The announcement of Persona 3 Portable's remaster is great news, since it is the best version of the game to bring back. It is an improvement over the game's original incarnation in several ways, and is in many ways the most complete version of the game (despite a few obvious ways that it's not). If any version of the game were to be brought to current-gen consoles, then Portable would be a safe choice as the best option.
Persona 3 represented a big step forward in the series. It was the first to introduce the Social Link mechanic that became one of the Persona series' most iconic elements. It was also one of the earliest SMT games to pick up any substantial following in the west, but nothing as strong as what the following Persona games would muster, although that didn't stop P3 Portable's multiplatform remaster announcement from garnering plenty of excitement. It actually had two updated editions, first the FES edition that included The Answer, a second campaign that takes place after the main story. However, Portable was a second update that added plenty of new aspects, making the game an even better experience than it was previously, despite not including The Answer's content and losing the 3D exploration segments of the original releases.
Portable's new additions not only improved the game, but made it the best version of the game to be chosen for the remaster. There are a few additions in particular that elevated it above its other incarnations, and in some ways make it hard to go back to playing without them. Together, they form the perfect explanation for why P3 Portable is coming to current gen consoles.
P3 Portable Lets The Player Control Their Party In Combat
Controlling the player's party in combat does not sound like an impressive feature. Almost every turn-based RPG allows the player to do that, including Yakuza's unexpected foray into JRPG-style gameplay. However, this was actually a big change that set Portable apart from the other versions of P3, and one that made it much more playable as a result.
In Persona 3 and FES, while the player directly controlled the protagonist in battle, the AI would control their allies, with some guidance from the player's chosen instructions. The combat AI was rather infamous for having party perform suboptimal actions. While they would at least attack known enemy weaknesses, the inability to control them directly meant that the player could not consistently rely on them, and sometimes they could even make severe errors that put the fight in jeopardy. In Portable, because the player can control everyone manually, they have a much better ability to coordinate their strategy for each fight, and will experience more success in general.
Some Persona mechanics should be avoided in future games, and independently-acting party are one of them. It was an interesting idea, but its implementation led to a lot of grief. AI allies making bad moves at inopportune times made the combat system more frustrating than it needed to be. Thankfully, Portable changed that and made fighting much smoother.
P3 Portable Added A New Protagonist With New Social Links
When P3 Portable came out, one of the biggest changes came in the chance for players to choose a protagonist at the start of the game. There was the original male protagonist, and also a new female protagonist. However, rather than being a simple change in appearance, the player's choice leads to some notable differences.
One difference is in the hero's signature weapon. While the male P3 hero uses one-handed swords, the female hero uses a naginata, which is pretty distinctive. However, a much bigger difference comes in her social links. Social Links elevate Persona over other JRPGs, and the female protagonist has some different social links compared to the original. For one, they get social links with the male S.E.E.S. , which the male hero does not get. She also has a couple of other unique social links as well, giving more of a distinction to her as a new protagonist.
The differences that the female protagonist brings to P3 Portable help her feel like her own character rather than an alternate look for the protagonist. Her unique social links provide plenty of content, and make it worth playing through the game as both protagonists. It is a level of effort that one doesn't see often for differing main characters, and P3 Portable deserves praise for that.
P3 Portable Added Plenty Of Quality Of Life Improvements
While the new protagonist option and updated fighting system were huge improvements, P3 Portable also added other, smaller features that made the game much more convenient. Even long before Sega's recent rush of remasters and remakes, Atlus was touching up Persona 3's gameplay in big and small ways. When it came to P3 Portable, the developers clearly wanted to give players more options to heighten their experience.
One of these improvements was skill cards, which could be gained from leveling up Personas to gain the ability to add a specific skill to any Persona, even if they couldn't normally possess that skill. This made managing the player's Personas much more convenient, as well as allowing combos that weren't possible in past games. In addition, a few convenient tweaks came to the battle system as well, largely influenced by Persona 4. Party could take an action to defend themselves, and no longer need to waste a turn when standing up after getting knocked down, helping players survive longer against tough enemies, revitalizing mechanics that helped Persona 4 become a major success. A couple of social link-related abilities also came into the game, one allowing party to land follow-up attacks, and one that lets them take otherwise lethal hits for the protagonist.
P3 Portable's adjustments to the game played a major role in making that version feel polished. It not only showed how much the series had grown in such a short time, but it allowed Persona 3 to reap the benefits of that growth. It's safe to say that the quality of life in P3 Portable received a significant upgrade.
The announcement that Persona 3 was finally coming to new consoles after so long was cause for celebration in itself. Despite the fact that Persona 3 Portable has notable weaknesses over the FES edition of the game, with flat, 2D areas taking the place of things that were once fully explorable in 3D, content from The Answer being removed, and animated cutscenes getting completely excised from the game. These latter are the main reason why Persona 3 deserved more than a Portable remaster and a remake would've been preferable, as while The Answer is an unfortunate omission, it wasn't beloved by all fans and Portable added its own endgame content called Vision Quest. But a remake that offered both the improvements to Portable and brought back some of the things that had been cut from prior versions would ultimately have made for a truly ultimate version of the game, rather than one hamstrung by things cut from Portable. Even so, it's still clearly the best version of the game, and bringing over Persona 3 Portable - even if it's lacking in a few ways - is a far better option than either the original or FES.