Nope
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.
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.
Tartarus if it was actually bad. Also what was with the writing with Yukari here?
Overhated
Despite what some people want you to believe, the story is not terrible. It is an OK addition to the main campaign, explaining what exactly happened in the ending, and what the real nature of Nyx was. Everyone was kept decently in character (some being better than others) with their development from the main story preserved.
The gameplay though is a giant 25 hour slog which forces the player to grind for almost every boss, with hardly any story present in between it. The game dumps you with story at the start and at the end, only showing you 5 minute cutscenes in between 2 hour grind sessions for the majority of the runtime. There's blatantly not enough story to justify the 25 hours.
Really, just watch the cutscenes on youtube and be done with it. I doubt you want an equivalent of 100 extra Tartarus floors on a higher difficulty after playing the main story.
The gameplay though is a giant 25 hour slog which forces the player to grind for almost every boss, with hardly any story present in between it. The game dumps you with story at the start and at the end, only showing you 5 minute cutscenes in between 2 hour grind sessions for the majority of the runtime. There's blatantly not enough story to justify the 25 hours.
Really, just watch the cutscenes on youtube and be done with it. I doubt you want an equivalent of 100 extra Tartarus floors on a higher difficulty after playing the main story.
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.
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.
This review contains spoilers
I don't know how it took me over 4 years to play the rest of the disc for one of my favorite games but here we are.
As far as gameplay goes, I liked it. However, my issue come with how it compares to the original. I enjoyed the gameplay because it's Persona 3, which has fun combat that's better than 5's and I don't care what y'all say. But this is just more of the same for a game that's already really long, and I can't really say there's stuff this does that the original doesn't outside of the bosses. The missing elements just make this feel so much emptier too. No social links mean you're stuck with weak personas outside of fusion which I found ended up limiting me to the same few for most of the game, the exhaustion mechanics are gone (for better or for worse), and the lack of switching main weapons was strange. I was definitely having fun but I can't say I was ever at a point where I was having more fun than I theoretically could have had playing regular Persona 3.
On that topic by the way, these bosses kinda blow sometimes. Some are fine, some are flawed, and some just suck. Base Persona 3 had that issue too of having some sucky bosses, but man some of these dudes are just so freaking annoying. So many where they stack three weakness enemies that have abilities that make them dodge those weaknesses what feels like 99.9% times, massively strong attacks being spammed from like four dudes where if you crit it feels basically over, god it just felt like they take such linear counter play from certain personas which could maybe be fine if this was in a game with a persona compendium which is weirdly absent. Despite The Answer advertising itself as something for real Persona 3 pros, I honestly found it easier than the main game, but man the dumb frustrating bosses were accurate to the base game's dumb frustrating ones.
Aside from that, the rest of the gameplay is just brought down by the structure. The basic structure of The Answer, outside of the last few hours and the first hour, is you do 2-5 hours of dungeon crawling, fight a boss, upgrade your items, repeat one or two more times, watch a 5 minute cutscene, rinse and repeat. It gets really tiring. Not much story to break it up, no social links, no time management. It just really draining, because this thing is way too freaking long. This thing being any longer than 20 hours is ridiculous, heck even over 15 is pushing it. The lack of stimulating new content means that the story is all that really pushes you, yet all of it is put at the end.
As for the story itself, I guess it's pretty good. I think the way they explore characters like Yukari, Aigis, and Mitsuru is really interesting. The conflict about potentially going back to the past was entrancing and I loved learning more about the truth of what happened in the original game. Persona 3's themes are really expanded here, discussing grief and finding the determination to continue living. It's a great extension to the story!
However, I do have my issues. First off, I think it was almost a bit heavy-handed with its themes? Like, pushing away our desire for death literally is a bit too much for me. I still like that aspect overall though so I guess it's a nitpick, maybe it was just how the characters spoke about it? I don't know. Second, I don't like how this all starts up because of "subconscious desires" or whatever? Like, I love a good story built on that, but that felt like a really silly thing to happen after not really being built up at all in either campaign. All of it just feels so convenient, like this giant arena Metis just understands like what? I get that it's a cool set piece but it felt so random. My main issue is really just that its brought down by the pacing. Hearing how everyone reacted to the protagonist's death in Persona 3 and how they feel about it is incredible, and I love how Metis works with that too aside from the weird actualization stuff I mentioned, but it's all just stuck at the end. I loved the scene with Metis' breakdown, but it would have hit so much harder if she just got more screen time, either being silly or serious. I don't know, it's good stuff but I felt like this could have truly been amazing if it was given more time. Still though, as a Persona 3 fan, I'm content. I'm really happy they explored this story at all, and it makes The Answer worthwhile instead of just mediocre.
