Persona 3 Was “Critical Moment” for the Series to Continue, It Could Have Ended With Persona 2, Says Atlus
Although Atlus’ Persona franchise is hugely popular today, it remained a niche series for decades. Even Persona 4 Golden received little attention when it was available on PS Vita, despite the excitement surrounding its upcoming remake, Persona 4 Revival.
Speaking about this, its developer says that the first Persona games, which were very different from the later entries, could also have been the last, and that Persona 3 was the “critical moment of whether the series would continue or not.”
Today, the series enjoys huge popularity, but its producer, Kazuhisa Wada, cannot forget its past and admits that the franchise could have ended with Persona 2.
Persona 3’s Release Was Crucial for Atlus
With Persona 3, Atlus gave the series a major overhaul. New ideas such as Social Links were introduced, while the user interface, gameplay and overall presentation were also improved.
That was intentional, and Wada says the team needed to attract more than just its most dedicated fans. He talked about this and more during an interview with Famitsu (translated by Nintendo Everything.)
Wada said, “After Persona 2, there was a long time where there was no plan for a third game. And it seemed like in that case Persona would disappear. There was a real necessity to bring it back.”
“Until then we had made games like Shin Megami Tensei and Persona and they were very fun and the people that liked them, really liked them. But at that time it meant there was an image of our company – Atlus – that we were very fixated on our core fans. We knew we needed to greatly change that image, so at that time we looked to the Tales of games for reference,” Wada continued.
“From Persona 3, the format became an RPG that was a lot easier for a wider audience of people to get into. But the thing that really shocked us was the UI. The fact that something so perfectly executed just suddenly appeared, was really a shock to us,” said Yusuke Tomizawa, producer of Tales of, who was also part of the interview.
Tomizawa added, “Even though the Persona games up until then hadn’t been heading in this direction, suddenly there was a design that was so perfectly controlled. Even the decision to abbreviate the title as ‘P3’ shows such style.”
Wada admits that it was his decision to handle the general design and UI of Persona 3, but he felt that “we had our backs to the wall. It was the critical moment of whether the series would continue or not. It was because of that there wasn’t really any hesitation about changing things that had been used up until now, and we really enjoyed making some parts too.”
Tomizawa felt that the characters, UI, and overall style fit together perfectly, so he remembers thinking, “If they are putting so much consideration into what they produce, we’re in trouble!”
In related news, Atlus has also announced Persona 6 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, with the highly anticipated JRPG launching on Game Pass day one.
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