Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth.

Original Release: Nintendo 3DS, 2014. Version Reviewed: Nintendo 3DS, 2014.


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 BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

Persona 3: The Answer.

Original Release: Playstation 2, 2007. Version Reviewed: FES Version, Playstation 2, 2008.


THE PLOT:

It is March 31, not quite a month after the SEES team suffered a devastating loss. The once close-knit group is slowly breaking apart. Yukari is obsessed with moving forward with her life, barely even feigning interest in the activities of the group. Meanwhile, Aegis has deliberately regressed to being "just a machine," even requesting to be transferred back to the Kirijo lab rather than continuing with school.

At midnight, however, time loops back on itself. They are unable to leave the dorm, and all calendars and broadcasts indicate that they are repeating March 31 over and over.

That's when a new arrival appears: Metis, an anti-Shadow weapon similar to Aegis, who refers to Aegis as her "sister." Metis reveals that The Abyss of Time has appeared in the basement of their dorm - a series of doors leading into a labyrinthine dungeon. When they make their way to the bottom of each of these structures, they get another glimpse of the past - and as they progress, they find themselves chasing a shadowy figure. A figure who looks strikingly familiar...


CHARACTERS:

The characterizations are The Answer's greatest asset. We see the characters from the main game struggling to deal with grief, loss, and even depression, which manifests differently for each of them. Yukari tries to shut the others away form her life. Aegis attempts to withdraw completely. Perpetual screwup Junpei ends up seeming the most emotionally healthy of the lot - which makes sense, given that he had to deal with a loss of his own during the main game. Meanwhile, glimpses of the past show how each of the characters awakened to their Persona abilities, in scenes that range from genuinely interesting to throwaway fan service.

Doors to the past open up beneath the SEES dormitory.

GAMEPLAY:

The Answer was a new campaign included in the 2008 FES re-release of Persona 3. It is effectively a value-added DLC campaign... albeit one that ends up being large enough to legitimately review as a game unto itself. As such, it's no surprise that it is a heavily stripped-down affair. Gone are the Social Links.  Story and characterization is advanced through scenes that come after you complete each dungeon. In between story scenes, you pick your party and venture into Tartar... ah, The Abyss of Time, which consists of mini-dungeons located behind doors that in absolutely no way resemble the levels of the main game's tower.

The dungeon crawling is all but identical to that of the main game. The Answer does place a save point immediately before each boss, allowing players to test whether they are able to defeat the next boss without having to risk losing an hour of more of progress. If you throw your characters at the boss a few times and can't beat it, then it's a simple matter to exit, restock on supplies, then grind a few levels while working your way back down to that point. The dungeons are also smaller than the various sections of Tartarus were, and you are actually rewarded with story progress when you complete one - though that equates roughly to ten minutes (or less) of story material for every 2 - 3 hours of dungeon crawling.

An early Boss Battle.  There are a lot of these...

THOUGHTS:

The Answer proved controversial among fans of Persona 3. On the one hand, it's clearly a significant expansion, essentially being a game in its own right. It explains several aspects of the main game, offers an ambitious story in its own right, and follows up on the surviving characters. However, there is a sense that it overexplains things that were best left ambiguous - and that it strips down the Persona 3 experience to its least enjoyable elements.

The dungeon crawling was by far my least favorite part of the main game... and roughly 80% of The Answer is pure dungeon crawling. After a genuinely intriguing opening, it quickly becomes apparent that there isn't enough story here to support 30+ hours of gameplay. The narrative more or less stops for the bulk of the game, with only very small slices of character backstory rewarding players for persevering through each dungeon. Essentially, for every 3 hours of grinding, you get maybe 5 - 10 minutes of story material - not a good balance.

The actual plot is interesting, when it finally kicks back into gear. That doesn't really happen until you finish exploring The Abyss of Time. Once it does, however, the fracturing of the SEES team is paid off with a fairly vicious argument among the group. The portion of the story that puts the main characters in conflict with each other works well, and is a point that should have been reached sooner and developed further.

The resolution of that conflict is also where the game's story should have ended, however, because the actual endgame is not very good. From a gameplay perspective, I found the final boss ridiculously easy to beat (do as much damage as possible when he powers up his big attack; heal and pick away at him at all other times). Worse than the weak final boss is the storytelling for the endgame. The final scenes overexplain developments that were more effective when left ambiguous, and some of the dialogue surrounding this revelation becomes almost comically heavy-handed. At the end of Persona 3, I felt the strong emotion that the game wanted from me. At the end of The Answer, I was mainly just laughing at the unsubtle moralistic messaging.

