Forgotten Persona Game Coming to PC and Switch, But There's a Catch

20.04.2024 - 00:53 / gamerant.com / Dominik Bo / Nintendo

Persona 3 Aigis: The First Mission is coming to Steam and the Nintendo Switch. However, this long-forgotten Persona 3 spin-off will not be treated to an official English localization.

Six months after Persona 3 FES hit the store shelves in April 2007, Atlus released Persona 3 Aigis: The First Mission in Japan. The feature phone action RPG was available to users of NTT DoCoMo and Softbank's mobile networks. Looking at the complete Persona timeline, Aigis: The First Mission is among the chronologically earliest entries in the franchise; it takes place in 1999, a full decade before Persona 3, and tells the origin story of Aigis, at least the part of it that wasn't mentioned in the third mainline game.

17 years following its debut, Persona 3 Aigis: The First Mission is making a return, with Japanese publisher G-MODE just announcing its Nintendo Switch and PC ports. The company plans to relaunch the game as part of its G-MODE+ Archives, a series of mobile rereleases which started out in 2020. When exactly that will happen remains unclear, with this prequel still waiting for an official release date. But seeing how its Steam page describes it as «coming soon,» it's plausible that Aigis: The First Mission could hit the market before the Persona 3 Reload epilogue chapter, Episode Aigis: The Answer, which is scheduled to launch in September 2024.

Persona 3 Aigis: The First Mission won't be the series' first J2ME spin-off to get ported to modern platforms. G-MODE also previously brought back Megami Ibunroku Persona: Ikuu no Tou Hen, an action RPG connected to the original Persona. The 2006 feature phone game was ported to the Switch and PC in 2023. If that re-release is any indication, Persona 3 Aigis: The First Mission will likely retail at around $11.99 (¥1,800). Its Steam page doesn't yet list any pricing information.

What it does say is that Persona 3 Aigis: The First Mission will be released in its original form, which was only available in Japanese. Although the Switch isn't region-locked, users will still need to make a Japanese Nintendo account to buy this re-release via eShop.

On the other hand, the Steam version of Persona 3 Aigis: The First Mission will be available globally. The PC port also has a decent chance of being treated to a fan translation. That is precisely what happened with Megami Ibunroku Persona: Ikuu no Tou Hen, which received an English fan localization mod called Persona: Anomalous Tower Chronicle in March 2024.

Persona 3 Reload is a remake of Atlus' beloved 2006 JRPG. Featuring updated visuals and quality-of-life improvements, Reload brings Persona 3 to the modern age in style. 

Blending social sim sections with dungeon crawling, monster catching, and turn-based combat, Persona 3