In August 2024, a dedicated group of Persona 3 fans launched the Persona 3 Kotone Cutscenes project, a combined modder and animator effort to resurrect Kotone, the female protagonist playable in Persona 3 Portable but ignored by developer Atlus in other releases of the classic JRPG, including the modern remake Persona 3 Reload. Every cutscene would have to be redone with Kotone standing in for the male MC. On Thursday, April 2, the first scene for the expanded Persona 3 Reload Kotone Cutscenes mod was released, cleanly adding Kotone into the Gekkoukan High intro scene and demonstrating just how far fans will go while Atlus explains why it had to leave our heroine in the past.
The 65-second, modified (and English-captioned) animation shows Kotone heading to school with tireless companion Yukari. Kotone's addition is seamless – straight out of the HD Portable that was released in a kinder timeline.
"The first scene for the P3R Kotone Cutscenes mod has been completed!" school life the video description reads. "This mod will be released as a separate download intended to be used with the P3R FeMC Reloaded mod. Multiple members of the P3R FeMC Reload mod are also working on these cutscenes in addition to the P3P Kotone Cutscenes staff."
"This first scene was completed in two and a half weeks, though please keep in mind that the exact amount of time each scene will take will vary depending on the availability of everyone involved." This particular scene is attributed to animators mekki and neptune at the end of the video.
The Femc Reloaded Project is available to download on GameBanana, for fans looking to play through the all-around best version of Persona 3 as one of the most distinct protagonists in the whole Persona series. The Kotone Cutscenes Project, meanwhile, has its own website as well as a Linktree collecting useful pages.
"Genuinely insane how far Persona fans can go when motivated. This is the perfection Atlus denied us," reads a top YouTube comment on the newly released cutscene.
"Femc fans becoming animators, 3d modelers, voice actors, programmers, artists, musicians, writers, all for a character featured in 2 games," says another. (Kotone also appears in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth, a dungeon-crawler spinoff.)
Kotone's appearance in the Portable re-release of Persona 3 is still one of the biggest milestones in Persona history (and, I'd argue, also Shin Megami Tensei history). Choosing her over the default male main character changes multiple routes and interactions throughout the game in both subtle and significant ways, and her existence has kept hopes for another dual-protagonist entry alive for many years.
Persona 6 is a matter of when, not if, and we're frankly due for some news on that front with the series celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2026. We're also waiting on a release date for Persona 4 Revival, the series' latest Reload and Persona 5 Royal-like do-over, which is expected to launch this year.
