GamerBraves had the opportunity to interview Persona series producer about the upcoming Persona 4 Revival, with topics including the game’s cutscenes, differences between Persona 4 Golden, dialogue changes, and remaking other Persona games.
Graphical Upgrades
- When expanding locations players could explore in the original game, the development team thought about the real life locations those areas were based on and added on top of that to make the experience feel more immersive.
- Persona 3 Reload gave the team experience in translating what was once 2D anime cutscenes into fully rendered 3D cutscenes. “In the Persona series, there are a lot of large-scale scenarios and event scenes, and it’s quite difficult to enhance them as a whole. In Persona 4 Revival, we tried to make them as realistic as possible, though the cost of doing so was very high.”
Persona 4 Golden Differences
- Practically everything from Persona 4 Golden will be returning, however the motorbike mechanic in combat will not be making a return, with Wada directing players towards a more interactive system they can use instead. The tag-team combos and the TV Listing mini-games will not be returning, either.
- Regarding character changes and dialogue, Wada states the following: “We haven’t changed the original story or the characters, but we have adjusted some lines that were a bit rough or overly complicated at the time, to make them more relatable to the current era.” Concerning voice lines: “There were a few voice lines that may have been a little underthought or hastily written at the time, and we made some amendments and adjustments to those to better fit the current era.”
Game Balance
- Wada states that the Prime Time mechanic was not made with Persona 3 Reload‘s Theurgy system in mind, addressing worries that it made P3R too easy: “We did listen to that feedback. We took a lot of time balancing the game, we did a lot of test plays, involved a lot of different staff, looked through various logs and feedback, and balanced the game based on the feedback we received.”
Remaking Persona 1 and Persona 2
- When asked about remakes for the first two Persona games, Wada had the following to say: “At this point, I can’t say for sure, but personally, I think it’s something we should definitely do. I think we have to do it,” he said.”
More can be read in the full interview.