Persona 3 Portable with Cutscenes Guide

A guide on when to watch all of the cutscenes from Persona 3 FES while playing Persona 3 Portable.

Introduction

As many of you will already know, Persona 3 Portable is a remake/port for PSP of the original game, Persona 3 (FES) for the PS2. Atlus opted to port Persona 3 Portable rather than Persona 3 FES, most likely for a few reasons such as quality of life updates and an additional route to the game included in Portable. Potentially also due to the Playstation 2's architecture being very difficult to port from (allegedly).

One of the main downsides to Persona 3 Portable is the lack of animated cutscenes in the game - due to it being made for the PSP, it was most likely too difficult to port such large FMVs into a portable game. Hopefully soon, the Persona modding community will come together to create a definitive version of Persona 3 Portable, that has all of the animated cutscenes and many more things missing from the Portable version of the game, but until then, feel free to use this guide to pause the game during important moments and watch the cutscenes instead.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This guide will aim to avoid spoilers from a quick glance, but clicking on any links earlier than you are supposed to will definitely involve spoilers. Try to avoid this as best you can, as P3 is an incredible game!

For those playing the FeMC route, something important to note is that the animated cutscenes do not exist (yet?). The FeMC route was only present in the PSP version of the game (Portable) of which did not include cutscenes, and as a result no cutscenes including the FeMC exist. However, the content of the cutscenes do not vary between the gender of the main character, so even though it might look a little strange, you can safely watch these cutscenes without spoilers.

This guide is lightly referenced from TAFAE's guide from 2012 on giantbomb.com (link here[www.giantbomb.com]), but using that guide links to various outdated videos with low quality as well as some that simply do not exist anymore. I will instead be linking to this playlist by rudiger on YouTube that has HD upscaling applied to all of the cutscenes (but thankfully not at 60FPS!!). The playlist can be found here if you would like to skip the guide and jump straight to the cutscenes.

Also, a certain navigator's name that starts with F is censored out by steam for some ?? reason?? you can probably figure out who this is but if not, this image should help you out. I can't type her name out but as long as you notice the heart emojis censoring the name, you should be able to understand what I'm trying to say LOL

UPDATE - Mod Released!

UPDATE - 22/03/23

Thanks to the hard work of many modders, the Cutscene Restored Mod is now available! I highly recommend installing it. It can be found here: https://gamebanana.com/mods/429929

Support your local modders :D

Opening Movies

If you haven't already seen the three opening movies included in Persona 3 and Persona 3 FES respectively, I highly recommend watching them! They can be found here.

https://youtu.be/XnLclegsyD4

https://youtu.be/4qwkNNAUl3Q

April

Date	Text to stop on	Link
04/06 (Beginning of game)	"with your heart as your guide..."	https://youtu.be/zKrva96f0Xg https://youtu.be/BrVshpy0b6M
04/07 (Early Morning)	Yukari: "Okay. Then, let's go." or "Just hurry up and get ready!"	https://youtu.be/eGYUapFIUL0
04/08 (Pre-Dark Hour)	Ikutski: "...The Dark Hour is approaching."	https://youtu.be/hELttRuxnus
04/08 (Dark Hour)	Yukari: "I feel kinda bad, though, spying on him/her like this..."	https://youtu.be/V5l1kAPgx9I
04/09 (Dark Hour)	[The ground shakes agains.] Yukari: "...!?"	https://youtu.be/i0ANgsWZlVQ
04/21 (Evening)	Akihiko: "Just wait a few minutes... It's almost midnight."	https://youtu.be/qjlQCOHX8Nw

June

Date	Text to stop on	Link
06/08 (Dark Hour)	Fuuka: "I know...!" Akihiko: "...!?"	https://youtu.be/IfK4I8V5YeE

July

Date	Text to stop on	Link
07/07 (Dark Hour)	[Inspect Mirror] Yukari: "Is it just me, or is there something strange about this mirror?"	https://youtu.be/YVyL1sL48_o
07/11 (Evening)	Mitsuru: "Fourteen years ago, one man pursued that line of thinking... He was the former leader of the Kirijo Group, Kouetsu Kirijo... My grandfather."	https://youtu.be/0BMJnHvC0w4
07/20 (Early Morning)	"Your trip to Yakushima begins today and lasts for 4 days, 3 nights. It's time for you to get ready..."	https://youtu.be/GjCpNGFC4lU
07/21 (Daytime)	Akihiko: "What's the matter? ...You see something?"	https://youtu.be/N30_10uGh3A

SPOILER WARNING!!

SPOILER WARNING!!!!

There are major spoilers beyond this point in this guide. Please be cautious before continuing. If you are unsure, do not proceed to this part of the guide until 10/04 (October 4th)

Most text from here will be spoilered, but the YouTube link previews will be shown. Please proceed carefully.

