Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth is a crossover JPG by developer Atlus that incorporates gameplay elements from the Etrian Odyssey series. More of a dungeon crawler than its predecessors, Persona Q is seen from the perspective of either the Persona 3 or Persona 4 protagonist, which the player selects at the start of the game. The companion characters that supported the protagonist in his previous Persona game are present. For the uninitiated, these companions range from Kanji Tatsumi and Yukiko Amagi (i.e. Persona 4) to Junpei Iori and Mitsuru Kirijo (i.e. Persona 3), to name just a few.
The game’s story is centered on both teams being whisked away to an alternate reality where Yasogami High school is hosting a culture festival. The High school serves as the player’s ‘base’ of operations, where they can buy / sell items, heal party members and ‘save’ the game when needed.
The Handcrafted Workshop – which is run by either Margret or Elizabeth (depending on the protagonist being played) – is used to craft new weapons from the random junk collected from the ‘Labyrinth’. While most role-playing games allow the player to craft their own items, Persona Q uses a different system where the NPC merchant will craft new armor, weapons, and items based on the ‘materials’ sold to her. These items will then become available for sale in the Workshop.
Persona Q’s gameplay centers around the Labyrinth, a series of dungeons occupied by powerful shadow creatures and ‘F.O.E.S’ (Field On Enemy-types). Like Etrian Odyssey, you are required to draw a map to keep track of your location. While using your Nintendo 3DS Stylus, you must draw the dungeon as you encounter hallway cross-sections, doorways and treasure chests. The dungeon editor also contains the appropriate tools to draw lines, erase mistakes, and implement icons to represent objects inside the dungeon. There’s even fifteen colors to choose from, if you want your dungeon map to look its best.
The map editor is real simple to use, as you drag and drop door and stairway icons on the map, and draw lines to represent hallways. Even though my hand isn’t steady, a sloppy line that I drew to finish off a hallway actually translated into a perfect, solid line. And this was just the first of many maps to come. Basically, the software corrects your mistakes along the way, and that reduces the frustration of trying to draw the ‘perfect’ dungeon map.
Crawling a dungeon can take a considerable amount of time. When you’re not mapping an area with the stylus, you’re exploring the long, twisted hallways for story-based clues and material to craft new gear. As you explore, every step you take brings you closer to encountering an enemy. Since some creatures (i.e. Shadows) cannot be seen, they can spring out of nowhere and attack your party.
Combat is turn-based and is seen from a third-person perspective. Your party’s stats are displayed at the bottom of the screen, while the Action Menu is conveniently placed to the left of the battlefield.
The ‘Persona’ system – which involves summoning a demon during combat – has undergone some changes. In previous Persona games, the protagonist was the only character that could use more than one Persona. In Persona Q, your party members can equip what are called sub-Personas, which are in addition to their main Personas. This allows for more skills and increased damage during combat.
It’s also possible to take advantage of an enemy’s weakness. As you battle the many different monsters inside the Labyrinth, party members will randomly call out the weaknesses of your enemies. These weaknesses can require a specific spell or Persona to exploit. When executed, the creatures in question will be knocked down, and your party will be allowed to perform an all-out attack that will inflict enormous amounts of damage.
While most battles can take a considerable amount of time to beat (think Etrian Odyssey here), they never come across as cheap or too difficult to complete. Most of the creatures (i.e. FOEs and Shadows) have a tendency of surprising you, and if your party isn’t equipped properly, the battle that ensues can be very taxing. But this is where the beauty of both Etrian Odyssey and the Persona series comes into play, which this game is fashioned after. The game is constantly challenging you with increasingly difficult FOEs and boss battles that require a lot of work to defeat.
The end result is always new Persona cards and rare items to improve your party. It’s worth mentioning that once a floor is cleared of all its creatures, a special treasure chest appears on that level as a reward for your efforts. Persona Q is constantly rewarding the player for their efforts, and this alone is enough incentive to continue playing.
Games like Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth are hard to come by these days, and this is evident the moment you start playing. The amount of fan service provided throughout the adventure is staggering, and the gameplay is as challenging and refined as previous games in the series. And for all intent and purposes, it would be a disservice to 3DS gamers everywhere if they didn’t experience this challengingly addictive game at least once.
Mike Pittaro
Platform: Nintendo 3DS (Compatible w/ New Nintendo 3DS)
Developer: Atlus
Publisher: Atlus
ESRB: M (Mature)
Price: $49.99
Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth’s Official Website
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Graphics |  |
| Beautiful Manga-style graphics and animation. | |
| Sound | |
| Professional English voice acting and memorable music. | |
| Gameplay | |
| Challenging combat and a revised Persona system enhance the experience. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth is a must-have for any 3DS gamer. | |
