Unlike Tartarus and the Midnight Channel, Palaces, in Persona 5/Royal, are distortions created by the negative and/or corrupt emotions of a Palace Ruler. Each Palace has a Treasure, which is essentially the catalyst of said Palace in physical form. Stealing this treasure causes the Palace Ruler to have a "change of heart," and the Palace itself to collapse. Persona 3 Reload does not have "Palaces," but rather Tartarus.

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While Persona 3 Reload has added many quality-of-life changes from the original Persona 3, but not everything from Persona 5's gameplay could be transferred. This is obviously due to Tartarus being nothing like the Palaces. However, it's hard not to miss several features that were mostly-exclusive to Palaces.

6 Will Seeds

Accessories with Effects

Will Seeds are distortions of a Palace Ruler that take root in the Palaces themselves. They didn't exist in Persona 5 and are a Royal-exclusive category of items. There are three Will Seeds per Palace, and when they're gathered, they'll become a Crystal, which is an Accessory that can be equipped. They can be taken to Jose in Mementos to become a Will Ring, changing their effect/skill (ex, Diarama) into an exclusive effect/skill (ex, Champion's Cup).

What made Will Seeds useful wasn't just their combined abilities but the fact they restore 20SP. This was perfect for infiltrating Palaces, especially since SP-recovery items are difficult to come by in the beginning. Persona 3 Reload runs into the same problem in which SP-recovery items aren't so readily available, and restoring SP at the clock on Tartarus' first floor always costs 7 Twilight Fragments.

5 Treasure Demons

Koh-i-Noor, Regent, etc

Treasure Demons are obviously P5's version of the "golden hand" Shadows in Persona 3 and Persona 4. What makes them different is Treasure Demons can be "recruited" and added to the compendium. Unlike regular Personas, Treasure Demons can't be used in battle. They're only used for fusing and usually have a set of Passive Skills, Magic Skills, etc.

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Of course, Treasure Demons aren't exclusive to Palaces and can be found in Mementos, too. Since Persona 3 Reload has a variety of challenging sidequests and tricky boss fights, having Treasure Demons to help with building Personas would have been ideal. Instead, players will have to try their luck with the Skill Cards that appear in Shuffle Time, and use the Inari Shrine to duplicate any Skills they want to give to their Personas.

4 Disaster Shadows

Exploding Shadows

Like Treasure Demons, Disaster Shadows aren't exclusive to Palaces. These are Shadows with a purple and black aura, and they can be more dangerous than their regular counterparts. Attacking a Disaster Shadow causes it to counterattack, but defeating one can net some useful items, such as Snuff Soul. Disaster Shadows will also explode when defeated, damaging nearby Shadows in-battle.

Persona 3 Reload has Monad Passages, which house challenging enemies. However, there's nothing like Disaster Shadows in Tartarus. It's likely if Disaster Shadows, or something similar, appeared in Reload, they would drop Skill Cards, Twilight Fragments, and SP-restoring items.

3 Grappling Hook

Take Shortcuts in Palaces

One of the graphics in the pause menu in the original Persona 5 featured Joker using a grappling hook. It wasn't until Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that it made an out-of-menu appearance (as Joker's recovery move), and Persona 5 Royal where it could be used in Palaces to take shortcuts, find hidden rooms, and more.

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It's clear the grappling hook item was made for Persona 5 Royal's Phantom Thieves, so it would be difficult to adapt it to Persona 3 Reload. However, with the upgraded SEES uniform, it would have been nice to have something in line with the grappling hook. This was likely impossible to do, since Tartarus' entire layout is different from the Palaces, meaning there's not much room to "take shortcuts" nor hidden rooms housing rare treasure.

2 Puzzles in Palaces

Fetch-Quests, Riddles, and More

Since Palaces don't follow the same layout as Mementos, Tartarus, or the Midnight Channel, there's more room for puzzle-solving, and Persona 5 Royal takes full advantage of this. In Madarame and Sae Niijima's, the Phantom Thieves would need "permission" from the Palace Ruler in the real world to affect the cognition of the Palace, thus opening their path to wherever they needed to go. Most puzzles/riddles in Persona 5 Royal were simple to overcome, but others relied on players to pay attention (ex, Maruki's Palace, Kaneshiro's Palace).

For those who liked this puzzle-solving gameplay in Royal, it's unfortunately absent in Reload's Tartarus. Given the original Tartarus didn't have puzzle-solving mechanics, this doesn't come as much of a surprise as there's no room for Palace-esque problems during the Dark Hour. Regardless, the problem-solving made Palaces less one-note, providing more of a challenge than just running in and defeating Shadows.

1 Hiding Behind Corners

Easier Ambush Mechanic

Ambushing Shadows to get an advantage in battle is nothing new to the Persona gameplay. In Persona 5, there was an easier way to sneak up on enemies by hiding behind corners. This was only possible in areas of the Metaverse where Joker wasn't confined to the Mona Bus (i.e, Mementos), but that doesn't take away its usefulness. When hiding, the Shadows wouldn't be able to see Joker, and pressing the right button when a Shadow was near would trigger an Ambush.

Persona 3 Reload doesn't have a "hiding" mechanic, but players can unlock a powered-up sprint and attack that will always result in an Ambush. Unfortunately, if the enemy spots the protagonist, it can potentially give chase. So, while the Tartarus-crawling Ambush mechanic is better than it was in the original, it doesn't have the same advantages of P5's hiding and Chaine's Hook abilities.

Persona 3 Reload

Franchise

Persona

Platform(s)

PC , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , Xbox One , PS4 , PS5

Released

February 2, 2024

Developer(s)

P-Studio

Publisher(s)

Atlus