Summary
- Persona 3 Reload includes new scenes and hangout options but cuts content from The Answer, leaving fans divided on whether remakes should focus on representing all previous content or making something new.
- Persona 3 lacks a definitive version, with different remakes adding different content, forcing players to purchase multiple games to experience everything.
- Remakes should prioritize expanding the world and offering new content rather than rehashing what already exists, while also being accessible to both old and new fans of the franchise.
Only some games are ever remade, but should those remakes focus on representing all previous content or making something new? Persona 3 Reload has some fans split over this issue, as the game includes new scenes with Strega and extra hangout options with Social Links but cuts the female protagonist and content from The Answer. It begs the question of which direction development should take — if it’s more satisfying to see a more polished version of something a fan already loves or to see change within a well-established franchise. It’s not just a question of enjoyment but of preservation. For instance, The Answer is still stuck on the PS3 even though Persona 3 will technically have been remade twice within a span of two years, counting the early 2023 port of Persona 3 Portable and Persona 3 Reload in 2024.
For a game to be a definitive version, it must include all past content, whether it’s DLC or an epilogue. A definitive edition may add new content or update how the game controls, but usually the focus is on preserving the base experience. With that definition, Persona 3 Reload is not the definitive edition of Persona 3, and, more importantly, there is no definitive version of Persona 3. FES has different content from Portable which has different content from the original game. If players want to experience everything in Persona 3‘s world, they might have to purchase as many as three games, counting Reload.
Some Remakes Make Previous Games Obsolete
Persona as a franchise has an interesting relationship with definitive versions, given that the modern titles are now prone to release a second or even third time with a completely different story and DLC. Take Persona 5, which has the vanilla game, Persona 5 Royal, and then a re-release of Royal that includes all the DLC. On top of this, there are all the spin-offs, like Strikers, Persona 5 Tactica, and PQ2: New Cinema Labyrinth. It’s generally a rule of thumb in the Persona franchise that the original game will become obsolete with the next remake, and that any remakes may add as much as a new protagonist or as little as unlocking the DLC. For some games, that makes the remake argument very easy, since a player can conclude that Persona 5 Royal is the definitive version of that game.
Persona 3 is a little different, as it existed in the transition between Persona as a spin-off of Shin Megami Tensei (in which Persona 1 and 2 have more of a dungeon-crawling aspect and lack social links) to the modern Persona series as fans know it today. Every remake of 3 added a lot of new content, and that means that making a definitive version could prove to be too much effort — or at least, too much effort for the expected return of profits.
Sometimes Less Is More
When it comes to Persona 3 Reload, it may be for the best that it doesn’t include all previous content, as The Answer wasn’t particularly well-received. Cutting those thirty hours of gameplay gave the developers extra time to work on improving the base game, which will hopefully flesh out already existing characters or give the player more things to do. Of course, sometimes remakes decide to take things in a completely different direction, and that’s not always a bad thing, either. The Final Fantasy VII Remake takes one of the most influential games of all time and completely rewrites the formula. As a remake, the FFVII Remake‘s story is similar, but from a gameplay perspective, it’s a completely different game.
Of course, there’s one thing that stands out about Final Fantasy VII: it is readily available on modern platforms for an affordable price and frequently goes on sale. It’s an accessible game, and will hopefully continue to be so. Parts of Persona 3 aren’t as accessible, though that has definitely improved with the port of the PSP version. The fact that The Answer wasn’t popular shouldn’t prevent it from being accessible, as all art is subjective, and for every “bad” game that exists, there’s someone who’s a fan of it.
Definitive editions of games are important, but if all that content is readily available in other forms, then it might be better for remakes to focus on expanding the world rather than rehashing what already exists. Persona 3 Reload is already promising new content, and that’s a good thing! Fans can only hope that the resurgence of the game’s popularity will lead to an update to Reload, or perhaps a port of The Answer. The gaming industry is just that: an industry, and one that won’t likely be convinced to remake or port anything unless fans make it clear it will be a profitable venture. While it shouldn’t be on the shoulders of the audience to prove that art will sell, that’s unfortunately how the cards settle when said art is turned into a for-profit venture.
Remakes Should Stand On Their Own
A remake can be many things, but one thing it shouldn’t be is a sequel. While self-referential humor is allowed and even encouraged, new fans of the franchise should be able to play a remake and have fun with it. For a lot of Persona fans, Persona 5 was their first game, and Persona 3 Reload will be their primary touchstone to that point in the series. There are plenty of details for old fans to enjoy — such as the main character’s trailer finally revealing that the music in Persona 3 is diegetic — but the things that made gamers fall in love with Persona 3 should also be available to newcomers.
Ideally, a remake should be a mixture of new and old content, with the caveat that all older content not covered by the remake should be accessible via other means. A remake should have enough new to it that it has a chance to improve the game it was based on, whether that be through extra dialogue and story, combat mechanics, or basic controls. One improvement Persona 3 Reload has the opportunity to make is giving the player more things to do outside exploring Tartarus, but if the game was a 1:1 remake of the original game, then it would have no room to grow. It’s tricky to say exactly what balance of old and new content should be included in a remake, but at the end of the day, a remake is a failure if it doesn’t function as a standalone experience.
The problem of what a remake should be is a problem that exists only because older games are becoming less accessible. If it were cheap and easy to play older games, then a fan who wanted an exact replica of an older game could just go back and play that game with maybe a few mods for additional content rather than wait a year for a $70 game to release. As physical copies of older games are either sold by scalpers or are literally deteriorating, the problem of what to do to preserve older games is coming to a head. Just as books receive reprints and older movies are available through streaming services, gamers should be able to easily — and legally — access older titles.
