Gameplay footage of what appear to be a full-blown Persona 3 remake and the next Jet Set Radio game has reportedly emerged online. The leaks supposedly stem from a 2021 internal meeting at SEGA Japan and features a five-second clip of Persona 3 protagonist Yukari Takeba firing a barrage of arrows at an airborne Shadow. The clip then transitions into a cinematic for 2022’s Sonic Frontiers, before showing a glimpse at a character resembling Beat from Jet Set Radio dancing in the streets of Shibuya, Tokyo. Persona fans have their doubts about the remake — calling the footage fan-made — but rumours surrounding the same have been swirling around for years.
A ResetEra thread from January noted that developer Atlus was ‘far along’ in development on the next instalment, Persona 6, alongside remaking Persona 3. According to the leaker ‘Im a Hero Too’, the games are slated for an American ‘summer reveal’ which could be any time between June and August, and a teaser for Persona 6 was supposed to be shown already.
Gematsu corroborated the claims that a Persona 3 remake has been in development at Atlus for years. As usual, take such leaks with a grain of salt, though it’s not far-fetched to expect a remake given the game has considerably started to show its age, both graphically and mechanically. Persona 3 Portable was brought onto PC and modern consoles on January 19 but lacked many features, which could explain Atlus wanting to release a full-blown remake of the game so it appears significantly different and a worthy upgrade.
Following the initial footage leak, Sega news site SEGAbits shared blurred images of the new Jet Set Radio game. The user claims that they had previously received similar images from a consumer survey, in order to gauge an art style for the game. While blurry, the silhouettes and colour scheme seem to match the leak, albeit it cannot be shared in full clarity due to the images being watermarked to the specific person filling out the survey. “We have a good relationship with SEGA so we don’t like outright leaking and spoiling things that come to us, which is why we held off on sharing,” SEGAbits explained in a following tweet. “But the cat is out of the bag via others, so figured we’d share a little more.” It was previously reported that the skateboarding game was planned to be released as part of Sega’s ‘Super Game’ initiative, alongside a new Crazy Taxi game.
Further supporting the validity of the Persona 3 remake is a domain registration for a website called p3re.jp, on March 15. It was discovered by Twitter user @MbKKssTBhz5 and was registered by the same domain provider as Persona 5 Royal’s website. Persona 3 has you assume the role of a high-school student investigating the Dark Hour, a specific time period between one day and the next. Just like every other Persona entry, you partake in battles against the Shadows who feed on innocent human beings’ minds.
A portable version of Persona 3 was released earlier this year, across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and Nintendo Switch.
