On the one hand, yay! Persona 3, in particular, was last released on the PSP in 2009, and so hasn't been readily accessible to play on a modern system for quite a while. That it can finally be played on modern hardware is definitely a good thing. And a Persona 5 release on PC seemed like a no-brainer.

On the other hand, the dream of an official, definitive version of Persona 3 that marries the content of FES and Portable appears to be dead. They are quite pointedly calling it "Persona 3 Portable" rather than simply "Persona 3," or "Persona 3: Definitive" or similar.

I guess my hope now is that after it comes to PC some fan will mod in the missing 3d social environments from FES (I can live without The Answer). But it doesn't seem likely to happen, as that would not be a simple mod. *sigh*

I’m looking forward to playing the better version of P3 again.

It is a curious decision that it's Portable that they chose though.

Yep, P3P being playable outside of a PSP or emulator is big news. I think Persona 3 is heavily overlooked compared to P4 and P5. Another thing to note is that the games are no longer Playstation console exclusives.

Probably not going to happen because the female protagonist model is only rendered in Tartarus. I can see it maybe working for the male protagonist though.

@efesell: I mean, it makes sense. Portable has the whole extra playable main character, and is the only version that allows you to directly control all your party members, plus other quality of life additions. If they had to pick one, it seems like the obvious choice. Just too bad that so much "character" is lost from the lack of 3d environments. Blame it on the lack of space on UMD discs, I guess...

It cam't be that hard to just import the "control the whole party" thing from P3P into FES and just do that, can it? I understand people like the female MC but I'd personally consider FES with controllable party members way more exciting than dragging a cursor along some static art.

Yeah, I'm not holding out much hope. I mean, there's no reason they couldn't take the 3d female model from Tartarus and put it in other 3d environments. But as I recall there's also whole other social links for the female MC that were never rendered in 3d at all. The prospective modder would actually have to create some stuff from scratch. Not to mention that going from the 2d environment interface to all 3d environments is... not trivial. Realistically, probably too much hard work, even for a fairly dedicated fan with the know-how.

By the way, interesting to note that there are 147 Giant Bomb threads for this game (and 185 for FES). Man, the forums used to be waaaaay more active!

I'm looking forward to having a good excuse to play through P3 and P5 again, but I'll echo the sentiment that the choice to do P3P is odd. Ideally, I would have loved to see a version of the game that combines elements of P3P and FES, but that would effectively mean building a brand new version of the game which would require much more effort than just a port.

@chaser324 said:

Time, effort and money of which many of us are sure that Atlus could have spent given that Persona is a household name these days.

Hard to be personally excited when I already have these games readily available, and played through them multiple times, but sure, bring all game to everywhere. Now how do we get the first two SMT games out on any device?

@atheistpreacher: I guess it changed a little in more recent years but it always felt to me like P3P was just never really acknowledged much from Atlus, and I would imagine far more people played the game via FES. So I would just have always assumed any re-release would have been the FES version.

Yeah, there'd be some work to do, but... they should do the work.

At the very least, include P3P and P3FES in one package. I guess they don't want new players wondering why they have to choose between 3D environments and the ability to control their party members.

It is crazy that you will be able to play Person 4 Golden on an Xbox but still can't play it on PS4 and PS5.

I don't think they've been ruled out of coming to PS4 and PS5 (or Switch). I mean, this announcement was made at a Microsoft event, and they didn't mention anything about exclusivity, so there's the possibility that these games could end up on other consoles, and we just haven't been told yet.

I have heard rumors that the original P3 code is a mess and would be difficult to port but who knows. While P3P offers superior options I’m also a little disappointed that we won’t get the full environments and free movement even if that part of the game really is just a glorified menu interface.

I've gotta say, I've never really understood why people are so married to the idea of running around the environments. They're PS2 era, and they're fairly limited, and over 100 odd hours it actually cuts down on the faffing around to just select stuff from a menu. The female MC stuff is more important frankly, as that whole side of the game is really rad, and has a totally different, more upbeat vibe.

I think we may still get the dream PS3 remake, or at least a remake of FES. We may just be getting this to appease the P3P fans, as remaking the whole female MC route may be too much work and they may just concentrate on polishing up FES.

Disappointing they aren't making a definitive version of 3. For anyone who's interested you can play P3 FES on PCSX2 and there has been a "cheat code" for it to control all party members for quite some time already. I played P3P originally but I much prefer having the wandering/exploration aspect (even if there isn't much to it, it helps me feel invested in the world)

I don't think anyone will ever mod 3D environments to P3P sadly, what would they even work with? P3P is all map navigation and VN sequences unless you're in tartarus. If they wanted to make an ultimate version then FES would make a much better base imo.

It would not surprise me at all if the reason we haven't had anything like this yet is because the code for these games is long lost.

@broshmosh: It wouldn't surprise me either. They did port the first one to mobile a few years ago, but I don't think they run on modern devices anymore. They should be able to do something with that at least. I'm guessing it's just not a priority. I bet there's probably a fair share of "Why would anyone want to play old games?" going on too.

They say Persona 5 is very cool. How cool is it that Microsoft came up with GamePass. Really looking forward to Stalker 2.

I really like both versions of P3, it's a shame they didn't find a way to marry the content of both versions. Maybe this will get Femtag some new fans though and put more pressure on Atlus to do dual protagonists again someday.

ALSO, I liked The Answer! I'm bummed I never got the Aigis/Yukari slice of life anime the ending set up. Don't @ me.

