Persona Qsday: Week 2 (Contains Persona Q Spoilers!) · 11:34am Sep 22nd, 2015
We're back with week two of my Persona Q coverage!
Remember, only plot spoilers from P3/P4 will be tagged! Character names from both games and plot details specific to Persona Q will NOT be tagged. Proceed at your own risk.
When last we left off, Yu and his friends found themselves in a bit of a tight spot. They're stuck in some alternate world that doesn't follow the rules of the TV world, and there's a mysterious labyrinth. They just encountered two strange amnesiac teens, Zen and Rei.
Having made some preliminary preparations, it's time to explore the labyrinth.
YOU IN WONDERLAND
Chapter 1
Immediately upon entering, Rise discovers that her Persona can't properly scan the labyrinth. In order to make sure they can get in and out safely, the party needs to draw a map.
For this first playthrough, I'm using automap. Even with automap on, you still have to do some of the mapping yourself, like marking doors, odd things, and floor tiles that aren't passable, among other things. The automap draws in walls as you encounter them and colors the floor as you walk over it.
The Etrian Odyssey engine hit this game HARD. By the time I reached the room with the first FOE, I realized it would be in my best interest to backtrack to the entrance, heal up, offload materials, and re-equip.
While fighting Shadows, Yu finds several blank cards after the fight. Gee, I wonder what those could possibly be for...
Upon arriving on the second floor of the labyrinth, the party regroups and rests for a moment. While resting, they talk amongst themselves.
Rei expresses fondness for Yukiko, saying she's like a big sister. Zen seems to show jealousy at this.
Naoto points out that Zen and Rei do not have Personas, and yet are able to fight Shadows and use skills. She also points out that it's strange that Yu is not changing Personas like he normally would. Yu discovers that he only has one Persona, as well as the "Blank Card". This bothers Naoto, as it puts the party at a disadvantage, and they resolve to ask Margaret about it promptly. Yu agrees, and the party decides to postpone further exploration and return to the Velvet Room.
Back at the Velvet Room, the subject of the locked doors is raised again. Margaret believes one of them may lead back to Yasogami High.
Back to the matter of Personas...
Margaret begins a reading for Yu, and is puzzled when the first card she turns over is not the Fool, but the Tower.
Ominous...
Margaret speculates that Yu's ability as the Wild Card has not been lost, but rather suppressed. He can now equip a "sub-Persona" that "cannot be fully expressed".
She then turns her attention to Yukiko, and turns over the Fool.
It would seem that the entire party has now gained the ability to hold a sub-Persona!
"It's as if the power of the Wild Card has been strengthened. But what could have caused this? If there were another nearby with the power of the Wild Card... Could one of these doors lead to...?"
After rearranging the party, selling off materials and old equipment, and buying some new equipment, the party equips some Sub-Personas and prepares to return to the labyrinth...
YOU IN WONDERLAND
Chapter 2
Exploring the second floor of the labyrinth, the party encounters a room with a recreation of the Mad Tea Party from the story of Alice in Wonderland.
During the conversation, this gem came up:
Kanji: "Every day's a meat party with you around, Chie-senpai!"
Good grief, Kanji. 
The worst part is Chie agreed with him!
There's also a hilarious parade of misunderstandings wherein none of the party seem to actually KNOW the story, and their bizarre and wrong interpretations of it get re-interpreted by Rei as food-related nonsense. It's hilarious. 
Further in, the party encounters a giant pink rabbit. They debate its significance, as it doesn't appear to want to attack them, but it does seem to be waiting for them. At this point, your two options are given as:
> Let's catch it.
> Let's catch it and eat it.
Uh-huh.
The rabbit leads to a dead end, where it busts through a wall and creates a new shortcut. Shaped like the rabbit that made it. A rabbit hole, get it? Yuk yuk.
The rabbit shows up again in another corner of the labyrinth, and escapes through another painting on the wall. After following it, the party finds a sword lying on the ground at a dead end.
Picking it up leads to a battle against FIVE Justice Swords, all with powerful, status-inflicting attacks. I suffered my first outright KO in this battle (Kanji), and by the time I actually won (and it was a close shave), I had to burn a Goho-M to heal, sell off crap, re-equip, and save.
On the plus side, I fought and defeated a pair of Wealth Hands for a whopping 4k experience in one go.
Returning to the labyrinth, I continued my pursuit of the fleeing rabbit, past a gauntlet of FOEs, until finally cornering it at the stairs to the third floor.
...the rabbit went down the stairs! Cheater!
Following the rabbit, Rei complains that Zen is pulling too hard on her hand and hurting her. Yukiko encourages Zen to slow down and take his time, but Zen snaps that they don't have time. Yosuke dispenses some sage wisdom about how dangerous it is to rush recklessly ahead, using Chie's headlong rush to save Yukiko in the TV World as an example. Although Yosuke flubs a common idiom and gets his balls busted by Yukiko and Chie, his advice is solid, and Zen seems to take it to heart.
Just then, Rise calls with "great news", and tells the party to return to the Velvet Room.
Upon returning, the party finds Marie waiting in the Velvet Room. (Editorial note: I know very little about Marie, having not played P4 Golden.) Anyway, Marie's kind of bitchy about the whole thing, and frustrated that she's being put to work when she doesn't know what's going on. Long story short, she manages Persona Q's StreetPass functionality.
More importantly, Persona Fusion is now available.
(I'm a little pissed at Ch.2's floor layout. It seems like it's not possible to get past 99% completion on Ch.2 without fighting an FOE, because that last 1% is a square you can't step on without forcing an FOE encounter. 
)
BIZARRE BATTLE QUOTE TIME!
Persona Q has a wide variety of battle quotes from the party members, which trigger at random and depend on who's in the party and what Shadows you're facing. In this segment, I'm going to chronicle some of the more offbeat comments as I encounter them.
(When encountering a Cowardly Maya)
Yukiko: "Will it melt if we pour salt on it?"(When encountering a Lying Hablerie)
Rei: "I'm jealous! Imagine how much it could eat!"(When encountering a Laughing Table)
Rei: "Ooh, a table! When're they gonna serve the food?"
Teddie: "That table is un...stable...eh. Too lame?"
Yosuke: "A table, huh? I'm gonna flip it!"(When encountering an Enslaved Beast)
Yukiko: "If I defeat it, then I'll become King of the Beasts!"
NEXT TIME: Persona Fusion! So we're still chasing a rabbit?
Meh even if you cant get that last percent cause of a FOE you can still pop the chest for a play coin or two.
3411604 I'll have to see how many it wants...the first time I saw the chest, it was asking for a ridiculous number of play coins. And since I have a 2DS, which isn't really pocket-sized, and I don't really take it with me when I leave the house, my play coin count is...really, really low.
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The play coin price is proportionate to how much of the map you have left to explore.
Awesome coverage. It is almost as if I'm seeing a playthrough.
The bit of Chie and Yukiko busting Yosuke's 'nads was funny.
Out of curiosity, how do you have your party arranged, and what Sub-Personas do you have equiped?
3411685 Yah, figured as much. I'll check it out in a bit.
3411686 I've been changing things up. I still have a scattershot mess of weak Personas, so for the moment I'm just experimenting. My party usually comes in one of two flavors, though:
Front Row: Yu/Yosuke/Chie OR Yu/Kanji/Teddie
Back Row: Yukiko/Zen&Rei OR Naoto/Zen&Rei
I might post my compendium later.
3411827
Coolio