'Persona Q2: New Cinema Labrynth' is a feature-length improvement over the first game

by Katherine Simon Very few things in life are as constant as Atlus trying to milk the latest entry of the Persona franchise for all its worth. After coming across a goldmine with the release of Persona 4 (and to a lesser extent, Persona 3), Atlus realized that they could capitalize on their new cash cow by releasing as many spin-offs as possible until the release of the next mainline game. Among these spin-offs, one of the most peculiar was a 3DS game titled Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, a crossover RPG between the Persona 4 and Persona 3 casts developed by the Etrian Odyssey team. While there was a lot to enjoy about this game, such as the combat system and a few fun character interactions, it was ultimately bogged down by some tedious dungeon design and faulty characterization. It’s not a bad game by any means, but the experience left a lot to be desired as someone who absolutely adores the Persona series. Of course, with Persona 5 being such a massive success to the point of landing its protagonist a spot in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it should come as no surprise that Atlus would want to continue the Persona 4 formula of releasing as many spin-offs as humanly possible until the next mainline game rolls around. One of the first spin-offs announced was a sequel to Persona Q that would later be titled New Cinema Labyrinth. On top of bringing back the Persona 3 and 4 casts, this new game would also feature Persona 5’s Phantom Thieves and, strangely enough, the long-neglected female protagonist from Persona 3 Portable. If you’ve completely bought into Atlus’ propaganda that Persona 1 and 2 never existed, every party member from every mainline Persona is in this game, making this the series’ biggest crossover yet. While I was cautiously optimistic about this one, as someone who found the first game to be a mixed bag, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this game exceeded my expectations and ended up becoming one of, if not the best spin-off to come out of the series.

A cinematic tale

The story of Persona Q2 centers around the main party members of Persona 5 , the Phantom Thieves. During a trip to Mementos, they end up accidentally taking a detour and end up trapped inside a mysterious movie theater. While inside the theater, they meet two other people who are also trapped inside the theater named Hikari and Nagi. The group soon learns that if they want to escape from the theater, they have to go inside four different movies and change their endings. During their journey, the Phantom Thieves run into and recruit the various other cast members from the previous games, including the Investigation Team, S.E.E.S, and Persona 3 Portable ’s female protagonist.

The game’s main motif is film parodies. The first three dungeons in the game are based on a specific film genre that’s spun around to relate to a specific game’s themes and character conflicts. There’s also two more dungeons near the end that are unrelated to the main cast members, but those are spoilers so I won’t go into them. All of this culminates into a narrative about embracing one’s individuality even if it means going against the status quo, which was also a common theme in Persona 5 . Persona Q2 has quite possibly the best story of any Persona spin-off, thanks to the intrigue of the setting and the mini-arcs in each dungeon being surprisingly well done. Some of my favorites include the second and third dungeons, which got me invested in the narratives of those films. If there’s one complaint I have with the story, it’s that a lot of the thematic elements are retreads of Persona 5 ’s themes but with less subtlety, especially since the characters explicitly spell out the message of the films multiple times. I know I shouldn’t expect writing on-par with the mainline games in a chibi handheld spin-off, but considering that the story does take itself somewhat seriously I would’ve liked some more thematic nuance. Aside from the lack of subtlety, this is definitely one of the better Persona spin-off stories and it does a great job for what it is. One of the main concerns I had with this game was the cast size. The first Persona Q had quite a bit of trouble balancing its cast, which lead to many characters going through heavy Flanderization and only displaying one or two personality traits. Thankfully, Persona Q2 mostly avoids this problem by putting most of their focus on the Phantom Thieves and FeMC. Most of the Persona 5 characters maintain their personalities and even have some nice development moments, especially during some of the game’s side quests. This is especially beneficial for late-game party members such as Haru, who unfortunately didn’t get a lot of time to shine in the main game. As far as FeMC is concerned, they did a pretty decent job translating her implied cheery personality from Persona 3 Portable into a game where she actually has a speaking role. She’s far from the most complex character in the game, but that’s to be expected from a character who was originally a silent protagonist. Unfortunately, not every Phantom Thief could escape the Flanderization curse, and the one who got it worst was best boy Yusuke. They really try to play up the whole “starving artist” part of his character to the point where half of his dialogue involves him begging for food. It’s disappointing that he’s been reduced to a lame one-joke and if this is the direction they plan to take his character in future spin-offs, I will convert to the Cult of Ryuji.

Since the P4 and P3 gangs aren’t the main focus, some of their PQ1 characterizations unfortunately carried over into this game. Granted, they’re much more tolerable in smaller doses and there are only a select few characters who really got on my nerves, but they mainly feel like they’re just there for fanservice outside of the dungeons and side quests that focus specifically on them. Don’t get me wrong, I won’t complain about being able to add Kanji and Aigis to my party, but there’s also a part of me that feels like this game wouldn’t be all that worse off if it were a Phantom Thieves only affair and they saved the crossovers for Persona 5 Arena or Scramble . Aside from the main crew, there’s also the original characters Hikari and Nagi. Unlike Persona Q where the main OCs, Zen and Rei, were playable party members, these two only play a supporting role in the story while the Persona users do all the dungeon exploring. As someone who didn’t care that much for Zen and Rei, I’m glad that Hikari and Nagi play a more passive role in this game. While they still play a major role in the main narrative, they aren’t taking the spotlight away from the Persona users and are integrated seamlessly into the plot. It also helps that I actually enjoyed Hikari’s character arc in this game, since her development is relevant to the game’s themes of individuality and self-worth. Coming from a series that has a pretty spotty track record with spin-off characters, it’s actually nice to see one that’s well executed for once.