Overall, this was alright. I don't really feel the desire to ever go through this again though, and to be honest I wouldn't really blame someone for just watching the cutscenes on YouTube. I think it's fine that this isn't in the remake, but it is a shame that a lot of people haven't seen the story content here, even me for a long time. I'm really glad I finally got around to this, despite its flaws. :)
As far as gameplay goes, I liked it. However, my issue come with how it compares to the original. I enjoyed the gameplay because it's Persona 3, which has fun combat that's better than 5's and I don't care what y'all say. But this is just more of the same for a game that's already really long, and I can't really say there's stuff this does that the original doesn't outside of the bosses. The missing elements just make this feel so much emptier too. No social links mean you're stuck with weak personas outside of fusion which I found ended up limiting me to the same few for most of the game, the exhaustion mechanics are gone (for better or for worse), and the lack of switching main weapons was strange. I was definitely having fun but I can't say I was ever at a point where I was having more fun than I theoretically could have had playing regular Persona 3.
On that topic by the way, these bosses kinda blow sometimes. Some are fine, some are flawed, and some just suck. Base Persona 3 had that issue too of having some sucky bosses, but man some of these dudes are just so freaking annoying. So many where they stack three weakness enemies that have abilities that make them dodge those weaknesses what feels like 99.9% times, massively strong attacks being spammed from like four dudes where if you crit it feels basically over, god it just felt like they take such linear counter play from certain personas which could maybe be fine if this was in a game with a persona compendium which is weirdly absent. Despite The Answer advertising itself as something for real Persona 3 pros, I honestly found it easier than the main game, but man the dumb frustrating bosses were accurate to the base game's dumb frustrating ones.
Aside from that, the rest of the gameplay is just brought down by the structure. The basic structure of The Answer, outside of the last few hours and the first hour, is you do 2-5 hours of dungeon crawling, fight a boss, upgrade your items, repeat one or two more times, watch a 5 minute cutscene, rinse and repeat. It gets really tiring. Not much story to break it up, no social links, no time management. It just really draining, because this thing is way too freaking long. This thing being any longer than 20 hours is ridiculous, heck even over 15 is pushing it. The lack of stimulating new content means that the story is all that really pushes you, yet all of it is put at the end.
As for the story itself, I guess it's pretty good. I think the way they explore characters like Yukari, Aigis, and Mitsuru is really interesting. The conflict about potentially going back to the past was entrancing and I loved learning more about the truth of what happened in the original game. Persona 3's themes are really expanded here, discussing grief and finding the determination to continue living. It's a great extension to the story!
However, I do have my issues. First off, I think it was almost a bit heavy-handed with its themes? Like, pushing away our desire for death literally is a bit too much for me. I still like that aspect overall though so I guess it's a nitpick, maybe it was just how the characters spoke about it? I don't know. Second, I don't like how this all starts up because of "subconscious desires" or whatever? Like, I love a good story built on that, but that felt like a really silly thing to happen after not really being built up at all in either campaign. All of it just feels so convenient, like this giant arena Metis just understands like what? I get that it's a cool set piece but it felt so random. My main issue is really just that its brought down by the pacing. Hearing how everyone reacted to the protagonist's death in Persona 3 and how they feel about it is incredible, and I love how Metis works with that too aside from the weird actualization stuff I mentioned, but it's all just stuck at the end. I loved the scene with Metis' breakdown, but it would have hit so much harder if she just got more screen time, either being silly or serious. I don't know, it's good stuff but I felt like this could have truly been amazing if it was given more time. Still though, as a Persona 3 fan, I'm content. I'm really happy they explored this story at all, and it makes The Answer worthwhile instead of just mediocre.
Overall, this was alright. I don't really feel the desire to ever go through this again though, and to be honest I wouldn't really blame someone for just watching the cutscenes on YouTube. I think it's fine that this isn't in the remake, but it is a shame that a lot of people haven't seen the story content here, even me for a long time. I'm really glad I finally got around to this, despite its flaws. :)
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.
