Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 - PlayStation 2

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is not for the faint-of-heart emotionally. No game yet created will be able to tug out as much emotion from you as a full playing here does. Moreover it is, without a doubt, an RPG made for adults. This alone is a feat of epic accomplishment -- when has a game (other SMT titles not included) ever used the 'M' rating for anything more than violence, language or sexuality? It today's society, it's hard for us to remember that "adult situations" come up in a lot of other ways, as well. Sure, there are some of those more common elements here, but... no, that's not what makes this "for adults".In short, if you're willing to open your heart to it and dedicate some of your time to it, Persona 4 will ultimately become the most immersive and emotional RPG you've ever played. The setting, characters, gameplay and its incredible story all combine in perfect harmony to give the result.For many years, I've wanted to be able to say that a new game was worthy of a highest-possible score (an effective 10/10 instead of just saying 5 starts of 5, which I list for 9 or 10/10 on my scale)... that something else was worthy... and I'm glad it's finally happened. Persona 3 and its FES epilogue version came ever-so-close, but Atlus has taken every aspect of P3 and enhanced it. To put it another way, any excuses anyone might have had to rain some scorn upon Persona 3 are now gone and you'll find yourself hard-pressed to come up with a single criticism of this game.It's been a long week for me. With a first clear time of 59hr 36min and having received the game 7 days ago (at time of writing this review), it's not hard to realize I've done nothing but dive into Persona 4 at times other than essential life functions. That doesn't include much sleep, naturally. Not a minute of that time was a waste....Alright, enough of the emotional ramblings. I suppose I should probably get to the actual content of the game itself.The game scenario is pretty standard for an RPG, and if you wanted to simplify it into a single line, you could call it a Scooby Doo murder mystery case. The protagonist is a transfer student to a high school in a small town, events unfold, you gain friends and allies, and you work for a common cause. A serial killer seems to be on the loose, killing people in ways no one can seem to collect any evidence from-to say nothing for finding any suspects. It's not long before you realize that you have a unique but inexplicable ability to try to combat the killer, and the hunt it on. This quick summary is the end of any type of simplicity you could give to P4. ...There's one extra thing worth noting as you begin. The opening movie just can't stand up to what we saw in P3. After all, it'd be damn hard to make a more shocking opening than one where there's a simulation of someone shooting themselves in the head with a pistol.The bare-bones start to the game lasts roughly 2 hours. It'll be another 2 before anything close to the normal flow of the game begins. It seems your town had some odd weather patterns and some urban myths to match, and the most famous being that watching a TV at midnight on a rainy night will show a picture of someone. Your soulmate, many say. This theory is quickly put to rest as people start to turn up dead. For American players, just a few murders hardly seem like something worthy of forming a such a game around. Just remember that this is Japan-ANY sort of violent crime is pretty much unheard of and a single act can put an entire city on edge. As the plot thickens, you can sense the rising tension amongst your school members and people around town.Quite quickly, you'll see that the game is unapologetically Japanese. Name tags are used based on relation, school lessons match and general customs are followed. Incredibly off-the-wall is the introduction of a giant fuzzy teddy bear as a character, who'll be sticking around with you the remainder of the game. ...Yea, definitely Japanese. If you're willing to overlook the fluff and fuzz, you will see that he's quite a strong character and a valuable member toward your efforts. If anything you should consider the culture gap content to be a good thing, since it means that only minor adjustments (at most) were made in the translation and adaptation of a North American release.Game flow is simple and easy to follow. You have school during days, your dungeon adventures occur in the afternoons, and your evenings are free to pursue your studies or do things with your relatives in the house. Days off and times you choose not to battle are when you'll form your "Social Links" and dive into the plethora of sub-stories, and your adventures in total will fall over a calendar year. One important difference between P3 and P4 is that each ally in your team has an individual social link, instead of just the girls. This is a lot more natural and will likely result in substantial guilt when you can't bring along certain members for certain missions... it's unlikely you'll really "hate" any of the characters since you really get to know them all at length.When you start to have carte blanche over your time, the game seems to be able to sense what you're trying to do and scold you appropriately. After a few trips into battle the first week it was available, I received a phone call from the infamous and series-recurring Velvet Room reminding me that I should be looking to get to know people in my new town. For those not familiar, the Velvet Room is a special place only the protagonist can enter where you'll be able to manage your Personas. Though this is important, a trait of the Persona series is the need to advance your social links with