The producer of Persona 3 Reload, which is set to release in February 2024, has said that the remake will “probably never” get the main character Kotone Shiomi, who appeared in the previous version of the game.
As reported Computer gamersaid Persona series producer Kazuhisa Wada Game Informer Magazine that he is “truly sorry,” but fans’ requests to include Shiomi will likely never be answered.
“The more we talked about it, the more unlikely it became,” Wada said. “The development time and costs would be unmanageable.
“Persona 3 Reload has just been released and there’s a lot of interest from players right now, so if we’re going to release another version, we have to do it now. But since we can’t release Persona 3 Reload with a female protagonist in this window, we just can’t do it. I’m so sorry for all the fans who were hoping for it but it probably won’t happen.”
Persona 3 Reload is the fourth iteration of Persona 3 (or fifth if the port to modern consoles is counted). The base game was released in 2006, followed by an enhanced edition called Persona 3 FES in 2007, and a version for the PlayStation Portable aptly named Persona 3 Portable in 2009.
It was in this latter version that the main character was released, so when Atlus announced that the full remake was to be a “complete experience,” many fans were disappointed to learn that it had no plans to include FES or Portable content.
Atlus’s release model, particularly with Shin Megami Tensei (from which Persona is derived) and the Persona franchise, is starting to frustrate some fans. It is common practice for developers to release a base game, and then a year or two later release a substantially better version with additional content at full price. Persona 4 received Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 received Persona 5 Royal.
Fans therefore took issue with the release of Persona 3 Reload without this content, not only because it was missing, but because they expected Atlus to release an enhanced edition shortly afterward that would include this content.
Seeking to allay those concerns, Wada promised fans in March 2024 that Persona 3 Reload would be a “complete experience,” but just a month later, Atlus announced an expansion pass. It would add a handful of cosmetics alongside Episode Aegis — the 30-hour epilogue added to Persona 3 FES — but without the main character.
Adding to the frustration was Atlus’ confirmation that Episode Aegis would not be available as a standalone add-on, but only as part of a $34.99 expansion pack. The promise of a “complete experience” fell through, with fans having to pay a total of $104.98 to play every single installment of Persona 3 Reload. Of course, that won’t include all the Persona 3 content ever released, and it apparently never will, as the main character and other additional content remain locked away from Persona 3 Portable.
Ryan Dinsdale is a freelance reporter for IGN. He’ll be talking Witcher all day long.
