Summary
Persona 3 Reloadmarks the first time that aPersonagame has been remade. Since the title is straddling the line between new and old, it has the opportunity to be faithful to the original while updating it.Personatitles have long referenced one another, with characters making crossover appearances and places being referenced. The remakeshould be able to honor this tradition, even while remaining loyal to the original release of the game. This presents one challenge for developers, though, that being howPersona 3 ReloadcanreferencePersona 5when it takes place 7 years after it.
WhilePersonagames are stand alone, they all take place in the same world, and thePersonaseries timelinespans over 20 years.Revelations: Personaand thePersona 2duology are essentially one story, featuring many of the same characters. After this, however, connections tend to get more tenuous.Persona 3is set a decade after the second entry in the series, and while characters fromPersona 2are referenced, they are not tied directly into the story. Loose connections like this is how thePersonaseries has continued to reference itself. Multiple characters from3and4appear on the television in5, for example.
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Given that the protagonists ofPersona 5would be young children during the events ofPersona 3, the remake will likely have to referencePersona 5’s extended cast. Luckily for Atlus, some ofthe best palaces inPersona 5are the creation of characters who are famous inPersona’s world. By the timePersona 5begins, Kamoshida, Madarame, and Okumura are all at least somewhat famous, and Shido is working in politics. References toPersona 5could also come from its location; set in Tokyo,Persona 5contains multiple landmarks that characters in other entries would know.
Persona 5is packed with Easter eggs, andPersona 3Reloadcould reference4and5in the same way thatPersona 5references past titles. Being set in 2009,Persona 3takes place one year after the 2008 Olympic Games. Kamoshida from5is an Olympic volleyball player, so it could be referenced that he competed there. Madarame’s art could appear, or a museum could advertise an exhibit of his. Okumura Foods would be easy to reference as a location could have a sign bearing its name, or it could have a location as a visitable store. These characters being famous in the world make referencingPersona 5somewhat simple.
WhilePersona 5’s setting and cast of notable antagonists make it easy to reference,Persona 4could prove to be more difficult.Persona 3’sIwatodai andPersona 4’s Inabaare fictional places, and Inaba especially is small and lacks landmarks. The cast of the 4th entry does have some famous characters, however. InPersona 4,Rise references performing at the school fromPersona 3. This show could be worked back in toPersona 3Reload.Naoto is a notable child detective in4, and while they might be really young during the events of3, they could potentially make an appearance on the television.
Persona 3 Reloadhas plenty of opportunities to build in references toPersona 4andPersona 5and doing so would build out the world in a way that is fun for fans. Even if the adaptation tries to be extremely faithful, Easter eggs would be easy to include in an unobtrusive manner. IfPersona 1and2remakescome to fruition as leaks have suggested, they too could reference later titles in this way. Atlus can make newer fans of the franchise feel more attached toPersona 3 Reloadand other future remakes by referencing the series newer titles in this way, but must be careful not to make these references overbearing.
Persona 3 Reloadis coming in early 2024 to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
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