I still can't play persona 3 reload which means I'm actually gonna kms some time from now because wow am I gonna go crazy if I can't play that game soon lawd

so what happened is that my mind went mmmmm okay you can't really play p3r you should just finish that “the answer playthrough ™” you had going on , biggest mistake of my life possibly worst 30 hours of my entire being and trust me I had and have rough times

mind you the answer is the canonic epilogue of the persona 3 experience you get the final stretch of the game where people are actually coping with the loss of *+;£&×]”> and for that reason you actually get some insight on the aftermath of that event playing in the shoes of cunty apathetic robot aegis who all of the sudden gets the power of the former main character while he watches all this when the dormitory becomes a close space in which the only date possible on the calendar is March 31th which is pretty funny cause this year its gonna be Easter I love gregorian calendar and also the only possible way to understand what's happening is another android with a siscon that comes out from a hole in the ground and just starts talking about killing everybody to save aegis I just love sisterhood <3

so yeah at this point they just get some answers out of her and the TLDR is theres a huge abyss under the dormitory she's doesn't know anything apart from destruction and for some reason she's related to aegis and has a persona and at this point anxiety kicks in . is the abyss gonna be … tartarus v02 ? and the answer is not only is the abyss of dick sucked gonna be worse than OG tartarus its gonna be even more boring way harsher incredibly unbalanced for the sake of making the game harder and padding for play time and with bosses that seemingly have elution 3000 so that you're really gonna love grinding for those 5 minutes cutscenes in total

see the thing is this the answer is advertised as being a harder mode of the original persona 3 and that means that you're gonna have NO persona compendium whatsoever the enemies are gonna FUCK . YOU . UP . and the only thing you can do for them to not ride you condom less is grinding levels over levels and personas over personas until you can have a chance to do an all out attacks to bosses way out of your league

I don't really mind an harder challenge but I don't think that all these handicaps actually make for a fun ride altogether you can be the best tactician of the world and still do 10 dmg all out attacks so what's actually the point of this if the only real solution is grinding

for the most part the cutscenes are really interesting and make for some great insight to each character even though the real meat of the narrative is gonna be encountered at the end of the game but to be honest at this point it's not really worth it to grind 5 hours for 5 minutes cutscenes

apart from the duck taped gameplay the themes of coping with grief and moving on really resonated with me it's something that accompanies each and every one of us and somehow the characters in this game all had to cope with some type of loss in their lives and try to overcome it together . for as much as I liked this stuff I guess its pretty underdeveloped throughout the little you're gonna see of each character is so fucking good and then the escalation of this incredible thematic approach is a BATTLE ROYALE ??? you're fucking with me rn

metis is a nice addition to a cast of mentally troubled teens but she's also less developed than I wanted her to be theres a lot of great great scenes with her mainly the fucking crying fit that unfortunately hit way less than they should be due to how messy this storyline was developed and while many of you are not gonna be with me on this one . I really enjoy yukaris characterisation here not only did they not ruin the character for me but they even enhanced her image in my mind making her skyrocket in the pantheon of persona characters

stories and characters resonate with people for different reasons and in different times of their lives and I really understand yukaris pov in this one she's just trying so hard to convince herself that she absolutely overcame her grief even though as soon as the possibility presents itself for the loss to come back she's gonna do everything in her power to accomplish that . humans have a lot of ugly feelings and while you can try to suppress them in situations of great stress or when the things you value are at stake they're gonna vomit the worst onto others to get what they want

yeah she's a bitch in this epilogue and so what if you had the ability to make someone you care about come back and had other people just move on without looking back would you actually have the tenacity to do so ? think about that and then conclude your opinion on the answers yukari

or maybe im reading too much into this and she's actually just a fucking bitch but who am I to judge she's still hot as shit !!!!!

that being said the final stretch of the game is insanely good a huge part of me is trying to stop myself to say this but I want to be fucked by the final boss im sorryyyyyyyyyyy bestiality kink shamers look away I also wanted to fuck a lot of colossi in shadow of the colossus so I'm too far from God already

goated storyline goated ending I would rather watch cutscenes online than actually playing this again and I advice for all of you to just watch that 2hr and a half cutscene compilation instead of playing this because everybody who said this is bad is right but I'm too in love with p3 to shit on in so seethe and cope

door kun memes are funny sometimes

'Persona 3 FES Fan Excited To Finish Persona 3 FES For The First Time'

