Persona Q Review - Missed Potential

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Discord: / discord
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0:00 Intro
4:01 Persona Q's Dumb Map System
5:29 Main Battle Mechanics
11:53 Dungeon Design
19:29 Art Direction, Characters, & Story
27:03 Conclusion
28:38 Outro & Patreon Credits
Welcome to my Persona Q Review. Persona Q has a lot of Missed Potential for me and in this Analysis, I'll be going over the good and the bad. As well as explaining why Persona Q is Missed Potential. Persona Q has a lot of Missed Potential and this Persona Q Review will be going over why Persona Q is like that. This Persona Q review will contain spoilers as it's an in-depth analysis.
Persona Q Analysis Missed Potential is going to be an unbiased look at Persona Q. If you like Persona Q, then you should watch this video so I can show you why Persona Q has a lot of Missed Potential in this Persona Q Review.
My relationship with Persona Q is a very complicated one. There are many aspects of this game that I like, and just as many that left me both frustrated and disappointed. For those who are unaware, Persona Q was released for the 3ds back in 2014. While Persona spinoffs were nothing new at the time thanks to the Persona 4 arena games, what made Persona Q immediately stand out was the fact that this game was a full-fledged RPG featuring the casts of Persona 3 and Persona 4 in their prime. While the arena games gave us a taste of what these two casts teaming up would be like, Persona Q was intended to take this to a whole other level. You see, Persona Q is actually a crossover with another series developed by Atlus called Etrian Odyssey. A series of dungeon crawlers where the main appeal is the gigantic labyrinths you explore. I personally haven’t played these games outside of Persona Q, so I’m not sure which mechanics and design choices are from Etrian Odyssey or new ideas that were introduced or implemented here.
I’m going to be judging this game solely as a Megami Tensei fan. This distinction is important because Persona Q is a very polarizing game for me. In order to explain why I’m going to have to go into a lot of detail, both in terms of story and mechanics. Not only are there going to be major spoilers for Persona Q in this video, but I’m also going to be assuming that you’ve played P3 and P4 for the sake of being able to reference specific scenes from those games in this video. So if you don’t want to be spoiled, please click off the video now. With that out of the way, let’s just dive right into it.

[@NamsCompendium]

Thanks for watching! Feel free to join my discord server if you're interested in continuing the discussion! discord.gg/thhunYTbHw

[@raidoukuzonoha883]

Can’t wait to join the discord :D

[@rickraptornightcore1225]

@@raidoukuzonoha883same im sure it is a nice enviorment with no problems at all

[@raidoukuzonoha883]

@@rickraptornightcore1225 yea no ones gulaged for no reason I believe and is a nice place with some good mods :)

[@phantomslay5612]

Dude, can you please do a full review of Persona 5 Royal?

[@NamsCompendium]

@@phantomslay5612 I think you’ll like what I have to say at the end of the video then!

[@edophoenix92]

The most disappointing part was not having enough characters to fit Yu Narukami as P4 hero’s name.

[@lgro00]

THIS

[@Ashyson780]

I put Souji Seta

[@TheFahmi97]

Just put Giga Chad

[@BitchChill]

"Narukami was just long enough to fit Persona 4

[@jaidens.g.1920]

I named him Yu Nakami, since it didn't look too weird, and I wasn't going to resort to a manga name that I'm not used to at all. I did the same in PQ2 with Joker, naming him Ren Amiya

[@sbfh014]

Regardless of how anyone feels, likes or dislikes for pq in general, we can all come together and agree that Maze of Life *slaps*

[@ultima1033]

100% agree

[@dylanweathers9727]

It is really good

[@infernapemaster6456]

I see nothing but facts here

[@dylanweathers9727]

@@infernapemaster6456 not my favorite opening song, but still nice and upbeat

[@kingdomkey63]

And the batle music is also really good..just not quite as good

[@Apollo_Agni]

It took me 3 playthroughs of P5 to realize that Goho-M is a pun... cause it's "Go Home"

[@Elnadrius]

Damn... Thanks... Just been hit by realization

[@popstarchamp]

It took me playing P4 to realize it because I actually used the item in that game as there's otherwise no fast travel in the TV World.

[@pieshie8599]

... if it took you 3 playthroughs, then it took me 5 years to know this 😌

[@Apollo_Agni]

@@pieshie8599 I have played P5 4 times, P4 twice, P3 3 times, and the classic games once each... and only very recently did I get it

[@pieshie8599]

@@Apollo_Agni that is officially longer than mine 😂 like wow I haven't even finished P4 and get my hands on the classics

[@Weskalia]

Teddie in P4: 75% development, 25% flirt. Teddie in PQ: 0 development, 100% "Hey girls wanna bang, they're not paying attention to me"

[@dylanweathers9727]

I'd say in og P4 it's 50% development 25% bear puns and 25% flirt

[@mortiphasm5597]

In all fairness, Teddie entered the labyrinth universe at the end of October, when he was at his most obnoxious. I'm not saying he's not annoying here, but he'd probably have turned out different if the P4 group had come from December.

[@reichtanglevictor1694]

And Fuukq, Yukiko and Chie are just "We cook shit food but somehow dont realise it" for the whole game and Akihiko is "PROTEIN PROTEIN PROTEIN"

[@javxion6576]

@@dylanweathers9727 25%development 50% lame jokes 25% sexual misconduct treated as lame jokes

[@dylanweathers9727]

@@javxion6576 eh your opinion is definitely valid, a lot of people dont really like him, but aside from the garbage bear puns, I honestly really liked him In P4. He's surprisingly fleshed out and he's just genuinely nice, even if he is the horniest good guy character in the franchise.

