persona 3 the journey or answer

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What is the difference between the journey and the answer?

Shin megami tensei: persona 3 fes, playstation 2, shin megami tensei: persona 3 fes (playstation 2).

• I just got the game and im wondering what the difference between the 2 are. are they different story lines or different modes for the game? or what are they? dragonslayer667 - 15 years ago - report

Accepted Answer

• The journey is the original game (Persona 3) extended and with new features. While The Answer is a new ad-on that tells what happens after the events that take place in the journey. So to put it simply play the journey first, then play the answer. KomenCayoz - 15 years ago - report 7   3

Other Answers

• Spoilers - The Journey is the main game (with the blue haired MC), and the Answer is after the main game, where you play with Aigis as the MC. Fayt88 - 15 years ago - report 5   7

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Persona 3 FES

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The Journey is essentially a slightly-enhanced remake of the original Persona 3 , while The Answer is an all-new epilogue that continues the story.

The term "FES" stems from the word "festival," and is a common abbreviation in Japanese. [2]

The Answer would be adapted in Persona 3 Reload as part of an Expansion Pass, and the epilogue would be titled "Episode Aigis - The Answer" in English. The DLC will release in September 2024.

• 2.1 The Journey
• 2.2 The Answer
• 4.1 PlayStation 3
• 7 In Other Languages
• 8 External links
• 9 References

Aigis, with the protagonist and Metis.

The events of The Answer begin on March 31, 2010, a few weeks after the end of The Journey . During the opening sequence, it is revealed that the protagonist peacefully died in his sleep while he was resting with Aigis at the rooftop of Gekkoukan High . A confused SEES can only speculate that his death is related to him using his life force to defeat Nyx . The school year has ended, and the dormitory they stayed at is to be closed down soon.

Meanwhile, society is still the same as it has been, as though the Apathy Syndrome cases have ended, they are still overwhelmed by stress in their daily lives, some of it amplified by the lingering rumors spread by Strega of last year. The events would make some members of S.E.E.S question what they've fought for, though they agree that the issue is out of their hands and they've done what they could do save them.

Also, Aigis reveals to the group that she will not be attending school next year. After the death of the protagonist, she fell into depression as she could not fulfill the promise she's made for him, causing her to become detached to the point she no longer needs sleep.

During their last dinner party, the SEES members discover that they are trapped in their dorm, and that the day March 31st is repeating itself. Later, a large door-like hole opens in the floor of the dorm, and SEES is attacked by Metis , an anti-shadow weapon similar to Aigis. In the midst of fighting Metis to protect her friends, Aigis' Persona , Athena , transforms into Orpheus , the original Persona of the protagonist. She also gains the protagonist's Wild Card ability. Aigis is able to subdue Metis, whose actions were an attempt to end the time skip and save Aigis, who she calls her "sister."

Underneath the dorm is the Abyss of Time , the cause of the time skip. The Abyss contains seven doors, the insides of which contain multi-floor dungeons, similar in design to Tartarus; it is in these areas that the game's combat takes place. At the top of each dungeon, SEES witness an event from the past of each member. After seeing several of these flashbacks, SEES discern that the events shown in each door relates to how that member had awakened to their Persona.

Shadow Minato

??? disappears into flesh and butterflies.

At the top of the seventh and final door, SEES fights a Shadow-like version of the protagonist. After defeating it, each of them obtain a key. By combining the keys, they would be able to end the time skip and leave the dorm. However, Metis presents SEES with an alternative: instead of unlocking the front door of the dorm, they may also use the keys to travel back in time, to before the fight against Nyx and the death of the protagonist.

Though Akihiko and Ken believe they should move forward no matter what so the deaths of their loved ones don't go to waste, Yukari wants another chance to save the protagonist as means to honor his life, which Mitsuru supports her on, though the rest of the group believes it's too dangerous, spurring tension between them. Junpei and Koromaru believe that they should ultimately work together before anything.

Now unable to agree on how to use the keys, SEES determine that they must fight each other to decide. Aigis herself is indecisive on how she wishes to use the key, though Metis strives to fulfill her purpose by protecting Aigis and fighting alongside her. She would guide everyone to Colosseo Purgatorio, Metis' birthplace, as their fighting ground. But as the two defeat Akihiko and Ken, Aigis finds out she's been tricked by Metis as the two transmorgrify into flames, endangering their lives unless all keys are combined in time to revert them back to their original forms. This hurts Metis' relationship with Aigis, who cares about the safety of her friends.

After fighting off Junpei and Koromaru, Aigis is left hopeless over the whole ordeal, as she cannot choose between running away from the present and throwing away those she cares about. There is simply no way out where none of her bonds will get hurt. Through her relationship with Metis, who is drowned in her own fear of abandonment and desire to protect Aigis even if it means she'll hate her, Aigis understands that the pain of living is inevitable and accepts it, before proceeding to fight Yukari and Mitsuru.

Colosseo Purgatorio

Aigis and Metis facing Yukari and Mitsuru for the Final Key.

Aigis, Metis and Fuuka claim all eight keys, which fuse into the Final Key. Yukari attempts to steal the key from Aigis, but Metis reveals that it's impossible to do so once it's been combined. Yukari, devastated, finally admits her grief over the protagonist. She made a promise as well, but unlike Aigis, it was to herself. She promised to try to change the world into a peaceful one to make people stop wishing for the Fall , but admits she can't be that person and doesn't care about anything but seeing the protagonist again. Mitsuru, who has agreed to side with Yukari solely to support her, consoles her the same way she has in the past. With her resolution strengthened, she decides to respect Aigis' decision of leaving the past the way it was.

The protagonist as the door's Great Seal.

After debating on what to do now, they discover a third, new door in the Abyss of Time, which the group uses (without the Final Key) to travel to the moment the protagonist sealed Nyx from the world. Metis explains that the purpose of the seal created by the protagonist was not to seal away Nyx herself (who is not inherently evil nor benevolent,) but to prevent humanity's despair from calling out to Nyx and bringing about the Fall once more. The subconscious will of mankind to despair and wish for death constantly rebirths a monster called Erebus that summons Nyx to destroy the world; Metis implies that Erebus's contact with Nyx is what caused the Fall (that was prevented by SEES.) SEES realizes that the wishes that created Erebus also came from them, and so they fight it, and are able to defeat it.

Mitsuru points out that Erebus will return regardless, as humans will never stop wishing for death, but Aigis believes that there is a way to completely stop it, and later realizes that through her actions she can still protect the protagonist through her actions in the present, mitigating people's desire to bring about the Fall and honor his role or sacrifice.

Yukari and Aigis leaving the dormitory.

After breaking the time loop and exiting through the front door of the dorm with the Final Key, Metis, Aigis, and the rest of SEES are summoned to the Velvet Room, much to Igor 's (pleasant) surprise. It is here they learn of Metis' true origins: that she is a manifestation of a part of Aigis's personality. Distraught over the death of the protagonist, she no longer wanted to live like a human, and wished to return to being a machine. However, after being set free from the Abyss of Time, Aigis changes her mind, deciding to continue to attend school like before. Also, after taking off her armor and accepting Metis back into her soul, she begins to feel exhaustion again; Fuuka's analysis finds that internally Aigis has been burnt out and to replace her components she won't be the same person they used to know, but to their surprise Aigis wakes up anyways, almost as if she's truly alive.

Gameplay [ ]

The journey [ ].

The Journey , also known as Episode Yourself in the Japanese version, is an enhanced version of Persona 3 . It includes the entire original game, but with several changes including, but not limited to:

• New Personas in the game have been added.
• The Arcana type, stats , and skillsets of some Personas were tweaked.
• Some Treasure chest drops were expanded on.
• Secret videos of the protagonist 's dorm mates were added.
• Koromaru can now be taken on walks.
• Several Social Links were slightly modified, such as President Tanaka being available at a different time.
• A Social Link for Aigis was added.
• Monad Depths no longer unlocks automatically upon reaching the top of Tartarus.
• Several new Quests have been added.
• New costumes can be worn in battle.
• A new event involving Chidori Yoshino was added.
• Naganaki Shrine was completely overhauled.
• A hard mode was added.

Save data from Persona 3 can be transferred into the game, which includes the Persona Compendium, Social Stats (Academics, Courage and Charm), and items received from completing Social Links.

The Answer [ ]

Aigis, with the protagonist and Metis

The Answer , also known as Episode Aegis  in the Japanese version, is an epilogue of Persona 3 , which continues from the end of The Journey . As The Answer is a continuation of the story of Persona 3 , it is recommended to play The Journey first. Furthermore, the content of this extra scenario is mainly combat oriented and does not involve any daily life or Social Link mechanics.

The chapter is only available in one difficulty setting, which is supposed to be on par with Persona 3' s Hard mode. The gameplay is approximately 30 hours long and has Aigis be the playable character in place of the protagonist. The story follows SEES on a new adventure involving a new dungeon, Abyss of Time , which has locked SEES in an infinite time loop within the dormitory . It also introduces a new party member named Metis , a robotic AI similar to Aigis.

