Leaked Footage Suggests Sega And Atlus Are Developing A ‘Persona 3’ Remake
Leaked footage and an official website seem to suggest that Sega and Atlus are working on a remake of Persona 3.
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In April of last year, Bloomberg reported that Sega had plans for “big-budget” Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi reboots. No new information regarding these projects has been shared since, however.
Leaving a comment in one of Persona Central’s recent tweets — which reported that “Exciting News” were being teased by Atlus — Twitter user @AVtoGAMEnoYAMI replied sharing a clip that appeared to be footage from a new version of Persona 3 and Jet Set Radio, declaring that they hoped the developers made the announcement official.
In a follow-up tweet, the user offered an update, writing, “Special thanks to anonymous user DM for this!! So it seems this was part of footage from SEGAs Japan’s Internal meeting held in 2021… The Japanese characters on top rights reads ‘Footage in development.'”
The tweets have since been deleted but other users reuploaded the allegedly leaked footage. First, we see what appears to be a new Persona 3. Yukari Takeba is shown with glowing red eyes that return to normal, and the camera moves back to show her with her Persona, Io. As a flurry of pink energy and petals spirals around them, the shot cuts to Yukari shooting a bird-like enemy with magical arrows.
The footage then cuts to what seems to be early footage of Sonic Frontiers, showing a rendered scene we would see in a later trailer, gameplay footage with a more dynamic camera, more assets nearby (such as trees and bushes), enemies that resembled their concept art more, and the Giganto boss in a different arena with Sonic using different attack animations.
Finally, we get a look at Beat from Jet Set Radio, who can be seen wearing a yellow jacket with longer sleeves, dancing in front of two police cars — with a building in the background displaying the game’s iconic logo.
Went ahead & did something about the audio desync… – ini pic.twitter.com/y9WJ7uiDz9
— Cooliniau (@cooliniau) April 9, 2023
It should be noted in Persona 3 characters usually summon their Personas using an “Evoker” — a device that highly resembles a gun that characters point to their heads and “shoot” in order to use. The Evoker isn’t seen in the leaked footage and, while it’s not impossible the Evokers have been censored in this alleged remake, there are a few other potential reasons for its absence.
The footage may take place after the Evoker was used (and put away). It could be speculated that Sega may have felt uncomfortable showing staff and/or investors a scene of a teenager shooting themselves in the head. Maybe it was simply that Sega felt other footage showed the game in a better light, or such animation hadn’t been completed.
Other characters in Persona 3 have Evokers in shapes that do not resemble a gun, and some can even summon without using one. We also very briefly see under Yukari’s skirt, and it appears to show no panties, black shadow, or even buttocks (like a doll).
As discussion of the leaks occurred on ResetEra, one user shared an image of alleged concept art for the new Jet Set Radio that gives us a look at Gum and Combo. The user claimed it came from a survey Sega conducted; claims that were later backed up by SEGAbits sharing other alleged images from the survey, albeit blurred to hide the watermark.
Being shown alongside Sonic Frontiers and the somewhat-confirmed Jet Set Radio remake, it seems all but certain a Persona 3 remake is in development. Further still, Gematsu adds, “Again, the authenticity of the footage itself is unclear, but Gematsu understands that a Persona 3 remake is planned at the very least.”
Finally, Twitter user @MbKKssTBhz5 discovered what could be the Persona 3 remake’s official website. “http://P3RE.JP, Unknown domain discovery Persona 3 remake maybe” the user theorized (machine translation via Google).
While going to the website now only brings up an error page, it does feature the same domain provider as the official Persona 5 Royal website. You can find the comparison via Domain Tools (Persona 3 remake here and Persona 5 Royal here). It seems the Persona 3 website was created on March 15th of this year.
That being said, other information on the Persona 5 Royal domain more closely matches Atlus’ Japanese website than the Persona 3 remake website.
We may see an official announcement this June, around the time E3 would have been held, alongside the rest of the gaming industry’s biggest announcements. Then again, and given the circumstances, Sega and Atlus could end up making the announcement sooner.
NEXT: ‘Persona 5 Royal’ Developer Atlus Confirms Several New Games In Development To Be Released This Year
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