(Contains spoilers for Persona 3 FES: The Journey)

The second the trailer for that hilariously overpriced DLC expansion pass for Persona 3 Reload dropped, I realized I had to be more than a stereotype. It was time for me to beat the Persona fan allegations of “knowing a story only because I watched the cutscenes on YouTube.” It was time for me to beat The Answer before it becomes cool…

Okay. That's all like. 30% of my actual motivation for doing this. I replayed the entirety of The Journey beforehand as a way to cement my feelings towards the original in the wake of Reload. And due to my various gripes with Reload’s presentation and also generally just preferring the original on most fronts, I didn’t think it’d be right if my first, proper experience with The Answer was through its remake. Though I’ve replayed Persona 3 FES many times before, this post-story gamemode was something I was never in the mood to finish after reaching the phenomenal conclusion of the original story. I never saw a continuation as necessary. And I think P3’s dungeon crawling loses much of its thematic meaning and intrigue when you divorce it from its other social sim half. Even now, after properly finishing The Answer, I’d say my initial concerns weren’t unfounded. But there definitely is still much worth in the experience.

Right off the bat, I adore the set up. Characterization is one of Persona 3’s strong suits, and it’s on full display here. You’re immediately stricken by its understated, yet somber tone. The rest of the story is quite solid in showcasing the various ways each member of SEES have either developed or regressed since the original story’s end, but the banter of the opening few scenes alone communicates these ideas in such a perfect fashion. SEES’ fallibility has always been one of my favorite aspects about them as a cast. They’re beloved for that sense of realness and humanity that permeates throughout each member, and their flaws being so highlighted is a key part as to why. They might dramatically “complete” their character arcs through Persona evolutions or strengthen their own convictions to the degree where they can clash with the embodiment of death itself. But none of that means the writers won’t continue to portray them as the messy little fucked up group of teens that they are. And this idea is what The Answer most strongly reinforces. As showcasing the self-destructive actions they make in reaction to facing such a devastating loss is the entire crux of the story.

The Answer shines the most with its character writing in three clear cases: Aigis, Metis, and Yukari. The former is a perfect lead for the protagonist to pass his torch to. Aigis’s arc up until this point already shared much in common with her emo husband, as they both primarily developed and gained a sense of identity through their collective experiences alongside their friends. So fully cementing her as a Wild Card just feels extremely right, especially after the bond the two form in the main story and this version's newly added Aeon social link (best social link in the series btw). Newcomer Metis exists primarily to strengthen Aigis’ character arc and she does a phenomenal job at that. It’s clear from the start that she’s meant to reflect Aigis in a symbolic sense and the parallels between them only grow stronger in terms of effectiveness as the story builds up their relationship. But despite playing a more function oriented role in the narrative, she is still incredibly entertaining. I clapped at every scene where Akihiko threatened her life and she responds by casually telling him to shut the fuck up. Then there’s Yukari. Do I even need to justify her role? I feel like that’s just a waste of breath. Shocking: a 17 year old girl gets a little bit mean when the boy she loves dies in the arms of another girl who’s neglecting to face the full reality of his death. Anyways, she’s great here. Though I definitely feel like her story could’ve been told with a better degree of nuance. Yukari’s always been one of the more empathetic cast members and seeing her act so abrasive towards everyone in general is a bit off putting at times. But I still respect the idea behind it all and it results in these beautiful emotionally charged scenes that’re on par with some of the best from the base game.

Though where this story really begins to lose me is its poor pacing and sloppy structure. It’s a case of stretching such a short narrative extremely thin. There’s just not enough here to justify going through seven different sequences of dungeon crawling. And while I’d compliment the characterization, I honestly feel the arcs of Aigis, Metis, and Yukari are the only things here that felt like they were written with complete confidence and intention. There’s this specific and formulaic way they go about exploring SEES as characters for the entire middle point of the story that feels so… random? They’re nice scenes to see, especially since I adore these characters, but I honestly can’t tell you how the looks into the past are supposed to add to the story’s statement in any substantial way. Also not a big fan of Metis’s info dumping or SEES’ guesswork, as a lot of it comes off as these awkward justifications for the story’s progression. It results in these genuinely intriguing mysteries and heartfelt conflicts that feel clunky in their resolutions.

