Let's take back the glory and rebel against those who wish to do harm to society. The Phantom Thieves of Heart are back in the spotlight and this time they brought the Investigation Team and the members of S.E.E.S with them. This is the latest entry of the Persona series: Persona Q2 captures all the charm and uniqueness of the Persona franchise all packed in a chibi box with a painted coat of Etrian Odyessy (which is another game series I'll perhaps cover in the future). This isn't your typical Persona game, but that's just how the Phantom Thieves roll. Allow me to tell you why you should try Atlus's latest masterpiece.
Story and Characters
The story starts out pretty fast as Joker (or whatever you decided to name him) and the gang decide to do a routine mission through Mementos. Something odd happens, and the gang is suddenly brought into another world. They learn quickly they aren't welcomed here and are chased out and brought into a movie theater of all places. The gang then realize that a couple of their comrades were captured by a familiar face. The Phantom Thieves move out and explore the strange world and prepare themselves for any danger that comes their way. Lucky for them, they meet a powerful new ally along the way.
And that's how the story starts. From there, it's nothing but an entertaining ride. Characters you know and love interact with each other in such lovely and clever banter. They often make references to each other, and personalities clash in ways you never expect. I have to give it the writers for this one. It's not easy writing for so many characters. Especially since everyone is here as if someone got into the latest Smash game...oh right. Jokes aside, it's everything you expect from a collab of your favorite Persona games (rip 1 and 2). There is one major difference from the first game though. You only have Joker's POV to play from in this game compared to the first game where you had the choice between P3 and P4's POV. I agree with this choice as it didn't change much in the first Persona Q, and I feel it would've just been a cluttered mess otherwise. Oh! And you can play this game without having to play the first one. The story doesn't reference the first game, so you don't have to worry.
Gameplay and Features
(Gameplay video provided by GFM Gaming. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfHtQVt6Fv0)
So the gameplay is different from your typical Persona series game. It has the Persona touch, but it plays like Etrian Odyessy. If you haven't played Etrian Odyssey, it's essentially a first-person dungeon crawler where you explore a map, avoid traps, and fight monsters or bosses that roam around the dungeon. The main gimmick of dungeon crawlers is that you have to draw the map yourself and plot your own landmarks. Now I know that sounds like a lot of work, but it's quite a lot of fun and very satisfying. If it isn't your thing. Don't fret. Compared to other dungeon crawlers, Persona Q2 is very tamed. It has a feature that draws walls on its own, and the game practically tells you where you should plot the landmarks.
Combat is pretty standard and is quite familiar to the mainline Persona series. You create a party of your choice and explore the dungeon. As you engage in combat, attacking an enemy weakness will net you bonus damage on certain moves and moves will be free of cost (if an enemy hits your weakness however they can knock out your boost and then some so watch out). Of course, there's also the Sub-Persona mechanic. Unlike the mainline games, the Protagonists are incapable of switching Personas. Instead, everyone in the party can carry two personas at the same time. The Sub-Persona supports the Main Persona and allows the user to learn additional moves and compensate for weakness making party combinations versatile and infinite. Making a new Persona's is pretty much the same. You fuse Persona's to make stronger Personas for your party. Simple...sort of. If this is your first time playing Persona Q, there are Navigation Skills. These are sperate from combat abilities and can only be utilized by your navigators (people who watch over you n the dungeon). Navigation skills are used to help explore the dungeon by revealing treasure chests and shortcuts before you even get close to them on your map. This makes fusing Persona's tricky as some have both navigation and combat skills. So you'll have to constantly fuse Persona's to separate combat and navigation skills from each other. Annoying, but that's part of the fun.
There are also new combination attacks. As you progress through the story and bond with your fellow teammates. They'll learn combination attacks which can even the playing field (plus they look really cool when they are pulled off).
Art and Music
Combat is pretty standard and is quite familiar to the mainline Persona series. You create a party of your choice and explore the dungeon. As you engage in combat, attacking an enemy weakness will net you bonus damage on certain moves and moves will be free of cost (if an enemy hits your weakness however they can knock out your boost and then some so watch out). Of course, there's also the Sub-Persona mechanic. Unlike the mainline games, the Protagonists are incapable of switching Personas. Instead, everyone in the party can carry two personas at the same time. The Sub-Persona supports the Main Persona and allows the user to learn additional moves and compensate for weakness making party combinations versatile and infinite. Making a new Persona's is pretty much the same. You fuse Persona's to make stronger Personas for your party. Simple...sort of. If this is your first time playing Persona Q, there are Navigation Skills. These are sperate from combat abilities and can only be utilized by your navigators (people who watch over you n the dungeon). Navigation skills are used to help explore the dungeon by revealing treasure chests and shortcuts before you even get close to them on your map. This makes fusing Persona's tricky as some have both navigation and combat skills. So you'll have to constantly fuse Persona's to separate combat and navigation skills from each other. Annoying, but that's part of the fun.
There are also new combination attacks. As you progress through the story and bond with your fellow teammates. They'll learn combination attacks which can even the playing field (plus they look really cool when they are pulled off).
Art and Music
(Persona Q2 full opening-Road Less Taken. Uploaded by Tim Barry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGS9flfg8Vg)
The art style is adorable. Seeing all your favorite Persona characters in cute chibi form is just lovely and refreshing. It isn't for everyone I admit, but the animations and reactions each character makes are well done and amazing. If the art style isn't your thing. I understand, but you're missing out.
As for music, there is free DLC to download popular music from all the mainline games (rip 1 and 2). They sound great, and you most likely have listened to them before so I won't be getting into them. The original music this game offers fits right in with the Persona games. The opening especially can sit up there with the Last Surprise and Reach out to Truth. Shame the collector's edition didn't come with a soundtrack. Such a missed opportunity. Persona music has always been well done and never fail to resonate with fans. This game is no different.
Additional Content
Needless to say, it'll make the game a freaking cakewalk if you decide to download them. I suggest only downloading the game-breaking DLC on a second playthrough, or play the game through a harder difficulty. You could just download them for the exclusive skills and just fuse them in Persona's at your level so you're not rolling through the game an lv 80 Persona. You do you though, play the game how you want to play.
Conclusion
Persona Q2 is a lovely addition to the Persona games and should be played by anyone who's a fan of the franchise. For newcomers, I highly recommend playing something else as this is a terrible game to introduce people to the Persona series.
Combat and gameplay are fun. The story is cute, refreshing, and enjoyable. Everything about the game is very light-hearted. My only real complaint is it doesn't do anything different from the first game other than some new characters and a couple changes here and there. The gameplay might get stale and tedious after a while, so try not to get burned out.
Still, I highly recommend giving the game a shot. Especially if you're a fan of the series. You won't be disappointed.
Thank's for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the review. Tell what you think of the game and what I should review next. See you on your next turn!
(Persona is owned by Atlus. I don't own any of the images or videos shown here Please support the official release).
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