A Certain Frustrating Dungeon in Persona 4 Needs a Major Upgrade

The Persona series has it all: the look, the characters, the intriguing storylines and the kick ass dungeons; but even the best games have their weak spots. For Persona 4, that comes in the form of the Void Quest Chapter 7 dungeon. With irritating camera angles turning players around, and overly challenging mid-point bosses leading to an even more challenging finishing boss, this could be enough to turn players off of the game altogether.

What can be done to save this dungeon, and possibly the game, in a potential remake? Just how disruptive are these flaws?

Round and Round We Go

This dungeon is possibly one of the most distinctive in Persona 4. It has an 8-bit pixel dungeon energy. Coupled with the old MIDI-style soundtrack as well as the stunning dark blue colour palette, it should be one of the game’s highlights. Instead, the tricky camera angles alongside the dungeon’s Minecraft-esque grid-pattern design mean that it’s particularly easy to get lost.

You all know what that means, of course. Endless dungeon crawling with unnecessary battle repetitions reminiscent of the older days spent meticulously grinding levels in the same distinct and glitched-out corners of your favourite retro games.  Considering the high quality of Persona 4 up to this point, attacking the player’s ability to concentrate on a repetitive task seems like a cheap way to up the difficulty.

You Got It, Boss!

Your reward for managing to navigate those pesky camera angles? A notably hard set of mid-battles with the Killing Hand and the Almighty Hand mid-bosses. These are compulsory encounters that must be completed to obtain the Orb of Darkness to open the final boss room. If that’s not enough to send you to therapy, the final boss itself is a particularly difficult rendition of a pixelated game character that requires patience and expert resource management to defeat.

Should the armour be broken down, the characters then face off against a floating baby (a la Akira circa 1988 though much smaller thank goodness), which has the opportunity to rebuild that armour and undo all of the progress the player has made with the addition of an attack called “Gigadyne” that can wipe out the entire party and take player morale down to 0.

Fixing the Flaws

With a rumoured Persona 4 remake circulating the bowels of the internet, it could be time for the developers to really take a look at what fans have labelled the “worst dungeon in the game”. Fixing the camera angles in those soul-destroying intersections is the first step, but a remake could offer an opportunity for an entire level overhaul. The grid pattern could give way to a better map design overall, allowing players to really focus on the visual aspect of this dungeon, considering how distinctive and cool it already is.

Similarly, the boss difficulty could be reconsidered. The story itself, providing an insight into the killer, Mitsuo, is a fine example of Persona 4’s interesting take on character arcs and the themes of the game, but that interest is stone-cold murdered when that armour re-forms and the player has to essentially start all over again with significantly less resources.

Perhaps all that has to be done here is to give that reformed armour less health to match the depleted health and items of the party, so that the situation remains evenly matched, but there are several renovations those clever developers could implement to change up the game.

They’re All Important Days

Even though the Void Quest Chapter 7 dungeon can be taken as one of the most gruelling moments of Persona 4, it’s important to remember that this game is still ridiculously solid as a playthrough experience. The characters and story draw on those wonderfully strong themes of “what defines the self,” and the dungeons present in the game continue to elevate the gaming experience overall with their unique designs and artistic significance to the respective narrative arcs.

There is a reason that the Persona series remains one of the strongest in the JRPG sect of gaming today but if they do decide to overhaul this dungeon, it could be turning a weakness into a strength and the game itself will be following in the footsteps of it’s beloved characters to redefine what makes itself.