starting this game at the same time as etrian odyssey nexus was like getting a side of stale mcdonalds fries with your bougie ass top dollar wagyu steak

jesus CHRIST what an awful game. awful as a persona game, awful as an EO game, and awful as an RPG in general. horrible, bloated combat system, terrible story, weird difficulty, not to mention it's like 25 hours longer than it needs to be.

i never played the first persona q so i don't have a frame of reference, but how did they think they were going to craft the game around 28 DIFFERENT PLAYABLE CHARACTERS and have it work out? i get that's this game's whole gimmick, but it just doesn't pay off at all in terms of both story and how each character plays. there's definitely not enough room for every character to get a chance in the spotlight, so you have shit like femc running her mouth for most of the game while kanji shows up every few hours for a one liner. or worse, some characters are dumbed down to their most basic traits (ie junpei being an stupid and yukari dunking on him for it) and don't get anything past that throughout the whole story. even with the fanservice side-mission things, it just doesn't feel like having Everyone Here was a good idea. so even from a conceptual standpoint, this game is already flawed.

even worse, the battle system is a pain in the ass to deal with - it tries its best to incorporate elements from persona and EO (both fine on their own imo) and fails miserably. the boost system feels like a really poor replacement for baton passes (which are technically in this game but don't behave the same at all), and make it a lot harder to get all out attacks. speaking of - battles this time are even more reliant on AOAs than in base persona. as in battles take 10 times as long and drain 10 times as much SP if your personas aren't specifically crafted around having the necessary moves to get AOAs for each floor's enemies. sure, there are some parts of battle that work - i loved using links and ariadne chains were fun to spam against enemies, but i fuckin hated this shit overall.

going back to characters - having so many of them makes the party system feel really bloated. i get that the appeal is that you can choose your favorites and make your perfect little blorbo team, but you're punished pretty heavily for trying out different team comps and not dumping all your EXP into a main team of 5. sure, the game tries to trick you with "oh sometimes random characters will get a boost and ask to join your party :)" but don't fall for it! this game is already insanely grind heavy (even with the dlc exp boost item), and realizing halfway through the game that every character i had was some degree of underleveled and i needed to decide on a main team felt pretty awful. also it feels like a huge slap in the face that they made growth incenses so limited, having them be more readily available would have countered this issue really well imo

(as a side note: makoto and haru are the only nuke/psy users you get until ken/aigis, which is roughly 15 hours later. and right after you get them, enemies start being weak to those two types. but uh oh, haru doesn't have any multi-hit psy moves yet so it's still impossible to get an AOA if there's more than one enemy weak to psy in a fight and you don't have a sub-persona with psio! get fucked lol thanks boost system)

the sub persona system seems good on paper and i had a decent time putting together broken builds, but it really only adds another variable to how bloated and messy the battle system can get - especially when you're juggling so many of them at once. it's probably the one component of the battle system that isn't a complete shitfest to deal with, but it still wasn't great and nowhere near as fun as regular persona/demon fusion.

this isn't even bringing up difficulty spikes or the boss battles, which each have some stupid gimmick that requires at least two (unskippable) in-battle cutscenes to explain. or the massively overinflated boss HP values. fun fact, this game's final boss takes more time to beat than p5's by quite a bit. also there's a 90 minute long boss rush right before that that has no reason to exist at all.

unfortunately, the dungeon crawling elements are pretty awful too. i grew to like the map system cause i was playing nexus at the same time, but goddammit do they REALLY need to stop the entire game for 5 minutes to tell us when they're introducing a new mechanic? i know what a fan is, yusuke, you don't need to tell me you're adding an icon for one. the "puzzles" are easy as shit too, they once again have to stop and explain what each FOE gimmick is as soon as you encounter it instead of just letting you find out on your own. i think there was only one puzzle (right at the end of the game) where they didn't just stop and explain how to solve it, and even then it was easy as fuck.

