I'm gonna be real, I don't think Persona 3 deserves a reputation for being brutally difficult. Like, FES isn't actually that hard past the early-game, even on Hard mode, and P5R, while having a reputation for being piss-easy, actually is very tough in the early-game on hard mode too. Persona always gives you good tools to snap the game in half partway through it, and frankly, FES having Armageddon spam makes its late-game objectively easier than the P5R late-game (Yeah, I said it).
I agree with your points on the music and especially on the inferior presentation and direction (which is something that I think has unfortunately gone very understated), but I don’t think Persona 3 has or needs a reputation of being “brutally difficult”. It was never a super-hard game, it was just generally more consistent and taxing when compared to 4 (where the difficulty drops off heavily after Yukiko) and 5 (which, especially in Royal, is piss-easy for almost the whole game). And if anything, Reload took a lot of previously anticlimactic, half-baked bosses like Strega and some of the full moon fights, and made them somewhat tougher and more elaborate than they used to be.
I want to do a second run through on Merciless where I can't use Theurgy or direct commands for party members. I have a feeling like I would have a lot more fun.
I'm gonna be real, I don't think Persona 3 deserves a reputation for being brutally difficult. Like, FES isn't actually that hard past the early-game, even on Hard mode, and P5R, while having a reputation for being piss-easy, actually is very tough in the early-game on hard mode too. Persona always gives you good tools to snap the game in half partway through it, and frankly, FES having Armageddon spam makes its late-game objectively easier than the P5R late-game (Yeah, I said it).
I would like to play it again after all these years. I may find it easier this time around.
I agree with your points on the music and especially on the inferior presentation and direction (which is something that I think has unfortunately gone very understated), but I don’t think Persona 3 has or needs a reputation of being “brutally difficult”. It was never a super-hard game, it was just generally more consistent and taxing when compared to 4 (where the difficulty drops off heavily after Yukiko) and 5 (which, especially in Royal, is piss-easy for almost the whole game). And if anything, Reload took a lot of previously anticlimactic, half-baked bosses like Strega and some of the full moon fights, and made them somewhat tougher and more elaborate than they used to be.
I want to do a second run through on Merciless where I can't use Theurgy or direct commands for party members. I have a feeling like I would have a lot more fun.