Atlus’s Persona 4 Revival isn’t out until next February, so the developers have plenty of time to finish their work on the remake.
While not all the work is focused on the gameplay, Persona Team’s general producer, Kazuhisa Wada, revealed this weekend, after speaking with Anime Corner, that the studio is working on some changes to Yosuke.
“He’s a little bit insensitive in terms of how he treats outsiders sometimes. So we wanted to lighten that up and make it a little bit more fitting for the world we live in now,” Wada said about Yosuke.
In Persona 4, Yosuke quickly becomes best friends with the protagonist, serving as the hero’s sounding board and confidant throughout the nearly 50-hour campaign. While Yosuke is a beloved character, he always came across as a misogynist and a homophobe. In the game, a character named Kanji joins your party midway, and his backstory touches on his sexuality at times, including his attraction to another party member.
Yosuke’s reactions to several scenes were often a talking point among the fanbase and, at the time, part of the culture. In a modern setting, though, it’s nice to see Atlus acknowledge that things have changed over the past 18 years.
This wouldn’t be the first time Atlus has changed things for its remakes. In 2024, in Persona 3 Reload, the developers changed a beach scene in which the boys commented on passing women. One woman, though, passes them by before the group realizes she’s trans and her name shifts from ‘Beautiful Lady’ to ‘Beautiful Lady?’ as the boys freak out over the situation.
The Persona 4 anime also touches on how Yosuke is represented in subsequent spin-off games before he acknowledges that his views are troublesome.
Persona 4 Revival launches for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC on February 18, 2027.
