Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth takes Atlus’s memorable high schoolers on an Etrian odyssey

Atlus’s Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth on the Nintendo 3DS is not only a smart idea but also a project that makes a lot of sense. Game crossovers aren’t anything new, but this is one of those rare moments where the meeting of two series is both complementary and well-timed. In this case, both properties have had years to grow substantial fanbases that would justify this kind of collaboration.

As a spin-off of the popular Persona series — which itself was an offshoot of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise — Persona Q is a Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) and dungeon-crawler that uses the less well-known Etrian Odyssey as its foundation. The more hands-on time I got with it, the more I believed that developer Atlus made every effort to make this title equal parts Persona and Etrian.