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.
3 Comments
@lemonov That’s a good point. I’m inclined to agree with you on that front. Vanilla Aigis would have definitely been an obvious move if they really wanted to make that point. Most of my point is based off of the sudden lack of a demon compendium, which I can’t see any reason for other than the developers wanting to make the answer more difficult. Not having a demon compendium - at least for me - definitely changed up the gameplay style quite a bit, and I did initially find myself longing for the gameplay of vanilla P3 at first. This is mostly where my point is coming from but I understand it’s a bit of a stretch / won’t reflect everyone’s experience if they - for instance - didn’t mind not having the compendium or didn’t use it much in vanilla P3 in the first place. Appreciate the comment and you reading my review btw!
One of the best things about P3's positive reinforcement over the years is Yukari's character getting a radical shift to approval and love, which is fitting since part of the game's themes become stronger as time goes on. Yukari's dilemma - both in the main campaign and this one - is entirely frictional and haphazard wrt everyone surrounding her, yet it's done in an intentional and gratifying manner that would be severely lesser in execution if it was played more saccharine and 'safely'. I'm glad many people are starting to realize this since she was always my like, third favorite character in the game.
Lemonov
5 months ago
While I agree with most of this review, this part is just silly: Aigis is replacement to Makoto when talking about gameplay. Hell, Athena gets replaced with Orpheus at the start of the game, and Metis is added to fill a similar role which Aigis had in the main campaign. The player still uses the Velvet Room (well, a cut down version of it at least) and is expected to frequently switch personas. That statement could've been made if we were forced to play with vanilla Aigis as the protagonist, but this way the gameplay is just more dungeon crawling the same way as it was done in the base game, no matter how you try to interpret it in the narrative sense.