Persona 3 Reload: Expansion Pass – Episode Aigis review

After a long-awaited remake and “definitive” release of Persona 3 via the release of Persona 3 Reload, the questions remained: “Will we get The Answer and will we get Kotone?” Luckily for fans, ATLUS has an answer that at least half of that audience will appreciate, and it’s not Kotone’s inclusion as the female lead character instead of Makoto Yuki as an alternate route. Included in the expansion pass, Episode Aigis was announced for release on September 10th, 2024. Episode Aigis directly follows the ending of the Persona 3 Reload main story, so it is highly recommended and encouraged that you finish the base game before journeying into Episode Aigis.

Taking place after the events of the finale of Persona 3 Reload, Episode Aigis sees the cast preparing to depart Iwatoda and trying to adjust to life after defeating their last big threat and stopping the Dark Hour from repeating. Unfortunately, something is wrong and things aren’t what they seem. Somehow, some way, the gang finds themselves trapped in an eternal March 31st, and a whole new entity akin to Tartarus has appeared beneath the Iwatodai Dorm.

The gameplay is mostly unchanged, with some tweaks here and there for your party and compendium in Episode Aigis. Instead of playing as Makoto Yuki (or Minato Arisato if you’re wrong), you find yourself playing as Aigis, who has recently awoken to the power of the wild card amidst defending her friends from a new shadow weapon calling herself Metis. You’ll have all of the same functions as the base game, including special fusions, the full compendium, all of the same acquirable Theurgy actions, etc. Certain party members will be unavailable at specific times as well, with the unlock of facilities you’re used to like the police station, weapon crafting, and pharmacy all unlockable as you progress in the expansion. With the move of Aigis to the role of the wild card, you’ll meet Metis, Aigis’ “sister” and replacement in the party, filling the gap of wielding Orgia Mode and more physical-focused skills. Additionally, there is a new challenge boss featuring Joker from the Persona 5 Royal game.

The story is a decent follow-up to the ending of Persona 3, and fans of the original often like the story, while the original release of The Answer left a bit to be desired in its entirety, to say the least. Characters are definitely more emotional and on edge than before whilst processing the events at the end of Persona 3 Reload so they’re more prone to outbursts. This may seem out of character or even annoying, but given the context it’s a pretty fair reaction.

The grinding that has plagued many players of Persona 3 FES’ release back in the day has been somewhat alleviated, but you’ll still feel underpowered. The game starts with you being back at level 25 on everyone for some mysterious reason (that’s what they tell you in-game), and as a result you’ll be re-leveling characters up and re-acquiring their skills. This wasn’t a huge problem, but it was rather frustrating having to wait until the mid 30s range on levels to even begin to see the medium damage spells begin to pop up in my skill lists while being hit by those same skills since the game starts. Also, it does feel like balance is notably different than the base game, with enemies oftentimes being multiple levels above you until the end of an area, even if you spend time fighting whatever spawns are on the floor at a given time. Again, not a humongous problem or anything, but somewhat tedious when fights are taking notably longer than the base game.

Technically, it runs flawlessly with one exception. I’m not sure what’s causing it, because it could just be the specific version of the game I played or just the expansion in general, but once you make your way to a fake version of Paulownia Mall, I had a very noticeable framerate drop. Additionally, while being provided an Xbox/Windows Store copy of the game on PC, I noticed a lack of PlayStation/Nintendo Switch controller support compared to the Steam counterpart. The ability to change your button prompts still exists, but unfortunately it only accepts keyboard and mouse or Xbox controllers as viable input methods. At the end of the day it’s not a big issue, but enough of one that if you’re on PC and buy the game on the Windows Store or play on Game Pass, you might have a hampered experience without using a Microsoft-specific device.

Overall I think Persona 3 Reload: Expansion Pass – Episode Aigis is a great follow up to Persona 3’s story, albeit with some minor caveats that will affect each player differently. The new music is great, the new “dungeon” backgrounds are just as fantastic as the remade Tartarus in Persona 3 Reload, and as expected the voice cast is just as excellent. Metis is a great addition to the party, even if she’s effectively the gap closer between your lower-tier abilities against enemies that are scaled a bit above you. I think my main gripes are just quality of life things not found out of Steam as a PC player for this review, and that the mall significantly hits my framerate (EXCLUSIVELY in the DLC I might add). The expansion pass costs $35, which is a big turn off for some people I’ve noticed, but Episode Aigis is very much a standalone experience worth the money. It offers another multiple dozen hours of gameplay and story with all the core draws of Persona 3 Reload, so if you’re a fan of the base game I highly recommend it.

Note: Sega provided us with a Persona 3 Reload – Episode Aigis code for review purposes.

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