Released in North America in December 2008, Persona 4 is another addition to the Shin Megami Tensei games that seem to be picking up popularity worldwide. Atlus keeps pumping these off-handed, yet fun, niche games. Though somewhat related to its predecessors, what with few Persona 3 side characters popping up for guest appearances throughout the game, Persona 4 isn’t truly a sequel as the story and characters are quite different than the games that have come before. If you’re an ardent RPG gamer and haven’t played these games yet, what the hell is wrong with you?
After all, there aren’t too many other games that have decent humor, occasional cross-dressing, and a giant-nosed weirdo riding in the back of a limo with a deck of tarot cards and a blond bombshell.
The main character and voiceless hero of the game!
Story
Following the template of the Shin Megami Tensei games that came before, Persona 4’s main character is meant to be ‘you.’ You name the character whatever you like, and throughout the game your character doesn’t speak (save for the few classic shouts of your Personas’ names during battle).
The game starts out with the main character arriving in a fictional small Japanese town to stay with his detective uncle and younger cousin. The game is played through the course of a year during high school and encompasses classic RPG and dungeon diving with, of all things, high-school and dating simulations. Don’t let that turn you off, though.
Throughout the course of the game your character has to develop relationships with different people the school over – be it a cute girl in your drama club, or a few buddies on the basketball team – so that your powers and skills will increase. On the other hand, you have to balance your time with school and friends with the task of fighting.
Fighting what, you ask?
Shadows.
What physical combat looks like in-game.
Not long after you move in with your uncle a few strange murders take place. Apparently, at midnight on given nights, there appears on the TV what the characters in game refer to as ‘The Midnight Channel.’ After someone’s image appears on the midnight channel, they disappear not more than a few days later. Then, after that, they are found dead.
Sound off? It gets better. Through a strange series of events, you and the few friends you’ve made at your new school discover you have the power to enter the TV and fight your way through countless shadow creature after shadow creature. In the TV world, the victim’s shadow shows the person’s true desires, and it’s up to your team of rather rag-tag kids to take down the personified desire. Afterward, the character you save will come to a better understanding of themselves and join your party.
The downside?
The TV isn’t what’s abducting the people that keep disappearing. Meaning that even though you keep saving people, more people keep disappearing.
Depending on what you decide in the game, your ending may vary slightly. The bad ending is just that -bad. Nothing really happens, as you haven’t really found out who the true killer is, and you keep going to school and the weather stays crappy.
The good ending? I’m not willing to spoil this one, as it’s most likely something not many people playing will see coming.
Gameplay
Following its big brother games, Persona 4 replicates much of what’s found previously. While the characters are new and the story is interesting, the dungeon and fighting portions of the game are similar to Persona 3.
Using the aid of your Persona, which is basically your ’shadow’ under your control, you fight off hordes of generic shadows that infest all corners of the TV world. Your main character is the only one of the group that is able to use multiple Personas, however- no other character in your party has access to any other Persona other than the one they start out with, not including when their Personas ‘morph’ (think level up, only the leveling changes physical appearance and happens only once). Using special ‘cards’ (versus ‘evokers’ from Persona 3- where it looked like you were shooting yourself in the head), you’re able to utilize your Persona’s skills.
Using your Persona’s abilities and magic, as well as weapons ranging from shoes, to chairs, to wrenches, the entire ‘fighting’ portion of the game is a dungeon diver. Fight the shadow, get the treasure (if it’s even worth it), move on to the next level. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Don’t let this be a turn off for you, however. Though dungeon crawling can be an arduous task, as it can be in just about every other of the genre, the story is worth it.
Get ready for an all-out attack!
You gain new abilities by gaining experience by fighting. You’re also able to, if you wish, control the actions of your party members while in combat, or leave the decision-making up to them. Knock down your enemies for the advantageous ‘All-out Attack!”, or exploit the weakness (if you manage to find it). If you or one of your characters manage to get knocked on their asses, just wait- they’ll be back up the next turn. Classic of just about any type of game, try your best not to get knocked out.
