Contains spoilers for the base game of Persona 3 Reload and some parts of The Answer expansion, so beware!
How do you wrap things up for the best remake of the year? Is it with a somber note that’s about accepting the past and moving on towards a future? Or living with the memories of someone you cherish, now always being with you, forever more? Perhaps even both, if you dare.
From a cold opening to the heartwarming end. To see the perfect ending for The SEES squad that we have grown and loved throughout this game, battling within the Dark Hour for one last time, as it loops back into an endless cycle after the appearance of a Sister…
The Answer (or Episode Aigis) is an expansion that was originally the extended epilogue for the original game during the PS2 era version of Persona 3 and it wasn’t included in its two remastering on the PSP and the current generation of the console when those were released back in 2009 and 2023 respectively.
Now it’s a part of the expanded and enhanced Reload version, how does it play into the new game?
Quite well actually.
Once more, with passion
So The Answer picks up right after the end of the Persona 3 storyline, leaving with some trail of sadness and an abrupt farewell, all of that was interrupted by the appearance of Aigis’s sister, Metis (voice by the now very omnipresent Lizzie Freeman) who informs her sibling (by machine creation) and the SEES squad that they are in a time-loop akin to the Dark Hour, now situated in the basement of their dorm. The only way out is to break down the doors to escape.
It’s an interesting storyline to run with, as the plot points towards processing the biggest loss the team hA had, and having to focus on defeating the Dark Hour once again, with us seeing it in Aigis’ view, who now welds the wildcard trait and gains control of many persona’s that we collected throughout the base game.
The Ultimate Wildcard
Speaking of which, Aigis gets our protag’s power of having the burden of carrying 170 plus personas that you can also still collect from diving deeper within the depths of the basement floors, all of which will also have special powers like Armageddon and Mudo that can one-shot your combatants as you go around.
There’s also voiced banter between the likes of Metis, Akihiko, and co. Now too, if you miss listening to them bicker as you try to navigate. It’s a nice addition to what once should have been a sort of challenge mode with some story element, now being a proper epilogue to the already incredible Reload, in my opinion.
Verdict![]()
If you ever need the perfect icing on top of the remake for a game that’s beloved by many, I guess this is your Answer, so to speak. It ties up nicely with, weirdly, the next time we see the SEES gang in the Persona 4 Arena fighters, so the game’s status in the canon of the series is quite solid with this remade expansion (but let’s not mention the sudden Joker from P5 fight between it).
And while I also feel the price point for this one is a bit steep, you should totally get it when it’s on sale to wrap things up with this one. For now, sleep well Persona 3, you deserved it.
DLC Code provided by the publisher.