Trivia / Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth

• Acclaimed Flop: While reviews were positive, sales were relatively low due to being released near the end of the Nintendo 3DS' cycle.
• All-Star Cast: Q2 manages to top the already loaded Japanese cast of the previous installment. The cast includes ^note  Jun Fukuyama, Mamoru Miyano, Ikue Otani, Nana Mizuki, Tomokazu Sugita, Rina Sato, Aoi Yūki, Haruka Tomatsu, Soichiro Hoshi, Aki Toyosaki, Akira Ishida, Marina Inoue, Kosuke Toriumi, Megumi Toyoguchi, Rie Tanaka, Hikaru Midorikawa, Maaya Sakamoto, Megumi Ogata, Kazuya Nakai, Mamiko Noto, Miyuki Sawashiro, Jun'ichi Suwabe, Daisuke Namikawa, Showtaro Morikubo, Yui Horie, Ami Koshimizu, Kappei Yamaguchi, Tomokazu Seki, Rie Kugimiya, Romi Park, Sayaka Ohara, Kana Hanazawa, Misato Fukuen, Kikuko Inoue, and Kazuhiko Inoue. the entire teams from past games.
• Ascended Fanon: Fans have been speculating for years about what a meeting between the female protagonist of Persona 3 and the male protagonist would be like, with the two meeting for the first time.
• Content Leak:
  • A handful of songs from the game found their way to the internet before the game released in Japan due to users datamining a Phantasy Star Online 2 update that added a Persona Q2 collaboration event and uploading the songs on Twitter and YouTube.
  • An Amazon error with release dates resulted in some customers who had ordered the "Showtime" Premium Edition receiving it nearly two weeks in advance of its actual US release date. The cart was then subsequently dumped and uploaded to the internet before it was commercially available.
• Dummied Out: A compendium description for Loki, who appeared in the first game as a Sub-Persona but absent in this game can be found, who likely goes unused due to being Akechi's alternate Persona. Likewise, data for Zeus, Nata Taishi and Seiten Taisei^Note Based on its initial appearance in Persona Q. can also be found.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Aihara intended to add a horror/slasher movie labyrinth for the game, until Daisuke Kanada explicitly told him not to design a horror labyrinth. The concept art depicting the P4 hero murdering the P5 hero as well as Hikari appearing as a Jason Voorhees-style chainsaw slasher in some prototypes further prove this.
  • He also stated that all of Hikari's prototypes that resembled ordinary high school girls were rejected due to resembling a typical Non-Player Character, forcing him to run the "depressed aspiring movie director" concept that would be used in the final product.
  • Based on the Persona 4 vs Persona 5 confrontation concept art, the horror stage might have been planned out as the second labyrinth instead of the dinosaur movie, and Hikari is probably intended to be encountered there as opposed to during the prologue in the final product.
• Meme Acknowledgement: In a way that only fans that could hack into the game would know. There are Dummied Out placeholder texts for the "party join" messages for the Persona 3 leads (and Aigis). The P3 Hero's is contained under MSG_KARI_JOIN_KITAAI, with the "KITA" part referencing his Fan Nickname "Kitaro", while the P3P Heroine's is contained under MSG_KARI_JOIN_HAMUKO, where "Hamuko" is a popular Fan Nickname for her spread around the Japanese fandom.
• No Dub for You: Unlike Q, Q2 isn't dubbed, only with localized text, making this the first Persona game to not be dubbed in any capacity. While Atlus has not given an explanation as to why, it's speculated that a combination of its extremely large cast of characters, relatively low sales of the original Japanese release, and being released near the end of the 3DS's lifespan would not make a dub worth the investment; if that's the case, then given the last time a Persona game was released on a dying handheld, it's probably lucky to get an international release at all unlike Eternal Punishment.
• Swan Song: Was the final big retail 3DS game released in the west, coming out in June of 2019, over two years after the Switch's launch.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Hikari is apparently difficult to design, as she had gone through seven design phases. The first two had her resemble typical high school girls, but the design was rejected due to being too generic. Later on, two more designs had her wear Jason Voorhees masks and one of them even portrays her holding a chainsaw when you first met her^note At the final game, the hockey mask can be seen at the concession stand, only to go back to the "generic girl" design one more time. The "depressed aspiring movie director" seen in the final concept did not come into being until the last prototype, which was similar to her current design but makes her more matching to her personality by giving her a sullen, gloomy appearance.
  • Doe was also quite difficult to design; He was initially intended to take the role that Nagi took in the final product as the theater curator, which appears as an intimidating old man who wants to build casinos and other entertainment devices in the theater. If he peels off his face, it reveals a kind, young man. Another design has him being a cleaner staff with a red bucket covering his head with only his right eye appearing from a crack, who would scold Hikari for spilling popcorn. According to an official interview, he was also planned to resemble a panda.
  • Concept art◊ of Kamoshidaman's second form has him dressed as a Playboy Bunny, complete with fishnet stockings and heels. Oddly enough, his design in the final game is almost identical to the concept art but he doesn't wear anything below the belt. This is Lampshaded in the dialogue option "Because he's a sex fiend" when your party questions why Kamoshidaman's true form is a rabbit.

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