The Persona series has a lot of lines that may be rather controversial, and have caused a stir among the gaming community. Persona 3 is especially guilty of this notion with one particular in-game event that sees the boys of the group getting startled over someone for being trans. Persona 3: Reload, however, is taking a more inclusive approach by changing that scene into something genuinely funny centered around a conspiracy theory.
The controversial scene in question involves the main protagonist, Junpei, and Akihiko while on a beach whose purpose is to hit on girls. The trio would eventually come across a girl NPC labeled “Beautiful Lady?”. Following a conversation between the trio and the NPC, Akihiko suddenly spots a hair on the latter’s chin. Not keen on hiding the obvious, Beautiful Lady would respond with a shock, asking “I-I missed a spot?!” Junpei, equally as surprised, would then respond by asking, “She’s a he?!”
While controversial for the Western audience, that scene, however, was not removed in Persona 3: Reload. Instead, the developers turned things around by changing the narrative of the script altogether into something that will most likely offend nobody (thanks, Kotaku).
In this amended scene, “Beautiful Lady?” was renamed “Pretty Lady”. And instead of being a transvestite, the NPC has become a merchant whose main selling point largely boils down to conspiracy theory.
Said NPC’s product is a “special” sunscreen that is said to work against the harmful effects of the “artificial sun”. The idea was that the Earth’s sun was not real and was instead placed into space back in the 1980s. The trade-off, however, is that the special lotion is worth 300,000 of in-game currency. With that revelation, the NPC is immediately renamed “Delusional Lady”.
