The three most recent titles of the franchise,Persona 3,Persona 4, andPersona 5,are some of the most well known and beloved titles in thePersonaseries. WhilePersona 5has gottenPersona 5 RoyalandPersona 4has had the recent re-release ofPersona 4 Golden, there aren’t many easy ways to legitimately playPersona 3currently.
Many fans ofPersona 3have been wanting for a proper remake for a long time now. With the release ofPersona 3: Dancing Moonlight, the desire to see a modern take on the members of SEES have only increased. While the game is very beloved byPersonafans and JRPG fans alike, there are some problems inPersona 3that haven’t aged gracefully. In order to adjust the game for a modern audience, one big part of gameplay will need to be changed.
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Lack of Full Party Control
Persona 3was a big jump for thePersonaseries as a whole with it being thefirstPersonatitle on the PlayStation 2. Not only graphics were updated, but gameplay was changed up as well for the new 2006 audience. To change things up, the players inPersona 3could only choose the actions for their player character in battle. This meant that other party members were completely controlled by the AI, resulting in some battles being far more harder than they needed to be. While the player could choose different tactics that the party members could follow, it still would be unknown what they would exactly do each turn.
In the PSP port ofPersona 3, full party control was added, but this presented another problem. Because the original game wasn’t designed around being able to control every party member directly, some parts of the game became too easy. This is because many of the enemies inPersona 3were more simplistic in nature compared to other enemies in thePersonaseries orShin Megami Tensei.
How a Remake Could Fix It
As stated before with what happened withPersona 3 Portable, just adding full party control in will present a different problem. However, that doesn’t mean full party control can’t be implemented in a remake. In order to ensure everything is balanced, full party control would need to kept in mind when designing a remake. After all,a remake isn’t a remasteror re-release where a game is put out just with better graphics or the like. A remake ofPersona 3would need to completely redesign everything to improve the gameplay while keeping true to the story and themes of the original, like with the remake ofFinal Fantasy 7.
IfPersona 3was completely redesignedfor a modern audience, a lot more cues would likely be taken fromPersona 4andPersona 5in its gameplay. As an example, Tartarus would likely be more similar toPersona 5’s Mementos with more tasks to complete inside other than grinding.
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Better Tactics for Persona 3 Remake
While manyPersonafans would prefer the ability to have full control of the party, some may feel nostalgic for being able to have AI helpers. In that case, the tactics system forPersona 3would need to be updated as well. The originalPersona 3had many tactics available at their disposal as well as many to unlock over time. While their effectiveness was questionable at times, some players may find new strategies if these were to become more fleshed out.
Following were the available tactics forthe player’s party inPersona3:
While many of these are simple, many of these can be improved with modern AI and the addition of the Direct Commands tactic that was later added after the release ofPersona 4. Out of all of these, Request Help has a lot of potential to shake up fights with players being able to use every single party member as an army of sorts with tough battles. If aremake ofPersona 3were to be designed around the constant switching around of party members, it could make for more interesting party dynamics.
However, even more tactics could be added for the remake that could play around thesocial links between party members. There could even be more tactics that could be based around new systems being possibly being introduced to the remake.
Will There Ever be a Persona 3 Remake?
Although many have been waiting for any kind of news pertaining to aPersona 3remake, there has been nothing but silence pertaining to it from developers. However with the very positive reception ofPersona 4 Golden’s steam release, there could be something involving the title happening behind the scenes.
The only thing that fans can do as of now is to make their voices heard and support thePersonatitles currently available for purchase. If the demand is there, there is always a chance that someone at Atlus might greenlight a project that allows players to return to Tatsumi Port Island once more. Until then, however, fans can only speculate on what could be ifPersona 3was given a modern touch.