@siamesegiant said:

Because everyone isn't interested in the spartan approach of just selecting things though a menu or getting though the games as quickly as possible. It's immersion over efficiency where spending said 100 odd hours isn't a drawback. I mean, yeah; I'm sure that most people would rather have Fem MC over The Answer, but Atlus could have gone the extra miles by having everything in one package. Even if Humanity is right in that the source code FES is messy, Square outright lost Kingdom Hearts 1's source code, and yet that game ended up on five other platforms. I'm aware that Atlus doesn't have as many resources as Square, but making a complete version of Persona 3 that's at the level of current versions of Persona 4 Golden doesn't seem like that big of an ask compared to more modern games.

The trailer showed what looked like direct control in a dungeon. Does P3P have it only in dungeons?

@dichemstys: Yeah. You've got direct control in dungeons, but everything outside of it is menu based.

P3 and P5 are now announced as coming to Steam as well - P5 on October 21.

I think I saw more of Persona 3 when portable came out because of the lack of environments. Exploring every area again and again is not a 70 hour in activity but it’s fine within a menu.

Will Persona 5 royal be 60fps?

I heard the frame rate is tied to the game so only 30fps without breaking it.

Maybe that is why royale runs in 30fps on the pro

I’m so glad I don’t have to unearth my PSP, that probably has a ticking time bomb of a battery, to play P3P.

I've never played a Persona game, I'm just looking forward to Michael Higham's ass eating stream.

Even if this was the case, someone in this thread mentioned that you can inject something that will let you control all party members when emulating PCSX2 here. If some dudes on the internet can make it as simple as "download a file and copy it to a folder and turn it on in an emulator", then certainly a subsidiary of Sega working with one of their most popular franchises can get it working. And re-releasing an old game with an emulator instead of a port isn't unheard of - that's how I played P3FES originally, on my 2013 PS3, downloaded from PSN.

The real work would have been taking all the other parts of P3P and putting them into FES, primarily creating a female protagonist model that looks precisely as good as all of the other models and not a blocky PSP model and making animations for her. Even that doesn't seem like all that much work, I guess. Maybe it is?

@justin258: Who knows? The Lance McDonald 60 FPS patch for Bloodborne has existed for a while now and Lance claims it was not all that difficult to compile, yet the game famously has yet to have it implemented in official capacity. I've seen devs from other games comment on that specific case that the difference between an official patch and a fan made patch is that the official one would have to be put through rigorous testing to make sure that after you uncap the framerate something doesn't suddenly break in a very unique manner and that kind of troubleshooting is time intensive and more importantly costly. A fan patch can have broken parts because thats on you, but if From Software releases it then they have to have Play Testers play through the game using every weapon, every item, opening every door, and checking every permutation to make sure nothing suddenly wonks out with the physics etcs.

At least thats what I saw other developers claim would be a potential reason why a technically "simple" fix that some guy on the internet came up with on his own isn't being implemented into the retail product. Perhaps Persona 3 is a similar situation? I don't know, I'm not a developer, I have no idea what it even means to port PS2 code into the modern generation. From what I understand it's not always as easy as it seems.

Oh, I definitely think it's harder for a game dev than some random modder because of all the accountability involved. I agree with that.

The difference, however, is that this is a re-release of a game that's on the prime stage of Microsoft's gaming division, proudly announced by Phil Spencer himself. Even if only for a few seconds, you'd think that would mean it's worth the time and money necessary to do this whole thing right instead of just porting P3P. You could say that the only reason we're getting this is because Atlus can do the quick-and-dirty P3P port, sure, but if they don't think the game will sell well enough to justify marrying its two best versions together then maybe it wasn't worth being on Microsoft's stage in the first place.

Or perhaps P3P is just a bonus to the real prize of getting P4G and P5R on this system, I suppose, but now I'm just rambling. And I'd rather them not do it at all if they're just going to half-ass it.

In any case, unless I'm wrong and they're actually doing it the way I want, I'll probably just emulate it with the fan patch I mentioned above.

Is controlling party members that big a deal? The AI knows what to do as long as you scan enemies.

I know it was memed all over the place but that shit only happened if you let it.

In certain cases, yes. Beating the Reaper in FES took me many attempts, largely because my AI-controlled party members weren't smart enough to cast the appropriate buffs and debuffs at the right times. When I played the Portable version I think I beat it on my first try... second at most. So yeah, for trash mobs direct control really doesn't matter too much, but for bosses, boy howdy, it definitely matters.

In any case, I will probably end up buying P3P on Steam and playing through it again regardless, even if it isn't the ideal version I wanted. If nothing else I just need to know how well it holds up for me all these years later. I know I liked it much more than Persona 4, but the gap between those two games and Persona 5 was long enough that I'm not sure how much I'll miss some of P5's improvements. We'll see.

And sure enough, it looks like these games will also be coming to Playstation (though apparently only PS5, not PS4, which seems like an odd choice and a pity for those who still haven't nabbed a PS5 yet). Also, no mention of Switch.

Hey, I finally have a way to play Persona 3 and 5. I'm fucking hyped.

It's been a long time since I played it. At the time, I remember thinking that it's not as big a deal as it could have been, but I also remember being frustrated that I couldn't control my party members often enough that I never want to touch anything else that tries a similar approach with controlling party members. I should never have to pray that Mitsuru casts anything other than fucking Marin Karin, that turned into a meme for a reason. And I am aware that you can change what sort of roles your party members are supposed to fulfill - this helps a lot, but they still cast stupid shit sometimes.

Either way, controlling all of your own characters opens up more strategies and that's just more fun, even if it does make the game a lot easier than it otherwise would be.

@efesell said:

For the most part it's okay, outside of Mitsuru casting Marin Karin randomly, but as @atheistpreacher mentioned the Reaper is infuriating to fight against. The boss has several phases with completely different moves and affinities, so sometimes your AI party members would either heal the boss or get their attacks nullified/repelled. I remember the only way I could beat it was to intentionally use Rush to skip a party member's turn when I knew their attacks wouldn't work against a particular phase.