This review contains spoilers
SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING OF PERSONA 3:
The Answer is probably the most controversial piece of Persona 3. Some love it, while others look at it like it’s the antichrist. Me personally, I initially avoided The Answer because of the vitriol it received online. During the lead up to reload however, I started to see people begin to praise The Answer for its amazing story. Eventually, I decided to dust off my copy of Persona 3 fes and finally play The Answer.
To be honest? I liked it quite a bit. Is it better than the main game? No. Can the dungeon crawling get repetitive? A little. Is The Answer the worst piece of Persona content ever made? Absolutely not.
Gameplay-wise, people complain that it’s too hard and that the compendium being gone sucks. While I do agree that the compendium being gone makes persona fusing less enjoyable because I’m much less compelled to fuse personas when I’ll have to go through a lot of work just to get them back. On the other hand, I actually kinda like the added challenge with these bosses. Most of them having evade skills got annoying after a while, but I found it pretty fun to experiment with my party composition in order to figure out the best way to beat the bosses. I’m one of those types of people who actually prefer to play p3 with the AI tactics, so they don’t really bother me at all.
I tend to enjoy dungeon crawlers, but I’ll admit that the abyss of time got tiring to explore after the third door. That’s why I took a bit of a break from playing The Answer, and came back once I got the urge to start the dungeon crawling again. I think the reason I didn't run into this with Tartarus is because you have the life sim sections to go through if you want a break from the dungeon crawling. Here though, the dungeon crawling is all there is. It doesn’t ruin The Answer for me, but it’s definitely an aspect I don’t like about it. This issue is exacerbated by the way the story is structured.
Don’t get me wrong, the story of The Answer is really good and by far the best part about it. It’s just that there’s a lot of story at the start and a lot at the end, while the middle is largely the same. Explore a door, fight a few bosses, reach the end and see a flashback of a character depicting the moment they began to be able to have a persona. Then another door opens and the process repeats itself like 6 times. These flashbacks are good and give some further insight on the characters, but I feel like it further contributes to the repetitive feel of The Answer. Once you reach the end of the final door however, it starts getting GOOD. Yukari’s actions seem unreasonable until you remember that she’s a teenage girl who just lost her best friend/lover out of the blue and not only does she not know why he died, she wasn’t even there for his final moments. It’s only natural that she’d try to bring him back, she was desperate and grieving at that moment. It’s why the moment after the tournament where she breaks down is so impactful. She finally accepts that Makoto is gone and with it, she begins to have a breakdown. Mitsuru comforts Yukari, just like how Yukari did the same when her dad died during The Journey. The emotions displayed during that scene feel so real and something I could relate to, considering I went through a loss myself not too long ago. The story ending with everyone deciding to live their lives to the fullest just like their friend would have wanted them to is the perfect cap to this story.
Overall, while I do have my issues with The Answer, I do think it’s a worthwhile experience and something I think fans of persona 3 should experience. The gameplay can get kind of repetitive but it’s worth it for the amazing story and closure for these characters.
The Answer is probably the most controversial piece of Persona 3. Some love it, while others look at it like it’s the antichrist. Me personally, I initially avoided The Answer because of the vitriol it received online. During the lead up to reload however, I started to see people begin to praise The Answer for its amazing story. Eventually, I decided to dust off my copy of Persona 3 fes and finally play The Answer.
To be honest? I liked it quite a bit. Is it better than the main game? No. Can the dungeon crawling get repetitive? A little. Is The Answer the worst piece of Persona content ever made? Absolutely not.
Gameplay-wise, people complain that it’s too hard and that the compendium being gone sucks. While I do agree that the compendium being gone makes persona fusing less enjoyable because I’m much less compelled to fuse personas when I’ll have to go through a lot of work just to get them back. On the other hand, I actually kinda like the added challenge with these bosses. Most of them having evade skills got annoying after a while, but I found it pretty fun to experiment with my party composition in order to figure out the best way to beat the bosses. I’m one of those types of people who actually prefer to play p3 with the AI tactics, so they don’t really bother me at all.
I tend to enjoy dungeon crawlers, but I’ll admit that the abyss of time got tiring to explore after the third door. That’s why I took a bit of a break from playing The Answer, and came back once I got the urge to start the dungeon crawling again. I think the reason I didn't run into this with Tartarus is because you have the life sim sections to go through if you want a break from the dungeon crawling. Here though, the dungeon crawling is all there is. It doesn’t ruin The Answer for me, but it’s definitely an aspect I don’t like about it. This issue is exacerbated by the way the story is structured.
Don’t get me wrong, the story of The Answer is really good and by far the best part about it. It’s just that there’s a lot of story at the start and a lot at the end, while the middle is largely the same. Explore a door, fight a few bosses, reach the end and see a flashback of a character depicting the moment they began to be able to have a persona. Then another door opens and the process repeats itself like 6 times. These flashbacks are good and give some further insight on the characters, but I feel like it further contributes to the repetitive feel of The Answer. Once you reach the end of the final door however, it starts getting GOOD. Yukari’s actions seem unreasonable until you remember that she’s a teenage girl who just lost her best friend/lover out of the blue and not only does she not know why he died, she wasn’t even there for his final moments. It’s only natural that she’d try to bring him back, she was desperate and grieving at that moment. It’s why the moment after the tournament where she breaks down is so impactful. She finally accepts that Makoto is gone and with it, she begins to have a breakdown. Mitsuru comforts Yukari, just like how Yukari did the same when her dad died during The Journey. The emotions displayed during that scene feel so real and something I could relate to, considering I went through a loss myself not too long ago. The story ending with everyone deciding to live their lives to the fullest just like their friend would have wanted them to is the perfect cap to this story.
Overall, while I do have my issues with The Answer, I do think it’s a worthwhile experience and something I think fans of persona 3 should experience. The gameplay can get kind of repetitive but it’s worth it for the amazing story and closure for these characters.