Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth is a 2014 role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus for the Nintendo 3DS. It is part of the Persona series, itself part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise. It was published across all territories in 2014: released in June in Japan, November in North America and Europe, and December in Australia. Atlus published the game in Japan and North America, while NIS America published it in PAL territories.
The story of Persona Q is a crossover between Persona 3 and Persona 4, whose characters are drawn from their respective periods by an unknown force and sent into a replica of Persona 4 Yasogami High School in another world. Meeting with Zen and Rei, two people whose memories were taken, the group must unite and explore four labyrinths in the school to recover treasures hidden within. These treasures can restore Zen and Rei's memories, which might help them find a way to escape. The gameplay fuses elements of the Persona and Etrian Odyssey series, and focuses on first-person dungeon crawling through labyrinths and combat using the characters' "Persona" abilities against hostiles known as Shadows.
Development on the game began after Atlus's success with collaborating with an external developer on the 2012 fighting game Persona 4 Arena. It was based on the wish to create a collaborative spin-off with the Etrian Odyssey development team and fan demands for a Persona game on the 3DS. The Persona Q development team was made up of staff from both Etrian Odyssey IV and the main Persona series. Series character designer Shigenori Soejima created the cast's new deformed "chibi" appearances, while the music was composed by Atsushi Kitajoh and Toshiki Konishi with supervision by series composer Shoji Meguro. First announced in 2013 alongside the console port of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Persona 4: Dancing All Night and Persona 5, it was the first Persona game to be developed for a Nintendo platform. It released to strong sales and positive reviews from critics, praising the game's comedic writing, presentation, music, and blend between Persona and Etrian Odyssey gameplay styles. A sequel, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth, was released for the 3DS in Japan in November 2018 and worldwide in June 2019.
Gameplay
Persona Q is a crossover video game, containing characters from Persona 3 (P3) and Persona 4 (P4). It focuses on dungeon crawling in a style similar to the Etrian Odyssey series, also created by developer P-Studio. Gameplay follows a group of characters as they navigate mazes, with turn-based battles forming on certain areas. The player picks characters from both Persona 3 and Persona 4 to include in their parties, which affects some dialogue and story events. The game comprises two main areas; a high school and labyrinths. At the high school, the player can heal their party, sell materials dropped by enemies in exchange for new equipment, and fuse "Personas" together. Personas are mythical beasts used for battling, and fusing turns them into more powerful versions.
In labyrinths, the player's party explores in first person through large, maze-like areas with flights of stairs connecting them, while fighting enemies and finding treasures. As the player moves within the labyrinths, the game displays the percentage of tiles the player has stepped on. Once this reaches 100 percent, a treasure chest appears on that floor. The player also creates the in-game map manually, drawing in the location of walls and adding icons representing landmarks, to make return trips easier. If a player does not want to map out the dungeons themselves, they can switch to an auto-mapping mode. The game features two types of enemies: Shadows, which appear randomly, and FOEs, more challenging enemies that move about on the field as the player moves. FOEs require the player to move in specific ways in order to avoid them, as they are often much stronger than the player's party.
When an enemy is encountered, the player battles against them using their Personas, which can attack enemies and heal allies. In addition to their main Personas, characters can also be equipped with sub-personas. By using skills that the enemies are weak against or scoring a critical hit, the characters enter a status known as "boost", which eliminates health and magic costs temporarily. Boosting multiple characters increases the likelihood of performing more powerful attacks or attacks combining multiple characters.
Plot The game's story is split into two separate campaigns for each of the Persona 3 and 4 teams, starting partway through the events of the previous 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 main characters from Persona 4, known as the investigation team, inside a bizarre alternate version of the school. Meanwhile, the members of the main characters from Persona 3, known as SEES, are on a mission into the mysterious Tartarus fortress when they are transported to the Velvet Room elevator, which suddenly winds up at the alternate Yasogami as well. Upon arrival in the alternate dimension, the Velvet Room is warped into a strange and unstable configuration, with two doors that lead to different periods. The two groups discover a labyrinth below the school, where amnesiac students Zen and Rei need help restoring their memories of how they became trapped in the school. Along the way, SEES and the Investigation Team realize that they come from two different periods.
