Fan mod removes Persona 3’s ‘gross’ relationship

A fan-made mod for the recently released Persona 3 Portable remaster removes one of the game’s inappropriate romantic relationships.

A remaster of Persona 3 Portable was recently released on modern systems, but fans quickly released a mod for the game to remove a relationship many have said is “gross” and “inappropriate”.

The mod, called “Simple No Ken Romance” does exactly what the name suggests, and removes the ‘lovers’ route for Ken, one of the characters in the game. The mod was popular in the RPG’s PSP days, but has made a resurgence following the re-release.

The relationship normally has Ken, who is aged 10 or 11, confess that he has a crush on the game’s protagonist, who’s around the age of 17. Instead of dismissing Ken’s affection or turning him down, the protagonist instead says she doesn’t have a problem with it, and will wait for him to grow up.

Many fans have said that the relationship is deeply inappropriate, with some saying that the scene shows the protagonist grooming Ken, who is an emotionally vulnerable orphan with very few friends. The mod’s banner image alludes to this as well, showing the game’s female protagonist behind jail bars with a red ‘no’ circle around Ken.

In Persona 3 Portable, Ken is approximately 10 or 11 years old. Picture: Sega

The problem is compounded in another conversation branch between the two characters. In that conversation the protagonist says they’ll keep the relationship a secret, since other people might think it’s strange. Many have pointed to this scene as evidence that the game’s developers knew the relationship was wrong, but decided to put it in the game anyway.

The mod is available on modding site GameBanana, courtesy of creator MadMax1960. They say that the long-term plan for the mod is to change Ken’s social link so that it mirrors the relationship in the Persona 3 movies instead, where the protagonist treats him like a little brother.

For now, though, the mod only removes the romance option altogether, instead leaving players to go down the friendship path with Ken instead.

Persona 3 Portable was remastered for PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch. Picture: Sega

In other games news, fans were left bewildered over a strange video game delay, when conflicting stories came over The Day Before’s removal from Steam and subsequent 8-month delay.

It comes after Skull and Bones, a big Ubisoft game, was delayed a sixth time, alongside the cancellation of three more unannounced Ubisoft games.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.