Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

With this apparently coming to the pal territory I figured a thread is in order. For those not in the know, Persona Q is a crossover between persona 3 and 4 that has been developed by the team behind the etrian odyssey games. It's coming out in japan in the not too distant future, the usa in november, and europe and australia supposedly in 2014 although given how these things usually pan out with atlus I'm personally expecting it to be pushed back to q1 of 2015.

So, anyone else looking forward to this? Naturally as a fan of persona 3 and now 4 I'm looking forward to this when it comes out. Everything I've heard about the gameplay sounds like it's going to be a good deal of fun, and there's the obvious draw of the casts of persona 3 and 4 interacting with one another, including finally, the protagonists of the two games.

Looks really damn good. I've not played P3 but I'm down for another slice of Persona.

I can't wait for this either, especially given my love for Etrian Odyssey. I'm really happy that they kept the map charting/drawing elements in, too, which really help invoke a proper sense of discovery.

Just hoping that the more story-driven Persona elements don't detract from that sense of discovery and make it feel more like a straight out dungeon crawler, since Etrian Odyssey's narrative has always been a product of pure gameplay rather than anything else. But I'm still very excited for this.

So, there's a new NISA Europe Webstore and that suggests the game is coming here November 28, and we get the LE too for a pricey £75.

http://store.nisaeurope.com/collections/coming-soon/products/persona-q-shadow-of-the-labyrinth-the-wild-cards-premium-edition

For what there is it doesn't look TOO pricey, maybe about a tenner less would sway me more.

I wouldn't be willing to pay £40 above the game's RRP (I'm guessing £34.99 for RRP) for those extras. If the soundtrack is a full soundtrack and not just a selection of tunes like publishers like to put out, then that's better value and I'd actually start considering it, though, but the rest is tat that I don't need cluttering up my tables and shelves. Got too much of it already!

I'm a sucker for that sort of thing so I've slapped my email in for when they start taking pre orders, might not bite but it'll be nice to have a chance.  Also judging by the disc cover it's the special arrange soundtrack they included with the japanese release, contains four arranged themes not on the actual ost (I assume anyway) like this extended version of Light the Fire Up in the Night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORTnYBHnaRU.  It's certainly not the full ost anyway, that's two discs long.

...and that's me decided. Not paying £45 for that tat by any measure. Limited editions like this are high margin, so I'd only really buy it to give more money to NISA so they keep bringing over Atlus games. But inevitably someone else will buy the limited edition I don't, so I see no need.

So this is releasing next Friday, any takers?

There's a "Persona Q and A" (haha!) over here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD-Iniw7lYU&list=UU7hgDFSPvJVIUx_b8i1cILA

I'm definitely sold -- this looks like top tier third party stuff -- my only worry is that Persona's environments and dungeon designs lack the grandeur of Etrian Odyssey's labyrinths: will this take away the wonder of exploring? The environments of Persona Q do look nice, though.

I'm kind of embarrassed to admit it but alas I won't be one of the takers next week. Not because I don't want to, but because I pre ordered too many figures due out in december earlier this year and thus all my expendable money is now tied up.

Thanks for linking the video though, it got me even more excited for the game!

Aye, I am not sure whether I can afford it either. The reviews are very positive. I haven't read too much into them because I want to go into this knowing as little as possible, but I really don't want to choose between this and Pokemon.

I ultimately came away a bit disappointed with this.

I enjoyed what I played (mostly), the problem is the labyrinth designs are really workmanlike. Each labyrinth has a central draw, which is genuinely interesting and testing. The third labyrinth, for example, has a lot of cryptic puzzles and some smart environmental puzzles which really require you to draw a reliable map and figure things out based on FOE (big enemies on the map) movement.

The problem is it becomes a drag due to how it's presented to you. Each labyrinth has three floors. Every floor fills a very large square-shaped grid. You see this floor completion percentage on the lower screen, which becomes demotivating. It feels like an eternal struggle, and unlike Etrian Odyssey, the joy of discovery quickly disappears. You know what you're going to be seeing for the next three or so floors of the current labyrinth, then it's just a matter of putting in 10 or so hours to see it through.

What's there is still great, though. It certainly looks amazing, with some of the best visuals and 3D seen in a 3DS game, even down to the menu designs. The battle system is fun, and I appreciate how it's still a challenge on so many different levels. Even if you were to lower the battle difficulty, there are other elements which can't be made easier by the flick of a switch, encouraging you to make sense of the various mechanics.

It's just that what is there is spread too thinly, a bit like how I felt about Mario and Luigi: Dream Team Bros. It's a 40 hour game in an 80 hour game.

It's a solid 8/10 game, then, but probably best if you played it for an hour a day.

I've wanted to pick this up due to it being Persona, with it being Persona is rather expensive which is why Fronk made that thread about expensive 3DS games not long ago.

Now it's been confirmed Persona Q2 New Cinema Labyrinth the one with Joker is coming to the West June 4th. I didn't think I'd be buying a brand new 3DS game in 2019 but because it will become rare, it's day one for me.