[@mrfeconic6705]

"Persona Q is around 50 hours long" *screams in 90 hours save file*

[@SuperDanMan11100]

No joke, I am still playing PQ right now, and I am on the last dungeon. I am at 75+ hours on this save file.

[@xXWaifuInsuranceXx]

Lol try 200+ hours plebs *cries*

[@xbolt678]

I ended at over 120+ hrs (including post game which was mainly the last Liz fight and completing the compendium). That is the longest I have ever spent in one cycle of any megaten game (including p5r). But I'd agree with him, I don't think enough valuable stuff happens to justify more than like 25-30 hours.

[@xXWaifuInsuranceXx]

@@xbolt678 Most of my hours is just me grinding out levels, trying to figure out the labyrinth, or accidentally leaving it running while I did something else, which I did a lot a couple years ago.

[@hardgay7537]

I ended my P5 first run at 160+ hours because my dumbass found out you can grind the final dungeon for all the gem demons, so I got 99% compendium completion before wrecking Yaldaboth. That's more time than I've ever spent on a Disgaea game. I may need professional help.

[@skunthundler]

Apparently the Akihiko protein thing was always like that in the japanese version of P3, the localizer must've known it wasn't too funny as a running gag and only had him say it once. It's still terrible in PQ, but it's a bit less jarring with that knowledge.

[@Gordoniankid]

That explains so much.

[@CyberAnko]

Oh. For real? Did not know that.

[@SuperDanMan11100]

What's weird is in the P3 movies, they don't really focus on his protein fetish. From what I saw on a subtitled version of them, he rarely talked about protein.

[@skunthundler]

@@SuperDanMan11100 Probably because the P3 movies aren't extremely comedic and truncate a lot of what happens.

[@chaoscontrolled5978]

That's cool and all, but why is your pfp eating spaghetti?

[@JetblackJay]

In P3 route he remembers the adventure they had or that was the p4 protagonist either way one of them remembers

[@sbfh014]

Pretty sure it's the p3 one, but becomes irrelevant regardless because of what happens to him

[@kingdomkey63]

Poor door kun

[@VincentEternal]

It does put the ending of p3 in a different perspective because he was probably thinking during the whole fight with Nyx “I have to do this or my friends are doomed.” He had to fight to make sure the investigation team would be able to live on.

[@iZapo]

@@sbfh014 😔

[@yolopup1237]

Why is there a sauce dealer here?

[@jacobwenner4054]

I have a funny(?) story about this game: I was going through it blind last summer and I unlocked the Evil Spirit Club late at night. Despite being a high school senior at the time, I have a fear of the dark that’s pretty much always stuck with me since I was a kid. Since the game’s tone had been pretty lighthearted so far, I figured “it can’t be THAT creepy. What could go wrong?” The excessively creepy atmosphere caught me way off guard, but the thing that got me the worst was the red doll jumpscare. I never thought the game would pull something like that, and it got me so badly that I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night. Thanks, Evil Spirit Club; almost a year has passed since that night, and I still hate you.

[@chadsaturday3300]

😂😂😂 Shit man sorry you had to go through all that but I agree fuck that doll!

[@Pikaman20008]

As an Etrian Odyssey fan, I just want to elaborate that the purpose of the auto-map feature isn’t to completely eliminate mapmaking, but rather to take some of the tedium of having to draw out every single floor tile and wall. Not arguing that this makes it better, just want to explain the overall intention.

[@typemoriarty3898]

Akihiko and Chie have amazing character arcs in this game, they are extremely revolutionary.

[@raidoukuzonoha883]

I loved their varied dialogue

[@hiarus8850]

I can feel the sarcasm bleeding over my screen

[@themadhatter7648]

Yo mori

[@tuskguy361]

When Akihiko made his 900th protein joke it truly made me remember why he was such a good character

[@---oq5kb]

Eh I dunno, both of their arcs were too similar. They both went from fighters to consumers. Which I think was an excellent choice for atlus. At first I was worried that chie was gonna overcome her unintentional superiority complex she feels due to her relationship with yukiko, but thankfully she just gets connected to meat even more. Jokes aside, I kinda get why they did this. They don't remember anything from q games anyway. Giving them a character arc or something like that would be completely pointless. (Q2 and 5 spoilers) Though I wish they did something with the plot twists of persona 5 like lavenza and akechi in q2. The closest things were akechi's secret almost getting revealed and the other velvet room attendants noticing there was something wrong with their little sister. (in order to protect the timeliness of events they couldn't tell her anyway) At least we know that ikutsuki canonically made a jokes folder for aigis. So that's something.

[@Watercrown86]

This review actually makes me really interest in checking this game out. Everything you have issues with... managing inventory, drawing maps, carefully building your party, etc were all basically the entire point of Etrian Odyssey. I never realize this series took that much from that series.

[@Vexdon]

Etrian Odyssey is such a good series to play!

[@doniarts]

A year late on this but it was made by the EO team after all, PQ is persona x Sekaiju no Meikyuu (SQ)

[@carsickthenark1195]

PQ is just baby’s first etrian odyssey

[@LocutusOfWarborgOneOfOne]

it's great. not sure why he has such a vendetta... even AFTER watching the video.

[@Golden_Hydra]

The only missed opportunity was not having Adachi as a party member. His interactions would've been great.

