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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]

I’m afraid that when it comes to Persona games, I might have some kind of mild form of autism. Much like an autistic child, I must own every kind of rock or I’ll scream. This situation is my fault - I acknowledge it, I will take the blame.

The irony of the way they do re-releases is that they're available for $20 on disc six months after release, which is less than they could be charging if they just made it DLC instead.

 

[StrayGuitarist]

Historically transphobic? Do I even dare ask what you mean by that?

This is something I've heard from other people in the queer community (I haven't played these games myself) but Atlus has had a lot of weirdly anti-trans and homophobic jokes and chunks in the SMT and Persona series. @SunsetFelid is more knowledgeable on the specifics, but I've had more than a few people confirm it's the case

 

[Foxi4]

This is something I've heard from other people in the queer community (I haven't played these games myself) but Atlus has had a lot of weirdly anti-trans and homophobic jokes and chunks in the SMT and Persona series. @SunsetFelid is more knowledgeable on the specifics, but I've had more than a few people confirm it's the case

Lord almighty. This is probably about the beach scene…

I’ll be honest, Atlus is pretty much the only company I can think of that even includes openly trans characters (or what we’d consider trans in the west - an otokonoko) is not quite the same thing), I have a feeling your friends might be a little too sensitive and maybe you should try the product yourself before forming an opinion. As far as Persona 3 is concerned, there’s a scene in the game where to boys try a little pick-up artistry and end up getting more than they bargained for, which is a gag as old as time and would’ve been a bit of a surprise to just about anyone in real life, so yeah, they get flustered. I don’t think it’s a big deal, but I suppose anyone can get offended by anything these days.

 

[RichardTheKing]

I mean, there's a reason why neither Persona 4 or 5 ever got feMC stories - they're nothing but a waste of resources. They only did it for P3 Portable because they couldn't fit The Answer on this scaled-back port, and had to do something to justify the port's existence, and since there's no cutscenes and most of the game is identical, it was easier here.

Trying to do the same for Persona 4, or especially Persona 5, would yield very few returns - and very few players would even care.
Plus, well, a hypothetical female Joker would just end up being fucked by Shido or Kamoshida anyway, considering who those two men are, so it's probably for the better she doesn't exist.

 

[StrayGuitarist]

Lord almighty. This is probably about the beach scene…

I’ll be honest, Atlus is pretty much the only company I can think of that even includes openly trans characters (or what we’d consider trans in the west - an otokonoko) is not quite the same thing), I have a feeling your friends might be a little too sensitive and maybe you should try the product yourself before forming an opinion. As far as Persona 3 is concerned, there’s a scene in the game where to boys try a little pick-up artistry and end up getting more than they bargained for, which is a gag as old as time and would’ve been a bit of a surprise to just about anyone in real life, so yeah, they get flustered. I don’t think it’s a big deal, but I suppose anyone can get offended by anything these days.

I don't really agree that I'm being too sensitive, or that I'm "one of those kids who gets triggered by anything," I'm a trans woman and I'm deeply hurt by the "whoops, if she's got a dick, that ain't right!" joke, no matter who it's told by. A big struggle I've faced since I came out is actually being acknowledged as a woman, and feeling validated in that role, rather than relegated to something "woman-adjacent," and jokes like these being perceived as completely acceptable is genuinely harmful to a lot of people, myself included. Maybe you're just not familiar with the serious repercussions that come with cutting the validity of queer people, or the queer scene in general, and I'm not really here to have an online argument (especially not in a thread about a game announcement) but whatever you do, don't use an opportunity to help someone learn more about the specifics of a situation to act passive aggressive and use some mythical sense of "toughness" and "superiority" over the "hypersensitive zoomers."

(yes, I know Eastern Asia has a different culture than the US, I come from Iran, where we have our own, different perceptions of trans people)

 

[SunsetFelid2]

Lord almighty. This is probably about the beach scene…

I’ll be honest, Atlus is pretty much the only company I can think of that even includes openly trans characters (or what we’d consider trans in the west - an otokonoko) is not quite the same thing), I have a feeling your friends might be a little too sensitive and maybe you should try the product yourself before forming an opinion. As far as Persona 3 is concerned, there’s a scene in the game where to boys try a little pick-up artistry and end up getting more than they bargained for, which is a gag as old as time and would’ve been a bit of a surprise to just about anyone in real life, so yeah, they get flustered. I don’t think it’s a big deal, but I suppose anyone can get offended by anything these days.

the beach scene is not depicting an otokonoko, (see FFXIV Stormblood's Hildebrand Quests for an actual depiction of Otokonoko in modern media) but also the historically transphobic comment refers to the extremely poor handling of Erika & Rin in Catherine (OG & Fullbody) as well as the weird "I'm only pretending to be a boy to be able to be a detective" plotline in P4 & the "I'm attracted to this boy, am I gay??? OH its a girl, not gay, PHEW" plotline, also in P4. P4 was just really weird about gender, and kind of got a pass for it because it was incorrectly reported on by Games Journalists and an audience of Folx stretching to the absolute limit for any representation, however bad, in video games in the early 2000's-2010's.

I'm not gonna tell anyone whether or not *they* should play the games, but it has left a sour taste in my mouth even as a trans elder with nostalgia for the series.

