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With Persona 5 beginning a new chapter for the Persona series, fans previously found it difficult to get their hands on Persona 3, known for being one of the darkest games in the series. In 2023, modern console ports of Persona 3 Portable bring the beloved tale to the West once again.

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Serving as the game that bridged the gap between the Shin Megami Tensei series and the modern Persona as we know it now, Persona 3 has seen four different iterations – Persona 3, Persona 3 FES, Persona 3 Portable, and Persona 3 Reload - since its original 2006 release.

Updated on February 2, 2024: Now that Persona 3 Reload has launched, we're able to update our Persona 3 versions guide with more information about P3R, including its wealth of new features, graphical changes, and more.

Persona 3: The Canon Original

cover art for persona 3 featuring the male protagonist, yukari, and junpei in silhouette

Launching in 2006 as something of a spin-off to the original Shin Megami Tensei series, Persona 3 was the first Persona game to focus more on social simulation, including social links for the first time.

In addition to fighting your way through dungeons, Persona 3 also had you focus on the daily life of a high school student attending Gekkoukan High, joining clubs and making friends in addition to fighting Shadows.

The game was fully immersive and allowed players to walk around Iwatodai to explore, walking up to characters and shops to interact with them in animated cutscenes and a 3D environment.

Playing as the male protagonist, you're made to date every female social link he has, without the option to say no, and he does not have social links with his male teammates from SEES.

It served as the foundational game for what FES and P3P built on top of an already incredible story.

Persona 3 FES: The First Remake

cover art for persona 3 fes

FES, according to director Katsura Hashino, is short for “festival," and was the first remake of the game saw your protagonist enjoying more time with social links and a wealth of new weapon synthesis options for when it comes time to fight.

Additionally, FES was the first to include Hard Mode, offering an additional challenge for veterans of the series. You could even change costumes in Tartarus now, too.

The biggest change made in Persona 3 FES, though, was the addition of "The Answer," an epilogue chapter that adds roughly 30 hours of gameplay.

Though "The Answer" is fully focused on combat, it serves to answer questions left at the end of vanilla Persona 3.

FES included a new arcana and even more Personas, and therefore needed to rework which Personas fell under which arcana, resulting in something of a Compendium overhaul.

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Persona 3 Portable: The Condensed Version

promotional art for persona 3 portable featuring the members of sees

A Focus On Portability

Launching in 2009 originally and porting to modern consoles in 2023, P3P's focus on making the game more portable means a few things needed to be sacrificed from the original.

Instead of a 3D environment, Persona 3 Portable is more of a visual novel style of game that makes you interact with static location screens instead of exploring a walkable space.

Additionally, P3P doesn't feature the animated cutscenes that were beloved in the original and FES editions of the game.

Dialogue portions of Persona 3 Portable are fully visual novel in style and ask that you click through a series of dialogue screens with sprites instead of animated character models.

paulownia mall in persona 3 portable with one of the lost to show the visual novel style

However, it did add a few new features to the game, like additional difficulties that could now be switched at any time, part-time work, and the quick save feature.

Potentially due to this portability, P3P does not include The Answer.

It does, however, contain Vision Quest, an optional series of second battles with the Full Moon bosses as a great way to farm EXP toward the end of the game.

Battle Overhaul

Persona 3 Portable was the first time players were able to control the entire party during battle - the vanilla Persona 3 forced your fellow SEES members into the auto-battle functionality, offering no say in their fighting style.

Not only could you control the whole party, but you also now had the option to defend on your turn for the first time, instead of being made to simply wait for the impending attack if there were no better choices for that character.

the tactics menu in persona 3 portable showing different command options for party members during battle

Too much time in Tartarus will still make your teammates feel Tired the following day, but while the vanilla P3 made them Tired inside of Tartarus, P3P restricts this limitation to the following evening.

Your teammates still comment on their energy waning and may perform worse in battle, but they'll no longer be subject to the stricter stat reductions that vanilla Persona 3 forced you to contend with.

The Female Protagonist

persona 3 portable's two protagonists on a pink and blue background

Perhaps the biggest addition in Persona 3 Portable, though, was the option to play as a female protagonist, the first (and so far only) time you could in the Persona series.

Gameplay as the female protagonist (FeMC, as she's often referred to online) is much the same, but she's got different social links, a new Orpheus design, and a revamped soundtrack.

Her inclusion was for sake of attracting new fans to the series, with feedback that some female fans felt a bit excluded by vanilla P3's male focus and the requirement to date your female social links.

We cover all the differences between the two protagonists more completely in a separate guide.

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Persona 3 Reload - A Remake Of Vanilla P3 Two Decades On

Makoto and his Persona Thanatos in Persona 3 Reload

The Non-Definitive But Still Incredible Modernizing Remake

While the developers of Person have gone on record to say that Persona 3 Reload, which launched on February 2 of 2024, isn't the definitive version of the game, a fresh coat of paint and a complete remaster of the original Persona 3 sure does feel good, after all this time.

Sure, it's missing the content from FES (which has curiously been omitted from every version of Persona 3 other than FEES), but it's the smoothest way to experience Persona 3 to date, with the game's previous issues with story pacing patched up for the remake.

In the same vein as the ones fans loved in Persona 5, Persona 3 Reload features fully voiced and animated cutscenes for pretty much everything in the game. Your social links all play out as interactive cutscenes, any dialogue scenes with your team or at school allow you to decide how your protagonist reacts, and everything in between is anime at its core.

the track team advisor introducing yuko at practice persona 3 reload yuko strength p3r

Not only are your social links animated now, but they can also no longer break in P3R, which was a source of contention in older Persona games that saw your social links refuse to spend time with you if you'd wronged them in some way.