the story is complete trash. it's another persona 5-esque rehash where they have some surface level message ("it's good to have individuality") that they stretch out over 60 hours and try to be as profound as possible about it. i get that dunking on p5 fans' reading comprehension isn't as fun these days, but come on man. you can't expect me to take your Deep Dive Into Human Nature seriously while Yosukesaurus (Homophobius Junesius) tells you about how it's okay to disagree with your friends sometimes.

however, i will say that i did enjoy a lot of the crossover box office side missions. the one with yukiko drawing the squid got a good chuckle out of me, and even though the rewards were lacking most of the time they were still pretty fun. also, easily the nicest part about this game is its soundtrack and overall aesthetic - that's the one part of persona that they absolutely nailed. the new battle themes are INCREDIBLY good.

unfortunately, none of that saves this game at all - not even the weird nostalgia of this game being the last big 3ds game is enough for me to enjoy it. persona q2 is an absolute slog that tries to lure you in with Funny Persona, then hits you with mind-numbing grinding and frustrating combat throughout. this shit belongs in the garbage, and even if it was half as long it probably would have overstayed its welcome.

go play etrian odyssey nexus

gameplay wise, this one is a significant step up from q1. combat still has that etrian odyssey twist to it, but it feels a lot closer to traditional persona combat. a lot of 5s combat elements are here too (which i like). the visual design and ost are banging as always: i think the dungeons here might be some of the best in the series, let alone the Q games. fanservice here is also pretty fun, much like the first one.

character and story wise though.... it still falls into the same boat as the first game. with how big the cast is here, itd be insane to try to give ANYBODY character development, but having none at all just sucks a lot. you also dont even get the full cast until you're like 60% of the way through the game.

still, id probably pick this one up again over the first game, and id also probably recommend this one over the first game for anybody wanting to try them out. but be wary if you're here for the story, its rough.

It’s a little corny and dull, but miles better than the original PQ to be sure. The portrayals of the characters are still off, to say the least, but there are some interesting interactions to be had and some genuinely good writing here and there. Most notably, the inclusion of P3P’s FeMC is a highlight, as is the Power of Bonds mechanic. The presentation is great (and I would go as far as to say that PQ2 has one of my favorite Persona soundtracks) and the ending is sweet even if it's unearned. If I had a specific nitpick, then it would be that the bosses are terribly uninspired. It’s not a must-play by any means, but it’s actually not horrible.

A turnoff for some, but an incredible treasure for many.
I'll review this according to my own taste, but, if this turns out to not be for you, at least you can see why I gave it a high score.

This game is far from perfect, but it doesn't need to be.
If you're a Persona fan, love dungeon crawlers and/or enjoyed the previous game, then you definitely need to try this game.
This game improves everything the previous game tried and has no dependency on that game (it's also free of spoilers for the games included, but they include tiny references for fans who completed the games, not ruining the experience for both sides).

The Gameplay
It borrows Etrian Odyssey's classic dungeon crawling system with map making (you have to make the map of each dungeon!), which is surprisingly intuitive and it's not an hassle to do (despite how it may sound).
The dungeons are not randomly generated, but focus on puzzles and well thought exploration.
And, while you may lack a different experience each time you enter an already-explored dungeon, the maps are different and vast enough for you to enjoy them each time.
Oh, and did I mention? There's something called "FOE" in some floors - good luck if you ever come across one in-game, you're meant to avoid them at all costs :)))
The fun doesn't end even when you finish the game.

The Battles:
You start up with a group of characters and not everyone all at once, which makes experimenting a lot easier (and each character has a pretty unique way of playing). There are always characters that are better than others, but none feel necessary.
But something that is not very enjoyed on the gaming community, yet pretty important, is the Random Battles - but it's not a cheap random battle system: You have a meter that changes to a different color according to how close you are to finding a random encounter, just like the Etrian Odyssey games. This reduces spawn rate but also ensures you when they're gonna attack you.
And the whole battle system is also pretty enjoyable, being a fun mix of every Persona RPG game - you'll find various elements of each game sprinkled into one and still manages to work and not become a weird mix of it all (however, clearly there are still strategies that are better than others, despite their balance).
But, at the end of it, lies a pretty simple (and standartized) battle system that manages to be fluid and complex. You'll find your playstyle soon enough.

