This year Sega/Atlus was going in strong with multiple panels focusing on fan-favorite titles like Persona and Like a Dragon (it will always be Yakuza to me) and once I wasn’t going to miss for anything was the Persona 3 Reload panel.
Persona 3 will always hold a special place in my heart, while I played the previous two games on the PlayStation it was Persona 3 originally released in 2006 that stood out the most to me. The characters, the design, the music…oh man the music, to this day I still love blasting Burn My Dread, Mass Destruction, Kimi no Kioku, Deep Breath, and When The Moon’s Reaching Out Stars just to name a few.
Rumors of a Persona 3 remake have been around for some time but when it was finally announced “early” my excitement couldn’t be contained especially as the game is getting more than just a fresh new coat of paint. From what it seems Atlus is keeping the core story and gameplay the same as the original PS2 release with a few quality-of-life changes, additional scenes, and new Personas but it won’t stop me from believing we will be able to change the fate of Door-Kun.
The panel kicked off with new character art for Fuuka, Mitsuru, and Akihiko before showing off a brand-new English gameplay reveal trailer.
Right after the trailer, a few voice actors made their appearance dressed like their respective characters from the game with Aleks Le (protagonist), Heather Gonzalez as (Yukari), Zeno Robinson (Junpei), Allegra Clark (Mitsuru), Alejandro Saab (Akihiko) and Suzie Yeung (Fuuka). I won’t lie, one of my concerns about the game was the new voice cast, Yuri Lowethnall (protagonist & Ryoji), Michelle Ruff (Yukari), Liam O’ Brien (Akihiko), Tara Platt (Mitsuru), and the rest of the cast did a great job back in 2006, so there are some pretty big shoes to fill and at one point Aleks even brought this up.
A lot of things were talked about, things like how each one of them gets into character, how much they relate to their characters, behind the scene moments, memorable moments and more. To be honest it’s better to watch the cast talk about it over reading it which is why we have a link to the panel below.
Though there were two stories that really stood out, well that and the cast reading some lines from the game. Aleks talked about talking to Yuri Lowenthal who is one of his heroes after finding out about getting the role of the protagonist in the game. Yuri was very excited that Aleks got the role, shortly after Zeno also mentioned he talked to Yuri Lowenthal about getting the role of Junpei and how supportive and was excited for him.
I have to say, after the panel, I am more excited about the game than ever. The cast sounds great, the improved character designs and gameplay look amazing and I can’t wait to hear Yumi Kawamura and Lotus Juice and any remixes that may come, maybe even a new song.
All in all 2024 can’t come fast enough.