THE PLOT:
It's the week of the Culture Festival... in two time periods. In 2011, the members of The Investigation Team not-so-stoically endure the failure of their class's "Group Date Cafe." In 2009, the members of SEES mourn the cancellation of their festival due to a severe and unexpected typhoon. For both groups, in both time periods, the festival is an absolute disappointment.
Until they find themselves transported to an alternative Culture Festival, in a pocket dimension where time has no meaning. At first glance, all appears normal enough: A high school festival, with fried food and games. But behind the displays are labyrinths, which mysterious new arrivals Zen and Rei insist are dangerous.
Zen and Rei admit that they have no memory of a life before this bizarre festival. Zen has taken it on himself to act as the waifish Rei's protector, while she becomes enthusiastic at the idea of returning to the real world with the main characters.
But to return to reality, they must first overcome the labyrinths - which means overcoming the Shadows that lurk their floors, guarding precious secrets within!
 |
| A meeting that defies the laws of time... |
CHARACTERS:
Persona Q brings together the full casts of Persona 3 and Persona 4. Something already done by the Arena games... but the team-up works better here. This game recognizes what those earlier ones didn't: That the two teams have very different dynamics. The Persona 4 group is made up of people who quickly become close friends who place inherent trust in each other. The Persona 3 group is united by a common goal, but is kept separate by secrets and individual agendas.
It is easy enough to tell which characters interested the game developers - simply by which characters most successfully come across as three-dimensional. In the Persona 4 route, supposed meathead Kanji recognizes that young Ken is troubled, and manages to reach out and bond with him while teaching the boy how to repair his shoelaces. In the Persona 3 route, Yukari observes the closeness among their newfound counterparts, which prompts her to push against Mitsuru's secretiveness. In both routes, Rise and Fuuka bond over the plight of guiding the others in combat while not actually being able to directly help.
Unfortunately, not every character is as well treated. Akihiko's characterization follows all the worst tendencies of the Arena games, reducing him to a meathead bodybuilder with a protein fetish... which is basically completely unlike the intelligent, quietly resolved upperclassman from Persona 3. Persona 4's Chie is similarly reduced to an obsession with meat and training, and not much else. Finally, Teddie is just a bad running joke. Now unlike Akihiko and Chie, I already hated Teddie in the main game, but I could at least see what the game developers were going for. Here, he's almost exclusively a lech; and given the disdain with which the other characters treat him, it's a genuine mystery as to why they keep him around.
 |
| One of the game's many random encounters. |
GAMEPLAY:
The gameplay is apparently lifted pretty directly from the popular Etrian Odyssey series. As you explore each labyrinth, you use the 3DS stylus to create a map on the bottom screen, dropping icons for doors, conveyor belts, and other notable features as you go. I expected to find this wearisome; instead, it became my favorite part of the game. The mapmaking is startlingly addictive, to the point where I occasionally felt annoyance when it was interrupted by combat or story scenes.
Combat is almost entirely through random encounters, which do borrow elements of the Persona combat system. Enemies have weaknesses, which can be exploited and can potentially result in them being knocked down. A successful enough turn can end with an All-Out-Attack, which is less devastating here than in the main Persona series, but can still greatly shorten boss battles.
In addition to random encounter and dungeon bosses, each labyrinth contains powerful enemies known as FOEs. Initially, you are best advised to avoid them. Later, there will be times when you will need to fight them (and times when it will just make traversing an area much easier if you fight them). As with normal enemies, exploiting weaknesses is key to defeating them - though in most cases, you will also want to apply various buffs, de-buffs, and other status effects to win.
 |
| The group encounters Zen and Rei, who have lost their memories. |
THOUGHTS:
Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth feels a lot more like a "proper" Persona game than the Arena spinoffs did. The gameplay, while far from exact, is similar enough to the main games to feel of a piece with them. The story is revealed in the course of explorations of increasingly convoluted labyrinths, and character interactions are both sprinkled throughout the story and made available outside the dungeons through "Strolls" (this game's equivalent of the main games' Social Links).
It is also a long game. I would argue that it ends up being slightly too long. The first three dungeons are sprightly and fun, each utilizing clever gimmicks to maintain interest. "Group Date Café" was my favorite of these, with your explorations and battles interrupted periodically by quizzes that will determine which of the characters is your "destined partner," with genuinely funny results (wisely, the game allows you to replay this mini-game to see what happens with different partners). The fourth dungeon, however - the "Inaba Pride Festival" - is visually uninteresting and takes far too long to fully explore; and its gimmick of unlocking doors with a lit torch quickly becomes tiresome.
The story is generally strong. The first half builds up an effective mystery. When the answers come, they fit the overall tone and style of the piece, and a combination of good writing and excellent voice acting grants some of the revelations genuine power. A bit of the heavy-handedness that plagued the Arena games creeps in near the end... but just as it starts to feel preachy, the game has the good sense to switch to a well-designed, multi-stage boss battle, which is followed by an enjoyably good-natured epilogue.
 |
| Indulge in some comically bizarre matchmaking at "The Group Date Café." |
OVERALL:
Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth is the first spinoff that truly feels like a Persona game. It's a game of two crossovers: narratively, by combining the Persona 3 and Persona 4 casts; and mechanically, by combining the gameplay of Persona and Etrian Odyssey. Both combinations work - and in fact, my enjoyment of the game's mapmaking has me now interested in the Etrian games, which never particularly attracted me before.
If it didn't get so bogged down during the Inaba Pride dungeon, I would rank this as at least an "8." Unfortunately, that dungeon stalls the game's momentum. Though the final dungeon was back to being visually interesting and mostly well-designed, I never felt as fully connected with Persona Q after the Inaba Pride stumble.
Still, this is a fine game, enjoyable both in story and gameplay terms. It's long - probably a little too long. But it's well worth spending time with.
Overall Rating: 7/10.
Previous Game: Persona 4 - Arena Ultimax
Next Game: Persona 4 - Dancing All Night
Review Index
To receive new review updates, follow me:
On Twitter:
On Threads:
No comments:
Post a Comment