Personagames are big. They’re some of the biggest RPGs on the planet in terms of sheer amount of content and the time it takes to get through them. Despite this, hardcore fans will still replay them over and over again to explore different narrative routes and experience a multitude of content that passed them by the first time round.
Each game in the series has millions of fans, as players fall in love with myriad ensemble casts they are desperate to spend more time with. If that comes in the form of downloadable content, new games and spin-offs, or even expanded releases likeGolden,Royal, orReload, then so be it.
I grew up with Persona and find myself drawn to each new game, but we have entered this cycle where we know that the vanilla version of a new entry is, by its very nature, meant as the test run. Somewhere down the line it will be expanded upon with new characters and a deeper story, alongside refined gameplay mechanics that tighten up previous flaws. It’s why Royal and Golden are considering the definitive versions of their respective games, and the reasons behind Reload being met with a largely positive, but nevertheless critical reception.
Persona 3 Remake featured neither the female protagonist from Persona 3 Portable nor additional content from FES such as The Answer, otherwise known as Episode Aigis, which expands on the existing narrative and acts as an epilogue. Now this additional content is coming to Reload as paid downloadable content later this year - or free through Xbox Game Pass.Either way, I’m not sure how to feel about this.
Personally, I’ve given up hope on the female protagonist being added to Reload. If it was on the way, I imagine it would have been revealed as part of the expansion pass.
Announced during this week’s Xbox Partner Preview Showcase,Episode Aigis will come to Reload this September as part of its $34.99 expansion pass, which includes three segments of content to release throughout 2024. The first two include costumes and music, while the real meat comes in the form of the third and final offering, which is basically a full remake of The Answer featured in Persona 3 FES.
It’s an integral part of the story, a fact I imagine Atlus was aware of considering Episode Aigis is being announced soon after the initial release as a paid extra. It rubs me the wrong way, like a core piece of the experience was plucked out during development merely to be sold back to us alongside a bunch of new cosmetics which the majority of players could take or leave.
It feels doubly strange that a remake that was framed as, finally, a definitive version of this classic is now being updated after launch with vital content which the majority of players will end up paying extra for after pouring hundreds of hours into the original game. It feels like Atlus would be better suited releasing Episode Aigis as a free update in good faith, instead of nickel and diming its community. Then again, perhaps we’ve long grown accustomed to its practices.
Persona is absolutely rotten with downloadable content. Jump onto the PlayStation Store pages of Persona 5 or Persona 5 Royal and you’ll be greeted with a laundry list of content that can be purchased either individually or as part of more expensive bundles. Most of the available bonuses are costumes, of which there are dozens, or gameplay modifiers and the usual bonuses you’d expect from overpriced Digital Deluxe Editions.
Treating a single pair of costumes and a handful of new musical tracks as significant milestones in your battle pass also feels strange to me.
Buying these bundles on the cheap during a sale is all well and good, but Persona locking so much of its charm and fanservice behind paid content feels out of character for a series all about sticking it to the man. The only reason for this is transparent greed, taking a franchise which once thrived on the fringes and turning it into a commercial titan.
We don’t yet know how long Episode Aigis will be or if it will expand on the existing canon, but I would be surprised considering the faithful nature of Reload. I just wish it was free instead of being forced into an expansion pass that was likely planned months in advance, taking this content out of the main game merely to make more money at our own expense. Persona needs to do better.
Persona 3 Reload
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Persona 3 Reload is a ground-up remake of the RPG classic, aligning the aesthetics with the more recent Persona 5. It does not contain any of the changes or extra content from Persona 3 FES or Persona 3 Portable.
