Persona 3has a scene in which you and the party go to the beach to pick up girls (spurred on by Junpei as he is wont to do). The group run into a woman simply called “Beautiful Lady” who flirts and even offers to leave with one of them, but after Akihiko Sanada spots some stubble, her name changes to “Pretty Lady?”, Junpei says, “She’s a he”, and they run away. In Reload, this has fortunately been changed to avoid the trans panic stereotype.
As reported byKotaku, Pretty Lady is now a conspiracy theorist. Like in the original, things are going well for the boys at long last. They run into “Beautiful Lady” who asks Junpei to put her sunscreen on for her. But then she explains that the sun was replaced in the 1980s by an artificial one, so normal sunscreen doesn’t work against its uniquely harmful rays.
She offers to sell you a special bottle for 300,000 yen as her name changes to “Delusional Lady”. The group once again runs away, but this time it’s not because she’s a trans woman. So, instead of removing the scene outright, Atlus has reworked it to keep the gag of the group getting scared off, but without making trans people the butt of the joke.
Kotaku confirmed that the scene is the same in Japan, meaning the trans panic joke has been removed from both versions of the game. It’s certainly progress from Persona 5 Royal in whichthe Japanese version contains a homophobic scenewhere two gay men, “Scruffy Romantic” and “Beefy Trendsetter”, kidnap Ryuji.
Fans have been asking about the beach scene since Reload was announced, with one Steam thread from toughnails asking,“Are they going to remove the transphobic content?“Thankfully, the answer turned out to be yes.
In the English localisation, they’re given names, Angel and Julian. Instead of kidnapping Ryuji for what is implied to be assault, the two spot him looking inside a drag bar called Crossroads and take him out to learn the ropes.
Persona has a troubled history with queer representation, with the fourth game often criticised for its homophobic jokes and stereotypes involving Kanji, Yosuke, and Naoto throughout the game. Ambiguity as to whether characters are gay has also been a problem for the series, but hopefully, Reload’s attitude is a sign of things to come.
