When ATLUS and SEGA released Persona 3 Reload earlier this year, I was in awe of the experience as both a fan of the series and a newcomer to the original game. I was impressed by how the remake managed to recapture the magic of the original while adding new touches that added more depth to both the story and gameplay. Despite the remake’s success, many fans wanted more from the experience. In particular, they wanted to see the return of Persona 3 FES‘s expanded story, titled The Answer.
ATLUS would announce the expansion’s return just a few months after Persona 3 Reload‘s release. At first, it seemed perfect: the new voice acting and gameplay would add more depth to the divisive story that many fans both loved and hated. However, the anticipation for the DLC would soon dampen as a result of its price point of thirty-five dollars.
In playing Persona 3 Reload Episode Aigis -The Answer- for this review, I had two questions I wanted to “answer”: how does Persona 3 Reload add more depth to the original Answer expansion? Further, does Persona 3 Reload Episode Aigis -The Answer- earn its price point of $35?
After twenty hours, I found my answers. I realized that the DLC combines the best and worst parts of Persona 3 Reload in a package that likely won’t be worth it for many players.
Warning: This review contains minor spoilers for Persona 3 Reload.
A Journey to Find Life’s Answer
Episode Aigis begins just a few weeks after the end of Persona 3 Reload. It directly examines the game’s main characters and their complicated emotions following the end of the base game. Mitsuru Kirijo is confiscating the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad’s evokers, the power that allowed them to access their personas, in an attempt to move on from the past. Other characters, like Yukari Takeba, Akihiko Sanada, Ken Amada, and others are all trying to handle their grief in various unhealthy ways.
The DLC’s protagonist, Aigis, is the most clear example of this. She consistently has nightmares and wants to go back to being just a simple machine so she won’t have to face the weight of her loss. As she falls deeper and deeper into a spiral of self loathing, a mysterious figure known as Metis appears, calling herself Aigis’ sister. Not only that, but time is stuck and the day won’t progress past March 31.
SEES must work together once more to explore the newly discovered Abyss of Time and figure out why time won’t advance. Along the way, they will uncover answers that explain their loss, their struggles, and their very reason for living. It’s a compelling narrative that will undoubtedly hit close to home for many players. Seeing the characters I followed and adored in the base game all fall into a cycle of depression and despair was devastating.
Persona 3 Reload‘s voice actors once again add so much depth to their characters and their emotions. Dawn M. Bennett plays a particularly large role as Aigis takes the position of protagonist. She manages to capture the complexities of an android trying to understand her own grief and sorrow while being forced into a leadership position.
The other voice actors also knock it out of the park. Lizzie Freeman provides some great levity and charm as Metis and Zeno Robinson brings so much personality to Junpei, just to name two examples. Heather Gonzalez also deserves special acclaim for her role as Yukari. Before playing The Answer, I’d always heard that Yukari comes off as irrational and bratty. In reality, she has the most interesting character arc in the entire expansion asides from Aigis, and the way Gonzalez manages to capture Yukari’s complexity is absolutely brilliant.
As a whole, the entire story of Episode Aigis brings the same brilliant writing, exquisite character work, and surprising narrative developments from both the base Persona 3 Reload game and the original release of The Answer. However, where the expansion lacks in comparison to both the base game and other DLCs released in the modern day is in its limited gameplay offerings.
A Monotonous Abyss
The base Persona 3 Reload gameplay experience struck a balance between implementing requested changes while keeping the original foundation intact. As someone who got into the series through Persona 5, I found it both familiar and unique. Overall, Reload‘s gameplay was addicting fun. That said, when it comes to Episode Aigis, the gameplay feels fundamentally limited.
The first thing you’ll notice that’s maintained from the original is how the social link mechanics that the series is known for has been stripped away. This is by design, as The Answer‘s narrative is far more contained and personal. Unfortunately though, this forces you to play through a dungeon similar to Tartarus, titled the Abyss of Time, for a good majority of Episode Aigis‘ playtime.
As a result, the monotony of Persona 3 Reload‘s gameplay loop is made crystal clear. The formula of fighting the same enemies over and over again becomes far more exhausting when you don’t have a chance to spend time with any social links. Further, there is no consequence to returning to the hub before finishing a dungeon. Not only is your theurgy attack is maintained, but your progress in the dungeon isn’t reset.
