Quick Links
With Persona 5 beginning a new chapter for thePersonaseries, fans previously found it difficult to get their hands onPersona 3, known for being one of the darkest games in the series. In 2023, modern console ports of Persona 3 Portable bring the beloved tale to the West once again.
Serving as the game that bridged the gap between theShin Megami Tenseiseries and the modern Persona as we know it now, Persona 3 has seen four different iterations – Persona 3, Persona 3 FES, Persona 3 Portable, and Persona 3 Reload - since its original 2006 release.
Updated on June 02, 2025:Now that Persona 3 Reload has launched, we’re able to update our Persona 3 versions guide with more information about P3R, including its wealth of new features, graphical changes, and more.
Persona 3: The Canon Original
Launching in2006as something of a spin-off to the original Shin Megami Tensei series, Persona 3 was thefirst Persona game to focus more on social simulation,includingsocial linksfor the first time.
In addition to fighting your way through dungeons, Persona 3 also had you focus on thedaily life of ahigh school studentattending Gekkoukan High, joining clubs and making friends in addition to fighting Shadows.
The game was fully immersive and allowed players towalk around Iwatodaito explore, walking up to characters and shops to interact with them inanimated cutscenesand a3D environment.
Playing as the male protagonist, you’remade to date every female social linkhe has, without the option to say no, and hedoes not have social links with his male teammates from SEES.
It served asthe foundational gamefor what FES and P3P built on top of an already incredible story.
Persona 3 FES: The First Remake
FES, according to director Katsura Hashino, isshort for “festival,“and was thefirst remakeof the game saw your protagonist enjoyingmore time with social linksand a wealth ofnew weapon synthesis optionsfor when it comes time to fight.
Additionally, FES was the first to includeHard Mode, offering an additional challenge for veterans of the series. You could evenchange costumes in Tartarusnow, too.
The biggest change made in Persona 3 FES, though, was the addition of"The Answer,“an epilogue chapter thatadds roughly 30 hours of gameplay.
Though"The Answer” is fully focused on combat, it serves to answer questions left at the end of vanilla Persona 3.
FES included anew arcana and even more Personas, and therefore needed to rework which Personas fell under which arcana, resulting in something of a Compendium overhaul.
Persona 3 Portable: The Condensed Version
A Focus On Portability
Launching in2009originally and porting to modern consoles in 2023, P3P’sfocus on making the game more portablemeans a few things needed to be sacrificed from the original.
Instead of a 3D environment, Persona 3 Portable is more of avisual novel style of gamethat makes you interact withstatic location screensinstead of exploring a walkable space.
Additionally, P3Pdoesn’t feature the animated cutscenesthat were beloved in the original and FES editions of the game.
Dialogue portions of Persona 3 Portable are fully visual novel in style and ask that you click through aseries of dialogue screenswith sprites instead of animated character models.
However, it did add a few new features to the game, likeadditional difficultiesthat could now beswitched at any time, part-time work, and thequick savefeature.
Potentially due to this portability, P3Pdoes not include The Answer.
It does, however, containVision Quest, an optional series ofsecond battles with the Full Moon bossesas a great way to farm EXP toward the end of the game.
Battle Overhaul
Persona 3 Portable was the first time players wereable to control the entire party during battle- the vanilla Persona 3 forced your fellow SEES members into the auto-battle functionality, offering no say in their fighting style.
Not only could you control the whole party, but you also now had the option todefend on your turnfor the first time, instead of being made to simply wait for the impending attack if there were no better choices for that character.
Too much time in Tartarus will stillmake your teammates feel Tired the following day, but while the vanilla P3 made them Tiredinsideof Tartarus, P3P restricts this limitation to the following evening.
Your teammates still comment on their energy waning andmay perform worse in battle, but they’ll no longer be subject to the stricter stat reductions that vanilla Persona 3 forced you to contend with.
The Female Protagonist
Perhaps the biggest addition in Persona 3 Portable, though, was the option toplay as a female protagonist, the first (and so far only) time you could in the Persona series.
Gameplay as the female protagonist (FeMC, as she’s often referred to online) is much the same, but she’s gotdifferent social links, a new Orpheus design,and arevamped soundtrack.
Her inclusion was for sake ofattracting new fans to the series, with feedback that some female fans felt a bit excluded by vanilla P3’s male focus and the requirement to date your female social links.
We cover all the differences between the two protagonists more completelyin a separate guide.
The Non-Definitive But Still Incredible Modernizing Remake
While the developers of Person have gone on record to say thatPersona 3 Reload, which launched on February 2 of 2024, isn’t the definitive version of the game, afresh coat of paintand acomplete remaster of the original Persona 3sure does feel good, after all this time.
Sure, it’smissing the content from FES(which has curiously been omitted from every version of Persona 3otherthan FEES), but it’s thesmoothest way to experience Persona 3to date, with the game’s previousissues with story pacingpatched up for the remake.
