3/5 ★ – Gibbs's review of Persona 3 Reload : Episode Aigis -The Answer-.

Never been the biggest fan of The Answer. I beat it once back when I played FES for the first time, but ended up turning on cheats roughly a third of the way through because it was such a slog. I’ve always liked the story, but found it hard to justify playing through to experience. Reload’s ‘Episode Aigis’ remains extremely faithful, but all the additions make this far more tolerable for me, and I ended up liking the whole experience. The worst part is, it’s still just the Abyss of Time. It’s equally as exceedingly long, and the enemies equally as tuned to be a challenge. However, Reload’s new combat, like its controllable party, theury skills, and just overall increased speed make this a lot more fun. They have also added ‘Monad doors’ for more challenging battles for some good rewards, which do keep things slightly fresher too, but not by much. Of course, they could have done more - new enemies, unique bosses, even just shorter areas. But I still found myself simply having fun getting through it. There were times I wanted the areas to end, but other times I was just enjoying the zen-like experience of getting through these floors - especially towards the end when your abilities are far more fleshed out. If you enjoy Persona combat for what it is, then there is fun to be had here. It’s still pretty much the same thing, but making the combat far more fun in Reload brings a dramatic improvement. The only new thing combat wise is the Final Monad Door. Containing some pretty uninteresting fights and then Joker. Joker is cool, although i really really dislike Persona’ 3s ‘Elizabethan’ fights with ridiculous offense and defense, paired with several obscure unwritten rules that you get insta-killed for breaking. It’s just cheap and means that pretty much the only way to beat these fights is an absurd amount of grinding to max levels with hyper specific skills. Persona 5’s super bosses are much more fun - being a challenge but with no nonsense. I can beat them all with whatever team and whatever personas I feel are best, and it results in a personal challenge to beat the bosses in your own ways. Sure they can be trivialised due to this, but that’s the skill expression you’re showing. Joker in Episode Aigis just feels like a test I have to prepare for, and if you don’t have the exact right answers to every single thing, you insta-lose. He’s cool, but I’m far more satisfied with hard bosses that push me to use my skills in organic ways. Anyway, the real hook of Episode Aigis is its story. Although sparingly told until the meat at the end, it is very good. A fantastic exploration of grief, and I’ve always loved the very human ways that these characters experience it. Like the base game, it’s all acted phenomenally, and this goes a very long way in conveying the emotion of this story. Episode Aigis even adds some new beats with these characters in small social link sections. They’re fun, natural, and break up the pace rather well when compared to the original. Although it’s a shame these aren’t voiced, it’s a very welcome addition, and I wish we got even more of this. Overall, it’s still The Answer, so I can’t feel too differently about it. It’s a slog, but a more enjoyable one this time. Gameplay is slow, but if you can get through it, you do get a very natural, yet interesting epilogical story that wraps up Persona 3’s plot and character arcs excellently. Although I do agree with the sentiment that the animated cutscenes are a little sauceless when compared to the original, this is the only small downgrade. Episode Aigis is far and away the best way to experience The Answer, so by merit, they succeeded.