I had negative expectations for the gameplay here. And that left me kinda shocked when I walked away enjoying most of the experience. The Answer is nothing but dungeon crawling, set on hardmode, with more complex boss design, and restricted access to certain quality of life features. On paper that all sounds fucking terrible. And some of it is. I, for the life of me, still question why they decided to remove warp stations before boss floors in favor of one way teleporters and a save point. To the point where I grabbed a mod that lets you fully heal at said save points (Sorry for being a filthy CHEATER, but I did not have the strength to deal with such a waste of time. I have a life 💔). But after getting over a lot of the annoyances that came from the simple concept of these changes, I came to realize that The Answer truly appeals to little freaks like me. Someone who genuinely likes Persona 3 FES’s flawed, yet bold battle system.

Battles can be infuriating on occasion due to the amped up resistances of most enemies and how that tends to bring out the worst of the AI party system, but I generally found them fun to fight. Though the one thing I’d like to acknowledge in particular are the nerfs to Fusion. That’s right. My The Answer hot take isn’t that weak shit like “it’s actually good” or “Yukari is reasonable.” It’s that the lack of arcana burst and compendium are valuable changes that add a different layer to the way you’re expected to engage with the dungeon crawling. Foresight is paramount and every fusion you make feels important. Between making sure I had each buff skill accounted for at any given moment or making the most of EXP share passives by transferring them to Personae with desirable skills, it feels like The Answer was able to bring out a niche appeal of the Fusion system the other mainline titles rarely nail. Due to my foresight and knowledge of the base game’s skill progression, I almost never had to stop and grind like I was expecting to. I was entirely prepared for 99% of the encounters I faced (fuck the penultimate Abyss of Time fight oh my god) and that felt extremely rewarding. I get that it’s harsh in design and not everyone’s experience is going to go as smoothly. But I found it was an interesting twist on a system that normally becomes less and less substantive to engage with as the game goes on.

It was really satisfying to see the credits draw to a close. I’ve been madly in love with Persona 3 FES for almost four years now and, though it’s funny to say, today is the day I finally finished it properly. While a lot of my initial assessments of The Answer came to be true, I’m glad I was still able to get something out of it in this playthrough. I’m still shocked by the amount of enjoyment I was able to find in its challenge run-esque design mentality. And best of all, it’s given me an excuse to brainrot over Persona 3 for a little while longer, thanks to the ways it expands on its cast. As flawed and half baked as it feels in so many regards, I’d say I overall enjoyed my time with it. Can’t wait to see how I feel about its remake, especially given the announcement that they’ll be adding in more story scenes. Now, someone come restrain me before I buy the $35 expansion pass for Persona 3 Reload. Hurry… There’s not much time. The microchip is beeping oh god o h no I. LOVE ATLUS GAAAAAAH!!!

In light of the announcement that this is getting remade for Persona 3 Reload, I thought I'd mark my thoughts on The Answer here.

People get very upset over this addition to Persona 3, and I partially understand this anger. The gameplay for this epilogue is plagued by the same issues that the original Persona 3 faced, and then some. I consider Persona 3 FES a 5/5 game, however The Answer contains some issues with its gameplay that go beyond what was featured in the base game.

For one, the removal of the Compendium is a let down. It's not needed nearly as much as in base game, as there are no Social Links to buff your fusions and the runtime of this expansion is pretty short to begin with. The lack of the compendium, to me, simply makes the gameplay experience more grindy. The Abyss of Time, while not awful, can drag simply because The Answer offers players very few breaks from the "Tartarus procedurally generated dungeon crawl" present in base P3. Life sim and virtual novel elements do a good job of breaking up this monotony to prevent it from becoming stale in base, not much of that to go around in Answer.