The Japanese Append version requires an original Persona 3 disc to play.

PlayStation 3 [ ]

The PlayStation 3 port that can be downloaded from the PlayStation Store has a few minor glitches in the game. The game received a patch around 2016/2017 which should have fixed these issues. If you experience these issues and you downloaded the game before 2018 it's recommended you uninstall it and download it again. (Don't delete save data)

• Textures: Shining textures such as background pieces or golden shadows will appear off-color or have a strobing effect on the texture pieces.
• 9/5 game freeze: During the Full Moon Operation on 9/5, the game may freeze while the SEES members are leaving the command room. Waiting with the console on will allow the game to eventually cycle through the problem.
• Although somewhat uncommon, it has been reported that this game has random issues with save files. Backing up the saves with USB sticks would be an advisable precaution.

Gallery [ ]

In Other Languages [ ]

External links [ ].

• Official Japanese Site (Archive)
• Official North America Site (Archive)
• Persona 3 FES PlayStation®2 the Best

References [ ]

• ↑ A Graphic of Overall Persona Series Physical Game Sales in Japan for February 2020 Persona Central (Reggie, February 26, 2020)
• ↑ https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/フェスティバル
• Shin Megami Tensei
• 1 Persona 5: The Phantom X
• 2 Makoto Yuki
• 3 Ren Amamiya

Outline Guide to Persona 3 FES The Answer

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-13 years ago, I wrote a guide to The Answer, the 25-30 hour epilogue to the monumental PlayStation 2 Japanese RPG, Persona 3 FES (it ranks highly on my personal most memorable games list ). Despite its age, I still have the original guide, which I wrote in plain text format using Windows Notepad (long before my switch to Linux). In light of the renewed interest in Persona 3 with the release of the original game’s third re-master, Persona 3 Reload, I thought it would be fun to look back on the first re-master, Persona 3 FES. Moreover, The Answer epilogue is exclusive to Persona 3 FES, having not been present in the original Persona 3 and having been excluded from the third and fourth versions of Persona 3, Persona 3 Portable and Persona 3 Reload, respectively.

Note : If you are familiar with Persona 3’s story and just interested in jumping to my party selection guide for The Answer , use this link to cut to the relevant section.

Spoiler Notice

A brief introduction, why did i make a persona 3 fes epilogue strategy guide, spoiler forthcoming, introducing the answer, how fighting in persona 3 fes works, understanding the gameplay of the answer, introducing the the answer characters, my answer party selection guide, is my guide good.

Before continuing, please take heed of an important spoiler note. All four versions of Persona 3 feature what is roughly the same 70-80 adventure ( FES added a few events to the story, Portable included the option to play as a girl, and I understand that the Reload remake has added additional points that were not present in the first three versions, albeit omitting the option to play as the female protagonist). This guide is about The Answer, a separate story that takes place a couple of months after the answer of the main Persona 3 story. The Answer is exclusive to Persona 3 FES. Persona 3 FES calls the main Persona 3 story that appears in all four Persona 3 versions The Journey and the FES-exclusive 25-30 hour epilogue The Answer.

In this article, I will not spoil what happens in The Answer beyond how it starts and basic points such as the names of dungeons and the number of boss fights. However, I will spoil a major event that occurs at the end of The Journey – i.e., the main Persona 3 Adventure – or more accurately, I will assume that people reading the article are familiar with it. If you have not yet played through any of the Persona games to the end, have not been spoiled on the ending, and are considering playing Persona 3 Portable or Persona 3 Reload (both are available for PC and multiple consoles) or hunting down an old PlayStation 2 Persona 3 copy, you may want to refrain from reading the sections of this guide that reference The Journey’s ending until you have a chance to go on your own Persona 3 Journey. I will include a reminder about spoilers right before I reach the spoiler section.

I put Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES number five on the list of the 12 video games that left the biggest impression on me in the last 30 years. Persona 3 FES is a Japanese RPG, that between its main game and its epilogue, should take most players somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 to 110 hours to complete (or more for the most careful completionists). It shows its age in many respects both in light of the fact that it was first released in Japan in 2007 ( FES was an enhanced version of the original Persona 3 , which was released in Japan in 2006) and also because its successors in Persona 4 and Persona 5 refined Persona 3’s formula in many areas.

Persona 3 revamped the Persona series, which had seen two previous entries, by having the player take the role of a 11th grade high school student in urban Japan. The player could fight monsters (“shadows” in Persona parlance) at night while living a normal school life and making friends during the day. The combination proved to be a hit both in Japan and abroad, and Persona eventually turned into a full-fledged spinoff series from the main Shin Megamei Tensei series (produced no later than by the remastered version of Persona 4 ). Persona 4 and Persona 5 made some much needed improvements to the social sim aspects introduced in 3 (I dare say Persona 4 has the best of the social interactions), but Persona 3 , despite being antiquated in many other respects, still has its dark tone and compelling overarching story to recommend it.

The Answer was a 25-ish hour-long epilogue released with Persona 3 FES , which was an enhanced version of the original Persona 3 . The Answer takes place shortly after the events of the main game and generally features the same characters. FES distinguishes itself from The Journey, or the main Persona 3 adventure, in several areas. Firstly, it drops the social sim elements entirely and focuses exclusively on combat and telling a linear story through many cut scenes. Secondly, it is harder than the base game. Its difficulty cannot be toggled (it is essentially equivalent to Hard in the base game), and it imposes more limitations on how players can navigate the dungeon and strengthen their assortment of personas to use in combat than does regular Persona 3.

I have read mixed opinions of The Answer , but count me as one of its biggest fans. It provides what stands today as the purest, best combat and dungeon crawling challenge and experience in the modern Persona games. While it drops links (for whatever it is worth, most of the links in Persona 3 were lacking when compared to 4 and to a lesser extent 5 ), the story serves as an interesting study on grief and moving forward and a perfect capstone to the grand adventure that is Persona 3.

I may, at some point, go into more detail on why I like The Answer and think that it is important enough to allow FES to hold the title of most complete of Persona 3 so long as none of the other Persona 3 versions include it, but that will be a topic for another day.

I played through Persona 3 FES in 2010-11. Not too long after (I forget exactly when), I lent it along with my PlayStation 2 to a friend. My friend cleared the main game and was ready to take on The Answer . I vaguely recall that my friend wanted to finish by a certain date – but I forget the precise details. In any event, I wrote a spoiler-free strategy guide for my friend to use at his discretion, but I did not send the guide until after my friend had completed The Journey since discussing strategy in The Answer in a meaningful way invites recognizing what happens at the end of base Persona 3 .

Below this point, I will write as if readers are aware of what happens at the end of the Persona 3 base game before the epilogue. If you, for whatever reason, want to avoid that knowledge for the time being ( e.g., if you have Persona 3 Portable in your game backlog or are planning to play Persona 3 Reload without having played the previous Persona 3 versions), feel free to bookmark the article here and return to it later.

I paraphrase the beginning of my guide:

As you can probably infer from the ending, Japanese [insert friend’s name] will not be making an encore appearance.

The protagonist of Persona 3 goes on a very long journey after The Journey . This prompts the first change that we see in The Answer epilogue.

Persona 3 follows the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (“SEES”) as they fight to eliminate dangerous shadows and eventually save the world. The protagonist, a second-year high school student, ends up serving as field leader for SEES during their expeditions, despite being the newest of four members upon joining, because he has a unique ability to switch between multiple “Personas” in combat (every other member is locked to one). However, while the protagonist is field leader (succeeding Akihiko Sanada, who is one year his senior), Mitsuru Kirijo, one year his senior, is the leader of SEES.

In the main game, heretofore known as The Journey , the final party consists of:

• Protagonist (a mostly silent, emo-looking boy, controlled by the player – can wield multiple Personas and serves as field leader)
• Yukari Takeba (a girl in the same class as the protagonist and member of the school’s archery club)
• Junpei Iori (a boy in the same class as the protagonist who begins the story as a jealous buddy character but undergoes great development due to a certain tragedy)
• Mitsuru Kirijo (the leader of SEES and the protagonist’s senior by one year)
• Akihiko Sanada (Mitsuru’s classmate and an original SEES member; part of the school’s boxing club)
• Aigis (a humanoid robot girl built to destroy shadows who joins close to the middle of the game)
• Koromaru (a dog)
• Ken Amada (a middle school boy with a grudge)

(Fuuka Yamagishi, a student in the same year but different class than protagonist and Yukari, is part of the team, but she serves as the navigator and cannot be used in combat. Thus, I will not discuss her in this article.)

Because the protagonist of The Journey had departed to go on a very long vacation, someone must step into the void of being the new protagonist and field leader in The Answer . Both Mitsuru, the leader of SEES, and Akihiko, who had been field leader prior to that protagonist, seem like good candidates. If not them, why not Yukari or Junpei, who were the only party members to fight with the protagonist in the early stages of Persona 3 (Mitsuru had to serve as navigator and Akihiko was injured). Yukari was the member the protagonist had met first (in memorable fashion) and Junpei always wanted to be the hero.