That weirdo with the giant nose mentioned earlier? He’s the keeper of ‘The Velvet Room’, which in this particular Persona game takes residence inside the back of a limo. Only the main character has the ability to willingly go to The Velvet Room, and there guy with the huge schnoz, Igor, who has been a part of many other Persona games, has the ability the mix your Personas together to create new and more powerful Personas to aid you through battle. His companion, Margaret, is also one of the many social links found throughout the game.
Visuals
Atlus has the ability to melt anime-styled characters into a 3D world almost seamlessly. Cut scenes are animated beautifully and gameplay visuals are smooth - even for a PS2 game. While the visual aspects of the game won’t exactly leave you breathless, there are scenes and facial expressions your friends make that will have you giggling. Just wait until you get to the school festival, and the pageant they hold during; it’s worth it.
As the year progresses, so does the weather. This means the outfits your characters can wear will change as well.
Audio
While the voice cast for the game isn’t full of all-stars, some of the main characters are well-known voice actors, such as Laura Bailey (Fullmetal Alchemists‘ Lust), and Yuri Lowenthal (the Prince, from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, and Sasuke from Naruto). Despite this, the vocals are good and no one character sounds ‘bad’, as far as terms of decent voice-acting go; your characters seem like they are talking to one another, not reading lines off a piece of paper. The music is somewhat generic but not bad; no one song is going to get stuck in your head, but, thankfully, on the other side of the same coin, you won’t find yourself wishing you could tear your eardrums out.
Lifespan
As far as it goes, Persona 4, while the overall story will stay the same no matter how many times you play it, is a game that’s playable over and over. Sure, the dungeon diving is much of the same, but the day-to-day activities you can partake in can differ every time you play. Join the drama club in one go, or the basketball team in another, or try to balance them out. Raining out? Go try the endless bowls at the ramen shop in the shopping district. Fish. Hang out with different people and find your favorite social link to make ever better Personas. Fight in the TV every damn day if you want- you can literally play the daily life any way you want to.
The hero, and his friends Youske, Yukiko, and Chie.
Recommendation
If you consider yourself an RPG player or you like games that have involved story lines, Persona 4 is a must. Climbing the floors in the dungeons are a little repetitive, but the environments in them change as the game progresses (from a strip club to a sauna to a secret base), as do the appearances of the shadows you encounter. This is one of those games that you can play for hours, and then play again differently and still be happy with. Try it on easy difficulty if you’re feeling lazy, or set it to hard if you enjoy pulling your hair out.
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
Systems: PS2
Developer: Atlus
Publisher: Atlus
Find: Amazon, Gamefly, Goozex
All reviews are based on final retail code unless otherwise noted.
April 25th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Persona 3 raised the JRPG bar pretty high and for me, at least, P4 failed to get anywhere near it for a multitude of reasons. The OST was easily the best part of the overall package, and the few additions and tweaks made to the combat system were a nice touch, but the super-gay overtones and fumbled story just killed the game itself.
April 25th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
I have no idea why I haven’t played any of the Persona games, considering I love RPGs. It probably has to do with the never-ending mountain of geek paraphernalia I have lying around … hm.
Great first post, at any rate! And just ignore William, he likes to crush dreams. And butterflies. And puppies. It’s always puppies with him.
April 26th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
I didn’t get a chance to play 4, but I loved 3 (which I didn’t play either, but I watched HOURS of it).
April 27th, 2009 at 9:17 am
So what you’re saying is that this Persona “bear-ly” makes the grade? HAR HAR! See what I did there?
I got an early trade demo to play about two months before P4 was released, and I’m still not finished with it. Maybe I should consider working on that.
April 27th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Looks like good times for sure
April 28th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I feel like Yuri Lowenthal is in EVERYTHING now. I can’t get away from his voice, even if I wanted to (luckily he’s pretty good).
Anyway, great review. I am on the fence about buying this game and this is exactly the info. I needed. P3 is pretty fun so I might have to pick this up now.