• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth |OT| -- No Dating, Just Dungeons

Jintor

Member
Kanji's vo really improved. I thought I'd never say it, but I barely even miss the Baker.

Naoto on the other hand is a real loss, and Erin seems to be playing Chie as even screechier than usual...

I'm guessing Fuuka is still, uh, the new VA from Arena, right? She's pretty good. Much less irritating than vanilla p3
 

ijed

Member
There's quite a lot of skills that you can't pass on. Stuff like Power/Mind charge, Golden Link, essentially the most useful skills that you'd want to keep around. I don't think there's any fixed rule to it.

If you ask Marge about fusion rules she says it depends on the type of persona you fuse as to what skills they can inherit - so one with physical skills can only inherit pyhsical skills etc. but I still don't see any logic to how it works and how to inherit some passives...
 

Jintor

Member
Yeah and some skills acc. to the wiki just aren't inheritable like Fisty says.

More to the point though the system is still fucking opaque as shit. I mean I have no idea if a persona is a physical type or not anyway, let alone how I'm supposed to take that into consideration when creating a persona. It's not like I have the wiki open at all times or more to the point want to
 

Jintor

Member
I need some help with the Evil Spirit Club floor 3

The whole hilarious bathroom scene just happened, but now I don't know what to do in the upper left corner of the map. There's three switches that just seem to turn the lights in that specific room on and off and the room to the right has every passageway blocked by doll FOEs.

Any tips?

/edit i'm an idiot, i was walking past a light switch
 
need help @
inaba pride floor 4

I dont know how to lit the fire at A4.. maybe there was an unlit fire that i didn't see

edit: got it! i'm stupid.. :D
 

Zafir

Member
Do you think I'd get underlevelled/miss out by not totally(ie 100%ing) completing floors in this?

I'm on floor 1-3 I think it is, and I'm already getting a bit bored going for full floor completion. I mean it wouldn't be so bad if the mobs changed a bit more, but they don't, you're just battling the same enemy's over and over. I just think I'm going to get burned out if I keep doing it.

Edit: To add I'm on Normal difficulty, I dunno if that matters.
 

spiritfox

Member
Do you think I'd get underlevelled/miss out by not totally(ie 100%ing) completing floors in this?

I'm on floor 1-3 I think it is, and I'm already getting a bit bored going for full floor completion. I mean it wouldn't be so bad if the mobs changed a bit more, but they don't, you're just battling the same enemy's over and over. I just think I'm going to get burned out if I keep doing it.

Edit: To add I'm on Normal difficulty, I dunno if that matters.

You'll miss some chests but the XP is generous thoughout.
 

JimPanzer

Member
Sounds completely different to me but I haven't played 3 in a long time.

I just finished P3P before getting into Persona Q. I'm very confused why he does sound similar to everyone else beside you and me :D
I know it the same VA but the difference is much more striking to me than between new and old Ken.

On a side note:
Currently using this team:
Front: P4 MC/Chie/Kanji
Back: Zen&Rei / Naoto

I've finished the first floor of the 2nd dungeon but I'm not completely sold on Zen&Rei. Good idea to swap them out for Aigis?
 

Zareka

Member
Finally finished the third labyrinth. Cool boss, but damn...even hard mode is easy now. Starting to wish I wasn't so afraid of picking Risky to begin with.

I hope to god they keep sub Persona's and stat swapping accessories in future games. It makes EVERYONE viable and you can tweak your party just how you want to, which is awesome.
 
I just finished P3P before getting into Persona Q. I'm very confused why he does sound similar to everyone else beside you and me :D
I know it the same VA but the difference is much more striking to me than between new and old Ken.

On a side note:
Currently using this team:
Front: P4 MC/Chie/Kanji
Back: Zen&Rei / Naoto

I've finished the first floor of the 2nd dungeon but I'm not completely sold on Zen&Rei. Good idea to swap them out for Aigis?

Aigis and P3MC are good choices to replace ZnR in the back. Once you get Growth accessories, you might want to consider swapping Naoto out for boss fights and FOE hunts and have a back line of P3MC and Aigis. Naoto is MVP for exploration, but kind of does nothing in longer fights.
 

Zareka

Member
So I'm being chased by a FOE and decide to run for the door hoping to escape, and before I reach it I get hit with a random encounter. 2 golden hands and a Gigas. Enemy advantage! The golden hands agility bind my 2 fastest characters, P3MC and Yosuke, and sleep Rei & Zen, the only character in my team with a bind cure spell. For giggles the Gigas one shots Zen & Rei. I set P3MC and Yosuke to use Mutudi gems to get rid of their agility binds with P4MC and Yukiko set to run. The hands then sleep both P4MC and Yukiko and, to rub salt in the wound, the Gigas, again, one shots Yukiko to finish off my back row. Enter FOE. My team gets Rampage'd, killing off everyone except P3MC, who only survives because of the (quest item spoilers?)
scapegoat
.

