For new players, Persona Q might be a confusing proposition. The game series’ from which it draws inspiration – Persona 3, Persona 4 and Etrian Odyssey – are all a complicated proposition on their own, never mind a mash up of them all. It plays like an Etrian title, features characters from the Persona two and has a battle system that combines them all. It’s not surprising then that new players can struggle. Today then, we’re writing some tips for new Persona Q players. Some of these will be simple, others less so, but each of them are critical for any players looking to progress through this most unusual of titles.
5. Never Without A Goho-M
Etrian games revolve around dungeon crawling. You’ll be unceremoniously dumped into an unusual location, asked to map it out on the lower screen of your 3DS and then left to your own devices. At first this will be rather easy – move a bit, draw the map and get into a few easy starting battles, no problem right? The problem begins when you’ve explored a little further, battled a few more enemies and most importantly, found yourself a good distance away from the dungeon entrance… Low on health and resources, cursing yourself for having gone too far.
Enter the Goho-M. This is your life saver. It will instantly transport you home, no matter the situation you find yourself in. It might sound simple, but never enter a dungeon without one. We’ll reinforce it because you will forget it at least once: Never leave without a Goho-M.
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4. Take Your Time
This next tip goes hand in hand with our first: Always take your time. You’ll be flung into dungeons and floors very quickly as you progress through Persona Q, and one of the best pieces of advice we can give you is to take it slowly. The temptation will be to power ahead and attempt to map out as much as you can, but all it takes is one new enemy, trap or unseen FOE to ruin your day.
There’s no rush. The Etrian series of games are supposed to be progressed slowly and the systems surrounding it support this. The shop will have new wares almost every time you get loot from a new enemy, so take advantage of this to re-tool yourself at every opportunity. Head back once a Persona learns it’s full skill set and do some fusing. Slow progress is still progress – Etrian games and by extension Persona Q games shine when you take your time and savour the survival experience.
3. FOE Hunting
Let’s say you’ve taken your time and you’ve progressed through the first dungeon. No doubt you will have avoided quite a few FOE on your way to doing so, after all they’re designed to be too difficult, taking the form of moving puzzle pieces. In the normal course of things you’ll move on, get a great deal more party members and move on to the second dungeon. What about all of those FOE, languishing in the first dungeon? Whilst the game will highlight this a few times in side quests, it’s a very good idea to go back and kill them. The cards in the first dungeon particularly can be blinded, which makes them markedly easier, and you can return to defeat them again and again. Not only this, but they will also always drop a Persona card, every single time. This is a great way to bolster your Persona collection, and you’ll pick up some nice loot and gold at the same time!
2. Try Them All
Around that same time – the end of the first dungeon – your full choice of party members will become apparent. There are a huge amount of choices for the five slots you have available and the majority of them will, for fans of the Persona series, come with some emotional baggage. Each of them have their own character quirks and whilst they aren’t as fleshed out as those in the mainline games, they retain their own individuality. So whilst we have written things like our Top 5 Best Party Members article, and the Tier List to help you along further, we would encourage that you experiment. Persona Q can be completed with any combination of these characters, even if your favourites are all technically statistically inferior. Pick your favourites and try them out – if they don’t work for you, try some more! The dungeon isn’t going anywhere, you have plenty of time to figure it out.
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1. Never Stop Fusing
Fans of the mainline Persona series will wholly understand our sentiment here. Never ever stop fusing. Persona games are designed such that you’re expected to regularly drop your current choice of demons in favour of new and improved options. This means you should constantly be rotating your choices, levelling up new Persona and consistently expanding your options. During our multiple plays through Persona Q we settled on the following process:
- Gather Persona through battles with enemies and FOE.
- Pick out those that benefit certain characters more – defensive skills for your front row, etc.
- Equip them in battle to learn all of their available skills.
- Register the fully learned Persona in the compendium.
- Fuse these completed Persona with each other in pairs or trios.
Of course, there will be some that you might want to keep at times, but eventually these will need replaced – remember you can pass skills on to your fusion result, keeping their best elements. If you just keep the same low level Persona then yes, your skills will survive, but you’ll be missing out on the huge statistical boosts that they grant your party members in battle. Keep rotating, keep fusing!
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Categories: Persona Q