u/Chatterbox1991

I have been a fan of the franchise for about 15+ years now, I've played P3FES, 4 oirginal, 5 original as well as 4 Arena and Ultimax.

I had no real idea if I was going to play the remake of 3, until I was watching IHeartJustice's stream (In March, fittingly enough) when he raided into Zyzx\_ stream during the end game, right in the epilogue during the follow up to the Sun Social Link.

Needless to say, bracing to see some of the most gutwrenching narrative after being away from P3 for over a decade, particularly because I've experienced tragedy and death in my own family since them. (Also, bearing the brunt of the tragedy in P3 right before I went to bed was probably not a good idea for risking actual genuine trauma when I'll trying to go bed and was already not all there mentally.)

When Episode Aigis was coming out in September 2024, after putting it off all year round, I finally jumped in around August, even making a dread-filled post about starting it on this subreddit scene here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/PERSoNA/comments/1epwe3o/i\\\_am\\\_so\\\_scared\\\_yall/\](https://www.reddit.com/r/PERSoNA/comments/1epwe3o/i\_am\_so\_scared\_yall/) I got through most of the events of the game in that same year, and as I got towards the end of September and started through October, something that I had been experiencing here or there, but never to the same degree as I started to enter the end of the second act.

With Persona 3: Reload, I have encountered some of the most genuinely crippling choice paralysys and fear of missing out more than any other game I have played in my life, including other Persona games, Including Metaphore: Refantazio, incuding when I went through Persona 3: FES all thosee years.

This is where the spoilers come in: Naturally, I am well-aware of the game's themes about life and death, about tragedy and loss and moving on, all underlined by not only the sctructure of the main threat and how it informs the story, but how the story ends with>!the death of the main character.!<

This obviously where the narrative elements of tragedy and perserverence really shine in a deeply poingiant way and it is also where the lion's share of my anxiety about playing the game really, really starts to become unavoidable. Much of the game's story revolves around needing to keep going through life despite the innevetability of death, but the factuality of death in this story makes decision making about how I manage my time with my different relationships so weighted that it makes the act of continuing to play the game increasingly difficult for me.

The knoweledge that parts of my playhtrough would end unfinished and having to play triage with which relationships I could reach a conclusion with is becoming so deeply uncomfortable for me that it has taken now years IRL to get through even a few monthes in game, just because the knowledge of death and how it hangs over the narrative is so exestential in how ever-present it is in my head.

I know, at the end of the day, it's just a video game. But part of the genius of Persona 3 (and Persona overall) is the ability for these games to *make you care*. I know that loose ends in a given playthrough are normal, I know that in the overall canon, all the different social links and relationships are pursued to their conclusions in that nothing is actually missed in canon. I know similarly, there are guides to minmaxing every social link that nothing is missed for the player if need be, but there's a larger thing at play here.

I want desperately to be able to finish this game, I am realizing now even more than when I originally beat FES how much this series means to me and how much P3 means on a deeply human level; It's considered the best of the franchise for a reason, after all.

This, however, brings me to the other plot element at play regarding P3, the one that is informing a lot of the choice paralysis I am experiencing.

People who are versed on the events of Persona 3, 4 and 5 are likely well-aware of a very contentious plot element in the background of Persona Lore, the one that The Answer sets up as an epilogue to the events of P3 which>!hint at the main character being brought back from death.!<More over, these plot elements are actually paid off, or are at least hinting at a pay off, in P4 Arena through the plotline involving Elizabeth and>!her quest to free Makoto Yuki from the Great Seal.!<

Now, I know for a fact that this premise has been a source for contraversy for die hard fans of this game and my stance on the matter is like this: I write regularly in my free time and have been able to work on various projects online. I have long-held to the idea that actually following through on the premise of>!bringing Makoto Yuki back post-P3!< would not do a thing to impact the ending of 3 whatsoever.

Just like how we know in Star Trek canon that Spock eventually being brought back to life in Star Trek III does not erase the impact of his famous death in Star Trek II, the same rule applies here. Persona has proven itself quite adept at story-telling and there is no reason whatsoever to assume fufulling the premise of Elizabeth's questline couldn't be done tactfully. I've always believed this, as I've grown and learned more as an author, I only believe it even more so and as of the ending of P3 Reload, which takes an already legendary ending and executes it even flawlessly (minus some points here or there we can maybe argue about), it has resoundly reinforced the idea that Elizabeth's storyline could be done and it STILL not take away from P3.

That part, specifically, is why I am having so much trouble playing P3 Reload myself.

For the longest time, the argument for most would be: "You can't actually follow through on Elizabeth without messing up the ending.", my counterargument would be "You cannot, in fact, mess up the ending for how well-done the ending of Reload is, therefore you *can* follow through on Elizabeth." But, therein lies the problem.

