Persona 3 Reload removes a transphobic beach scene from the original game
Persona 3 Reload is out now, and it's a very good remake of an underrated game that was first released in Japan in 2006.
While the original game is considered an RPG classic, one particular problematic scene has been called out by fans over the years. That moment is a beach scene involving Junpei, Akihiko and the protagonist, with many criticising it as being transphobic. Thankfully, the scene has been rewritten for Reload.
Below, we go through how that scene has changed in the 2024 remake compared to the previous iterations of the game. Naturally, there will be spoilers.
If you want to avoid spoilers and just want to know if events play out in a less problematic way this time around, the female character on the beach isn't written as trans anymore.
What is Persona 3's beach scene in the original game?
In the middle of July, the SEES gang take a beach trip to Yakushima, where they meet Mitsuru's father.
During this trip, Junpei ropes in Akihiko and the protagonist for 'Operation Babe Hunt'. He wants the guys' help to approach and pick up women on the beach.
Their third attempt is an encounter with a woman who is, in the PS2 version, named 'Beautiful Lady'. She takes an interest in the three guys, and invites one of them to get closer and "have fun" with her. Junpei is enthusiastic about the idea.
Akihiko interrupts and asks the woman: "Isn't that hair on your chin?"
The woman quickly turns away. "I missed a spot!?", she says, before her name changes to 'Beautiful Lady?' with a question mark. She adds: "There goes my chance... I was so close to snagging myself a little boy-toy."
Junpei says in response: "Ya mean, she's a he!?"
Persona 3 Portable, released a few years after the PS2 version, keeps the same joke with minor tweaks. The woman is named 'Pretty Lady', and when Akihiko says to her, "There's something on your chin there", the name changes to 'Pretty Lady(?)'.
The woman responds in the same way, though Junpei instead says: "This can't be happening."
What happens in Persona 3 Reload's beach scene?
The set-up is the same. Junpei's horniness hasn't been toned down.
Junpei, Akihiko, and the protagonist walk up to a woman named 'Pretty Lady', and she responds to them in a very similar way, being receptive to their approach.
The woman asks Junpei if he wants to help her put on her sunscreen, to which he responds enthusiastically. She then invites the other two guys if they want to join.
From this point on, the scene plays out differently. The 'twist' has been changed.
"I'll give you a good deal," the woman continues.
When Akihiko asks what she means by "deal", the woman is revealed to be a conspiracy theorist who believes the sun isn't actually real but rather an artificial one that was sent into space in the 1980s.
Her name changes from 'Pretty Lady' to 'Delusional Lady'.
The woman then goes on about how "normal sunscreen" doesn't work when it comes to this artificial sun, and offers them three bottles of "special" sunscreen for 300,000 yen.
Akihiko turns to the protagonist and asks whether the woman sounds "kind of strange". It leads to the three guys running off.
In the aftermath, Junpei and Akihiko argue over the failure of 'Operation Babe Hunt'.
Kotaku reports that the Japanese version of Reload's rewritten scene plays out this same way as well.
Persona 3 Reload is out now on PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Game Pass.
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