The story
It is a Visual Novel (like most persona games) and follows a pretty interesting narrative. There's no sort of dating in this game (like the main games), which honestly wasn't needed at all for a game like this.
The characters are the ones we all know, having (almost) every member of the main cast of each game (except for the games that came after this one, obviously). Their interactions, alone, are worth watching the story and manage to be pretty funny and serious when needed - which is also an improvement from the previous game (where they were all very thrope-ish).

Difficulty
Possible the "worst" part of the game, as you can throw you off reasonably soon in the game.
This game has several difficulties, but even the Normal one can be pretty challenging, which isn't bad at all, but not only does it throw off unexperienced players as it's also really badly balanced in the First Boss... fortunately, this is only a problem early on due to your lack of resources and strategies which are clearly better to defeat it than anything else.... it can make several players give up here.
Brag all you want if you defeat it at your first try, really.

Other than that, the game is rather acceptable with no unreasonable difficulty spikes and manages to ramp up the difficulty quite well, but it still asks you to manage your resources effectively, and, if you're not careful enough, you're gonna do a lot of back and forth - but take your time, there's no rush (unless you like it that way).
As a player that doesn't mind grinding and is a perfectionist, the difficulty was just on point - I never once underestimated the game afterwards, and I'm glad I didn't.
If you really want an easier game, go for the DLC personas and just abuse them. They don't break the game on their own, but, if you know how to use them, they will make everything easier.

Music
(BONKERS)
The music blends perfectly in the game's style and gives it an incredibly memorable and unique feel.
All different music styles from each game are available, with a bunch of remixes and new tunes to listen.

OVERALL; TLDR
Love dungeon crawlers?
Want good variety for team building?
Resource managing feels rewarding for you?
HECK, like Persona or Etrian Odyssey??
This is a must, if you answered yes to any of these
The reason it's not so well known is that it was released way too late in the 3DS's life span...
That should say everything that's left to say

Give it a chance, I highly recommend it

I've been a fan of the persona series for a while, but it was only until recently that I've been getting heavy into the Etrian Odyssey series, so I was excited to give this supposed crossover a try. At first I was actually pretty disappointed. A whole bunch of things present in the EO series that I have come to really love are either completely neutered or just straight up not in this game. The heavily risk/reward dungeon crawling resource management parts that I absolutely adore are all gone. Heck you can't even turn off automap, which kind of ruins drawing the maps for me as well. So yeah I was pretty put off at first. But it got to a point around the first major boss battle that I realized. This might not be a very good Etrian Odyssey game, but it is a FANTASTIC persona game. The combat here is in my opinion Persona at its absolute peak. The system of identifying weakness and combating your way through each encounter is so much fun. - continued in comments.

Has great moments, but unafortunely it's inferior to the original Q game in everything but battle mechanics and OST.
Removed hangouts, mazes have no puzzles (you will solve 90% of FOE "puzzles" without even thinking for a second), conversations revolve around the P5 cast most of the time and despite the game having a movie theme where the devs could've gone wild making up stories without having to worry whenever it made sense, they instead decided to write the same story 5 times with different characters.
The game's OCs aren't as fun and the final boss was very predictable as well. A shame considering how solid PQ was in the story and gameplay department despite being a silly spin-off.

Where I dislike Q1, Q2 is unspeakably good. The battle mechanics and Velvet Room mechanics are more in line with a real Persona game than Q1 was and it tremendously pays off for it. Being able to experience dream interactions between the casts of P3/4/5 is a surreal experience. The soundtrack is euphoric, featuring all 4 singers and Lotus Juice from each game and P3P, really made this game into something deserving of more than a small spot on the 3DS lineup.
However, everything has a weakness and this game's weakness is its difficulty curve. The beginning of this game is unreasonably difficult, with me actually having to go down to Safe difficulty to get through Kamoshidaman and nearly having to do the same for Yosukesaurus. Interestingly, however, after that point the game becomes very easy and even the Velvet attendant fights I was able to get through in a single try each. Definitely very strange, but an absolutely incredible game nonetheless.