Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth Officially Announced

[NSSKG151]

Surprised no one made a topic about this yet but after a year of silence from Atlus they finally announced Persona Q2 yesterday and it's titled Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth.

Personally this is a game that I have been waiting to hear to about even though it is pretty much what most expected it to be. The casts of P3, P4 and P5 (sorry P1 and P2 fans) team up to assist the game's OC girl out with whatever problem she will have. Seems like the aesthetics will be based around a movie theater I guess or maybe a theater for a play.

Plot will probably be nothing to write home about but I still think it will be interesting to see the P5 cast interact with the older cast of characters since one part of the trailer makes it out to seem like the Phantom Thieves and the IT (Investigation Team/P4's cast) will be in conflict against each other for at least presumedly the early portion of the story. Hoping for more interactions between the different set of casts like Kanji and Ken did from PQ1 but I can already see some sillier ones like Teddie and Morgana arguing with other over who the better mascot, Yosuke/Junpei fawning over Ann and maybe Ryuji will become Akihiko's new training partner this time.

Though what I am really interested in is that they actually decided to add the female protagonist from P3P to the game and I wonder what her role in this will be. Will they have the both Persona 3 protagonists interacting with each other or is it that you just decide the P3 protagonist's gender at the beginning of the game since I could see it going either way. And assuming the game is dubbed I wonder who will voice her now (and Rise for that matter) since I don't think Laura Bailey will be back to voice her. Alexis Tipton maybe?

Anyways, game releases on November 29, 2018 in Japan and will probably be released outside Japan sometime in 2019. Feel free to discuss more about this.

[Interdimensional Observer]

The EO fan in me always wanted to try PQ, even though Persona for me has no appeal. Yet a myriad of things stopped me from trying PQ, and I doubt I'll be able to bring myself to like PQ2 either.

Still, good for Persona/P&EO fans. I wish that it be good for them.

I'm aware PQ had a number of gameplay issues in need of fixing, namely the brokenness of Hama and Mudo, and magic being terribly overpriced. Hopefully they will be addressed and corrected. 

I also got the idea that PQ had no postgame 6th Stratum, which comes off as quite a shame to me. I mean I know Persona doesn't really do postgames, but the EO half of the equation seems incomplete to me without one.

[Von Ithipathachai]

All I can think right now is how big of a mess it's going to be trying to juggle three games' playable casts at once.

[EricaofRenais]

Cool, finally a game I want for my 3DS (it has been over a year).  I liked PQ1 and this looks like it will be fun.

[Jingle Jangle]

The Persona 3 feMC is back after a decade of absence. I wonder if that will be tied to the game? Other than that, it seems neat seeing all of same faces interacting with each other.

[Kazuya]

To correct this topic real quick:
After a year of silence since officially announcing a Persona Q2, Atlus revealed a Trailer that aired live on Television during the Persona 5 Animation anime run slot. 

Anyway, now I can plug Etrian Odyssey Cross which will be better by virtue of being EO and by my big fat bias. Anyway, EOX is already out and I'm almost 99% certain that PQ2 will be outdated by EOX the moment it releases since EOX is EOX and really what I'm saying is don't listen to me and my bias enjoy whatever you want and have an amazing day, you all deserve an amazing day!

[Captain Karnage]

not gonna lie, the day before that trailer came out I thought about that game and just assumed it was dead

kind of a little sad, I thought EOX would have been the last EO game

[eclipse]

7 minutes ago, Captain Karnage said:

not gonna lie, the day before that trailer came out I thought about that game and just assumed it was dead

kind of a little sad, I thought EOX would have been the last EO game

Alas, a teaser for another EO game has been published.

My inner EO fan should be happy, but something about it just doesn't do it for me.  If there's a demo in the eShop (one day), I'll give it a whirl, and see if it changes my mind.

[Slumber]

I want a scene where the Persona 3 MC accidentally uses the Persona 5 MC's gun like an Evoker.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, eclipse said:

My inner EO fan should be happy, but something about it just doesn't do it for me.  If there's a demo in the eShop (one day), I'll give it a whirl, and see if it changes my mind.

From what I've read of the first PQ, besides the mapping and labyrinth-exploring being the same, and the generals of turn-based combat, including ailments, binds, buffs, and EOIV's links, are the same, with the addition of some weakness-hitting boost.

