Persona 3 Reloadlaunched this past February, a ground-up remake of one of the series' most beloved titles. While there’s still some lingering debate about why Atlus didn’t do a definitive edition that pooled together all previous content, including the female protagonist from Persona 3 Portable, Reload was still a huge success. It became the fastest-selling game in Atlus history, selling over one million units in its first week and becoming both its most successful and positively received Steam launch to date.
Now, several months later, Atlus is delivering some of the most sought-after content for Reload yet. No, not the female protagonist (I’m still not over it and never will be), but Episode Aigis - The Answer, which was originally part of Persona 3 FES on the PS2. Now, Episode Aigis has been fully and faithfully remade to the same degree and quality as Persona 3 Reload, including some of the same new mechanics and quality-of-life updates.
In the West, The Answer was originally called Episode Aigis when it first launched in Japan. For this new iteration, the names have been merged into one.
There are new gameplay elements in the dungeons for Episode Aigis, as well as a dedicated Aigis user interface, a new opening animation and remakes of all the animated cutscenes, and new music to boot. Aigis now has heavy-armour field actions, and there are new Theurgies and attack finishers for Aegis and Metis. Overall, Episode Aigis offers more than 30 hours of additional content and a touching final curtain call to the events of Reload.
After the events of Reload, the SEES team are just about ready to retire their evokers and move on with their lives. However, before they get the chance, they find themselves with a new dilemma: they’re trapped in a never-ending loop of March 31st. Players step into the role of Aigis and are introduced to Metis, Aegis’s sister, a new character who will join them as they venture into a sprawling labyrinth called the Abyss of Time to figure out exactly what’s happening.
Episode Aigis focuses on Aigis and how she’s coping with the loss of the protagonist, as well as questioning what her role in life is. For fans of the original, seeing Metis and the events of Episode Aigis given the Reload treatment with sleek new character models, detailed dungeons, and clean animations is a welcome addition. For those who have never played FES, there’s a new mystery to solve that ties up the events of Reload, not only in terms of what happened but in addressing how the other characters dealt with their grief.
Though players do not need to have completed the main game to play the DLC, as the events take place after the storyline of Reload, it’s best appreciated afterwards.
While there is more plot to unearth here, for those unfamiliar with The Answer, it’s worth noting that it is very combat-heavy and it won’t be as forgiving if you skip over battles to get ahead, ultimately leaving your party underlevelled. Get ready to start grinding through those dungeons again. For FES, The Answer was only playable on one difficulty setting that equated to hard mode. It was unclear from the preview whether this will be the case again, but the combat had a noticeable difficulty spike compared to the base game.
Atlus has said that the overwhelming response to Reload helped make Episode Aigis happen, and that it will be the third and final DLC for the game. That’s right, apparently still no female protagonist route. I keep complaining about it, but I’ve accepted the fact that we won’t be getting this as DLC. Atlus would have to replicate the game in its entirety and adapt it to fit the inclusion of the female character, changing and adding in different narration, new character models, the male romances… It’s too much to ask for in a DLC. That’s why Episode Aigis is the perfect finale for Reload, because it’s the last missing piece that could feasibly be added.
I haven’t given up on a female protagonist Reload entirely, especially given how successful Reload was, but I imagine it’ll come in the form of a new version. The Royal to Persona 5, or the Golden to Persona 4. One day, we’ll get a Reload remake where we can romance Akihiko.
The epilogue to Persona 3 Reload, Episode Aigis -The Answer-, launches on September 10.