[@pinkraven7043]

For the most part, I agree, but I still enjoyed Persona Q. There definitely should’ve been more interaction between the casts of P3 and P4. And the “they’re going to forget anyway cause Velvet Room reasons” is a VERY safe and cheap hand wave to explain why spin-offs like Q and Dancing in Starlight/Moonlight can happen. It’s just a little sad seeing the meaningful stuff that happens between characters like Kanji and Ken. Cause they’re very heartwarming, but *they don’t matter.* And don’t get me started on what they did to my boy, Akihiko. For whatever reason, in the spin-offs they can’t write him as the loyal, but hot headed and kind-of-oblivious big brother character he was in P3/P3P. I guess they couldn’t milk that for humor. So instead they took his athleticism and morphed it into a Protein fetish??? The story’s saving grace really is the mystery behind Zen and Rei. I thought it was an excellent way to combine P3’s plot about death and P4’s plot about truth and lies. And I was genuinely sad and happy for the both of them in the end. Also- the OST is AMAZING. Maze of Life is one of the best songs in the franchise :)

[@pt_saurio6261]

It seems that Akihiko in JP version was also has protein fetish but they change it to the USA version with the localization in the Vanilla Persona 3.

[@AbadabaBoy]

Also isn’t it funny that Makoto actually does remember the events of this game tho??? Like I see no one talking about that for quite some time

[@dpolksworld]

The Etrian Odyssey mechanics take a special type of gamer to appreciate

[@BlazingAzureTheta]

I will never forget this game. I played it over the course of a 4 day period where I was stressed the fuck out studying for college. For 4 days, I was studying or playing this game. I only slept like 2 hrs a day and ate nothing but bread and bananas cause my belly couldn't handle anything else.

[@nickhalfmann8397]

Did you finish it? And hopefully you’re feeling better 🤝

[@Raiden-le7up]

Oh my god 😦

[@LuizAlexPhoenix]

Relatable af, the true gaming and college experience... Barely any sleep, rest and food, yet somehow a memorable experience.

[@kingnewgameplus6483]

Before I watch this vid, I just wanna say that this game is probably one of my favorite game OST's of all time. And the ending made me cry like a bitch.

[@kingdomkey63]

Want to cry even more..... Rei is actually Labrys mom.

[@OriginalGameteer]

I hope Zen appears again He's a non Persona-using party member, and a rare benevolent diety in the Persona series

[@isenokami7810]

Unfortunately, I believe the ending says that he won’t be returning. It’s been a while since I beat this, so I don’t remember the details, but as I remember it, Zen ceased to exist after finally ferrying Rei to the afterlife at the end of the game. He’s not Marie. He’s a benevolent offshoot of a cognitive god, sure, but he’s not allowed to exist like her.

[@OriginalGameteer]

@@isenokami7810 Zen IS Chronos though. He's not an offshoot, just one half, who chose to accept the Clockwork God (the other half) back into him to become a singular entity again. He's shown being responsible for bringing souls to the afterlife as an aspect of Death via finite time, him suddenly not existing wouldn't make much sense. The difference between him and Marie is that she no longer has a purpose to fill and can just enjoy life, Zen still exists in the collective unconscious to do his duty

[@Chiakiandmikanarebest]

I don’t think zen or rei should return, it would be kind of insulting to their character arcs

[@isenokami7810]

@@OriginalGameteer It’s that accepting the other half back into him part that leads to his nonexistence, though. Again, it’s been a while so I don’t remember that clearly, but he’s not allowed to be Zen anymore, at least.

[@mee7er]

I think it kinda hurts the general theme of a human railing against unwinnable circumstances of astronomical scale when you have a full powered deity on your side. Would be a fun guest character in a spin-off game though. Maybe Rei as a payable with Zen being her persona in the next arena game or something.

[@Animus_Altia]

The inventory space limitation is actually designed to encourage the general gameflow of the labarynths. You go in and make progress on your map, gather materials, gain levels, or whatever your general objective for that run is. Your markers for returning to base and getting reset for the next goal is either filling up your inventory space or running low on HP and SP. The thing about Etrian games is that they are all about the flowstate. The cozy rhythm that you set for yourself exploring the labarynths, and the moments of tension when you start taking risks and entering new territory or taking on an enemy that could beat the crap out of you. And then making your way back to base, restocking, re-equipping, getting your stuff in order, and going right back in all over again. Etrian games are generally more threadbare on story than other RPGs with your imagination meant to fill in the gaps in between, a lot like the Mystery Dungeon games.

[@SSBBPOKEFAN]

...okay, but let's just agree that the OST is clearly GOD-TIER! "Laser Beam" may just be my FAVORITE boss theme in any game PERIOD.

[@Chiakiandmikanarebest]

The infinite is the best final boss theme. Laser beam is up there as one of the best boss themes though, easily my favorite in the series

[@TraRobins234]

About the map criticisms, Etrian Odyssey, the game this is based on, is explicitly a game about cartography. When you start the game, you are told that you will be making a map of the Yggdrasil. So, for this to be a proper crossover, it needs to allow you to do that even if auto mapping is turned on. Otherwise, one of the primary mechanics gets forgotten.

[@natchu96]

In the first place the automapping was only there to save time drawing every single floor and wall you pass, the map still needs manual effort to look passable

[@yagami999913]

Funny how almost all of your gripes with the game are characteristics proper to the Etrian series and are actually what made the game as enjoyable for me since Etrian Odyssey is one of my all time favourite RPG series so i felt right at home.

[@Kurlija]

My thoughts exactly, PQ was my introduction to the Etrian series, can't get enough of it. It's a shame Q2 simplified the labyrinths.

[@cardbored_bocks6074]

The thumbnail is how my parents feel about me

[@esoteric7990]

PQ & PQ2 look great when upscaled in Citra

[@LuizAlexPhoenix]

Shh, Nintendo doesn't need to know.

[@TCapButterCup]

Yes

[@hardyjoe4278]

I am about ready to set up all data from the 3DS to Citra. I was on that SP everyday. Ever since the relays went down, SP seems shut off. I just found a tag a few days ago.