It's been pointed out before, mostly by critics of The Answer, that the reveal of>!The Great Seal!< kind of kneecaps the point of the ending in that it specifically lingers when the whole point of the story is about accepting death and moving on. As much as I agree that The Answer's plot and core conflict is kind of nonsense and contrived, I personally don't agree that revisiting P3 is undermining its' own narrative. The throughline that The Answer posits that accepting death is much easier said than done and likely something you have just have to grapple with as you live your life is very real.

Just as well, the note that The Answer is very obviously done so that P3 can end on a more optimistic, with the members of SEES remembering to keep there evokers to the final messege from Metis, all are very overtly written to signpost these plot elements being revisted.

This is further confirmed not just by the introduction of Elizabeth's plotline in P4 Arena, but by the fact that this plot line is deliberately referenced multiple times across every time ATLUS has revisited P3; From Dancing in Moonlight to the ending of the last Anime movie, all the way to P3 Reload itself not only containing copious and frankly suspicious amounts of retroactive references to future events and character arcs specifically in P4 Arena and Ultimax, but by far the most overt reference to Elizabeth and her character arc in Arena at the end of her personal side story in P3 Reload.

Clearly, ATLUS is invested in keeping this plotline active for the future.

But until that plotline actually manifests again, **the story of P3 is functionally unfinished**.

So much so, I can't play P3 Reload without constantly being reminded of it.

This has been in the back of my head ever since I saw the ending of P3 Reload, since before I made that post here on reddit right before I started playing it and it's almost the only thing I focus on every time I try to go back. The fact that there can only be relationships left unfinished in the game and how that makes the decisions you do make that much more impactful with the knowledge of how brutally the game ends, all keep pointing back to the gaping plot hole waiting for me at the end of The Answer.

I finally kind of get the argument against The Answer's prescence in lore; even the original ending without the context of The Answer argubly includes the premise that >!Makoto Yuki and all of his friends and family will reunite in the afterlife eventually, Sea of Souls and whatnot,!<which would keep in line with the themes of death. But as it is with the context of The Answer, the knowledge of>!Makoto Yuki being stuck in purgatory in the Great Seal!<for presumably for an innevetable pay off later only really works as a cliff-hanger if the pay off is actually realized.

I never realized how much this cliff-hanger stuck with me; I managed to avoid the more infamous video game cliff-hangers everyone remembers, be it Beyond Good & Evil, Half-Life and countless others. As much as P3 Reload has made me fall in love with the game all over again, it has also underlined a very vitally critical lack of a resolution to the end of P3.

I want the members of SEES to have their faith rewarded.

I want to see Elizabeth achive her sweetist victory

I want to see how it impacts the setting over all.

I want to see how it intersects with the cast for 4 and 5 and 6 and beyond.

And I want to give Makoto Yuki one final swan song>!even if doesn't end with some messianic ressurrection.!<

As of July 3rd, 2026 (yesterday, as of this writing.) I've made it to November 29th in P3 Reload, right before the plotline and narrative elements really start to kick into high gear. I want to be able to finish this and Episode Aigis to be ready for P4 Revival in Febuary, I've wanted to go through P4 Golden and P5 Royale long before, but P3 Reload has become a mental roadblock for me and this franchise so long as this plotlube remains unresolved.

I can at least take solace in the fact that ATLUS is clearly invested in this idea. The lore retcons and foreshadowing regarding future Persona plotlines, partuclarly P4 Arena, just in P3 Reload alone, are prevalent enough to make me think ATLUS will revisit it. (Interesting to see if P4 Revival does anything similar.)

On top of that, people have wanted a prominant, story driven crossover between 3, 4 and 5 for a long time (no offense to PQ fans). ATLUS has continued to update and maintain the domain name for "P5U" as recently as last month, which many believed to the long-mythologized Persona 5 Arena, still stuck in dev hell. ATLUS keeping the name this long, even with both P4 Revival and the recent Persona 6 announcement clearly shows a commitment to return to that well of cross-over in lore. The success of P3 Reload saleswise and the popularity of the P3 crossover content in P5X makes me think that the innevetable crossover between 3, 4 and 5, even if it doesn't materialize in a Persona 5 Arena, will still happen.

History has shone that long-awaited follow ups to beloved storylines do come out after long enough. (Elden Ring, Bayonetta 3 and Silksong *did, in fact, come out,* in a realm when most were willing to write them off for multiple years.) Episode Aigis effectively renewing plot elements that tie into Arena and the prevalence of P3's presence in the ATLUS hype rotation, especially with the P5X crossover, I know in my heart we will eventually get there.

