Video Game / Persona 3 Reload

As a remake, all spoilers for the original game are unmarked! You have been warned.

Venture life, burn your dread.

Time waits for no one. All are equal in its flow, all lives borne to their ends.
You, who would protect the glimmer of the finite future. You have a single year... Go forth, and live in the time given to you.
Even in these halcyon days of repose, let your heart guide you, and never stray from its path...

Persona 3 Reload (shortened to P3 Reload or simply P3R) is a 2024 Video Game Remake of the Urban Fantasy Japanese Role-Playing Game, Persona 3, developed and published by Atlus (with Sega handling publishing duties outside of Japan).

Set in 2009, you take on the role of a Japanese transfer student beginning his second year of high school at the prestigious academy called Gekkoukan. On the night you arrive at Tatsumi Port Island, however, something strange happens: All electronics suddenly turn off, the sky and moon turn green, people have turned into crystalline coffins, and pools of blood now decorate the streets. Worse, stranger monsters known as Shadows roam in search of anyone who hasn't been turned into a coffin.

This otherworldly phenomenon is known as the Dark Hour; a "hidden hour" that exists between one day and the next. In order to combat the threat of the Shadows and uncover the mystery of the Dark Hour, as well as the mysterious tower labyrinth called Tartarus - where all Shadows dwell - you join the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (S.E.E.S.) and learn to harness the power of Persona, the manifestation of one's own heart given physical form.

Similar to prior re-releases such as Golden or Royal, Reload includes new scenarios and events not found in either FES or Portable, called Linked Episodes (which are similar to Social Link events, and are mainly for the characters that the protag does not have a Social Link with) as well as more interactions with members of Strega. It does not, however, include the Female Protagonist from Portable and related content.

The game released worldwide on February 2, 2024 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.

On March 6, 2024, the Persona 3 Reload: Expansion Pass was announced to be in development with three waves of DLC in preparation. In particular, "Episode Aigis: The Answer", an adaptation of "The Answer" from FES, is set to be released in September 2024 as the third wave.

For tropes relating to the original game, go here.

