Persona 3 Reload Developers Want To “Respect The Original While Trying To Create Something New"

Persona 3 Reload is a remake that breathes new life into a fan favourite with sleek modern graphics and quality of life improvements borrowed from more recent entries in the series. Though Reload notably skips over the later FES and Portable iterations of Persona 3 that added additional content, there are still several changes and new additions to look forward to.

Despite being so beloved, most fans would agree that the Tartarus dungeons of Persona 3 were tedious. We recently spoke with Persona 3 Reload director Takuya Yamaguchi and producer Ryota Niitsuma, who tell us that the team took on board feedback from fans when redesigning Tartarus for Reload. Some of the changes the team made include adding destructible objects that can contain loot and character conversations that play automatically while you explore to help keep things interesting.

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“Reworking Tartarus was a top priority for us,” Yamaguchi says. “However, Tartarus is really tied closely to the story of the game itself. We couldn't make any fundamental changes to the actual dungeon, but what we could do is make lots and lots of small tweaks and adjustments. I think the accumulation of all these tweaks and adjustments overall made major changes to the dungeon and made it a lot more entertaining and fun, and less repetitive to play.”

One of the signature elements of any Persona game is the stylish soundtrack, and much to the delight of fans, several new tracks have been added for Reload. Yamaguchi tells us that when it came to adding new songs, the team asked composer Atsushi Kitajoh to “make music that reinforces the themes of the game”. New vocalists were also hired to create tracks, with Yamaguchi explaining that the team “tried to find ways to incorporate their new voices into the new sound.”

“We think the original songs from Persona 3 were amazing,” Niitsuma adds. “So we wanted to leave those as ‘this is the original’ and ‘these are the new vibes that we're going for’. We want to respect the original while trying to create something new.”

The SEES team is also getting a new look in Reload, and their shiny new battle gear is indicative of the team wanting to carve out their own path while staying faithful to the original. This scene is Niitsuma’s favourite because it shows how important it was for the team to weigh up what to keep the same and when to shake things up with Reload.

“Picking what we would change when doing the remake and what we wouldn't was a really important part [of development] for me,” he says. “For me, one of the overall things that really helps define that is the scene where you see the characters get their new battle outfits. It really does everything I wanted it to do.”

Reflecting on his own favourite scene from Reload, Yamaguchi chooses the new opening animation, which he explains is “a fantastic way to summarise and unleash all the themes of the game”. Yamaguchi did everything he was aiming to do with Reload, but says, “It would be nice to have even more stories where we can explore the deep depths of the characters and see who they were.”

“From a peer perspective, I wish we could have done more collaborations, and we could have had the characters dressed in different outfits from different things,” Niitsuma adds. “I think that would be really fun to do. If we have more of an opportunity next time, we'd like to try that.”

Interestingly, Reload found itself in a rare situation where a remake was being developed alongside a port, with Persona 3 Portable being ported to modern consoles in January 2023. “We were working [on] them as different ideas,” Niitsuma says. “We had the full rich remake, which is Reload, and then we had a kind of remaster for the other. We put them in two conceptual different bubbles.”

We took the opportunity to ask both of the devs who they prefer to romance when playing. “That's a really hard question,” Niitsuma laughs. “All the characters are so wonderful. I think you would never have any regrets about choosing anyone. Saying all of that, if I had to make a choice, personally, I would go for Yukari.” Yamaguchi disagrees: “I want you to know that I love every single one of them, but if I had to choose, I have a special spot in my heart for Fuuka.”

Unfortunately, I can’t partake in my favourite romance in Reload as it’s Akihiko, one of the social links tied to the female protagonist from the Portable version of the game. On the bright side, it means I can pick a new favourite when I play Reload, but who is going to steal my heart this time? (Persona 5 joke very much intended.) Maybe I’ll take the developers’ advice and opt for Yukari or Fuuka, or perhaps the changes will push someone else into the spotlight this time around. Whoever I end up romancing, the myriad changes and tweaks will make it feel like playing a whole new game this time around.

Persona 3 Reload launches for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on February 2, 2024.

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