 

[Foxi4]

the beach scene is not depicting an otokonoko, (see FFXIV Stormblood's Hildebrand Quests for an actual depiction of Otokonoko in modern media) but also the historically transphobic comment refers to the extremely poor handling of Erika & Rin in Catherine (OG & Fullbody) as well as the weird "I'm only pretending to be a boy to be able to be a detective" plotline in P4 & the "I'm attracted to this boy, am I gay??? OH its a girl, not gay, PHEW" plotline, also in P4. P4 was just really weird about gender, and kind of got a pass for it because it was incorrectly reported on by Games Journalists and an audience of Folx stretching to the absolute limit for any representation, however bad, in video games in the early 2000's-2010's.

I'm not gonna tell anyone whether or not *they* should play the games, but it has left a sour taste in my mouth even as a trans elder with nostalgia for the series.

I was referring to Rin from Catherine as an otokonoko, the game is an off-shoot of the SMT universe. As far as P4 is concerned, a woman dressing up as a man as a form of disguise is a persistent theme in media and it’s not unusual (Mulan, anyone?) the reverse is also present, including in video games (Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda). That character isn’t even trans, so I don’t see how it’s related at all. Someone’s definitely “stretching” things around here, but I don’t think I belong to that category when I say that there are some cultural differences here. I don’t see any of this as “transphobic”, the subject matter is awkward in and out of itself and if anything, it’s actually kind of brave that the series touches upon these themes at all. Different strokes for different folks.

I don't really agree that I'm being too sensitive, or that I'm "one of those kids who gets triggered by anything," I'm a trans woman and I'm deeply hurt by the "whoops, if she's got a dick, that ain't right!" joke, no matter who it's told by. A big struggle I've faced since I came out is actually being acknowledged as a woman, and feeling validated in that role, rather than relegated to something "woman-adjacent," and jokes like these being perceived as completely acceptable is genuinely harmful to a lot of people, myself included. Maybe you're just not familiar with the serious repercussions that come with cutting the validity of queer people, or the queer scene in general, and I'm not really here to have an online argument (especially not in a thread about a game announcement) but whatever you do, don't use an opportunity to help someone learn more about the specifics of a situation to act passive aggressive and use some mythical sense of "toughness" and "superiority" over the "hypersensitive zoomers."

(yes, I know Eastern Asia has a different culture than the US, I come from Iran, where we have our own, different perceptions of trans people)

With all due respect, “whoops, she’s got a dick” is a bit of an awkward realisation when that’s not what you were expecting. I fail to see how it makes your identity invalid - you can be whoever you want to be.

 

[RichardTheKing]

One change I would LOVE to see made to this Reload would be the complete removal of the hot-spring scene, where due to some bullshit misunderstanding that could easily be resolved with words, the girls physically assault the boys for "peeping" on them.
Here, from memory, the boys were already in the spring when the girls arrive, and it's possible to sneak out, but if you fail you get thrashed. It's revolting how this disgustingly sexist female-on-male assault is played for laughs in Persona game after Persona game; even when P5 has no hot springs, the same so-called "gag" is done after escaping from Shido's Palace, except only Ryuji gets assaulted (everyone thought he died lowering a lifeboat, only for him to walk in not knowing how it looked and make a joke - cue girls beating him up, and then everyone leaves him against a street light).

Fuck off with this, Atlus. It's not funny, it's never been funny, and it should be removed. Why is it okay for girls to physically assault boys like this, when it's not okay for boys to beat up girls?

 

[bakefate]

I'm glad they ditched The Answer. It didn't bring anything to the story anyways, and it constantly annoyed me when characters referred to MC (the person they bonded throughout the whole year) as "He"/"Him". At this point, Atlus should've gave him a canon name. Anyways, hyped to play this game again after 18 years.

 

[Perisys1312]

As long as it has the QoL improvements from P3FES and the series onward, which it does, it's still objectively better than the both of them, even if it doesn't feature nearly as much of the content. I do hope we get DLC though, as it would rise it to the ranks of the ultimate dread game.

Post automatically merged: Jun 23, 2023

I was referring to Rin from Catherine as an otokonoko, the game is an off-shoot of the SMT universe. As far as P4 is concerned, a woman dressing up as a man as a form of disguise is a persistent theme in media and it’s not unusual (Mulan, anyone?) the reverse is also present, including in video games (Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda). That character isn’t even trans, so I don’t see how it’s related at all. Someone’s definitely “stretching” things around here, but I don’t think I belong to that category when I say that there are some cultural differences here. I don’t see any of this as “transphobic”, the subject matter is awkward in and out of itself and if anything, it’s actually kind of brave that the series touches upon these themes at all. Different strokes for different folks.
With all due respect, “whoops, she’s got a dick” is a bit of an awkward realisation when that’s not what you were expecting. I fail to see how it makes your identity invalid - you can be whoever you want to be.

Ahem. To tackle this we must first establish that "whoops, she's got a dick" is not the end all be all. It's the disgust in ever having had an attraction to a trans woman; A pervasive issue of seeing our bodies as unlikable due to a fragile masculinity that causes men to have a deep disgust in finding a woman's body attractive because there happens to be a history attached they find to make them feel "gay"... Which is undeniably due to transphobia because liking women as a man isn't gay.

Genital preference is of course fine and you can take discomfort in the idea of having a partner with whatever you don't like down there, but there comes a point where it becomes transphobia and not a simple opinion or reaction. I take it you're not going to listen to a word I say because I've interacted with the sort before, but at least I made my mark and explained it for the rest of the thread.