finished it merciless difficulty took 55 hours (skipped around 30% of dialogues so prob around 60h game if I would have read everything)
decent remake but easier than p3 or p3p since you have shitload of new tools to trivialize combat. early game challenge was good because you have limited amount of sp recovery (you can obviously reduce this if you don't explore areas in one go)
middle/late game I did not die even once but it was close couple of times bosses can still hit hard and insta kill rng gaming is still there if you are not prepared
oh yeah and nyx was easier than strega meme gang
I skipped elizabeth fight I have done it before and its too gimmicky so don't feel like doing it again
merciless reaper nearly got me had to use plenty of consumables, I was lvl 82 so not sure if that was underleveled + did not buy homunculus. with all tarot / xp accessory boost after reaper level went from 82 to 94
you can see other players average level so middle game I was about 10-13 levels behind -> merciless xp reduction is pretty significant or others just grinded shitload more than I
there is new event which lets inactive companions to gain levels but its limited to 2 companions + random event so still tedious to use whole roster
managed to max rank everything without guide but took some optimizing mainly with dialogue options, only had 3 days left to spare though
academy / courage / charm was easy to max was done with em 4~ months before final boss
overall probably the best way to play persona 3 I also liked new music. few design choices were pretty retarded for example if you don't waste time with that little fucker (ken) in specific time you miss michael fusion -> no metatron -> no orpheus telos
8/10 was worth 1 dollar that I spent