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• 20 Minutes into the Past: The remake maintains the original's Turn of the Millennium setting, making it standout from other Persona games which are usually set either contemporaneously with their release dates or Next Sunday A.D..
  • Everyone uses flip phones instead of smartphones, and the protagonist listens to music on a standalone MP3 player instead of through his phone.
  • Characters worry about missing TV shows, and most televisions are CRTs instead of flatscreens.
  • Record stores and Compact Discs are still prominent.
  • The high school-age cast doesn't use any social media, as it was still in its infancy at the time.
  • Maya's Leet Lingo is actually current, rather than coming across as a failed attempt to be hip.
  • Cielo Mist is still a Bland-Name Product of Sierra Mist, which Pepsico discontinued and replaced with Starry in 2023.
  • The Emperor's Birthday Holiday is observed on December 23, which is the birthday of Akihito, the Emperor of Japan from 1989-2019.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • S.E.E.S.'s Personas have beefed up a lot due to their skillsets being refined. Examples include:
    • Io/Isis learns Magaru after reaching Level 10s instead of Level 20s. She also gains Sukunda as well.
    • Hermes/Trismegistus learns Vacuum Slash and Maragi, which are not part of his skillset in the previous versions.
    • Polydeuces/Caesar already has Mazio as early as its default level.
    • Penthesilea/Artemisia learns Diamond Dust, a spell that inflicts severe damage Ice magic, when the highest level Ice magic it could learn in the original releases was Mabufudyne^note Artemesia knowing the Niflheim skill in the Arena games notwithstanding. In exchange, she also loses access to the Dia line and Ice Amp but gains more ailment-inflicting skills and the Rakunda debuff.
    • Nemesis/Kala-Nemi and Cerberus gain access to the Kouha and Eiha line from Persona 5, allowing them to trigger enemy knockdowns more easily instead of their elemental attacks being unreliable Instant Kill attacks. The former also learns Heat Riser and the latter learns Debilitate, making for decent late-game buffers/debuffers.
    • Lucia/Juno has a wider range of navigation abilities including the ability to instantly scan an enemy for weaknesses after the first turn.
    • Downplayed with Orpheus, who only learns new skills until Level 5, but at least he gains Dia at Level 3 and can resist Fire this time, though like in Portable, you can still upgrade him with enough Skill Cards (which can be gained through the Sword cards in Shuffle Time), much later that is.
  • Thanatos, the ultimate Persona of the Death Arcana. In the previous versions of Persona 3, the Protagonist only needed to be level 64 to fuse him, and he would subsequently be outclassed by a number of other Personas in the game; here, Thanatos can't be fused until the Protagonist is level 78, continues to learn skills until level 84, and has better natural resistances by resisting all magic elements except for Light and Dark (which he is still weak to and repels, respectively). Whilst he doesn't retain Door of Hades from his appearance as Downloadable Content in Persona 5, the jump in levels makes Thanatos a much more viable option of the final month of the game.
  • Zig-zagged by Messiah, the Protagonist's Ultimate Persona. In the original game, he only naturally deflects Light, is weak to Dark, learns Absorb Pierce as he levels, and his only combat utilities are Megidolaon^note Outclassed by Lucifer's Morning Star, which is both more powerful and cheaper and Salvation (full party heal and ailment recovery). The FES version buffs Messiah in several ways: gaining resistances to the other four elements, God's Hand, and the passive Enduring Soul^note Restores all HP if KO'ed once per battle. Portable further adds Magic Skill Up, which strengthens all magic attacks by 50%. His appearance as Downloadable Content in Persona 5 plays with this trope as he doesn't have Magic Skill Up, and replaces Salvation with Oratorio, which is a mix of Mediarahan and Dekunda. Reload finally applies buff and nerf: Messiah now has innate reflection to Dark skills, Megidolaon costs less than before, and his Absorb Pierce is replaced with the more reliable Null Phys (which acts as Null Slash, Strike and Pierce all at once); but he has Salvation over Oratorio and only has Magic Ability, which strengthens all non-almighty magic attacks by 25%.
  • The Reaper. In previous versions of Persona 3 and both versions of Persona 5, he was confined to the respective floors of Tartarus and Mementos that he spawned into; here, he will follow the party from floor to floor until they leave Tartarus or reach a border floor.
  • The first (non Cutscene Boss) Arcana Shadow, the Priestess, is now a genuine Wake-Up Call Boss on the higher difficulties, rather than a simple Warmup Boss.
  • Most of the Arcana Shadows gain a Signature Move that is used during their boss fight, which are later incorporated into the Nyx Avatar battle, having the all the powers of these shadows at its disposal.
  • Because Fusion Spells are part of the Theurgy mechanic, Aigis now has access to them in lieu of Orgia Mode after awakening to the Wild Card.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In Rank 5 of Yukari's Social Link, it's possible to reverse it if you try to comfort her with a hug in the vanilla and FES releases, which pisses her off because it looks like you don't take her seriously. It confused Western audiences and led to the scene becoming somewhat infamous because of it^note in Japan, it's considered far too forward and physical of a gesture for the point your relationship is at in the link, and Yukari's own relationship issues are added on top of that. Following the change made in the male route of Portable, the choice that causes the reversal in Reload is the protagonist saying a sexist remark that is obviously much less well-intentioned.
• Adaptational Villainy: Downplayed. The Arcana Shadows are malicious and naturally hostile to people by default. Here, the Priestess Shadow seems to be the outlier in that it licks its lips before engaging S.E.E.S. while sporting a wide smile.
• Adaptation Deviation:
  • Among the DLC Personas, Cendrillion and Vanadis are relegated to being of the Star Arcana as opposed to the Faith, as that Arcana is not present outside of Persona 5 Royal. Similarly, because Psy and Nuke are absent as elements, Milady and Johanna (who respectively specialize in those elements in Persona 5) have their attributes changed: Johanna is now a Strike-based Persona weak to Electric, while Milady is a Pierce-based Persona (recalling her other specialty) weak to Fire whose skillset is rounded out with support skills she learns in that game. These changes similarly apply to their Ultimate Persona counterparts, Astarte and Anat.
  • All transactions with Officer Kurosawa now take place in the police station's storage room instead of its reception area.
  • Elizabeth now starts giving you requests on May 10 after you defeat the Priestess Arcana Shadow, unlike in the previous versions where she starts giving requests as early as April 30.
  • From May 10 onwards, Elizabeth now stands outside the Velvet Room doors in Paulownia Mall and Tartarus to faciliate a faster way of turning in her requests or asking the location of missing persons.
  • Elizabeth's Requests have been revamped and re-organized to reflect other changes made in Reload, just like what FES and Portable did in comparison to the original Persona 3. Notably, her requests may now reward Twilight Fragments, and some requests have been replaced entirely.
  • After Fuuka joins S.E.E.S., the group is outfitted with specialized new equipment that is essentially modified school uniforms, with the armbands replaced with shoulder guards. These outfits are not present in the original. Likewise, the previous versions of Persona 3 freely let the player decide what to do on the evening of June 13. In Reload, S.E.E.S. has to explore Tartarus on June 13 to try out said new equipment and test how Theurgy works.
  • Like Joker in Persona 5, the protagonist's thoughts are now in first person as opposed to being narrated in a second person point of view.
  • The fatigue system has been completely removed. As such, dozing off in class now rewards courage and using the restroom has no impact on your condition.
  • The quiz questions asked in the classroom are now different, but on the same general theme, after remaining the same in the previous remakes.
  • You can now visit the Iwatodai Station and Iwatodai Strip Mall on evenings, which wasn't possible in the previous iterations.
  • Maya's Social Link takes place inside the Shinagawa Dungeon as opposed to the Lunarvale Hospital. She even lampshades this.
    "Wait wasn't this place called something different? Lunarvale or something?"
  • Unlike in FES and Portable, Fusion Weapons do not require Personas to create nor do you need to wait a few days before you can pick the weapon up from Mayoido Antiques. Instead, all you need is a Nihil Weapon and gemstones. Additionally, some of the materials that would otherwise drop from levelling up Personas are available to trade other materials for, although the best equipment requires one-of-a-kind items that only drop form specific Personas.
  • In previous versions, the Monad Depths required you to complete specific requests and start New Game Plus on top of being a high-level dungeon filled with Level 90+ enemies. In Reload, it's replaced by the Monad Doors and Passages, and is no longer its own section of Tartarus.
    • Monad Doors are "hidden" rooms found throughout the other Blocks that houses a powerful Shadow. Defeating said Shadow not only rewards you with a chance of obtaining Major Arcana cards during Shuffle Time more frequently, but also fully maps out the floor you're on and the floor above you. That said, the Monad Doors will disappear if you advance or leave via teleporter, meaning you have to complete them as soon as you see one.
    • Monad Passages are located on the same floor as the final Gatekeeper Shadows before border floors, and unlike the more common Monad Doors, are a permanent fixture and can be completed at any time. The Shadows encountered in the Passages aren’t just more powerful, but are designed to test the strategic thinking of the player, and there are multiple encounters in each Passage. Defeating all of the Shadows in each passage not only awards players with cosmetics, but an additional Major Arcana card that will appear during Shuffle Time.
  • Shinjiro's death is based on the film adaptation's portrayal of the event, where he bleeds out in Akihiko's arms, as opposed to the original game which had him do The Dying Walk.
  • In the previous versions of Persona 3 and in the Midsummer Knight's Dream movie, Shinjiro's photo in his school funeral shows him wearing his usual benie and maroon coat. In Reload, the photo instead shows him wearing his formal Gekkoukan school uniform and without his beanie, just like how he appeared in a flashback during his Linked Episode.
  • Chidori no longer wears her headband and hair ribbon accessories while she's being hospitalized.
  • Not every pop-culture reference from the original has been kept as-is. For example:
    • In the original, a newscaster says President Tanaka would "slit his mama's throat for a five yen piece". He doesn't say this in Reload.
    • The Protagonist's "Hasta la vista." suggestion to Bebe in the previous versions is now rewritten as "I'll be back.", making an even more obvious Terminator reference than the original.
  • In the original releases, Thunder Reign, Panta Rhei, Ragnarok, and Niflheim were all severe damage elemental skills that only Odin, Norn, Surt, and Skadi respectively could learn naturally by levelling up and pass along to other Personas via Fusion. Alongside the latter two skills getting a name change, certain Personas in Reload learn Panta Rhei, Inferno, or Diamond Dust naturally by levelling up. However, just like in the original, Odin is the only Persona that can learn Thunder Reign naturally, but the skill can still be passed along to other Personas via Fusion.
  • Like in Portable, the Elizabeth superboss can be fought on a first cycle instead of being exclusive to New Game Plus, fought in the Monad Passage on the 255th floor. Elizabeth's One-Hit Kill Megidolaon has a special animation assigned to it that is different when compared to the regular Megidolaon, where it is bluer and butterflies spread out afterwards.
  • Reload features an achievement set that's not an exact copy of what the 2023 remastered version of Portable has. For example, the latter has an achievement named "S.E.E.S. the Day" as a wordplay on the phrase "seize the day", and it's awarded for rescuing a missing person. This game has a similar "SEES the Day" achievement that kept the wordplay but is instead awarded when the Protagonist officially joins S.E.E.S. In turn, rescuing a missing person now awards the "Extracurricular Excellence" achievement.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • When the school turns into Tartarus during the first official expedition, the animated clip now has a lingering focus on Mitsuru's reaction as she looks at the tower (unlike in the original clip which stops after the camera pans up the tower). This supplements the hint that she knows more about the origins of Tartarus.
  • There are new conversations and scenes that play out whenever you visit Tartarus after officially having a new party member. Interestingly, if several party members joined after your last Tartarus expedition, the game will play all of their scenes in order before you can explore.
  • Daily life in the Iwatodai Dorm is fleshed out in that the Protagonist can now engage in different activities with the rest of S.E.E.S. such as cooking and gardening, though these activities are introduced gradually by progressing the story. Each member has two activities that can give them a new characteristic in battle after hanging out with them three times.
  • The Yakushima Beach vacation has scenes with additional context:
    • The July 21 scene where the Protagonist chases Aigis in the beach's forest trail is relatively longer in Reload compared to FES. Previously, the Protagonist only sees her running away in the distance once before she hides behind the signboard. Here, he notices her in the distance and gives a chase for several times.
    • July 22 also includes the moment from Portable where the Protagonist and Akihiko have fun with the rest of S.E.E.S. before the day ends (back in FES, the day simply ends with the two still near Ikutsuki). In Reload however, the "water gun" scene between Aigis and Junpei, and the subsequent "All-Out Attack" on the beach are now fully animated. Mitsuru, being the most serious member in the group, refuses to join the All-Out Attack.
  • There are several new events in the story that provide a greater focus on Strega, and Takaya in particular.
  • Similar to Social Links, Reload introduces Linked Episodes that are contextual and timed events that allow the Protagonist to interact with characters and learn more about them. This includes the male members of S.E.E.S who the Male Protagonist could not make Social Links with.
