'Persona' Porting Problems Explained by Producer Kazuhisa Wada

Urian B., Tech Times 17 March 2023, 10:03 pm

The "Persona" series has seen a remarkable rise in popularity over the years. Atlus has taken action with the recent remasters, allowing gamers to play critically acclaimed titles on next-gen systems and PC.

Creating 'Persona' Remasters for Establishing the Franchise Even More

According to the story by Gamer Braves, with Producer Kazuhisa Wada at the helm of the project, it's sure to be another success. To bring the fan-favorite franchise to new audiences, porting each game to the respective platforms was a painstaking task.

"It wasn't just a simple port," says Wada when speaking about the release of "Persona 3 Portable (P3P)" on Steam. The producer said that their goal was to be able to establish the "Persona" franchise even more, which was why creating the remasters was very important for them.

SEGA's Technical Ability and Other Areas Help Bring 'Persona 5 Royal' to the Nintendo Switch

For the remastered version of P3P, Wada and his team strove for optimal performance, making changes to the game for a more comfortable experience. Faster load times, a quick save function, and additional comfort features were all added to breathe life into the original game.

The Nintendo Switch version of "Persona 5 Royal" is the most difficult part. Still, thanks to SEGA's technical abilities and help in other areas, the game was successfully optimized for the platform. Wada revealed more in the Sega Asia Blog, which had an interview of him explaining the project.

The Difficulty of Accommodating Two Protagonists in 'Persona 3 Portable'

When it comes to the social media era, Wada has noticed an uptick in fans reading the opening theme's lyrics and analyzing those more than ever before. He also muses on the difficulty of accommodating two protagonists in "Persona 3 Portable," saying that it's almost like making 1.5 games.

Wada is also not immune to being a fan of the series, picking his favorite character as Kanji Tatsumi from "Persona 4" and Labyrs.

Technical Assistance from Sega Used to Optimize Framerate of Steam Version

Wada elaborates on why the team decided to create remasters of their games, citing the desire to bring the "Persona" series to gamers worldwide as their driving motivation. He also details the team's many difficulties in porting the games to modern consoles and PC.

One of the most difficult was managing version control for multiple platforms, while another was optimizing the framerate of the Steam version, which necessitated a technical assistance from Sega.

The Challenge of Enhancing the Playing Experience with Quality-of-Life Changes

Not happy to simply port the games as-is, the remasters also introduced several quality-of-life changes, which Wada believes greatly enhanced the playing experience. For example, the quick save function allowed for frequent stopping and restarting, while players are provided with a do-over if their party is wiped out in Tartarus when playing on Normal difficulty.

Finally, Wada explains that the process of creating the remasters was made all the more difficult by the sheer number of characters. However, he personally favors Kanji Tatsumi and Teddie from "Persona 4" and Labrys from "Persona 4 Arena."