I just hope it still happens sooner rather than later, Persona 3's story and characters deserve it.

Apologies for the text wall, I just needed to get this off my chest.

I have been a fan of the franchise for about 15+ years now, I've played P3FES, 4 oirginal, 5 original as well as 4 Arena and Ultimax.

I had no real idea if I was going to play the remake of 3, until I was watching IHeartJustice's stream (In March, fittingly enough) when he raided into Zyzx_ stream during the end game, right in the epilogue during the follow up to the Sun Social Link.

Needless to say, bracing to see some of the most gutwrenching narrative after being away from P3 for over a decade, particularly because I've experienced tragedy and death in my own family since them. (Also, bearing the brunt of the tragedy in P3 right before I went to bed was probably not a good idea for risking actual genuine trauma when I'll trying to go bed and was already not all there mentally.)

When Episode Aigis was coming out in September 2024, after putting it off all year round, I finally jumped in around August, even making a dread-filled post about starting it on this subreddit scene here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PERSoNA/comments/1epwe3o/i_am_so_scared_yall/ I got through most of the events of the game in that same year, and as I got towards the end of September and started through October, something that I had been experiencing here or there, but never to the same degree as I started to enter the end of the second act.

With Persona 3: Reload, I have encountered some of the most genuinely crippling choice paralysys and fear of missing out more than any other game I have played in my life, including other Persona games, Including Metaphore: Refantazio, incuding when I went through Persona 3: FES all thosee years.

This is where the spoilers come in: Naturally, I am well-aware of the game's themes about life and death, about tragedy and loss and moving on, all underlined by not only the sctructure of the main threat and how it informs the story, but how the story ends with>!the death of the main character.!<

This obviously where the narrative elements of tragedy and perserverence really shine in a deeply poingiant way and it is also where the lion's share of my anxiety about playing the game really, really starts to become unavoidable. Much of the game's story revolves around needing to keep going through life despite the innevetability of death, but the factuality of death in this story makes decision making about how I manage my time with my different relationships so weighted that it makes the act of continuing to play the game increasingly difficult for me.

The knoweledge that parts of my playhtrough would end unfinished and having to play triage with which relationships I could reach a conclusion with is becoming so deeply uncomfortable for me that it has taken now years IRL to get through even a few monthes in game, just because the knowledge of death and how it hangs over the narrative is so exestential in how ever-present it is in my head.

I know, at the end of the day, it's just a video game. But part of the genius of Persona 3 (and Persona overall) is the ability for these games to make you care. I know that loose ends in a given playthrough are normal, I know that in the overall canon, all the different social links and relationships are pursued to their conclusions in that nothing is actually missed in canon. I know similarly, there are guides to minmaxing every social link that nothing is missed for the player if need be, but there's a larger thing at play here.

I want desperately to be able to finish this game, I am realizing now even more than when I originally beat FES how much this series means to me and how much P3 means on a deeply human level; It's considered the best of the franchise for a reason, after all.

This, however, brings me to the other plot element at play regarding P3, the one that is informing a lot of the choice paralysis I am experiencing.

People who are versed on the events of Persona 3, 4 and 5 are likely well-aware of a very contentious plot element in the background of Persona Lore, the one that The Answer sets up as an epilogue to the events of P3 which>!hint at the main character being brought back from death.!<More over, these plot elements are actually paid off, or are at least hinting at a pay off, in P4 Arena through the plotline involving Elizabeth and>!her quest to free Makoto Yuki from the Great Seal.!<

Now, I know for a fact that this premise has been a source for contraversy for die hard fans of this game and my stance on the matter is like this: I write regularly in my free time and have been able to work on various projects online. I have long-held to the idea that actually following through on the premise of>!bringing Makoto Yuki back post-P3!< would not do a thing to impact the ending of 3 whatsoever.

Just like how we know in Star Trek canon that Spock eventually being brought back to life in Star Trek III does not erase the impact of his famous death in Star Trek II, the same rule applies here. Persona has proven itself quite adept at story-telling and there is no reason whatsoever to assume fufulling the premise of Elizabeth's questline couldn't be done tactfully. I've always believed this, as I've grown and learned more as an author, I only believe it even more so and as of the ending of P3 Reload, which takes an already legendary ending and executes it even flawlessly (minus some points here or there we can maybe argue about), it has resoundly reinforced the idea that Elizabeth's storyline could be done and it STILL not take away from P3.

That part, specifically, is why I am having so much trouble playing P3 Reload myself.

For the longest time, the argument for most would be: "You can't actually follow through on Elizabeth without messing up the ending.", my counterargument would be "You cannot, in fact, mess up the ending for how well-done the ending of Reload is, therefore you can follow through on Elizabeth." But, therein lies the problem.

