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.