  • Akihiko's second Linked Episode has him receive a care package from his adoptive parents, who were previously only mentioned in an art book and a CD Drama.
  • Shinjiro's Linked Episodes delve into his status as a Gekkoukan student, and his history with Mitsuru and Akihiko in the early days of S.E.E.S. - both matters being glossed over in previous versions of Persona 3.
  • Officer Kurosawa gets a little bit more screentime, sharing the spotlight in some of Akihiko's Linked Episodes, as well as being among the social links watching Nyx bring about the Fall.
  • Alongside Natsuki watching the Fall, any maxed out Social Links who are still on Port Island will be watching as well, freaking out about what is happening^note The exceptions are the Hermit, Temperance, Hanged Man, Star, Sun, and Tower. The Temperance, Hanged Man, Star, and Tower Social Links leave Port Island at the end of their Social Links, the Hermit S.L. leaves their online game and the protagonist doesn't hear from them again at Rank 10, and the Sun has already died by Rank 10.
  • In previous versions of Persona 3, there was no way to attend the summer festival with Mitsuru or Aigis — it was possible to see them at the festival if the player turned down all of the other invites to the event and went to the shrine in the evening, but neither Aigis or Mitsuru would notice the Protagonist. In Reload, Mitsuru sends the Protagonist an invitation to attend the festival with her and Aigis alongside the other invitations.
  • In previous versions of Persona 3, the Protagonist was simply late getting back to the dorms on September 18th before the typhoon hit. Here, Takaya confronts the Protagonist on his way home from school regarding Chidori being held captive by S.E.E.S. and that causes the delay in the Protagonist returning to the dorms.
  • In the previous versions of Persona 3, Junpei would invite the Protagonist to the Gekkoukan roof on January 8th and apologise for his behaviour earlier in the game, whilst acknowledging that the two of them aren't actually close. Here, that conversation happens earlier, during Junpei's Linked Episodes, so the rooftop conversation is repurposed to have Yukari join the boys, with the 2-F trio talking about how far they've come since spring.
  • Reload follows Persona 3 Portable's interpretation of the scene where Junpei awakens his Ultimate Persona, with Hermes evolving into Trismegistus by fusing together with Medea and Junpei attacking Strega while shouting "Burn in Hell!". By contrast, the vanilla and FES releases, as well as the movie adaptation, had Hermes evolve by itself, similar to everyone else's Ultimate Personas.
  • The Linked Episodes foreshadow some of the future plans of Junpei, Akihiko, and Koromaru: Junpei mentions getting back into baseball, which leads into him being a baseball coach a few years later when he meets the Investigation Team; Akihiko opines about traveling abroad and also has a friendly relationship with Officer Kurosawa, and in Arena he's traveling around the world as a famed boxer, and eventually joins the police academy at the end of Ultimax; finally, Koromaru agrees to stay with the protagonist as his dog after the Dark Hour is vanquished, but after the protagonist passes away, Ken adopts him so he can still stay with his people rather than go back to the shrine.
• Adaptation Name Change:
  • Some of the name changes that were made between the original Persona 3 releases and Persona 5 were carried over for Reload:
    • Pyro Jack is renamed Jack O'Lantern.
    • Instead of Mind Charge, the skill is renamed to Concentrate, and Power Charge is renamed to just Charge.
    • Seiten Taisei is renamed Qitian Dasheng, most likely because of the DLC Persona of the same name, who serves as the ultimate Persona of Ryuji Sakamoto from Persona 5 (though it had previously appeared with that name in the Nocturne remaster anyway).
    • The severe damage Ice skill in Reload has been changed from Niflheim to Diamond Dust.
    • The severe damage Fire skill in Reload has been changed from Ragnarok to Inferno.
  • In FES and Portable, the antique shop in Paulownia Mall is called Shinshoudo. Here, it's renamed to Mayoido.
  • "Operation Babe Hunt" is now called "Operation Yakushima Beach Fling".
  • The music store in Paulownia Mall is no longer named "Power Records", likely to distance it from its real-life inspiration, Tower Records.
  • The Hierophant's attack that inflicted fear in the original releases was named "Prophecy of Ruin." In Reload, it's named "Doomsday Doctrine."
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Downplayed gameplay example. In the vanilla game, FES, and in the male protagonist route from Portable, the players enters into a romantic relationship with certain female Social Links. Reload allows you to pursue platonic relationships with them, with romance now being optional instead of being automatic, some of the flags to trigger the romance route also being shuffled around to different links.
  • While Strega is still at odds with the S.E.E.S over the latter's goal of ending the Dark Hour, in Reload Takaya actually has a few conversations with the protagonist where he explains his own point of view and tries to sway him to his way of thinking. He even wonders to Jin about why he's developed such an attachment to someone after all this time. None of this happened in the original game, where Takaya was an unwavering Straw Nihilist from start to finish.
  • Junpei makes more of an effort to befriend the Protagonist in the early portion of the game than he did in previous versions of 3. Additionally, whilst his jealousy of the Protagonist over being The Ace and leader of S.E.E.S. remains intact, the build-up of Junpei's insecurities around his role in the team are reworked - now, rather than stemming purely from his jealousy of the Protagonist, they begin building after Mitsuru replaces him in the field team after Fuuka takes over as the navigator and are at their most apparent after the Shirakawa Boulevard operation when it seems that he's the only Second Year not stepping up to the plate.
  • Mitsuru and Akihiko aren't as distant to the Second Years, thanks to additional scenes where they volunteer their time to assist them in study groups outside of their "club activities" - although they do still initially keep the Second Years Locked Out of the Loop regarding certain elements of the Dark Hour and Tartarus. Individually, Mitsuru gives the Second Years a (belated) tour of the dorm following Fuuka's arrival, and both she and Akihiko are just as ready to invite the Protagonist to spend his time with them as the rest of the team.
  • Ken in general gets more interactions with the player and other members of SEES via the Linked Episodes (not limited to just his own) when he was originally regarded as Out of Focus outside of his character arc in the original game.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Some of S.E.E.S.'s Personas have their skills altered to accommodate their users' fighting styles:
  • Io/Isis switches Charmdi for Amrita Drop/Shower, and gains (Ma)Sukunda, Pulinpa, Poison Mist and Wind Amp.
  • Hermes/Trismegistus gains access to the Maragi lines of spells, Vacuum Slash and Shift Boost; additionally, the Spring of Life passive is removed and is instead incorporated into Junpei's second Theurgy, which fully heals him in addition to inflicting severe fire damage.
  • Polydeuces/Caesar swaps (Ma)Rakunda and (Ma)Sukunda for (Ma)Sukukaja, and gains Shock Boost, Gigantic Fist, and God's Hand.
  • Penthesilea/Artemisia doesn't have the Dia line this time, but gains more ailment-inflicting skills, (Ma)Rakunda, and Diamond Dust instead.
  • Palladion/Athena lacks Samarecarm, (Ma)Sukukaja, slash skills, and God's Hand but in return, she gains pierce skills, Fast/Insta-Heal, Null Dizzy, Resist Phys, and Primal Force.
  • Nemesis/Kala-Nemi trades Hamaon and Primal Force for the Kouha line, Mahamaon, Dekaja, Tetrakarn and Makarakarn, and Heat Riser.
  • Cerberus loses single fire skills and his counter skills, while gaining the Eiha line, Revolution, Getsu-Ei, Virus Breath, Soul Shift, and Tempest Slash skills.
  • Castor loses Evil Smile and Power Charge but gains Bloody Charge, Debilitate, and Endure.
• Adapted Out:
  • The Female Protagonist from Portable isn't present in the base game of Reload. "The Answer" Playable Epilogue isn't included in the base game of Reload either, but would later be added as DLC as part of the game's Expansion Pass.
  • The list of Fusion Spells available to the Protagonist has been reduced to seven^note Cadenza, Jack Brothers, A King and I, Best Friends, Scarlet Havoc, Trickster, and Armageddon after having a total of eighteen^note The aforementioned seven plus Justice, Frolic, Dreamfest, Summer Dream, Thunder Call, Valhalla, Shadow Hound, Raktapakahsa, Infinity, and Ardhanari in the previous versions of Persona 3.
  • With the exception of floors becoming darker, the Tartarus anomalies from the previous versions of Persona 3 have been replaced by the Monad Doors and the Greedy Shadows event.
  • The Monad Depths have been replaced by Monad Passages, located on the same floor as the final Gatekeeper Boss of most Tartarus blocks.
  • While Noriko Kashiwagi made an Adaptational Early Appearance in the Operation Babe Hunt scenes in both Portable and the film adaptation, she is cut out entirely for Reload.
  • Vincent Brooks, who made an Early-Bird Cameo in Club Escapade in the Portable version^note Vincent's appearance in Portable originally served as a bit of Production Foreshadowing for Catherine, is absent in Reload.
  • Seventeen Personas (Twelve from the original and an additional five added in FES) were cut from Reload.^note In no particular order, they are Ares, Hokuto Seikun, Kingu, Oumitsunu, Alp, Nata Taishi, Yomotsu Shikome, Taraka, Empusa, Titan, Narasimha, Ubelluris, Ghoul, Vetala, Nandi, Kartikeya, and Suparna.
  • In New Game Plus runs of Portable, the good ending was revised to allow the Protagonist to spend their final moments with a loved one, instead of passing away on Aigis' lap. Reload removes that option, and instead provides an expanded version of the original ending - though this isn't locked behind New Game Plus.
• After-Combat Recovery: Aside from Cup cards returning from previous versions of the game, selecting the Moon card during Shuffle Time fully restores the party's HP and SP.
• Always Check Behind the Chair: The "Eagle Eye" achievement/trophy requires you to find all Twilight Fragments in town. They are mostly placed near inconspicuous objects but are still fairly noticeable up-close thanks to their blue glow. The tutorial message that pops up after you find the first stray Fragment in the overworld likewise suggests you to keep looking for the rest.
  A Twilight Fragment is a strange item that seems to deeply resonate with the Dark Hour. Keep a weather eye out. You may find them in unexpected places.
• Always Close: Justified in the case of the Priestess boss fight. As the fight progresses, the boss speeds up the train, reducing the timer faster than it should, making it so that by the end of the fight, the timer is almost zero, and the protagonist will apply the brakes just in time.
• Always Someone Better: During the Dark Hour of September 7, Jin compliments Takaya's ability to summon his Persona without using an Evoker. This is notable on its own, considering how the rest of the human Persona-users, including Jin himself, need one. However, Takaya subtly dismisses the compliment because he just realized the Protagonist, who can wield multiple Personas, is still a "greater" Persona-user than him.
  Jin: So, that's why you don't use an Evoker...?
  Takaya: Hardly. The real reason is far more practical. I don't use one because I have no need. I don't require something as inelegant as a tool to prove my resolve.
  Jin: You really are somethin' special, Takaya.
  Takaya: Yet there is always someone out there who is even greater. Such as... one who can wield multiple Personas...
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • In the original game, the Persona Compendium and Special Fusion mechanics were unlocked later into the story, with the compendium only being accessible after defeating the Reverse Priestess Shadow. This persists even on New Game Plus. In Reload, both functions are available to you as soon as you have access to the Velvet Room.
  • Similar to later games that would rewind time for you if you missed a deadline, Reload gives you the ability to manually rewind time up to 5 days if you find yourself unprepared for a boss. Rewinding time is also helpful for redoing any Social Links.
  • You're no longer limited to three requests at most from Elizabeth, allowing you to start all requests as soon as they're available. And since the limit has been removed, the option to cancel requests is no longer present in this game.
  • In previous versions of Persona 3, when Elizabeth requested certain items they could only be obtained on a specific day and you had to take an educated guess about who to ask, with it gone forever if you forgot or couldn't get it in time. Here, you can get them immediately and the giver is clearly marked.
  • The game has a new set of Tartarus Guardians who are less tough (albeit more problematic) than the ones in the previous versions, though SP management is now the main issue.
  • While the Reverse Priestess fight is still a Time-Limit Boss, the timer itself is thankfully moved up. Instead of happening as soon as the monorail starts moving, the timer starts at the beginning of the boss battle proper, and with a gracious half-hour. Downplayed in that the boss has moves that speed up the train and reduce the timer, making the actual time limit much less than 30 minutes.
  • Shuffle Time is no longer a Mini-Game unlike its earliest iterations since Persona 3. It's now streamlined as Reload instead borrowed some quality-of-life features from Persona 4 Golden; the cards are displayed face-up and no longer shuffled around, then the player simply picks their desired card.
  • As with Portable, Skill Cards are still present except this time, they can be gained from the Sword cards in Shuffle Time instead of leveling up your equipped Personas.
  • Cup cards now grant more benefits beyond restoring the party's HP, including giving the party free Charge/Concentrate, free Tetrakarn/Makarakarn, or even maxing out Theurgy gauges.
  • Cursed Cards are also removed entirely, meaning that the player can only get beneficial rewards from Shuffle Time.
  • Just like in Persona 4 Golden and all subsequent games, once you've found the stairs on a floor of Tartarus, you can keep exploring and then choose to advance to the next floor from the map screen instead of having to backtrack to the stairs.
  • The floors in Tartarus remain static as S.E.E.S. explore the tower during a single night so that if the player is forced to return to the Tartarus lobby at some point, they can immediately resume their exploration from where they left off. However, the floors all reset upon leaving Tartarus and you have to use the teleporter checkpoints once you return.
  • Upon finding people lost within Tartarus, you can now have a party member from your reserves escort them to the Tartarus entrance, rather than having to do so yourself.
