Summary
Persona 5 Royalcan take an important lesson from Haru Okumura, one of the party members fromPersona 5. While Haru may not be a member of the party for the majority of the game, she benefits from an approach that many other characters in her position do not receive. In fact, taking some inspiration from her storyline could assist in fixing some of the story problems thatPersona 3 Reloadencountered in its original incarnation. WhilePersona 3was great, and a big boost for the series, the remake can still improve in some areas.
Haru is a strongmember ofPersona 5 Royal’s party, wielding battleaxes and grenade launchers that make her intimidating even before using her Persona. The heir to a large corporation in the culinary world, Haru ends up joining the Phantom Thieves after the discovery that her father is in line with the game’s primary villains. Although she is a latecomer to the party, being the last permanent member to join, she fits in well with the group, having a sweet personality accented by an unexpectedly excited approach to battle. She makes the most of the screentime that she gets, being memorable despite her late addition.
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Even though her place in the story meant thatHaru didn’t get enough development inPersona 5, the game does manage to make her relevant before her appearance. She makes a few appearances in the game before properly joining, being sighted during a couple of school events before her arc properly begins.Royaltakes this even further by having her appear as soon as Joker joins his new school, and make occasional background appearances until her chapter came properly. None of her previous appearances are important, but they establish her as a presence rather than having her enter the plot out of nowhere.
Unfortunately,Persona 3didn’t do as good a job of foreshadowing some party members. AlthoughPersona 3’s party of playable characterswas interesting, a couple more or less came out of nowhere. Ken and Koromaru show up pretty much right before the player recruits them with little or no buildup. The fact that they are two of the least involved in the overall plot doesn’t help their case either. Even Aigis, despite being important to the plot and the star of The Answer, doesn’t have much buildup before she gets inducted into the party either, somewhat diluting her impact.
Alleviating the issue by doing more to introduce these characters before inducting them into the playable cast would be anexcellent change forPersona 3 Reload. Shinjiro is a good example of such, since even in the base game he had a good amount of buildup and character focus before joining the team.Reloadcould establish Koromaru as a dog who lives nearby early on, or move Ken into the dorm earlier to set up his subplot. Ken’s case is especially notable due to how his plot intertwines with Shinjiro’s. A mild rewrite of the game’s events could ease them in more naturally.
While Haru might not bePersona 5’s biggest presence, she still gets some respectable foreshadowing before her story arc’s debut. Even though it looks likePersona 3 Reloadwill stick to the originalin terms of story, a few adjustments to help things along wouldn’t be a bad move. By including some earlier introductions or cameo moments, some of the game’s later additions to the party can fit more naturally into the story. Through her early cameos inPersona 5, Haru could be a blueprint for howPersona 3 Reloadshould treat that game’s party members.
Persona 3 Reloadwill be released in 2024 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
