I have a confession to make about Persona 3 Reload. Roughly 10 hours into my first ever playthrough, I was all too quick to dismiss P3's storyline as a snoozefest, and yet here I sit before you, absolutely shattered by it. Being my first JRPG ever, the form and flow of P3R felt unnatural to me – especially the storytelling quirk of playing out each calendar day one after the other, split between school and extra-curricular dungeon crawling. I mistook a cleverly-hewn epic tale for a plodding, cyclical bore, and its characters as cringe-worthy stereotypes best left in 2007 along with studded belts and knee-high Converse.
I stand here before you to apologize for being unbelievably wrong. It might have taken me far longer than expected, but I think I finally understand what makes this game so legendary. All it took? The death of a character I had no idea I even cared about.