[@jaidens.g.1920]

If you're interested in checking out the Etrian Odyssey series, a large number of the games on 3DS have demos, including the remake of the first game (Etrian Odyssey Untold: the Millennium Girl) which is the only one I've played so far

[@yutavergil]

Persona Q may be not the best Persona Spin-off, but oh boy, it has a really unique style, for the arts, for the music and for the rest too! Persona Q was my first contact with Persona too, and I think I could've been better, but this game solely is really great on its own as a spin-off.

[@hardyjoe4278]

Lol, no time limit, and both teams from two great PS2 games on the 3ds

[@xbolt678]

As far as gameplay goes, I think my biggest issue with Q is that brute force is just way too tempting. Like I could have spent my time being chased by the Old Doll, but I also learned it was only resistant to light skills and I thought I would fight it. I expected to be there for a long time spamming mahamaon but it only took Naoto 2 attempts until she eliminated the biggest threat. After that the only foes that posed a challenge were the super evasive ones. Even the reaper was made into a joke because Kanji and Aigis are too damn strong.

[@Fomortiis100]

As a big Etrian Odyssey fan I can confirm that the 60 item limit is indeed a holdover from that franchise. However, SP (known as TP in EO) consumption is much more straightforward there, without the SP refilling mechanics that Personas brought to the table. You start with X TP, each skill uses up Y TP, and you eventually run out and have to return, with TP restoration items being incredibly rare. Thanks to this linear TP consumption, the pacing of dungeon exploration is much more brisk, often having the player return to town before having to worry about their inventory filling up.

[@pokemon22322]

Pq was my first persona game that I was able to play and I liked it at the time ngl

[@jakk2631]

Same

[@Algebruh2407]

Mine was pq2 as I saw joker in smash and thought that he was cool but I don't have a PlayStation and this was pre p4g on pc

[@isenokami7810]

Having played Persona and Etrian Odyssey myself, I’d say this is the Phoenix Wright vs Professor Layton of the series: technically an okay game, but the experience from each separate half of the crossover is the weakest in their series. As a Persona fan, Nam covered why this fails as a Persona game; as an Etrian Odyssey fan, I can confirm that a lot of his gameplay issues, FOE problems in particular, are due to the EO side of things getting dropped just as hard. I still like the game, but I’d also sooner direct you to the actual Etrian Odyssey games if you want this kind of game. Still interested in Q2, though. That said, haven’t played it yet, but I don’t expect it to do things any better.

[@PancakemonsterFO4]

Q2 at least gives you the item “growth incence“ from quests or by defeating the labyrinth boss wich allows to level up a untrained character to the level of your currently highest member. I also had no issues with the puzzles but it's still super easy for etrian odyssey standarts

[@TheBlueLink3]

I think they’re both great crossovers. PLvsPW is certainly one of my favorite games from either side of the crossover.

[@izzy1356]

Yeah even as an Etrian Odyssey fan, I still can't defend the 100% map mechanic in PQ. It's never been a thing in EO, and while I *get* the implementation (making sure players *actually* explore instead of just looking up a map and copying it)... You shouldn't need to physically step on *every* tile. *ESPECIALLY* hazards tiles. The incentive is cool, but typically in EO you'd get quests that require you to find specific spots anyways with neat rewards.

[@isenokami7810]

Okay, in regards to the FOEs, there’s one aspect that pissed me off so bad. In the third level, I did actually try to fight some of them, I forget why. And the fight...wasn’t horrible. Even without OP tactics, my party was doing fine... ...right up until the FOE used Diarahan to fully heal. In short, the FOE as an enemy was designed not to crush you, but just to take forever to kill, and require setup for the final stretch to keep it from resetting the fight. $&@$ you, that’s terrible enemy design. Having played the first two EO games, I can assure you FOE design in those games isn’t this brain dead.

[@Lucky_T]

Etrian Odyssey player here. I can't recommend it enough, genuinely great game.

[@ThePenguinGod116]

Loving the more frequent uploads! Keep up the amazing work man!

[@ThatBoyAqua]

Nam puts the Q in QT

[@connorburris4846]

I think the best way to think about the characters is that they're showing their public faces due to the outside context problem, while you're getting to know them intimately in their games. Food for thought.

[@HadesWTF]

"We all know what's coming next." Oh boy I can't wait for the SMT IV video!

[@mrbreakfastmcmuffin]

Hearing you explain the ending, and the credits... You’re Amzing man

[@cristianoducceschi3547]

Fun fact: Makoto/Minato remembers everything because at the beginning of the p3 side, which is set after the main story, elizabeth tells everything to him

[@lgro00]

Wait, doesn't it happen during the storm that's pretty much halfway through the story?

[@saltlessguy8707]

Then it contradict with P4 arena. Elizabeth doesn't recognize the Investigation team in that game.

[@stale_cheeto]

@@saltlessguy8707 so then would that mean PQ is non canon

[@Eudaimonia7564]

@@stale_cheeto it is.

[@isenokami7810]

If I may draw attention to the Yukiko side quest in the third dungeon. That one ticked me off a bit (party wipes due to Yukiko not being in my main team), but the ending was a scare that only an EO style game could give.

[@aerth6946]

Weekly SMT content uploaded straight up into my YT Feed, and I like it.

[@Godspeeds]

5:21 5:29 first that's the whole point of etrian oddysey gameplay you are an adventure with the task to discover the world. later there are side quest that require back tracking and by doing the mapping and taking notes those side quest become really easy, except for the RNG ones, those need a specific attention too enemies

[@hasturcomeforth1433]

Great video as always dude, your analysis is super pleasant to listen to. Can't wait for you to cover the best game in the series- wait a minute you already made a Jack Bros video, what am I saying.