The one major difference I can tell is how characters are built. Each character has their own stat spread, their own set of weaknesses and resistances associated with their primary Persona (which eventually gets an upgrade), and four innate skills they learn via leveling, and which will be replaced by their stronger forms (so Agi -> Agilao -> Agidyne) if extant when they hit a certain level. Each character has the ability to equip a Sub-Persona for HP and MP boosts, plus another four skills. Lastly, you can sacrifice Sub-Personas to obtain Skill Cards, which you can then assign to a character (I believe you lose the card if the you later discard it) for another four skills, for a total of 12.

So the only things innate to any character are their: stats, resistances and weaknesses, and a third of their skill lineup. Having 2/3rds of their skills line roster open allows for a lot of flexibility, but to take a glass-half-full look, it doesn't make the characters all that unique then. Not helping is accessories eventually being buyable that let you swap stats, so suddenly, you can turn the high Lck of a character into high Agility, or Magic into Strength, further cutting into character individuality. 

If you're a Persona fan who just wants to play with your fav five, then this is great, since it means practically any group should be usable. And it's good if you're an SMT fan as well, since most games there have a lot of fusion to do. The issue, is that you lack the clearly delineated and distinctive classes of Etrian Odyssey, and the joy (for me at least) that comes every time you level up and then eagerly head to invest your new SP into a skill. 

[Arcphoenix]

Seeing another Persona game for the 3DS makes me happy. I own mostly Nintendo Consoles (save my 360 and PS2) so usually I can only play Persona games via emulation.

[B.Leu]

Minako really, really got boned by Atlus, Initial Persona doesn't make sense, no personal Orpheus Telos or Messiah of her own, her and her game being decanonized almost as soon as it got out, it's sad. Hopefuly, the game'll do her justice.

Will Minato regret having saved the world after seeing what come after ? Will Akira be as derp as he is in this video ?
Meh, don't care, it's EO with a Persona skin on it, as long as it's the case, I can (try to) ignore all the BS. :p

... I hope they'll put some effort on the 3D model of the Persona though, they were kind of ugly in the first one.

[LowestRes]

I'm excited for this! PQ1 was a decent EO clone and more EO is usually a good thing. 

I wonder if Naoto will still be op...

[Phasmatis]

I hope that Atlus balances out the characters and magic in general. Naoto and P3MC were ridiculously consistent with mahama and mamudo skills and Akihiko, Chie and Junpei's awakened persona skills gave them absurd damage potential.

and why oh why is there gonna be another tragic mystery box loli yet again

[NSSKG151]

Just found out Atlus released another trailer for the game today.

Basically it just shows off the cast again and the plot is similar to PQ1 in that the characters are pulled into another world (this time movies apparently), are trapped and will need the help of OCs to escape. The girl from the first trailer is named Hikari and the new lady introduced in this trailer is named Nagi (already guessing she is going to be the villian). Goro Akechi is here as well so it makes me assume this game takes place some time before a certain event in Persona 5. Also apparently the female Persona 3 protagonist is counted separately from the rest of the Persona 3 characters so it is probably a situation where she was pulled from an alternate universe and the rest of the P3 cast won't know who she is.

Also ugh...there is DLC for this game but I suppose that is to be expected at this point. Right now it is just battle BGM from previous Persona titles and first print copies will have it free (at least Japanese copies) but there is bound to be more coming later.

Edited August 6, 2018 by NSSKG151

[henrymidfields]

I wonder if the story's essentially another fanservice one like PQ was, or whether is an actual continuation of P5's story.

Actually, P5 proper should have had a mini-all-stars cast; it was jarring to know that despite the more widespread publicity in-universe of P5's social issues and villain's plot and higher level of threat in compared to P3 and P4, there were zero appearances of the past Persona characters in general, and Naoto in particular. Surely she would have known, and would have something to say against the corrupt police force in general and against Akechi in particular, considering her detective work is all over Japan, she struggled with the politics all throughout P4G, and at least one case had the police force play politics against her in P4U specifically for their corrupt purpose.

Edited August 7, 2018 by henrymidfields

[eclipse]

If I decide to get this game, it'll be AFTER I get P5.  Something tells me that I'll enjoy it more if I have context.

[NSSKG151]

3 hours ago, eclipse said:

If I decide to get this game, it'll be AFTER I get P5.  Something tells me that I'll enjoy it more if I have context.

That would probably be a good idea. I find spinoff games like these more enjoyable if I played the main games beforehand especially since spinoff games like these love to make callbacks/callforwards that might only make sense if you played the main games beforehand not to mention any spoilers from the original games being openly mentioned during conversations.