Nostalgia for Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden has remained high over the years, thanks in no small part due to Atlus' constant support for these games through spinoffs. However, Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden's upcoming rereleases might be the very best example of Atlus' dedication to its past successes. The studio announced these in the middle of 2022, alongside Persona 5 Royal's journey to all current consoles, but the release date is fresh news. Fans can get their hands on P3P and P4G in January 2023, only a couple months after Royal returns, which is much sooner than fans may have expected.
The rereleases were always going to come relatively soon, given the fact that they were announced during the June 2022 Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase; Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer assured viewers that everything at the showcase would release within the next 12 months, meaning Persona was right around the corner. Sure enough, Persona 5 Royal will release on Xbox, Switch, PS5, and PC just four months after the announcement, and the others are coming soon. Still, one would've expected Atlus to spread out these major releases a bit, but it's great to see Atlus package Persona 3 and Persona 4 into one date.
Atlus is Delivering Persona at a Rapid Pace
Pesrona 5 Royal rereleasing before the others makes sense, since it's the most up-to-date game right now. It already served as the gateway to Persona for many fans, so it might as well reprise the role on new platforms. Beyond that, it was mostly a question of whether Atlus would prioritize Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable. On the one hand, releasing Persona 3 first would've made sense, since Persona 4 Golden is already available on PC right now. On the other hand, porting Persona 4 Golden first would've given new fans a good road into Persona's past, traveling through the franchise in reverse chronological order.
Instead, however, both games will drop in January. Fans are at liberty to choose whether they want to pick up the more recent Persona 4 and get in on the Steam release hype, or jump straight to Persona 3 in order to explore the roots of Persona's famous social sim elements. While the games may compete with each other somewhat by releasing at the same time, since they'll both be on a multitude of platforms, they're bound to be successes anyway, especially after new fans have a taste of Persona 5 Royal a few months beforehand.
Options are always valuable in gaming, so Atlus has done fans a favor with this release date, but it could be a sign of even greater things to come. It doesn't sound like Atlus wants to drag out the Persona rereleases, even though it could milk as much attention out of the process as possible. Because of its own haste, Atlus should have room to turn its attention to new projects by the middle of the year, once the Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden hype has calmed down again. Summer 2022 could be a great time for Atlus to reveal Persona 6 or Project Re Fantasy. Both games have eluded fans for a long time, but once these ports are out of the way, they may get their due diligence.
Of course, with the help of these ports, there's no rush for Atlus to pivot to Persona 6. Persona 3, 4, and 5 are all very long JRPGs that'll keep fans occupied for quite some time, especially if they go for New Game Plus runs in order to meet every Social Link and Confidant or collect every Persona. It'll be up to Atlus to decide how soon it wants to move on to something new. In the meantime, though, the simultaneous releases of Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden are a wonderful opportunity for fans to explore some Persona history.
Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden release January 19, 2023 for PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.