I played Episode Aigis, and I have mixed feelings…
Going into it, I had heard some pretty negative things about this DLC, so my expectations were low. Honestly, I liked it… for the most part.
It was pretty much just 30 hours of dungeon crawling. Sounds bad, but I actually enjoyed the dungeon crawling here more than I did in the base game. With no social aspect to the game and very little story, I focused a lot more on optimizing my party and learning the mechanics better. I got some pretty cracked weapons, and even beat the Reaper. I also rotated my party more, so gameplay was less stale (I still didn’t use Ken or Koromaru though).
I thought the difficulty was a lot better as well. There were some bosses that really made me think, especially the ones in the Monad Chamber. The base game was laughably easy, even on hard mode. Episode Aigis seemed much better balanced, though the final boss was probably too easy. Usually in a big boss fight, it ramps up the difficulty in phases, but it honestly just got easier and easier.
From a story standpoint, I thought it was meh right up until the climax. When the whole group decided that throwing hands was the best way to decide what to do, I was pretty hyped. I wish I got to see them fight each other before fighting them myself, but whatever. Akihiko and Ken were definitely the hardest of the three fights, and Junpei and Koromoaru were by far the easiest. I don’t know why Fuuka had to pick sides, she seemed completely traumatized, just let her sit this one out.
Narratively, some characters really shined, some were on the sideline per usual, and one was pretty disappointing.
Ken and Fuuka once again took the sideline for this one. Ken chimed in a little more often compared to the main story, but he didn’t really add much. I was definitely on him and Akihiko’s side in the end though. Fuuka was a total dud yet again. She does nothing interesting in either the base game or the DLC. She is really just there to empathize with whoever is sad. Honestly, I like to think of her as the babysitter who watches Koromaru and Ken while me and the rest of the team do the dungeon crawling.
Yukari and Akihiko really shined. I like how they took completely different stances on the final issue, and that completely makes sense because they are very different people with different values and relationships to the protagonist. These two characters felt like a natural progression from where they left off in the main game.
Junpei was kind of disappointing. Once again the butt of the joke, and he basically just served as the stand in for the player as he asked a lot of questions about the lore and such. It would have been nice to see him truly mature as a leader and be more of a tough guy because of everything he went through in the main game. It felt like some of his character development had been undone, as he once again went back to feeling like he didn’t care all that much. I do like that he had the sense to realize that fighting each other was dumb, and yet all the other characters didn’t seem to agree, but that’s basically all he gets. His flashback was pretty sad though, especially compared to everyone else.
I was pretty surprised that Mitsuru ended up being the one to really steal the show. Her standing at Yukari’s side till the very end and being there for her was a great full circle moment for her development. It felt like her development was unfinished in the main story, but the DLC finishes that off really well. She has fully transformed from the cold, distant leader to someone who can be the comforting presence that the team needs.
I thought Metis was okay. She was pretty fun to use in combat. Her character was inoffensive, but not super entertaining or anything. She’s still better than Fuuka because at least she affects the plot.
Overall, I thought Episode Aigis was good. For the original price of $35, I don’t think it’s worth buying, but I got it for $10, which is an absolute steal for 30+ hours of content. I wish they explored each character’s relationship with the protagonist and their grief a little bit more. Yukari and Mitsuru were really the only ones who had anything worthwhile to say about him, though Akihiko and Ken’s stances were fine. I really wish Junpei had a bigger role and wasn’t back to just being the goofy dude. The combat was good, and the end was good, so overall I’d say the DLC was good.
8/10
JacobErwin.com 