All the differences between Persona 3, FES and Portable

Last Updated on: 11th October 2022, 02:22 am

With the recently announced release dates for the current generation ports of Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable, players are eager to have their chance to tackle these old classics once more. Others will actually have their first experiences with the games.

A small controversy was lifted on the fact that the PSP version for the third game was chosen instead of its PS2-enhanced version, but what are the exact differences between Persona 3, FES, and Portable?

All of the games are generally the same, but each contains its own peculiarities. Here, we’ll showcase some of them.

All of the differences between Persona 3, FES, and Portable

Persona 3 – The vanilla experience

Released in July 2006, the original Persona 3 was exclusive to the Playstation 2 and was the first installment in the so-called modern era for Persona games, serving as the “bridge” between them and the blueprint for future installments.

Since the Persona series was initially conceived as a Shin Megami Tensei spinoff, the first titles had a somewhat harder dungeon-crawler-focused gameplay with the unusual storytelling method common to these titles. This is evident when comparing the newest to the oldest titles.

Since all of the upcoming versions used it as their base, there’s nothing really exclusive to the vanilla version. The game normally ends after the final boss and allows you to start a New Game +, in which you maintain your Persona Compendium, Social Stats, and some of the exclusive items.

READ MORE: Persona 5 Royal release date for PC, Xbox, and Switch revealed

Persona 3 FES – Finding the Answer

Persona 3 FES was released in April 2007, almost a whole year after the original game, and was a huge upgrade from the original. From updates to the general gameplay and battle system, we also got new personas and the introduction of a new Arcana along with its Social Link.

FES features two game modes: “The Journey”, which is basically the original game with the aforementioned enhancements, and “The Answer”, a new 30-hours long mode that follows the game’s ending. You can play them in any order you want, but going through The Journey is recommended first.

In The Answer, you play as Aigis, and the content is completely battle-based as you have no access to the Daily Life in the school. You can use the Velvet Room as usual and create new personas, but the Compendium is not available here.

Some of the key differences between Persona 3 and FES are:

• Social Links are more forgiving with errors, and you have extra time to complete them all.
• Additions and changes were made to some Personas (for example, Lucifer is now a separate Persona, and Helel was introduced with the former’s old appearance).
• You can now choose Hard Mode.
• New Requests were introduced, and some rewards were special costumes for the characters to wear in battle.
• New optional events were implemented, such as walking with Koromaru, interacting with Chidori, or watching special scenes with the SEES members.
• “The Answer” adds extra hours to the game being a completely new story.

Persona 3 Portable – A New Way of Life

Portable was a PSP remake released in November 2009. The game retained the updates made in FES while also adding some exclusive features, such as the chance to play with a female Protagonist.

One of the main differences between Persona 3, FES, and Portable is in their overworld exploration. Portable takes on a Visual Novel-like style to accommodate the game’s length to the console, abandoning character models and anime cutscenes for the general sprites usually found in those games. Models are used only during battles.

This change is the reason many consider Portable – the game being ported to PC in January – the “inferior version”. While the change has its obvious downsides, the game continues to offer the same experience as its previous versions did, with the bonus of being more “up to date” compared to them.

The main changes introduced in Persona 3 Portable are:

• Everything from FES was maintained, but The Answer is absent.
• Two new difficulty modes: Beginner (easier than Easy) and Maniac (harder than Hard).
• Like in future games, you can now take on part-time jobs to increase your stats and directly control your teammates.
• Battles are more similar to Persona 4: The Protagonist can only equip one weapon (1-handed Sword for male, Polearm for female), co-op attacks are available, and you can select Defense instead of Wait.
• Towards the end of the game, you gain access to the Vision Quest, an optional mode where you can battle again with all of the previous Shadow bosses + the secret boss from Persona 4.
• Fusion Spells are now items instead of being activated by having the correct personas equipped.
• Characters will only get tired of exploring Tartarus the following day.

The female MC route has its own peculiarities, such as new Social Links, exclusive dialogues and soundtracks, a female-designed Orpheus persona, and nods to other games in the series. The core of the story is unchanged, but it’s a very interesting route for those who played before.

Portable does have its fair share of content, and even with the “downgraded” graphics, it’s clear why they chose this version instead of FES. A remake containing both the 3D models and features from it would be the definitive, perfect version, but still seems out of reach as Atlus refuses to make it.

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These are some of the differences between Persona 3, FES, and Portable. You can surely spot some more other changes in the long run when playing any of them. 

Persona 3 Portable will launch on January 19, 2023, on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. Persona 4 Golden is available now on PC and will also launch on January 19, 2023, on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.