With the massive success of Persona 4 Golden on Steam, Sega and Atlus recently announced that they intend to release more ports of older titles and to put more emphasis on multi-platform releases. While they haven’t specified any titles in particular, this development is fantastic! While I have spoken about the history of Sega PC ports before, I wanted to give my take on the future of Atlus ports.
With the successful re-release of Persona 4 Golden, many are calling for Persona 3 and Persona 5 to be ported to PC and, while I would love to get an opportunity to play these games, I’m not sure they are the best choices to be ported next. I would like to draw particular attention to Persona 3 which has two different versions (technically three versions but I’m leaving out the original release). Both Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable have content that the other version lacks and, ideally, Atlus would have to spend time developing a remaster that includes the extra content of both versions. This would be much more expensive than to simply port one of the titles but a definitive release could then be used for future ports to consoles.
Instead, why not build upon the success of Persona 4 Golden? The sequels to Persona 4 Golden are Persona 4 Arena, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and Persona 4: Dancing All Night. These games are all set after the conclusion of Persona 4 Golden and, while they have very different gameplay compared to the original turn-based JRPG, it would make sense to me that they be ported so that the new Persona 4 PC fanbase can continue the story.
Another logical title to port to PC would be Catherine: Full Body. The original Catherine (renamed as Catherine Classic) was released on PC at the beginning of 2019 but was soon followed by a more definitive version which featured a new romantic interest, more anime cutscenes, gameplay tweaks and more. This version is only available on PS4 and Switch so far (in Japan, it is also available for the PS Vita) and it would make sense to release this title on Steam as either DLC for the original game or (more likely) a full game but featuring a discount for people who own the original (similarly to how Dark Souls Remastered was released).
PC ports of Atlus titles also introduce a unique opportunity to re-release some classic series of theirs such as the Etrian Odyssey franchise. Originally released on Nintendo DS, the Etrian Odyssey games are dungeon crawlers where you explore a dungeon in first person. The game does not have a map that updates automatically and, instead, you must draw your own map with the stylus. The use of a mouse grants an opportunity for these games that would be restricted were they released on hardware limited to controllers.
This same principle would apply to a re-release of the Trauma Center series. When the Trauma Center games were originally released on Nintendo DS and Wii, they made use of the stylus and motion controls available on those platforms to mimic the precision of real surgery. While I can imagine the games feeling clunky to play using a controller, a mouse would offer the precision needed to play these games in a more enjoyable fashion.
That’s my take on the future of Atlus ports and I can only hope that we get new information soon on what Sega and Atlus are planning. Let me know what your opinions are on my thoughts and if there are any ports of Atlus games that you would like to see that I have not mentioned.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.