Persona 3

Prototype Info Prerelease Info Unused CutscenesScenes that didn't flash before your eyes. Unused Voice ClipsListen... Can you hear the many voices? Unused GraphicsDrawings straight from Chidori's sketchbook. Unused TextHow many of these were used in later versions?

Debug Options#

Cutscene Debug Menu#

To do: Document more of this. There is a lot of stuff to do in these menus. Add codes for other versions of the game.

A fairly elaborate debug menu remains in this game. You can make your own cutscenes, apply sound effects and BGM, apply graphics to appear during cutscenes, and toggle various settings in this menu. To enable it, apply the code below for your version of the game.

Persona 3 JP (SLPM-66445) codes:

Master Code (only needed for cheat devices used on a console)
9050A258 0C14283E
Debug Menu Enable
2035A184 00000000

The file must be named 94A82AAA.pnach, and placed within PCSX2's user-related cheat directory. This is typically located at C:\Users\\Documents\PCSX2\cheats.

With the above code active, enter New Game or enter any area with a cutscene. When the cutscene is playing, or in New Game, press R2. This will take you to the debug menu. Pressing Triangle while in this menu will send you to the cutscene editor window. Pressing Circle will exit out of an option.

Calendar Debug#

While in-game, set this address 211672E0 to 1 to open a debug menu that allows you to force what state of day you're in, as well as to change the current date.

• L1/L2 to move state of day.
• L2/R2 to move a month.
• Up/Down to move a week forward/back.
• Left/Right to move a day forward/back.

Extra Navigation Menu#

By using this code, you can add a little debug option in the navigator menu that allows you to change floors or go back to the entrance at will.

Tactics Debug (NTSC-U)
2083A418 0000000F

Unused Models#

To do: Upload the renders of models and their respective animations.

Early Map Location Names#

A set of early map location names remain in the files. Rather than text strings, these names are 2D models contained in data.cvm/FIELD/RMD/M001_003.RMD. The names are accompanied by a compass model, and their placements fit the final game's map quite well. A render of the names superimposed on the map can be seen above. A list of early and final names are listed below for reference.

Placeholder Model#

An unused placeholder model which can be found in an unused cutscene.

Placeholder Cerberus#

By setting your battle Persona to any of Fuuka's Personas, it will show this Cerberus model in battle instead. This is probably because her models are only shown in cutscenes and are not meant to be used in battle, so rather than making battle animations for them the developers just re-used the Cerberus model from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne as a placeholder instead. This model isn't used anywhere else in-game due to Koromaru's Persona being a different version of Cerberus, more similar to the one from Digital Devil Saga.

If you want to test this for yourself, use one of these codes to put either Lucia or Juno in your Persona menu.

Put Lucia in Slot 1
10836BAE 000000C8
Put Juno in Slot 2.
10836BE2 000000C9

Healing Bulb#

Watch on YouTube

FOBJ004.RMD, located in data > FIELD > GRMD with other interactable Tartarus objects. Its purpose was most likely to heal the party, as the texture included is called "heal_a001_01". This device was likely scrapped in favor of the Tartarus lobby automatically healing the player and party.

Early Protagonist Models#

Watch on YouTube

Inside BTL/MODEL/NPC/R_DUMMY.RMD is an early model for the protagonist with early animations tied to it. Some were later used for other characters.

Watch on YouTube

Fuuka has a placeholder slot in the battle PAC files. Swapping in BC006.PAC over the normal one-handed sword model for the protagonist reveals unused animations only seen previously in early screenshots, as well as a much earlier Evoker model that looks more like a gun than it already does. In Persona 3 Reload, the idle animation is based on this early version.

In Persona 3 Portable, this was changed to an early version of Akihiko.

Early Koromaru Model#

Watch on YouTube

Inside BTL/MODEL/NPC/R00500.RMD is an early model for Koromaru with early animations.

Early Winter Gekkoukan NPC#

Watch on YouTube

Inside BTL/MODEL/NPC/R00000.RMD is an early NPC with animations.

