Persona 3 Reload’s three-hour PS Plus trial highlights the problem with time-limited demos

Sony has added a new demo, or game trial as it likes to call them, for Persona 3 Reload to its PlayStation Plus service, so Premium tier subscribers can play its first three hours at no extra cost. It’s an offer that has been met with scrutiny and mockery from fans online, and they’re not exactly wrong.

Take a quick look through reactions to developer Atlus’ announcement for the trial on Twitter, and you’ll see many fans argue that three hours is not enough time for something like Persona 3 Reload. The game has a pretty slow start and is front-loaded with a lot of cutscenes and story set-up. You likely won’t reach your first instance of combat and dungeon exploring until you’re over an hour in, and that’s if you don’t spend too much time wandering around the school area beforehand. You can save a lot of time by skipping cutscenes, but then how are you supposed to tell if you’ll like its cast of characters and story? This also doesn’t leave much room to get to grips with other important mechanics, like the Social Links and fusing Personas.

Plenty have also drawn direct comparisons with Microsoft’s offer on Xbox Game Pass, which lets you play Persona 3 Reload in its entirety. It’s not even as if Sony’s offer is distinctly cheaper. In fact, it’s ever so slightly more expensive; one month of Game Pass is $16.99, while one month of PS Plus Premium is $17.99. If you’re curious about trying out Persona 3 Reload, you may as well do so via Xbox.

Granted, not everyone can afford to own both a PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and there’s no harm in at least giving the trial a go if you’re a PS5 owner who’s already subscribed to PS Plus Premium. However, these time limits Sony imposes on its game trials ultimately prevent you from really taking your time with them. The constant ticking clock means you’re forced to rush through as much of the game as possible, which doesn’t do a good job of demonstrating what the game’s actually like to play casually. This isn’t so bad for games that quickly throw you into the thick of it, but RPGs like Persona 3 Reload certainly need a lot more than three hours.

Perhaps an ideal compromise would be to limit the demos to a certain number of days. I imagine Sony doesn’t already do this out of fear of players speeding through an entire game so they don’t have to buy it; remember, these trials grant access to the full game, not a small portion of it. This obviously wouldn’t be great for shorter games, but maybe there could be an exception for the longer ones, like Persona 3 Reload. Even if it was only a two or three-day limit, that’s more than enough time for someone to get a proper understanding of the game and decide if they want to keep going. Or maybe just make it a normal demo that has an exact cut-off point; one that still lets you continue your progress into the full game.

Sony probably won’t be changing its approach to handling PS Plus trials any time soon, but it’s offers like this that frankly don’t make them feel like much of a bonus for paying for a Premium subscription. Admittedly, the biggest selling point for the Premium tier is the catalog of retro PlayStation games, but that’s not an especially impressive line-up either.

If you’re not a PS Plus subscriber, don’t have access to an Xbox, but do want to give Persona 3 Reload a shot, it’s probably better to wait for it to go on sale than subscribe for just three hours of game time. In fact, at the time of writing, Persona 3 Reload on PS5 is available at a discount digitally for $48.99, but only until June 6.