Summary
WhenPersona 3 Reloadwas announced, it made a tremendous amount of sense.Persona 3was in many ways the foundation of the franchise as players know it today. Given the massive popularity ofPersona 5and the attention it brought to the series, bringing older entries up to modern consoles felt like a no-brainer.Persona 4 Golden, while less known than5,was already beloved, and it also made sense to simply port it to more systems. While remakes ofRevelations: Personaand thePersona 2duology are highly requested, remaking them would prove a greater challenge thanPersona 3 Reload.
Personafound its humble beginnings as a franchise in the mid-90s as a spin-off to theMegami Tenseiseries.Revelations: Personahas a lot more in common with mainlineShin Megami Tenseigamesthan it does modernPersonatitles, and similar things can be said aboutPersona 2. The popular social simulation mechanics weren’t really fleshed out until the third entry of the franchise and only came to be what fans now expect from the series in4. Furthermore, the earliest titles in the series are much darker tonally and in presentation. While they focus on young people confronting a warped reality, not much else remains the same in modernPersonagames.
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Persona 1 and 2 Remakes Raise Many Questions
While remakes of the earlyPersonatitles are often requested by fans, what they would actually be like is a massive mystery. These initial titles feature different gameplay systems, lack social simulation mechanics, have wildly different art styles, and lack the influence of the early to mid-2000s moe boom that permeatedJapanese Otaku culturearound the launches ofPersona 3and4. While modernPersonagames are equally about hanging out with the party and defeating antagonists, previous entries were much more serious. The big question around a remake of these games is how faithful would they be.
A fully faithful remake ofRevelations: Personaor thePersona 2duology would likely go against the taste of modernPersonafans. On the other hand, takingPersona 2,a title that features Hitler as an antagonist, and adding cozy slice-of-life anime tropes to it would cheapen the tonal seriousness of the original.Persona 2especially raises questions about how the adaptation would work since it was originally released as two separate titles with different protagonists.Remaking the first twoPersonagames would be a challenge, but a worthwhile one.
What Might Persona 1 And 2 Remakes Be Like?
Remakes of the first 2Personagames, to please new and old fans, would likely have to split the difference between old-school and modernPersona. An ideal remake of these first two titles would likely hold on to the horror aesthetic that influenced them and their more serious tones. Social links could be added to flesh out characters, but dialogue would have to remain more serious than the social interactions in later entries. The remakes could borrow fromPersona 5’s genre-defining combat systemand incorporate unique elements that pay homage to the combat of the original releases. However, the art style would need to be more in line with the original titles.
By splitting the difference between classic and modernPersonatitles, and using the framework of modernPersonato tell a much darker story, Atlus will be able to please most of the fan base. IfPersona 3 Reloadperforms well, these remakes will become more likely than ever and leaks already suggest thatAtlus may remakePersonaandPersona 2. How the company handlesPersona 3 Reloadmay provide some insights into how remakes of the first two titles could play out. Regardless of how it happens,Revelations: Personaand thePersona 2duology deserve to be available on modern platforms and more accessible to fans of the series.
Persona 3 Reloadis coming in early 2024 to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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