[@AceaIvalia]

> mapping comments B-but making your own map is the best thing! (This is Etrian Odyssey fan’s perspective). I suppose they could add full automap that includes icons and stuff too. We may need to go there if Switch version of EO ever happens. Edit: And well, I think a lot of criticisms are actually less of EO issues and more of the fact that you are not familiar with the DRPG genre. Inventory limit for example is there so that you balance longevity in the dungeon and the space for loots/etc. Think about rouge-likes and hunger mechanic. Hunger mechanic/having to bring food item is basically the definition of inconvenience, but that’s the point of the genre. Ditto for dungeon puzzles, although I will say that PQ is pretty heavy on puzzle even from EO standard (and well-above average even from genre standard).

[@Kiitepu]

I enjoyed your video! Specially since as you said this game appears to have a bunch of glaring faults which ended up dismotivating to ever picking it up and I just went straight do PQ2 since early reviews from Q2 said it is a step up from Q1 on every front, specially the one which is most important to me which is the characterization. A lot of good moments on P2 such as Ken wanting to become a Phantom Thief or the quests forming a lot of unlikely friendships such as Yusuke and Yukiko. Hope you try Q2 sometime even though you didn't super like Q1, I really enjoyed that game!

[@GentZero]

Can't wait for your Q2 review

[@Dahras1]

As a fan of SMT and a *massive* Etrian Odyssey fan, I have to say you're pretty spot on. To be fair, I've only played Q2, not Q, but in my opinion the Q series merges EO and Persona in a way that debases the appeal of both series. On one hand you've got Etrian Odyssey, which is a pure dungeon crawler, exclusively about character customization, exploration, and combat. And on the other you've got Persona, which is a series about character development and story. Having both together isn't necessarily impossible, but the way the Q games do it sacrifices both. Here's one example: the Q series gives you access to a massive roster of playable party members, which is necessary to fulfill the "bringing the band back together" premise. But because of this massive roster, no single character feels especially unique to use in battle. Most characters fall into a handful of generic play styles (the physical bruiser, elemental coverage mage, healer) and characters are interchangeable within these roles. But this is completely antithetical to the idea of Etrian Odyssey, where classes like the Landsknecht and the Bushi might both do physical damage, but the first tries to act quickly and synergizes with multi-hitting moves, while the second does big, slow single hits that damage itself. Another example: you were frustrated by the limited inventory space, which is understandable. But that limited inventory space exists in Etrian Odyssey to prevent you from cheesing the game with items, which is very possible considering how much more powerful items are in that series. Furthermore, most EO games feature classes like Farmer whose sole purpose is to make collecting resources easier, and many players have a backup "Farming Party" which they use when they need additional gold or equipment. But that system only makes sense in the context of a game where equipment, not Sub-Personas, is the primary way to increase character power. I don't know about Persona Q, but for me, Persona Q2 wasn't a bad game, it was just really disappointing based on my love for the two series it drew from.

[@daiyahigashikata]

abusing the bind skills is a staple of the etrian odyssey series due to high difficulty and limited resources

[@forbiddensuper2369]

Now we need that pq2 review

[@DaScruffy0ne]

Really hate to admit it, but this was my first Persona game! I still enjoyed it, and it did get me super interested in the series! Now that I’ve played all the games, PQ isn’t as good as I remember, but still grateful I played it! Great video, and thank you so much for you detailed and in-depth analyses :)

[@PedroMatos482]

That's funny. How confused were you? They assume you've played at least P3 or P4 in this game

[@zombielepra1726]

Ironically it was my first game as well, I was the average Persona 5 fan for P4 Golden so in short I watched an entire Johneawesome playthrough, but when I was looking online I found Q and bought it and loved it then I actually played Golden and 3 finally Royal and using emulators to play other Shin Megami Tensei games

[@arcflamearcanum7579]

Was a bit hesitant when I saw this in my recommended, but overall really good review! I appreciate highlighting both its good and bad aspects while making note of the absolutely butchered characterization of its cast. Might stick around for your P5R review. And god damn, being reminded of the ending to Persona Q from this review made me tear up all over again. lol.

[@returnedtomonkey8886]

Talk about Arena's story next.

[@terrelllofton4113]

Persona q borrows skills and mechanics that are specific to Etrian Odyssey 4. For example navigator skills were originally burst skills in 4 and there was more versatility in them. Most of the skills that don't originate from Persona are also pulled from Etrian Odyssey 4 specifically. For Example, the links skills as well as death chaser and counter were pulled from the the landsknecht and the dancer specifically.

[@eulogous]

If you ever do get around to trying out the Etrian Odyssey games, I'd recommend EO4 to start with. The difficulty isn't as high as the other entries, but I think it's a solid game overall.

[@Louis_Cyphriel]

Amazing video, I actually never could word why I didn't get into PQ. Honestly, the dungeons made using EO logic while throwing in Persona battle gameplay felt strange and I couldn't go further than 2nd dungeon as of now. Now interested if PQ2 gonna end up being better...

[@breakdown3009]

persona q2 did so much better and i would highly recommend trying it, its very sad that it didnt take off at all but it came out at a bad time so its not a suprise. even atlus knew it wouldnt which is why it has no English voice acting

[@shira_yone]

25:57 that turning animation is smooth af

[@NarchMustDie]

good shit as always

[@MagikarpUsedOmnisplash]

I like how the two parties come together in Persona Arena and Arena Ultimax. Wish they made a proper turn-based RPG with these two parties. But I guess we're stuck with Persona 5 spin-offs until Persona 6

[@jettlucashayes8508]

by that i mean 2

[@TeamSanityYGO]

Love the video! I Started this game 2 weeks ago and I am currently stuck on that Spirit dungeon where you have to run from the zooming FOE 😔 but after I’m done with this game PQ2 time!

