Back in February of 2020, a viral social media campaign was trending on Twitter among fans of the Persona series. Mainly, fans were asking for and/or throwing around the idea of a #Persona3Remake, which is an understandable reaction in a world where Final Fantasy 7 Remake actually exists. Being that Persona 3 was a very formative game for the franchise, many feel that the modern conveniences and innovations from Persona 5 could reinvigorate the Persona 3 story with a modern interpretation. Obviously a full remake of a Persona game is a lot, especially with the huge jump from Persona 4 to Persona 5. A remaster is more likely, but has very different obstacles.
Similar to Persona 4 Golden, the more likely scenario for the third entry in the series would be a high-res remaster or port to newer consoles. Golden in particular was at an advantage for a modern port, mostly because the PS Vita edition of Persona 4 overhauled and modernized many of the visuals, among new features as well. Unfortunately for Persona 3, it's not that easy. While future Persona games received clear and distinct definitive editions, releases that surpassed and arguably supplanted the original releases, Persona 3's different versions make things a bit more complicated.
Differences Between All Versions of Persona 3
The biggest obstacle for a Persona 3 remaster stems from the differences between its vastly different versions. Currently, there's three ways to play the third Persona game: Persona 3 proper on PS2, a director's cut-esque in Persona 3 FES, and an "enhanced" port to PSP with Persona 3 Portable. Obviously Persona 3 was the initial release back in 2006/2007, but Persona 3 FES expanded upon the base game with new features in the base game, as well as added an epilogue entitled "The Answer." Without the Portable port, Persona 3 FES would've easily been the game's definitive edition, but the PSP release has its own pros and cons with its many changes.
Persona 3 Portable makes a ton of quality of life changes in terms of gameplay, but the drawbacks lie in some of the compromises made to bring Persona 3 to PSP. Battle gameplay was expanded to allow for direct control of all party members, a huge change compared to the AI-only party members in Persona 3 and FES. Persona 3 Portable also featured two additional difficulty levels, as well as the ability to guard on battle turn instead of wait. However, many of the 3D environments outside of Tartarus were removed in favor of pre-rendered backgrounds, visual novel-style scenes, removed the anime cutscenes from key story moments, and doesn't feature the epilogue as well.
Remastering Persona 3 Is Not as Cut and Dry
Remastering Persona 3 presents a conundrum mainly stemming from which version of the game would make the most sense being ported to modern platforms. Obviously Persona 3 FES would be ported over the base game, considering only things were added between each PS2 release. However, remastering/porting Persona 3 FES instead of Persona 3 Portable means missing out on the things added in Portable. Remastering Persona 3 Portable means gameplay supremacy over a ton of visual compromises because of the original PSP's technical restrictions. There's no clear superior version, unlike future examples of Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal.
There is the potential reality where a sort-of hybrid port could be released, melding the changes between Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable into one definitive edition. Obviously that's a far more intensive development process compared to remastering one edition of the game, especially on an older game engine. That's also likely where the allure of remaking Persona 3 stems from, as creating a modernized definitive edition of the game would avoid these problems entirely. That being said, the likelihood of a full remake is a far less realistic luxury to expect. Unlike Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which modernizes a 23-year-old game, Persona 3 is comparatively still modern.
Persona 3 reaches its 15th anniversary this year, and considering Persona 4 Golden was ported on a much less impactful anniversary, it's not unreasonable to expect something Persona 3-related coming this summer. There's no hardcore evidence to support this, but Persona 4 Golden was essentially shadow-dropped on Steam last summer for the game's eighth anniversary, so it's not impossible. Unless Atlus and Sega do the unthinkable and commit to a modern Persona 3 remake, a Persona 3 FES remaster would probably the next best option. FeMC fans of Persona 3 Portable would be disappointed, but to some, it may be better than no Persona 3 re-release at all.