Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

 3DS
  • Publisher: Atlus
  • Release Date: Nov 25, 2014
User Score
5.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 428 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 212 out of 428
  2. Mixed: 45 out of 428
  3. Negative: 171 out of 428
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. MarcosDead
    May 26, 2015
    6
    I was quite disappointed, honestly. I've been an avid Persona follower for a long time, and this game was actually the reason I bought a 3DS. Persona 3 and 4 are some of their highest grossing games, and I'm so sad they didn't take more time with it.
    First, the dungeons were hard to get through. I loved the design, hated actually having to go through it. With each step in the walking    I was quite disappointed, honestly. I've been an avid Persona follower for a long time, and this game was actually the reason I bought a 3DS. Persona 3 and 4 are some of their highest grossing games, and I'm so sad they didn't take more time with it.
    First, the dungeons were hard to get through. I loved the design, hated actually having to go through it. With each step in the walking style they had in the original Persona wasn't easy on my eyes, and I got a headache early in. The enemy attacks are annoying, seeing as the player has no control if they happen--and unlike in Nocturne, I just couldn't get enough into the story to overlook it.
    The characters seemed poorly executed as well, turned into 2D people with one character trait it seemed (Aki didn't even get a character trait, he just seemed really liked protein), I was just displeased. I got the game because I loved the characters, and that's the only reason I powered through.
    Once I got more accustomed to everything it was easier to get through, and some of the characters truly did shine and bring back great memories of playing the games when I was younger.
    Not their finest by any means, but it has its redeeming qualities.    … Expand
  2. tenforten
    May 1, 2020
    6
    How I rate games:
    Game-play, Music/Sound, Graphics & Visuals, Story/World-building, and Characters each get 0-2 points adding up to a score /10. 0 is non-existent or bad, 1 is average or N/A, and 2 is better than average.
    Game-play: 1 Not unplayable, but needlessly complicated for a spin-off. Music/Sound: 2 The music is great with many good new tracks and well as old ones brought    How I rate games:
    Game-play, Music/Sound, Graphics & Visuals, Story/World-building, and Characters each get 0-2 points adding up to a score /10. 0 is non-existent or bad, 1 is average or N/A, and 2 is better than average.

    Game-play: 1
    Not unplayable, but needlessly complicated for a spin-off.

    Music/Sound: 2
    The music is great with many good new tracks and well as old ones brought back from the original P4 and P3 games.

    Graphics & Visuals: 2
    The chibi style is a nice change and gives PQ its own identity from the main games and other spin-offs.

    Story/World-building: 1
    Good for a spin-off, if a bit weird and fanfictiony.

    Characters: 0
    Most of the characters become jokes and have their personalities neutered for the sake of gags while the new characters are not even slightly memorable.

    TOTAL: 6/10    … Expand
  3. PersonaTime
    Sep 3, 2021
    5
    Would have loved this game if the SP didn't drain so fast. Also, i get that it's using the turn-based machanics of Etrian Oddessy, but this is riddiculus, Press-Turn system would have been marvelous instead of having to watch your attack plan play out all at once. It got to the point where I wasn't impressed anymore, and simply went into safe mode, and auto most of it. From my view, thisWould have loved this game if the SP didn't drain so fast. Also, i get that it's using the turn-based machanics of Etrian Oddessy, but this is riddiculus, Press-Turn system would have been marvelous instead of having to watch your attack plan play out all at once. It got to the point where I wasn't impressed anymore, and simply went into safe mode, and auto most of it. From my view, this game should have kept the Press-Turn system, and normal SP usages from the original source.… Expand
  4. INU4SH4
    Jul 4, 2020
    7
    Persona Q is honestly an interesting mix. It blends the universe of Persona with the gameplay of Etrian Journey and combat of SMT together. Overall it's a game with adorable visuals, a decent story, and addictive gameplay.

    Does it work? Yes. Is it any better at what it does than the aforementioned games? No. But that doesn't really matter. While Persona Q doesn't excel at anything    Persona Q is honestly an interesting mix. It blends the universe of Persona with the gameplay of Etrian Journey and combat of SMT together. Overall it's a game with adorable visuals, a decent story, and addictive gameplay.

