Labyrinths (ラビリンス, Rabirinsu)?, (迷宮, Meikyuu)? are locations from the Q series. They are based on the dungeons from Etrian Odyssey.
Appearances[]
Details[]
Labyrinths are the dungeons of the Q series. They consist of various passageways and rooms that are divided by gates and secret passages and some also contain puzzles that must be solved in order to progress. These Labyrinths follow a set layout and can be mapped manually or automatically, with 100% map completion being the goal. However, if the player decides to map the Labyrinth automatically, it will only map out basic floor tiles and not special ones such as doors, secret passageways and the labyrinth's exclusive gimmick tiles.
The Labyrinth that contains important details about the game's story will always consist of a lever puzzle that brings the party up and down between a pair of massive floors until the staircase to the next set is reached. Even if they have more floors than usual, due to their structure each pair of floors can be considered a single floor and they actually only have 5 floors like most others.
A counter at the bottom right corner will display how close is it for the player to encounter an enemy, counting from 3. If the counter goes to 0, Shadows will appear and attack the party. Additionally, non-generic Shadows known as F.O.Es will appear on the Labyrinth and are visible on the map, and they usually pursue the player in various ways, although some remain stationary or do not actively pursue the player. At the bottommost floor of the Labyrinth, a powerful existence will appear and act as the boss of the level, which must be defeated in order to clear the Labyrinth. Once it is defeated, a powerful Shadow will appear and replace it.
Goho-M is highly useful when exploring Labyrinths, as they do not have any save points or warp points outside of the deepest floor.
Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth[]
The Labyrinths appear as attractions in an alternate Yasogami High School and at the bottom of them, an item which is required for Zen to restore Rei and his memories are locked inside a trunk. All of these attractions are manifested from Niko's (Rei's) final wishes before her death. Numerous Shadows crawl in the attractions and the items are defended by Chronos' minions, who will not even let their owner Zen get them. The false Yasogami and the Labyrinths inside it are actually created by Zen in order to delude Rei from the fact that she was dead and also to make her feel better as she wished to enroll in Yasogami High, and the items are ones that are buried alongside her in her funeral. Ultimately, he wants to spend his time there so he can find out the reason of Rei's existence. In order to prevent his merciless qualities from interfering, he sealed his other half in the Clock Tower. However, his other side instead summons Persona users into the false Yasogami High so the guardians can be removed to retrieve the items, and to make Zen continue the duty that he abandoned.
After the first four Labyrinths are defeated, the other half of Chronos awakens. A powerful Shadow known as the Captor Spider now forms and captures Rei inside it. Chronos and the spider await the party on top of the Yasogami High School Clock Tower, forcing Zen to save her and resume his duty of sending her back to the Sea of Souls. Despite the party was given the opportunity to leave by Elizabeth and Margaret, they decline and joins Zen to climb the Clock Tower. With the help of the Persona users, Zen defeats the Clockwork God and sends all of them back to their reality with their memories wiped while him and Rei return to the Sea of Souls.
Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth[]
The Labyrinths appear as movies that are broadcasted in a Cinema, and can be accessed by entering the movie screen of their respective movies. These movies are alternate realities created from Hikari's heart and are direct embodiments of personal traumatic experiences that she suffered from during her childhood projected onto a screen by Doe, effectively making them similar to a cross between a massive Palace and a Midnight Channel show. They contain Shadows and cognitive actors; While the former are universally hostile and act as basic obstacles, the latter play a major role in the movie realities and are either oppressors who oppress the other cognitive inhabitants of the Labyrinth or a victim of the oppression who aids the party in changing its ending. Cognitive actors usually take the form of former characters in the Persona series, but their behavior and personality might differ drastically from the characters that they are based on as they were simply given the forms by the Persona user's perception of various types of people and the characters themselves are a part of a different cognition.
The authorities of the movies are all cognitive copies of people who humiliated and demeaned Hikari in the past and the oppressed cognitions who aid the party are cognitive copies of Hikari herself. All of their speech patterns, personality and behavior are copied from such people. As Hikari's heart is distorted beyond normal proportions, all of these movies will always end in favor of the authorities until Persona users enter them to change the ending by defeating them, which forces a change in her heart and allows Doe to create a key to break the four locks on the Cinema exit. Eventually, Doe himself acts as the last obstacle. When he is defeated, he becomes the last key to let everyone leave the Cinema.
The movie labyrinths appear to be originally just lifeless and distorted negative memories stored in an Akashic Record taking the form of movies, which were used by Nagi to entertain and numb her guests in a deluded attempt to end their pain until Doe appeared to overwrite them with Hikari's memories, making them come to life and turning them into the labyrinths seen in-game. The persona users are then drawn from parts of the collective unconsciousness into the labyrinths, transforming the characters of the movies into beings resembling Persona characters, as well as allowing Hikari's heart to be changed and freeing her from Nagi's scheme.
Enlil's domain, the Theater District, acts as a fifth and final labyrinth, which must be cleared in order to free all other victims of her "salvation plan" from it, even if she lets the Persona users and Hikari leave after clearing all of the locks. They finally manage to persuade Enlil to give it up thanks to Hikari's help and her domain is destroyed while all of the trapped return to their own realities with their memories wiped, although unlike previously, some emotions among them are intact.
List of Labyrinths[]
Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth[]
Labyrinth | Theme | Floors | Guardian | Item | Niko's Wishes/Memories |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
You in Wonderland | Fairytale | 4 | Queen of Hearts | Stuffed rabbit | Memories of story books |
Group Date Cafe | Chapel | 5 | Merciful Clergyman | Wedding ring | The desire for marriage |
Evil Spirit Club | Horror house | 5 | Kind Doctor Calm and Caring Nurse |
A lock of Niko's hair | Not being stuck in the hospital |
Inaba Pride Exhibit | Festival | 5 | Best Friend | Niko's death note | Going to a festival |
Clock Tower | School bell tower | 10 | Captor Spider Clockwork God |
N/A | Meeting Chronos in the afterlife |
Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth[]
Labyrinth | Genre | "Protagonist" | "Villain" | Floors | Boss | Moral | Hikari's Trauma |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kamoshidaman | Superhero | Kamoshidaman | Phantom Thieves of Hearts | 4 | Kamoshidaman Super Kamoshidaman |
Absolute authority reigns over all | Falsely being accused for poisoning the class rabbit by her teacher |
Junessic Land | Disaster | Herbivore Dinosaurs | Yosukesaurus | 5 | Yosukesaurus Herbivore Dinosaurs x3 |
Blindly following the masses shall bring peace | Being ostracized by her friends due to having differing opinions |
A.I.G.I.S | Sci-Fi | Overseer | Ribbon | 5 | Mother Computer | Everyone must be identical to each other | Being denied the wish of becoming a movie director by her relatives |
Hikari | Musical | N/A | N/A | 8 | Doe | Individuality only brings more pain | Developing the complex of being hated by everybody |
Theater District | Documentary | Enlil | Persona users and Hikari | 5 | Enlil | Toxic escapism from the pain of living | Giving up life completely |
Trivia[]
- When inside a movie labyrinth in Persona Q2, a grainy filter is applied in order to invoke the feeling of a movie.
- In both games, the Labyrinths are mapped using a notebook. in Q, the notebook is used by Zen to record Rei's past life and interests, while the Q2, the notebook is a gift that Hikari's father bought for her to write down movie ideas.