  • While the game lacks passive experience for inactive members, the player can occasionally stumble across the Great Clock after using Twilight Fragments. While you can only choose characters with a lower level than the player character, it guarantees a massive boost in experience the next time they are in the party which immediately grants them up to 13 levels towards the player's level. Best of all, this boost does not expire and you can use it on several members at once, though it will be locked to the level the player had at the time of using the Great Clock. This gives the player more freedom in party compositions and alleviates locking yourself into a party by forgetting to level other members.
  • On the subject of Twilight Fragments, they are exceedingly scarce in Tartarus unless you wind up in a dark zone, which makes them something of a precious resource and incentivizes you not to spend them carelessly on every locked chest you find. Having said that, Elizabeth will give you Twilight Fragments whenever you rank up a Social Link and cats that have inadvertently wandered into Tartarus will give some as a reward after being saved.
  • Items that are helpful in certain situations are brought to the top of your inventory. For example, when a character is afraid, Dis-Fear will be conveniently located at the top of the list so you don't have to search for it.
  • In the original, leaving and then re-entering the dorm on days off would advance time to the evening. Reload changes it to where time doesn't pass if you re-enter the dorm after leaving it.
  • The arrow icons that indicate buffs/debuffs when you target someone now blink when they're about to expire.
  • In the original game and FES, Fusion Spells require you to have the necessary Personas. As Fusion Spells are now relegated to being the protagonist's Theurgy, you do not need said Personas in your stock. Instead, all you need is to have the required Personas registered in the Persona compendium to unlock the Fusion Spell, after which said spell will be registered.
  • If you lose a battle against a Gatekeeper, you're given the option to restart the battle from the Game Over screen. You're also given the option to lower the difficulty if you want to, which is particularity helpful in the higher floors of Tartarus that have back-to-back fights.
  • Elizabeth will send you a text message to remind you if a missing person deadline is about to expire. Notably, this warning will never come before everyone who is going to go missing that month does so; this helps you avoid wasting time in Tartarus, especially with the two people who go missing four days before the full moon in early August.
  • The fatigue system's been removed, so you can go to Tartarus as many nights in a row as you want with whoever you want, as long as they're not unavailable for plot reasons.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: After Persona 5 made all of the alternate costumes Downloadable Content, Reload instead rewards the player with costumes upon opening locked chests in Tartarus or after the completion of Elizabeth's requests, much like previous iterations of Persona 3.
• An Arm and a Leg: The intro prominently shows a battle-damaged Aigis, her left arm no longer attached to her body.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: As usual, you can only have the hero and three other party members at a time. The others stay behind with the handwave that they're staying to protect the navigator in case a Shadow shows up.
• Armor-Piercing Attack:
  • All offensive Theurgys share the property of ignoring enemy resistances.
  • There is at least one weapon for each Physical attack type which ignores resistances, such as the Protagonist's Deus Xiphos for Slash or Aigis's Pandemonium for Pierce.
• Art Evolution: The art direction has been significantly improved in a lot of aspects, specifically when compared to the PS2 and Portable versions of Persona 3. In the way, Reload borrowed many cues from the "modern-looking" Persona games such as the Arena spin-offs, the Dancing All Night spin-offs, and especially from Persona 5. The character portraits are now redrawn with higher resolutions, cleaner quality and better shading, the user interface, icons and menus are more stylized, the 3D models now have dynamic lighting and more realistic proportions. The menus even display the 3D model of a Persona instead of its 2D artwork. On the other hand, the 2D animated clips are more detailed, though some cutscenes that were originally done as a 2D anime cutscene have now as a 3D in-engine scene.
• The Artifact: During the Culture Festival Cleanup on September 24, the protagonist can end up getting entangled in an awkward conversation after his Boke and Tsukkomi Routine with Kenji, where Yuko, Chihiro, and Yukari note how they've gotten close with the Protagonist, as if he was cheating on all of them with each other. Back in FES and Portable, this event can only be triggered if the protagonist was dating them, with the flags to automatically date Yuko and Chihiro being ranks 7 and 5 respectively, with Reload likely reusing the same conditions in order to trigger this event. However, Reload makes all romance routes optional and their triggers moved further down their ranks, making the event's conflict seemingly out-of-place, as the the protagonist could possibly not be dating any of them at that point. As a result, it makes the conflict look less like a confrontation that's about to blow up from the protagonist's cheating and more of three Clingy Jealous Girls about to throw down with each other, recontextualizing Junpei, Kazushi, and Kenji's attempts to distract them.
• Art Shift: Similar to Persona 5, winning a battle with an All-Out Attack causes the party member who knocked down the last enemy to get a special Victory Pose which ends with their 3D model temporarily turning into a stylized 2D image. However, the image only shows the member in their original or new S.E.E.S. uniforms; other cosmetic outfits aren't applied.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Film posters outside the cinema may be in English. Unlike some examples of this trope, they're mostly fragments of correct sentences instead of complete gibberish.
  • Friday in a certain day
    Fans of a Dutch soccer team
    Americans heading off to war are facing
  • The more than dreamin (not dreaming or dreamin', dreamin)
  • Detonator
    A troubling trend for a Dutch
• Begin with a Finisher: A party member's accumulated Theurgy gauge is carried over in between battles, so it's possible for them to enter a new fight with a readily-available Theurgy on their first turn. However, this is only applicable for battles within the current day, as the gauge "resets" to a random amount on the next day.
• Big Ball of Violence: After the visual overhaul of the All-Out Attack in Persona 5, it's back to invoking this trope in Reload, though the game retains the character cut-ins introduced in Persona 5 and adjusts them to P3's presentation style.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation:
  • When spending time with a Social Link but the hangout doesn't move to the next rank, the Protagonist will say "I don't think our bond will grow any stronger even if I spend more time with [them]," implying that the social link won't move up at all even if the player spends time with them now. While veterans of the series will likely understand this as the message that indicates that this hangout won't result in the social link moving up to the next rank immediately, this might be confusing for players who read it literally and interpret it to mean that the Social Link is now locked at this stage.
  • The description for the sign on the Home Economics room door says you can access the Social Link there once you have the Academics stat at "Above Average" level. In fact, it only requires Academics of "Average".
  • Akihiko's Theurgy is explained as "After strengthening himself, his fighting spirit rises" implying that his Theurgy bar will only increase when he casts buffs on himself; in reality, he gains charge if he has any buff on him at the start of his turn - regardless of if he cast it or not.
  • Mitsuru's Theurgy has a similar mistranslation to Akihiko's, where it's explained as "After weakening enemies or inflicting an ailment, her will burns brighter," implying that her Theurgy will increase when she casts debuffs on the enemy or when she successfully inflicts an ailment. While inflicting an ailment does increase her Theurgy, Mitsuru also gains charge when an enemy has an active debuff at the start of her turn.
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine:
  • The "Jack Bros." Theurgy fusion spell is a very brief example, with Jack Frost as the tsukkomi and Jack-o'-lantern as the boke. Unlike the original game, where the fusion spell only knocked over the enemies due to them finding the joke so bad and dealing no damage, Reload's version deals medium Almighty damage and the enemies get knocked down from laughter.
  • Like in FES and Portable, the protagonist and Kenji Tomochika do an impromptu one after the culture festival's plans fall through in order to lift their classmates' spirits during cleanup.
• Boss-Altering Consequence:
  • When fighting Jin normally, he'll target the party's weaknesses with his grenades. If the player has a party that has all their weaknesses covered when fighting him, he'll switch up his tactics and start throwing Almighty-damage grenades, which can inflict Panic on the party members.
  • Takaya's solo Pre-Final Boss fight can be affected by the player's choices:
    • If the player meets with Takaya in his final Linked Episode, he tells the Protagonist that he'll be standing guard at the top floor of Tartarus, and gives them one last warning to walk away, which the protagonist will reject. Once the player makes it to his boss fight, he'll refer to his earlier warning, but his boss fight remains the same.
    • During the fight itself, after his health is reduced to 75%, Takaya will ask the player "What is it that you see before you now?" with three different options. If the player answers with the first two, which are more morally-aligned, this triggers an "angry" flag for Takaya, where he uses more instakill attacks and targets weaknesses more often. However, if the player answers with the third option, saying "only the opponent in front of me," Takaya approves of the protagonist for enjoying the moment and the fight in front of them instead, with Takaya's attack patterns becoming more lenient.
• Bragging Rights Reward:
  • The Omnipotent Orb, awarded for defeating Elizabeth, blocks all damage except Almighty damage. While the Orb is an incredibly powerful item, if you're able to defeat Elizabeth, then you really have no reason to use it.
  • The Blue Envelope, awarded for beating the game on Merciless difficulty, is a Sequel Hook of sorts that is the only item to carry over into New Game Plus. But if you've beaten the game on Merciless, you've probably got this game down backwards and forwards.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: The Answer, originally named Episode Aigis in the Japanese release of FES, has been renamed to Episode Aigis: The Answer for the international release of Reload. It is still known as just Episode Aigis in Japan, however.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • The Reverse and Broken Social Link mechanics make a return in Reload after being downplayed in Persona 4 and absent entirely from Persona 5^note although unused text strings shows that it was going to return before being cut from the final game, albeit less confusing compared to the PlayStation 2 versions.
  • Social stats◊ are reduced to six ranks in Academics, Charm and Courage, just as in the original version of Persona 3 after subsequent games featured five social stats with a total of five ranks in each stat.
  • Every Social Link rank is now voiced, rather than this being limited to select ranks as has been the standard since Persona 3 introduced the mechanic.
  • From Persona 3 and onward, the Protagonist's Persona awakening scene was done via a pre-rendered anime cinematic - with the exception of Portable, which for the longest time was the only time the initial Awakening was rendered in-engine. Here, the Protagonist's awakening is done in an in-engine cutscene.
  • The original Persona 3 had a new version of "Aria of the Soul", which was used again in both 4 and 5. Reload features a brand new rendition of the song.
  • In prior appearances, the Reaper would lose track of the player once they left the floor he was on. Here, the Reaper will continue to pursue the party after they escape to the next floor, only stopping when the player reaches a border floor or leaves Tartarus.
  • Reload is also the first game in the mainline series to have a multi-platform release from the start^note having been previously confined to the PlayStation and its successors before a series of Updated Rereleases from 2020 to 2022, as well as a simultaneous worldwide release instead of the game being released in Japan first then in other markets afterwards.
• Brick Joke: When Ikutsuki introduces the gardening mechanic, he leaves you with one of his lame puns - "eat your veggies, peas!" When Mitsuru takes the second years on a tour of the dorm about a month later, she shows them your planters, and Yukari mutters that Ikutsuki probably made some lame pun like "eat your veggies, peas!" Incidentally, the achievement/trophy for harvesting a crop that the player has grown with one of their teammates is also called "Eat your veggies, peas!"
• Call-Forward:
  • To Persona 4:
    • If Junpei is in the party during the Shirakawa Boulevard operation, he'll comment on the large televisions adorning the walls of the hotel rooms.
      Junpei: What if there was a Shadow in the TV!? Yeah, right, like that would ever happen...
    • In a conversation with Jin on September 7th, where they reminisce about their time being experimented on by the Kirijo Group and how people would end up getting devoured by their own Personas, Takaya says the phrase "I am a shadow... the true self.", the Arc Words for the Shadow Selves. He mentions this while explaining the dangers of the proto-Evoker, implying that those who used it unintentionally caused their Personas to regress back into Shadows, further harkening to the process of how Shadows evolve into Personas albeit in reverse order.
    • Completing one of Elizabeth's requests allows her to wear a pair of glasses that look pretty similar to the gag glasses that Teddie made.
  • To Persona 4: Arena and Ultimax:
    • During Akihiko's final Linked Episode, he muses about travelling the world and seeing how far his skills measure up to other fighters outside of Japan. He also mentions that he's starting to see the path that he feels he needs to take after graduation, and promises to speak with Officer Kurosawa about it at a more appropriate time.
    • During Junpei's final Linked Episode, he talks about not having any plans for the future but considers getting back into baseball as a good first step to figuring out what he wants to do in life; by the time of the Arena games, Junpei's working as a peewee baseball coach.
    • Ken not only displays an interest in soccer, but is acknowledged to be pretty good at it. It's also stated that he's fairly popular amongst his female classmates, alluding to him being a Chick Magnet soccer player in Ultimax.
