*Images taken from official trailers*
ATLUS seems to have a fetish for bringing out Persona titles right at the end of a console’s lifespan. Persona 2: Eternal Punishment released a few months after the launch of the PlayStation 2. Persona 4 could arguably be considered one of the last unique PS2 titles, coming out in 2009. And even as recently as this past gen, Persona 5 graced the PlayStation 3 and 4 simultaneously. Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth looks to continue this tradition, having released on the 3DS months after Nintendo and other developers stopped making games for the handheld in favor of the Switch.
Q2 is less of a sequel to the first game’s story and more of a repurposing. There’s no connection between the two at all outside of both games being a crossover of various Persona casts and being dungeon crawlers. The game’s do share some similar story beats, but Q2 focuses more on its main message about “individuality vs the will of the majority.” The game’s not very subtle about this message either, and you’ll often find the cast spouting the same or similar lines throughout each dungeon. The first Q title was less abrasive with its overall theme, revealing it only once you’d reached the final stretch. Q2 feels like it’s hitting you over the head with a baseball bat by comparison. To the game’s credit, a large portion of its appeal is the crossover hijinks of the cast rather than the actual plotline.
The story focuses mostly on interactions with the Persona 5 cast. I guess, because 3 and 4 had their time with each other in the first game. It’s a good directional choice, but what it amounts to is the new cast reacting to the same quips and quirks already used in the first game. That’s not to say there weren’t several instances that pulled a chuckle out of me, but there were a lot of moments of deja vu. It’s a lot of retreading old ground with a new pair of shoes, and there’s a lot of ground to cover with over 30 members in the main and supporting cast.
There’s not much space for any of the characters to really define themselves. The cast will happily riff off each other for most of the game, but a lot of one-liners and references will probably fall flat to anyone who hasn’t played the original Persona games they’re from. Even as someone who played all of these titles. There’s also quite a bit of exposition. Characters like to explain whatever weird or unsuspecting traits their friends have rather than letting the skits illustrate these moments instead.
The writing is at its best when the cast is working in the moment. Actions speak louder than words, and there are thankfully more scenes of the characters doing rather than explaining. That said, the best defined and most enjoyable characters are the loudest or most easily caricatured. Boisterous blabbermouths like Teddie, Futaba, Morgana, and Yousuke stand out from the crowd along with eccentrics like Yusuke, Kanji, and the Velvet Room attendants. Everyone else just kind of blends into the background, with the Persona 3 cast getting it the worst. They don’t show up until around the halfway point of the game, and are given less space to act out. I personally didn’t find the plot or story to be that big of a draw, and instead was pulled in mostly by the gameplay.
Q2 is your typical dungeon crawling affair. You move a square at a time on a grid navigating from one staircase to the next while gathering items, finding side quests, drawing your map, and fighting monsters along the way. The dungeons are different from each other visually and mechanically; each being based off a different genre or style of movie. There’s a dark city for a super hero flick that has you dodging search lights, a sci-fi robot laboratory with 1-way doors and teleporters, and even a Jurassic World parody that uses shock gates to trap enemies, to name a few. My personal favorite is one of the end-game dungeons where its gimmick is a series of lifts that carry you between floors instead of elevators. It allows for some clever uses of the lifts to block the view of bosses or lift them to a different floor so you can proceed safely.
Combat is an adaptation of the standard ATLUS formula, enemies have weaknesses you can exploit for benefits and the same is true of the reverse. In Q2, exploiting an enemy’s weakness or landing a critical gives your character “boost” status, letting them act first next turn and also cast their next ability for no cost. If you get hit, don’t land a critical, or fail to exploit a weakness you lose your boost. Keeping boost status is critical for higher difficulties and later dungeons, turning team building into a puzzle of sorts. Each character has their own set of spells and abilities that you can enhance with sub-personas you obtain or create throughout the game. The combat is my favorite element of Persona Q2.
Despite such a heavy reliance on team building, the tools to do it quickly aren’t really there. Combat experience is only gained by the active party and not everyone, so if you want to keep everyone’s levels up you’ll have to constantly grind levels to do so. There is an item that can bring a character’s level up to the highest of someone currently on your team, but it’s not a regular drop or something you can buy. Side missions will push for you to use specific partners by boosting their stats temporarily. Some missions even force you into using specific characters, so it’s best to save those level up items for these specific quests unless you desperately need a character to catch up in stats for your party.
I wouldn’t nitpick this so much if it were easier to balance out your team. It’s very difficult to prepare around all 9 attack types in the game without dipping into specific party members. Only 1 character naturally comes with “psy” element attacks vs the myriad of fire users, for example. You can make a sub-persona that comes with these skills, but psy and nuke are two of the harder attack types to find early on despite there being things weak only to those moves.
By no means is Persona Q2 a bad game, it’s just very middling. It doesn’t have the same subtly in its plot as it’s predecessor. It lays it all out from the start and continues to shove it in your face for the next 30 hours. It does have many enjoyable gags and fun gameplay, though. If you’re a fan of Persona or old-school dungeon crawlers, then Q2 is well worth checking out. It’s a nice send off to the 3DS as everyone finally moves onto the Switch.