The Persona series has really picked up steam in the West over the last several years and has become one of the biggest JRPG franchises out there. The games have won over many with their solid gameplay, fantastic soundtracks, and interesting and engaging characters. The games have a lot of content packed in, but there’s a lot of stuff that never made the final cut.

With all that being said, finding out just what was kept out of the games isn’t an easy task. There’s a whole lot of speculation out there and not all that many English sources to confirm it. Luckily, quite a bit of what was cut out of the Persona games has been officially confirmed. Here are 10 things Atlus cut out of the Persona series that will have you asking why.

RELATED: Persona 5: 10 Facts You Never Knew About Morgana

10 Different Battle UI – Persona 3 FES

Persona 5 blew us all away with its highly stylistic UI that perfectly melded with the game’s overall mood. It seems like a small thing to fuss over, but it really did play into what made the game so easy to enjoy – at least at a surface level.

Persona 3 almost featured different battle UI than what was eventually used. While not as eye-popping as P5’s it had a lot more color to it and just looked great. No one would’ve complained with that being added into the game.

9 Sports Car Morgana – Persona 5

Morgana is kind of a love or hate character, as most of the Persona series mascot characters are. The whole forced sleep meme aside, Morgana has moments in the game where he can be pretty insufferable. But one thing that you have to love is his ability to turn into a big ol’ van in Mementos.

It’s a funny concept that makes exploration easy and fun. Initially, Morgana was supposed to turn into a sports car. But that idea was scrapped when the developers figured he would be too small to fit an entire party in that way.

8 Shido’s Room – Persona 5

Shido is a pretty good villain if only due to how easy he is to hate. There are absolutely no redeeming features to the guy. Corrupt, violent, malevolent; pick your poison.

Though it doesn’t appear in the final version of the game, Shido’s room is seen in certain loading screens. The player never actually visits the room, but the image above could suggest that that wasn’t always the case during development. It was certainly scrapped for a good reason but it could’ve been an interesting idea to run with had it stayed.

7 Naoto Joining Sooner – Persona 4

One thing that’s frustrating about newer Persona games is how long it takes to unlock certain party members. Some like Naoto are only made available pretty late in the game’s calendar year. Not only does that mean less time with them in battle, but less time to work on Social Links as well.

RELATED: Persona 5: The 10 Best Personas, Ranked

There are some unused scenes in Junes that imply that Naoto was initially supposed to be unlocked a good deal earlier in the game. Her Social Link was a bit of a tight fit schedule-wise, so the added time could’ve gone a long way.

6 Different Encounters – Persona 3

You have to go pretty far back to find this next one. Most fans may not be aware of it, but you can actually find some beta footage of Persona 3 online. In a series of blog posts, series director Katsura Hashino details some differences in battle mechanics between the beta and final product.

One of the most intriguing is how the beta seamlessly goes into battles, as opposed to how to original brings you into a separate screen. It’s an interesting concept, but one that they ultimately had to ditch due to space constraints.

5 Dream Sequences – Persona 4

This next one is a pretty minor difference. Dreams in Persona 4 randomly boosted social link status. It was a fairly useful feature that was randomly generated but ultimately didn’t play all too big a part in your social link progression.

RELATED: Persona 5: 10 Facts You Never Knew About Skull

In the game’s early stages, the dream sequences were supposed to raise your Persona’s stats instead. Depending on what you prefer you can pretty much take it or leave it, but this just seems to have a more practical use.

4 Marriage Certificate – Persona 3 FES

This next one is a bit of a mystery and can only be speculated on. Persona 3 features some unused data for what looks like a marriage certificate. What this actually does/means is anyone’s guess as the image above is all we have to go on.

From the looks of it, it seems as though being able to marry Social Link characters was an option at some point during the game’s development. That would’ve certainly been interesting to see play out, but then again it wouldn’t have ended well for the MC.

3 Hifumi The Phantom Thief – Persona 5

Of all the non-party members in Persona 5 Hifumi is the one that gets the most love from fans. Her personality and design all make it easy to root for her, and many have wondered why she herself wasn’t a member of the Phantom Thieves. Well, as it turns out she was actually supposed to be.

RELATED: Persona 5: The Ultimate Guide To Crafting An Eternal Lockpick

Hifumi was initially supposed to be a more “radical minded” strategist for the team and complement Makoto as the brains of the operation. Makoto ended up absorbing most of Hifumi’s traits and she would be added back in as a Confidant later on.

2 A Bunch of Unused Enemies – Persona 4

While Persona 4 had its fair share of shadows to bully, the idea of adding in more seems too good to pass up. There’s data for a bunch of unused enemies in the game’s code.

Most of them are Maya enemies from Persona 3 that don’t have any skills. In total there are about 17 unused enemies. Though it doesn’t make or break the game, it would’ve been fun to face them.

1 Sae’s Possible Romance – Persona 5

One thing that fans of Persona 5 really want to see is a Sae romance option. You can romance a washed-up journalist, hoax fortune teller and even your own homeroom teacher; so why not Sae as well?

There’s unused dialogue in the game that suggests that this was supposed to be an option but it was apparently changed during development for some reason. But with any luck, Atlus will fix this when The Royal comes out next year.

NEXT: Fire Emblem Three Houses: 10 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do In The Monastery