Persona 3 Reload's creators decided against making significant changes to the story out of "respect" for the original game.
Persona 3 Reload adds plenty of fresh and exciting features, including new combat mechanics and an overhaul of Tartarus, the JRPG's main dungeon. Still, for all its enhancements and added extras, developer P-Studio was keen to keep the core narrative experience very much the same as it was in the PS2 classic.
In an interview with 12DOVE, Persona 3 Reload game director Takuya Yamaguchi explains ideas for changes to the story were toyed with very early on, but these were quickly discarded. "We really wanted to respect the original," he says. "We all thought it was an amazing game, and we wanted to remake it – you know, the Persona 3 original experience as it was for a modern audience."
Of course, one of the most striking changes is the visual overhaul, which borrows heavily from the series' more modern offerings, in particular, Persona 5 Royal. Updating the looks was a big focus for the Persona 3 Reload team, as producer Ryota Niitsuma explains." We were thinking about what would be good to change would be the visuals here," he says. "And the reason was a lot of people expect a lot from visuals in Persona, and I think personally that our designs are pretty cool. So we know that people are looking for a much lovelier visual experience."
Persona 3 Reload arrives in just a few weeks on February 2 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. Our own Rollin Bishop recently had some hands-on time with the highly anticipated remake; you can get his thoughts on it in our Persona 3 Reload preview.
For more big titles launching in the next 12 months, check out our news games 2024 guide.