Oddities#

Tartarus Sketch in Chidori's Notebook#

This texture, named "s_book_set", is located at the path "BTL.CVM\MODEL\NPC\" in the files N00802.RMD, N00803.RMD and N00809.RMD. While it does appear in cutscenes, only the cover is ever visible to the player in-game due to the camera angles used.

Odd Eye Textures#

Unused	Used

Inside the placeholder model's RMD file(BTL/MODEL/PACK/BC006, for example) is the eye textures. The third and fourth set of eyes are never used in game. The used model's eye texture(BTL/MODEL/PACK/BC001_WP0, for example) is next for comparison.

Unused	Used

Unlike in the eye texture, every single model's face texture has green eyes that gets covered.

Cheating in Battle#

To do: Is this in the Japanese version?

During battle, there are three sets of support voice clips for Mitsuru and Fuuka scolding the player for cheating, triggered when the game detects actions that are only possible via the use of external cheating devices (such as adding dummy items to the inventory, using Personas that aren't accessible to the player, and using party members that aren't supposed to be available at the current point in the story).

Dialogue Oversight#

On 9/1, when talking to Akihiko in the dorms, one of his dialogues has too much text, causing some of it to go outside the dialogue window. This was fixed in FES, separating half of it into a new window.

Unused Music#

61.ADX is what appears to be a fanfare track from an unknown game. It sounds very similar to the level-up theme from Digital Devil Saga. Since many prior installments in the Megami Tensei franchise had level-up themes yet Persona 3 lacks one, it is likely that this is an unused level-up theme for the game.

There are three early Dark Hour themes, named 82.ADX, 83.ADX, and 84.ADX. Originally, The Voice Someone Calls was only supposed to play at Tartarus, while these songs would play in the regular Dark Hour event, gaining intensity as the game progressed. This can be seen as the first version plays in the trailer that came with Famitsu 901.

An early version of Master of Tartarus appears in BBGM03.ADX. In FES, there's also a duplicate in 0601.ADX, along with a third copy named 0602.ADX, which is missing the first two seconds of the song. They also use 48000 hz rather than 24000 hz, which is what all the audio tracks normally use.

THEME.ADX is an early and (mostly) instrumental rendition of Burn My Dread. Uses 48000 hz instead of 24000 hz.

ZZZZZZ.BIN is Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne's unused Staff Roll 2 track, and is used to pad out the game disc, with the loop existing 40 times in the bin file. It can be opened using ADPCM Player.

Higher-Quality Duplicates#

Duplicates of some used songs exist in higher quality (48000 hz), but unused.

Tartarus Blocks#

94.ADX, 95.ADX, and 96.ADX have higher-quality duplicates of Tziah, Arqa, and Yabbashah, in that order. In FES, since more songs were added for The Answer, these were replaced with Interstice Of Time (Malebolge), Interstice Of Time (Cocytus), and Interstice Of Time (Caina), in that order.

Changing Seasons#

FBGM03.ADX has a higher-quality duplicate of Changing Seasons, but with a weird loop point. In FES, there are two other duplicates of this, though split into multiple sections, in 0501.ADX to 0556.ADX, and FBGM0301.ADX to FBGM0329.ADX.

A Deep Mentality#

FBGM04.ADX has a higher-quality version of A Deep Mentality.

Unused Fields#

To do: Are there any other unused areas? And document the animations for the explosives and rocks blowing up in the unused bunker areas.

Early Bunker#

Initially, the Full Moon Operations were intended to be longer. There are large remnants of this for the bunker, found at ID 035_005 to 035_016.