    • Elizabeth says "I bring you... Megidolaon" every time she uses her 9999-damage Megidolaon in her Superboss fight, just like she did when using it as her Instant Kill in Arena
  • To Persona 5:
    • In the original script, Ikutsuki described the Dark Hour as "something people aren't aware of". Here, he says they're not cognizant of it, suggesting a link to the cognitive research that's very important in 5.
    • Pondering how to get the public's attention, Tanaka wishes he had someone "who could steal their heart", alluding to the Phantom Thieves stealing the warped desires of the Palace Owners.
    • Whilst travelling through Tartarus, one of Ken's random lines of dialogue has him question the implications of a dog being a Persona-user, and he wonders if the same could be true of a cat, before writing the idea off as dumb; Morgana, one of the party members in Persona 5, spends the majority of his time as a cat.
    • Whilst traversing Tartarus, an optional piece of dialogue features the team reflecting on their inability to take a break in the tower.
      Fuuka: If only there was a safe place for us to take a break...
      Mitsuru: Like some sort of safe room? That'd certainly be convenient...
    • An optional dialogue in Tartarus has Fuuka muse on the possibility of Shadows gathering in other places similar to Tartarus; if Junpei responds, he suggests an underground location - alluding to Mementos (and possibly the Abyss of Time as well).
    • One of Junpei's optional dialogues in Tartarus has him wishing they had a working car so they could just run over Shadows. The Phantom Thieves not only have a working car, thanks to Morgana, but one of Ryuji’s Confidant bonuses in Royal allows the Phantom Thieves to just drive through the Shadows.
  • To Persona 5 Strikers:
    • Pondering how to get the public's attention, Tanaka wishes he had someone "who could steal their heart". Whilst the comment is certainly an allusion to the Phantom Thieves' actions in Persona 5, what Tanaka is suggesting is more in line with the actions of the Palace Monarchs in Strikers.
• Camera Abuse: During the Protagonist's awakening, Thanatos crushes a Shadow's arm, resulting in blood splattering on the camera.
• Cap Raiser: Initially, you can only obtain up to two Major Arcana cards from Shuffle Time per day, but more card slots are unlocked by progressing through the story and obtaining special items within the optional Monad Passages. Eventually, you can have a maximum of thirteen card slots.
• Cast from Hit Points:
  • Recarmdra will fully restore the party's health whilst reducing the user's health to 1.
  • The Armageddon fusion spell stands as the only example of the Theurgy skills having an additional cost; casting the spell will also reduce the Protagonist's HP and SP to 1.
  • Bloody Charge, a buff skill that uses half of the caster's health to significantly raise their next attack's critical rate and physical damage. Appropriately, Shinjiro has this skill upon joining the party.
• Celebrity Paradox: The Hermit Social Link in the dub implies that both the first Persona game and the Persona 2 duology games exist In-Universe, but Mitsuru's father openly refers to the Nanjo Group when the team visits Yakushima Island.
• Chain of Deals: One of Elizabeth's new requests involves a chain of trading items with some NPCs. She even prefaces this request with an allusion to the "straw millionaire" story.
• Chekhov's Gun: On August 14th, you fight the Shadow of the Abyss in a mostly scripted encounter alongside Takaya. Afterwards, it drops what appears to be a prototype Evoker, which Takaya picks up. He later uses that very same Evoker to perform a Theurgy during his last boss fight with you.
• Cherry Blossoms: Beating the game and saving your progress decorates the save file with some sakura petals. What they represent is a "new beginning" as that save file can then be used for a New Game Plus. Having a cleared save file also changes the title screen into a view of a daytime sky with a cherry blossom tree in the background.
• Color Motif: As in the original game, the interface uses a lot of blues.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Twilight Fragments glow blue in contrast to all other ordinary collectibles which glow orange.
• Company Cameo: The Atlus logo can be seen on a bottle of shampoo during the July 7th operation.
• Company Cross References: One of the arcade games that can be played is "House of the Deceased", whilst one of the pieces of software that can be bought for the dorm PC is "Typing of the Deceased". The games are obvious references to House of the Dead and obscure spin-off Typing of the Dead, published by Atlus' parent company Sega.
• The Computer Is a Lying Bastard: In the Persona menu, Fuuka's Sylphid Aura skill says it will increase the party's Attack, Defense, and Accuracy/Evasion at the start of the next fight, but it only increases the latter two stats. Fuuka correctly states that the skill will only increase the party's Defense and Accuracy/Evasion before casting it, however.
• Content Warnings: There are two content warning screens when you boot up the game; the first warns about depictions of violence, bullying and suicide, while the second warns about flashing screens and bright effects.
• Continuity Nod: During the events of Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight, Yukari remembers that Junpei borrowed one of her CDs and hadn't returned it. On January 8th, the Protagonist is called to the roof by Yukari and Junpei, and in the midst of their conversation, she remembers her missing CD.
• Culturally Sensitive Adaptation:
  • The Coin minor arcana card (which grants you money after a battle) has been altered to not resemble the Star of David, so as to avoid invoking the Greedy Jew stereotype.
  • In both Persona 3 and Persona 3 Portable, the Operation Babe Hunt side quest had a scene where, after a few unsuccessful attempts at hitting on girls, they come across a lone woman who tries to flirt with them. After Akihiko notices some stubble on her chin, the woman turns away in shame and remarks that she "missed a spot", with the game's text window putting a question mark at the end of her name (Beautiful Lady in P3 and Pretty Lady in P3P) for all her subsequent lines. Junpei reacts in horror to this revelation and the boys subsequently run away, much to her disappointment. As this scene could be considered transphobic by many, Persona 3 Reload naturally completely rewrites it so that the woman is now a conspiracy theorist who believes the sun was replaced with an artificial one in the 1980s and offers the boys "special sunscreen" to protect them in exchange for 300,000 yen. The boys then run away after noticing this unusual behavior and suspecting she may be scamming them.
• Cutting Off the Branches: The original game had multiple options for both the sports team and art club social links. The former let you pick between the track, swimming, and kendo teams, while the latter gave you a choice between the art club, music club, and photography club. The remake limits you to just the track team and art club, probably to avoid having to record three sets of lines for each social link since Reload makes all social links fully voiced.
• Darker and Edgier: Downplayed. While the original Persona 3 is plenty dark, Reload emphasizes it with new events and its updated visuals. In the opening hour of the game, Junpei even mentions how the trains were delayed because of an accident where one of the Lost committed suicide on the train tracks. Note that while the Lost are explicitly described as having lost the will to live, little to none are mentioned as having killed themselves or attempted suicide in the original game. Also serves as a Call-Forward to Persona 5, making the link between Apathy Syndrome and 5's mental shutdowns more explicit.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The game's controls mostly take after Persona 5, but there are some slight differences that could trip you up.
  • You use L1/LB to open the map, instead of R1/RB.
  • While exploring Tartarus, the game uses Square/X as a dedicated melee attack button that's used to preemptively attack Shadows and smash open item containers, which in past games were context sensitive actions activated by the Cross/A.
  • Since this game doesn't feature negotiation, All-Out Attacks are activated by a Yes/No prompt with each option respectively mapped to Cross/A and Circle/B buttons. Pressing Triangle/Y, as in Persona 5, does nothing.
  • Auto-Recovery is now R1/RB instead of Square/X.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • In the platonic version of Fuuka's Rank 10 Social Link, it's revealed that she has invited Yukari to cook with them. If the player has romanced Yukari beforehand, then her dialogue will be changed to acknowledge that relationship.
  • Jin is programmed to exploit your party's weaknesses. If you lack any, in previous iterations of this game, he has an alternative line of dialogue to acknowledge this, but the fight remains unchanged. In Reload, however, he reveals he's Crazy-Prepared and starts bombarding you with almighty-damage flash grenades that can inflict Panic.
  • You can still find Shinjiro's extra outfits in Tartarus after he dies, with added narration remarking that the Protagonist wonders what he would have looked like in it.
  • Bebe will ask what is the appropriate way to say "goodbye" to a friend in his very first social link rank. Whatever the player answers with, Bebe will consistently use it throughout his entire social link, with a voiced line changing to what the player asked him to say, including "I'll be back."
  • One of Elizabeth's requests is for the Protagonist to give her three Jack Frost dolls. Upon completion of the quest, she notes that she considered asking you to raise a Jack Frost to level 99; if you choose to do that, Elizabeth will comment on the accomplishment.
  • Depending on who your navigator is, Mitsuru or Fuuka will compliment you for defeating a Tartarus Guardian alone.
  • The progress of the Judgment Social Link by defeating the Gatekeeper shadows in the Adamah block will always have a pre-determined character talking after the battle, which changes depending on if they're in the party or not, with Fuuka usually giving the comms over to whoever is speaking if they aren't with the player.
  • Normally, if you buy something from the shopping channel, the Protagonist will find the package at the dorm's front desk on Tuesday evening (or the first available evening if Tuesday is a story event). If you do a social link with a party member that takes place in their dorm room on the relevant day, the Protagonist will find the package outside the party member's door afterward, so as to not show him arriving to the dorm he's already at.
  • Taking Koromaru on a walk with a party member usually has a specific conversation based around where in the game you are at. Uniquely though, during summer break if you take a party member to the movies, and they happen to be the person you can take on a walk with Koromaru, they will have unique dialogue referencing the movie.
  • In the Bad Ending, Junpei teases the Protagonist over being particularly close to "a certain someone." In the previous versions of the game, Yukari would always react in surprise before getting embarrassed - implying she was who Junpei was referring to. In Reload, Yukari's reaction differs if the Player chose to date her or someone else - if the Protagonist chose to date someone else, she reacts in confusion; if he chose to date her, the ending retains the original dialogue.
• Diegetic Switch: The intro animation for this game begins with the protagonist putting on his headphones, and cycling through various music from the game's soundtrack (namely "Want to Be Close" and previous main theme "Burn My Dread") before pressing play on the new intro theme "Full Moon, Full Life," formally starting the intro.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In the 2D anime cutscene where Yukari takes a shower under the influence of the Lovers Shadow during the Shirakawa Boulevard operation, she hums a small portion of "Memories for You."
• Ditching the Dub Names:
  • Just like in the localized remastered ports of Portable, the shops keep their Japanese names on the shops. Since Game Panic (called Game Parade in the original) does not use Japanese characters on its sign, it is referred to as Game Parade regardless of language.
  • Lunarvale was the Dub Name Change for Mikage-cho in the English version of Revelations: Persona. In the original Persona 3, Lunarvale was the setting for Maya's Social Link, but Reload abandons it in favor of the Shinagawa Dungeon.
• Double Unlock: As with the previous versions, a specific Persona's fusion may require a component Persona that's unlocked after maxing out a Social Link. Reload slightly complicates the requirements if a component Persona is locked behind Linked Episodes. For example, getting Kohryu still requires maxing out the Hierophant Social Link and fusing Genbu, Seiryu, Suzaku and Byakko. However, Byakko can only be fused after finishing Koromaru's Linked Episodes.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: One of the Monad Passages have a Puzzle Boss battle that requires this. It consists of several Maya type Shadows with high HP and resistance to all damage and a single other Shadow that has a weakness. The trick is that if the vulnerable enemy is wounded but alive, it will use its turn to sacrifice a Maya and heal; if you defeat it before they're all gone, it's a much, much longer fight.
• Downloadable Content: Much like Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal, Reload gets a variety of downloadable costumes, Personas, and music tracks at launch.
  • Costume packs that allow the members of S.E.E.S. to dress in the Yasogami High and Shujin Academy uniforms, or as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.
  • Persona packs featuring a selection of Personas from Golden and Royal.
  • Background music packs featuring a selection of songs from Golden and Royal.
  • The Persona 3 Reload Expansion Pass post-launch DLC adds three waves of content, releasing throughout 2024:
    • Wave 1: Adds extra background music tracks from Golden and Royal that weren't included in the pack available at launch.
    • Wave 2: Adds extra costumes based on the Velvet Room attendants, as well as remixes of the Velvet Room's theme from games like 4 Arena: Ultimax and Dancing.
    • Wave 3: Adds a story campaign that adapts the Playable Epilogue from Persona 3 FES titled Episode Aigis -The Answer-; where Aigis inherits the protagonist's Wild Card ability after the events of the original game, explores a new dungeon, and is joined by a new playable character, Metis.
• Dramatic Irony: After Shinjiro's death, the Protagonist can enter his room and collect his things; upon inspecting his desk, the Protagonist will find the completed forms for reenrollment at Gekkoukan, something he had outright refused to complete when Mitsuru had previously asked.
• Draw Extra Cards: The Justice and Star cards increase the number of cards the player can draw during Shuffle Time when used. They stack with each other, meaning getting both allows the player to draw three cards during Shuffle Time.