Despite these flaws in gameplay, I find the story presented to be as special and touching as the one presented in base Persona 3, and a perfect conclusion to the narrative there. Each character's growth is showcased throughout the runtime of this epilogue, some characters (namely Yukari and Aigis) are made to grow even more, expanding upon and completing their arcs from the base game. I can't say much for spoiler reasons, but I find the representation and growth of each character as they search for "the answer" to life absolutely captivating.

The Answer is an follow-up DLC epilogue to the base Persona 3, and it is very strange. On one hand, you have some very interesting ideas, on the other hand, it is unnecessarily difficult to play, that a lot of people (myself included) ended up switching to YouTube to complete the story.

Yukari and Aigis are very interesting in this. However, it also just feels like a very basic, and unnecessarily long follow-up to the base game. It's been a while since I played/watched it, but I don't plan to return to it, and I don't miss it enough to care that Reload will not be including it.

I have no real issues with the gameplay even if it is a bit of a shock compared to main P3.

I think this is genuinely terribly written in every aspect, from premise, to beginning, to end. Metis is a pointless character, the fights with your squad at the end make no sense because Yukari all of a sudden ignores everything that Akihiko says about not returning to the past.

But oh wait! That doesn't even matter, because they can literally see when Makoto became the Great Seal, so all that fighting was for fucking nothing.

Final boss should have been Makoto, not 3 fights before the actual final boss.

Didnt know if I really wanted to play more Persona 3 after beating the journey but was pretty hooked from the beginning seeing all the characters I wanted to know what more there was to offer. Pretty soon after getting to the actual game the pacing falls off a cliff and stays like that forever. I liked it overall even if the story was considerably lower quality and pretty rushed at points but still enjoyed it. The gameplay was just more of a journey but more restrictive and harder. If you really enjoy the gameplay and can get past the tedium it's decently worth it if you already really liked 3.

I was really interested going into The Answer since people either seem to really hate it or really like it, and I could never get a general consensus on it whenever I would ask people about it. After playing through it myself... Yeah it's a mixed bag, although I do find myself landing more so on the positive side of the aisle when it comes to this game.

The 3 biggest complaints I've heard people have about this game are: 1. Too much grinding/gameplay not being appealing, 2. People are acting out of character and 3. It ruins/invalidates the ending of The Journey. I think most of these complaints are valid and I want to address each of these separately and give my own thoughts on them.

Starting with the gameplay/grinding complaints: if you didn't like Tartarus or the battle mechanics in The Journey, then The Answer is not gonna be for you. If you did enjoy those parts of The Journey, then you'll probably enjoy your time with The Answer since that's basically all the extra game mode is comprised of.

As for the grinding issues people have with the game, I never experienced those issues myself. I got through the game very comfortably by using my first run through an area to explore/collect items and fight enemies then just bum rush to the boss on my second time through. I only had to grind twice playing through the game like this, and that was more so to help my other, lesser used, party members catch up to the levels of my more used party members.

Out of character complaints: I'm kind of mixed on this one myself. There were only 2 characters that stood out to me as being weirdly written/out of character on my play through, Akihiko and Yukari. I thought Aki was overly agro for the first few areas of the Abyss of Time, but he chilled out as the game progressed and become more like how he was in The Journey. I'm still really mixed on Yukari's characterization even after finishing the game more than a week ago. I do think they leaned a little too far into this new characterization for her and it does feel like it goes against her development in The Journey, but at the same time I understand that grief affects everyone differently and can make people act against their better judgement sometimes so I feel weird trying to compare her characterization between the two game modes directly.

The Answer ruins/invalidates the ending of The Journey: I don't get this complaint at all. Without getting too spoilery, the specific complaint I'm referencing is that The Answer invalidates the MC's sacrifice in The Journey. I didn't get that interpretation at all from The Answer's ending when I finished it and even had to rewatch it again on youtube to confirm I didn't miss anything and I still don't understand that interpretation. I definitely didn't interpret it that way, but I'd be interested in hearing more people's thoughts who did interpret the ending that way so I could get a better understanding.