friends so that your Personas can become substantially more powerful as you develop and create them. In all seriousness, a Persona that is a few levels above your main character will make difficult battles substantially easier in a lot of places and gives you access to more powerful abilities. In short, a Persona is merely a facade of yourself that allows you to reveal more of your soul, and thus changes what you can do in battle based on what you put forward.Another awesome improvement over Persona 3 is the finer details of the plot. Not to say it wasn't complex, but there were times where you could be screaming at your TV wishing your characters would figure out something obvious. These moments are gone-actually, in almost every instance I came up with a new deduction about things it was addressed by others before my turn to speak. Shamefully, I must admit that there were times that my allies figured out some things before I did that resulted in a facepalm for me. This if far from a bad thing, of course! Just more proof of a very well-written story where it seems the authors thought through things and were able to anticipate what players were probably thinking at the time. The end result here is that plot twists are truly a surprise, yet are entirely logical once your team has a chance to sit around and discuss them.The characters you'll find here combine to make the greatest cast ever assembled for an RPG. Each has quirks, a sense of humor, running jokes, particular matters of irritation, etc.. The cross-character chatting actually gets so intense sometimes that they make very offense remarks to others regarding very serious topics such as gender orientation. Not one of your crew feels at all "boring" and the development of all of them is quite enjoyable.Always true to themselves, at some point everyone will probably annoy you temporarily and you'll grumble at the direction of your TV while glaring at them. Although (as you might expect in an RPG) all of the characters are dynamic in some way, their cores never change. My favorite instance of this was during a drinking game (yes, seriously) between friends where a particularly philosophical member has been forced into a situation where a lot of his-uh-"Innocence" was to be lost. On the spot and without hesitation, he spits out a haiku perfectly explaining what he has to do. It's not even an obvious thing and you have to REALIZE it's a haiku, though the fact he didn't spell it out for you makes it all the more hilarious. There are so many little moments like this and awesome lines from the whole crew that no cutscene is dull....Regarding the combat system, it's simply flawless. Though a major beef with P3 was the inability to directly control your allies, you now can... though... there were but 3 instances where I actually took control of the entire party. I know it was 3 because I can remember reach time and why I changed! The ally and enemy AI alike are just phenomenal. Similar to the facepalms in the story, I found my group members performing actions to disable or knock down foes that I didn't realize or completely forgot about. It's never a bad thing when your friends help you, and not vice-versa. Combat speed is rather fast if you let characters act on their own, Persona summoning is very crisp (another improvement), and every pleasant quirk from P3 is still there with even more fun battle details added. You'll also be happy to know that you can actually find out what Persona abilities do by pressing Square on the Persona selection menu, since there's no way you'll remember what each strange spell name means on your own.Of special note are the cross-member interactions during combat. This was already well-defined in Persona 3, but it's improved even further here and the banter between allies is almost continuous. Despite the limited number of lines they have, for some reason it never seems to get old.Actually, developing your social links with your group members helps play into the changes to the battle system. Depending on how advanced it is, they're able to take a mortal blow for you that would have otherwise resulted in your death and a "Game Over". Better still, they're able to cure you from annoying ailments including the dreaded charm. Quite literally, someone will run up to you and slap you in the face to get your attention. Best of all, if you're willing to push through the entire story for one of your allies, they'll develop the ability to survive a single killing blow to them and this is very strategically important in boss battles. Players of Persona 3 in particular will enjoy this, since taking time to raise your allies basically crippled you in difficult fights.Another little detail about dungeon improvements is that treasure chests will no longer spit out Yen. That was well and good of course, but also made no sense in P3. To counteract always being poor, the activities you use to increase your character statistics include part-time jobs that pay rather well. Your other primary source of income is the selling of innate materials dropped from defeated foes. Selling these off to a local shop unlocks new weapons and armor for you. Not remotely realistic, but as good of a system I've seen in a modern-era RPG nonetheless.Oh, and it's been pretty clear from a lot of the other reviews around that you need to do a ridiculous amount of exp grind to really do well. I beg to differ. If you'd like an indication of how much "work" I did, I completed each dungeon twice... once for the storyline and another to defeat optional bosses. In a few cases I did short sorties to particular places to collect items requested by the townsfolk for quests. Do note that although the "fatigue" factor is gone from P3, you no longer recover full HP/SP