Indeed, there is no trace of Kotone in Persona 3 Reload. And there won’t be in the future. Despite the pleas of JRPG fans, its producer confirms that Kotone will not be included as it would be too expensive. Those were the strong words of Kazuhisa Wada in an interview conducted with Persona Central.
During the interview, Wada was asked about the possibility of the character being exclusive to Portable, but admitted that it would be too expensive to include her: “I will start by apologizing, but unfortunately, the appearance of the female protagonist in Persona 3 Reload will not happen.”
Wada continues and explains that “of course, we considered including the female protagonist alongside ‘Episode Aigis’, but the more we delved into it, the more hopeless it seemed… The time and development costs would probably be two or three times higher than those of ‘Episode Aigis’.” He also killed any hope of having her in the future, stating that there would be “no possibility“.
Kotone Shiomi was the female protagonist of Persona 3 Portable, the PSP version. She is the alternative to Makoto Yuki and her story takes place in an alternate timeline. So far, Persona 3 had several versions, which are Persona 3 (the original game), Persona 3 FES (an equivalent version to Persona 5 Royale), and Persona 3 Portable (for PSP).
Persona 3 Reload is the current remake and fourth existing version of the game, which is available on PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC.