By this point, I've pretty much abandoned the idea of getting out of this without seeing a title screen, but hey, all my debuffs have ran out on my sitting-at-1HP MC, so what's the harm.

I hit escape and...it works. I'm sitting back in the labyrinth having a staredown with this FOE, everyone but myself dead and with only 1HP left. In about 3 minutes.
 

KarmaCow

Member
How is this game compared to Strange Journey?

I'm still early so I'll only compare the first halves of each games.

The maps are better in PQ in that they're more dense, though they are more puzzle oriented around avoiding FOEs and going to objectives on the map so that could be go either way. The ability to make your own map makes it much more user friendly as well.

SJ has a more steady stream of new demons and as such, more skill combinations. However, there are more options to customize your party in PQ through equipment and party members with fixed skills and resistances/weaknesses. That said, I'm not really switching between party members since benched teammates don't get exp from random battles, so I'm not constantly switching out party members like in SJ. You can switch out sub-demons which is similar but they only add skills and boosts to in-battle hp/sp and don't confer weakness/resistances outside of passive skills. Status effects and buffing seems way more important as well in PQ. I don't bother diving to deep into fusing in SMT style games so I can't really comment intelligently about that but PQ seems better, or rather less tedious to get what you want.

I prefer the combat mechanic of boosting when hitting weaknesses vs needing a fully aligned party in SJ for follow up attacks. Boosting promotes experimentation early on in a dungeon and cuts down time if you can keep the chain going. Party alignment in SJ kinda cut off some good demons if you wanted to take advantage of it.

Tonally, I prefer SJ's somber and bleak atmosphere over the happy-go-lucky fan fictiony one in PQ. I've been skipping the dialogue in PQ so I can't really comment further other than I felt like I had enough to the one-note characters yapping all the time. Not that SJ's story or characters were great, but it felt less intrusive (but it has been a while since I've played it).
 

Setsu00

Member
Optional Boss spoilers:
Margaret was a total joke. I managed to poison her in the first turn with the P3MC and she never recovered from it...
 

bobohoro

Member
Optional Boss spoilers:
Margaret was a total joke. I managed to poison her in the first turn with the P3MC and she never recovered from it...

I don't really think she's supposed to be hard, to be honest. Went in without really checking my sub personas and had P4MC use a pure binding persona and P3MC had one for healing on. So I slowly took her down with one using his elemental cut attack while the other was healing constantly. Only problem was running out of SP once, used a Soma I had on me and got through the rest of the fight easily. I think having one offensive persona on you, or one with stat attacks, will make it a cakewalk. Oh well, the rewards were well worth it, now nothing really stands a chance anymore. Spider FOE went down in 2 rounds. :)

I'm nearing the goal line and like every EO I ever played, this game is one dungeon too long for me. Especially since Dungeon 4 is probably the low point of the game. While it had some fun puzzles, its design was pretty lackluster, the random mobs were even easier than in the dungeons before and the character interactions are running dry as well. Still, Persona Q is probably in my Top-5 of the year, really great game.

Almost at the end of the game. Am I the only one who thinks Marie's poems are just bullshit? It's awful and disconnected.

You just can't handle her epic Pathos! Screaming! From the depths of her soul!
 

Zareka

Member
I'm finding myself reaching the stairs with something like 70% floor completion on the 4th dungeon. Am I missing out on a ton of side quests if I just move on to the next floor or am I likely to find another set of stairs leading back up? Every other dungeon having time limited side quests in the same room as floor exists in previous labyrinths is making me really paranoid, and while I want to see as much as I can I my first run through, I'm also hoping to finish up before Christmas. Don't want to drag this on too long.

Edit: Huh, I just hit one of those dead end events and
Junpei complained he was falling behind because I never use him in my team. Have I noobed by keeping him underlevelled and missed an event or something?
Almost at the end of the game. Am I the only one who thinks Marie's poems are just bullshit? It's awful and disconnected.
Yeah, they're awful, but at least Atlus knows it this time. :p
 

ChrisD

Member
Dungeon 3, Third Floor. How do I reach/fill in the area north of the Men's Restroom? Can't find any plausible paths to it.
 

ChrisD

Member
You're likely missing a light switch somewhere which will let you walk past the dolls

I've already done all of that bit. Made it to the fourth floor, actually. But there's this big missing chunk on the map. Maybe I missed a door somewhere... I'll check that out again.
 
Dungeon 3, Third Floor. How do I reach/fill in the area north of the Men's Restroom? Can't find any plausible paths to it.

You revisit it as part of the next floor

I'm finding myself reaching the stairs with something like 70% floor completion on the 4th dungeon. Am I missing out on a ton of side quests if I just move on to the next floor or am I likely to find another set of stairs leading back up? Every other dungeon having time limited side quests in the same room as floor exists in previous labyrinths is making me really paranoid, and while I want to see as much as I can I my first run through, I'm also hoping to finish up before Christmas. Don't want to drag this on too long.