While those would seem like obvious choices to be the new protagonist – and as The Answer makes clear, one of them certainly believes he or she should be the protagonist. But none of the four characters I named becomes the new leader, nor does the dog or the middle school boy. Aigis, the humanoid robot who is introduced a few chapters (20-30 hours depending on your playing speed) into Persona 3 and who spends much of the story being highly robotic (she gradually becomes more human as time goes on), is the unexpected player character, protagonist, and ultimately the heroine of Persona 3’s epilogue.

(Turning Aigis into the player character and protagonist in The Answer was a bold, interesting, and in my opinion, correct choice. The reaction of some of the party members to Aigis’ awakening and connection to the hero of The Journey – I am looking at one in particular – plays a central role in The Answer . However, this is beyond our game-play focused scope.)

While Aigis does not have a typical profile for a Persona 3 protagonist (or a video game protagonist generally), she is no novelty – she has the necessary characteristic of a true Persona protagonist. As I noted, the protagonist in Persona 3 , 4 , and 5 is unique in his (or her, in the case of the option to make the protagonist a girl in the third version of Persona 3, Persona 3 Portable ) ability to switch between different personas for combat. All of the other party members are locked to a single persona that evolves at a certain stage of the story. In The Journey , Aigis, like the rest of the party members, can only use a single persona. However, in The Answer , Aigis inherits the Wildcard ability from the protagonist of The Journey , giving her the ability to collect and switch between multiple personas in the exact same way that the protagonist in The Journey (and the protagonists of Persona 4 and Persona 5 ) are capable of doing.

For our game-play focused purposes, it is sufficient to note that Aigis in The Answer plays identically to the protagonist of The Journey except for the fact that she is locked to a single weapon – her arm gun/cannon (this is a pierce-type attack) – whereas the protagonist in The Journey could use slash and strike weapons as well as pierce to complement persona skills.

(Aigis’ arm cannon is cooler, however – so advantage Aigis.)

In theory, our party would be more limited since Aigis replaces the protagonist but there is no one to replace Aigis as a member of the protagonist’s party. Fortunately – The Answer – which is harder than The Journey for reasons I will go into – replaces Aigis from the player’s party with a new humanoid girl robot, Metis, who claims to be Aigis’s sister. Metis, who is quite epic, will play a leading role in my guide.

Before continuing, I ought to introduce Persona 3 FES’s combat system. Note that if you are coming to my guide having only played later Persona games, including Persona 3 Portable , there are a few significant differences between combat in Persona 3 FES and the later games.

The player can have a party of up to four characters at one time, always including the player character (Aigis in our case). Note that my guide is for full parties – so at no point do I recommend using a smaller-than-allowed party.

Persona 3 FES has several types of attacks:

• Physical Attacks: Pierce; Slash; Strike
• Elemental Magic: Electricity (Zio); Fire (Agi); Ice (Bufu); Wind (Garu)
• Insta-kills: Dark (Mudo); Light (Hama)

The only difference between 3 and the later Personas is that Persona 4 and 5 do not distinguish between physical attacking types. Note going forward that insta-kill spells unsurprisingly do not work in boss fights (all bosses are immune) and that none of the party members can use almighty attacks, which ignore all resistances (Aigis can use almighty attacks if she equips a persona with almighty spells).

Every member of the player’s party save for Metis, who has no weaknesses or resistances, and Aigis, whose weaknesses and resistances are determined by her active persona, have at least one resistance or nullification and one weakness. Most of the regular shadow enemies and bosses have at least some weaknesses and resistances. All units have stats in the following categories: HP (health), SP (spirit points for using spells), Strength (physical attacking), Endurance (physical resistance), Magic (magic attacking and resistance as well as healing spell strength), Agility (turn order and dodging), and Luck (many things). All of the player character’s stats other than HP and SP are determined by the active Persona.

If a unit hits another unit for a weakness with a single-target attack, three things happen:

• The attack does extra damage
• The attacking unit gets an extra turn
• The attacked unit is knocked down

These are all true in modern Persona games as well – however, in modern games hitting at least one non-fallen enemy for a weakness with a multi-target attack grants an extra turn, whereas extra turns in FES are only awarded for single-target super effective attacks. There is an even more significant difference in FES regarding knockdowns. In FES , if a unit is down when its turn arrives, it “wastes” the turn getting up, meaning it cannot attack or take any other action. In Persona 4 and 5 , the unit gets up and then uses its turn normally. This makes the status of being knocked down in Persona 3 FES much more punitive than in 4 and 5 and invites the player to use knockdowns to prevent the opponent from attacking. In the later Personas , attacking a downed enemy causes the dizzy status, which has a similar effect but nevertheless implicates different strategies. Knockdowns are far more punitive in Persona 3 FES and its predecessor (however, it is easier to score extra turns in 4 and 5 with group attacks).

The final key difference distinguishes Persona 3 FES from Persona 3 Portable as well as from 4 and 5 : The player does not directly control anyone other than the player character, which is Aigis in The Answer . The player’s party members can be left to their own devices or the player can select from a limited set of “strategies” for individual party members to follow. For example, the player could tell one party member to focus on knocking down enemies or only attacking while directing another to use healing spells or buffs/de-buffs. This necessarily makes FES a bit more challenging since a good player can make better decisions than the AI, even with effective use of directions, but anyone who beat The Journey on at least normal difficulty should be well-acquainted with how the AI party members tend to behave and how to best manage them.

The Answer is broken up into seven separate “dungeons” – for lack of a better term: Malebolge, Cocytus, Caina, Antenora, Ptolomea, Judecca, and Empyrean. Every tenth floor of the dungeon sits a boss shadow (or shadows) that the player’s party must defeat in what will usually be a long battle. Malebolge and Cocytus each feature only one boss, but Caina, Antenora, Ptolemea, and Judecca have two separate boss fights on different floors and Empyrean has three. There are four additional boss fights after the dungeons but those are not a primary focus of my guide (if you do not mind spoilers, I discuss three of them in a humorous article from my first Answer run).

The Answer’s structure is more challenging than The Journey for a simple reason. In the Journey , it was always possible to heal right before a boss fight. However, in The Answer , the player cannot “return to base” before a boss fight without having to re-do his or her march through all of the floors of the dungeon before encountering the boss. This makes healing more difficult and punishes the player for having a sub-optimal party for a specific boss. I will explain how this works in practice:

• Let us say that a boss sits on the 10th floor of a dungeon
• The player must get to the 10th floor, which means navigating through the dungeon and defeating enemies along the way
• Once the player reaches the 10th floor, he or she may save before the boss fight
• However, if the player opts to return to base and heal/change party members, he or she must then go through the 10 floors to the boss again – there is no way to warp back to the 10th floor

(Note for dungeons with more than one boss: After beating a boss, the player can warp to the middle of the dungeon. For example, let us say in my made up dungeon with a floor 10 the boss has a second boss on floor 20. In that case, the player can start from floor 10 after beating the floor 10 boss but the same no-warp rule applies at floor 20 before beating the floor 20 boss.)

I wrote (light paraphrase) in my original guide:

You can no longer heal right before boss battles. You can save and even return to the dorm after reaching the boss floor, but you will have to make the trip again.

One reason this is extra tricky in The Answer is because of SP. All characters have HP, which is their health/hit points, and SP, which they consume for magic spells. Physical attacks use HP (one has to be careful since a character faints at 0 HP, or in Aigis’s case only causes a game over). Spells, including elemental magic, insta-kills, and support skills such as healing moves, status moves, and buffs and de-buffs, draw from SP. There is a general paucity of SP-healing items early in The Answer and, while the situation improves somewhat over the course of the game, SP maintenance is an issue throughout The Answer in a way it is not in The Journey . I had SP maintenance in mind in recommending parties for The Answer .

In my original guide, I explained that SP management was one of my main considerations (light paraphrase):

I made this guide so that you can bring the right party for each boss run while minimizing, or eliminating entirely, double trips. However, minimizing double trips will require efficient play on your part. You must be diligent about managing Aigis’s SP and the SP of your party members. You will not obtain any SP restoring items or accessories for a while – although you can buy sodas which restore a meager 5 SP at the dorm one-by-one.

SP management is the key to playing through The Answer efficiently.

An Additional Challenge From Lack of Social Links

Making friends in Persona 3, 4, and 5 has a game-play benefit. Every “social link” corresponds to a Tarot card arcana (see my discussion of a Persona 4 social link ). Each of the personas that the protagonist can use corresponds to one of these arcana. In Persona 3 , the player cannot “fuse” a new persona that is higher than his (or in Aigis’s case, her) level. However, upon being fused, the persona gains experience and levels based on its corresponding social link rank. This allows personas to gain about six levels off the bat in the best case. Because The Answer has no social links, these bonuses are unavailable – which adds another small element of challenge that distinguishes The Answer from The Journey .