E-L

• Early-Bird Cameo: During the April Full Moon, Akihiko can be seen wearing the combat gear that S.E.E.S. receive from Ikutsuki in June; when the team receive the equipment, Akihiko notes that he had previously tested the equipment.
• Easier Than Easy: The lower difficulties are Normal, Easy, and Peaceful.
• Eldritch Location: Tartarus, much like in the original game. The eerieness and atmosphere are enhanced courtesy of the updated visuals, with special mentions going to Block Arqa; the "doors" are moving tendrils that glow and, according to Yukari, the "faces" are seemingly moving.
• Elemental Motifs: Reload uses a lot of water imagery in its presentation, with the menu screen depicting the Male Protagonist submerged in a pool of water and the good ending credits show him slowly sinking in water too.
• Environmental Symbolism: The dorms are normally brightly lit, but in January, when the Fall is approaching and everyone's determination is tested, the colours in the dorm become a bit more washed out to match the more somber mood and encroaching doomsday.
• Evolving Title Screen: Normally, the title screen depicts a silhouette of the protagonist standing in front of a full moon at night and silhouettes of the rest of the party stand around inside a classroom when the player is choosing to start a new game or continue. After completing the game once, the title screen switches to a view of a daytime sky with a cherry blossom tree in the background and shows an Evoker and S.E.E.S. armband on a desk, while the classroom is empty. It's also no longer silent, as "Because I Will Protect You" plays in the background.
• Experience Booster: Aside from the Wand cards returning from previous versions of the game, there are a few other mechanics that boost the party's experience gain.
  • Put simply, the Great Clock allows an underleveled party member to immediately gain up to 13 levels in one battle just to approach or match the Protagonist's Character Level. Technically, this means the member temporarily gains a massive experience point multiplier. The relevant tutorial even says the greater the level difference, the bigger the bonus. If combined with other experience boosters, it is possible for a member to exceed the Protagonist's level after they receive the effect of the Great Clock.
  • The Lovers card increases the Social Link experience bonus gained from fusing Personas when used in Shuffle Time.
  • The Temperance card increases the amount of experience gained by social stat raising activities on the day following its selection in Tartarus.
  • The Judgement card gives the party member with the lowest experience a significant experience boost when used in Shuffle Time, which is a less dramatic but still effective way for a character to catch up with the rest.
• Fanservice:
  • Downplayed with Yukari's shower scene during the Shirakawa Boulevard operation - whilst it is once again depicted in an animated cutscene, Yukari is less sexualised than in previous versions of the scene.
  • The girls walking on to Yakushima Beach is now an animated cutscene, featuring panning shots that pan over the bodies of Yukari, Fuuka and Mitsuru to highlight their figures.
  • The High Cut Armor/Battle Panties return as unlockable costumes for Mitsuru and Yukari; Fuuka's set from Dancing in Moonlight is also included.
  • With the sole exception of Aigis, all members of SEES can be equipped with their swimsuit as a costume — even Shinjiro and Ken, who weren't around for the Yakushima trip.
• First-Name Basis: Unlike previous iterations of Persona 3, this is no longer the default manner in how characters refer to each other.
  • Akihiko and Mitsuru refer to each other by their given names.
  • Akihiko is the only one to refer to Shinjiro by his given name, and likewise for Shinjiro. The two even refer to each other via nickname, Aki and Shinji respectively.
  • Yukari and Fuuka quickly fall into this after the latter joins S.E.E.S.
  • For the majority of the game, Yukari and Mitsuru are on Last-Name Basis; they switch to their given names in November, to highlight their developing friendship.
  • Everyone, sans the overly formal Mitsuru, refers to Junpei in this manner.
  • Everyone refers to Ryoji by his given name; he does the same for the Protagonist and Junpei.
  • The Protagonist identifies all of the female Social Links in this manner.
• Flawed Prototype: Midway through the game, the protagonist helps Takaya fight a bizarre Shadow called the "Shadow of the Abyss". When it's defeated, it leaves behind what looks to be an Evoker. Takaya later explains to Jin it's a prototype Evoker that was previously used by the Kirijo Group during their experiments with artificial Persona-users. While it functions the same as the perfected versions used by S.E.E.S., Jin, and Chidori, it was much more volatile and could make a Persona run rampant to the point Takaya implies the Persona even regressed back into a Shadow^note He drops the line "I am a shadow, the true self..." during his explanation.. For artificial Persona-users who already had trouble controlling theirs, using the proto-Evoker was a guaranteed death sentence. Despite this, Takaya uses it in his final battle with S.E.E.S. in January in a last ditch attempt to stop them.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Shinjiro being an early member of S.E.E.S. is subtly hinted at prior to his return to the team.
    • When Mitsuru gives the Second Years a tour of the dorms, she mentions there used to a resident of the dorms who regularly made use of the kitchen before their departure.
    • The new armbands of S.E.E.S. assign a number to each member. If you talk to Yukari during the mandatory Tartarus expedition on June 13, she lampshades and asks several questions about the significance of the numbers. She speculates that they likely represent the order of when a member officially joined the squad, then wonders if her and the protagonist's numbers are switched, or why there's no one currently wearing the number 2 armband. This conversation is Reload's newly-added hint that there was another S.E.E.S. member in the past alongside Mitsuru (0) and Akihiko (1) even before the protagonist joined and got assigned to number 3. Sure enough, after Shinjiro returns to the squad, he wears the number 2 armband, confirming that he's one of the first members of S.E.E.S.
      Yukari: Oh, by the way, do you know what those numbers on our new armbands mean? If it's the order that we joined SEES, shouldn't yours and mine be reversed? Maybe it's kinda random? I mean, there's no number two...
  • Ikutsuki's betrayal and true motivations are subtly hinted at during Reload, either through new events in the story or just expanding on events from the original game:
    • When the protagonist first summons Orpheus and Thanatos abruptly takes over, Akihiko and Mitsuru are shocked and confused. Ikutsuki's reaction is more subdued and looks more fascinated, if not smiling briefly at this unexpected development.
    • During summer vacation at Yakushima when S.E.E.S. and Takeharu Kirijo are watching Eiichiro Takeba's final recording, the new cutscene shows the recording glitching out at certain points and makes the thing sound more patched together. This is a major hint that Ikutsuki had already doctored the recording the party was seeing at that point.
    • During summer vacation, the protagonist has a check-up at the hospital. During this, Ikutsuki comments on it feeling as if they've been waiting for him to come back for the last ten years. While the Full Moon Shadows are definitely reacting to the Death Shadow inside the protagonist, Ikutsuki in particular has been waiting for the protagonist's return to Tatsumi Port Island since said Shadow is a vital piece in his plans for the Fall.
    • Before battling the Hanged Man Shadow, the player can talk to Ikutsuki in the dorm command room. He praises S.E.E.S's efforts for their Full Moon Operations, and ominously laughs about how "a new age" will be arriving soon. Of note is that this all takes place his actual betrayal of the party a day later.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Chidori stands up from the bench on August 31, drops of blood appear on the ground for a split-second (before they're covered by the dialogue box UI), justifying Junpei's shock upon seeing her bleeding hand. This detail wasn't in the previous versions of Persona 3.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • Junpei starts to become more insecure over his place in S.E.E.S. after Fuuka takes over as navigator and Mitsuru replaces him on the frontline when they head to Tartarus to test their new gear, culminating with him snapping at Yukari after the Shirakawa Boulevard operation and a string of successes for the other second years. Sure enough, the second half of the Arqa block in Tartarus is mainly filled with enemies weak to Wind, Ice, Lightning, Darkness and Light, meaning the Fire and Physical attack-focused Junpei is more than likely getting kicked from the party at that time and will likely be under-leveled for the subsequent Full Moon bosses.
  • It's explained that S.E.E.S. can only use their Theurgy abilities when they're in a highly emotional state. During the Shirakawa Boulevard operation, Yukari is so incensed after Arcana Lovers tries to mind-control her and the Protagonist into having sex that she enters the battle with a full Theurgy gauge.
• Giant Mook: Greedy Shadows are giant versions of the golden "Hand" Shadows. They pre-emptively steal the contents of treasure chests within a floor and you can chase them to claim their loot. In a battle however, they're a subversion of a Damage-Sponge Boss; they have a lot of Hit Points and a very low defense stat, which means that even a single hit against them deals a ton of damage.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • By the time Koromaru joins the party, the player will have become accustomed to Linked Episodes occurring sporadically throughout the story. Most of Koromaru's Linked Episodes, however, become available immediately after the completion of the previous episode - which can trip players up on a 100% Social Link run if they mistakenly use too many days on Koromaru's Linked Episodes that could be better spent on the school Social Links.
  • Shinjiro's final Linked Episode requires you to visit his room in the dorm after his death, but no indicator icon nor a text message pre-emptively informs this to the player. It also requires you to hold off on giving Mitsuru the form he needs to extend his leave of absence.
  • Like in FES and Portable, Chidori's death can be negated if you talk to Junpei on specific dates in the story. However, Reload reworks it so that this event is tied into the completion of Junpei's third Linked Episode. On top of that, the player also needs to speak to Junpei at the dorms after that Linked Episode, buy a specific item during the day, and then speak to Junpei at the dorms a second time to trigger the revival - none of which is ever communicated to the player unless they happen to speak to Junpei the first time. And, of course, if you missed either of the first two Linked Episodes with Junpei, then you will be locked out of the third regardless until you start a new game.
• Hard Mode Perks: If you beat the game on Merciless difficulty, you get a Blue Envelope that reads "At the end of a great trial, the answer illuminates my path."
• Harder Than Hard: Merciless difficulty, to the point that it removes most of the New Game Plus perks.
• Hurricane of Puns: Ikutsuki can join a group study session prior to the July exams. He says a specific pun depending on which topic the Protagonist asks Akihiko, but the group gets distracted after Mitsuru accidentally says a pun, which Ikutsuki points out and Junpei follows up with his own.
  Mitsuru: Are you struggling with memorization, [Protagonist]? Nothing beats repeating it until you know it by heart.
  Ikutsuki: Beats... Heart? Bwahaha! Not bad, Kirijo-kun!
  Mitsuru: Wha-! No, that- That was not my intent with that statement...
  Junpei: Well, if you're pullin' out of the race, then I win hands down! Kirijo-senpai de-feet-ed!
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests: There's random treasure chests scattered throughout Tartarus, and it's explicitly a mystery who puts them there - including a new variety that can only be opened with Twilight Fragments.
• Inner Monologue: Some of the player's text-based options are now narrated in first-person as if they're the Protagonist's own monologues unlike the previous Persona 3 versions which used second-person statements. These are easily noticeable during Social Links, for example. Back in FES and Portable, bringing a Persona of the matching Arcana displays statements like "Since you have the [Persona], you might be able to become even closer..." In Reload, those statements now say "I feel as if we can grow closer thanks to the [Persona]..."
• Interface Spoiler: The game's internal calendar runs from April 2009 to March 2010. The party start by fighting Shadows, one or two of which turn up on every full moon. Sooner or later, players will notice that the last scheduled Shadow battle is months before the end of the calendar.
• Internal Homage:
  • In celebration of the Persona franchise selling 22 million units post-Reload's release, Atlus released a trailer that was a full recreation of the original game's first trailer.
  • The 3D in-engine cutscenes usually recreate moments, animations or camera angles from the movie adaptations. A few examples include the Protagonist grabbing Junpei's arm before the Priestess Shadow boss fight and the camera briefly focusing on the moon as Shinjiro dies.
• Last-Name Basis: While this is common in the original game, Reload's localization features this more prominently.
  • Yukari initially requests the Protagonist call her by her surname and most Gekkoukan students call her "Takeba-san".
  • Mitsuru refers to everyone except Akihiko by their surnames, and vice versa; Mitsuru and Yukari's developing relationship is now highlighted by the use of their given names.
  • Junpei uses the given names of his fellow Second Year S.E.E.S. members, but refers to Ken and the Senpai by their surname.
  • Ken refers to the rest of S.E.E.S. by their last names, and they do the same for him.
  • Ikutsuki refers to everyone by their last name with the "-kun" honorific, as opposed to first names without honorifics in the localization of prior versions of the game.
  • The majority of the male Social Links are identified this way, with the sole exception of Bunkichi, who shares his Social Link with his wife.
• Lighter and Softer: After getting a rather dark makeover in Persona 5 and its spin-offs, Persona Fusion goes back to its simplicity in that Personas are reduced to cards as they're merged. Unlike in the original P3 however, the cards will now shoot through the protagonist's head.
• Limit Break: The "Theurgy" mechanic functions this way, requiring party members to fulfill certain conditions in battle to fill a gauge that, once full, allows that character to utilise a devastating attack in battle.
• Limited Animation: When compared to the original game, Reload has fewer in-engine animations for characters during cutscenes, with many one-shot animations from the original games no longer being present.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Junpei's first Linked Episode has the Protagonist and Junpei go to the arcade. While playing games, Junpei says that maybe someday someone will make a game about their adventure.
  • Before Akihiko rejoins the group, Junpei mentions that he'll bring the party up to four members, the standard for any party in an RPG.
• Locked Door: Monad Passages are initially locked and require a Major Arcana Card as a "key" to open. The first Monad Passage (found in Floor 91) reacts to a card that you automatically obtain during the course of the story. Clearing said first Monad Passage rewards a Major Arcana Card that opens the second Monad Passage, which likewise rewards a card that opens the third Monad Passage, and so on.
• Luck-Based Mission: The Greedy Shadow event in Tartarus allows the party to chase down a giant Golden Shadow to get the treasure it stole from the floor. To do this successfully, you need to correctly guess the direction the Shadow went in a two-way fork three times in a row (a 12.5% overall chance), although occasionally a party member can help out and skip one of the guesses. Once Fuuka learns Tartarus Search, you will instead be prompted to use it once the Greedy Shadow appears, which instantly takes you to it, taking the luck element out of the event.

