Quick Links
If you’re curious what happened to the rest of SEES after the protagonist passes away at the end ofPersona 3 Reload, the content added in Episode Aigis seeks to tie up loose ends and helps bring the story of Persona 3 to a close, with everyone confronting and overcoming their grief.
In the process of grieving, though, the Abyss of Time opens beneath Iwatodai Dorm, eventually trapping SEES in a revolving loop of March 31. They’ll need to team up with Aigis’ “sister” Metis to get to the bottom of why the Abyss of Time exists in Episode Aigis.
This article contains major endgame spoilers for the Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis content in the P3R Expansion Pass.
How Did The Abyss Of Time Come To Be?
Though you’re just learning about the Abyss of Time in the Persona 3 Reload: Expansion Pass content (if you didn’t play FES back in the day, that is), its existence has beenknown to the Kirijo Group since the creation of Tartarus. Originally, the Abyss of Time wascreated beneath Tartarus, but since it didn’t have any Shadows at the time, the Kirijo Group didn’t act on the knowledge of its existence.
The Kirijo Group’s most prominent members believed that the Abyss of Time would disappear when Tartarus did, and with the Abyss’ dormant state, what was left of the Group believed this to be the case after the end of the base game in Persona 3 Reload. However,SEES’ grief in losing the protagonist took root in the Abyss of Time.
SEES remains unaware of this until the clock strikes midnight on March 31 as they’re saying a final farewell to Iwatodai Dorm, when they suddenly realize thatthey’re stuck in a loop of March 31, the day on repeat endlessly. When confusion is at its peak, the group isattacked by Metis, who claims they’re the source of the Abyss of Time.
Metis tries to eliminate the group, andAigis awakens to the Wild Card abilityto stop her, and a large rift opensbeneath Iwatodai Dorm, leading the group into a vast area of endless sand filled with an odd arrangement of doors, known as the Desert of Doors.SEES agrees touse their Personas againto get to the bottom of things.
As you push on through each of the doors in the Desert of Doors, the team finds thateach door contains the memory of someone in SEES awakening to their Persona, showing an often-sad memory that reminds each one what they began fighting for. Theseventh and final door, Empyrean, shows not only Aigis’ past, but allows the group to confront the shadow of the protagonist of the base game in battle whenthe protagonist is revealed to be the Shadow of SEES’ griefabout losing him.
In Aigis’ memory inside the Desert of Doors, we see Aigis’recurring dreamthat led to the In it,Aigis is stuck chasing the protagonist endlessly, fearing she can’t complete her duty to him and believes she failed to uphold her promise to do so.After finishing the Colosseo Purgatorioand fusing the “True Key” to the door, Aigis decides she’d like to know why the protagonist sacrificed himself at the end of the base game.
Following thebattle against Erebus, who is the Shadow form of the grief held by humanity at large, Aigis elects touse the True Key to leave Iwatodai Dorm, symbolically and literally moving on from the loop in which she was stuck, stepping into April 1 as the Abyss of Time disappears now that she’s confronted her grief.
Who Is Metis In Episode Aigis?
At the very beginning of the Episode Aigis content, SEES is attacked in the dorm by a robot calling herself Metis.She’s another anti-Shadow weapon, just like Aigis, and she calls Aigis her sister throughout the entirety of the DLC. Once she stops being hostile to SEES and joins the team asa potential party member,Metis has a happy, childlike personality, doubling down and getting serious only when it comes toher mission to protect Aigis.
Critically,Metis has a limited memoryof her own existence, knowing only that she’s her to protect Aigis at all costs. Though she eventually warms up to SEES (and them slowly but surely to her),Metis struggles to understand and accept human emotion. She does eventually grow into them, though, with Aigis remarking that Metis is crying at one point during an emotional moment during the Colosseo Purgatorio fight.
Metis is shown to know things she shouldn’t know, like the promise SEES made to meet on graduation day despite not having been there herself. After defeating Erebus, Metis is revealed to bethe human side Aigis wished away from herself in her griefover losing the protagonist.
In her recurring dream of chasing the protagonist,Aigis wishes to go back to being just a robotwithout feelings, and as such,Metis becomes the host of Aigis’ humanity. After defeating Erebus and facing her grief, Metis and Aigis reunite into one being at the end of the DLC before the credits roll.