As for what didn't work for me, my biggest issue is once again the fusion system. The lack of a persona compendium is annoying but wasn't game ruining. The worst it does is lead to some tedious battles to try and get the persona you want in shuffle time. I'd highly recommend anyone who's interested in playing the Answer having a fusion calculator and a list of the personas that are available in each area of the Abyss of Time in order to reduce the amount of battles required to fuse the specific personas you want. The personas that appear in shuffle time seem to scale with your level so I would find an area where the persona I'm looking for was a high level spawn and only shuffle time grind towards the ends of those areas to increase their chances of appearing. The VA work is really good too. Aigis' VA in particular really goes all out and was just great.

Similarly to The Journey, I still really hate the random skill inheritance. However, since the fusion system is much simpler in The Answer (there are only normal and triple fusions) I spent much less time resetting for decent movesets in The Answer than I did in the Journey. It didn't make those times I had to constantly reset for decent moves suck any less, but they were less prevalent which I appreciated.

As for what worked for me, I really liked the look and design of the new areas. The large rooms with the falling sand and the pendulums in particular stand out to me as just looking really cool. The music is always is also great. I know everyone says this, but it's cool how the new battle theme is the next verse of the battle theme from The Journey.

I also really liked the bosses (for the most part). The bosses all utilize a unique strategy and actual new enemy designs used in the bosses and throughout The Answer were all really cool and creative. This led to the bosses being more engaging and interesting to fight than the bosses in The Journey and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed them.

Thinking back on The Answer, I'm definitely happy I played through it and I'd probably play through it again if I ever get around to playing through FES again. It's definitely got a lot of strengths, but the weaker/weirder stuff about it stands out a lot more than the weaker aspects of The Journey. There's still a lot to like and I think it ends on a good note, but whole experience felt very mixed throughout. It's a game I have a hard time rating, since my thoughts on it seem to constantly change every day, but for now I'm settling on an average but mostly positive score for it.

Might as well give this a review while I’m in the middle of my P4AU playthrough.
Honestly? I do think The Answer is kinda overhated but at the same time I can see why people don’t like it. Personally, I think it’s a nice expansion that helps tie up some loose ends in P3’s main story as well as give us a proper look into the characters after the events of the game. I know a LOT of people really don’t like the way specifically Yukari acts in this. Without going into spoilers, I think she was completely justified in her feelings but I do think she’s goes a bit over the top at certain moments but it’s realistic for someone like her who’s going through that sort of situation to listen to your emotions more than your logic.
Now while I like the story of The Answer, the gameplay is something I’m more mixed about. I would consider myself a pretty big defender of P3FES’s gameplay (I think I’m one of the few people who like the AI party members.) but even I can’t deny that The Answer is a lot more tedious and monotonous with it’s gameplay. The great thing about P3’s gameplay was how you were essentially given breaks in between the dungeon crawling through the normal daytime activities like social links. It gave you something to do other than just grind for levels for the next full moon operation. But since The Answer is meant to just be a short (for a JRGP) expansion, they decided to axe out daytime activities in favour of just dungeon crawling. It just starts to feel tiring after a while and it never picks up.
Overall, I would only really recommend The Answer if you want to find out what happened after P3 and you want more Aigis content (which btw her arc in this is very well done).

A bonus campaign that was probably more fitting to be a 2-hour OVA or movie. Though I find it to be a decent epilogue to the main story that helps elaborate on some key details about the plot and themes, and though I appreciate how it uses the game's ending as a jumping point to develop the game's cast a bit further, I still think The Answer is a waste of time because it is a sloppy and thoughtless addition in its construction and presentation.

While "The Journey" was a campaign carefully considered from its structure and gameplay to elaborate on its themes, I feel like "The Answer" copies the bare minimum without keeping the gameplay loop that made that journey fun in the first place. Without a clear separation of dungeon crawling and plot and without the benefits of social links, The Answer amounts to little more than 30-40 hours of meandering, meaningless dungeon padding with nuggets of story at the beginning and end to give said padding reason to exist.

If The Answer added anything more or had any unique aspect to its gameplay or presentation, it may have been a decent bonus, but as its stands it is perfectly skippable and not worth playing through for the few unique ideas it brings.