Edit: Huh, I just hit one of those dead end events and
Junpei complained he was falling behind because I never use him in my team. Have I noobed by keeping him underlevelled and missed an event or something?

Yeah, they're awful, but at least Atlus knows it this time. :p

You might be missing out on one or two quests, not that many, but I can think of at least three that are triggered by exploring that dungeon.
Taking Koro for a walk, finding some cloths for Elizabeth, and opening a box of Shadows. There might be more than that that I'm forgetting. I don't think there's any quest associated with Junpei complaining, but I might be wrong about that.

There are a few stairs leading back up, but they only cover 1 or 2 % in that dungeon.

Atlus may be self aware this time, but you still have to sit through the poems.
 
Sounds totally the same to me. The only character I could tell whose VA was obviously different than before was for Theo, and possibly Margaret?

Margaret is definitely different; her previous voice actor apparently had obligations around the time they did the sessions for P4U and PQ.
 

Shizuka

Member
My maps are a bit messed up, but they're all 100% up to the fourth floor of the fourth labyrinth. If anyone needs a picture, I can provide it.
 

PK Gaming

Member
My god, Heat Riser is such a clutch skill now. I love how buffs can be stacked together now (you can do something like Heat Riser + Matarukaja for a cool 53%+ attack). In particular, Heat Riser + Orgia Mode = $$$.

I'm finding myself reaching the stairs with something like 70% floor completion on the 4th dungeon. Am I missing out on a ton of side quests if I just move on to the next floor or am I likely to find another set of stairs leading back up? Every other dungeon having time limited side quests in the same room as floor exists in previous labyrinths is making me really paranoid, and while I want to see as much as I can I my first run through, I'm also hoping to finish up before Christmas. Don't want to drag this on too long.

The latter. I don't think you lose out on sidequests until you move onto the next dungeon, but don't quote me on that. You'll "know" when it's time to 100% a particular floor (when you get around 85-90%).

Edit: Huh, I just hit one of those dead end events and
Junpei complained he was falling behind because I never use him in my team. Have I noobed by keeping him underlevelled and missed an event or something?

That event actually runs on continually until every party member reaches level 55. The lowest levelled party members will complain.
 

Shizuka

Member
I also hate how the writer for Persona Q made me hate Teddie. He was my second favorite character from P4, but now he's the last.
 

ZeroX03

Banned
I'm progressing so slowly. 17 hours in and I'm still on the second labyrinth! Still really enjoying it. 100%ing every floor too.
 

random25

Member
Holy crap got ambushed by 2 FOE babies after I returned to Dungeon 3 level 3. Forgot about that one hallway gets you trapped by 2 FOEs.

Still managed to beat them both at the same time, though :p
 

Zareka

Member
You might be missing out on one or two quests, not that many, but I can think of at least three that are triggered by exploring that dungeon.
Taking Koro for a walk, finding some cloths for Elizabeth, and opening a box of Shadows. There might be more than that that I'm forgetting. I don't think there's any quest associated with Junpei complaining, but I might be wrong about that.

There are a few stairs leading back up, but they only cover 1 or 2 % in that dungeon.

The latter. I don't think you lose out on sidequests until you move onto the next dungeon, but don't quote me on that. You'll "know" when it's time to 100% a particular floor (when you get around 85-90%).
*
That event actually runs on continually until every party member reaches level 55. The lowest levelled party members will complain.
Awesome, thanks for answering all my questions! I think I've already done, or am in the process of doing, those 3 quests so I feel better about moving on to the next floor now. I always assumed the time limits ran out on a floor by floor basis since each of them take so long, but per labyrinth seems like it would make more sense. I really should have tested that with a dummy save now I think about it.

And dang, I can't see myself leveling every character to 55. My current party are all in their early 40's and the exp I get per fight in the 4th dungeon is absolutely pathetic. Like, running from every fight because it's not worth it pathetic.
Atlus may be self aware this time, but you still have to sit through the poems.
Yeah they are still pretty annoying whenever they pop up in the Velvet Room. The ridicule elsewhere makes up for it, though!
 
Question for you all who got the LE of the game, is that 3DS case good at all?
Pretty art, nice size, sturdy, but it doesn't have one of the things I like, a strap on the inside to pin your 3DS in place so it can't wobble around
I agree. I never actually intended on using mine, but I did fit my 3DS XL into it out of curiosity, and given the lack of internal straps and no cartridge pouches, I wouldn't use it regardless (there is an internal pocket in the Persona Q case, but it's quite large with no way of securing anything in it either, so I imagine games would just fall out and be rattling around the case). I've got a nice DSi XL case I've had a few years now that fits the system well, protects it nicely, and has plenty of additional storage capacity; it's no bigger than the Persona Q case and does a much better job of holding my 3DS XL and a handful of games and accessories.
 
Top Bottom