Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth has characters from Persona 3 and Persona 4, and puts them in an Etrian Odyssey-style dungeon crawler. The folks at Famitsu shared some of their impressions from a recent hands-on with the game.

Upon starting the game, the very first thing they noticed was that there are three save slots. Additionally, an SD card allows you to create 16 save data slots, which is pretty nice, considering you might want to revisit certain events or play through earlier parts of the game for different choices.

Famitsu points out that once you start the game, they were immediately able to notice how much the super-deformed chibi characters move around and talk, and display various expressions while exploring the dungeons and fighting Shadows.

While Persona Q starts you out at the school festival, where things are nice and cheerful, Famitsu say that the story itself is more on the serious side, which they feel gives it a lot more of the Persona vibe. Meanwhile, as far as dungeon crawling and fighting goes, it has a lot more of an Etrian Odyssey feel, especially with the mapping and F.O.E. features.

While on the subject of mapping, Famitsu points out an interesting feature. As you can see in the above image, the top-right of the screen indicates 51% of the areas you’ve traveled across.

Once you max it out at 100%, a special treasure chest opens somewhere on the floor. These treasures contain very useful items, so it is recommend players take the time to explore. However, those without much time on their hands can also use game coins to open them.

The fights themselves are pretty challenging, too. For example, if you forget to debuff enemies that have high physical attacks, they can easily one-hit-kill your weaker party members. The Leader Skills provides players with a lot of options for these kind of scenarios.

Additionally, the two new characters in Rei and Zen are also said to be full of mysteries, and Famitsu say it is interesting to watch their unique exchanges with one another and the characters of Persona 3 and 4.

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth will be released this fall in North America.