In the same vein as the ones fans loved in Persona 5, Persona 3 Reload featuresfully voicedand animated cutscenesfor pretty much everything in the game. Yoursocial linksall play out as interactive cutscenes, anydialogue sceneswith your team or at school allow you to decide how your protagonist reacts, and everything in between is anime at its core.
Not only are your social links animated now, but they can alsono longer breakin P3R, which was a source of contention in older Persona games that saw your social links refuse to spend time with you if you’d wronged them in some way.
Tartarus Is Fully Immersive, And Battles Are More Streamlined Than Ever
Your social links may be key to fusing animpressive Compendium of Personas both new and old, and these Personas are your key to surviving as you climb thefully immersive Tartaruswith your teammates to train for the coming Full Moon shadows.
The labyrinth ofTartarus has more visual detail than ever before, with the 3D graphics ramping up the creepiness of the tower and adding a new layer of fear where there wasn’t one in the original games. It’s always been a creepy place in concept, and now, it is in visuals, too.Battle UIhas been updated tomore closely resemble Persona 5’s style, ditching the revolver UIin favor of modernity.
Stay on the lookout for theremains of Shadowsaround Tartarus - thelong, black arms with glowing orbson the end.
They’ve usually gotHP/SP items or valuable lootyou can sell for cash, but they’ll also occasionally haveTwilight Fragments, another new feature that allow you toaccess powerful healing and armorshidden within Tartarus, typically after Gatekeeper battles.
As you fight your way through Tartarus, you’ll notice quickly that thebattle system has been revamped to mimic Persona 5’s more closely, although there are severalbattle features unique to Persona 3 Reloadthat build on the mechanical groundwork of P5.
Take for example the newTheurgy skillsyour teammates learn not long into the game, and theseultra-powerful moves that ignore enemies' resistanceto deal severe damage, making Full Moon Shadows and Gatekeeper mini-boss fights a bit easier. You’ll need to firstcharge their Theurgy gaugesin ways that areindividual to each teammate, to emphasize the different personalities you have on your team.
For example, Yukari’s Theurgy charges by healing the party, while Junpei’s charges when he deals critical damage in battle.
Your protagonist, though, hasmultiple Theurgy skillsthat echo the Fusion Spells of previous iterations of Persona 3. Though you used to need both Personas required for these powerful protagonist spells in your stock, now, simplymaking the requisite Personas and logging them to the Compendiumis enough to unlock these famously damage-dealing moves.
What’s additionally quite helpful is the newauto-battling mechanic. If you’re facing a Persona whoseaffinities are known, auto-battleautomatically selects a move that exploits the highlighted enemy’s weakness. The game makes a Persona who knows a move of that damage type your active Persona, and the attack menu appears with the exploitative skill already highlighted -all you have to do is hit confirmto deal super-effective damage.
This is helpful for everyone in SEES, sure, but it’s a huge time-saver with the protagonist, who can hold up to 12 Personas at any given time. No longer do you have to scroll through your stock of Personas searching for the one that knows the right move.
And when you’re finished with exploring Tartarus for the night, don’t worry about your teammates' status the day after - Persona 3 Reloaddoesn’t featurethe fatigue systemthat used to leave you and your teammates tired and with lower stats in previous versions of P3.
Rewind Time To Fix Small But Crucial Mistakes
For the first time ever in the Persona series, no more do you need to hope you have a recent save if you realize you’ve missed a deadline for a request or messed up the progression of a social link - you’re able to now simplyrewind time by a few daysif you need.
Say you’re taking exams at school and choose the wrong answer, or you forgot about one of the Missing Persons requests, or maybe one of Elizabeth’s Velvet Roomrequest deadlines has passed- rewind canreset you to a key point when youcouldhave saved recently, and you can jump back into that moment.
The mechaniconly rewinds a few days, though, so if you decide to double back and correct a mistake,decide within three to four daysor your progress will be lost.
The exception seems to beduring exams, when you can finish your tests and thenrewind to the start of the exam periodwhen you still had direct control of your protagonist and free time during the days.
You do lose everything you’ve done since then in doing this, but since the rewind only covers a few days, it’s still not as much as you’d have lost reverting to an older save to recover whatever you lost.
More Interactivity With SEES
Though thefemale protagonist is curiously missing from P3R, the male protagonist hasmore ways to interact with his teammatesthan in any other version of Persona 3.
There areseveral new waysto spend time with SEES, and not only do you getbrand-new cutscenesthat add flavor to these already beloved characters, but they’ll also typicallyboost your statsor offer anew HP/SP/stat itemfor use in Tartarus.
For example, plants you tend to with your friends may produce a larger harvest, while studying together gives a bigger Academics boost than doing it alone.
These new activitiesconsume the time slotyou trigger them in, and your choice in activies includes:
The male protagonist famously couldn’t spend time with male SEES teammates, but even though FeMC has been omitted, these new scenesallow the MC a chance to spend time withallof SEES, not just the ones he’s trying to date.