The answer is don't play this
eh
30 hours of yet somehow even more tedious than the base game tartarus gameplay for 3 hours of decent story
story seems good but i dont feel like grinding for 50 hours again
História linda, e conclusão épica pra história original do Persona 3, infelizmente a gameplay é uma merda, e é muito grind forçado e chato, além de eu DETESTAR DE CORAÇÃO o sistema de tactics, por isso fui forçado a ser canalha e ver tudo no Youtube :(, mas muito bom!
can not believe i put this off for as long as i did now it feels necessary as a conclusion for p3 basegame
i wonder why this is my favorite atlus media ever created
This review contains spoilers
The Answer is a neat little (?) epilogue and a funny game (it's got a very depressing tone about dealing with grief, regret and moving on from the past), it's grindy af and full of bullshit but also satisfying af. Ima just do a pros and cons then finish it off
Pros: The game further cements Aigis as peak persona character writing, and is further accompanied by Metis who herself is pretty mid but she as a concept improves Aigis by being her shadow.
Music is still baller, new mass destruction is epic, the abyss of time theme really fucks towards the end, final boss theme is pretty cool, end credits song is great, and then Heartful Cry is yeah
Actual gameplay is solid, still dungeon crawling but it's nice to just turn brain off to and grind.
The overall message and tone of the answer fits perfectly with the ending of the journey, doesn't overstay its welcome
It presents a mostly fair challenge, mainly in boss fights as it does require you to think but it's manageable
Junpei
Cons: No compendium fucking sucks ass it makes grinding so fucking annoying and retarded
Can get cheesed by some random ambush BS
Mitsuru doesn't act in character at all, idrm how Yukari acts
It can be a slog as outside of combat there's nothing to do
For taking me 30 hours, there's still only like 4 hours of cutscenes and most of that is at the start and end with very little in the middle
Having to grind every single persona because of no exp boost in fusions is annoying, growth 3 is your best friend
Overall, it's a decent experience if you're willing to go through monotonous dungeon crawling but if you don't like challenge or have the time, I'd reccomend just watching the story on yt it's pretty quick. 6.5/10 would reccomend to anyone who really liked P3 and wanted closure (literally the entire end message ironically) but other than that, leaves a fair bit to be desired but fixing up the issues by adding a compendium and the problems of P3FES such as not being able to view what skills do, having to talk to each character to change equipment and heal would dramatically improve the flow and feel of the game
Pros: The game further cements Aigis as peak persona character writing, and is further accompanied by Metis who herself is pretty mid but she as a concept improves Aigis by being her shadow.
Music is still baller, new mass destruction is epic, the abyss of time theme really fucks towards the end, final boss theme is pretty cool, end credits song is great, and then Heartful Cry is yeah
Actual gameplay is solid, still dungeon crawling but it's nice to just turn brain off to and grind.
The overall message and tone of the answer fits perfectly with the ending of the journey, doesn't overstay its welcome
It presents a mostly fair challenge, mainly in boss fights as it does require you to think but it's manageable
Junpei
Cons: No compendium fucking sucks ass it makes grinding so fucking annoying and retarded
Can get cheesed by some random ambush BS
Mitsuru doesn't act in character at all, idrm how Yukari acts
It can be a slog as outside of combat there's nothing to do
For taking me 30 hours, there's still only like 4 hours of cutscenes and most of that is at the start and end with very little in the middle
Having to grind every single persona because of no exp boost in fusions is annoying, growth 3 is your best friend
Overall, it's a decent experience if you're willing to go through monotonous dungeon crawling but if you don't like challenge or have the time, I'd reccomend just watching the story on yt it's pretty quick. 6.5/10 would reccomend to anyone who really liked P3 and wanted closure (literally the entire end message ironically) but other than that, leaves a fair bit to be desired but fixing up the issues by adding a compendium and the problems of P3FES such as not being able to view what skills do, having to talk to each character to change equipment and heal would dramatically improve the flow and feel of the game
People complain about Yukari all the time but she's literally the only good part of the story, insane
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.
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.
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.
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.
what is grief if not just one long dungeon crawl?
pretty good! aigis is my favorite character from 3, so The Aigis Game was gonna be fun for me.
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
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.
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.
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.
Yes I actually like the answer, gameplay is good, some bosses were a pain in the ass due to the evade skills they had but I still had an alright time with the bosses.
The story is good and I really like that it does conclude certain points.
8/10
The story is good and I really like that it does conclude certain points.
8/10
Me when youtube
i refuse to rate the gameplay
story is beautiful. too bad about everything else though
Story and characters although a bit mixed for me I don't mind the end result to much. Wouldn't recommend playing it though cause the gameplay sucks ass. I recommend seeing it just watch it on Youtube.
Ñññeh, historia medio bien, pero mucho combate