Persona is a series that has sometimes struggled with homosexuality, like Persona 4's well-meaning-but-ultimately-busted approach to Kanji’s romance. Persona 5, meanwhile, had a couple of scenes involving a “Scruffy Romantic” and “Beefy Trendsetter” on release that were...yeah.
Here’s the first of those scenes:
Just so you can get a clearer idea of the tone, here’s the same scene from the Persona 5 anime:
Later on, you can be reunited with the pair during the classmate’s trip to Hawaii:
To be clear: not only are these scenes wildly stereotypical, but they go so far as to threaten abduction and sexual assault against a high school kid.
Publishers Atlus received criticism over this when Persona 5 was first released, and given the time to think it over have decided to edit both of these scenes for the game’s impending re-release.
Atlus Communications Manager Ari Advincula has told IGN that “We actually were able to go through some of the lines that players may not have received as well, look at that feedback, and then [update it] for the current generation.”
Both the Shibuya and beach scenes have now been edited to tone it down, and Atlus’ “internal content review team” sees the changes as a “chance to make it right.”
Persona 5 Royal is out on PS4 on March 31.