New and improved labyrinths

Persona Q2 ’s gameplay remains relatively unchanged from the first game, but with a few quality-of-life changes that make the experience so much more pleasant. The game still follows the Etrian Odyssey approach of first-person dungeon crawling, where you have to draw out the map using the 3DS’s bottom screen. As someone who has absolutely zero knowledge of Etrian outside of Persona Q , I honestly took quite a liking to the mapping system. I can see why some might find it tedious, but I personally really like filling out the map as I explore the dungeon and being able to make a note of important locations. It makes me feel like I’m actually exploring the labyrinths and it makes great use of the 3DS’s bottom screen.

While I enjoyed the mapping system of the first game, the dungeon crawling is a completely different story. The biggest problem with Persona Q ’s dungeons is that they go on for way too long and require a ton of backtracking. Luckily, in Persona Q2  this problem is practically nonexistent. The dungeons are shorter and easier to traverse, and the puzzles are nowhere near as intrusive as they were in the last game. The closest the game got to having some kind of tedious dungeon design is during the last two floors of A.I.G.I.S with the warp panels, but even then it’s easily traversable if you know how to properly use the map. Another great thing about the dungeon crawling is that you’re automatically fully healed as soon as you leave the dungeons, unlike the last game where you had to constantly pay Elizabeth to heal you. It helps with saving money and makes SP conservation much less of an issue. Much like the dungeon crawling, the battle system has seen a few minor tweaks to enhance the game’s enjoyability. One of my favorite aspects about the first game was actually the battle system, which works quite differently from your average Persona game. While there’s still a focus on exploiting enemy weaknesses to deal out more damage, the Q series introduced something called Boost mode, which allows the player to use attacks without consuming HP or SP if they’re able to hit an enemy’s weakness and not get hit during that turn. It allows for some really unique strategy, and getting a ton of boosts can be a real power trip, but it’s not so overpowered that it completely breaks the game. In Persona Q2 , they added quite a few features that make battles even more fun, such as implementing the Baton Pass from Persona 5 , Unison Attacks that can be unlocked through side quests, and making All-Out Attacks much more consistent to pull off. Speaking of the battle system, let’s talk about the bosses, because oh boy are they something. I played through the game on Normal difficulty and didn’t have much trouble with the normal encounters. However, once I reached the Kamoshidaman boss, I started dying countless times. I usually don’t find games to be all that difficult compared to other Shin Megami Tensei games, but a lot of the bosses in this game managed to put up a good fight and are easily some of the most difficult in the series. Not only are they able to hit super hard, but they can also inflict status ailments and buff their stats to make them even harder to take out. While I’d be hard-pressed to call this the Dark Souls of games, you won’t be disappointed if you’re going into this game looking for a challenge.

The presentation is still great

The game’s graphics are pretty much comparable to the first game. The character models look similar and there isn’t any noticeable graphical overhaul aside from the environments looking more varied. Another major complaint I had about Persona Q was how all the dungeons looked incredibly same-y, which caused the environments to look incredibly bland compared to the excellent character design. Thanks to Persona Q2 ’s dungeon themes being much more varied than the first games, this is no longer an issue. Of course, being a late 3DS game running at 240p, it’s far from the most amazing looking thing in the world, but it looks pretty good for the hardware. As per usual with the Persona series, the soundtrack is absolutely stellar. The sound team at Atlus is usually nothing short of brilliant, and this game is no exception. The soundtrack especially shines through with its battle themes, as there are four different default themes to choose from that correspond with each of the teams. The best part is that you’re able to choose which of the four you want playing during regular encounters, so if you prefer the jazzy Persona 5 soundtrack or Persona 4 ’s J-pop sound, you’ll be able to choose the battle theme that best suits your tastes. Personally, I have a huge Persona 3 bias, so my favorites are obviously “Wait and See” and “Pull the Trigger,” both of which are incredibly catchy and well-made songs that fit with the characters they’re representing. Some other stand-out tracks include “Nothing is Promised,” “Cinematic Tale” and “Road Less Taken.”

One thing I found slightly disappointing with this game is the lack of an English dub. As someone who played all the games with the English voices, it took a bit to get used to. It’s understandable why the game didn’t get dubbed, with it being a late 3DS game and a majority of the actors being busy with other projects. However, once I got used to the Japanese voices, I actually started to enjoy them quite a bit. Sure, they’re no substitute for the English voices, but their performances were good enough that I stopped caring quickly. There were a few performances I didn’t care for, but the cast was otherwise pretty solid, and I’d recommend giving them a chance if you were hesitant about this game’s lack of English voice-acting. Though, one big issue with the lack of English audio is that the battle quips aren’t subtitled. The banter between party members is what gives the games so much personality, and not being able to understand them kind of takes away from the game’s charm. I’m not sure if this is because of system limitations or what, but the lack of a dub would’ve been easier to swallow if they subbed the battle dialogue.

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