after returning to the entrance....Moving on to overall presentation of the game, you really can't ignore PS2 limitations anymore. Since the entire development process of Persona 4 has been after the PS3 was launched, it's unfortunate that the limited budget and resources of Atlus couldn't put this on the stronger system. Mind you, the graphics (in combat especially) are as good as you'll ever seen on the PS2, but hopping back to a game in HD will basically make your eyes bug out. Some kind of widescreen mode would have been awesome, but this is a very minor complaint and the lack of it doesn't subtract from the game in any way whatsoever.The soundtrack is top-notch, as you'd expect from any SMT title. Each separate dungeon has its own background music, which mixes things up nicely while walking around. There are hours upon hours of voiceovers from a talented cast that anime buffs will be able to pick out a few "famous" voices from. Another intriguing thing present this time is "quazi-voiceovers", where the text of a line will appear and you'll only get a short outburst from the other character. This could be a clip of an emotional reaction, or the first few words of the phrase. To me, this shows that Atlus might have loved to have put a voiceover on everything, but could have been running out of disk space. One thing that they made a specific point of including for voiceovers, however, is the "final" cutscene with each social link that brings you up to the max rank. It feels like an extra bonus for your effort and really puts the emotion from everyone out on the table....One thing I always love to talk about is details in games; it's often the little things that really make a scene stick with you or add a good memory to the game overall. The first such thing I saw in the game was when I was eating breakfast with my hosts and finished toast popped out of the toaster. It seems really tiny and insignificant, but it was so unexpected I actually jumped a little in my seat. If you're looking for a "big" example of details, naturally it would be the manga-like marks that appear above the characters quite often which explain their moods. Especially in cutscenes without voiceovers, it helps hold things together well.I also can't help but mention how well "detail" and dialogue is used in the Persona. As a voiceless protagonist, somehow you're still turned into an incredible character and member of your group. If it weren't for the fact that you're controlling him at all times and his ability to control multiple Personas is unique, you can easily imagine him being just any other normal person at school. It's a damn good feat of writing to allow someone without a voice to be both the "main" character and the strongest in most any sense of the word.The "mood" is also simply amazing. As you could expect, there is an eventual point in the plot where things have entirely hit the proverbial fan and things look incredibly grim. I can almost assure you that you'll be so sucked in to the game at this point that you'll literally have knots in your stomach waiting for the next horrible thing to happen. This is made all the more exciting by the fact that very few of the major events happen at times you would expect and you get a lot of short term changes you need to cope with....In starting a summary, it needs to be said that this game is not for everyone. It takes dedication to get the most out of this game. Although I'd like to think that anyone who has ever at any point played any type of RPG and enjoyed it would find Persona 4 to be an incredible experience, there are some players that can't handle hours without battle action, or the fact that it's hardly worth turning on your PS2 unless you have at least 1-2 full hours to play in order to make much progress.I'll kind start to finish this by giving a testimonial of my feelings throughout playing. At 10 hours in, I felt kind of disappointed. At 20, I'd adjusted to this. By 30, I was engaged. Hours 30 to 40 were hands-down the most I've ever enjoyed in any RPG (or game in general, actually). 40-Finish had me on the edge of my seat, and my first time at [AN] ending resulted in my crying for about 10 minutes.Oh... and as a last impression, I'd like to say that this game answers important questions in life, such as what happens when a protagonist is used as an underage male prostitute (indirectly). Perhaps you'd like to know what hints of fanservice from previous Persona titles would look like. Best of all, you might be curious to know what an 8-bit era dungeon crawling game would look like in 3D, and thankfully such a vital ponderance is answered for you. When's the last time you fought a boss that was a 16x16 block of pixels. That's what I thought....Conclusion-Just an incredible symphony here. At this point I'm not even sure if this truly my favorite RPG, but a somewhat objective view shows what is practically a flawless game that has corrected every imaginable critique it faced in its last release. There is still potential for great leaps forward in the Persona series, but at this time Persona 4 is worthy of the utmost praise for everything it gives you.Dare I say, Atlus is developing enough of a fanbase around the world now that releases are anticipated at nearly the same level of Square-Enix games? Might we finally have another true powerhouse in the RPG department which is slowly evolving past niche games to things anyone can enjoy playing? We'll have to see what Atlus can put together for the PS3 and/or 360, I suppose. They might not have the budget or resources of the SE-folk, but they have 10x the heart put into their titles right now. Not impressed enough yet? Go ahead and play through again on your cleared data to unlock everything available to you.

