Sorry Switch Owners

In recent years Persona fans have desperately wanted a way to play the series on modern platforms. Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal are available on PS4 but outside of that and a Steam port of Persona 4 Golden a few years ago the series has been locked on dead platforms. Atlus revealed during yesterday’s Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022 though that this is about to change as Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal are all headed to Xbox platforms, the Windows store, and Game Pass. Even better, Atlus confirmed today that the games not currently on PlayStation and Steam will be headed there as well, though early indications are that they will only come to PS5 and not PS4. Sorry Switch fans, this could change but for now it seems you’ve been left out.

Persona 5 Royal will launch first, releasing on October 21st. The latest game in the series, we were big fans when it released in 2020. Make sure to check out our review.

Persona 5 Royal_20200313002806

Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden (Our Review) will follow sometime in the first half of 2023. For many these will be the more exciting inclusions due to their lack of availability on modern platforms. This still leaves the original Persona, as well as both Persona 2: Eternal Punishment and Persona 2: Innocent Sin without a modern release but these earlier entries play a lot different from the more modern games in the series. They certainly have their fans, but not on the same level as these three titles.

The choice to go with Persona 3 Portable over Persona 3 FES will certainly be a contentious one. Originally released on PSP, Persona 3 Portable in many ways improved on the original Persona 3 from the PS2. The addition of a female main character was a welcome one for many as many preferred her character and social links. P3P also allowed players to control all members of their party directly, unlike in the original game where you only controlled your main character while the computer took care of everyone else. This has been an option in many Persona games but until Portable it was the only way to play Persona 3.

While those changes are nearly universally beloved, others aren’t. Persona 3 Portable takes away all of the main areas for you to wander around, instead turning the bulk of the game outside of dungeons into more of a visual novel. It certainly works, but many fans missed the exploration and cutscenes of the main game. It also misses all of the new Personas, and quests from the Persona 3 FES edition released later on PS2, including The Answer, an epilogue which received a mixed reception but still offers a lot of potential gameplay. Players mostly were willing to overlook these issues to play the game on a PSP in 2010 but may be less willing to do so 12 years later on modern platforms. Many fans don’t believe there’s a truly definitive version of the game with Persona 3 Portable and Persona 3 FES each having significant advantages. Calls for a definitive update bringing together the best parts of both releases don’t appear to be happening, but fans can look forward to at least one new way to experience this adventure next year.

Andrew Thornton

Andrew has been writing about video games for nearly twenty years, contributing to publications such as DarkStation, Games Are Fun, and the E-mpire Ltd. network. He enjoys most genres but is always pulled back to classic RPG's, with his favorite games ever including Suikoden II, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Phantasy Star IV. Don't worry though, he thinks new games are cool too, with more recent favorites like Hades, Rocket League, and Splatoon 2 stealing hundreds of hours of his life. When he isn't playing games he's often watching classic movies, catching a basketball game, or reading the first twenty pages of a book before getting busy and forgetting about it.