The dream meeting of Persona 3, 4, 5! Welcome to the movie world (Labyrinth). The latest RPG in the Persona series! A new storyline in Persona Q, this time focusing on P5. The most number of party members in the Persona series with a total of 28 people! A dream RPG where P3, P4, and P5 characters meet to unravel the mystery begins!
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I dropped this game as soon as the Investigation Team showed up.
this game was so bad why did the soundtrack go so hard
A game that feels like it has truly nothing interesting to say but dedicates way too much time trying to convince you it does. Runs into the same issue as other persona spin-offs with flat characterization of returning characters. Map exploration is less engaging than PQ1. Saving grace is that the combat system is really rewarding, lots of fun ways to make strong party members
It’s not a bad game per se, it’s just kinda mid. The labyrinths and combat aren’t that good really. It’s cool seeing everybody meet up though. And the soundtrack is like actually really good and underrated.
This was so fun! One of the last games that came out on the 3ds and showed a strong ending for the console. Being able to make your own map on the touch screen as you explore is the best use of the touch screen as a mechanic ever full fucking stop. The ability to mix characters from the 3 big persona games (sorry 1 and 2 maybe someday you'll get your time in the sun) was also great and made you want to mess around with your team .
starting this game at the same time as etrian odyssey nexus was like getting a side of stale mcdonalds fries with your bougie ass top dollar wagyu steak
jesus CHRIST what an awful game. awful as a persona game, awful as an EO game, and awful as an RPG in general. horrible, bloated combat system, terrible story, weird difficulty, not to mention it's like 25 hours longer than it needs to be.
i never played the first persona q so i don't have a frame of reference, but how did they think they were going to craft the game around 28 DIFFERENT PLAYABLE CHARACTERS and have it work out? i get that's this game's whole gimmick, but it just doesn't pay off at all in terms of both story and how each character plays. there's definitely not enough room for every character to get a chance in the spotlight, so you have shit like femc running her mouth for most of the game while kanji shows up every few hours for a one liner. or worse, some characters are dumbed down to their most basic traits (ie junpei being an stupid and yukari dunking on him for it) and don't get anything past that throughout the whole story. even with the fanservice side-mission things, it just doesn't feel like having Everyone Here was a good idea. so even from a conceptual standpoint, this game is already flawed.
even worse, the battle system is a pain in the ass to deal with - it tries its best to incorporate elements from persona and EO (both fine on their own imo) and fails miserably. the boost system feels like a really poor replacement for baton passes (which are technically in this game but don't behave the same at all), and make it a lot harder to get all out attacks. speaking of - battles this time are even more reliant on AOAs than in base persona. as in battles take 10 times as long and drain 10 times as much SP if your personas aren't specifically crafted around having the necessary moves to get AOAs for each floor's enemies. sure, there are some parts of battle that work - i loved using links and ariadne chains were fun to spam against enemies, but i fuckin hated this shit overall.
going back to characters - having so many of them makes the party system feel really bloated. i get that the appeal is that you can choose your favorites and make your perfect little blorbo team, but you're punished pretty heavily for trying out different team comps and not dumping all your EXP into a main team of 5. sure, the game tries to trick you with "oh sometimes random characters will get a boost and ask to join your party :)" but don't fall for it! this game is already insanely grind heavy (even with the dlc exp boost item), and realizing halfway through the game that every character i had was some degree of underleveled and i needed to decide on a main team felt pretty awful. also it feels like a huge slap in the face that they made growth incenses so limited, having them be more readily available would have countered this issue really well imo
(as a side note: makoto and haru are the only nuke/psy users you get until ken/aigis, which is roughly 15 hours later. and right after you get them, enemies start being weak to those two types. but uh oh, haru doesn't have any multi-hit psy moves yet so it's still impossible to get an AOA if there's more than one enemy weak to psy in a fight and you don't have a sub-persona with psio! get fucked lol thanks boost system)
the sub persona system seems good on paper and i had a decent time putting together broken builds, but it really only adds another variable to how bloated and messy the battle system can get - especially when you're juggling so many of them at once. it's probably the one component of the battle system that isn't a complete shitfest to deal with, but it still wasn't great and nowhere near as fun as regular persona/demon fusion.
this isn't even bringing up difficulty spikes or the boss battles, which each have some stupid gimmick that requires at least two (unskippable) in-battle cutscenes to explain. or the massively overinflated boss HP values. fun fact, this game's final boss takes more time to beat than p5's by quite a bit. also there's a 90 minute long boss rush right before that that has no reason to exist at all.
unfortunately, the dungeon crawling elements are pretty awful too. i grew to like the map system cause i was playing nexus at the same time, but goddammit do they REALLY need to stop the entire game for 5 minutes to tell us when they're introducing a new mechanic? i know what a fan is, yusuke, you don't need to tell me you're adding an icon for one. the "puzzles" are easy as shit too, they once again have to stop and explain what each FOE gimmick is as soon as you encounter it instead of just letting you find out on your own. i think there was only one puzzle (right at the end of the game) where they didn't just stop and explain how to solve it, and even then it was easy as fuck.
the story is complete trash. it's another persona 5-esque rehash where they have some surface level message ("it's good to have individuality") that they stretch out over 60 hours and try to be as profound as possible about it. i get that dunking on p5 fans' reading comprehension isn't as fun these days, but come on man. you can't expect me to take your Deep Dive Into Human Nature seriously while Yosukesaurus (Homophobius Junesius) tells you about how it's okay to disagree with your friends sometimes.
