As much as fans might want the female protagonist from Persona 3 Portable (known canonically as Kotone Shiomi) to make a return in Persona 3 Reload, the devs at Atlus’s P-Studio stand by their decision not to include her in a future update.
In a recent interview with Danfaminicogamer, Persona series general producer Kazuhisa Wada says that even with Persona 3 Reload on its way to Switch 2, the addition of the female protagonist is not a realistic possibility. Much like in past statements, he explains that the costs and time needed to implement her would be too high – several times the resources that went into the Episode Aigis DLC.
Instead, with their limited time and budget, Wada says it’s P-Studio’s mission to tackle a variety of other new things. “If you ask what we might have left unfinished in Persona 3 Reload, that would certainly be one answer – but the whole team is working together on many different initiatives so that fans have something to look forward to.”
When asked about what these new pursuits may be, game director, producer, and Persona 3 lyricist Shigeo Komori mentioned that he is currently focusing on studying modern psychology and transactional analysis – the latter being the study of social interactions to determine people’s “ego states.”
Komori intents to incorporate what he has learned into game development, striving to depict human behavior and psychology more realistically. Since each person has different desires and ideals, he takes it as a challenge to create a work that fulfills those ideals. Aside from incorporating psychology into his future works, Komori would like to create a game that “will give players some kind of realization or inspiration,” in such a way that it will have “even a small positive effect on their lives.” Though he did not mention Persona specifically, the topics he mentioned easily fall under the subjects tackled by the franchise.
On the other hand, Wada mentions being involved in “so many things, even outside of games,” that there’s barely enough of him to go around. While Persona 3’s female protagonist may be out of the picture, fans of the series clearly have a lot to look forward to.
Persona 3 Reload is available for PS5/PS4, Xbox One,/Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam). The Nintendo Switch 2 edition is set to release on October 23, 2025.
