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During yesterday's Xbox Games Showcase, Atlus officially announced its long-awaited remake of Persona 3, titled Persona 3 Reload. Persona 3 has already been re-released twice; 2008's Persona 3 FES introduced a playable epilogue called "The Answer" and 2010's Persona 3 Portable introduced a female protagonist with different story events. While they both introduced new content, they also lack content the other has. Fans were hoping Reload could finally serve as a definitive version of the landmark JRPG, but some comments from Atlus have dashed those dreams.

First, speaking to IGN, producer Ryota Niitsuma and chief director Kazuhisa Wada announced that the remake was focused on recreating the original 2006 version of Persona 3 and would not feature any content from FES or Portable. "So first I'd like to mention that since the basic concept of the Persona 3 remake was to remake the Persona 3, we don't have the FES and Portable contents included," Niitsuma said. "We wanted to really genuinely work on recreating the Persona 3 experience."

Since then, Famitsu has posted an excerpt of an interview they conducted with the team that clarifies things further (translated by Persona Central). Niitsuma says that while The Answer and the female protagonist won't be included, some story content from FES could be, likely referring to party member Aigis' Social Link introduced in FES.

It also appears some gameplay improvements - both borrowed from previous versions and brand new - will be coming to Reload. One of the team's primary goals is to modernize Persona 3 and bring it more in line with what fans who started with Persona 5 will expect. This includes having both Japanese and English audio, as well as improvements to the graphics and "usability." While we don't know exactly what quality-of-life improvements will be carried over from Persona 5, 38 seconds into the announcement trailer we can see party members other than the protagonist being controlled in battle, a feature not included in any Persona 3 release besides Portable. Niitsuma also mentions in the Famitsu article that more gameplay elements have been added to the infamous Tartarus - a recurring dungeon throughout the game - to "keep [players] from getting bored."

Reload will also feature brand new "side stories" that help you deepen your relationship with certain characters, as a system separate to Social Links. Likely because new dialogue will need to be recorded for these side stories, the voices of the main party have been replaced, with several actors confirming their involvement on Twitter:

• Aleks Le as Protagonist (formerly Yuri Lowenthal)
• Heather Gonzalez as Yukari Takeba (formerly Michelle Ruff)
• Zeno Robinson as Junpei Iori (formerly Vic Mignogna)
• Alejandro Saab as Akihiko Sanada (formerly Liam O'Brien)
• Allegra Clark as Mitsuru Kirijo (formerly Tara Platt)
• Suzie Yeung as Fuuka Yamagishi (formerly Paula Tiso and Wendee Lee)
• Dawn M. Bennet as Aigis (formerly Karen Strassman)
• Justine Lee as Ken Amada (formerly Cindy Robinson)
• Justice Slocum as Shinjiro Aragaki (formerly Grant George)

Persona 3 Reload will launch in Early 2024 for PC, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, and will be available on Game Pass day one.

Persona 3 Reload official website

 

[Xzi]

Great...can't wait for Persona 3 Reload FES and Persona 3 Reload Portable. Killing me here, Atlus.

 

[SkittleDash]

Well that's unfortunate. I was really hoping this would bring FES and Portable together. Kinda sucks.

 

[Naster]

Devs these days can't recreate a fckg PSP-port from 2010.

 

[SkittleDash]

Devs these days can't recreate a fckg PSP-port from 2010.

Or maybe they'll later down the line try and sell off the Portable content as "DLC"

 

[AkiraKurusu]

Well, I suppose no-one liked the Answer anyway, and who gives a damn about feMC?

Still, I wonder what is being included...

 

[KingVamp]

Not even one of those things? Seems pretty pointless then.

 

[relauby]

I'm honestly kind of okay with this. I would have preferred to see The Answer retooled into something better than what it currently is, but it's definitely not essential to the story. I also don't think the female protagonist added much outside of Social Links for the male party members, and I'm really hoping those will be added in some way. They obviously can't use the exact ones from Portable, since those are all romantic, but I'm hoping new ones will be written (or these extra side stories they're talking about will fill in some gaps with the male party members).

This remake can still be great if they successfully fix the issues with Tartarus and the new content doesn't intrude too much on what's already there.

Some FES and Portable content not being there is kind of a relief, as long as they add back in Aigis' Social Link. Some of the new content in FES and Portable made some odd decisions, I thought.

Spoiler: Persona 3 Spoilers

That is, not committing to killing characters in a game where the main theme is accepting your mortality. I worry the need for more spinoffs down the line might make them keep some alive, though.

 

[Phearoz]

Well, I suppose no-one liked the Answer anyway, and who gives a damn about feMC?

Still, I wonder what is being included...

Women, amirite?!

 

[eduall]

better without that female MC... thanks god!

 

[Guacaholey]

Great...can't wait for Persona 3 Reload FES and Persona 3 Reload Portable. Killing me here, Atlus.

Right? I mean I'm annoyed I bought the P3P PC port even though it was a budget priced game, because I also want the remake, so I now have a $25~ game I'm never gonna play, but I can't get a refund because I bought it at launch (I was hoping I could refund it and just put the money toward P3R, which I'll probably buy on Switch and PC). It's not even that I bought the game so much as I'm annoyed Atlus released a port of an old game 6 months before announcing a remake of said game.

 

[Xzi]

Right? I mean I'm annoyed I bought the P3P PC port even though it was a budget priced game, because I also want the remake, so I now have a $25~ game I'm never gonna play, but I can't get a refund because I bought it at launch (I was hoping I could refund it and just put the money toward P3R, which I'll probably buy on Switch and PC). It's not even that I bought the game so much as I'm annoyed Atlus released a port of an old game 6 months before announcing a remake of said game.

Atlus made possibly their best ever decision porting P4G to Steam for $20, and the second that became a success they lost their minds. SMT3 HD is still $50, and it took forever to become reasonably priced in sales. On PC it also had issues at launch. $30 everybody would've been happy with, even with some issues, and they still would've profited plenty.

 

[The Catboy]

There’s literally no excuse for this other than pure laziness or planning to sell the content as DLC

 

[LeyendaV]

Looking at what happened with SMT3 HD, The Answer will be released as a paid DLC.

 

[BORTZ]

There’s literally no excuse for this other than pure laziness or planning to sell the content as DLC

No no, content the size of FES or the Answer as DLC wouldn't be the Atlus way. I'll bet it will be an entirely separate release. An updated version a la Persona 5 Royal.

 

[ZeroFX]

It's ok, the femc was whatever but good thing the game will be dual audio now, no one deserves being tied to a bad eng dub just because didn't downloaded the undub. Also i think they'll release another version later with fes content so no need for drama.

 

[8BitWonder]

Cool, another non-definitive version of the game.
Not much reason to buy this over playing/emulating the originals then.

 

[mister_smang_n_watch]

atlus moment

 

[Foxi4]

Ah, of course - to get the full experience we’ll have to wait for Persona 3 Reload FES Golden Royal Ultimax, coming exclusively to the PS7 as a digital download.

…Atlus, can you just release a complete version of the game? Just once? It’s a remake, this isn’t even new content.

 

[MariArch]

Good. Delete that fanfiction ending from the face of the earth. Still salty

As for femc, I guess she’s in prison for grooming a minor .