Before I list my character recommendations, I will briefly introduce each character from a game-play perspective, going in the order they join the player’s party in the Answer . As I will explain a bit further down, I tend to focus on avoiding being hit for weaknesses in Persona 3 , so that will be a point of emphasis.eee

Before continuing, note that it is possible in the late game to acquire items to nullify any of the individual elemental or insta-kill weaknesses. Acquiring one of these items can affect some late-game choices, especially for the final boss fight.

• Yukari Takeba

See stats and moves .

Yukari is the best healer in Persona 3 , featuring powerful single-target and group healing spells along with a revival spell at a high levels. She is also a decent attacker with a high magic stat and specialty in wind magic. She carries a bow, giving her access to pierce on the physical side. Yukari nullifies wind damage but is weak to electricity.

• Junpei Iori

Junpei is a bulky unit focused on physical attacks. His best attacks are slash but he picks up strike and pierce moves at higher levels. He has fire attacks for hitting enemies weak to fire. Junpei gets one buff move to boost the party’s defense. Junpei has a unique skill which heals 8% of his HP every turn due to an event in The Journey . Junpei nullifies fire damage but is weak to wind.

• Akihiko Sanada

Akihiko is a jack-of-all-trades character, solid, but unspectacular, on both his physical and magic wings. Akihiko has electricity for his magic attack and can deal strike damage. Akihiko’s stand out features come in the form of his access to strong single-target healing spells (like Mitsuru) and a full assortment of de-buffs to lower the stats of enemies. Akihiko nullifies electric damage but is weak to ice.

• Mitsuru Kirijo

Mitsuru specializes in ice attacks and has the highest magic stat of the player’s party, giving her the most damage potential against neutral targets. Mitsuru can drain SP from enemies, which is certainly welcome in The Answer . She carries a sword for slash attacks and has strong single-target healing spells and a number of status moves (never leave her to her own devices unless you want to see her spam status moves over and over again). Mitsuru nullifies ice damage but is weak to fire.

Koromaru uses fire spells and slash attacks, making him similar to Junpei in both respects (albeit Junpei gains other types of physical attacks). Koromaru, unlike Junpei, has access to darkness insta-kill attacks. Another aspect in which he is similar to Junpei is that he gains one party-buff spell, albeit for hit/evasion rate instead of defense. Koromaru is the fastest character of the party. He nullifies darkness but is weak to light insta-kills.

Ken, like Akihiko, uses electric attacks. Unlike Akihiko, he also has access to light insta-kill spells and pierce attacks instead of strike. Ken brings some versatility with his access to single- and multi-target healing spells (albeit off a lower magic stat than Yukari) and a maximum revival spell at a high level. Ken nullifies light insta-kills but is weak to darkness.

Finally we reach The Answer -exclusive character, Metis. After Aigis assumes the same role in The Answer that the player character held in The Journey, Metis fills the void in the player’s (now Aigis’) party created by Aigis’ status upgrade.

See Aigis’s stats from The Journey (not applicable to Answer ).

However, notwithstanding that Metis, like Aigis, is a robot and that Metis calls Aigis her sister, she plays very differently than party-member Aigis played in The Journey. In The Journey, Aigis was a relatively durable unit who relied exclusively on physical attacks for damage (she was the only party member with no elemental magic attacks),a full array of buffs to boost the team’s stats, and a some mid-level healing spells that allowed her to step in as a healer in a pinch.

Metis is similarly durable to Aigis, but is much more oriented toward offense. She carries a strike weapon (Aigis’ arm cannon is a pierce weapon) and gets access to full slate attack coverage on her physical side (strike, slash, and pierce). Where she really stands apart from Aigis is on the magic side. She gets not one but two single-target magic attacking spells covering ice and wind, and is in fact the only party member in The Journey or The Answer with more than one elemental magic attacking type. While Metis has much more power on the physical side (especially with Power Charge to boost her physical damage), having ice and wind coverage gives her many opportunities to knock down enemies.

One characteristic Metis does share with pre-heroine Aigis from The Journey is “Orgia Mode.” If the player activates Orgia Mode, Metis will do more damage for a period of 3 turns, but she will act completely on her own without any guidance from the player. If the battle is still going on when Metis’ Orgia Mode expires, she overheats and becomes inactive for a couple of turns. However, while in Orgia Mode, Metis does not expend any HP for physical attacks or SP for magic attacks.

Metis has no weaknesses or resistances, meaning she can only be knocked down by critical hit physical attacks.

Below, I list my recommended parties for each boss. Fortunately, I explained my thinking behind the guide back when I first wrote it in (probably) 2011. I will paraphrase my explanation here.

In my original guide, I only listed two party members for each dungeon run. Why only two? See my paraphrased original explanation:

The reason why there are only two party members for each trip is because I am recommending Metis every time. She makes getting through dungeons (and moreover, getting through them with everyone’s SP intact) much more efficient. There are two boss fights where she struggles a bit, but I still recommend her because of how helpful she is in getting through the dungeon and because she is durable even when the enemy characteristics limit her ability to do damage.

I specifically referenced that Metis does not burn HP and SP while she is in Orgia Mode. Thus, Metis in Orgia Mode preserves her own resources and, through doing heavy damage, ends battles more quickly than they would otherwise end, thus making it easier for Aigis and the other two party members to not have to burn through their HP and SP. As a general matter, Metis is less useful in boss fights than in normal fights because Orgia Mode should usually (but not always) be avoided in long boss battles due to Metis’ burning out after 3 turns. In most cases, Metis is still an optimal choice because even without Orgia Mode, she is very durable in addition to lacking weaknesses and she hits hard off her physical wing (not to mention battles where the boss has an exploitable ice or wind weakness). It is the case, as I noted in my guide, that there are two boss fights where Metis is unable to do much due to the enemy’s characteristics – but she can still chip away with damage and take damage well.

(Extra Note: Metis has a few mandatory battles in the late game, so even if you decline to bring her on every boss run like I did, she should be kept at a reasonably high level.)

However, I did add a note of caution on Metis usage:

Pay attention to Metis’ behavior when she is in Orgia Mode.

This a key point. I noted that the Persona 3 FES imposed disability of not being able to directly control party members should not be an issue for Answer players since, presumably, they spent 70-80 hours observing how the AI party members behave in The Journey . However, Metis is new, and while the player likely used the party-member version of Aigis’ Orgia Mode a bit in The Journey , Aigis is not the same as Metis. Her Orgia Mode was weaker (it also burned out more quickly) and Aigis only had access to physical attacks. Part of using Metis effectively is knowing when to activate Orgia and when you can guide her into doing something more productive ( e.g., knocking down a specific opponent with one of her five attacking types). For example, I recall that Metis in Orgia mode has a tendency, where possible, to knock down an enemy with an Ice or Wind weakness but then immediately hit that enemy again, even if there is another enemy that could be knocked down to set up an all out attack.

For this version of the guide, I will explicitly list Metis since I think that is better for people from the internet who stumble upon it.

Next, I articulated the general principle behind my character choices:

I recommend the most conservative party for each boss so that you will not have to deal (often) with having weaknesses targeted.

Despite SP conservation being a priority, I noted that my teams – especially with Metis’ always being present – are designed to actually defeat enemy shadows and gain experience en route to the bosses – which is necessary in order to be at a sufficient level to win the boss battles:

Be thorough and fight your way through the dungeons to keep gaining levels. If you are sufficiently leveled and have good personas, you should not need to return to the lobby after reaching a boss floor to heal and re-do the floors to level up.

I noted that in my first Answer run, for which I did not have a guide (I knew nothing going in), I ended up stuck with some terrible parties in a few cases. For example, I cited to having brought Akihiko to Cocytus – which is not advisable. I managed to grind my way through bosses with bad parties – but the game is much easier if you do not have Akihiko being constantly hit for his ice weakness by an ice-cold boss.

This segues into another point I highlighted in my guide – and I will note it here despite it being slightly beyond our scope. While I proved in my first unaided run that good play can compensate for the wrong party, the right party does not compensate for bad play. I provided an example of focusing on good play:

This point cannot be overstated: You must get first strikes [against regular enemies]. This is not optional. You do not want to start battles on equal terms. If you end up with enemy advantage and have the wrong persona equipped, you can be killed before you have a chance to move. Learn the range for Aigis’ gun early on. Take your time and beware of The Reaper. 1 The cardinal rules of The Answer are first strikes, ending battles quickly, SP conservation, and learning to love Metis’ Orgia Mode.

Outside of boss battles, players see shadow enemies while running around. There are three ways a battle can begin: The player strikes an unsuspecting enemy (player advantage), the enemy strikes the player first (enemy advantage), or neutral. I emphasize that starting battles with player advantage is huge in The Answer and more important than in The Journey . With player advantage, the player can end battles quickly, often before the enemy attacks, and with the minimum necessary SP usage. Starting at neutral limits the player’s move options for ending the battle quickly. As I noted, enemy advantage can end in an untimely demise more easily in The Answer (especially early on) than in The Journey . You get player advantage by hitting the enemy with Aigis’ arm cannon while it is not facing you. Failure to do this consistently will, at a minimum, cause the player to reach a couple of the bosses without sufficient SP to carry the fight.