M-P

• Magic Is Rare, Health Is Cheap: In exchange for removing the Fatigue system, the game now fully operates on this like later games. In general, SP management is difficult early on due to a severe shortage of SP restoring items, as well as the clocks now requiring rare Twilight Fragments instead of cash to use like in Portable, or nothing at all in earlier versions. More options for restoring SP become available later, but it will be your main limiting factor for exploration for much of the game.
• Medium Blending: A few of the cutscenes are animated in an anime style, instead of being done in-engine.
• Mega Meal Challenge: One of Elizabeth's new requests has the Protagonist participating in the aptly-named "Big Eater Challenge" where he must finish a pile of burgers at the Wilduck Burger restaurant. Prevailing in it allows him to order the Weekend Wilduck Set on Saturdays and Sundays.
• Money Spider: Averted, just like the previous versions of Persona 3. Battles don't automatically give you money; you have to pick the Coin minor arcana card to receive any money at all after battle.
• Monochrome Past: Reload features new flashback scenes (such as the June 13 Theurgy tutorial section where Yukari remembers being saved twice by others, and Akihiko's second Linked Episode where he remembers Yukari's question) which are depicted with a black-and-white filter.
• Musical Nod: "Full Moon, Full Life" - the new opening theme for Reload - incorporates part of the melody of "Burn My Dread" - the opening theme of the original Persona 3.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The box art for Reload is based on the original Japanese box art for Persona 3.
  • The intro starts with the Protagonist choosing from the music on his mp3 player, passing over "Burn My Dread" (the opening theme of the original version of Persona 3) before playing the new intro theme, "Full Moon Full Life."
  • The title screen is a recreation of the original Persona 3 title screen - the silhouette of the Protagonist, stood in front of a window pane with a full moon in back in the sky.
  • Mitsuru and Akihiko's combat uniforms incorporate elements of their designs from Persona 4: Arena.
  • Yukari's Theurgy attack resembles her Air Hyper Feather Shot super from Persona 4: Arena Ultimax.
  • Yukari's Bond One-Liner in her All-Out Attack victory card of "There you have it" was one of her victory quotes in Persona 4: Arena Ultimax.
  • Aigis' Orgia Mode now makes her emit light blue particles, almost similar to how her Extreme Orgia Mode was depicted in a cutscene of Persona 4: Arena Ultimax.
  • During Elizabeth's excursion to Gekkoukan High, upon visiting the Music Room she will start playing the piano and singing the "Velvet Song"^note or Long Nose song, depending on the game a song about how her master, Igor, has a long nose. The song was first mentioned by Margaret in Persona 4 (and sung by her in the anime adaptation), along with Elizabeth also singing the song and playing the piano in Persona 3 Portable. Elizabeth's rendition of this song in Reload is in the same cadence and tone heard in Persona 4: Arena and Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight.
  • Maya's Social Link brings in a ton of references to Shin Megami Tensei I and the older Persona games.
    • Maya has an avatar that's derived from the main heroine of the original Shin Megami Tensei.
    • After meeting her in Innocent Sin Online, she tells the protagonist to look out for any "jokers" while playing the game. This is a reference to Joker, an antagonist in the Persona 2 duology, not to be confused with the Protagonist of Persona 5 who uses the same moniker, albeit in a far more heroic context.
    • She mentions that the Shinagawa Dungeon had a different name, which she thinks was "Lunarvale". Lunarvale was the city that Revelations: Persona took place in. In the original version of Persona 3, the Lunarvale Hospital was one of the places visited while playing Innocent Sin Online.
    • Maya is drunk during one play session. She makes her avatar dance, which the protagonist comments that her avatar "danced crazy". This is a reference to the infamous "Mark danced crazy!" line from the English PS1 version of Revelations: Persona.
  • One of Elizabeth's idle lines in the Requests menu has her raise the possibility of introducing you to her "useless younger brother" (Theodore), who only appeared in the Portable version of the game.
  • One of the Tartarus anomalies in previous versions of the game would see the party spawn into a floor in separate locations. When the team head into Tartarus to test out their new equipment, they wind up being separated as they move between floors.
  • During the 3D in-engine cutscene of the protagonist lying on Aigis' lap, there are moments interspersed during her narration from the final battle that take inspiration from the film adaptation; a scene where the protagonist turns back to his group of friends with his hair parted and another where Aigis holds onto the protagonist's evoker after the Great Seal was cast. The former is adapted from the moment where Makoto Yuuki (the protagonist's Canon Name in the movies) tells Aigis and his friends to "live," mirroring the last words of his mother in the film. Makoto ends up dropping his Evoker, where it lands at Aigis' feet before he ascends to fight Nyx's Core. This leads into the latter scene, where Aigis laments her failure at protecting Makoto, gripping at his Evoker with tears in her eyes (though the moment of the protagonist dropping his Evoker isn't depicted in Reload). Similarly, Aigis begging for the protagonist to return to them during the Nyx Core battle is brought over from the movie as well, replacing her original cry of "I won't allow this world to be destroyed!" in the English dub.
  • The Harder Than Hard difficulty mode is called Merciless, just like in Persona 5. Related to the difficulty level, beating the game on this mode gives the player a Blue Envelope item, where it says "At the end of a great trial, the answer illuminates my path," a reference to The Answer epilogue from Persona 3 FES and a Sequel Hook hint towards the eventual DLC.
  • In the Japanese release of FES, the two story campaigns were titled "Episode Yourself" and "Episode Aegis", while the English version localized them as "The Journey" and "The Answer" respectively. The post-launch DLC campaign adapting the latter campaign uses both names, titled as "Episode Aigis -The Answer-".
  • Party chatter while exploring Tartarus will include lines about how it would be useful if Tartarus had "safe rooms" that the party could recover in or if the team had a car that they could use to run shadows over with. Both were gameplay elements in Persona 5.
• Named by the Adaptation: The bosses found in Tartarus are named "Gatekeeper Shadows" by Mitsuru.
• Nerf:
  • Fuuka's ability to analyze Shadows' weaknesses now costs her some SP and can only be done after everyone on both sides has had a turn, though you now get the results immediately instead of waiting a few turns and it is just as effective on bosses.
  • The clock that heals the party at the entrance of Tartarus no longer accepts cash. You’ll have to fork over Twilight Fragments to use it, which are items that can only be found in the overworld, by Elizabeth, or in Tartarus itself.
  • Fusion Spells now exclusively use the Theurgy gauge. While they no longer consume HP or SP, they cannot be used immediately at the start of a battle and each usage depletes the gauge, meaning the protagonist cannot use them every turn. On top of that, the Theurgy Armageddon also reduces the Protagonist's HP and SP to 1 upon usage. This means, like in Portable, there is no way to completely steamroll the game using the combo of Armageddon with Victory Cry, as at high enough level, stalling most battles until the Theurgy gauge is filled will take longer than simply fighting conventionally.
  • Aigis is no longer immune to being poisoned, but she receives the Fast Heal passive that allows her to recover from all ailments within a turn.
  • Fuuka's and Aigis' special abilities Oracle and Orgia Mode are also changed to be Theurgy skills, removing the players' ability to use them at their leisure.
  • It's no longer possible to lower the difficulty from Merciless and then return to it later. Once you leave Merciless, you are permanently locked out of it unless you start a new game.
  • Personas no longer drop items at specific levels. Instead, they drop specific materials for use in the creation of weapons and armor, with the most powerful items requiring materials dropped by a specific high-level Persona; the player still needs to discover the rest of the materials in Tartarus.
  • The creation of weapons and armor at Mayoido Antiques. Whilst there's no longer a wait period of a few days and your equipment is provided immediately, it's no longer as simple as grinding out Rare Shadows in the low levels of Tartarus to stock up on Nihil Blades to infuse with Personas from the compendium. Instead, the various materials need to be farmed inside Tartarus, with the more powerful gear requiring materials from higher blocks in Tartarus - and for the best gear, specific materials that are only dropped when specific Personas are levelled up enough.
  • The "Shift" mechanic serves as one for the Baton Pass from the original Persona 5; performing Shifts only hands control to another character without buffing attack or recovery like in Persona 5 Royal. Instead, there's a whole new line of Shift-related passive skills you can use to enhance it that mimic similar benefits to the aforementioned Royal example.
  • In line with the changes made from the original game to Persona 4 and onward, some skills and effects are less potent than they originally were. The Counter skills have a lower chance of activation ^note (10%, 15%, and 20% for Counter, Counterstrike, and High Counter respectively, as opposed to the 15%, 30%, and 50% chances from the original and now also trigger Elizabeth's 9999-damage Megidolaon, and the damage reflecting -rakarn skills only affect one target at a time rather than the entire party.
  • Severe damage single-target elemental skills Inferno, Panta Rhei, Thunder Reign, and Diamond Dust all have their base power lowered between Persona 5 Royal and Persona 3 Reload, going down from 650 to 600. Thunder Reign also doesn't guarantee the Shock status on enemies, and thus is no longer able to do things like cheese the Reaper for an easy win.
  • After being notoriously busted in Persona 5 Royal to the point of Bribing Your Way to Victory, DLC Personas are reined in a bit here. While they're still free to summon the first time, most of them are at a lower level while the higher-levelled ones have expensive magic skills which are Awesome, but Impractical early on, meaning it's usually better to simply fuse them when you reach their level before discarding them after they stop being useful. The strongest of them, Satanael, only has Life Aid and Sinful Shell, a costly Almighty attack with a 50% chance of dark-type instakill; this is in stark contrast to Izanagi-no-Okami in Royal, who started with Victory Cry and whose Myriad Truths skill could shred through practically everything in the game, and who is also completely absent here.
• New Game Plus: Just like previous titles in the franchise, this is once again available after completion of the game. The player gets to retain their Persona Compendium, enemy scan results, any unspent money and Twilight Fragments, almost^note The new S.E.E.S. combat uniforms and the accompanying weapons are locked until the player reaches the point in the story that they were received every unlocked costume and item in their inventory, the Protagonist's level and any additional stat increases for the party members; additionally, the ability to fuse Susano-o, Thanatos and Messiah will be locked until the player has completed the Fool, Death, and Judgment Social Links again, as the player doesn't receive any items from the completion of those Links. If the player chooses to move to Merciless difficulty, then only the costumes are unlocked.
• Notice This:
  • Your navigator will always point out the object of interest if you've entered a floor that contains a rare treasure, a golden Hand Shadow, a Monad Door, a missing person, or a cat. The camera may also randomly focus on it beforehand.
  • During the Full Moon Operation on June 8, the Empress and Emperor Arcana Shadows are still meant to introduce Fuuka's scanning ability, but Reload now briefly makes the "Analyze" icon on the HUD to constantly flash and change color as a way of hinting the player to request Fuuka's help as soon as she's ready. Once Fuuka joins S.E.E.S for real, the analyze option will always exude this flash after a full turn has passed for any Shadow she hasn't scanned.
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • Unlike the Social Links, the Linked Episodes for the male party members and Ryoji only become available after specific story events; on top of that, if you miss one, the subsequent Linked Episode won't be made available, and completion of each character's Linked Episodes also grants access to another Persona fusion. Whilst they aren't tied to specific dates, the respective deadlines for completing each Linked Episode aren't communicated to the player.
  • Ryoji's third Linked Episode takes place on a single day in the middle of the Kyoto trip, giving the player no leeway in missing that event.
  • Like the Linked Episodes, the Study Group events are tied to specific dates; however, missing one does not lock access to the next.
  • It's possible to miss earning the "The Strength of Hearts" trophy/achievement if you don't use Shinjiro's Theurgy before he dies.
• Personality Powers:
  • June 13 has a newly-added scene where Yukari and Fuuka discuss the idea of Personas being manifestations of one's soul, by using Yukari's Io as an example and how its abilities reflect Yukari's personality.
    Fuuka: I was told that a Persona is the power of the soul, also known as your other self. That's why I think a person's personality and feelings are reflected in their Persona... For example, Takeba-san, your Persona has healing powers, right? That's because there's a kindness in you that no one else has.
    Yukari: I... I'm not kind at all. I just don't want to see anyone go down or get hurt, that's all...
  • A party member's Theurgy gauge is filled up faster if they perform in-battle actions that fit their personality. The menu describes these gauge conditions via Purple Prose that are still easy to interpret via gameplay terms, though they're also a way to enforce how the characters and their respective Personas supplement each other. For example, these can justify why Yukari is a dedicated healer, why Fuuka has to rely on others for combat, or why Junpei is more suited for physical attacks, etc.
    Protagonist: After summoning a Persona, power within gradually enhances.
    Yukari: After healing someone's wounds, she becomes motivated by her desire not to let anyone die.
    Junpei: After landing a critical hit, he becomes motivated by his own potential.
    Mitsuru: After weakening enemies or inflicting an ailment, her will burns brighter.
    Akihiko: After strengthening himself, his fighting spirit rises.
    Fuuka: After analyzing an enemy, her yearning for her friends' trust grows.
    Aigis: After using physical skills, her drive to complete her mission intensifies.
    Koromaru: After exploiting an enemy's weakness, his will to fight grows.
    Ken: Once his SP is less than half, his competitiveness is incited.
    Shinjiro: Once his HP is less than half, his determination ignites.
• Pixel Hunt: The "Eagle Eye" achievement/trophy requires you to find all Twilight Fragments in town. Club Escapade has an easy-to-miss Twilight Fragment on the floor that blends extremely well with the scenery and can be mistaken for a light fixture.
• Player-Exclusive Mechanic: The roaming Shadows and the playable party both have limited fields of vision in the Dark Zone. However, the player can just easily navigate the party around and look out for enemy Shadows thanks to the mini-map HUD. On the other hand, the roaming Shadows are completely blind and won't notice you even if you're standing right next to them. The only enemy that's uniquely exempt from this blindness is The Reaper, as he can still chase you around if you linger enough in the Dark Zone.
• The Power of Friendship: Compared to the previous Persona 3 versions, Reload has two additional gameplay systems (aside from the series-recurring Social Links) that correlate character bonds with tangible gameplay benefits:
  • Joining a party member thrice in a given dorm activity unlocks and upgrades that member's Combat Characteristics, which are passive effects that significantly improve their gameplay effectiveness and/or make their Theurgy Gauge Conditions easier to fulfill. Through the Protagonist's monologues, the game would also inform the player if the member can immediately "gain a new ability" after spending time with them.
  • Linked Episodes allow the Protagonist to spend time with other characters who aren't classified as his Social Links (namely the other male S.E.E.S. members and Ryoji). These may reward stat boosts and special Persona fusion recipes upon completion.
• Power Up Letdown: Kings cards in Shuffle Time. They're only available on January 31st by grinding out Major Arcana cards on the highest floors of Tartarus. This late in the game right before the Final Boss, the player is likely to just want to shoot straight to said boss to get it over with and conserve resources, unless they need to do some last-minute grinding and Persona fusions. The skill cards provided by the King of Swords include Drain passives for Fire, Ice, Electric and Wind (less useful than Repel passives and worthless against Elizabeth), as well as Arms Master, Spell Master and Enduring Soul, which are more easily obtained elsewhere; in contrast, the Jacks and Queens cards available earlier provide things like Ma-Dyne skills, elemental Amps, Repel passives and all of the strongest physical attacks in the game.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • One of the few uses of the word "fuck" is said by Shinjiro mere moments before he kicks the bucket at the hands of Takaya, cursing him right before he gets shot.
    Shinjiro: Shut the fuck up!
  • In the Emperor social link rank 4 event, the shady student Odagiri interrogates about the cigarette butt drops the f-bomb.
    Shady Student: Better fuck off, asshole...
• Production Foreshadowing: If Reload is beaten on Merciless difficulty, the player gets a special item, the Blue Envelope. It reads "At the end of a great trial, the answer illuminates my path." This was a Sequel Hook hint towards the game getting DLC revolving around FES' "The Answer" playable epilogue, which would release in September 2024, seven months after Reload's original release.
• Pun: Reload kept the "SEES the Day" achievement pun which was originally in the 2023 remastered version of Portable, but it also has another pun with the "Benevolent Purr-tector" achievement which is awarded for nursing a cat back to full health.

