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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 going to make a difference for our motley crew in 2024?
The answer is an emphatic yes. 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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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 squadmates. Akihiko can regularly be found wanting to hang and watch a VHS taped boxing match with you, for example, while Mitsuru might beckon you to cook together in the little-used kitchen towards the back of the dorm.
You just shoot the shit for a while 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 Resident Evil 2 or Final Fantasy 7 Remake, because if there isn't nostalgia for a game in the first place, who's even asking for a remake?
"The neat trick about Link Episodes is they 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."
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 they 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 Link 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 Persona 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).
Persona 3 Reload's Link Episodes prove I had nothing to worry about with the Atlus remake being overly reliant on nostalgia 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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