Persona Q – Shadow of the Labyrinth

Persona Q – Shadow of the Labyrinth is a role-playing video game developed by Atlus for the Nintendo 3DS. It is part of the Persona series, itself part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise. It was published across all territories in 2014: released in June in Japan, November in North America and Europe, and December in Australia. Atlus published the game in Japan and North America, while NIS America published it in the PAL region.

The game’s story is split into two separate campaigns for each of the Persona 3 and 4 teams, starting partway through the events of the previous games. Dialogue and events vary depending on the player’s choice of protagonist. At Yasogami High School in Inaba, during the culture festival, a strange bell rings, trapping the main characters from Persona 4, known as the investigation team, inside a bizarre alternate version of the school.

Meanwhile, the members of the main characters from Persona 3, known as SEES, are on a mission into the mysterious Tartarus fortress when they are transported to the Velvet Room elevator, which suddenly winds up at the alternate Yasogami as well. Upon arrival in the alternate dimension, the Velvet Room is warped into a strange and unstable configuration, with two doors that lead to different periods. The two groups discover a labyrinth below the school, where amnesiac students Zen and Rei need help restoring their memories of how they became trapped in the school.

Along the way, SEES and the Investigation Team realize that they come from two different periods. Persona Q is a crossover video game, containing characters from Persona 3 (P3) and Persona 4 (P4). It focuses on dungeon crawling in a style similar to the Etrian Odyssey series, also created by developer P-Studio. Gameplay follows a group of characters as they navigate mazes, with turn-based battles forming on certain areas.

The player picks characters from both Persona 3 and Persona 4 to include in their parties, which affects some dialogue and story events. The game comprises two main areas; a high school and labyrinths. At the high school, the player can heal their party, sell materials dropped by enemies in exchange for new equipment, and fuse “Personas” together. Personas are mythical beasts used for battling, and fusing turns them into more powerful versions.