R-Z

• Random Drop Booster: The Devil card doubles the amount of items gained from battle and from breaking field objects in Tartarus when used in Shuffle Time. This includes both Shop Fodder needed to earn money or crafting components for powerful equipment.
• Random Number God:
  • Tartarus now has breakable objects with glowing orange orbs on top. Depending on your luck, these may or may not reward items after being smashed. Even then, the item that you can get from smashing an object can either be a consumable or a Shop Fodder.
  • From the third block onwards, a door to the Great Clock may appear by chance whenever you consume Twilight Fragments to open locked chests or use Clocks found in the game.
  • When randomly entering a floor, the party may enter a Dark Zone, which makes it hard to navigate. There is an achievement/trophy tied to entering one of these Zones.
• Rare Candy:
  • The Emperor and Empress cards in Shuffle Time increase the St and Ma and the En, Ag, and Lu of all Personas in the inventory by 2 respectively.
  • The Hierophant card increases the level of the equipped Persona by 1 in Shuffle Time.
  • The Tower card increases the stats of all Personas in the inventory by 1 in Shuffle Time.
  • The Chariot and Hermit cards increase the protagonists' HP by 10 and SP by 7 respectively.
  • The Fortune and Strength cards increase the current party's HP by 8 and SP by 5 respectively.
  • The Incense items are carried over from Persona 5 Royal, but this time they're items that can be used straight from the inventory to increase the stats of the Persona they're used, including those of party members'. The Hanged Man card allows the player to get a random Incense when selected during Shuffle Time.
• Reaction Shot: When a Fusion Accident happens, the Persona cards flick the Protagonist's forehead and he falls backwards while sitting. The fusion still happens off-screen, but the camera cuts to Igor and Elizabeth's reactions. Igor still has his permanent grin but lets out an audible smirk, while Elizabeth facepalms before looking at the Protagonist again.
• Rearrange the Song:
  • Several songs from the original Persona 3 soundtrack have been rerecorded for this game, rather than just recycling the original score. Notably, all of the vocal themes performed by Yumi Kawamura in the original game have been rerecorded with a new singer, Azumi Takahashi.
  • While the instrumental is mostly the same, the lyrics for the Iwatodai Dorm theme are completely different from the original. Instead of the vocals being sampled from the "Best Service - Hallelujah" library, it has rewritten lyrics and vocals provided by Lotus Juice.
  • The song "Memories of the School," which plays while the protagonist is lying in Aigis' lap on top of the school's roof, has been combined and re-arranged with "Because I Will Protect You," named after the latter as one track. This re-arrangement is to make it fit within the context of Reload's interpretation, combining all the moments before the credits play into one cutscene.
  • The good ending has an extended re-arranged version of "Memories of You" that incorporates both the vocal version and a violin solo and instrumental section of the instrumental version from the game's soundtrack.
• Recurring Riff: Like in the original, sections of "Memories of You" is heard throughout the soundtrack.
  • An unnamed track that plays and replaces most instances of "Living With Determination" during social links in the original is a sad piano version of "Memories of You."
  • "Color Your Night" incorporates a rearranged version of the melody for "Joy," which is already riffed from "Memories for You," at the beginning of the song.
• Recycled Soundtrack:
  • "Pandemonium" from Catherine's soundtrack, another Atlus game, can be heard while watching a zombie horror DVD series with Yukari.
  • "Crossroads" from Persona 5 can be heard while watching a hard-boiled detective DVD with Ken.
  • From Persona 2: Innocent Sin (PSP):
    • Ginko's theme plays while watching the Hidden Fist: Martial Arts series with Akihiko during the film festival.
    • The Hero theme plays while watching a superhero movie with Junpei during the film festival.
  • From Persona 4: Arena and Ultimax:
    • If the player goes to watch the Willpower! series with Yukari during the film festival, the movie reuses Chie's leitmotif, "Like the Dragon."
    • If the player watches a baseball movie with Yuko at the film festival, it reuses Labrys' leitmotif, "Spirited Girl."
  • From Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth:
    • "Tea Break" is heard while watching a sci-fi movie with Fuuka during the film festival.
    • "Stuffed Toy" is heard while watching "From Paws to Whiskers" with Shinji during the film festival.
• Red Spider Lilies of Mourning: A Freeze-Frame Bonus in the opening cinematic shows Elizabeth holding one of these, tying in to the game's central theme of coming to term's with one's own death.
• Remake Cameo: With the exception of Vic Mignogna (Junpei's original voice actor) and Tara Platt (Mitsuru and Elizabeth's original voice actress, who returns to voice the latter in a role too major to count as a mere cameo), all of the previous voice actors for the game's party members return to voice new roles as supporting characters. Notably, a few of them voice characters that show up alongside the character they used to voice, like how Kurosawa appears in a few of Akihiko's Linked Episodes, or the old lady that appears in Aigis's Social Link.
  • Yuri Lowenthal was the Male Protagonist/Pharos/Ryoji's voice actor in the original game's English dub and related spin-off media. Instead of the protagonist, Lowenthal voices Eiichiro Takeba, Yukari's father.
  • Michelle Ruff was the original voice of Yukari Takeba in the English dub and related spin-off media. Here, she voices the owner of Mayoido Antiques and other additional voices heard throughout the game.
  • Liam O'Brien was the original voice of Akihiko Sanada in the English dub and related spin-off media. Here, he voices Officer Kurosawa, the police officer who sells weapons, armor, and accessories to S.E.E.S.
  • Wendee Lee was the voice of Fuuka Yamagishi in the English dub of the series' spin-off media. Here, she voices Mrs. Terauchi, Gekkoukan's English and Japanese teacher.
  • Grant George was the original voice of Shinjiro Aragaki, as well as Officer Kurosawa and Jin, in the English dub and related spin-off media. Here, he voices Takeharu Kirijo, Mitsuru's father.
  • Karen Strassman was the original voice of Aigis in English dub and related spin-off media while Cindy Robinson was the voice of Ken in the series' spin-off media. Here, they provide additional voices, particularly for Aigis's Social Link and Ken's Linked Episode respectively.
• Ret-Canon: Prior to Portable's release, Junpei's Persona, Hermes, evolving into Trismegistus was through his own will and resolution after Chidori's death. Portable would state the evolution was the result of Hermes fusing with Medea, but the third movie would rescind on this interpretation by having him evolve normally. Reload uses Portable's version of Hermes evolving into Trismegistus, complete with a brief scene where Hermes and Medea merge together, and Junpei attacking while screaming "Burn in Hell!" at Strega.
• Retcon: The New Moon Drama CD featured Mitsuru's mother Hanae in a minor role, with Mitsuru visiting her mother after Takeharu's death on November 4th; here, it's implied that Hanae had died prior to the events of the game, as the morning after Takeharu's death, the Protagonist overhears other students gossiping about the tragedy with one noting how hard it must be to lose both parents.
• Rocket-Tag Gameplay: Notably, Reload seems to promote an offensive-based playstyle more in line with Persona 5 and Royal than any version of the original Persona 3 games. This is seen with the removal of the Fusion Spell Infinity, which renders the player party immune to all attacks (even Almighty) for a turn, and the Final Boss losing Moonless Gown, which reflects all attacks for 3 turns.
• Ruder and Cruder: While the game is generally still sparing with its stronger profanity, it is much more harsh than the original, with uncensored uses of "fuck" occasionally popping up.
• Rule of Three: Once the kitchen becomes usable, the Protagonist will have the option to place a piece of lukewarm taiyaki in the fridge on certain dates. The first two times, the taiyaki is stolen by Ikutsuki and Junpei; the third time, Yukari has left a bottle of water for the Protagonist next to the taiyaki. Checking the notice board next to the reception area after August reveals that the dorm rules have been amended to stop people from stealing food without replacing it.
• Run or Die: The Reaper, as usual, is a powerful enemy that you'll probably want to run away from. This time, however, it doesn't give up chasing you until you leave Tartarus.
• Scripted Battle:
  • To demonstrate the Theurgy mechanic for the first time, the Tartarus expedition on June 13 has a scripted sequence where a Shadow pre-emptively strikes the protagonist as he defends Yukari. It ensues an in-game battle as usual, with the opponent having the first turn advantage. However, the fight is scripted; the Shadow knocks the protagonist down twice, Yukari will have a flashback and unique dialogue, followed by the A.I. controlling her as she heals the protagonist and attacks the Shadow in retaliation. The player only needs to manually unleash her Theurgy, which defeats the Shadow.
  • On August 14th, the Protagonist and Takaya are forced to team-up to fight the Shadow of the Abyss. The battle is scripted so that the Protagonist is struck by the Debilitate debuff, and Takaya gets to deal the damage that kills the Shadow. Even if the player is able to deal enough damage that could theoretically knock it out (on New Game Plus for example), the Shadow will always hang on with one hit point until three turns pass, which is followed by Takaya landing a critical hit with his revolver and then dealing the final blow with Megidola.
• Sequential Boss: A few Gatekeeper Shadow encounters have you fighting two boss battles on consecutive floors, with no chance to return to the entrance between them.
• Shout-Out:
  • Junpei mentions Nineteen Eighty-Four during a study session if the protagonist asks for his help in literature.
  • After watching a movie with Ken in the dorm, he dozes off and ends up quoting one of the lines in his sleep, shouting out one of Lelouch's most famous quotes.^note The full quote is, "The only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed."
    Ken: ...Ones who should kill... prepared to be...
  • When Bebe wonders what's the best way to say goodbye to a friend at the end of his first Social Link event, the fourth dialogue option makes you suggest a theatrical, intense "I'll be back." and Bebe will say it with a low voice imitating Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the PS2 versions and the male Protagonist's route in Portable, the dialogue option was originally "Hasta la vista." Though the line was changed here, Reload simply made it more obvious that it's indeed a Terminator reference, especially now that all Social Link events are Suddenly Voiced.
  • On the evening of August 20, you can ask why Takaya isn't wearing a top, and he jokingly replies "My coat is invisible to fools." This references the "invisible cloth" scam of the weavers in The Emperor's New Clothes and doubles as a Stealth Pun regarding the protagonist's associated Arcana — the Fool.
  • In Club Escapade, there are posters up advertising a ZOFX concert.
  • After sparring with Ken in one of his Linked Episodes, you can tell him "You're ten years too early."
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: While they still run around Tartarus in their school uniforms, after Fuuka's recruitment, the S.E.E.S members are outfitted with new battle armor, which also provides an In-Universe justification for this version's newly-introduced Theurgy abilities. The player can still opt to wear the original outfits with the S.E.E.S. armbands on them if they wish.
• Smashing Watermelons: In one of his Linked Episodes, Junpei invites the Protagonist, Ken, and Koromaru to split a watermelon. The latter two question the idea of using Junpei's baseball bat (as it has sentimental value to Junpei), and with Akihiko arriving at the rooftop, the player is given the choice of making him smash the watermelon with his fist.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: Via the first wave of the Expansion Pass DLC, you can set the catchy "Junes Theme" instrumental jingle from Persona 4 as your Dungeon BGM that plays whenever you explore Tartarus, or during some of the Full Moon Operations.
• Stupidity Is the Only Option: To access Takaya's final Linked Episode, you have to venture into Club Escapade when it's being swarmed by his cultists, and walk up to them to seek a meeting with their leader, who you're well aware is probably Takaya himself. It's only thanks to Takaya's twisted sense of honor that the protagonist survives the meeting, as instead of gunning him down when he has the perfect opportunity to do so, Takaya gives him one last chance to walk away, reserving the hostilities for when they later meet at the top floor of Tartarus.
• Suddenly Voiced: All social link ranks are now fully voiced, and the game in general has the most voiced dialogue of any Persona game to-date - so a significant number of characters who were silent in the original game are now fully voiced.
• Super Move Portrait Attack: Reload features updated versions of the signature cut-ins, where the visual of the character's eyes is an actual background object that dynamically shatters when the user summons their Persona.
• Super-Persistent Predator: The Reaper. In the original Persona 3 and 5, he only shows up when you've lingered on a floor for too long^note In Persona 4, he pops out of a chest. Here, he will actively chase you across Tartarus once he spawns in unless you book it for the nearest teleporter or reach one of the border floors.
• Super Special Move: Exclusive to Reload is Theurgy; a Limit Break where your party members can execute either devastating attacks that'll shred your enemies' HP to pieces if not kill them outright or buff and/or heal you. Toward the end of the game, your party gains new Theurgies in response to everyone (sans Koromaru) gaining their Ultimate Personas. When Koromaru joins, he has two Theurgies available for him to use after joining the party. On a side note, Fusion Spells are now part of the protagonist's Theurgy, removing the need for SP to cast a Fusion Spell in exchange for filling the Theurgy gauge, with the exception of one, Armageddon, which also reduces the protagonist's HP and SP to 1. Takaya is also capable of performing a Theurgy during your final confrontation with him.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The "Shadow of the Abyss" miniboss that the player character and Takaya fight against on August 14th has a striking resemblance to Abaddon, one of the strongest Personas that the player can get from the Devil Arcana.
• Tempting Fate: One Tartarus conversation has Fuuka, who has no way of knowing that the protagonist will ultimately be forced to sacrifice himself to stop the Fall, confidently state that all five second-years in SEES will definitely make it to their third year.
• Theme Music Withholding: Unlike the original, "Burn My Dread" doesn't play in the game's opening, its riffs are only referred to in the game's new opening theme, and it wouldn't be until more than a month after the game's release that a new version was released with the game's official soundtrack as a bonus track. In terms of in-game context, it isn't until the very end of the game where "Burn My Dread -Last Battle Reload-", a re-arrangement of the original battle theme against Nyx Core, finally plays, during the same fight as well. This rendition is much more melancholy, signaling both the end of the protagonist's journey, with the lyrics also giving some Five-Second Foreshadowing about the protagonist's fate.
• Theme Song Reveal: When visiting the Great Clock, the Tartarus theme changes to how it sounds during the very last block. Savvy new players may realize the game won't end before they hear this version of it during normal exploration.
• Updated Re-release: Reload is the third release of Persona 3, coming after FES and Portable, albeit far more extensively as a total Video Game Remake.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Just like in the other versions of Persona 3, you can feed a stray cat to full health and it's still one of Elizabeth's Requests, but Reload additionally rewards you the "Benevolent Purr-tector" achievement/trophy for doing it.
• Video Game Remake: In comparison to FES and Portable, Reload is a complete remake of the original game while featuring mechanics and story beats from both.

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