I have complicated feelings on how the Persona series (and the Shin Megami Tensei series at large) handles its updated “definitive editions.” Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal are undoubtedly the best versions of their respective games, adding dozens of hours of new story, characters, relationships, and bangin’ songs. However, Atlus has opted to include all that delicious new sh*t woven throughout the original game, meaning that to see some of Royal’s best stuff, you have to play through the entirety of Persona 5 again. This means little to those who wait until the definitive editions are out before playing a Persona game—but for people like me who jump on a new one the second it’s out, playing the entire game all over again has always been a big ask.
That’s why Persona 3’s The Answer feels like the ideal scenario, looking back on the original PS2 game. Instead of weaving a new story into the main game that can only be discovered at the tail end, The Answer offers an entirely separate campaign set after the events of the main game, and Persona 3 Reload, the from-the-ground-up remake of the RPG that launched earlier this year, is finally getting the epilogue on September 10. Though Atlus’ implementation has been controversial. The original PS2 game’s “definitive edition” included The Answer as a pack-in, while the remake is getting it as a $US35 paid DLC as part of an expansion pass. it is, at least, a better version of the business model Atlus has adopted in the years since we first ascended the stairs of Tartarus. Rather than asking someone to buy and play the full game again, it’s nice to have a playable epilogue available separately, and for cheaper than buying an updated version would theoretically cost.
When I played an hour of The Answer, I effortlessly put Persona 3 Reload back on like a glove without all the pressure of replaying a 70-hour RPG to get there.
The Answer begins weeks after the events of Persona 3 proper. The demon-fighting high school team S.E.E.S. is mourning the loss of their leader following his sacrifice during the final battle, and it seems like they are ready to go their separate ways. That is, until Aigis, the shadow-killing android of the team, meets another android named Metis claiming to be her sister. She attacks the group, and Aigis awakens to the trademarked Persona protagonist power of swapping between different summonable creatures at will to face any foe they might encounter.
Aigis becomes the hero of the story when a portal to a new, shadow-infested world opens below the dormitory, and S.E.E.S. is forced to once again take up arms against the monsters. As the group descends, hoping they can find answers for why they’re being dragged back into the fight, they find a series of procedurally generated floors overrun with shadows. It’s back to Persona 3’s usual dungeon crawling, but there are a few tweaks that make Aigis feel different than the original protagonist.
The main change is that Aigis, being an android who uses firearms, is able to preemptively attack enemies from a distance, which Makoto from the base game can’t do as a swordsman. However, it does feel a little imprecise and finicky compared to a simple sword strike in the base game. You don’t aim down sights when playing as Aigis, you just wait for her reticle to appear on an enemy when you’re at a close-enough distance. It’s not a foolproof system, and perhaps it will become more manageable with practice, but it definitely sticks out as an early complication.
Besides that, however, a lot of The Answer seems like more of what made Persona 3 Reload a successful remake earlier this year. It still feels as effortlessly stylish as the main game, its characters are still lovable (even if they’re maybe not as happy to see each other as they once were), and the chain-centric turn-based combat is still full of challenges that it feels like more recent Persona games have gotten away from. I haven’t played the original Answer in over a decade, and I’m excited to revisit it with fresh eyes. Persona 3 Reload brilliantly captured the hopeful melancholy of living for the ones you love, even against terrible hardship. I’m eager to revisit The Answer and see if S.E.E.S. learned that lesson once more when the DLC launches on September 10.
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