As with the original game, the protagonist is a high school student returning to his home city a decade after his parents were killed in a fatal car crash.

The music was written primarily by Atsushi Kitajoh, with additional arrangements by original composer Shoji Meguro, and vocal tracks performed by Azumi Takahashi and Lotus Juice.

In addition to foundational overhauls, Reload refines numerous elements of its graphical user interface to reflect the updated presentation of subsequent entries.

The overworld map is now fully rendered in 3D, and has an additional button prompt for displaying information on the protagonist's current location, or other areas they can visit.

It is meant to contextualize supporting characters who weren't as prominent in previous iterations of Persona 3, through the inclusion of side-story arcs that will deepen the protagonist's relationship with them, which will also extend to the male party members due to the lack of dedicated Social Link stories for them.

The fatigue mechanic has been completely removed to reflect subsequent entries, making it so that the party is unable to tire during exploration, thus no longer affecting their battle performance.

[11] During battle, both the ability to take direct control over party members as in Portable, as well as enabling the CPU to dictate their behavior as in the original game and FES, are available.

In addition to the returning "Analyze", "Tactics", "Target" and "Rush" commands from prior iterations of Persona 3, a "Survey" and "Assist" function have also been added.

Depending on who in the party starts the command, the character has a personalized outro and unique animation in a similar vein to the finisher screens in Persona 5.

However, the Reload assets were otherwise produced from scratch with various adjustments, such as Aigis having her proportions altered to emphasize her unique physical traits as a cybernetic being compared to the regular human characters.

[17][15] The main English voice cast from previous games has been entirely re-cast for Reload, including the protagonist (Aleks Le), Mitsuru Kirijo (Allegra Clark), Yukari Takeba (Heather Gonzalez), Junpei Iori (Zeno Robinson), Aigis (Dawn Bennett), Akihiko Sanada (Alejandro Saab), Fuuka Yamagishi (Suzie Yeung), Shinjiro Aragaki (Justice Slocum) and Ken Amada (Justine Lee).

[20] Yuri Lowenthal, the previous English voice for the protagonist, Pharos, and Ryoji, appears as Eiichiro Takeba, Yukari's father and a lead researcher for the Kirijo Group's experiments on Shadows.

[21] Liam O'Brien, who previously dubbed Akihiko in English, voices Officer Kurosawa, the night patrolman at Paulownia Mall who acts as a discrete weapons dealer for S.E.E.S.

[23] Azusa Shimada serves as Persona 3 Reload's main character designer, with original artist Shigenori Soejima taking on a supervisory role.

This includes a new armband, which was teased by game director Takuya Yamaguchi to have ties to a new mechanic during Shadow encounters, and a combat attire unique to every party member.

He explained that Reload's menu interface drawing on the imagery of being submerged in water, was developed from his initial perception of the original game's heavy usage of blue in the menus, which was further iterated on by the UI design team.

He also envisioned slower animations and softer aesthetics in the menus, in order to contrast Persona 5's emphasis on aggressive movements and pop-punk influences, deriving inspiration from the sea surrounding Tatsumi Port Island, the game's primary setting.

However, as it became increasingly clear to the development staff that Reload would retain the original game's core while only updating its presentation and accessibility, Kumagai and Azusa Shimada created a logo that largely resembled the original game's title treatment, but with the Reload moniker communicating its status as a remake with new elements as opposed to an HD remaster.

Multiple revisions were made to update the homage, as Soejima and Yamaguchi discussed whether to just feature the protagonist and his Persona, or alongside the other main characters in the game.

[15] The final result was meant to subtly convey the game's updated visuals with modern drawing techniques and emphasized realistic lighting effects, as well as focus on the protagonist standing up to his destiny.

[26][unreliable source] The score for Persona 3 Reload was written primarily by Atsushi Kitajoh, with original composer Shoji Meguro arranging several instrumental tracks.

[15] In July 2022, Atlus conducted a consumer-led survey in Japan gauging interest in potential remakes and re-releases of past games from the publisher, specifically in the Megami Tensei franchise.

[35] The trailer drew negative reactions, with online outlets making note of the tonal disparity between the source material and the dramatized dialogue from Gallagher himself.

Both editions bundle the game with a digital soundtrack and artbook, while the Premium version additionally comes with a downloadable content (DLC) pack of in-game extras.

[42][43] Persona 3 Reload was released alongside a set of day-one downloadable content (DLC) comprising in-game extras, which can either be purchased standalone, or in a bundle.

[46] In an interview, producer Kazuhisa Wada explained that even though the story of this chapter caused some controversy among players, its remake remains faithful to the original.

[47] Because the team was short on staff, the DLC was directed by Yu Hashizume, the battle planner of games such as Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE and Soul Hackers 2.

[78] In contrast, writing for Polygon, Chelsea Stark criticized the lack of environmental detail in the dungeons, which she described as faithful to the original game but not up to the standards set by Persona 5, and expressed uncertainty about how much would be updated in the final product.

[82] Episode Aigis had been getting mixed reception before its release due to the DLC being a separate purchase, and Atlus has been widely criticized for using such "cash grab" practices.

[85] Games reviewers commonly praised Episode Aigis for its plot beats and new music, and criticized its "tedious", "repetitiveness" and poor controls.