It's been pointed out before, mostly by critics of The Answer, that the reveal of>!The Great Seal!< kind of kneecaps the point of the ending in that it specifically lingers when the whole point of the story is about accepting death and moving on. As much as I agree that The Answer's plot and core conflict is kind of nonsense and contrived, I personally don't agree that revisiting P3 is undermining its' own narrative. The throughline that The Answer posits that accepting death is much easier said than done and likely something you have just have to grapple with as you live your life is very real.

Just as well, the note that The Answer is very obviously done so that P3 can end on a more optimistic, with the members of SEES remembering to keep there evokers to the final messege from Metis, all are very overtly written to signpost these plot elements being revisted.

This is further confirmed not just by the introduction of Elizabeth's plotline in P4 Arena, but by the fact that this plot line is deliberately referenced multiple times across every time ATLUS has revisited P3; From Dancing in Moonlight to the ending of the last Anime movie, all the way to P3 Reload itself not only containing copious and frankly suspicious amounts of retroactive references to future events and character arcs specifically in P4 Arena and Ultimax, but by far the most overt reference to Elizabeth and her character arc in Arena at the end of her personal side story in P3 Reload.

Clearly, ATLUS is invested in keeping this plotline active for the future.

But until that plotline actually manifests again, the story of P3 is functionally unfinished.

So much so, I can't play P3 Reload without constantly being reminded of it.

This has been in the back of my head ever since I saw the ending of P3 Reload, since before I made that post here on reddit right before I started playing it and it's almost the only thing I focus on every time I try to go back. The fact that there can only be relationships left unfinished in the game and how that makes the decisions you do make that much more impactful with the knowledge of how brutally the game ends, all keep pointing back to the gaping plot hole waiting for me at the end of The Answer.

I finally kind of get the argument against The Answer's prescence in lore; even the original ending without the context of The Answer argubly includes the premise that >!Makoto Yuki and all of his friends and family will reunite in the afterlife eventually, Sea of Souls and whatnot,!<which would keep in line with the themes of death. But as it is with the context of The Answer, the knowledge of>!Makoto Yuki being stuck in purgatory in the Great Seal!<for presumably for an innevetable pay off later only really works as a cliff-hanger if the pay off is actually realized.

I never realized how much this cliff-hanger stuck with me; I managed to avoid the more infamous video game cliff-hangers everyone remembers, be it Beyond Good & Evil, Half-Life and countless others. As much as P3 Reload has made me fall in love with the game all over again, it has also underlined a very vitally critical lack of a resolution to the end of P3.

I want the members of SEES to have their faith rewarded.

I want to see Elizabeth achive her sweetist victory

I want to see how it impacts the setting over all.

I want to see how it intersects with the cast for 4 and 5 and 6 and beyond.

And I want to give Makoto Yuki one final swan song>!even if doesn't end with some messianic ressurrection.!<

As of July 3rd, 2026 (yesterday, as of this writing.) I've made it to November 29th in P3 Reload, right before the plotline and narrative elements really start to kick into high gear. I want to be able to finish this and Episode Aigis to be ready for P4 Revival in Febuary, I've wanted to go through P4 Golden and P5 Royale long before, but P3 Reload has become a mental roadblock for me and this franchise so long as this plotlube remains unresolved.

I can at least take solace in the fact that ATLUS is clearly invested in this idea. The lore retcons and foreshadowing regarding future Persona plotlines, partuclarly P4 Arena, just in P3 Reload alone, are prevalent enough to make me think ATLUS will revisit it. (Interesting to see if P4 Revival does anything similar.)

On top of that, people have wanted a prominant, story driven crossover between 3, 4 and 5 for a long time (no offense to PQ fans). ATLUS has continued to update and maintain the domain name for "P5U" as recently as last month, which many believed to the long-mythologized Persona 5 Arena, still stuck in dev hell. ATLUS keeping the name this long, even with both P4 Revival and the recent Persona 6 announcement clearly shows a commitment to return to that well of cross-over in lore. The success of P3 Reload saleswise and the popularity of the P3 crossover content in P5X makes me think that the innevetable crossover between 3, 4 and 5, even if it doesn't materialize in a Persona 5 Arena, will still happen.

History has shone that long-awaited follow ups to beloved storylines do come out after long enough. (Elden Ring, Bayonetta 3 and Silksong did, in fact, come out, in a realm when most were willing to write them off for multiple years.) Episode Aigis effectively renewing plot elements that tie into Arena and the prevalence of P3's presence in the ATLUS hype rotation, especially with the P5X crossover, I know in my heart we will eventually get there.

I just hope it still happens sooner rather than later, Persona 3's story and characters deserve it.

Apologies for the text wall, I just needed to get this off my chest.