Persona 3 Reload unfortunately won't be receiving the playable female protagonist, Kotone, seen in another version of the classic, and now, the game's producer has apologized for the exclusion.
07.03.2024 - 13:29 / thegamer.com / Kazuhisa Wada
Persona 3 Reload was originally supposed to include Episode Aigis - The Answer at launch, but it was removed and turned into DLC due to "circumstances".
After months of rumours and speculation, Atlus finally confirmed yesterday that Persona 3 Reload would be getting Persona 3 FES' The Answer epilogue as the final part of an expansion pass for the game. This is big news for Persona 3 fans, as the initial announcement of Reload stirred some controversy for only focusing on content from the original release, but it turns out that wasn't always the case.
Following the announcement of The Answer expansion at Xbox's Partner Preview, Persona 3 Reload's producer, Kazuhisa Wada, appeared in a YouTube developer diary to talk about The Answer DLC and how it came to be. After thanking fans for playing Persona 3 Reload and explaining the origins of Episode Aigis, Wada revealed an interesting tidbit about the game's development and treatment of FES content.
Wada says that Persona 3 Reload wouldn't be complete without The Answer epilogue and that Atlus wanted to include it as part of Persona 3 Reload and even planned to at several points during its development. Despite being considered "from the beginning of the project", the team was unable to include it at launch due to "challenging reasons" and "many setbacks".
Although it seems that Episode Aigis was originally going to be cut from Persona 3 Reload entirely, Wada notes that the team received an "outpouring of requests" from fans to have it added back into the game. This, combined with fans' "voices encouraging each step of the way" led to The Answer being turned into a DLC expansion for Reload instead.
"From the beginning of the project, we had strongly considered the idea of remaking Episode Aigis. However, for challenging reasons, we were almost forced to abandon this idea... the project faced many setbacks, but things eventually fell into place."
The response to the announcement of the expansion pass has been a little mixed. Although most fans are just happy to be getting more content for Persona 3 Reload, others aren't happy about being offered an ultimate edition of the base game and then being asked to spend more for DLC that was revealed just over a month after the original game launched.
And, of course, there are a lot of fans who still aren't happy that we don't have Persona 3 Portable's female protagonist, something that clearly isn't going to change now that The Answer has been confirmed to be the final bit of DLC for Reload.
Persona 3 Reload unfortunately won't be receiving the playable female protagonist, Kotone, seen in another version of the classic, and now, the game's producer has apologized for the exclusion.
Atlus has now confirmed you will need to buy pieces of content you probably don't want if you wish to play the Episode Aigis DLC for Persona 3 Reload, as the expansion is locked behind the £28.99 / $34.99 Expansion Pass. It won't be up for purchase separately, with a PR representative telling Push Square «the three parts of the Expansion Pass will not be available separately, and only available as part of the full pass».
Persona 6 will be coming to «multiple platforms», including Xbox and Switch / Switch 2.
Persona 3 Reload publisher Atlus will not release the controversial Episode Aigis expansion by itself, meaning players have to buy it through the $35 expansion pass.
Atlus has revealed that it decided to fully develop Persona 3 Reload's Episode Aegis expansion thanks to fans pushing for it.
Persona 3 Reload players have taken to Steam to express frustration at Atlus announcing a $35 expansion pass one month after promising the game is a "complete experience".
The Episode Aigis expansion for Persona 3 Reload has been developed in response to fan feedback, though there's no chance of a female protagonist in the future.
Atlus has explained why Persona 3 Reload is getting downloadable content a month after it promised the game "offers a complete experience".
Episode Aigis, the paid expansion that's coming to Persona 3 Reload in September, was originally going to be included in the remake itself. This is according to a Famitsu interview with producer Kazuhisa Wada (as translated by Persona Central), who explains that development cycle difficulties forced the team to abandon its ambitions.
A senior Atlus official has indirectly dismissed the recent speculation that Episode Aigis: The Answer was cut from the day-one version of Persona 3 Reload. The DLC was announced at the newest Xbox Partner Preview event in early March, with Atlus revealing it as the third and final part of the Persona 3 Reload expansion pass.
It's bad news for anyone who was holding onto the hope that Persona 3 Reload might add in a female protagonist eventually, as it's now been confirmed that there's "no chance" of it happening.
Persona 3 Reload's producer, Kazuhisa Wada, has finally put a pin in the possibility of Persona 3 Portable's highly-requested FeMC, Kotone Shiomi, being added to the game as DLC.