Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth (ペルソナQ シャドウ オブ ザ ラビリンス Perusona Kyū: Shadō Obu Za Rabirinsu^?) is a role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus for the Nintendo 3DS. It is a spinoff of the Persona series, which itself is a subset of the Megami Tensei series, combining characters and elements from both Persona 3 and Persona 4, with gameplay elements from the Etrian Odyssey series. It was released on June 5, 2014 in Japan, November 25, 2014 in North America, November 28, 2014 in Europe, and December 4, 2014 in Australia.

Contents

• 1 Gameplay
• 2 Story

1 . Gameplay

Persona Q is a crossover video game, containing characters from both Persona 3 and Persona 4. However, different from the source games, Persona Q's gameplay focuses further on being a dungeon crawler, comparable to the Etrian Odyssey series of games also produced by Atlus on Nintendo handhelds. Players choose to play from the perspective of either the Persona 3 protagonist or the Persona 4 protagonist, with each side featuring slight differences in the main story. As with prior Persona games, the player's choices alter the flow of the game.

The game comprises two main areas, Yasogami High and the labyrinths. Players can explore Yasogami High to converse with characters, heal their party, or purchase new weapons and equipment, or visit the Velvet Room where they can fuse new Personas. Labyrinths are the main portion of the game, in which the player's party, consisting of up to five party members, explores various dungeons fighting dangerous enemies to grow stronger and find treasures. As the player explores each labyrinth, a map is filled out on the bottom screen, which the player can manually edit to fill in more details, such as the location of walls and chests. When a floor is fully explored, a special treasure chest appears on that floor. The game features two types of enemies: Shadows, which appear randomly, and Field On Enemy-types (F.O.E.), more challenging enemies that move about on the field as the player moves, which can be avoided with the right planning. The game also offers several options to change the layout of the dungeons and quickly return to previous areas.

When an enemy is encountered, players battle against them using their Personas. Battles follow the same system as Etrian Odyssey with elements taken from the Persona games, as opposed to using the One More system of the main Persona games. Unlike the main games, in which characters besides the protagonists only had access to a single Persona, each character can equip one of multiple sub-Personas in addition to their main one, allowing them to use more skills. During the combat, players can take advantage of an enemy's weakness, which knocks them down and allows that character to use a skill without using up SP or HP on their next turn, as well as occasionally creating the opportunity for an all-out attack if all enemies are knocked down.

2 . Story

 

The game's story is split into two campaigns, which follow either the team of characters from Persona 3 or Persona 4; each campaign begins partway through the events of the characters' original games. Dialogue and events vary depending on the player's choice of protagonist. At Yasogami High School in Inaba, during the culture festival, a strange bell rings, trapping the Investigation Team inside a bizarre alternate version of the school. Meanwhile, the members of the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (SEES) find themselves transported to the Velvet Room elevator, which suddenly winds up at the alternate Yasogami as well.   Discovering a labyrinth hidden below the school, the two groups meet amnesiac students Zen and Rei and decide to explore the area, fighting "shadows" along the way, in order to restore their memories and hopefully find a way to escape.

The combined group eventually explores all four labyrinths, successfully unlocking a route home and restoring Zen's memories. He reveals that his true identity is the human avatar of Chronos, the Greek deity of death, and Rei is really a girl named Niko who died of illness twelve years prior. When Chronos came to escort her to the afterlife, he was intrigued by her descent into nihilism as a result of having lived an apparently meaningless life. Chronos created the alternate Yasogami High, split himself into Zen and a powerful being known as the Clocktower God, and sealed both of their memories in order to try to bring Rei happiness. The Clocktower God is the one responsible for trapping SEES and the Investigation Team in the alternate Yasogami, hoping for them to traverse the labyrinths and recover Zen's memories so they can merge and become Chronos once again. The Clocktower God abducts Rei and transports her to the top of a clock tower outside the school. SEES and the Investigation Team decide to help Zen rescue Rei, and they ascend the tower and defeat the Clocktower God. Zen and Rei vanish into the afterlife, while SEES and the Investigation Team promise to meet again someday and return home, although their memories of the incident are erased.