Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis – The Answer DLC Review

This has been a very curious year in gaming for me, as I have honestly only looked forward to certain titles throughout the year. If I were to make a “judgment” right now on what is my current “Game of the Year,” I would likely say it’s Persona 3 Reload, which I had the honor of reviewing for the site. The game was truly fun, and it helped me love the Persona franchise even further. So, when I heard that its expansion/DLC was coming in remake form, I knew I had to play it. As my Persona 3 Reload Episode Aigis Review will show, “The Answer” to what it is…is a bit on the nose.

Game Name: Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis – The Answer DLC
Platform(s): Xbox (reviewed), PS4, PS5, PC (Steam)
Developer(s): Atlus
Publisher(s): Atlus
Release Date: September 10, 2024

Just to be clear, to truly voice my opinions on this, my review WILL have big spoilers of both Episode Aigis and the main game. You’ve been warned. So, the DLC takes place right after the events with Nyx in the main campaign. The original protagonist is dead after help seal the god away, and the rest of the S.E.E.S group is coping with the loss. The dorm they’re in is about to shut down, and they’ll basically go their separate ways.

While all of them are taking various events, including their friend’s death, hard, Aigis is arguably taking it the hardest. She doesn’t have a “purpose” in life anymore in her eyes, and she wonders what’s next. Things get shaken up when another android like her, Metis, shows up and changes everything through the reveal of the Abyss of Time.

Turns out, the dorm is above a certain “dimension” that has trapped them in a Groundhog Day scenario. Time is stuck on March 31st, and they can’t leave the dorm until they deal with this abyss. To make matters even more curious, Aigis has gotten the power of the “Fool” persona card, and can now use multiple personas like the previous protagonist could. Thus begins the second journey of the S.E.E.S. to figure out the truth about the Abyss of Time, Metis, and how they can get back to their lives.

All of this story content happens within the opening hour of the game, which had me really excited for what was coming next. However, as I would find out…the story that follows is quite literally few and far between.

You see, the main focus of this game isn’t so much the story as it is the gameplay. You’ll go through seven “layers” of the Abyss of time and use both teleporters and doors to get back to the dorm to rest or a familiar mall to get supplies. Many of these “layers” are well over 20 floors deep, and at the end is a door that links to key story content. But…the story content is REALLY small, and then it’s right back to the grind of getting through the next layer.

Don’t get me wrong, the gameplay is still incredible! It’s just as refined as before, and there are some new elements to help change things up, including Aigis getting special Theurgy moves due to the Personas she gets, and how Metis factors into gameplay, and more. I was honestly surprised that I got into a “new rhythm” with a team that featured two new members from the squad I had before (for the record, I used Aigis, Metis, Yukari and Akihiko.)

The problem, as my Persona 3 Reload Episode Aigis Review will note many times over, is that when you’re constantly grinding, with very little else to do in the game, some of the bigger flaws show, especially when you get to the final bits of story content that try and “tie it all together.”

For example, while there are smaller beats to help bring the S.E.E.S. group together, it’s nothing like what we had in the main campaign. I truly longed to have the Social Links back, if for no other reason than to flesh things out with each member of the group, especially since I only used four of them throughout the entire game! While there were smaller conversations and lines of dialogue in the abyss that helped flesh out certain characters, I honestly don’t feel it was enough to justify certain revelations or statements that were made.

Another issue is that because you’re merely going from one floor to the next with few breaks (unless you intentionally take a lot of them), you’re going to be hearing the SAME AUDIO TRACKS and the SAME VOICE LINES repeatedly! I was in the final layer of the Abyss of Time, and I kept hearing, “Oh, a treasure chest!” or “What’s that strange door?” even though I had gotten HUNDREDS of chests by that point and likely had beaten dozens of the Monad Doors. A little more variety, or less popping up of those lines would’ve made it a lot less annoying. As were when in battle, Fuuka would repeatedly note “how powerful I am” even though I just took major damage or that “I could run away if I wanted,” even though I was about to win. The little things matter here.

By the time I got to the final “layer,” I was already so powerful and grinded so much that I just skipped the final Monad Doors I came across and as many enemies as I could…simply because I wanted to be done. That’s not the kind of feeling you want to present players.

That’s not to say I didn’t have ANY significant gameplay rushes in my journey. It’s still a thrill when you hit a critical attack or a weakness, and I found my previous knowledge from the main campaign helped me pick apart enemies more times than not. Plus, unlike before, I found myself going to the Velvet Room to do more fusions and not being afraid to take risks for more powerful personas. By the end, I had a stacked roster that helped me ease through many fights. And yes, the one persona above is totally a Ghost Rider ripoff. Shame!

On the flip side, though, by the time I got to the final battles, they were either underwhelming or a slog to get through. For example, you’ll have to face off against the rest of the S.E.E.S. group at one point, and unlike in your regular battles with them…they have no weaknesses. So all three sets of battles are just you healing repeatedly so you don’t die and then slowly whittling away at their health. That’s not exactly fun, given the layers of strategy you often have to invoke in this series. It also doesn’t help that the true final boss is that same way and that there are often times mini-bosses that crank up the difficulty to an eye-rolling degree.

Yet the biggest twist is the one that my fellow Nintendo Entertainment Podcast hosts highlighted was rather divisive, and I can see why.

As we find out, the reason the Abyss of Time was allowed to exist after the fall of Tartarus was because of the S.E.E.S. group mourning the loss of their friend and basically wishing time to stop. Aigis even created Metis by accident and got the power of the Fool because of her grief. The final hour or so of story content was interesting, but it felt rushed, given how the others didn’t talk about such feelings beforehand. Yukari especially seemed to “have been hit the hardest” by her own account and even said she was jealous of Aigis getting “his power,” but it didn’t really land for me.

As for Aigis, she starts out the DLC incredibly talkative, then goes quiet outside of key scenes. That felt so odd because it was HER story, yet she was acting like the “silent protagonist.” Then, when it’s revealed that Metis was her “emotions made form,” and others noted how she was “acting robotic,” I couldn’t help but call that out. After all, in the group interaction scenes that the player controls, she emits all sorts of emotions and gets various reactions from others.

I know that, like with P3R, they were simply remaking what was already done, but I never played the original or the expansion content until this year, and I feel it would’ve been best to have expanded the story in a better way versus just having it scattered about in a 20+ hour battle grind.

And to put a cap on it, “The Answer” that Aigis was looking for…was friendship. Yes, it’s literally the line, “The real treasure was the friends we made along the way,” personified. While I don’t mind that message, it felt disingenuous due to how we got there. PLUS, there were other people that the protagonist met in the main game who were likely also grieving his death. Why didn’t they get factored into things in some way?

In the end, as I wrap up my Persona 3 Reload Episode Aigis Review, I do want to note that I enjoyed the DLC overall. It was great being with the S.E.E.S. group again, and the gameplay is still pretty much flawless. However, if you wanted more from Aigis and the others via a much deeper storyline, you will likely wish for more.

Review Disclosure Statement: A copy of Persona 3 Reload Episode Aigis was provided to us by Microsoft for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

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