I did noted that there was one point with my guide that I had not tested:

You may find that some characters fall behind using my guide (for example Akihiko for Caina I). In my first run, I leveled everyone up evenly – which resulted in bad parties for some bosses. Make sure you keep an eye on levels while using my guide.

In hindsight, I disagree somewhat with my concern about leveling – but I will leave that explanation for after the recommended parties table.

First, note the asterisks for the third member on Judecca (I) and (II) and Empyrean (I). My position on those cases was as follows. If you have the weakness erasing item for Mitsuru, Akihiko, or Junpei, those characters are preferred for the third party position. However, if you do not have the relevant character’s weakness erasing item, I recommend Ken or Koromaru, as indicated on the chart, instead. This was consistent with my focus on avoiding bringing characters with exploitable weaknesses to boss fights.

Regarding Empyrean (III) – there is one simple rule: Do not use your second and third spots on two party members where one is weak to the other’s elemental attack type. For example, Yukari and Mitsuru are fine because Yukari uses wind and Mitsuru uses ice, and neither is weak to wind or ice. However, Yukari and Akihiko would be a no-no, baring weakness negating items, since Akihiko uses electric and Yukari is weak to electric.

Having played through The Answer on one occasion after writing the guide, I recant my concern with leveling up for two reasons. Firstly, I noted one reason in my original guide:

Each time you beat a boss, consult my guide to see if there is another boss in the dungeon. Save for Empyrean, none of the dungeons end with the last dungeon boss. There are always a few floors after the boss at the end of the dungeon. For those, bring whatever party you want – preferably with characters who are falling behind in levels – and Metis, because Metis is awesome.

There are a few floors at the end of each dungeon with no boss ahead. Thus, these provide great opportunities to get characters who may be falling behind or who will be used shortly some extra experience. Contrary to my advice, these are great opportunities to bench Metis since she will not, assuming you follow my advice and bring her on every boss run, be falling behind on experience.

The second reason I disagree with my warning is because Persona 3 FES , like later Persona entries, has a sort of rubber band system which grants extra experience to lagging characters. Thus, while some level differences will appear following my guide, Persona 3 will assist characters in catching up. Additionally, SP becomes less constrained later in The Answer , meaning one can take a few extra battles before bosses that may have been ill-advised in the first few dungeon runs.

The Final Boss

After Empyrean (III), there are three additional boss fights with no party selection option (see my separate article if you have no spoiler concerns). The final boss comes after those three boss fights. There is no dungeon leading up to the post-Empyrean bosses, so the player will go into these fights at full health.

The final boss can unsurprisingly use almost all attack types – the one exception is light insta-kill. In line with my cautious approach, I focused on avoiding weaknesses:

If you managed to not get any element resist heart items (I only had dark/light resist), your default party will be Metis/Koromaru and probably Ken.

Metis has no weakness and because the final boss does not have a light insta-kill attack, Koromaru is weakness-free against it. Ken’s weakness is darkness insta-kill. In my first run, I had an item to counter that weakness, but I noted that the final boss did not use any darkness attacks in any event.

I will note that with a full slate of weakness negating items, Ken and Koromaru would not be my first choices for extra party members. I would probably go with Yukari and Akihiko in a vacuum – but my strong aversion to being hit for weaknesses tends to limit my choices. In my guide, I recommended ideally getting the two non-Metis party members to level 76 for their final skills, but that is not strictly necessary (Aigis and Metis should be at the highest levels since my guide has them always being in the party). If you must grind, taking the time to pick up a few levels before the final boss is probably the least offensive time to do so.

As a threshold matter, I promise that my guide is not one of the deliberately misleading guides I pondered in a 2020 article .

I used my guide in late 2014/early 2015, 4-5 years after I beat The Answer in the first instance, in a play-through with my friend New Leaf Journal colleague , Victor V. Gurbo (he unsurprisingly named the protagonist in The Journey NIXON ). I did not use any other resources beyond my guide and my limited memory. The guide served me well – and we were able to efficiently grind through The Answer without second trips through dungeon floors or other cases of gratuitous grinding. I had less trouble playing the game unassisted back in 2010 than did some Game FAQs guide makers had by their own accounts, and my personal guide-aided play-through went smoothly. I vaguely recall there were 1-2 cases where I would have changed one character, but those were minor and may have had to do with how specific members of my team were leveling up (I would still never leave Metis).

Writing this reflection on my old Answer guide made me consider whether there is something to my limited-focus guide. Note that I did not offer any specific knowledge or information about enemy attacks or behavior – I simply recommended party configurations to give the reader a better chance that he or she would have in a blind run to play through The Answer in an efficient way. In effect – I suggest which characters to use but other than offering generic tips about playing Persona 3 well, I leave it up to the reader to fuse strong Personas for Aigis, analyze the enemies, and make good use of the party members I recommend bringing. For example, I acknowledged that Metis struggles to do damage in two of the boss fights – but a skilled player will have gained from making it to the boss with minimal resource usage in part thanks to Metis and can figure out how to make some use of her in the boss fight despite her unfavorable match-up.

I like the idea of slimmed down guides that provide a framework for playing through a game efficiently but leave it up to the player to figure out how to play well.

With all this being said – one key reason that The Answer is good, despite stripping away much of what makes the modern Persona games unique, is because it offers a strong but fair challenge. Unlike the AI in Mario Party , the AI in Persona 3 does not cheat. Unlike trying to take on a certain DLC at a low level in Fire Emblem Engage , The Answer never demands cheesy or gimmicky strategies. The Answer simply demands that the player apply what he or she learned in The Journey , navigate dungeons cautiously, and seek and exploit advantages in battles. As I noted regarding my first run, it is possible to win tough fights in The Answer despite bad match ups if the player makes the best of his or her party. Because The Answer is fair, my guide is not the only (it may not even be the optimal ) way of completing The Answer efficiently. My approach may not be a match for every play style. But having come up with my strategy after a blind Answer run and then put it to the test years later in a separate run, I stand by my guide as providing a good blueprint for a fun and clean run through The Answer .

I recommend new (or returning) Answer players consider my recommendations, but even if one opts for a slightly different course, just remember one thing…

Metis is epic.

• The Reaper is a maxed out level 99 enemy with huge stats and resistances to every attacking type. It appears if the player lingers for a long time on a single floor or stumbles on a floor or card where it arrives unusually quickly. If one ends up in a fight with it, the best strategy is almost always to mash “run” and hope you escape before meeting the game over screen. Reaper is significantly stronger than every enemy in The Answer , including the final boss, and fighting it at anything other than a much higher level than what is necessary to beat the final boss requires implementing one of a select few very particular strategies while balancing on a high wire (short of hoping for some absurdly good luck). I beat Reaper twice in The Journey using a different, original strategy that is not available in The Answer (see my companion article for that strategy). I never considered fighting Reaper in The Answer because I already had the full experience from The Journey. There is nothing significant to gain from fighting Reaper in the epilogue, and even if I were inclined to fight the Reaper, I did not end either run at a high enough level or otherwise have some very specific personas with specific moves that would have made fighting Reaper end in any manner other than a quick game over. Thus, nothing about my guide should be construed as involving picking an unnecessary fight with The Reaper. ↩︎
• Persona 3 FES Reaper Strategy (Infinity)
• Ranking My Big Impression Video Games
• Persona 4 Golden Digital Artbook Review (Steam)
• Surviving Megidolaon Spam in Persona 3 FES
• Review of the Original Persona 4 Artbook
• The dark tone of Persona 3
• Three Persona Games Being Ported to Switch
• Midsummer Haze - Visual Novel Review
• On Choices in Story-Focused Video Games

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Persona 3 FES - The Answer

Something that a lot of people may be asking whom have never played this game before is "What's the difference between The Journey and The Answer?". If you couldn't guess from the two different names, The Journey is essentially the whole game, the story. The Answer is what happens after the original game ended and is kind of like an Expansion Pack or DLC for Persona 3. During The Answer you'll also be controlling Aigis as your main character.

Since I found a lot of guides out there that cover "The Journey" and a lack of information on "The Answer" this guide will primarily be dedicated to anything you need to know about The Answer.

**Prepare for Spoilers for both The Answer and The Journey**

You start off "The Answer" with Aigis at level 25. There's a lot of cutscenes and intro story before you actually get to do anything. Metis (the new Aigis) attacks you and your friends at the Dorm. Aigis gains the ability to control multiple Personas and takes down Metis. Aigis is then taken to the Velvet Room in the same way you were during The Journey. More is explained to you and eventually you learn that March 31st is stuck on repeat (Groundhog's Day) and there is a new dungeon for you to explore, The Abyss of Time, which is underneath your dorm.