[@greenhillmario]

Your complaints with the gameplay are reminding me “damn I need to finish etrian odyssey untold” Etrian Odyssey is great, maybe the mechanics from there that carried into pq work better for you contextually there

[@nifftbatuff676]

I would like a persona q with characters from persona 1&2

[@pinglefingle]

if you decide to play it sometime in the future, it would be interesting to see what you think about Persona Q2. The combat was greatly improved but the dungeons are like the opposite of the first one, they are so braindead easy. Basically no puzzles to speak of. None of them are any harder than the Group Date Cafe in PQ.

[@jerry3115]

Fun game, flawed, but still very fun Those lategame puzzles were really fun imo Inventory space wasnt that big of a deal Combat balance is wack, but that's ok Cast is definitely too big tho Characters big silly

[@BitchChill]

Isn't every game flawed?

[@jerry3115]

@@BitchChill nothing is flawless

[@sarahheart7856]

a note, there are accessories in the game that have the skills "growth 1, growth 2, and Growth 3" and are a possible work around to the problem you were posing at about 9 minutes in where you were saying there's little you can do to keep your off party members viable. while this isn't a fix exactly, I do think it bares at least a little mentioning as this is certtainly a method one can use to keep extra party members viable, especially once you obtain growth 3, however that is somewhat late into the game.

[@canadmexi]

21:12 I like how Chie loves "meat". It's like that Rhythm Heaven song that goes "'Snacks' are the best".

[@AnimeFanX11]

Have you played an Etrian game yet? Would love to see a review!

[@CassidyListon]

I forgot about the "sub persona" system that allowed other party members to change their persona. I bounced off Persona Q but I REALLY HOPE that the next mainline persona game allows party members to change Personas within their Arcana.

[@IsaacChin]

Say what you will about this game but the voice actress for Rei during her backstory did phenomenal work~

[@kara-mari9909]

at least the music's good

[@littlejam5984]

Q was fun for me but I really prefer Q2 because of the Improvements it made wich are kinda neat imo

[@n2badsam420]

I do have a question. Will you think of doing the Kingdom Hearts series one day. Will you cover the SMT Devil Survivor games one day.

[@NamsCompendium]

I would really like to cover Kingdom Hearts at some point! I like those games a lot and I think I would be able to provide a new perspective to the discussion that isn't just "Look at how dumb this is" Devil Survivor is also something that I would want to talk about for the sole reason that it's a highly requested game for me to cover.

[@n2badsam420]

@@NamsCompendium I will look forward to your future videos. I think your videos are like The Act Man's videos of certain games.

[@royalkumar795]

@@NamsCompendium so, what's your opinion on Persona Q2 I still want Q3 with all persona cast including Persona 1 and Persona 2

[@NamsCompendium]

@@royalkumar795 I haven't played it yet, but from what I've heard, it's a massive improvement. I'll get around to it eventually, but it's not a priority for me.

[@xbolt678]

@@NamsCompendium if you do get to KH then I'd love hear what you have to say!

[@saki3457]

I mean emphasizing on the fact that you haven't played an etrian odyssey game before and deciding to make a review based on an smt point of view is going to trigger any and all etrian odyssey fans. This game is in fact more or less the same compared to etrian odyssey games. Inventory space having a limit of 60 is to force you to take frequent breaks from dungeons, drawing maps is a huge point of the game too and it makes you memorize dungeons. Foes exist in the game solely as puzzles and if you are beating foes when you first fight against them means you are playing on below standard/base difficulty. The foes of a dungeon are supposed to be strong and occasionally stronger than the bosses of the dungeon itself, they also come with cheap mechanics like insta death high attack values to 1 shot, etc. The whole puzzle aspect is integral to the gameplay and beating them when you 1st go through a dungeon beats the purpose and takes out that important core mechanic which was the puzzle. However you can fight the foes to see how well you will fare against the boss. I highly recommend trying out etrian odyssey games. Their character creation and skill tree is what gives it depth. If you want good story then try out etrian odyssey 2 untold. If you want an easy etrian odyssey game to get into the franchise then play etrian odyssey 4. Other than that I highly recommend making a video of pq after playing an actual etrian odyssey game because you will have a lot more to discuss and compare as well as see how some mechanics which failed in pq might not fail in etrian odyssey

[@8b_abdillahkarimhanief528]

Can you do devil survivor review

[@LuminousArc92]

ok so speaking as someone who has played Etrian Odyssey and PQ 1 and 2 I have a couple thoughts: first comparing the story of PQ 1 and 2, in terms of overall story PQ1 is WAY better that PQ2, however PQ2 has a couple more mixed group moments, though really the majority comes from the fact there is both the MC and FemC protags from P3, where the rest of the p3 cast doesn't know her yet she knows them. PQ1 connects and endears you to Zen and Rei specifically. I adore the moment in the 3rd labyrinth where you have to guide Rei to find a key in the dark while she's being spooked by those doll FOE's. She steps up despite her fears in order to save her friends and I love it. PQ2 has a Rei version with this girl who watches the movies in the different theaters which serve as the labyrinths but she is just SO BLAND jesus. Each movie shows off some form of oppression to individuality and she's like yes don't go against the grain, don't be your own person. Then the team goes in and rewrites the ending to be like yea be yourself, its good and she's like oh ok that's good. Doesn't help that each movie is just an "arc" for each group of Persona teams. Movie 1 is for P5 team, movie 2 is for P4 team, movie 3 is for P3 team (its the most interesting because of FemC but also has Ribbon, a chibirobo version of Aigis who is just adorable), and movie 4 is finally for notRei and it's pretty meh. I never ended up finishing it because I was SO BORED with it. Zero connection with her as a character. PQ1 has better map mechanics while PQ2 has better overall combat mechanics. Drawing out the map lines in PQ2, it feels so janky and choppy for some reason whereas in PQ1 and the Etrian Odyssey games it was smooth going. You can automap floors and walls I guess to avoid this but whatever. PQ2 streamlines the combat so that now you do an allout attack when all enemies are knocked down. This means that you could do a couple allout attacks per turn if your characters attack in a certain order. Also they made it easy to know what persona's to give to your navigators, with some personas basically only learning navigator skills so that was a nice enough change. It's also changed how the team learns skills. Now when they level up they have 6 instead of 4 + 4 skillcard slots, and you can decide which to keep and which to remove like in classic persona games, adding in link attacks to certain party members main mechanics