The Answer means to bring closure to some of the remaining mysteries from the main story and piles up its gameplay through lots more dungeon crawling alongside its share of brutal bossfights.

Aigis is now your wild card persona user, but unlike in the journey there are no social links and also no compendium leaving fusing a lot more restrictive and more grindy.
In addition the enemy formations almost always have scattered weaknesses so that you have to utilise the ai commands and row orders excessively, this is a pretty good premise for more tactical usage of your party members, but there is one major catch. Bossfights also have the same formations of enemies with varied elemental weaknesses, however each and every fucking one has evasion skills set to them, which means you need to pray you have some luck hitting or you WILL more than likely die. Of course, as long as you grind...you will eventually be fine.

If you want to fight a bossfight at full capacity make sure you conserve for the earlier 8 floors or so. Yes there are no warp-points before the boss, however there is at least a savepoint.

Outside of some rather nice flashbacks, I didn't really like the story in the Answer and I honestly disregard its direction on its latter course with some of the character's motivations as well as simply completely shattering the impact of the Journey's ending.

But hey, at least the new music tracks were pretty good, and it was nice to hear more dialogues from the old va cast.

I absolutely love this oft maligned addition to Persona 3. While I agree that most criticisms of this game are factually accurate - not having a demon compendium does make gameplay and team composition much more difficult and sometimes tedious, yukari’s characterization in this game does make her a difficult character to sympathize with, etc. - I honestly think that these qualities are what makes this game so unique and so wonderful.

This is a game primarily concerned with how people deal with grief and more specifically how they deal with it in a social setting. The social aspects of grief, how people retroactively understand and define their relationship with the deceased in the context of that person's other relationships, can often be very messy. In my experience, this social element of grieving can take many forms (not all mentioned here of course) - some people find comfort in the presence of others, some people seek isolation, and some people become quite jealous and possessive over their relationship with the deceased and quite suspicious of the motivations and intentions of other mourners. People aren’t always perfectly rational or even fair or kind in these situations. With that said, Yukari’s characterization in this game - while at times frustrating - is entirely believable to me, especially knowing her characters back story. One of the most beautiful things about this game is how it challenges and encourages us to empathize with and forgive Yukari. The game guides us towards this with the way we see her relationship with Aigis evolve and heal throughout the game.

The conflict between Yukari and Aigis in this game also serves to highlight the really unconventional and beautiful romance Makoto can develop with Aigis through their social link and how that might relate to a potential romance with Yukari. I’ll explain what I mean. One of P3’s flaws IMO is the player’s inability to max social links with female characters without romancing them. As someone who is generally a completionist this is kind of an annoying and immersion breaking part of the game. One of the happy accidents of this feature, however, is the players ability to romance one of the conventional options - like Yukari for instance - and also engage in the unconventional romance arc with Aigis. This combination, IMO, feels entirely believable and is somewhat supported by the writing of The Answer. Makoto’s relationship with Aigis, if you compete their social link is kind of strange. It’s not traditionally sexual - possibly by necessity from what the game portrays but it’s also possible this just isn’t the character of their relationship - and it’s also not traditionally romantic, instead existing in a strange space between platonic and romantic. It certainly doesn’t bear the hallmarks of the traditional monogamous and heterosexual relationships Makoto can develop with other characters in the game. Makoto’s relationship with Aigis, however, is deeply affectionate - significantly more affectionate than the romances he can develop with other characters.

