Of the
four Persona games announced by
Atlus on their stream a little over a month ago, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth for 3DS is the title that’s
received a steady stream of information. A curious development, considering it
isn’t due for release until June 5th in Japan. That makes it seem like Atlus
Japan isn’t releasing anything between now and then, which makes me wonder
about the fate of Devil Survivor 2:
Break Record -- despite
Atlus USA’s obvious localization tease in their holiday wishes banner.
In case you
forgot or didn’t know: Persona Q is a spinoff for 3DS being handled by members
of the Etrian Odyssey IV development
team, including director Daisuke Kanada. Not everyone involved with that game
is on board, though. The Persona franchise’s Shoji Meguro and Atlus composer Atsushi Kitajoh are taking Yuzo
Koshiro’s place in providing the soundtrack, and artist Shigenori Soejima is
doing his best Yuji Himukai (EO’s character designer) impression by making
super deformed versions of his own designs. The presentation upgraded over the
EO games, though some of its hallmarks remain.
The still
character portraits have been replaced with 3D models during story
conversations, similar to the PS2 Devil
Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha games. In addition to the anime cutscenes, it
will also have some containing the 3D character models. Dungeon crawling,
however, remains in first-person, appearing strikingly similar to the EO games.
Though you can see your characters while they attack in battle, you can’t
during the attack phase; that, and the Personas appear in 2D portraits after
they’re summoned. Interestingly, they’ve been careful not to show the bottom
screen in any of the screenshots, gameplay videos, or trailers. I wouldn’t
expect to see the EO series’ mapping here, as this title’s being aimed towards
a more casual audience, even though EO’s become more casual-friendly with each
installment. For anyone panicking over whether they’re included, Etrian Odyssey Untold has a number of
automatic mapping options, which would undoubtedly be implemented in Q. So that
won’t be anything to worry about for you crazies that don’t like it -- assuming
those features are included at all.
The
first-person dungeons should make it feel similar to the
original Persona, albeit bereft
of the mid-90s “clunky” game design trappings. Expect them to have the level of
polish the EO games have. It will also be nice to see Persona
3 and 4’s
characters in a game with good
dungeon design, especially the former’s.
The start of
Persona Q’s story will differ depending on the protagonist you choose. The
Persona 3 team will start with the members of S.E.E.S. in Tartarus, where they
hear a mysterious bell after entering the Velvet Room. They’re subsequently
transported to a peculiar version of Yasogami High School. Persona 4’s
Investigation Team begins in the real Yasogami High School, with the characters
being sent to a mysterious parallel universe after the bell chimes. They find
themselves in a school that’s a mirror image of theirs, aside from a mysterious
clock tower, where most of the dungeon crawling will take place. While there, the
teams will meet a boy and girl who have lost their memories -- that’s the guy
with the spike-laden choker and the girl carrying a corndog (!?). The story may
not be canonical, but who cares about that when it has the potential for fun
hijinks?
(The answer
is “a lot of people care about that.” Yeah, I don’t know why, either.)
You can
choose from either Makoto Yuki Minato Arisato or Yu Narukami, the
protagonists of P3 and 4, respectively, as the protagonist. (Though P3’s
protagonist is called Makoto Yuki in the Persona 3 movies, he’s going under his
old name here, for some peculiar reason.) As seen in their introduction videos, they both talk
quite a bit, a stark contrast to how they are in their own games.
What? No,
there’s still no sight of the female protagonist from Persona 3 Portable. I almost can’t imagine them leaving her out. The newest trailer does contain a cameo of Vincent from Catherine, though.
The battle
theme will be altered a little depending on the protagonist you’ve chosen,
which can be heard in the background of their introduction videos. Famitsu.com provided some
super short samples, one containing Minato’s version of the battle theme,
and another from a dungeon. Gematsu posted some
alternate links, in case those give you trouble.
Again, the
game releases on June 5th in Japan next year, and hopefully Atlus USA’s
newfound fast localization track record is here to stay.
