The fabled Persona 4 remake has been rumored for a little while now, but it seems like we may get an official confirmation of its existence soon. Atlus has never directly said they were working on a Persona 4 remake, but in the past couple days alone, some of the original voice actors have spoken out about it.
It all started with a post on Bluesky from Yuri Lowenthal, who originally voiced Yosuke Hanamura in Persona 4. Lowenthal said he would not be part of the remake in the post. The post itself states: “And for those who keep asking, no, I will not be returning as Yosuke for the Persona 4 remake. I asked. Maybe I even begged, but they don’t want me to come back.”
It’s worth pointing out that the post got deleted later on, which could’ve hinted at some sort of voice actor drama between SAG-AFTRA and Atlus. But then, the plot thickened.
Erin Fitzgerald, who voiced Chie Satonaka in Persona 4 Golden (but not in the original game), also chimed in on Bluesky, stating: “For those asking, I have not been asked to reprise my role as Chie Satonaka in the Persona 4 remake. I am blessed to have recorded as many Persona 4 games as I did playing her.”
Once is weird enough, but two voice actors? That’s a little bit strange. But it’s not over yet. Just today, Amanda Winn Lee — who voiced Yukiko Amagi — also chimed in to say she would not be coming back as Yukiko. Lee posted on Twitter stating: “Since I’ve had several people ask me: No, I wasn’t asked to voice Yukiko in the P4 remake.”
Three? Now that’s just a conspiracy waiting to happen. Of course, it could be as simple as Atlus legitimately not wanting to get the original voice cast back because of issues with the union. It would be strange though, considering that almost the entire voice cast came back for Golden, and they also got some of the original cast back for Persona 3 Reload early last year.
It’s also very strange to hear that Yuri Lowenthal, who’s now a very prolific voice actor and has voiced Spider-Man, would have to beg to be in the Persona 4 remake.
Could this just be the strangest marketing ploy ever for a Persona game? Even if it’s true that all three voice actors won’t be back for the remake, I suppose it’s at least exciting to get some sort of hint that the remake is indeed happening. Or maybe they’ll all just pop out of a box at Summer Game Fest to tell us we’ve all been fooled and they really are coming back. Who knows?
In the meantime, Persona fans will be able to occupy themselves with Persona 5: The Phantom X, the gacha RPG that’s headed to mobile devices this June.