The way Yukari talks about Makoto in the answer strongly implies that she was either secretly in love with him or in a defined relationship with him. It’s also strongly suggested that Yukari was aware of Makoto’s unusual and deeply affectionate connection to Aigis and was jealous of both that as well as Aigis being present at the time of his death instead of her. Part of the narrative of the answer involves Yukari coming to terms with this and letting go of her animosity towards Aigis. If the player goes into this assuming that Yukari was just secretly in love with Makoto this is a rather straightforward narrative of someone letting go of feelings of jealousy and inferiority. If player goes into this assuming that Yukari was in a relationship with Makoto - a possibility definitely supported by The Answer - this instead becomes a narrative of Yukari accepting that Makoto’s feelings towards her and his feelings towards Aigis aren’t incompatible and don’t invalidate each other. Why do I lean towards this instead of thinking the narrative would be Yukari coming to terms with Makoto cheating on her? Given Yukari's characterization throughout Persona 3 it seems incredibly unlikely that she would be able to come to terms with this whole situation so quickly if she viewed what was going on as cheating. The only option then, in my mind, is that Yukari viewed the Makoto's relationship with Aigis as something other than cheating and was able to come to terms with it on those grounds. This certainly isn’t the definitive reading of the game but it certainly is A reading that the game allows for, which I think is really cool in the way it represents the very complicated and multifaceted nature of romance and affection - the way these feelings often don’t conform with traditional expectations and aren’t invalid just because the conventional understating is that they should be. I also think its really cool that The Answer is able to raise these questions and get the player thinking about these topics regardless of whether or not this was the intention of the developers. As someone who practices non hierarchical polyamory - primarily for the emotional and romantic freedom it allows - this potential reading of the game immediately leapt out at me and it definitely made me think of my own experience coming to terms with what romance and affection means to me and how strong feelings towards different people aren't necessarily invalidating.

The gameplay of the Answer, while more difficult and more of a slog than the rest of P3, is for me a fun challenge and also fits the tone and themes of the game really nicely. When a new player starts The Answer they’ll quickly notice a few substantial changes from vanilla P3. 1: You of course play as Aigis and therefore don’t have access to Makoto’s collection of personas. 2: Aigis’s and all the party members’ progress is reset. They’re now all at level 1, which causes them to lose HP and SP as well as all the moves their personas learned throughout the base game. They also lose any weapons or armor collected from the base game. 3: There’s no persona compendium when using the Velvet Room as Aigis, which makes optimizing persona builds very difficult without substantial grinding. 4: The Answer’s default and only difficulty setting is P3’s hard mode. Realizing all of this can definitely feel like a big setback, and the player will probably find themselves wishing they could just continue their progress from P3 instead of having to cope with all of these changes. Aigis and the rest of the characters in the answer are similarly forced to go through the difficult process of coping with hardship and continuing on with their lives without Makoto. The Answer demands that the player cope with and overcome the gameplay changes brought on by Makoto’s death and makes this experience accordingly arduous and difficult to adjust to. By the end of the Answer; the player will have leveled up their party and learned to adjust to changes from the base game just as the characters have been forced to grow as people and learn to face their own world without Makoto.

Overall I think this is a really wonderful and thematically consistent addition to the P3 story despite being a difficult one both emotionally and gameplay-wise. I get that most people don’t really like the answer but I would highly recommend giving it another chance if you replay P3FES. I ended up finding it to be really unique and impactful - especially regarding its portrayal of the social aspects of grief, which aren't often explored in videogames. Hopefully this review gives a nice perspective on some of the positives and unique qualities of this game and maybe even gets some people to replay it or reconsider their opinion on it.

N.B. - Also grateful to this game for giving us the door-kun meme, which tbh makes me laugh whenever I remember it.

Desde que eu comecei a jogar essa franquia começando com o 5, eu sempre ouvia falar que "the answer é ruim" "the answer não deveria existir" "the answer é uma merda", e agora no meio de fevereiro eu decidi finalmenre jogar ele e...eu não entendo por que todo o ódio?
Eu comecei o the answer não espetando nada, pensando que ia ser a pior coisa que eu já joguei, mas ele nem é ruim(???), a história foi o que eu mais gostei, todos reagindo após o que aconteceu no final de persona 3, da pra ver só pelo jeito que eles agem que eles não estão bem e que ainda tão em luto por tudo, a yukari é um dos maiores exemplos disso, o contrário que dizem, a caracterização dela NÃO TEM NADA DE ERRADO É ASSIM QUE SERES HUMANOS REAGEM COM LUTO, ela querer a todo custo ver o makoto só mais uma vez é uma reação bem realista e nada horrível, mas voltando a história, ela é algo que eu achei foda, tudo sobre o passado e como eles tem que aceitar que o passado não é algo que você tem que mudar foi algo foda de se ver e é uma mensagem incrível, a gameplay é outra coisa que gostei, você pode dizer que "é tudo muito repetitivo é muito chato😭😭😭😪😪😪😪" cara a maior quantidade de andar que tu tem que explorar nas portas é 27. Tu não consegue aguentar 27- andares só 7 vezes????
No geral eu achei the answer uma experiência completa, eu gostei da história, personagens e gameplay, eu diria que é uma bela continuação pra Persona 3 e recomendaria pra qualquer fã, ansioso pra ver como vão fazer esse jogo no reload! (Provavelmente pior que o original denovo)