For The Answer you have no Social Links to raise or side quests to do. Essentially all the "meat" is taken out of Persona 3 and the only part left in is Tartarus (which is now called The Abyss of Time). When you enter The Abyss of Time the central room is surrounded by doors and each door leads to a different area. A good comparison here would be for you to consider each door like a different floor of Tartarus.

During this game mode your characters won't get tired; there's actually very few distractions from grinding. The combat in this mode is significantly harder - the glowing red shadows actually put up a real fight in this game mode. I highly recommend you grind all your characters until the shadows fear you before attempting to fight the bosses in each area.

The Abyss of Time Boss Guide

Return to Persona 3/FES Walkthrough Page

Persona 3 Reload - Episode Aigis: The Answer Guide

March 8, 2024 Pixel Jello Persona 3 Reload 0

Episode Aigis: The Answer Guide for Persona 3 Reload (P3RE)

Below is an overview and breakdown of Episode Aigis: The Answer DLC expansion story in Persona 3 Reload (P3RE, Persona 3 Remake) . The DLC epilogue story will become playable in September 2024.

Persona 3 Reload DLC List and Information

Character Changes

Aigis becomes the player character..

You will take control of Aigis as the main character in the DLC story. Like with the Protagonist, she will gain the power of the Wild Card.

She will gain access to the Velvet Room similar to the Protagonist. Having access to the Velvet Room will make her register/fuse/summon Personas.

In addition, she will gain access to the Persona Stock making her able to hold more than one Persona. With Wild Card power, she can now summon other Personas other than her main Personas. She will also inherit the Protagonist’s Theurgy skills.

Metis joins as a new party member.

You will be joined by Metis, a new party member character. With her character features and design, she looks like another android model (Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon) similar to Aigis.

She uses a Battle Axe as weapon as seen in the Expansion Pass announcement trailer. Since Aigis will be gaining the Protagonist’s Theurgy skills, Metis will most likely inherit Aigis’ original Theurgy skill, Orgia Mode.

Persona 3 Reload Character List and Guides

Dungeon Changes

Abyss of time dungeon unlocks..

A new dungeon becomes available called the Abyss of Time. Unlike Tartarus, this dungeon will appear below the Iwatodai Dormitory. The Abyss has seven doors and each door opened will contain multi-floor dungeons.

Persona 3 Reload Tartarus Dungeon List and Guides

Episode Aigis: The Answer Overview

A remake of persona 3 fes’ epilogue story..

Persona 3 Reload features a post-game story content called “Episode Aigis: The Answer.” This extended story content is similar to the original Persona 3 FES’ The Answer epilogue.

Persona 3 Reload Expansion Pass Guide

Expansion Pass Trailer

Watch the announcement trailer video here:

Here is a quick summary of the DLC story:

The Final chapter arrives. After unravelling the mysteries of the Dark Hour, fighting epic battles through Tartarus, and all the unforgettable events of Persona 3 Reload, the S.E.E.S. members find themselves trapped in a never-ending March 31st. Journey through the Abyss of Time as Aigis, undertake new challenges, and uncover the cause of this strange fate and the truth of what happened on that day… Delve into this final chapter now with cutting-edge graphics, modernized quality-of-life features, fresh animations and user interface, and a rearranged soundtrack.

Visit our Persona 3 Reload Walkthrough and Guide Page for more news and updates!

Persona 3 Reload Recommended Article List

Other Persona 3 Reload (P3RE) Guides

Beginner guides.

Tier List Guides

Strategy guides.

Social Link Characters

Social stat guides, support characters, game database.

Character Weapons

Character armor and equipment.

• persona 3 reload
• persona 3 remake

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Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3: FES/Gameplay

Table of Contents

• Achievements and trophies

Persona 3 FES is divided into two episodes:

• The Journey

The Journey is the storyline from the original Persona 3 game. FES has made some changes and additions, but it's mostly the same game. If you haven't previously played Persona 3, you'll want to start with the Journey. If you have completed the original game before, you may want to start with the Answer, though there will still be new things to see in the Journey, and you can play on the new difficulty level (Hard) if you wish.

The Answer takes place a month after the end of Persona 3. The difficulty is supposed to be equivalent to the Hard difficulty level on The Journey, and is not recommended for new players. If you do decide to play The Answer first, though, you can be assured that The Answer does not use the saved game data from The Journey, so you're not going to have a harder time at it except for not having experienced the earlier portion of the game.

• 1.1 Saved Data Transfer
• 1.2 Weapon Fusion
• 2 Where to Save the Game

Additions to The Journey [ edit ]

Specific details will be added to the Persona 3 guide where possible, but in general the following have been added to the original portion of Persona 3:

• New Personas
• New Social Link
• New events with friends and SEES allies
• New difficulty mode (Hard)
• New fusion system (Weapon System)
• New requests from Elizabeth

Saved Data Transfer [ edit ]

If you place a memory card containing save data from the original Persona 3 into memory card slot 1, you will be prompted by FES to carry over the data to The Journey. The Persona Compendium, known Fusion spells, items gained from MAXed Social Links, and the main character's Academics, Charm, and Courage stats will all be carried over.

Weapon Fusion [ edit ]

In The Journey you can combine your Personas with weapons. The option is available from Shinshoudo Antiques in Paulownia Mall. Rare Shadows in Tartarus are the source of the raw materials for weapon fusion.

Where to Save the Game [ edit ]

You can save your game from the student list located in the dorm lounge, the clock near the entrance to Tartarus (The Journey), or past each door in the Desert of Doors (The Answer).

Navigation menu

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3: FES

Review platform:, developer(s), publisher(s).

• 🇪🇺 Koei Tecmo Games

When Persona 3 came to the US, it struck a cord with disaffected fans of the JRPG genre. It managed to combine the traditional with the novel. Turn-based combat was fused with truly important strategic use of strengths and weaknesses; narrative-driven storyline was melded seamlessly with chances for the player to direct his relationship with other characters in a meaningful way. The result was a game that was greater than the sum of its parts, and I’ve been hard pressed to find a person who didn’t enjoy the game.

Enter FES, the expansion to the original game that I never thought I’d see reach these shores. Originally offered as an append disc for those who had purchased the original Persona 3, FES was later released as a standalone replacement for Persona 3, including extra content and a whole extra epilogue to play through. And now FES has come to America, and it delivers more of everything that is Persona 3. Because it is an expansion, I’ll only be focusing on the new content. For a more in-depth understanding of the game’s mechanics, check out my review .

Persona 3 FES is divided into two games: The Journey and the Answer. The Journey is the original Persona 3 with some little extras, while The Answer is an epilogue in which you play as Aigis. In order to explain The Answer, however, there will be some spoilers, so you’ve been warned.

The Journey

The differences between Persona 3 and The Journey can be categorized as either additions or balances. The additions include new personas to fuse, new missions from Elizabeth, new character quotes, weapon fusions, the option to play games at Game Panic to increase stats, costumes that significantly change the characters’ appearances, the option to take Koromaru for walks in order to encounter your social links, and a whole new social link to cultivate. All of the additions add to the game; none are forced or take away from the fun. Getting to know Elizabeth better via the “date” missions is particularly entertaining, providing something I felt was missing from the original, and having a new social link and new personas just added more of what I loved about the game.

The balances involved aspects that Atlus felt needed to be changed in order to make the additions fun, while not overpowered. One of those was praying at the shrine, which now advances time to evening. To make up for this huge loss of academics improvement, Game Panic gives players double what they would normally get at the shrine. You’ll also have the chance to get tired the day before a full moon, and some of the in-class questions have changed, requiring you to do some research or get lucky. Fortunately, none of the balances were unduly enacted, and some actually make it easier to max out social links. While I would really only suggest playing The Journey for those who really enjoyed Persona 3 (or those who have yet to play the game), the whole thing felt like a big “thank you fans” from Atlus.

SPOILER ALERT

The Answer is an Epilogue that takes place a few months after the ending of The Journey. The story centers on Aigis, who has been trying to deal with the death of the main character after The Journey. Apparently, he passed away after having expended all his power. Now, the dorm is about to close, what with the Shadow problem taken care of, and Mitsuru and the rest decide to have a celebration. However, the group senses a strange occurrence at midnight, and are suddenly attacked by an android named Metis, who claims to be Aigis’ sister. She attempts to kill the rest of the dorm crew, but Aigis manages to stop her in time by summoning the Persona Orpheus, which was the persona the main character from The Journey used originally. When the dust settles, Metis reveals that she is trying to protect Aigis from the Abyss of Time, a temporal distortion that has appeared underneath the living area of the dorm, and that is causing the day to repeat. After some convincing, the now multi-persona-using Aigis and the relatively mundane other characters decide to help Metis get rid of the Abyss. The adventure will take Aigis and Metis on journeys of self-discovery that will allow them to solve the mystery of what really happened to the hero of The Journey.