In the end, I can't really recommend The Answer. It's a good three times longer than the story will support, it's composed almost entirely of grinding, and an initially intriguing narrative crumbles during a heavy-handed finale.

It's a pity, because I believe there was potential in this story for something truly special.  As it stands, however, it's often tedious and ultimately unsatisfying.  As of this writing, The Answer easily ranks as by far my least favorite Persona title.


Overall Rating: 3/10.

Previous Game: Persona 3
Next Game: Persona 4

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

Persona 3.

Original Release: Playstation 2, 2006. Versions Reviewed: FES Version, Playstation 2, 2008; P3P Version, PSP, 2010.


THE PLOT:

A high school student, orphaned ten years ago by mysterious circumstances, transfers to Gekkoukan High School. He comes late to his new dorm, arriving during a hidden time period known as "The Dark Hour." During this time, most people are transformed, and the high school itself changes into an ominous tower known as Tartarus. The people who don't change fall into two categories: prey for demonic beings called Shadows, and those with the power to summon Personas to fight the Shadows.

The transfer student's new dorm is actually home to the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (SEES), a group of high school age Persona users trying to explore Tartarus, to learn its secrets and stop the Dark Hour. Mitsuru Kirijo, the heir to the powerful Kirijo Group, recognizes the newcomer's unusual abilities, and appoints him leader. The recovery of a taped message from ten years earlier points to a chance to stop the Shadows permanently. But they will soon find that not all Persona users are allies - and even some allies ultimately can't be trusted!


CHARACTERS:

Characterization continues to be a strength for the series. The protagonist is largely a blank slate - Your dialogue choices can make him compassionate or callous, committed or unconcerned. The remaining personalities, however, are very well-defined. Mitsuru is a born leader, but as the story unfolds we see that she is driven by a sense of guilt. Dorm-mates Yukari and Junpei feud in a way that recalls Innocent Sin's Eikichi and Lisa... But Yukari's jibes often come across as unintentionally hurtful, particularly when Junpei reacts to her bad nickname for him ("Stu-pei").

I'll admit I had little patience for Ken, a plucky 10-year-old who is made part of the group about halfway through. To be fair to the writers, he is given a decent backstory. I just couldn't quite overcome my disbelief that the members of the group would be on board with allowing someone that young to risk his life. Somehow, his presence on the team ended up feeling more ridiculous than Anime Robot Aegis (who, incredibly, ends up becoming possibly the game's best character) and Koramaru, the Persona-using dog. Still, for the most part the main cast are engaging and reasonably likable, and I grew strongly attached to the group long before the game was over.

The party begins its exploration of Tartarus.
All 264 floors of it.

GAMEPLAY:

Persona 3 is a world away from its PS1 predecessors, both in terms of graphics and gameplay. Settings are more detailed, combat animations are more visually interesting, the soundtrack is more varied, and there is a substantial amount of voice acting.  This doesn't make it better than its predecessors (I rate Eternal Punishment considerably higher overall) - But this feels like a modern game in a way the PS1 titles didn't.

The game sets the template for those to follow, splitting itself basically into two parts. During the day, you explore the city, increasing stats such as Academics and Courage and befriending various characters, maxing out "Social Links." Each Social Link effectively acts as a little slice-of-life subplot. Some of these are genuinely involving, such as a member of a sports team who is jeopardizing his health by ignoring a knee injury, or a dying young man who is trying to write a fable before he passes. Some are humorous - I loved the conversations with Tanaka, a corrupt business magnate who has become rich by fleecing the public. Others tend toward the dull (foreign exchange student Bebe can go take a very long hike back to his home country, thanks), or even downright creepy (classmate Kenji and his stalker-like crush on a teacher). Overall, though, I thoroughly enjoyed this addition, and regretted having to make choices as to which links to advance and which to ignore as the game went on.

The other half of the game involves dungeon crawling and combat as you ascend Tartarus. In most respects, I found Tartarus much less enjoyable than the dungeons of the PS1 Persona games. First, it's very long, spanning well over 200 floors. It's visually uninteresting. The walls change color every time you get to a new "block" (about every 30 - 40 floors). Other than that, there's not much to catch the eye. Oh, and you can only save at the entrance. There are two-way teleports every dozen floors or so, just in front of a mini-boss... But if you leave at any point before you reach those teleports, you have to start your ascent from the last such checkpoint. This gradually turns the climb into a joyless slog.