Tartarus Is Fully Immersive, And Battles Are More Streamlined Than Ever

Your social links may be key to fusing an impressive Compendium of Personas both new and old, and these Personas are your key to surviving as you climb the fully immersive Tartarus with your teammates to train for the coming Full Moon shadows.

The labyrinth of Tartarus has more visual detail than ever before, with the 3D graphics ramping up the creepiness of the tower and adding a new layer of fear where there wasn't one in the original games. It's always been a creepy place in concept, and now, it is in visuals, too. Battle UI has been updated to more closely resemble Persona 5's style, ditching the revolver UI in favor of modernity.

different levels of theurgy gauge fill persona 3 reload p3r

Stay on the lookout for the remains of Shadows around Tartarus - the long, black arms with glowing orbs on the end.

They've usually got HP/SP items or valuable loot you can sell for cash, but they'll also occasionally have Twilight Fragments, another new feature that allow you to access powerful healing and armors hidden within Tartarus, typically after Gatekeeper battles.

As you fight your way through Tartarus, you'll notice quickly that the battle system has been revamped to mimic Persona 5's more closely, although there are several battle features unique to Persona 3 Reload that build on the mechanical groundwork of P5.

akihiko using his theurgy attack in battle persona 3 reload p3r

Take for example the new Theurgy skills your teammates learn not long into the game, and these ultra-powerful moves that ignore enemies' resistance to deal severe damage, making Full Moon Shadows and Gatekeeper mini-boss fights a bit easier. You'll need to first charge their Theurgy gauges in ways that are individual to each teammate, to emphasize the different personalities you have on your team.

For example, Yukari's Theurgy charges by healing the party, while Junpei's charges when he deals critical damage in battle.

Your protagonist, though, has multiple Theurgy skills that echo the Fusion Spells of previous iterations of Persona 3. Though you used to need both Personas required for these powerful protagonist spells in your stock, now, simply making the requisite Personas and logging them to the Compendium is enough to unlock these famously damage-dealing moves.

protagonist with the jack brothers performing a theurgy attack in persona 3 reload p3r

What's additionally quite helpful is the new auto-battling mechanic. If you're facing a Persona whose affinities are known, auto-battle automatically selects a move that exploits the highlighted enemy's weakness. The game makes a Persona who knows a move of that damage type your active Persona, and the attack menu appears with the exploitative skill already highlighted - all you have to do is hit confirm to deal super-effective damage.

This is helpful for everyone in SEES, sure, but it's a huge time-saver with the protagonist, who can hold up to 12 Personas at any given time. No longer do you have to scroll through your stock of Personas searching for the one that knows the right move.

And when you're finished with exploring Tartarus for the night, don't worry about your teammates' status the day after - Persona 3 Reload doesn't feature the fatigue system that used to leave you and your teammates tired and with lower stats in previous versions of P3.

the rewind function in persona 3 reload p3r new features

Rewind Time To Fix Small But Crucial Mistakes

For the first time ever in the Persona series, no more do you need to hope you have a recent save if you realize you've missed a deadline for a request or messed up the progression of a social link - you can now simply rewind time by a few days if you need.

Say you're taking exams at school and choose the wrong answer, or you forgot about one of the Missing Persons requests, or maybe one of Elizabeth's Velvet Room request deadlines has passed - rewind can reset you to a key point when you could have saved recently, and you can jump back into that moment.

The mechanic only rewinds a few days, though, so if you decide to double back and correct a mistake, decide within three to four days or your progress will be lost.

The exception seems to be during exams, when you can finish your tests and then rewind to the start of the exam period when you still had direct control of your protagonist and free time during the days.

studying with sees and ikutsuki persona 3 reload new features p3r difference

You do lose everything you've done since then in doing this, but since the rewind only covers a few days, it's still not as much as you'd have lost reverting to an older save to recover whatever you lost.

More Interactivity With SEES

Though the female protagonist is curiously missing from P3R, the male protagonist has more ways to interact with his teammates than in any other version of Persona 3.

There are several new ways to spend time with SEES, and not only do you get brand-new cutscenes that add flavor to these already beloved characters, but they'll also typically boost your stats or offer a new HP/SP/stat item for use in Tartarus.

For example, plants you tend to with your friends may produce a larger harvest, while studying together gives a bigger Academics boost than doing it alone.

cooking with yukari in the dorm's kitchen persona 3 reload p3r

These new activities consume the time slot you trigger them in, and your choice in activies includes:

  • Studying together before exams by spending the evening at the table in the lounge at Iwatodai Dorm before exams.
    • This boosts your Academics stat, too, with more points earned with more teammates at the table.
  • Spending time together during your free time either in the afternoon or evening.
    • You'll occasionally find teammates asking to hang out, and doing so will offer some kind of perks in battle, like additional SP or stat boosts.
  • Watching DVDs in the lounge at Iwatodai Dorm with various members of the team.
    • Yukari has a selection of movies she wants to watch that boost your Charm, while Akihiko's boxing DVDs improve your Courage.
  • Cooking in the new kitchen at Iwatodai Dorm, with different members cooking different types of dishes.
    • These meals often replenish HP/SP, improve a stat, or heal a status ailment in battle, acting similar to the items you can purchase or find in Tartarus.
  • Reading on the second floor of the dorms outside your bedroom with various teammates.
    • Junpei has a selection of sports manga that improve your Courage, Fuuka , and Mitsuru's study materials are helpful for your Academics.

The male protagonist famously couldn't spend time with male SEES teammates, but even though FeMC has been omitted, these new scenes allow the MC a chance to spend time with all of SEES, not just the ones he's trying to date.

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