Persona 3: Reloadis one of the best games I’ve played this year so far, and a potential contender for my overall GOTY.
While I won’t know for sure until late December, I told myself that it’ll all hinge on how well Atlus handle the upcoming DLC Expansion,Episode Aigis, also known asThe Answer.
See the trailer forEpisode Aigisyourself below
Advert
Advert
In short,Episode Aigisis an epilogue of sorts to the main story ofPersona 3: Reload. In it, you play as Aigis, the adorable robot companion whom you meet a few chapters into the main game. You once again partner up with the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, also known as S.E.E.S, with the whole voice cast returning as their respective characters.
Persona 3: Reload- Credit SEGA
Advert
Advert
In practice, exploring it is exactly the same as Tartarus as you scour each level collecting items and battling shadows until you eventually exit to the next section. A small change is how Aigis interacts with the environment around her, as some new upgrades now allow the character to attack objects and field enemies at range.
The battle system has been left pretty much unchanged, though Aigis now has the same power Makoto did in the base game and can control multiple personas. She’s also had her default persona Athena changed to Makoto’s persona, Orpheus. New theurgy moves have been added to the mix as well, all of which are beautifully animated and absurdly powerful. Metis is also a solid addition to the roster, wielding her own persona and having special dialogue with Aigis during battle.
I’m sure fans will be pleased to hear that there are new music tracks, including additional battle themes, though in my opinion nothing can beat ‘It’s Going Down Now’.
Advert
Advert
My preview was around an hour long, so I didn’t get a chance to interact with the rest of the cast as much as I’d like to, but the full DLC is said to add new stories for the side characters as well as some more backstory for Aigis and her creation.
The expansion can be played independently from the main story, so you don’t need to have rolled credits in order to boot it up. Obviously, this only benefits those who’ve beaten the game before and don’t fancy replaying, or those who’ve moved to another platform.
Persona 3: Reload- Credit SEGA
In terms of my first thoughts, I liked what I played. I lovePersona 3: Reloadto death and knowing there’s a solid 30+ hours of new story ahead of me is a really exciting prospect. I wasn’t expecting many changes to the core gameplay but the changes that were present felt like nice touches, and some of them will even apply to the base game so I reckon a New Game+ run will be on the cards.
Advert
Advert
While Tartarus and combat encounters were a large part of the base game, exploring Tatsumi Port Island, developing relationships with your Social Links and levelling up your stats played an equally important role in the game. If those aspects are missing and the expansion has devolved into purely combat and story exposition, it could lose some of the charm the base game offers.
Persona 3: Reload- Credit SEGA
It’s far too early to tell at the time of writing though, and I’ll be reserving my full judgement for when the full expansion drops and can measure how well it pairs with the base game. Don’t get me wrong though, my first impressions are positive and I’m hopeful this expansion will not only extendPersona 3: Reload,but uplift and compliment it as well.
Advert
Advert
Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis - The Answerreleases for Xbox, PlayStation and PC platforms on 10 September later this year.
Topics:Preview,Persona,Xbox,PlayStation,PC,Xbox Series S,Xbox Series X,PlayStation 4,PlayStation 5