    Does it work? Yes. Is it any better at what it does than the aforementioned games? No. But that doesn't really matter. While Persona Q doesn't excel at anything comparing to other Atlus games, it manages to create an interesting journey with the legacy of 3 different series.    … Expand
  5. AegisSol
    Apr 26, 2015
    7
    When I first started this game, it felt different. I had not played persona 1 or 2. I owned 3 Fes but never started it and I started 4 but still in the middle of it.

    With that said, Q itself isn't bad but not the best. The dungeons are almost a drag and the games difficulty scaling is really rough. I find myself leaving the dungeon everytime the characters complain about being worn or    When I first started this game, it felt different. I had not played persona 1 or 2. I owned 3 Fes but never started it and I started 4 but still in the middle of it.

    With that said, Q itself isn't bad but not the best. The dungeons are almost a drag and the games difficulty scaling is really rough. I find myself leaving the dungeon everytime the characters complain about being worn or severely hurt due to having little to no HP or SP. Which gets annoying. It kinda had the same thing in 4 but in 4 I never found myself leaving the dungeon quite as often as I was in Q. So that was my only gripe.

    Otherwise the concept for each dungeon and how it connect to one of the characters within the game was the only thing that intrigued me to keep me going. I still haven't finished Q but I'm sure once I'm done I will be satisfied with it. For now it gets a 7 for it's difficulty, the constant in and out of the dungeons to heal ( and yeah I don't like being charged currency to heal ), and its dungeon concepts along with it's connections.

    Maybe when I'm done I'll give this a point or two more.    … Expand
  6. blade6309
    Jun 10, 2015
    7
    So, Persona my favourite game series by far. So Persona Q rolls along round christmas to bring in a bit of hype before Persona 5, but is it good? ...Kind of. It's not a bad game but maybe it was because I played both Persona 3 and 4 before with Persona 3 holding my title of all time favourite game. Well I suppose this is a review... If your here for story with all the characters fromSo, Persona my favourite game series by far. So Persona Q rolls along round christmas to bring in a bit of hype before Persona 5, but is it good? ...Kind of. It's not a bad game but maybe it was because I played both Persona 3 and 4 before with Persona 3 holding my title of all time favourite game. Well I suppose this is a review... If your here for story with all the characters from persona 3 and 4 your playing the wrong game. Instant let down for me, the game has minor 'stroll' scenes you can play to get some tiny tidbits to counter the lack of P3/P4 interaction. The gameplay was alright, It was new to have 5 people instead of 4 and having sub-personas. I found the dungeons to be cool to look at but got very very grindy very quickly. Your basic gameplay is this routine, Enter dungeon, Fight and explore untell you can't anymore, get out of said dungeon, sell all your materials, heal, buy weapons and armour, maybe fuse, save and repeat. Sub personas work like this. You get a small or large boost to your SP/HP that you can use. The HP/SP boost regens itself fully for each battle so it can save you in a tight spot. Assuming you don't be cheap and use the free persona ORPHEUS TELOOOOOS... Sorry. There is also the leader skill you can use. Some personas will have leader skills you can use if you have said persona equipt. These can be life saving and/or demolish the enemy. Fighting isn't bad but it's nothing really to write home about. If you've played the past Persona games you know what to do... and that's just it. This game is basically a watered down version of other persona games in my eyes. Maybe I got over hyped about the game but all I know is this. After beating the first dungeon I stopped playing constantly. Without the social links that Persona 3 and 4 have the game is more grind-fest then Persona 3 and 4 combined. You literally only playing this game to beat the dungeon and that's it. It's good but in my eyes the game is just barely worthy of the Persona name.

    Pros:
    Good combat
    Good dungeons
    Cool story

    Cons:
    No P3/4 interaction (Or not enough)
    Very little to do
    Grind-fest
    Little explanation to new players

    7/10    … Expand
  7. Wingandwind
    Apr 18, 2020
    5
    This... exists.

