This interview has been edited for clarity.
The Shin Megami Tensei Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) franchise, created by Aya Nishitani, Kouji “Cozy” Okada, Ginichiro Suzuki, and Kazunari Suzuki, has become one of developer Atlus’ darlings since the release of its debut title, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei (1987). Over the years, the series has expanded and evolved, branching out into several spin-offs that largely maintain its core monster-taming gameplay fundamentals, and none are more recognisable than Persona.
Tracing its roots to Revelations: Persona on the original Sony PlayStation console in 1996, the Persona series has since ballooned to five numbered mainline titles, each featuring an independent storyline, albeit with common themes such as being centred around groups of students, a heavy emphasis on immersive social simulation, alongside combat using Personas – creatures which are a manifestation of a person’s psyche, and this was no different in 2006’s Persona 3.
Originally released for the PlayStation 2, Persona 3 was an immediate critical and commercial success, which saw the title receive numerous enhanced versions such as a “FES” director’s cut version in 2007 featuring new content and an epilogue, a port for the PSP in 2009, and most recently, Persona 3 Reload, a 2024 remake for modern-generation consoles rebuilt in Unreal Engine 4 and overhauled with multiple gameplay changes such as new mechanics from later games in the series and a full English voice cast.
“I always have a vision as to how remakes should be made,” explains Kazuhisa Wada, director at developer P Studio, during an interview with Geek Culture and members of Southeast Asia media during Tokyo Game Show (TGS) 2025.
“I think the most important thing is keeping the authentic experience that players felt during their first playthrough of the original Persona 3.”
For the remake, the team decided to avoid changing too many narrative aspects or deviating too much from the original character design, instead focusing on making the experience “much deeper and more sophisticated”, something they accomplished by re-recording the 2006 original’s voice lines and audio tracks, alongside implementing various quality-of-life features from later titles like Persona 5.
“We thought about just adding a little bit more voice recordings, but the process proved difficult, so we decided to just record the whole thing all over again,” he recalls, “We used all the same voice actors from the original Persona 3, and although there was a 20-year gap, there was actually not much of a difference.”
“In fact, these 20 years gave time for the actors to internalise their dialogue better, so I believe the acting was actually improved.”
“For music, we didn’t just re-record, but we built brand new arrangements,” he continues, “Azumi Takahashi (the remake’s new female vocalist for its songs, who replaces Azumi Takahashi from the original) was able to sing in this very youthful type of way, and brought just the right amount of energy into the music that we were looking for. It was a perfect fit for us.”
On the gameplay front, Persona 3 Reload included some new gameplay systems which were directly pulled from other more recent titles in the franchise, such as Shift, which functions like the Baton Pass system from Persona 5, and the Theurgy ultimate skill and although risky to introduce, has certainly paid off, since Persona 3 Reload sold a million units within the first week of its release in February 2024, making it the fastest-selling game in the franchise to reach the coveted million-sales milestone.
This impressive number would only double in less than a year, with the remake smashing the two million sales mark by March 2025, which is why it’s no surprise that Atlus has set its sights on expanding one of its most successful games in the series by bringing it to the latest flagship hybrid console, the Nintendo Switch 2.
This shift is to be expected considering how the fourth and fifth games in the series have already seen ports on the original Nintendo Switch console, notes the director of the game’s Nintendo Switch 2 version, Yoshihiro Komori.
“Persona 3 Reload was developed with lots of platforms in mind from the very beginning,” explains Komori when asked if the port might face readability issues, considering how text and UI heavy the remake can get, not just during the heat of its turn-based battles, but also while conversing with the numerous side characters and building Social Links during daytime.
“We incorporated larger fonts from the beginning of this project, so you could see in high fidelity in TV mode, and you could also see without any trouble with the handheld mode, it’s designed to work on any type of screen space.”
That isn’t to say porting the game to the Nintendo Switch 2 was completely smooth sailing, as the team did encounter some daunting challenges, largely due to the fact that development of the port actually started before the console’s release.
“We started development on the port one year before the Nintendo Switch 2 release,” adds Komori, “So the difficulty was trying to figure out the new hardware as we went along in development.”
With Persona 3 Reload’s port to the Nintendo Switch 2, the team opted for the same mentality when it came to building the original remake – Preservation over major changes, and that’s why the core experience of the remake has remained unchanged, even as the console now promises portability.
“With the Switch 2 having both its handheld mode and TV Mode, the internals switch between the two in terms of performance, so we had to think about how to incorporate the graphics for both, checking the performance for different scenes and specific areas within the game on both modes, making numerous small but impactful tweaks as we saw fit.”
Persona 3 Reload makes its way to the Nintendo Switch 2 on 23 October 2025.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Si Jia