Unused Code#

There are a few leftover batch files in various parts of the game:

btl\BATTLE\CUTIN\CONVERT.BAT#

pakfile per_efc0.seq per_efc0.bin

btl\BATTLE\EFFECT\BTLEFF.BAT#

..\..\..\persona3\program\tools\pakfile.exe .\btleff.txt btleff.bin

copy .\btleff.bin ..\..\snd_benc
del .\btleff.bin

PAUSE

data\FACILITY\PAK.BAT#

copy msg\msg_souvenir.bmd msg\AGS_msg_souvenir.bmd
copy msg\msg_lot.bmd msg\AGS_msg_lot.bmd
copy msg\msg_elevator_girl.bmd msg\AGS_msg_elevator_girl.bmd


pause

pakfile fcl_combine.seq fcl_combine.pak
pakfile AGS_fcl_combine.seq AGS_fcl_combine.pak

pakfile fcl_accessory.seq fcl_accessory.pak
pakfile AGS_fcl_accessory.seq AGS_fcl_accessory.pak

pakfile fcl_antique.seq fcl_antique.pak
pakfile AGS_fcl_antique.seq AGS_fcl_antique.pak

pakfile fcl_company.seq fcl_company.pak
pakfile AGS_fcl_company.seq AGS_fcl_company.pak

pakfile fcl_drugstore.seq fcl_drugstore.pak
pakfile AGS_fcl_drugstore.seq AGS_fcl_drugstore.pak

pakfile fcl_weapon.seq fcl_weapon.pak
pakfile AGS_fcl_weapon.seq AGS_fcl_weapon.pak


pakfile fcl_elevatorgirl.seq fcl_elevatorgirl.pak
pakfile AGS_fcl_elevatorgirl.seq AGS_fcl_elevatorgirl.pak

pakfile mc.seq mc.pak


pause

Enemy AI#

Several enemies have code that is inaccessible as a result of oversights, or is outright unused:

• Takaya's second encounter (dubbed "AI_Takaya2" internally) is supposed to have a second phase once he drops below 50% health, in which he occasionally uses Mahamaon and Mamudoon. However, as a result of several errors (incorrect bit check, unused bit check, and incorrect conditional), he instead stays at his first phase the entire fight. This was corrected in Persona 3 Portable.

The following AI is accessible in theory, but is highly improbable in practice due to specific circumstances:

• Jin's second encounter ("AI_Jin2") will (assuming a weakness is present) target an ally's weakness and use skills of that affinity for the fight. However, he targets these affinities in a set priority (Slash > Strike > Pierce > Fire > Ice > Elec > Wind > Light > Dark), and will not use skills of a lower priority as long as a living ally has a weakness to a higher-priority move. As such, assuming no party member dies during the fight (very likely due to how easy the boss is), he will usually only use two moves out of his entire 25+ move kit.
• Divine Mother in Monad has alternate skill priorities if it detects a party member has the Fear ailment, with a 50% chance to use Ghastly Wail. As no enemy in Monad has any means to inflict Fear, the only way to trigger this would be to use one of the bad status-inflicting items (Muscle Drink, Odd Morsel, or Rancid Gravy) and have it inflict fear.

Fuuka Party Member#

If you hack/use the debug menu to add Fuuka to the party, she uses Junpei's battle portrait and the protagonist's model. She also uses an earlier animation for the one-handed sword seen in some prerelease screenshots. Unfortunately, the game crashes when trying to speak to her or when it is her turn in battle.

Unused Social Links#

There are 5 unused Social Links, of IDs 02, 03, 09, 15, and 20. Originally, all characters that are romanceable (Yukari, Fuuka, Mitsuru, Aigis, Yuko, and Chihiro) had the Lovers Arcana. Changing this so that every character had a different Arcana required removing some incomplete Social Links. 02 was Elizabeth of the High Priestess, 03 the antique shop owner of the Empress, 09 Aigis, 15 is the weapon shop owner of the Justice, and 20 was Koromaru of the Strength.

All event files relating to them got replaced by dummy files, but they still do have remnants. Elizabeth (as her dates), Aigis, and Koromaru (as his walks)'s Links got restored at least to some extent in FES.

There's also the fact that the romanceable Social Links would automatically form a romantic relationship with the main character after getting close enough into the Social Link with no way of getting out of the relationship without harming the whole Social Link itself, which of course would be eventually made optional in Persona 4 and in the female route in Persona 3 Portable.