END SPOILER

From a story point of view, The Answer is both rich and limited. Gone is the ability to cultivate your social links, as you are trapped in the dorm. At the same time, the characters get developed more, with some, such as Aigis, growing and changing even more than she had originally. The Answer tells a good story, albeit one that is driven more by dungeon crawling than anything else.

Gameplay is relatively unchanged, but the things that have switched are really more annoying than anything else. The biggest snag was the loss of the persona compendium, which let you store persona data and summon them back whenever you needed them. Instead, you’ll be making all your persona from scratch, or obtaining them from shuffle time. This makes things tedious, especially if you are a collector, like I am. And with the lack of any socialization elements or daily routine, all that’s left to do is some serious dungeon crawling. This in and of itself isn’t terrible, as the dungeon crawling was well done, but The Journey was about the full package, and The Answer is not.

Graphics remain unchanged, but as for music, there are an extra 17 tracks in this game. Most of these are remixes or arrangements of tunes from the Persona series. They’re pretty well done, and you can check out our soundtrack review for more information. Unfortunately, for those of you who had problems with some of the voice actors in the The Journey, nothing has changed in The Answer. While some voice ators are still good, such as Mitsuru, Junpei, and Akihiko, Fuuka still sucks. Actually, that’s really the worst VA, as Ikutski isn’t in the game. Yay!

The Final Analysys

When it comes down to whether or not to buy Persona 3 FES if you already have Persona 3, you have to ask yourself the following two questions: “did I like Persona 3 enough to want to play the game again with some minor tweaks?” and, “did I enjoy the combat enough to play through a whole epilogue that focuses on the combat?” If you said yes to either of these questions, pick up FES ASAP. If not, there’s no need for you to spend more money on the game. If you haven’t played Persona 3, however, there is no better reason to pick up FES. Do it now!

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Persona 3 Reload School Answers & Exam Test Solutions List

If you've come to  Persona 3 Reload  as a bit of a history lesson, you're likely discovering that Persona 3 is the origin of a lot of Persona series staples - including the  School Tests , Exams , and Pop Quiz Questions  that your teacher peppers you with throughout the school year. Knowing all of the classroom answers  has some very solid benefits for your progression in the rest of the game. As such, this guide is here to help you, with all of the Persona 3 Reload test answers for exams and classroom quizzes alike. It's the ultimate cheat sheet. 

The school questions in Persona 3 Reload don't just serve to quiz the player for fun.  Answering them correctly will provide a small bonus upgrade to your status parameters , specifically to the Academics Social Stat . This means each classroom answer and test has some real RPG consequences. 

While the boost may not be significant, getting the correct answers early might raise your status high enough to trigger the next rank, allowing you to access Social Link events more quickly. If you're aiming for a max Social Link on a single playthrough, be sure to get all the answers right. Luckily, this very page has all of the  Persona 3 Reload school answers  for your perusal.

Persona 3 Reload School Answers: Solutions for all Pop Quiz Questions & Exams

• April School Answers
• May Midterm Solutions
• June School Answers
• July Finals Test Answers
• September School Answers
• October Midterm Solutions
• October School Answers, Continued
• November School Answers
• December Finals Exam Solution
• January Answers

April School Answers in Persona 3 Reload

The way this guide works is simple. On set days in Persona 3 Reload, you'll be picked out in class by your Gekkoukan High School teacher to answer a question. We list the correct school answers for each question below - when you choose it, you'll get rewards in-game. Nice and simple.

• Vivid carp streamers (3rd option)
• Middens (2nd option)
• A (1st option)

May School Answers for Persona 3 Reload

• A pantograph (1st option)
• The pendulum (2nd option)
• May Blues (2nd option)

May Midterm Exam Answers - Persona 3 Reload

As well as the test answers you give, your final grade for these midterm exams is determined in part by an Academics stat ‘speech check’. You’ll need Rank 3 (Above Average) Academics stat to ace this exam. 

• May Blues(1st option)
• A pendulum (3rd option)
• Electricity (2nd option)
• Jomon (1st option)

June School Answers for Persona 3 Reload

• Keen eye. (1st option)
• Shamanism. (3rd option)
• Witch of Agnesi. (3rd option)
• The flutter effect. (2nd option)
• Dowsing. (1st option)

July School Answers in Persona 3 Reload

• About romance. (3rd option)
• Between "time and "it's. (2nd option)
• Social Disparity. (3rd option)
• Kabbalah. (3rd option)
• The katana. (1st option)

July Finals Test Answers - Persona 3 Reload

To get top marks on the July Finals, you’ll need to get your Persona 3 Reload Academics stat up to Rank 4 (Smart) for the stat check at the end, and get these questions right:

• Dowsing (2nd option)
• An error in translation (3rd option)
• Taira No Masakado (1st option)
• "Comma splice." (2nd option)

September School Answers for Persona 3 Reload

• Resistance (2nd option)
• To reveal a secret. (3rd option)
• The Hermetica (3rd option)
• Their soulmate. (1st option)
• The Tetractys (3rd option)

October School Answers in Persona 3 Reload

• Dopamine (2nd option)
• Helena Blavatsky (2nd option)

October Midterm Test Answers - Persona 3 Reload

As well as the test answers you give, your final grade for these midterm exams is determined in part by an Academics stat ‘speech check’. You’ll need Rank 5 (Above Average) Academics stat to ace this exam. 

• Addiction (3rd option)
• Pythagoras (1st option)
• Superconductivity (3rd option)
• To reveal a secret (3rd option)

October School Question Answers, Continued

Since the test took place halfway through the month, you have more October class quiz questions to handle. Here they are:

• India (2nd option)
• Venus (3rd option)
• Izumu (2nd option)
• Beta-amylase (1st option)

November School Answers for Persona 3 Reload

November is a quiet month for learning, which leaves you more free time to head into Tartarus. Here's the three school questions you'll be asked in that month.

• The Upanishads (1st option)
• Her favorite time in winter. (1st option)
• The cherry blossom.

December School Answers in Persona 3 Reload

Before exam season kicks off, your teachers will quiz you a few times, so here's the answers:

• The ozone layer. (1st option).
• Kido (2nd option)
• Lives. (2nd option)

December Finals Test Answers - Persona 3 Reload

For this final set of exam questions - your final finals, if you will - the same rules apply, where you'll need to manually answer a selection of questions, then your Academics stat will do the rest.

• The number zero. (1st option)
• Maltose (2nd option)
• Murasaki-no-Ue. (4th option)
• Geeses (4th option)
• Euphoria (1st option)

January School Answers in Persona 3 Reload

It's almost the end - you just have a couple of school questions left to answer.

• The underworld. (3rd option)
• Circe. (2nd option)

And that concludes the last of the questions you'll be asked in Gekkoukan High classrooms in Persona 3 Reload. From here on in, you can enjoy an academia-free life... for a little while, at least.

Persona 3 answers: All classroom questions and exam solutions

You won't save the world through education, but at least acing tests makes you look good

Getting the classroom and exam answers right in Persona 3 is a handy way to boost your charm and get a few other nice bonuses in Atlus’ RPG.

However, the questions aren’t exactly common knowledge so we’ve put together this guide with all the Persona 3 answers .

If you want to ace every exam though, you’ll have to replay the game at least once on New Game+ when your stats carry over. Unlike other Persona games, Persona 3 gates the top marks behind a high knowledge stat.

• April classroom answers
• May classroom answers
• May exam answers
• June classroom answers
• July classroom answers
• July exam answers
• September classroom answers
• October classroom answers
• October exam answers
• November classroom answers
• December classroom answers
• December exam answers
• January classroom answers

April classroom answers – Persona 3

Your journey in Persona 3 Portable begins! Here are all the answers to the first classroom questions.

April 8: Q – Who did I say was my favorite author?

• A: Utsobu Kubota

April 18: Q – What was the style of houses in the Jomon period called?

• A: Mud huts

April 27: Q – Do you know when numbers were invented?

• A: 6,000 years ago

May classroom answers – Persona 3

May brings your first set of midterm exams along with it. Midterms consist of a handful of questions pulled from material discussed in class, sometimes reusing old questions, sometimes asking new ones based on the same information.

However, you need high knowledge – rank 3 – to fully ace the exam, which you won’t be able to reach until New Game+.

May 6: Q – What do you call water without much calcium and magnesium?

• A: Soft water

May 13: Q – How fast would you say the Earth rotates near the equator?

• A: 1,700 km/ph

May 15: Q – One of the items on the menu is “pan.” How would you translate this to English?

May midterm answers - Persona 3

May 19: Q – How would you translate “pan” in English?

May 20: Q – How fast does the Earth rotate near the equator?

• A: Faster than sound

May 21: Q – What’s the name for water high in calcium and magnesium?

• A: Hard water

May 22: Q – Where is the Kitora Tomb located?

June classroom answers – Persona 3

Things are getting weird around the school, but your daily life continues as normal.

