Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

[Zunar]

In case you don't know, Persona Q is basically a fusion of all the player characters from Persona 3 and 4, but the game is mixed with dungeon crawl elements like the Etrian Odyssey games which makes battles and dungeons quite different, but different isn't necessarily a bad thing. I really like the game so far, I definitely recommend it. I quite like the new art style too, reminds me a lot of cell-shaded art used in like Wind Waker and stuff, though Junpei looks a little off to me personally. Particularly his eyes. :/

I've never played any Persona games up until now, but I've watched an LP of each game (both by Superjeenius, fun fact) so I know what they all are about and I figured getting Persona Q would be nice since I can't really play the "definitive versions" of P3/4 because I don't own a PSP or Vita. Anyway, awesome story on it: the day I bought it I loaded up the eShop expecting to pay full price of $50 but it happened to be on sale for $30 and I was like holy ♥♥♥♥ the universe wants me to buy this game apparently.

I'm up (or down, depending on how you look at it) to floor 2 of dungeon 2, and up until now I've been using a consistent party of P4MC, Yosuke, Mitsuru, Yukiko, and Zen/Rei, but recently I've been experimenting with switching out Zen/Rei for other people like Naoto or Ken so I'd have someone who naturally knows instant-death spells. Zen/Rei are pretty cool though and I liked having the balanced gender party, though it is a shame that Zen/Rei are more of a gimmick character since they can't equip Personas. Rei is also super cute.

Anybody else got this game and have a particular party they use? Discuss.

[ChaosYoshi]

I've only played Persona 3 (Portable), but I really enjoyed a lot of aspects of it. The combat was simple, and the social links were for the most part very enjoyable, with the characters being very well written. That's not to say that it had no problems; far from it, in fact. The biggest (and frankly the most relevant to PQ) complaint I had about it is that exploring Tartarus was incredibly boring. However, I've heard that the dungeon crawling in Etrian Odyssey are really fun and engaging, so it shouldn't be an issue.

Personally, I want to get the game, but my friend says that I should play Persona 4 (preferably Golden) before doing so, going as far to say that it's better than Persona 3 in almost every way. However, he told me that about 6 months ago (when he also said "GET THE PSV JUST FOR P4G"), and now that support for PSV components are being dropped, even he says that the PSV is not worth getting anymore, so I may just look up SuperJeenius's play-through after all and then play PQ.

[Zunar]

The dungeon crawling is definitely a lot better than Tartarus. It's a first-person perspective thing and you can draw your own map on the touch screen as you explore the dungeon, it's really neato actually.

I completely agree that you should experience P4 Golden before playing PQ, as some of the story may not make much sense to you otherwise. The whole P3 vs P4 debate is a mixed bag, but I'd say I like P4 more, mostly because I like most of the characters more and the fact that P3 is pretty dark compared to P4 with the evokers and the Dark Hour and all that stuff. Both are great games though.

[Zunar]

So I beat the game with the Persona 4 perspective a while ago. Let me just say, the final boss is some BS. I won't spoil it but all I can say is, stock up on revival items and/or have all your characters know Recarm, no matter what level your characters are. And god help you if you're playing on Risky.

I've been playing the Persona 3 perspective and I'd like to say that to me, it feels like Persona 4 is the "better" perspective in terms of story. Persona 3's story just feels kinda kinda half-assed; there's not near as much backstory/explanation, they find Zen and Rei outside the first labyrinth instead of inside it, etc. Plus I also heard about something about one quest that isn't accessible from Persona 3. That may just be my bias towards Persona 4 talking however.