[@funninoriginal6054]

As someone who quite enjoyed PQ1, i gotta say that you hit the spot with that dungeon design part. Seriously, it got so bad for me sometimes that i had to use an JAPANESE GUIDE just to see what the crud was i even supposed to do. Thank god that PQ2 has an different approach with its dungeon design, because by the end of the first one i coudn't stand looking at burly macho men without getting PTSD from the Inaba Pride Exibit

[@TheBlueLink3]

I actually really liked the difficult design. I do hope Q2 didn’t dumb things down too much.

[@SailorCallie]

It was from playing Etrian Odyssey that Persona Q caught my eye. It's a good game, but playing P3 and P4 prior to playing Persona Q is a must if you want to understand what's going on. BTW, have you consider covering PQ2 in the future?

[@TheBlueLink3]

It’s a great game if you ask me. I definitely loved the map system. It’s fun to make your own map. I enjoyed the story and characters too, though I can agree Chie and Akihiko could have been better. OST is definitely great, and I had fun with the gameplay too.

[@SlyJMan]

I played this game's P3 Side and, because I hate myself, I tried to level everyone up evenly. This made the game significantly harder as I wasn't focus firing on any characters except the protag, only putting a few skill cards on other characters like impure reach on Naoto, Koromaru, and Ken, and the game took 120 hours to beat because I was too weak to circumvent the FOE puzzles and kept swapping characters. I couldn't make any single characters good so overall I had a much harder time than I would've had otherwise. Which sucks, because it was really interesting to see how some characters were changes. Heroic Gemini and Death Chaser make Junpei one of the best characters in the game, Zen becomes a monster due to his natural stat growth supposed to compensate for his lack of swappable sub-personas, and if I cared enough to experiment more, I probably would've made super tough characters like Nam's too. In the end, I couldn't really enjoy it because my characters were struggling and I didn't feel okay making new personas because I worried for elemental diversity and limited money due to buying equipment for everyone. If I can add anything to what you said about the story, specifically regarding Zen and Rei, it's that they are perfect companions to the two teams due to embodying both philosophies of the respective games: accepting one's self for who they truly are, and discovering the meaning behind life besides death. That was at least very clever and, the way I see it, respectful to the source material.

[@writer747]

So, when I played through this game, I didnt use the P3 protag at all, so I never ended up getting upgraded main personas. Never knew they were in there until afterwards XD Spent the whole game being like "why are there only 3 skills per persona when there are 4 slots"

[@linksgrandma5269]

With my party setup I ended up one-shotting the final boss.

[@n00dl3gal]

Iirc I gave Ken a sub-persona with Mudo skills and high SP and just let him go to town. Just imagine a 5th grader completely decimating each floor. It was fantastic.

[@MegaBowserking]

I really remember liking this game a bunch when it came out minus 3 things the dang evil spirits club (i dont do jump scares lol). And the fact that since i didn't want to use the p3 protagonist i had to grind him to a super high level just to get myself ultimate personas. I think the first dungeon goes a tad too long with just one side too because i feel you get such a tight group that when you get everyone else its hard to fit them in but maybe thats just me.

[@kosterix123]

Is Q2 better?

[@gablink5190]

i had a lot of fun with this game, i really liked the dungeons, the chalange and the overall combat. i finished this game before q2 and i was at the final boss of q2 when i started this game. the thing i enjoied the most is definitively the bosses, on hard and beyond, they can be quite chalanging on your 1st time doing them (if you dont look up a guide) without any intrusive gimmick (im looking at you q2). i died at least once to all bosses except the ones in the 2nd and 3rd dungeon (and also elizabeth, shes super weak to poison and ag bind). the final boss was really fun and i was really surprised and excited at his gimmick which was essentialy the spell Doom from final fantasy, when i died the 1st time i noticed how unprepared i was and imediately started grinding for a bit of monney to get some few items, which pulled me into a grind black hole and by the end of it i beat the final boss in 3 turns after getting really bad rng on the 1st phase which lasted for 50 turns. that is still one of my favorite jrpg moments of my life. sorry for the bible.

[@marc-antoinehamelin1625]

yeah... this is a Etrian odyssey with a persona coat of paint not the other way around. not that I'm complaining since i'm more of Etrian fan than S.M.T one...

[@ariaakee]

I loved the physical elemental attacks in this game and I wish it was somehow implemented in the main games and split weaknesses to physical elemental and magic elemental. But then again, pure physical is broken enough.

[@jokeofjunes]

I love Persona Q, but I get flashbacks to the final boss of the Inaba Pride labyrinth because every time I fought it, my game would either break and crash after I beat it or get half way. This wasn't an emulator either, this was on my DS. I had to redo that boss like 20 times because of this and after like the first 5 times I just stopped playing for a month and went back to have it keep crashing and I eventually beat it and it didn't crash. I basically spammed through the dialogue to save..

[@nidgithm]

tbh, i tried it a long time ago, and i kinda liked the gameplay? but honestly i didnt get far because iirc i sorta got softlocked at some point while playing through you in wonderland because everyone was nearly dead, i didnt have any money left to heal, and with the little hp and mp everyone had left any enemies would instantly kill my entire party, and i couldnt get to a power spot without atleast 1 random encounter i think. i didnt feel like starting over so i just gave up lol. coincidentally i was just thinking an hour ago that maybe i should try etrian oddysey instead sometime

[@therealmariofan]

That happened to me too when I started. I ended up back tracking and switching the party and farm yen to heal my main party once again.