Hated it when I first visited the story. I am a Yukari superfan and didn't like how they played my girl. I still have issues with that whole thing is handled. I feel like everyone dogpilled on her even though Aki was equally to blame for pushing her buttons. Also, none of them (aside from Junpei) were correct. That said, I think it is a very interesting look into grief and I've come to appreciate how both Yukari and Akihiko react to the trauma (they are my fav P3 characters afterall). Aigis is awesome in this game and even Metis is pretty neat. The boss design gets stale quick, but the gameplay is pretty challenging and requires you to really utilize tactics. Honestly, once I got about 7ish hours in, I actually got quite into the gameplay. I think this game is very misrepresented and while I viewed it poorly before, I've come to like it a lot as a sendoff for the base game.

finally played this probably the last big piece of mainline persona content i was missing quite a bit different from the extra content in other persona re-releases like Golden or Royal that have side stories built into the main plot this is just an outright epilogue which is cool but it also strips the gameplay of some of the better bits that make persona stand out from other SMT games also the spike in difficulty from the main game while understandable for the type of thing this is i personally just do not care for that

Aigis: To care about someone dear to you, that doesn't necessarily mean that the pain of living will stop.
If something's precious, you don't want to lose it...
If someone's dear, it's painful to part with them....
Loss can hurt but...I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
I too have something to protect.

Ngl, this story really shows the true depth of the 5 stages of grief, it's great.
Also y'all bitches better be ready for it in the Remake when the DLC arrives in September.

I fucking love Persona 3. But for years on end, I always avoided The Answer. Discussions online would always conclude with The Answer being nothing but just grindy, non-canon filler. An expansion not worth your time. My impressionable 14-year-old self sadly dismissed it entirely because of its reputation and moved on to other entries in the Shin Megami Tensei series. With The Answer returning to Persona 3 Reload as ($35?!) DLC, I finally decided to proceed with my belated playthrough so that I may draw fair comparisons between the original and the remake when the time comes.

It's astounding how the message of this epilogue went over so many people's heads. The Answer is such a bittersweet conclusion to my favorite game of all time and its exploration of the grief felt by the cast after the main game's ending is beautifully told, albeit the player must endure exhausting gameplay in between each impactful scene, derailing the pace a bit. Nevertheless, it's wild how many in the community misunderstood certain plot elements like Yukari's behavior or the true reasoning behind what transpired on the Promised Day. Yukari was so valid here. I don't wish to speak much about it, but I cannot figure out how The Answer mischaracterize any of its party members nor how it "ruins" the message of the main game. If anything, it elevates my feelings of the original and now I loathe myself for putting it off for so long.

Hopefully Reload's interpretation of the Answer can offer more accessibility to those put off by its increased challenge and endless dungeon crawl and its absence of the fucking compendium because seriously that choice is the only thing that really bothered me. On any note, see you in September! Maybe I'll actually jot down my thoughts about Persona 3 Reload as a whole when that time comes.

Many people do not like this addition to Persona 3, and I can understand why. If you mainly like Persona for the social sim aspects of the game, you will not enjoy The Answer. If you did not like Tartarus, you will also not like The Answer. I liked Tartarus personally, and I thought not having a compendium was fun as it made me think hard about all my fusions. The Answer has a good level of challenge and I do like the story, but if you are not a big fan of the dungeon crawling in P3, I would just reccommend you watch all the cutscenes and dialogue on Youtube or something as you will absolutely hate playing through the 30ish hours of content in The Answer, most of which is dungeon crawling and boss fights. I think The Answer is a good addition to FES and I liked seeing more of the P3 cast.