But first let's water the plants...
By now I think it's safe to assume that the progression of the story depends on which floor you're currently exploring. Stripping off the daily cycle progression of the numbered Persona titles is kind of a bummer since instead of the date dictating the story and where you should be by then, where you are in exploring a labyrinth dictates the story. It kinda freezes the lively pacing the original Persona titles are famous for to be honest.
Anyway, the Alice in Wonderland elements get deeper on the third floor. It's like the party is indeed going down a rabbit hole. The structure of the labyrinth this time isn't just "going-around-in-circles" anymore no, we also get a new labyrinth exploration mechanic: One-way shortcuts. Well in this case I wouldn't exactly call them shortcuts, I guess one-way detours is more accurate.
In constructing the map, shortcuts which you can pass through on either side are marked by green colored two-headed arrows, while the one-way detours are marked as red one-headed arrows. The party can only pass through on the side where the arrow head is not pointing to. It's thanks to this new mechanic where exploring You In Wonderland became a little puzzle oriented most especially in the tracking and capturing of the Pink Rabbit.
An event is triggered mid-exploration mainly to develop the relationship between the characters. It uses the scenario in Alice in Wonderland where Alice needs to drink a potion suspiciously labelled "Drink Me" in order to shrink and pass through a mouse door.
It's the same scenario in Persona Q but instead of shrinking permanently (at least until the floor is cleared) a member of the party needed only to miniaturize themselves to retrieve a key to a locked door. Seems simple enough, but the group debated on who would drink the potion.
Aigis went first but it doesn't affect androids. Next up were the brains for brawn Akihiko and cheftacular Shinjiro, also Sakura Haruno #1 joined in the fray. Koromaru ended up liking the mini-me's of his new masters.
The scene moves to the Velvet Room where Theo and Elizabeth finally mentions something about our currently off screen Persona 4 protagonist (I do hope they are referring to Yu Narukami, otherwise I might be in for a twist).
Aside from the one-way detours, this floor also became increasingly difficult. Enemies appear more often, and I had the thrilling honor to accidentally encounter an F.O.E as I was fighting a different enemy. Apparently if an F.O.E is close by when an enemy appears, the F.O.E will join in the enemy side mid-battle.
I tried to put up a fight at first but F.O.Es are still too OP for my current level. I'm pretty sure there's going to be another new mechanic introduced at some point in the game which makes battles with the F.O.Es fair play.
Before this floor lets the party head on to the stairs leading to the next floor, it gave a final challenge in the form of an environmental puzzle. In the floor's last area, there are three FOEs and three vases of Red Roses. In Alice in Wonderland, the Knights were busy painting the White Roses red. It's the same here, when the party washes off the paint on a vase of Red Roses, the nearest FOE will stop by and paint it. It will stay there consumed by its task until you exit the room. The catch here is that the party needs to strategically wash the Red Roses in such a way that the sole FOE blocking the path to the stairs will stray from his path.
From what I remember, either the right or left FOE must take the vase in the top-middle of the room, then the FOE walking back and forth blocking the path to the stairs must take one of the vases by near the entrance of the room. It took me a solid thirty minutes to figure this damn puzzle out. It only made walking towards the stairs unscathed glorious.
PS. I was really not unscathed.
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