Any player who’s reached the end of a Persona game will have unwittingly, if not happily, seared the entirety of that game’s soundtrack into their memory. Persona soundtracks have long been cool, catchy, and buttery smooth—though I’d argue that Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 kicked this reputation off thanks to composer Shoji Meguro. Persona 3 Reload, the 2024 remake of the beloved PS2 JRPG, plucks the low-hanging fruit by remastering and slightly updating an all-timer soundtrack, though it may leave long-time listeners wanting more.
Perhaps the biggest fault with Persona 3 Reload as a whole was the baffling decision to leave out major content from Persona 3 Portable, the PSP version (the one I fell in love with). Naturally, that means that the 10 tracks from the Persona 3 Portable Original Soundtrack are absent.
Generally, tracks without a suffix (or with the suffix “- P3R ver.” in the Japanese tracklisting) are remastered or rerecorded Shoji Meguro tracks, while those ending with “-Reload-” are more significantly arranged by another Atlus maestro, Atsushi Kitajoh, who oversees this remake. In the case of vocal tracks, rapper Lotus Juice returns for “-Reload-” updates (and new songs), while original singer Yumi Kawamura is swapped, due to health concerns, for Azumi Takahashi. Takahashi’s performances pay respect to Kawamura, never altering the DNA of the songs far enough to notice the former’s absence.
Of the 62 tracks in Persona 3 Reload, only a handful are brand-spanking-new, so let’s look at those first! Opener “Full Moon Full Life” is reminiscent of the bubbliness of Persona 4 Golden, balancing Takahashi’s rock choruses and Lotus Juice’s hype manning with a ton of energy. It incorporates a lot of the sonic elements that make Persona 3 stand out from other Persona games—the scratchy darkness of it and the bouncy hip-hop—and feels like a celebration of the sub-series it’s spun into. It also appears in the game’s startup intro as the condensed “-Opening Movie Version.”
Midway through Disc 1 is “Color Your Night,” a very Persona 5-inspired nighttime exploration theme for Port Island. The piano melody interplaying with a groovy bassline could easily have been overlaid with Lyn Inaizumi’s vocals, but what really stands out is Lotus Juice’s singing(!). This track is so laid back yet chipper, with the children’s chorus’ shouts of joy mixed in, that it’s really a fun time and the best addition to Persona 3 Reload.
“The Meaning of Armbands” is a short, crunchy rap track that plays during new party member-related cutscenes. Too short to leave much of an impression. Similarly, “Everyone loves 1989” plays in the mall’s Club Escapade, but it’s so simple of an “unst unst unst” house track that its inclusion is pretty negligible.
Close to the end of Disc 1, we have “It’s Going Down Now,” a battle theme that plays on pre-emptive strikes (so expect to hear it a lot). Lotus Juice’s hushed rapping here rolls along with the blast beat drums, and I love how Takahashi’s vocals are used like DJ scratching.
Some other notable changes in Persona 3 Reload include the bonus “Burn My Dread -Reload-” downloadable track, which unfortunately buries the iconic chorus in the mix, reducing its impact. The rap-heavy “Burn My Dread -Last Battle Reload-” remix also loses much of the original’s punch.
Generally, though, the updates in Persona 3 Reload opt for cleaner, better-balanced instrumentals over the compressed, electronic elements of the original songs. The vocal exploration tracks are still fantastically catchy, a tough trick to perform considering you hear them off and on for dozens of hours. There’s nothing here so offensively downgraded or so wonderfully upgraded as to discredit one version of Persona 3—all can coincide and are wholly worth hearing.
With all the fandom now fuelling the Persona series, particularly for its music, it’s a bit of a misfire that the soundtrack for Persona 3 Reload simply sticks so closely to the one we’ve been spinning for twenty years. Still, it speaks to the original’s high bar of quality that it holds up so well and makes us fans anxiously await new music. New listeners are certainly in for a treat with Persona 3 Reload.
My favourite tracks include “Color Your Night,” “Memories of the City,” and “Want To Be Close -Reload-.”