    The graphics are OK but the chibi gimmick is something not everyone will love. However, the graphics for in game effects and menus are all quite pleasant. Oddly enough I’d say the high point of this game is the music, having a totally solid soundtrack. The battle system is pretty complex and definitely will become annoying if it doesn’t come to you naturally. Honestly I    This... exists.

    The graphics are OK but the chibi gimmick is something not everyone will love. However, the graphics for in game effects and menus are all quite pleasant. Oddly enough I’d say the high point of this game is the music, having a totally solid soundtrack.

    The battle system is pretty complex and definitely will become annoying if it doesn’t come to you naturally. Honestly I don’t understand why they didn’t use the same one from the main series.

    The weakest parts of the game are the characters and the story. The story is pretty basic and characters you probably know and love are boiled them down into one or two traits each that make complex characters super annoying. I’m confident that if this was not a persona spinoff and these were original characters most people would call them annoying.

    Buy, rent, watch an LP, or skip? Probably skip. If you are curious about the gameplay maybe watch a LP to see if it is for you, but story isn’t really important to the franchise as a whole and the characters are not themselves so it is totally skippable.    … Expand
  8. Azure2290
    Nov 28, 2014
    6
    This is a game that cannot be recommended for those who have not played a persona game. Other than that it is a standard dungeon crawler with some of the persona style combat. Considering that Persona 4 Golden has set the bar so high it is rather off-putting having all the characters in a chibi style like with bravely default. It would have been nice to have the persona classic art spritesThis is a game that cannot be recommended for those who have not played a persona game. Other than that it is a standard dungeon crawler with some of the persona style combat. Considering that Persona 4 Golden has set the bar so high it is rather off-putting having all the characters in a chibi style like with bravely default. It would have been nice to have the persona classic art sprites instead even if it was low quality.

    What I give it merit for is adding more to the Persona universe. But I cannot give it much praise for the copy and paste style from Etrian Odyssey, it is literally mashing the two together leaving us with a lesser experience of either one.    … Expand
  9. deadlysilentbob
    Feb 25, 2015
    5
    I thoroughly acknowledge the awesome idea behind this game, however i just cant dismiss the blatant loss of persona 'flavor' in this game. I just could not get into it at all whereas persona 2, 3, and 4 stole my soul for weeks.

    possitives: the characters are true to themselves and the story is intretesting negatives: NO PERSONA FUSION AND OR CREATION, battle is a little bland and the    I thoroughly acknowledge the awesome idea behind this game, however i just cant dismiss the blatant loss of persona 'flavor' in this game. I just could not get into it at all whereas persona 2, 3, and 4 stole my soul for weeks.

    possitives: the characters are true to themselves and the story is intretesting

    negatives: NO PERSONA FUSION AND OR CREATION, battle is a little bland and the lack of a 'roaming' feature for the school area is a bit of a letdown.

    if your bored and not too picky about your persona games then pick it up. otherwise save that money and pray for a persona 5.    … Expand
  10. DOSfan
    Dec 4, 2014
    6
    kind of sad that they changed the art style so drastically. and feels like it's just a lesser game, mainly as a result of releasing on 3ds. every other game was a certain style, so why make it all chibi now?
  11. VioIrdsGX
    May 8, 2023
    7
    The game is good but it has the difficulty of the classic Shin Megami Tensei games, Revelations Persona and Persona 2, the design is good, but it is one of the games that I play more or less since first this game is not canonical since It is a mere crossover of Persona 3 and Persona 4 that they will not "remember" later, but as a fan of this series I give it a 3.5/5 approval.

Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Best 3DS Game of 2014
11
#11 Most Discussed 3DS Game of 2014
4
#4 Most Shared 3DS Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 56 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 50 out of 56
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 56
  3. Negative: 0 out of 56
  1. Eurogamer Italy
    Mar 20, 2015
    80
    Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth is the perfect recipe for a lovely game, developed mixing up Persona and Etrian Odyssey.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Mar 17, 2015
    80
    One of the best RPG games for 3DS. [03/2014, p.77]
  3. DarkStation
    Mar 2, 2015
    60
    The best advice I can give is to not come into Persona Q looking for another handheld version of the previous two games. The changes made to the formula may seem minor but they have a huge impact on the experience.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »