doesn't end with some messianic ressurrection.!<

As of July 3rd, 2026 (yesterday, as of this writing.) I've made it to November 29th in P3 Reload, right before the plotline and narrative elements really start to kick into high gear. I want to be able to finish this and Episode Aigis to be ready for P4 Revival in Febuary, I've wanted to go through P4 Golden and P5 Royale long before, but P3 Reload has become a mental roadblock for me and this franchise so long as this plotlube remains unresolved.

I can at least take solace in the fact that ATLUS is clearly invested in this idea. The lore retcons and foreshadowing regarding future Persona plotlines, partuclarly P4 Arena, just in P3 Reload alone, are prevalent enough to make me think ATLUS will revisit it. (Interesting to see if P4 Revival does anything similar.)

On top of that, people have wanted a prominant, story driven crossover between 3, 4 and 5 for a long time (no offense to PQ fans). ATLUS has continued to update and maintain the domain name for "P5U" as recently as last month, which many believed to the long-mythologized Persona 5 Arena, still stuck in dev hell. ATLUS keeping the name this long, even with both P4 Revival and the recent Persona 6 announcement clearly shows a commitment to return to that well of cross-over in lore. The success of P3 Reload saleswise and the popularity of the P3 crossover content in P5X makes me think that the innevetable crossover between 3, 4 and 5, even if it doesn't materialize in a Persona 5 Arena, will still happen.

History has shone that long-awaited follow ups to beloved storylines do come out after long enough. (Elden Ring, Bayonetta 3 and Silksong did, in fact, come out, in a realm when most were willing to write them off for multiple years.) Episode Aigis effectively renewing plot elements that tie into Arena and the prevalence of P3's presence in the ATLUS hype rotation, especially with the P5X crossover, I know in my heart we will eventually get there.

I just hope it still happens sooner rather than later, Persona 3's story and characters deserve it.

Apologies for the text wall, I just needed to get this off my chest.

I will try to make this as organized as possible, but I am still full of emotion so I apologize for anyone reading this entire thing as I’ve never been the best at writing. Also to preface, I’ve never beaten a persona game. The only experience I have with one is the very beginning of Person 5 Royal.

Ever since I beat the game Wednesday night, I’ve been thinking about the ending and the game just in general almost constantly. It’s very bittersweet. I’ve always been introverted and pretty much alone. Life circumstances just caused me to be more distant while still longing for friendship. I think that’s why I was touched by the ending so much.

During the actual play through of the game I heavily focused on building social links in the game. At first I was trying to spend time with the people who seemed to annoy me most just to get it out of the way. Kenji Tomochika was the first one that annoyed me. The way he was so focused on women was accurate to a teenage boy but I myself wasn’t like that in high school because I found people like that annoying. I hung out with him almost constantly at first to get it out the way. I realized halfway through that the stories of these are actually quite interesting. It was silly but I was really invested because in my mind there’s no way a teacher is dating a kid, but how he was telling me about it.. obviously his perspective was a little different but I ALMOST believed him a little at the end of it. Spending time with him went from something I did to get out of the way, to an experience I looked forward to. I started bonding with other social links and looking forward to their stories as well even if I didn’t necessarily like them in the beginning.

The final boss battle is really what got me at first. How I mentioned previously, I’m a heavy introvert. I struggle making friends, and relying on others. It’s always been that way. In the end when Nyx was essentially flexing its spiritual pressure and we were helpless, seeing all my social links give me power... That really meant something to me. Some of those people I only hung out with at first simply to progress. Seeing them think about me and hope I’m okay but also find strength in themselves because I’ve apparently helped them grow… it was done beautifully. Something can be said about the moment of me going to what I believe they said was the moon and fighting and sealing death there as well. The friendship portrayal in that scene really hit me as well.

Here’s where I really started hurting. Everyone did forget, however I could tell aigis probably still remembered from how she was standing alone in the scene where I was talking to junpei and yukari. After class ended that day I instinctively went around and talked to everyone I could to see the dialogue and what may have changed. I noticed everyone kept saying I looked tired but I didn’t pay too much attention to it. I mean I just saved the world, obviously I’m still probably exhausted. (Little did I know…) I loved seeing how all my social links were happy to talk to me and progressing in their own lives. Some of them making plans with me for when the next semester starts back. All of this made me so happy as I again I struggle with that stuff in real life. Even though it was a game I genuinely felt connected to some of these characters. The next day when I went to the roof the wait with aigis… I was already tearing up that whole scene because it felt so peaceful. Aigis was also giving a 10/10 speech!! I finally felt like the world was actually saved, like me and all my friends would go back to a normal life and still be able to remember each other and our adventures. I remember saying he looked a little too peaceful with his hands crossed during the scene, but again I just figured he was tired and resting. The credits hit and I was fully crying. After they ended I went to google to see if any of the dialogue choices at the end would have made anything different happen dialogue wise and that’s when I found out he actually died. Once it was confirmed to me I started thinking back on everything. People commenting on how tired he looked, also how exhausted he looked on the final morning just sitting up in his bed. How utterly peaceful that rooftop scene was. It genuinely did something to me and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. Aigis saying she wanted to protect me forever just for me to die in her lap 😭😭 using the last of my strength to wipe her tears and reassure her 😭😭😭it’s so much more but I just need to stop here. This message was already long enough.

To anyone who read, thank you. I genuinely enjoyed this game more than a person should enjoy a game I believe. After I stop thinking about it so intensely I want to start p5r again. I switched systems to had to start over and just didn’t want to have to replay what I already did but now that I know the stories can be crazy like that.. I’m invested.

OS: Windows 11 Home (64-bit)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600U (6 Cores / 12 Threads, 2.3 GHz base, up to 4.2 GHz boost)

GPU: AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 (Integrated Graphics, 1800 MHz)

RAM: 16GB DDR4 Dual-Channel (3200 MHz)

I'm fine with lowest settings, hoping for 30fps+ :v

I just defeat Shido in P5R and am about to head into the reload content, so I’d prefer no spoilers on that if possible! But basically, I’ve really been enjoying P5R and am already anticipating wanting to play another persona game. Title basically says it all but here’s some extra info:

I’m definitely one of those people that finishes the palace on the first day, sends the calling card the second day, and enjoys the rest of the time in between. I definitely don’t HATE the palaces, but they’re probably my least favorite part of the game. I actually don’t mind mementos, so I think it’s more so the puzzle parts of palaces that aren’t the best for me. If I can’t figure something out within like 10 minutes, I look up a walkthrough, otherwise I get too frustrated and find myself not enjoying it. Battles are okay for me too and I find those enjoyable for the most part. (I did end up having to look up tips for the Okumura boss after spending about 3 hours being stupid, but was able to finish it quickly after that.)

I’ve heard mixed messages from friends on whether or not somebody that doesn’t like palaces in p5 will like p3, and was just curious what the general community thought. I actually do own p4g as well (got it as a gift) so that’s also an option, but part of me wants to wait for next year’s remake to come out.