June 15: Q – Fill in the blank with the appropriate conjunction: “It rained all last week, ____ it’ll rain again today.”

June 17: Q – What formed the origins of magic?

• A: Shamanism

June 22: Q – Which of these is not known as a “devilfish”?

• A: Jellyfish

June 25: Q – What form of natural magic was used to look for water sources?

June 29: Q – Which way does the swirl go in the northern hemisphere?

• A: It can go either way

July classroom answers – Persona 3

July brings your first round of finals, which are essentially midterms, but with more questions. Like your midterms, you need high knowledge to fully pass the tests.

July 3: Q – There’s one thing you might not know about Murasaki Shikibu, and that’s the way in which her achievement is recognized worldwide (Junpei: How am I supposed to know about someone who lived that long ago? Wh-What do I say?)

• A: The Global Heritage Pavilion

July 8: Q – Which of these phrases is not correct (which one has a comma splice)?

• A: I’ve failed, it’s over now

July 9: Q – What law served as a foundation of the development of feudalism?

• The Konden Eizen Shizaihou

July 10: Q – What is the mystical study of Jewish texts?

• A: Kabbalah

July 11: Q – What title did Taira No Masakado claim for himself?

• A: The Imperial Prince

July finals answers - Persona 3

July 14: Q - What is the form of natural magic used to find water sources?

July 15: Q - Some Europeans call this creature “devilfish” and refuse to eat it.

July 16: Q - Who established the Kamakura Shogunate?

• A: Minamoto No Yoritomo

July 17: Q - Which is an example of a comma splice?

• A: “I went, I learned.”

September classroom answers – Persona 3

September 1: Q – What do you call the phenomenon when electrical resistance is zero?

• A: Superconductivity

September 10: Q – What do we say after we eat?

• A: Gochisou-sama

September 11: Q – What book helped further the art of magic during the Renaissance?

• A: The Hermetica

September 14: Q – Which of these is not one of Japan’s prohibitions on nuclear weapons?

• A: Can’t let others produce

September 26: Q – What is the name for the four holy numbers in numerology?

• A: The Tetractys

October classroom answers – Persona 3

Fall is here, and with it comes yet another round of midterms.

October 7: Q – Do you know why a matador’s capote is red?

• A: To excite the audience

October midterm answers - Persona 3

You need rank 5 knowledge to ace these exams.

October 13: Q - What is the number one source of stress for women?

• A: Husbands

October 14: Q - Who founded numerology?

The remaster still includes the original bug that incorrectly lists the answer as Moses . Pythagoras is the correct answer, but you get no credit if you choose Pythagoras.

October 15: Q - What is superconductiviy?

• A: Zero electric resistance

October 16: Q - The Ohnin War was one of the two incidents that triggered the Sengoku era. Which was the other?

• A: Coup of Meiou

October questions continued

October 19: Q – How many calendar patterns are there in total?

• A: Fourteen

October 22: Q – Natto comes from soybeans, but how is it made?

• A: By fermenting them

October 23: Q – Who is the founder of Theosophy, which gave rise to many magical societies?

• A: Madam Blavatsky

October 26: Q – Which one of these is not Arabic?

• A: Wristwatch

October 29: Q – One type of acid’s function is to break lactic acid into glucose and galactose. What is that enzyme called?

November classroom answers – Persona 3

November is a lighter month after October’s academic rigours.

November 7: Q – Sei Shounagon once said, “fuyu wa tsutomete…” I’m sure you know what that means

• A: Winter mornings are pleasant

November 12: Q – What is the ancient Indian magical text I mentioned today?

• A: The Upanishads

November 30: Q – They used white makeup, plucked their eyebrows in favor of drawn-on ones, and colored their teeth with limonite. But do you think the men did these things?

• A: They did both

December classroom answers – Persona 3

The end of the year – and the world – is approaching, but that’s no excuse to slack off.

December 7: Q – Which allotrope is formed by three oxygen atoms?

December 11: Q – There are some irregular plural forms too. Do you know which of the following is correct? (Did you hear what she said? Do you know the answer?)

December exam answers - Persona 3

This time, you need max knowledge to finish at the top of the class.

December 14: Q - What year did the battle of Dan-no-ura begin?

December 15: Q - Which element is found in the ozone?

December 16: Q - Which rule relates to the Lorentz Force?

• A: Left-hand rule

December 17: Q - Translate the following: “Fuyu wa tsutomete”

December 18: Q - Which plural is formed correctly?

December classroom answers continued

December 21: Q – What sorcery was Himiko said to have used?

December 22: Q – What is the feeling of happiness in a near-death experience called?

• A: Euphoria

January classroom answers – Persona 3

We're almost at the end of Persona 3 Portable. Here's the answers to the last remaining classroom questions.

January 8: Q – Of the three phrases I’ve written on the blackboard, which one is correct?

• A: It’s wrong

January 18: Q – I mentioned two Greek sorceresses. One was Medea. Who was the other?

And that's a wrap on the Persona 3 school year. If you need more help with the Atlus RPG then head to our Persona 3 endings guide which will let you know how to get the true ending. For other P3 news, find out how Atlus has heard fans' demands for a Persona 3 Remake loud and clear.

Read this next

• Persona 3 Reload producer says Portable's female protagonist would cost "two to three times" as much as The Answer DLC, so it won't be possible
• Please don’t shoot yourself in the head with Persona 3 Portable physical edition’s replica gun
• Persona 3 Reload has no FES or Portable content, so you can probably look forward to buying that later instead

Persona 3 Reload Teases New Music, Socialization, and Fusion Spells in The Answer DLC

• New social events with Metis and unique Fusion Spells are coming in the Persona 3 Reload DLC.
• The DLC is a playable epilogue based on The Answer from Persona 3 FES.

Persona 3 Reload 's developers have teased what to expect of the additional content in the upcoming Episode Aigis: The Answer DLC, including new songs, Fusion Spell Theurgies, and even socialization events. Shortly after Persona 3 Reload launched this past February 2, Atlus revealed a post-launch DLC plan, with the Expansion Pass adding three waves of content.

While the first two waves are cosmetic and music DLC, the third content wave of Persona 3 Reload 's Expansion Pass contains additional story content based on The Answer, a playable epilogue from Persona 3 FES . The Episode Aigis: The Answer DLC takes place after the events of Reload 's ending, where Aigis inherits the protagonist's Wild Card ability, meets a mysterious Anti Shadow Weapon named Metis, and S.E.E.S. gets trapped in a time loop. The producer and director of Reload , Kazuhisa Wada and Yu Hashizume respectively, recently discussed some of the additions and changes made to Reload 's iteration of The Answer.

Rumor: Persona 6 Will Launch on Switch Successor

In the latest issue of Persona Magazine (translated and archived courtesy of Persona Central ), Hashizume and Wada state that the story and ending of The Answer DLC will be the same as the original. However, since the player can gain gameplay trait benefits in the base game through Persona 3 Reload 's Dorm Hangouts , the DLC will implement something similar. Hashizume also notes the developers added new events centered around Metis, addressing most complaints that fans had about the lack of socialization of the original release. Both Hashizume and Wada expressed excitement about Metis' inclusion, as this is the first time that she has appeared since the original Persona 3 FES .

Persona 3 Reload - Episode Aigis: The Answer DLC Content

• New Socialization Events for Metis, Two Types of Theurgy
• New Fusion Spell Theurgies for Aigis
• Persona Compendium Access
• Same Story as FES ' The Answer
• Two New Songs, New Opening With New Animation
• Estimated 20 Hour Playtime

Hashizume clarifies that Metis will play like the other party members of Persona 3 Reload , meaning she'll have two traits and two Theurgies to unlock, with the traits being tied to the new social events in the DLC. While Metis inherits Aigis' Orgia Mode Theurgy, Aigis will get access to the protagonist's Fusion Spells, something that she couldn't do in FES , with the DLC adding some unique Fusion Spells for Aigis. Players will also get access to the Persona Compendium, making Fusion easier when compared to FES ' version of The Answer.

The director also revealed the playtime of The Answer DLC , clocking in at around 20 hours as opposed to 30 in the original, with the time being cut down due to the aforementioned QOL features for Persona Fusion and battles. Hashizume also notes that players won't need to beat Reload in order to play The Answer, as the levels of the party are uniform, but they are considering some sort of save transfer feature. Lastly, there will be two new songs in the DLC, which include a newly animated opening and song, along with a new advantage battle song.

Persona 3 Reload

Persona 3 Reload is a remake of Atlus' beloved 2006 JRPG. Featuring updated visuals and quality-of-life improvements, Reload brings Persona 3 to the modern age in style. 

Blending social sim sections with dungeon crawling, monster catching, and turn-based combat, Persona 3 Reload finds a group of high school students investigating the Dark Hour, a short period that exists between days.

Franchise Persona

Platform(s) Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS5, PS4, PC, Xbox One

Released February 2, 2024

Developer(s) P-Studio

Publisher(s) Atlus

Genre(s) JRPG

ESRB M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence