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So, you’re booting up Persona 3 Reload for the first time. You’ve got comfortable, you’re ready to hop in and…you’re stuck. Why can’t you control the menu screen to start your game? Well, there’s a reason for that. You actually can’t use the analog sticks for the menu. The game forces you to use the D-Pad. Why? Let’s discuss.
History of Persona 3
Do you already know the history? Well skip this then but if you don’t, I’ll tell you. Persona 3 was first released in 2007 (NA) on the (paid link) PS2 and then we got (paid link) Persona 3: FES in 2008, also on the PS2. Later would come Persona 3 Portable for, you guessed it, the (paid link) PSP. This version even added a female protagonist counterpart, but stripped away most of the free roam to place in menus. Well, fast forward to 2024 and we got Persona 3 Reload for Steam, (paid links) PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X. Then in 2025, just a few short months ago, we got the (paid link) Nintendo Switch 2 version.
The Reason for D-Pad Only
After doing some research, it is unfortunate that there is no clear answer to this. It seems like an unnecessary quirk that the developers implemented. Especially knowing that (paid link) Persona 5 & (paid link) Persona 5 Royal could use them just fine.
Conclusion
I wish I had a definitive reasoning for this decision, but I do not. It’s very frustrating for everyone, just simply due to the inconvenience when you’re so used to using the analog stick for basically everything. Alas though, I don’t think the developers will ever make a patch for this given that it was released over a year ago at this point. Oh well I suppose. That’s all for this article, make sure to come back for future discussions, reviews and more. Until next time, happy gaming everyone.
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