4.5/5 ★ – Lammy's review of Persona 3 Reload : Episode Aigis -The Answer-.

Persona 3 Reload Episode Aigis post-100% review - Since I know several people reading this are mid-playthrough of Reload and/or Episode Aigis, I'm again going to frontload my rating. The Episode Aigis DLC is a 9/10 for me. While it chooses to leave aside some of the social elements that give base P3R its flavor, it does so for targeted reasons that I think mostly make up for the omissions. If you want to avoid more detailed discussion of the game, stop reading here. Starting here, I'm going more in-depth. Episode Aigis is the major story DLC for Persona 3 Reload, a modernization of The Answer, the epilogue included in the enhanced PS2 edition of original P3, Persona 3 FES. Since it takes place after the end of P3, it's hard to discuss the story without spoilers, but I'll do my best. If Persona 3 Reload is a game about loss, and what we're willing to give up to achieve what we aspire to, Episode Aigis is a game about grief. As indicated by the title, we're put in the role of the plucky robot learning to be a real girl, Aigis, at the end of the school year. On dorm move-out day, March 31st. she and the rest of the SEES crew find themselves trapped in their dorm and attacked by a mysterious assailant resembling a black version of Aigis. This new robot, Metis, reveals that the team is stuck in a time loop caused by a phenomenon called the Abyss of Time. In order to escape, the team must explore and understand this Abyss, confronting what they find in front of them and within themselves. Because this is a time loop, also and due to the nature of the narrative, Social Links due not make a return in the DLC, nor do the other visual novel elements that serve to give Persona some of its unique spice. In its place is a whole lot of combat; the whole DLC is a Tartarus exploration, with cutscenes interspersed. I like the combat in P3R, and I think that the choice to focus on our central characters and narrative pays off in the end, but it's hard to ignore the omission of a central component of the post-P3 Persona experience. The combat is mostly identical to the base game, with Aigis acquiring the Wild Card ability to summon multiple Personas as befitting her protagonist status. Some features like Persona fusion and Major Arcana cards in shuffle time have been updated due to the lack of Social Links and non-combat activities, but the changes aren't too drastic. Ultimately, if the Tartarus sections of P3R already appealed to you mechanically, you'll like playing this DLC. This DLC stands solely on the back of its story, which I feel truly completes the overall P3 narrative in a satisfyingly melancholic way. P3 as a whole tackles some very strong but less-than-cheerful themes, and this epilogue follows those themes to their necessary conclusion, tying up a few character arcs in the process and elevating folks like Yukari and Mitsuru to the levels of Junpei and Aigis in my overall character ranking. If you're going to play P3R anyway, this is required reading.