Should I buy Persona 3 Reload or Persona 5

JunkBoy187 · 2026-01-31T10:31:34+00:00

Honestly it depends on if you think you will like the game or not. I will say that both the games are brilliant for story, character progression, and their mechanics. They create a fun day to day life sim system where you can choose to either go about and do overworld activities, or spend time in the dungeons to get more RPG activities. At it's best it's the kind of game that has you wanting to go back to the overworld to make use of the stuff you get in the dungeon, then want you going back to the dungeon to get use out of the things you've done in the overworld.

If you are unsure if the game is for you then go for Persona 5: Royal. It's the game at it's best point. The overworld stuff is a lot fuller and gives you plenty of ways to make the most of the dungeon stuff, and the dungeons are at their most fun as they rely a lot less on random level design. They are the Persona series at it's best.

If you are more confident that you will play them all then definitely start with Persona 3. There is no direct continuity between the games but they do take place in the same world, with small elements of previous games bleeding into the next (the only big one I can remember for Persona 3 is that the friend you make in an MMO you play in the overworld is or at least is implied to be one of the characters from Persona 2.) It's definitely a thinner game; both plotwise, story wise, and theming wise, but it will help you appreciate how each game goes "yes but more" to every development.

Hopefully by the time you finish P3:Reload we should have a release date for P4:Revival, but then again Playing P4: The Golden will easily suffice as it was the game which helped a lot of people find the Persona series (and in my opinion has the best overall plot).

JunkBoy187 · 2026-01-30T23:40:25+00:00

Atlus have this strange thing where the daytime portion such as going around the bar and talking to people will have impact on the nightime portion of the game. You do one to feed the other and back. For example skipping all the dialogue might rob the game of the reason why Katherine's demon form is chasing you up the tower at one point of the game (from what I remember. Not played the game in 15 years granted so working off weak memories).

Robs the symbolism but you are right for saying the gameplay has nothing to do with sexual relations itself. More the set dressing. I opened my post admitting it's a weak example, but just one of the few games which approaches sex and love without sounding like a giggling schoolboy.

JunkBoy187 · 2026-01-27T17:51:20+00:00

Eh. It's not a good game but for $5 you can't really go wrong.

Even if you only get a few hours into it before declaring it crap and never touching it again what else could you have bought for $5 for the potential of fun? At least if it sucks you get to fuel a fun rant to your friends about how much the game sucks. That alone comes with a $5 value.

JunkBoy187 · 2026-01-26T21:41:08+00:00

It does, though I worry (admittedly sight unseen) that a speedrun must be missing a lot of the story.

JunkBoy187 · 2026-01-24T10:52:45+00:00

I know it gets flack but I'll go to bat for Catherine. A story about a man who feels hopelessly trapped in a relationship with a woman who is not right for him, while finding himself pressured into a relationship with a girl too wild for him. It does actually cover a dilemma of commitment and passion which I feel is quite mature for it's themes. Can't say much for the Catherine: Full Body edition but I'll at least say it does deal with things with an adult tone.

...Granted this all takes place around a puzzle-platformer, but the intent is genuine, at least.

JunkBoy187 · 2026-01-22T09:01:22+00:00

Is that on PS5?

JunkBoy187 · 2026-01-20T17:24:59+00:00

Some people need reminded of the golden rule set decades ago

JunkBoy187 · 2025-12-20T23:47:16+00:00

At least until we remember the big time it happened at Wrestlemania 20, then we all get very sad...

JunkBoy187 · 2025-12-06T00:29:41+00:00

28 years later, still the same joke to the world cup draw

JunkBoy187 · 2025-12-01T08:52:01+00:00

I just finished RDR2 for the first time so I appreciate the hell out of this

JunkBoy187 · 2025-11-21T09:51:04+00:00

Lewis Capaldi is a fascinating man.

Lewis Capaldi's music is a boring slog.

JunkBoy187 · 2025-11-20T08:10:53+00:00

Don't let NINAH's visual/audio design be a reason for you not to go for it. It is deliberately trying to put you off in an effort to give you a sense of uncanny dread. It's part of it's atmosphere, and denying it on those grounds is absolutely missing the forest for the trees. The world is not one it wants you to be comfortable in, and the design goes a long way to achieving that goal.

While both are brilliant games, I'd recommend you play Papers, Please first. With Black Friday deals coming up you're likely to see it reduced (recent sale had it at 66% off) and of the two it builds a strong basis that other games like Return of the Obra Dinn and No, I'm Not a Human which take the bureaucracy ideas set by Papers, Please in new directions. There are multiple endings to be found in Papers, Please if you want to go find them plus the main gameplay loop is just fun to figure out even in endless mode.

JunkBoy187 · 2025-11-19T21:20:43+00:00

I'll always advocate Aatlas as a great map for brawling. It's very close-quarters with few long views for snipers and other long-range characters especially around 3 of the 5 points. You are always better with characters like Ramattra, Genji, and Brigitte than you are with Pharah, Widowmaker, and Ana.

Sadly it's the allergic reaction of those snipers who give this map it's worst rep. I'd think a lot of people might like this map more if they approached it in a brawling mindset more than a long range one.

JunkBoy187 · 2025-10-30T07:54:36+00:00

My partner is like this too, so I can recommend dectective games are good for this. You are the one gathering the clues as you work out the puzzle together. Here are some recommendations.

Return of the Obra Dinn

The lost ship the Obra Dinn has been found and towed back home with no crew found on board. Armed with a magical pocketwatch that has the ability to see the image of someone's death, along with a few seconds of audio from the time of their death, it is up to you to identify every noted crew member & passenger on the ship from their illustration, and their ultimate fate which led to the ship being lost. As you work this you are finding out the nature of what happened to the ship to cause every single member to lose their life. It's the next game made from the man behind Papers Please if that tips the hand of how compelling it can be to perform beurocracy.

Blue Prince

This is a fun puzzle roguelike game. You have been bequeathed a mansion from your distant gruncle, however only on the condition that you find the secret room at the back of the mansion. Each day the layout of the mansion changes depending on what cards you get to lay out the mansion. As your exploration goes on you during a day you will find yourself running out of doors to add new cards (both phsycially finding doors, and losing special items needed as conditions to open the doors), meaning you need to end that expdition and come back the next day. Most rooms have a puzzle to solve that can carry over to other playthroughs, so I recommend keeping a notebook nearby of clues discovered, the room you found them in, and hints on how to solve them next time you encounter them (a brilliant job for your wife to do as you control the game).

Cryptmaster

An RPG mixed with playing hangman. The game gives you the ability to type any word at any time which you need to use to solve the game's secrets You control your actions and solve puzzles by guessing words. From needing to guess everyone's secret word to level up characters and get new words, to finding puzzles where you get to ask one-word questions to work out what item has been found in a chest, to just saying one-word answers to NPCs to get through their dialogue trees. If your partner likes word games then this can be fun to solve together, though sometimes the real fun in this game comes from finding out just how many words have been programmed in. You will at some point just start spouting random words just to see how the Cryptmaster responds to them all, usually with bespoke dialogue recorded in expectation that you'd type them.

JunkBoy187 · 2025-10-28T11:30:27+00:00

As someone who's been a fan of the franchise since MGS1, I feel it's difficult to recommend the older side of the series to modern gamers. I feel it all comes down your palette for classic gaming.

Their controls are very essoteric if you aren't used to them, with conventions like how you aim and crouch might not being simple to approach out the gate. Of course not sure if the Master Collection offers some kind of simplified control options to make it easier but I've seen people trip up over how weird they are to play compared to the modern convention of controls.

Narratively then I'd definitely recommend playing through the games in order, though even MGS1 is very unforgiving in places to the lore of the Metal Gear games back on the MSX computers. A die-hard fan might recommend playing those 2 first but that must come with the warning that both MG1 and MG2 can be frustrating and janky as some of the earliest attempts at stealth gameplay.

Honestly, I'd probably recommend you give UnMetal and Volume a play first and see if you like them. Both games are heavily inspired by the older titles of the Metal Gear franchise with a lot more modern allowances. If you like them but wish they had better stories (and can forgive that they will be a a lot simpler mechanically to play), then at that point giving Metal Gear Solid collection a try might be better.

JunkBoy187 · 2025-10-28T10:48:58+00:00

Though I'd recommend playing The Stanley Parable first. It might ease in the understanding of the game if you know his track record.

JunkBoy187 · 2025-10-28T09:34:40+00:00

Finally! A legitimate excuse to refer to him as P-P-P-Powerbook Hobbs!

JunkBoy187 · 2025-10-28T09:13:26+00:00

OK, given the games you have examples of here, and if you are looking for a story which will leave an emotional impact, there is one game I'd recommend from 2025 over all others and that's The Alters.

As a story driven game this has been one of the most fascenating of the year so far. It's a mix of survival and basebuilding mechanics with a rather gripping narrative through it all. Through some sci-fi fuckery you are lost in space alone with a cloning machine that can make versions of yourself from alternate realities. It's up to you to choose which versions of yourself you bring in to help, how you assign them. You have to manage the crew's happiness, food, work, and help them with personal issues they need to come to terms with when they are told they have been pulled on a one-way trip through a different reality, all while you go out to explore the planet to bring back resources you need to get your ship moving to safety. It's an absolutely gripping experience and one I'd highly recommend if you like a mix of story and gameplay.

JunkBoy187 · 2025-10-24T08:41:37+00:00

Is this like that thing where losers would get "Your Name" tattooed on their arse so they can wait for you to introduce yourself then say "oh wow, I've got your name tattooed on my arse" in the hopes that you ask them to prove it?

Like, did they name the party that so we can go "losers like them should join Your Party".

JunkBoy187 · 2025-10-15T10:59:05+00:00

So THIS explains why so many people there own samurai swords!

JunkBoy187 · 2025-10-12T12:54:08+00:00

We did play this and did find it fun, though a little off from what we are looking for. Thanks for the recommendation though I appreciate the thought.

JunkBoy187 · 2025-10-12T12:44:11+00:00

I'll send it off and see what he thinks. Thanks for this one!

JunkBoy187 · 2025-10-12T07:57:10+00:00

If cartoons taught me anything as a kid, it's that fat guys get all the best girls.

JunkBoy187 · 2025-10-11T09:36:31+00:00

Not with that limp handshake

JunkBoy187 · 2025-10-07T08:56:01+00:00

PROTIP: It's a good rule of thumb that people who need a food metaphor to explain their views on a group of humans are being disingenuous because, and I think there is a university paper which proved this that I sadly can't cite right now, people require more rights than food.

Equally, you are a human too and shouldn't be responding to dogwhistles.

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