however, i will say that i did enjoy a lot of the crossover box office side missions. the one with yukiko drawing the squid got a good chuckle out of me, and even though the rewards were lacking most of the time they were still pretty fun. also, easily the nicest part about this game is its soundtrack and overall aesthetic - that's the one part of persona that they absolutely nailed. the new battle themes are INCREDIBLY good.
unfortunately, none of that saves this game at all - not even the weird nostalgia of this game being the last big 3ds game is enough for me to enjoy it. persona q2 is an absolute slog that tries to lure you in with Funny Persona, then hits you with mind-numbing grinding and frustrating combat throughout. this shit belongs in the garbage, and even if it was half as long it probably would have overstayed its welcome.
go play etrian odyssey nexus
jesus CHRIST what an awful game. awful as a persona game, awful as an EO game, and awful as an RPG in general. horrible, bloated combat system, terrible story, weird difficulty, not to mention it's like 25 hours longer than it needs to be.
i never played the first persona q so i don't have a frame of reference, but how did they think they were going to craft the game around 28 DIFFERENT PLAYABLE CHARACTERS and have it work out? i get that's this game's whole gimmick, but it just doesn't pay off at all in terms of both story and how each character plays. there's definitely not enough room for every character to get a chance in the spotlight, so you have shit like femc running her mouth for most of the game while kanji shows up every few hours for a one liner. or worse, some characters are dumbed down to their most basic traits (ie junpei being an stupid and yukari dunking on him for it) and don't get anything past that throughout the whole story. even with the fanservice side-mission things, it just doesn't feel like having Everyone Here was a good idea. so even from a conceptual standpoint, this game is already flawed.
even worse, the battle system is a pain in the ass to deal with - it tries its best to incorporate elements from persona and EO (both fine on their own imo) and fails miserably. the boost system feels like a really poor replacement for baton passes (which are technically in this game but don't behave the same at all), and make it a lot harder to get all out attacks. speaking of - battles this time are even more reliant on AOAs than in base persona. as in battles take 10 times as long and drain 10 times as much SP if your personas aren't specifically crafted around having the necessary moves to get AOAs for each floor's enemies. sure, there are some parts of battle that work - i loved using links and ariadne chains were fun to spam against enemies, but i fuckin hated this shit overall.
going back to characters - having so many of them makes the party system feel really bloated. i get that the appeal is that you can choose your favorites and make your perfect little blorbo team, but you're punished pretty heavily for trying out different team comps and not dumping all your EXP into a main team of 5. sure, the game tries to trick you with "oh sometimes random characters will get a boost and ask to join your party :)" but don't fall for it! this game is already insanely grind heavy (even with the dlc exp boost item), and realizing halfway through the game that every character i had was some degree of underleveled and i needed to decide on a main team felt pretty awful. also it feels like a huge slap in the face that they made growth incenses so limited, having them be more readily available would have countered this issue really well imo
(as a side note: makoto and haru are the only nuke/psy users you get until ken/aigis, which is roughly 15 hours later. and right after you get them, enemies start being weak to those two types. but uh oh, haru doesn't have any multi-hit psy moves yet so it's still impossible to get an AOA if there's more than one enemy weak to psy in a fight and you don't have a sub-persona with psio! get fucked lol thanks boost system)
the sub persona system seems good on paper and i had a decent time putting together broken builds, but it really only adds another variable to how bloated and messy the battle system can get - especially when you're juggling so many of them at once. it's probably the one component of the battle system that isn't a complete shitfest to deal with, but it still wasn't great and nowhere near as fun as regular persona/demon fusion.
this isn't even bringing up difficulty spikes or the boss battles, which each have some stupid gimmick that requires at least two (unskippable) in-battle cutscenes to explain. or the massively overinflated boss HP values. fun fact, this game's final boss takes more time to beat than p5's by quite a bit. also there's a 90 minute long boss rush right before that that has no reason to exist at all.
unfortunately, the dungeon crawling elements are pretty awful too. i grew to like the map system cause i was playing nexus at the same time, but goddammit do they REALLY need to stop the entire game for 5 minutes to tell us when they're introducing a new mechanic? i know what a fan is, yusuke, you don't need to tell me you're adding an icon for one. the "puzzles" are easy as shit too, they once again have to stop and explain what each FOE gimmick is as soon as you encounter it instead of just letting you find out on your own. i think there was only one puzzle (right at the end of the game) where they didn't just stop and explain how to solve it, and even then it was easy as fuck.
the story is complete trash. it's another persona 5-esque rehash where they have some surface level message ("it's good to have individuality") that they stretch out over 60 hours and try to be as profound as possible about it. i get that dunking on p5 fans' reading comprehension isn't as fun these days, but come on man. you can't expect me to take your Deep Dive Into Human Nature seriously while Yosukesaurus (Homophobius Junesius) tells you about how it's okay to disagree with your friends sometimes.
however, i will say that i did enjoy a lot of the crossover box office side missions. the one with yukiko drawing the squid got a good chuckle out of me, and even though the rewards were lacking most of the time they were still pretty fun. also, easily the nicest part about this game is its soundtrack and overall aesthetic - that's the one part of persona that they absolutely nailed. the new battle themes are INCREDIBLY good.
unfortunately, none of that saves this game at all - not even the weird nostalgia of this game being the last big 3ds game is enough for me to enjoy it. persona q2 is an absolute slog that tries to lure you in with Funny Persona, then hits you with mind-numbing grinding and frustrating combat throughout. this shit belongs in the garbage, and even if it was half as long it probably would have overstayed its welcome.
go play etrian odyssey nexus