October

Date	Text to stop on	Link
10/04	Takaya: "How enviable... Then, you shall be first. Rest peacefully..."	https://youtu.be/rkQCKtc37X4

November

Date	Text to stop on	Link
11/04 (Evening)	Akihiko: "Knock it off." Junpei: "Awwww"	https://youtu.be/a9wWXhsZCbE
11/04 (Dark Hour)	Aigis: "...Understood."	https://youtu.be/6ULfM7DmR8Y
11/04 (Dark Hour)	Shujki Ikutsuki: *grunt* Ten years... I've wasted ten long years! I'm not like your father... I won't make any exceptions!	https://youtu.be/eRrWEPsdKEk
11/17 (Early Morning)	"Today, you leave on the class field trip. The train is scheduled to arrive in Kyoto in the afternoon. You hope it will be a memorable experience..."	https://youtu.be/tJzbuybO7c8
11/18 (Early Morning)	"Self-narration: School excursion, day two... Today's itinerary: Visiting historical sites"	https://youtu.be/4Dw29CYj9Kg https://youtu.be/LNazqSFDNsI

December

Date	Text to stop on	Link
12/02 (Dark Hour)	Aigis: "And you... your true name is "Death"... You are the Shadow I sealed away ten years ago!"	https://youtu.be/UP_jlL3A4qs

January

Date	Text to stop on	Link
1/31 (Dark Hour)	Fuuka: "I can sense it even without my Persona. This is the first time that's ever happened..."	https://youtu.be/rLK8VWEuOyM
1/31 (Dark Hour)	Nyx Avatar: "then perhaps the Fall could have been prevented... but it's too late now."	https://youtu.be/OCKrFtUJdIE
1/31 (Dark Hour)	Fuuka: "...!? Something's coming!"	https://youtu.be/5nIjvvi8kM8
1/31 (Dark Hour)	Igor: "What you have in your hands is the power of the Universe... Nothing is outside the realm of possibility for you now."	https://youtu.be/ISGZ5EHBXJQ
1/31 (Dark Hour)	Familiar Voice: Congratulations, you have the miracle you sought. We shall meet again some day...	https://youtu.be/Iwkrnq3DQrI

March

Date	Text to stop on	Link
03/05 (Morning)	Graduating Senior's Friend: "It's a big day... It must be tough thinking about her father."	https://youtu.be/qDVlEx5Bv6I
03/05 (Morning)	You're getting sleepier... Your eyes feel heavy... (Make a choice here, then hit play).	https://youtu.be/p7tNqsnY624

Conclusion

And that's (hopefully) everything! Thank you so much for reading!

Please let me know if you have any feedback. This is my first time creating a steam guide so hopefully it was helpful! Any criticism/feedback/tips would be much appreciated, especially if I've missed something, or something could be amended.

Once again, huge thank you to TAFAE for the original guide, and rudiger for the upscaled videos. Right now, I'm writing this on release day with no mods to insert the original FMVs into the game, but hopefully we will have that in future! Probably will update this guide to mention that when it does become possible.


I hope you enjoy playing Persona 3 Portable!

[超 の 王]

https://gamebanana.com/mods/429929

Cutscenes Restored Mod is here!

[vichisuki]

thank u for the correction mekyi! just updated :D

[Lexxii]

Thanks for posting this!!

[Mekyi]

Thanks for the guide! Small little fix: 04/20 (Late Night) cutscene is actually 04/21 (Evening)

[Buzzlightyear]

Also yea it sucks we got this version but its basically impossible with fes due to how much of a mess the code is and this one is already on an engine that they knew how to port things over here on (this uses the same engine as p4g so they had some experience with it).But if they did just port fes they would have to make a new engine or make completely new code for the game which at the point they would just be remaking it which if it did happen it would have been delayed until prob like summer or fall.

[Buzzlightyear]

People already made a mod for it to have cut scenes if you are emulating it and they said they will try with the actual version once it releases and here we are. https://gamebanana.com/mods/402145 another person here already said i so i just wanted to add it incase someone misses his comment

[vichisuki]

if you wanted to make a version of this guide for the japanese undub, i would gladly give you editing access! i can't seem to find a youtube playlist or even any videos of the cutscenes in JP though :(

[Downloading]

Wish there was a set of links for the JP dub

[vichisuki]

the MOMENT p3p pc becomes moddable is when i start meme modding the game and i destroy every texture in existance

and yeah also the cutscene mods that would be really nice please modders !!!!!!!

[WYDStepcat]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y95kNSqskDM
https://gamebanana.com/mods/402145
People ARE working on it. Atleast on the PSP version.
I hope the PC version is easily moddable