Story Analysis | Persona 3 Reload's Universal Message

Persona 3 Reload continues to show that Atlus knows what the people want from their Persona games. Having now hit over one million in total sales, Persona 3 Reload is the fastest-selling Persona game of all time, beating out its only slightly older brother Persona 5. Despite the game receiving backlash at first for not including the FES exclusive The Answer epilogue or the female protagonist of Persona 3 Portable, Persona 3 Reload has still gone on to crush sales numbers and expectations. The reason why is quite simple: the message of Persona 3 Reload, and by extension the original Persona 3, is still as relevant as ever and resonates with its audience.

Persona 3 was released back in 2006 in Japan and the following year in the West. The world was vastly different back then compared to now: Myspace was still a thing, most people had flip phones, communication was done over AIM messenger, and the internet was not overflowing with doom posting or the general insanity we see today. Despite this, Persona 3 carried within itself a universal message, one that tells us that no matter how the world might change, humanity doesn’t. The simple message of “Memento Mori”, translated from Latin, is “Remember you will die”. It’s an obvious statement, but one that the general public might soon forget as they go about their day-to-day lives, choosing instead to focus on the small insignificant things the world throws at them rather than the big picture.

Each character in Persona 3 reflects this constant reminder of mortality regularly; your party members are always facing the possibility of death and what the consequences of that might be, and your social links tend to be focused on appreciating all that life has to offer. You are reminded that time waits for no one and only moves forward. It’s a very sobering thought that leads to profound introspection on the value of your life. This philosophical outlook on life is why the game is such a fan favorite even after all these years.

Persona 3’s new game systems (at the time) fed incredibly well into the feeling of “you only have one life to live” with a new calendar system and the passage of time progressing onward, as you choose very carefully what to do with your days and nights. When any day could theoretically be your last, how you choose to spend your time becomes even more important. Who you spend time with, the activities you enrich yourself with, and even making sure you don’t fail at your responsibilities while balancing everything else all play into the theme of your mortality beautifully. These themes are what made Persona 3 a cult classic, and the game systems created for it were carried over to the future Personas 4 and 5.

Now we come full circle to Persona 3 Reload, the retelling of Persona 3 with a modern coat of paint. While the game has been both mechanically and visually updated to keep up with our modern times and expectations, the themes that lie beneath the surface are still the same as ever. These universal themes are why the game has sold so well, and why it still has a place in old fans’ hearts while garnering new fans. Even though the world around us may change, even sometimes dramatically, the human condition will always remain unchanging.