Persona 3 Reload might be dropping one of its best features, and fans sure aren't happy at the news.
Earlier this week, Japanese outlet 4Gamer published a new interview with several project leads on Persona 3 Reload, including producer Kazuhisa Wada. According to a Twitter interview translation, Wada reportedly says that the 'Fatigue' system has been removed from Persona 3 Reload to reflect the more modern styles of dungeon-crawler games.
For the unfamiliar, the Fatigue system governed how tired your characters could get in the original Persona 3 after exploring Tartarus, the main dungeon. Since exploration can only occur at midnight, the Fatigue system dictated that your characters would be drained the following day, and thus wouldn't be able to venture into Tartarus two nights in a row.
Fatigue could also come about from simply being in too many battles, effectively stopping players from blazing through most of Tartarus in one night. The Fatigue system became much easier to manage as Persona 3 went on, but it was definitely a barrier that changed how people played Persona 3 from the usual dungeon crawlers.
Long-time Persona 3 fans are pretty displeased with the possibility of Fatigue going away entirely. The tweets below are just a small sampling of Atlus fans dissecting the news on social media, and the vast majority are pretty sad to see the Fatigue system gone entirely. Plenty would've rather the system had a rework, instead of throwing out the entire concept.
>no fatiguethey really made blue persona 5 https://t.co/5nXJoep3lE pic.twitter.com/YscquAtaSJJune 16, 2023
“the fatigue system forced players to return” you don’t understand 😩 tartarus was always intended to be a place to grind and train before the full moon boss, you weren’t meant to explore it in one day and never go back until the next block opened up https://t.co/859eYqYoS7June 16, 2023
That confirms the removal of Fatigue from Reload. Not even a rework.Kinda disappointed, it has a lot of potential to be a great replacement mechanic for SP management, but not having it at all is also fine. https://t.co/FcKPEJy0eOJune 16, 2023
As many fans point out, the Fatigue system not only governed how fast you could progress in Tartarus, but also made players think about balancing their playthroughs. Studying the night after going to Tartarus would reduce the knowledge gained, for example, so you'd really have to be mindful of this if you had a test coming up.
Persona 3 Reload launches early next year in 2024, and we might have to wait a while to find out if the Fatigue system really is gone. On the other hand, Persona 5 Tactica, a new tactics-based spin on Atlus's series, is launching later this year on November 17, so there isn't long to wait before we've got new Persona games to delve into again.
Check out our new games 2023 guide for a look at all the other bangers set to launch within the next year.