The students team up to find a way to escape, fighting "shadows" along the way, and eventually explore all four labyrinths, successfully unlocking the doors in the Velvet Room and restoring Zen's memories. He reveals that his true identity is the human avatar of Chronos, a manifestation of death, and Rei is 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 despair and nihilism as a result of having lived a meaningless life. Chronos created the alternate Yasogami High, split himself into Zen and a powerful being known as the Clockwork God, and sealed both of their memories in an attempt to bring Rei happiness. The Clockwork 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; this would result in the teams being erased from the time when their tasks were completed. The Clockwork 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 Clockwork God. After spending some carefree time together before the pocket dimension collapses, 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.
Development Persona Q began development in 2012 after the release of Persona 4 Arena, a fighting game co-developed by Atlus and Arc System Works. After their success, series producer Katsura Hashino wanted to create other collaborations. Hashino developed a new game concept based on fan requests for a Persona title on the Nintendo 3DS. The development team was made up of the main Persona development team and the Etrian Odyssey team, which had created the larger body of Atlus' work for the 3DS: the Etrian Odyssey team, led by director and former Persona team member Daisuke Kaneda, who had just finished development of Etrian Odyssey IV for the platform. Hashino wanted to continue the trend of creating unusual entries in the series, in addition to making Persona Q a "festive" collaboration between the two teams in honor of the series' 25th anniversary. The title Q was chosen to represent the developers' goal of originality. The main aim of the title was to create something for fans of the Persona series, which led to the addition of characters from two of the series's games.
The opening animation was directed by Tomohisa Taguchi, who also served as director for Persona 4: The Golden Animation. The scenario was written by Azusa Kido, who had been a writer for the Persona series since Persona 3. Azusa felt the challenge of creating a storyline that would combine the characters from both games, as well as fan pressure around the characters' popularity. She had to make sure that none of the characters ended up as bystanders in scenes, which was difficult for the more taciturn characters. While the respective protagonists of Persona 3 (the "Protagonist") and Persona 4 (dubbed Yu Narukami in additional media and later spin-offs) were blank slates representing the players, the later media expansions had given them set personalities which were reflected in Persona Q. Despite being a crossover between the two game's casts, the story of Persona Q is considered canon to the Persona timeline according to the developers.
According to Kaneda, the two teams found it difficult to combine Persona combat and style with Etrian Odyssey first-person exploration and dungeon mapping. The two teams were fiercely opposed to making compromises on either side. Initially, the developers were going to use the 3D dungeon design and battle system from the Persona series, but as development progressed, it shifted towards the viewpoint and battle system of Etrian Odyssey. An element carried directly from the Etrian Odyssey series was the FOEs, whose behavior patterns were designed to be unique to each labyrinth's floors and structures. Recognizable elements from the Persona series were included, such as exploitable weaknesses and group attacks. A Sub-Persona system, where characters could equip a secondary Persona, was based on the Etrian Odyssey series' subclass system. Some spells were a combination of elements from both Persona and Etrian Odyssey, while the "Boost" feature was an entirely new addition suggested by the staff. Persona Q was the first entry in the Persona series to appear on a Nintendo platform, which offered challenges to both teams. The gameplay systems were ultimately created so that people familiar with both series would find common appeal, and multiple comprehensive tutorials were added so players would not be confused by the new features.
Character design
The character designs were handled by Shigenori Soejima, who had been involved in the Persona series since its inception and was in charge of character designs since Persona 3. Soejima's biggest concern with the characters was that fans had expectations about their portrayal, but their standard designs would not fit either with the typical Etrian Odyssey artstyle or with the limited visuals and screen size of the 3DS. Because of these, the characters were redesigned in a deformed "chibi" style. When looking at how to scale the characters down, Soejima focused on what made each character stand out visually, then made that the new versions' key feature. To accomplish this, the team researched what fans felt was a character's defining trait, and many of the alterations were done based on feedback.
In addition to standard enemy designs carried over from the Persona series, unique enemies were created by Etrian Odyssey monster artist Shin Nagasawa. Zeus, a character referred to in Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City, made a cameo appearance as an optional boss and Persona. Zeus' Persona design was created by Etrian Odyssey character designer Yuji Himukai.
Music