If you were holding out hope that the protagonist in Persona 3 Reload would be able to pick and choose between all the different weapon types, we've got (seemingly) bad news. Based on a new information dump from Atlus, the upcoming remake will lock the long-haired hero into using a one-handed sword.
For those who may not know what the deal is, in the original Persona 3 and enhanced re-release Persona 3 FES, the protagonist could be equipped with any weapon type. You could give him a kickass longsword like Junpei's, or even a ranged weapon. We distinctly remember kitting him out with gloves so we could be battle bros with Akihiko.
However, this feature was removed from Persona 3 Portable, in which the male protagonist was stuck with one-handed swords, and the female protagonist had to make do with naginatas. It's been speculated that the development team didn't want to direct resources to recreating all of the different weapon animations for the female lead and so both heroes got set weapon types — but that theory's never been proven (although it would make some degree of sense).
Anyway, the aforementioned Atlus info says "[The protagonist's] weapon of choice is a one-handed short sword". What's more, every slice of gameplay footage that we've seen so far has shown the lead wielding such a sword.
Did you want the weapon choice to return in Persona 3 Reload? Or are you not at all bothered? Keep that edge sharp in the comments section below.
[source p-ch.jp, via gematsu.com]
Comments 16
So much for it being faithful to the original. They couldn't add other features from portable but they can add this as it makes their job easier.
Don't worry though as you can buy the FES Edition in two years time that includes all weapon types for the protagonist.
Wasn't expecting it to frankly. They've settled on the protagonists having a specific weapon type since 2008, and it'll probably stay that way for Persona 6 as well.
Lazy and greedy, typical of Atlus
"It's been speculated that the development team didn't want to direct resources to recreating all of the different weapon animations for the female lead"
Lots of games use the same animations for all or many characters. Male and female Shepard shared animations and I'd bet all other human-like models did as well. Granted, it is more of a western thing, JRPGs do tend to have unique animations for different characters. If anything, I could see it more of a balance thing since different weapon types types exploit different weaknesses, right?
The only thing this does is reaffirm my stance that this new and "improved" Atlus doesn't deserve full price money. Knowing them they would probably later have the Xbox version of the protagonist be able to equip every weapon in the franchise just cause 🤷
People overreacting as usual. I didn't care in Portable, I don't care now.
@Foxhound I’m not trying to argue, but saying lazy is quite the stretch. They have essentially completely overhauled this game compared to its previous versions. Moreover, they have been releasing quality games aside from their mainline Persona games in relatively quick succession with fantastic results. I wouldn’t call them lazy; maybe uninspired in some respects, but certainly not lazy.
@guntam Agreed. People like to make mountains out of molehills.
Oh no! Anyway…
No seriously, who cares?
This really doesn’t matter to me. All I care about are the music, story, characters and combat. What the weapons look like is not a big deal. Excited to play P3 for the first time!
I played FES first and honestly forgot this was a feature so I can't say I'll be too bothered to see it gone.
Only played portable so i never expected anything else.
Once again I'll take a different ending if there up for changing things
@guntam For real. When playing through P4 and P5 I never thought "Man, I wish the protagonist could use some other kind of weapon" because it simply hardly matters
@GilgaMax96 No
@GilgaMax96 Look who's talking lmao
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