Highlights
- The Shift combat mechanic in Persona 3 Reload is similar to the Baton Pass from Persona 5 , indicating a focus on improving turn-based combat across the franchise.
- Persona 3 Reload 's adjustments to the combat loop make it seem likely that Persona 6 will stick to turn-based combat, rather than following trends towards action in the game industry.
- Persona 3 Reload 's combat may serve as the foundation for future Persona games, providing a neutral base for Atlus to innovate and experiment with in Persona 6 and beyond.
Although Atlus said shortly after its announcement that Persona 3 Reload is intended to be largely faithful to the original Persona 3, the developer has also revealed several changes that the game will undergo. The game has vastly more voice acting than before, the story will receive some updates to better showcase certain character arcs, and Tartarus looks different in a lot of ways too. Recent demo previews of Persona 3 Reload have also shone light on a combat mechanic called Shifting, which lets players pass turns to a teammate after knocking down an enemy by targeting its weakness and getting the usual One More.
Shifting is obviously inspired by the Baton Pass from the Persona 5 family of games, which strongly encouraged players to tactically knock down enemies and pass turns to allies, ramping up each party member's damage over time and getting more access to elemental affinities in any one turn. At the moment, details on Shift are scarce; it's unclear if it's quite as flexible as Baton Pass, or if Atlus has imposed new limits on it. Regardless, though, this Persona 3 Reload feature is great news for fans of the IP's style of combat, since it may be a clue that turn-based battles are here to stay for Persona 6 and beyond.
Persona 3 Reload's Shift May Suggest Persona 6 Will Stay Turn-Based
Given the recent move away from turn-based combat in major JRPG franchises like Final Fantasy, Persona fans have cause to wonder if Atlus is at all interested in going action-RPG as well. The musou-style spinoff Persona 5 Strikers was a success, after all, so Atlus could seize on its formula to make Persona 6 a similar hack-and-slash title or some other type of action RPG. However, Persona 3 Reload is sticking to its turn-based roots, and what's more, Atlus is clearly intent on innovating within that space.
Atlus' reuse of Baton Pass as Shift in Persona 3 Reload seems to point to an effort to make the turn-based system better across the franchise, rather than an effort to move towards a different genre. On top of that, Atlus is introducing crucial quality of life features to Persona 3 Reload that the original game didn't have, like the ability to control party members. Rather than a perfectly faithful revival of P3's combat, Persona 3 Reload seems like an attempt from Atlus to combine the classic, relatively basic combat loop of Persona 3 will some of the franchise's best modern conventions. Doing so could give the developer the perfect foundation to innovate upon in Persona 6.
Using Persona 3 Reload's combat rather than P5's as the basis for P6 would make sense due to P5's emphasis on style. Combat in Persona 5 is great, but it's also filled with mechanics like gun attacks and Hold Ups that are specifically designed for its picaresque aesthetic and therefore might not hold up in P6. Persona 3 Reload's combat, on the other hand, looks like a relatively blank slate that isn't reliant on P3's themes. Once P3R establishes a more neutral version of Persona's modern combat model, Atlus can iterate on it on Persona 6 and its successors. In this way, Persona 3 Reload might be the new standard for Persona combat moving forward, cementing turn-based fights as a core facet of Persona and providing Atlus a good baseline to experiment with.
Shift may need a little bit of work as the successor to Baton Pass. The flexibility and depth of strategy granted by Baton Pass arguably made Persona 5 far less difficult than past Persona games, so Atlus may need to place limits on Shift or rebalance enemies to account for this. Still, it's great to see one of Persona 5's most creative mechanics seemingly become a franchise mainstay, and even better, that Persona seems intent on remaining turn-based, given Atlus' continued efforts to improve turn-based combat in each mainline entry.
Persona 3 Reload releases February 2, 2024 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
