While Persona 3 Reload was not the "complete experience" that Atlus promised, the development process for Episode Aigis was so chaotic that it almost didn't happen. In an interview with Famitsu, DLC Director Yu Hashizume and Creative Director Kazuhisa Wada explain why the development of Episode Aigis was so difficult and why it had to be removed from the original release.

"There were many difficulties that had to be overcome in order to make the remake a reality, and there were challenges from the beginning of the project for the main "P3R" project," said Wada. As a result, we had to abandon the "Episode Aigis" remake. It was only after the announcement of "Persona 3 Reloaded" that Atlus decided to take on the epilogue challenge.

"The development team, led by director Takuya Yamaguchi, was focused solely on the development of the main story, so we had very few resources to devote [to the epilogue]," Wada explained. We had very little time to spare, but I was willing to go back to the director to work on it if the opportunity arose. One day, however, I received information from another team within the company that we might be able to assign a staff member with director experience from there."

That's where Hashizume came in. Hashizume had worked on games such as "Soul Hackers 2" and "Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology," but he was not part of Reload's development line.

Earlier this month, Atlus confirmed that Episode Aigis will be part of the expansion pass: "The three parts of the expansion pass will not be available separately, only as part of the full pass," an Atlus spokesperson told Push Square. In other words, if you want to play Episode Aigis, you will have to purchase the entire $34.99/$28.99 expansion pass. There are also some extras, such as additional background music and costumes from "Persona 4 Golden" and "Persona 5 Royal," but this may not be enough for those who simply want to experience the entire "Persona 3" storyline.

Paid DLC is not uncommon, but the problem lies in Wada's comments in an interview with Gamerwk a few months ago (translated by Persona Central)." He explained that "fans should rest assured that Persona 3 Reload will provide a complete experience.

Episode Aigis will be released in September, and despite my excitement for this DLC, it really pains me to know how close we are to getting a Persona 3 remake that includes everything.