On the one hand, these are good changes. On the other, it makes the experience far more trivial as you can just return to the hub in order to regenerate both HP and SP. The triviality of the Abyss of Time isn’t helped by how the same four dungeon floors are reused periodically. First you’ll see a normal hotel-like setting, then a blue alien-like area, then a cyberpunk area, and then a bigger backdrop that has a giant chandelier at the center. The repetition had me questioning my own sanity and genuinely wondering if it was new or not.
It is worth noting, though, that there are a few new social interactions. These social interactions allow the party members to get new Theurgy attacks and new ways to build up the meter. Unfortunately, these interactions are not voiced at all. It certainly dampened my enjoyment of the new addition once I realized that I couldn’t hear more of the voice actors’ fantastic performances.
This is the real conundrum with Episode Aigis‘ gameplay. For the most part, the expansion is unchanged from its original release. As a result, it ends up showcasing the most monotonous parts of Persona 3 Reload‘s gameplay loop. The few gameplay additions that are there only add to that monotony.
It doesn’t matter if its the inclusion of the Monad Doors from Reload that somehow appear every single floor with very little alterations or its the new social interactions that are devoid of any voice acting. The ability to access some of the Personas you unlocked in the base game is nice, but adds little to the overall experience. Even seeing Metis fight and use some incredibly cool Theurgy attacks did nothing for me.
At the end of the day, I just felt bored playing Episode Aigis. It was the first time I’d ever been bored with the series’ gameplay loop. This brings me to the main question that plagued my mind as I played through the DLC: is it worth the price of admission?
Finding the Value in Both the Journey and the Destination
Over the last few years, several major companies have released story and gameplay expansions for their games after they’ve launched. A few of them have managed to not just add to the base game, but even improve upon it and elevate it further. CDProjekt Red delivered a massive expansion with Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, and Monolith Soft released a lengthy prologue to Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in Future Redeemed.
Episode Aigis‘ price is set at $35. The DLC costs five dollars more than both Phantom Liberty and Future Redeemed. Further, it costs five dollars less than Shadow of the Erdtree. The other aforementioned DLCs offer over 20 hours of content. In the case of both Phantom Liberty and Shadow of the Erdtree, they add dozens of hours of content in main story material, side material, and more.
In the grand scheme of things, Episode Aigis offers very little new material to justify its price. There are very few gameplay additions that make the experience any different from the main game. The details that have been added are either not implemented to their fullest potential or only add to the combat loop’s monotony. The story is great, but it only progresses after an hour or so of playing through a constantly looping dungeon that crosses the line from addicting into just being tiresome.
This lack of care extends to all parts of the DLC. The menus don’t stick out as much as the base game and most of them have Aigis thoughtlessly inserted into the place of Persona 3 Reload‘s protagonist. Additionally, there are only a few brand new music tracks added to the game. The rest are just repeats from Persona 3 Reload.
It’s a poor showing in comparison to Persona 5 Royal, which completely changed the original game and added almost thirty to forty hours worth of new story content on top of the major gameplay changes. It doesn’t help that you can purchase Persona 5 Royal for a lower price than Episode Aigis these days.
The $35 dollar price point isn’t event taking into consideration the additional $26 DLC that adds new costumes and personas, which isn’t included as part of the expansion pass. If you buy every single piece of DLC alongside Persona 3 Reload, you’re looking at approximately $132. It’s a massive price point for an experience that offers less as a whole than not just other entries in the genre, but also other entries in the series.
Persona 3 Episode Aigis -The Answer- is a deeply flawed experience. It brings to light the worst parts of the original game’s combat, with how repetitive it can be when just focusing on the dungeon crawling instead of the series’ social aspects. All this at a price that is far harder to justify compared to other examples in the genre.
Yet the DLC’s story still manages to reach the heights that the franchise is known for. Despite my frustrations with the gameplay and price, I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy my time with Episode Aigis. When the credits rolled, I found myself deeply emotional and impressed with how the experience managed to deal with the concepts of grief in such a profound way.
At the end of the day, your enjoyment with the DLC will come down to how much you’re willing to spend on the twenty hour adventure. If you’re a hardcore Persona fan, Episode Aigis is a must-buy. If you have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, it’s definitely worth a try since you can download the DLC at no additional cost. However, if you’re not a hardcore Persona fan and you don’t have Xbox Game Pass, you may be better off waiting for a price drop.