While we reported on the many charms of the “Persona 3 Reload” review, we couldn't help but point out one glaring omission in the “Persona 3 Portable” remake: the female protagonist, Kotone Shiomi, who was added to the PSP port of “Persona 3” for “Persona 3 Portable.” Despite her absence, players were hopeful that the female protagonist option for “Portable” might be revived if other content from previous versions of “P3” appeared as DLC for “Reload”. Sadly, however, Kazuhisa Wada, producer of the “Persona” series, has once again said that this will not happen.

In an interview with Game Informer issue 368, which is only available in print because GameStop recently erased the archives of the defunct magazine, an apologetic Wada said that Atlus plans to release the upcoming epilogue DLC “Episode Aigis -The Answer-” He said that he had been considering adding Kotone to “P3R” as part of the project. Unfortunately, the amount of work involved was not possible in Atlas' development timeframe.

“The more we discussed it, the less likely it became. 'The development time and cost would have been insurmountable. Even if Atlus eventually agreed to DLC for a female protagonist, according to Wada, the release would be a long way off and would not be financially viable.

“P3R has just been released and there is a lot of interest from players right now, so if we are going to do an additional release, it has to be now. However, we just can't release P3R with a female protagonist at this time because it's impossible,” said Wada. I am truly sorry to all of our fans who were so excited about the prospect, but it will probably never happen.” [This is the second time since March that director Wada has publicly apologized for Kotone's absence. I do not envy his position. I don't believe that the enthusiastic fan base will always accept the economic constraints of game development with patience and grace.

Still, even with the September release of “Episode Aigis - The Answer,” a restored epilogue to “Persona 3 Fes,” the exclusion of a female protagonist always stings. Fortunately, in the PC version, modders are working to bring back Kotone, which is impossible on the studio's budget.