[@Chiakiandmikanarebest]

As someone who really does love this game, a lot more than Q2 actually, what I love about this story is that it did try doing more then just be a crossover. I also think the characterization is kind of overexaggerated. I feel like most people just point to chie and akihiko and no one else, I'll agree those two are particularly bad especially akihiko, but I feel like everyone at worst is just fine, I think Zen and Rei make up for any of the problems I do have. As for the gameplay, I never played a first person dungeon crawler before this one but I still loved it, I liked the map mechanic too just seeing it get bigger was satisfying enough for me. It's slower pace just kind of went with the genre from what I was able to tell. The battle system I actually think is better then the mainline games too. I just like how fast paced and honestly, for me, the game was really challenging for me. I didn't know much about the game going on so I didn't really know what I was doing and i got my ass kicked, I never grinded and I didn't need to either. It was tough but I was able to make it. I also switch my team around all the time so my characters weren't overpowered. And just saying if you think Q1 is bad with experience wait until you get to Q2 because it is a nightmare in that game. Also you never mentioned the soundtrack which is the biggest sin committed here. Honestly, it's tied with P3 as my favorite in the series, the final boss is my favorite final boss theme in any game ever. So yeah, I do understand your points I guess, but I don't really agree with them. My first playthrough was 75 hours too, I'm doing a second now and it is going faster 25 hours in and i'm on the 3rd floor of the third labyrinth, and I had a great time. Inaba Pride Exhibit is awful I 100% agree on that.

[@TheBlueLink3]

I haven’t beaten Q2 yet, but I am curious as to why you love Q1 more.

[@Chiakiandmikanarebest]

@@TheBlueLink3 Q2 just felt like a fan service game, which I like; but it didn’t feel like it didn’t try anything more, while Q1 did. Also Q2 has some of the worst bosses in the series. I also find most of the dungeons in Q1 to be more enjoyable, save for dungeon 4. I also like Q1’s soundtrack more and it’s original characters more. And while Q1 having an English dub and Q2 not is a fairly minor point it’s still a positive Q1 has that Q2 doesn’t

[@TheBlueLink3]

@@Chiakiandmikanarebest That's all fair. The bosses in Q2 are certainly harder if nothing else. I still haven't beaten the second boss. I do think the character writing is better in Q2, though that's the only straight up better thing I think it does at the point where I'm at now. Having four different battle songs is cool too.

[@Bradley_Lute]

You shoulda played through 20 hours of an Etrian Odyssey game! It's a big time commitment but then you could compare and contrast the two. You could better address how the EO mechanics works in either setting.

[@isenokami7810]

I would highly suggest you play Etrian Odyssey games. And no, I’m not saying that because you only knew of Persona going into this; frankly that perspective was a good place to judge Persona Q from. I just think I’d love to see you look at Etrian Odyssey proper.

[@izzy1356]

Big same. While PQ has nearly identical gameplay to EO, it definitely doesn't do EO *as a whole* justice. Especially since most of Nam's complaints *are* PQ specific, rather than main/actual issues from either franchise.

[@jcol341]

It's always entertaining to see reviews of Persona Q because the one thing people always forget or don't know is that PQ is just Etrian Odyssey with a Persona coating. And Etrian Odyssey is a very oldschool dungeon crawler RPG where half the fun is amateur cartography. I think I got to the second or third stratum at most whenever I try to play it because it's just... eh. It's not a bad game. But I'm not that huge a Persona fan and I'm a long term Etrian Odyssey veteran to the point that something that's watered down/gimmicky is kinda just not my bag. But it's a good RPG. It's a good entry point into Etrian Odyssey.

[@knightofberenike9633]

“With my personal favourite being Kanji, because LOOK AT HIM” I did, and I agree wholeheartedly

[@robinzaratecastillo2240]

I just started p4g after finishing p3. I'm saving this video ill be back in a month.

[@sergiosalazar8702]

Hope you enjoy it (Beware the sleeping table)

[@CherriColaV]

Persona Q1 and 2 Could've been so much better if they were like normal Persona games. (And if Q2 got dubbed)

[@royalkumar795]

But, still I really enjoyed the game And gameplay over 150 hours with Investigation team and SEES Which helped me to learn how to play turn Based battle system in JRPG game

[@felman87]

I find it interesting that we agree on the exact same points but disagree on how much we enjoyed the game. Yeah, auto-map should've just done everything, FOEs can be annoying at times and I wish there were more interactions between the cast and that the characters weren't just one or two notes. But I had so much fun with Persona Q and I can understand why the negatives things were done in that way. FOEs are meant to be kind of road blocks that you later come back to and just annihilate them. Characters have to be distilled to their essence because there's so many of them here that it'd be a daunting task to do anything more. (Auto-map just doesn't make sense. So, +1 there). I jumped from Persona Q onto the rest of the Etrian games which, thankfully, got remakes on the 3DS (1 and 2 were remade, 4 was originally a 3DS game and further games were also on the 3DS, so essentially everything is on the 3DS except for the 3rd game which remains a DS exclusive). They're a ton of fun, essentially Baby's First Dungeon and Dragons campaign. If the games seem like they're interesting, I'd recommend picking up just about any of them (I do find 4 a bit slow. It doesn't have the Fast Forward function the other games would implement.)

[@kiraangle2823]

I liked the outfits the velvet crew wear in this game, especially the heart apron.

[@killer987able]

I got heart attack when he mention that persona q came out in 2014 💀💀💀