When Persona 3 Reload was announced, fans were both excited and anxious. Since the original Persona 3’s release in 2006, the RPG has received two iterations in the form of Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable, both of which had separate exclusive content that wasn’t available in the other. The former had a playable epilogue called The Answer, while the latter added a female protagonist.
For years, fans have been clamoring for a definitive version of Persona 3 that included content from FES and Portable. Persona 3 Reload was the perfect chance for Atlus to do it. Atlus fulfilled part of the wish by remaking The Answer into Episode Aigis: The Answer for Reload.
Digital Trends recently spent one hour with Episode Aigis. Its emphasis on combat rather than social mechanics is a welcome change of pace. But we almost didn’t get it at all. In an interview with Digital Trends, producer Kazuhisa Wada revealed that the team nearly gave up on the DLC.
Breaking the cycle
Episode Aigis picks up from Persona 3 Reload’s ending. The cast become stuck in a time loop on March 31. Instead of focusing on Reload’s original nameless protagonist, players now play as Aigis, the loyal and robotic member of the team. The group then gets attacked by Metis, who introduces herself as Aigis’ sister. It’s an explosive start to the expansion that really grabs your attention.
After a misunderstanding, Metis teams up with SEES to help them end the time loop, and they head down under the dorms to find a brand new set of dungeons. One of Reload’s overhauls include a revamp of the original art style. In particular, SEES gets a red armband with a number, indicating the order in which they joined the crew. Metis gets one, but it’s actually missing a number. This reflects Metis’s position as only a temporary party member exclusive to the expansion, according to Wada.
“Metis hasn’t appeared since FES, so we put in a lot of effort in creating her 3D model,” Wada tells Digital Trends. “She has a body that is like a ball-jointed doll with delicate decorations that many players may be unfamiliar with, so I’m hoping they will appreciate those little details in this game. Regarding the armband, she didn’t have one in FES, but here, she has received a spare one from the Kirijo Group, so her armband isn’t numbered like the others.”
In the base game, the protagonist can secure an advantage before battle by hitting enemies with his sword. Aigis can do the same, but by shooting enemies from a distance, giving players more range. That feels a bit imprecise. Aigis doesn’t aim down sights, but a reticle automatically appears as hhe closes in on an enemy. It just doesn’t have the same weight as smacking them with a sword. It’s not a deal breaker, but it’s a minor annoyance that I imagine could stack up over a few hours.
Episode Aigis has no social mechanics, which might turn away players who come to Persona for that feature. Hopefully, the story and the mystery surrounding Metis’ existence is enough to keep those players invested. Fans who’ve already played the original DLC will be curious to see what changes Atlus made, and for those who haven’t, it’s a great excuse to spend more time with Reload’s charming cast.
The episode that almost never was
Wada was one of the main artists on the original Persona 3, and he served as director on fighting spinoff Persona 4 Arena. He’s been with Persona 3’s characters from the very beginning and has almost raised them like they were his own children. He has also seen the reaction from fans with every single iteration of the game.
“I understand what’s important for the game, which parts require some polish, which things shouldn’t be changed, and that has allowed me to confidently set the direction of the remake,” Wada says.
We had to give up on remaking Episode Aigis at one point.
Wada surprises me when he reveals that Episode Aigis almost never existed. The team only began working on it late into development of the base game. While he didn’t dive too specifically into the reasons Atlus almost gave up on creating the expansion, he said Atlus couldn’t decide on the proper development team structure for it. It’s no surprise given that Atlus is being stretched quite thin at the moment and has more on its plate in 2024 compared to previous years with releases such as Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, Unicorn Overlord, and Metaphor: ReFantazio.
“My thought process from the start of the proposal was that if we wanted to remake Persona 3, Episode Aigis was essential since it completes the story, and I wanted to make it happen somehow,” Wada says. “But for various reasons, we had many hurdles to overcome with this remake, and even getting the base game of Persona 3 Reload off the ground was a challenge. Because of this, we had to give up on remaking Episode Aigis at one point.”
In fact, Wada says he was prepared to become a one-man-army development team if it came down to it. Luckily, Atlus was able to assign director Yu Hashizume, who had previous experience with Soul Hackers 2, to Episode Aigis. That’s when serious development on it started before the launch of Reload.
In Digital Trends’ Persona 3 Reload review, we said that the game still felt a bit incomplete without the content from previous versions of Persona 3. Other critics also had similar sentiments.
“When we finally announced Reload, many fans requested the follow-up story,” Wada says. “It was very reassuring since I felt the same way, and to be honest, this support was the deciding factor in making Episode Aigis a reality.”
Atlus already said that the female protagonist will most likely never be remade for Reload, noting that it would require too much development time and resources for what is almost an entirely new game unto itself. But with enough clamoring, perhaps fans can also manifest her and get Atlus to reconsider that too.
Persona 3 Reload Episode Aigis: The Answer launches on September 10.
