Persona 1 and 2 Remakes? Producer Calls Them a Necessity

"At this point, I can't say for sure, but personally, I think it's something we should definitely do. I think we have to do it."

That's Kazuhisa Wada, Persona series producer and the man behind Persona 3 Reload and the upcoming Persona 4 Revival, speaking to GamerBraves about the prospect of remaking the original Persona and Persona 2. Wada has been asked this question before. In a 2024 interview with GameSpot, he said it wasn't on his schedule and that he'd "like to do it someday." The shift in language here is significant. "Someday" has become "we have to."

For anyone who came to the series through Persona 3 or later, the first two games might as well not exist. Revelations: Persona launched in 1996, and Persona 2 arrived as two separate games, Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, in 1999 and 2000 respectively. They're PS1-era JRPGs with darker tones, shorter timelines, and none of the social sim high school loop that defines the franchise today. Finding a legal way to play them on modern hardware ranges from difficult to impossible. Atlus has poured enormous resources into keeping Persona 3, 4, and 5 alive and visible. The originals have been left to gather dust.

Wada's comments carry weight because of who he is and what he's delivered. He led the charge on Persona 3 Reload, which launched to strong reviews, and he's currently overseeing Persona 4 Revival, set to release on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on February 18, 2027. He's also expected to be involved with Persona 6, which got its first green-themed reveal back in June. If anyone inside Atlus has the credibility and the track record to push for Persona 1 and 2 remakes, it's him.

Remaking the odd ones out

The challenge is real, though. Atlus' remake strategy so far has been to bring older entries closer to the Persona 5 Royal template, layering on modern presentation and quality-of-life features. That worked for Persona 3 because P3 was already the blueprint that P5 evolved from. Persona 1 and 2 are structurally different games. The first one takes place over roughly a single week. Neither game has the calendar-driven daily life system that modern fans associate with the series. Trying to graft those mechanics onto these stories would feel forced; leaving them out risks alienating the audience that only knows Persona as a social sim.

Then there's the Persona 2 problem specifically. Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment are two halves of one story. Does Atlus release them separately? Combine them into a single package? Each approach has trade-offs, and the answer probably determines whether the project is a two-year effort or a four-year one.

I think these remakes are closer to happening than they've ever been. Wada isn't floating a vague wish anymore; he's framing it as an obligation. The Persona franchise sold another million copies over Sega's last quarter, and the commercial logic of keeping that momentum going with remakes of the only untouched entries is hard to argue against. Even so, with Persona 4 Revival still months away and Persona 6 somewhere in the pipeline, don't expect an announcement anytime soon. If these remakes do get greenlit, we're likely looking at 2029 or later before anyone plays them.