Summary
Persona 3 Reloadis the first remake in the much-beloved franchise. WhenPersona 5launched outside of Japan, it immediately captured the hearts of gamers all around the world and launched the once-niche franchise into the mainstream. Each game in the series stands alone, but fans wanted more, and suddenly, there was a huge demand for access to older games in the series.P3PortableandPersona 4Goldenwere released for modern platforms but lacked the groundbreaking presentation ofP5. Now thatPersona 3 Reloadhas solved that problem for the third entry and has provided the most modernPersonaexperience to date, fans are left to wonder what a potential remake ofPersona 4could look like.
Persona 5is responsible for the franchise’s meteoric rise as one of the defining staples of the JRPG genre, but its success was built on the shoulders of the third and fourthPersonagames.P3established many of the franchise’s fundamental mechanics, andP4cemented the series' iconic balance between cozy slice-of-life activities and high-risk dungeon-crawling action. The PS Vita is remembered partly because ofPersona 4 Golden, the standout title on the platform, which garnered plenty of attention and set the stage forP5’s success.P1andP2remakeshave been heavily demanded since they are currently hard to play, butP3 Reload’s success does a lot more to set the stage for aPersona 4remake.
On top ofPersona 3 Reload’s new voice castand graphical overhaul, there are a ton of big and small changes. Social Links have been reworked, and certain male characters have been given side-story content to account for the lack of Social Links with them in the original. On top of this, the combat system has been updated to include Theurgy attacks, a unique new addition to the series, and Shift, which is known as Baton Pass inP5R. These additions join changes to Tartarus, which now has a wider variety of room layouts across its procedurally generated landscape, greater visual variation, and breakable objects.
P3 ReloadtakesPersona 3’s story and faithfully recreates it with all the modern convenience and flair ofP5.The menus ofPersona 3 Reloadooze style and match what is happening visually elsewhere in the game.P5’s most significant innovation for the series was, debatably, the degree of cohesion and seamlessness that it introduced to all of its elements, and withP3R, Atlus has successfully retrofitted it for the game that kicked off the modern era ofPersonatitles. Given that the series' third and fourth entries share many elements, the excellence ofP3 Reloadmakes it hard not to imagine what aPersona 4remake would be like.
The Case for a Persona 4 Remake
Persona 4 Goldenstill holds up next toP5, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t deserving of a remake. The third, fourth, and fifthPersonagames form something of a trilogy, withP5 Royalserving as a culmination of the mechanics developed and lessons learned across their collective development. The launch ofP3 Reloadmeans thatP4is now the only modernPersonastory that isn’t available with all the enhancements found inP5R. The director behindP3, P4,andP5, Katsura Hashino, has departed from P-Studio, so bringingP4up to the standard ofP3RandP5would be a great way to pay homage to the games he helped create and bringPersona 4to a whole new audience.
Persona 6 Will be a Departure
Given the fact that Katsura Hashino has moved on toMetaphor: ReFantazio, it is likely thatPersona 6will be the start of another new chapter for the series. While this is an exciting prospect,Personaleakshave also indicated that more remakes could be on the way, and no game is more deserving of the treatment thanPersona 4, which helped to set the stage forP5and the series' rise to fame. APersona 4remake could borrow fromPersona 3 Reload’s improvements to be the ultimate homage to the series' last two decades while P-Studio forges a new path forward with its next original entry.