I will say that the combat is pretty good. As in previous games, each enemy has weaknesses. Use the correct attack, and the enemy will collapse.  In this game, the collapse will trigger an "all-out attack" - basically, a pile on from all the members of your party that, in most cases, will result in an insta-kill. Gone are the myriad menus of previous games. Now, you have a streamlined wheel from which you can select your attacks, use items, or issue commands to your teammates. 

HOWEVER... In the PS2 version, you can only issue general commands. You have no direct control over teammates, which means that every so often, they will do something extremely counter-productive. Most of the time, this is a minor irritation - But in tough combats, your companions' insistence on, say, spamming low-hit charm skill "Marin Karin" instead of actually doing something useful can get you killed and cost you 30 - 40 minutes of progress.

I also think the game has streamlined the demon encounters a little too much. Gone are the demon negotiations that were often so much fun in the PS1 games. Instead, you gain Personas and other power-ups through a tedious and frustrating shell game. I cannot overstate how much I don't find this to be an improvement.

Your first Persona: Orpheus, Master of Strings.

THE MANY FACES OF PERSONA 3

When Sony released the PSP handheld system, Persona 3 was reissued for it as P3P: Persona 3 Portable. Many improvements were made for the handheld. You can set the combat to input direct commands, allowing you control over your teammates' attacks. This makes the battles less frustrating, though sometimes at the cost of making them too easy - Though it's a simple matter to change it back if you prefer.

The most significant new feature is the existence of an optional female protagonist. The main storyline is the same regardless of the route chosen, but many of the Social Links are different - including links with the male members of SEES, further developing their characters. In many cases, the writing for these interactions is noticeably better than the writing for the male protagonist, particularly as the Female route allows most of these relationships to be non-romantic (whereas one could be forgiven for thinking that the male protagonist plans to defeat the Final Boss by unleashing as many STDs as possible).

Unfortunately, because of the limits of the PSP system, other parts of the game were compromised. Gone are the fully-animated cutscenes of the PS2 version. The eerie opening sequence is much less effective when transformed into a series of still frames. The emotional ending still hits... but some of the impact is blunted. Other moments, such as the humorous "dates"with Velvet Room attendant Elizabeth, just aren't as funny without the visual element.

In addition, town exploration is rendered into clicking a cursor on characters and objects, rather than the full exploration of the PS2 game. This point-and-click presentation is initially off-putting, though I will say that I adjusted to it completely after the first few hours, as I got sucked into the story all over again.

Oh, and though I'll be splitting it off into its own review, it should be noted that The Answer, a sequel campaign created for FES, is not available on Portable. I'll admit to not being The Answer's biggest fan, but its absence on the PSP version is worth mentioning.

All of which leaves FES as the overall better version. Still, if you have the ability to play both, I would recommend it, as each route offers strong moments not available in the other. Maybe, in this age of endless remasters and re-releases, Atlus will release a definitive version that includes all the features at some point.

Takaya, the leader of Strega,
tries to stop you from ending The Dark Hour.

THOUGHTS:

Persona 3 is a very good game, but for me it falls just short of being a great one. The reason for that can be summed up in a single word: Tartarus.

I did not enjoy Tartarus. The tower is boring. The actual combat is fun, but I'm not a fan of the way it is initiated. Shadows crawl around on the floor, and you run up and hit the Shadow with your weapon of choice. But if you don't hit fast enough (or if you miss, which is annoyingly easy given the imprecision of the PS2 input), then the enemy goes first. Some of the combat is annoyingly luck based... and since, practically speaking, you have to ascend around 12 floors before saving if you want to make any actual progress and even one bit of bad luck can wipe that all out in a heartbeat, this combines to create a high level of frustration.

Long before the end, I realized that I was playing for the story, the characters, and the Social Links, and was merely tolerating Tartarus. Which is fair enough, as I'm sure many players found the social life material dull and skipped through it as quickly as they could to get back to the combat. Still, I'm not sure that it's entirely a good thing that my least favorite part of the game was... Well, the game-like part of it. Junpei, Akihiko, and your character wandering around a beach, failing miserably in attempts to pick up women? Amusing and, for the most part, realistically awkward. Battling your 20th Shadow in a row on your way from Floor 109 to the visually-identical Floor 110? Largely tiresome.

Still, I won't deny that the game held me in its grip for almost 200 hours of combined playtime (between the two versions). Nor will I deny the emotional impact of the game's final stretch. As I said: Taken as a whole, this game is good. What I like about Persona 3, I love. But there's too much that I don't like for me to rate this as highly as I might like to.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads