Persona 3 Reload's new Link Episodes are just what the long-serving JRPG needed
Opinion | Sometimes teaching an old dog new tricks is a♊ll that's ✨needed

Sometimes I get nervous about a beloved group of characters making a comeback. I worry about pals like Persona 3's eclectic cast failing to make an impact on their return, merely popping up to say, "Hey, remember how you loved us a decade ago?", and then do little else. When three versions of Persona 3 already exist, was Persona 3 Reload really goiꦑng to make a difference for our motley crew in 2024?
The answer is an emphatic yes. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Persona 3 Reload introduces novel little character events called 'Link Episodes,' which focus on one character at a time, and pop up throughout Reload when you've got🏅 time to spare in the afternoons and evenings. When you walk back into the Iwatodai dorm in the evening, if there's anyone like Junpei or Yukari with a welcoming smiley face above their heads, a Link Episode is raring to go – and these are brilliant.
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澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Persona 3 Reload has turned me into 𒈔a JRPG fan
These little snippets really are just that: tiny story bites that take place over just a few minutes, but give you a charming little bonding event with your SEES squa💎dmates. Akihiko can regularly be found wanting to hang and watch a VHS taped boxing match with you, for example, while Mitsuru might beckon y🍸ou to cook together in the little-used kitchen towards the back of the dorm.
You just shoot the shit for a whi൲le together, which is what a lot of Persona 'Social Link' events truly come down to, when I think about it. Akihiko's boxing tapes might replay a match of his that gives a little detail about how nervous he was to take up the sport, and Yukari's kitchen-oriented Link ♛Episodes focus on her slowly becoming a better cook by using you as a human guinea pig.
Again, I was a little hesitant about these elements prior to Reload's launch. Were the Link Episodes genuinely going to show me a new side of these decades-old characters, or were they just going to prey upon nostalgia by putting the SEES squad on a pedestal and making me bask in their image? The act of remaking a game generally plays into nostalgia, whether it's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Resident Evil 2 or 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Final Fantasy 7 Remake, becauꦚse if there isn't nostalgia for a game in the first ꦆplace, who's even asking for a remake?
"The neat trick about Link Episodes is they generally take place throughout Reload's 40-hour ru🍰ntime, so you're getting to spend time with characters before their actual Social Links pr🦹operly open up."
The Link Episodes have ended up being one of the most compelling things about Persona 3 Reload, for me. The neat trick about them is the🅰y generally take place throughout Reload's 40-hour runtime, so you're getting to spend time with characters before their actual Social Links properly open up. Yukari's Social Link, for example, isn't available until about 20 hours into the game, but the L🍒ink Episodes give me a chance to better know her after just roughly 10 hours, when they first spring up.
This means I'm not trying to better know characters who aren't scheduled to open up to me until dozens of hours later. This was actually something that frustrated me a lot about the original Persona 3 - unlike Pe꧑rsona 4 or 5, where a lot of Social Links are available from the beginning of the two games, 3 held back on the Social Links for tens of hours, or even until you've maxed out a Social Stat like Academics, which takes even longer (looking at you, Mitsuru).
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Persona 3 Reload's Link Episodes prove I had nothing to worry about with the Atlus remake being overly reliant on n🥃ostalgia in how it presented its characters. Being able to just chill with your friends is nice and all, but getting to actually see new sides to them via entirely new conversations and events is a fantastic initiative from Atlus. The entire thing might sound too small and insignificant to genuinely ⛦make a difference, but when you're coming back to beloved characters nearly two decades later, it goes a surprisingly long way.
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Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing 𓆉world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelance🥂s with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.