Ever played three videogames in one? Persona Q is kinda like that

Buy on Amazon

I started playing Persona games at some point in high school. Though I suspect it was later since I don't recall playing with my brother, meaning he'd already joined the army when I first got my hands on Persona 3.

For the uninitiated, Persona 3 and 4 are about special transfer students at different high schools who must battle "Shadows" while becoming the most popular boys in school. They're part dating simulator, part dungeon RPG crawlers that really love tarot motifs.

As I understand, the first two games in the series are quite different from the last two, which has caused some . . . heated discussions in Atlus fandom. For better or for worse, 3 and 4 (specially 4) have become cash cow franchises for Atlus, as evidenced by this cute little cross over that I thought would be little more than a cheap grab at more of my money.

Don't get me wrong, it worked, but I expected to be an angry little ball of fake geek girl rage twenty minutes into the game. I could not have been more wrong and jaded. This game is really, really, really fun.
First of all, some attempts were made to give this game a genuine story of its own. It opens with your team (either the kids from 3 or 4 depending on who you make your primary party) finding two mysterious high school freshmen wandering around without memories.

Zen and Rei, official character posters

It's standard enough for RPG fare. Zen has bows and knows offensive magic and Rei knows healing and support skills. She's got cutesy inhuman appetite and he's completely unaware that she's got a crush on him, etc. etc. etc.

I can't say much more without spoiling their story, but suffice it to say that you travel the games dungeons in search of clues about their past, hoping that if they recover their memories, you can send your old characters back home. When you get to the big reveal, the story takes a surprisingly mature turn regarding the nature of death and terminally ill children.

Much care was taken with the games dungeons, starting with chasing a white rabbit down to Wonderland and ending with a climb to the top of a complex ten floor clock tower to fight the embodiment of death.

One thing I didn't enjoy was the poor characterization of the previous games' heroes. Most of these characters, which had eighty hours or so of development in the respective games, have one or two qualities that get exaggerated for comedic effect. For example, Akihiko Sanada talked about protein supplements a few times in Persona 3 (he's a boxer), and it's all he talks about this game.

He's still an undisputed powerhouse and that's ultimately what matters.

As for the gameplay itself . . . oh boy, God protect you if you're a completist. This games gives you, in addition to the usual weapons/armor/accessories/items/etc., the following:

• maps for every floor of every dungeon!
• Pokemon . . . I mean "Persona" that you need to level up
• Persona skills
• fusing your Persona for more Persona, which gets in the way of collecting those skill cards
• side missions
• two "routes" through the story depending on which team is your primary team
• DLC, of course, because Atlus wants your $$$$
• probably more stuff that I haven't noticed because I'm always so tired