When I picked up the controller and put my headphones on to play Persona 3 Reload for the first time, I was hit with a wave of nostalgia. I knew where everything was in the halls of Gekkoukan High School, I knew all the spots at Paulownia Mall, and I knew where I'd find all my friends across the city of Port Island. And the fresh remixing of old songs hit me deeply to instill the feeling of Persona 3's uncanny mix of joy and dread all over again.

Based on a preview of the game, P3R looks to be as faithful of a remake as one could possibly ask for. It's very much that same PS2-era RPG that first established Persona's social-sim and calendar systems alongside the dungeon-crawling gameplay, but now with the art style and visual flourishes reminiscent of Persona 5. Even though my hands-on preview session was only a little over an hour long, I was already starting to piece together what P3R is from what I saw and the five or so times I've finished Persona 3 in its various older forms.

That's not to say there aren't modernizations beyond the visual overhaul, however. Little things like easier ways to track your daily activities are key to helping map out how you want to spend your days, and bigger deals like revamped Social Links let you get more out of the characters during your free time in-game. Although Tartarus serves the same purpose as the original game--a 250-something floor tower where most of the RPG combat and exploration takes place--numerous quality-of-life updates give the dungeon crawling much-needed momentum. And you can count on the tried-and-true turn-based combat system that revolves around elemental affinities and swapping personas for different movesets to be as satisfying as it was the first time around. This time, however, each party member has a Limit Break-style meter to initiate extra-strong Theurgy attacks and a Baton Pass mechanic similar to Persona 5 that helps you hit weaknesses with greater efficiency.