Warning: May contain very subtle minor spoilersI adored Persona 3. I owned both the original P3 and even got Fes so if you called me "fan boy" in this regard I'd nod vigorously. Normally it is the case of a fan to say "Oh , nothing can beat my favorite game!" but in the case of Persona 4 I have to kick my elitist pride in the private area and accept that p4 is better than p3 in just about every way.First thing I noticed is these seem like real kids. Chie is a tom-boy who has trouble catching the attention of guys whereas her friend Yuki is gorgeous yet is in a situation in which she feels as if her life is planned out for her. Yosuke is the typical class clown in some regards but in others he is very steadfast and devoted. Indeed all your friends have more than one layer and they struggle with many issues including feeling trapped into roles they do not want or questioning their own sexuality.Even your character the "silent protagonist" has to deal with a work-a-holic uncle that is apart of the police force while having to help his adorable cousin Nanako by doing activities with her so she will not spend most of her days simply making breakfast, doing laundry, and singing the town mall's theme song.While Persona 3's characters were endearing they seemed a bit shallow. None of them had to confront skeletons such as "Am I gay?" or "I know that when I'm up on that stage singing these songs everyone sees me as an easy slut."Whereas before "shadows" were just aimless monsters in Persona 4 they even manifest as darker psyches of the main characters. They must be defeated than embraced for each protagonist to awaken to their inner self. This approach makes everything a lot more personal and even the dungeons are varied representing each person trapped in the other-world instead of being monotonous floors in the same tower. "Keys" were also added thus certain doors or chests cannot be opened without them.One thing I'll confess is Persona 4 is harder. I got laid to waste fighting Kanji's sensitive brute shadow and before that Yuki's caged Phoenix shadow and the Contrary King like-wise dished up plenty of bruises. This time your tactics have to be really well thought out. Fortunately unlike in Persona 3 you CAN manipulate the actions of all your characters in persona 4. Just go into your tactics menu and place them under your direct control.The music is what you expect of Persona and is a mix of techno, emotional J-pop, and a bare minimum of heavier tracks. As with the other game it does well for the setting.Concerning the environments they are quite limited just like P3 however I admit they are prettier and have a rustic charm. Unlike before Inaba is truly a small town instead of a beach front city. You will see odd quirky things like a giant toad statue in the general store, a crafty fox that guards an abandoned shrine, an actual true black-smith building adorned with ancient looking armor, and there is even a fishing hole in the flood plains. While p4 may not be much bigger it did put more articulate work into the smaller details.All I can say about social links is they are more complex. Whereas before you only had to up 3 stats now there are at least 5. "Diligence" "Expression" and "Understanding" are brand new and now instead of only helping relationships with people in the mundane world they even add actions to your friends whom go into combat with you.As expected you go to school, take tests, celebrate holidays, and must balance all of that with trying to solve a murder mystery related to the paranormal. The only direct change is "weather" is an indicator of what happens instead of "moon cycles". Indeed the oppressive fog, symbolical metaphors for people entering the other world, and more serious atmosphere made me think briefly of Silent Hill. I'm not saying P4 is an RPG trying to be a survival horror game but it does deal with disturbing imagery and topics P3 more or less tip-toed around.Even the beautiful nurse looked like an older Alessa Gillespie but its' safe to say these things are coincidental. Japan has often used themes of "duality" and "other worlds" in their culture so eventually anyone is going to see parallels and similarities in their works of fiction.The only thing I got confused about is some characters in P4 look like characters in P3. Dojima's partner Adachi looks and sounds exactly like Junpei. It would have been better if the designers just admitted "Yeah this is Junpei when he got older and decided to be in law enforcement" but in truth he is his own separate person. Naoto looks eerily similar to the main silent protagonist in P3 but as his (?) truths become known that theory is completely debunked.I know I've neglected poor Teddy the friendly bear mascot that helps you on the other side of the television as well as a few other key things but I hope I painted you an informative picture of what P4 has to offer you. It is a wonderful game even if we have seen these same graphics and many of these same mechanics in P3. It is similar to its' predecessor in all the right ways and gives you just enough innovation to show you Atlus cares about the contentment of its' fan base.Pros+Wonderful characters you get to truly care about+ More complexity added to the social link system.+ Dungeons seem less repetitive and are metaphors for each character's struggles making their exploration more interesting. Shadows likewise have more of a purpose.+ A story line that trumps and out-shines P3's in every way. In case you are wondering that is hard to do.+ Taking away evokers and metaphoric suicides which were unnecessary and giving the protagonists traditional cards similar to the classic Persona games.+ Glowing butter-fly save points! No its' not as great as having Philimon back, but it is a nice nostalgic nod to Persona 1-2.+ As a town Inaba has more charm and neat little details than your residence in P3.+Kids forced to deal with "real issues" other games are too squeamish to contend with.+ The oppressive fog and murder mystery motif makes P4 a lot more mature and intriguing than P3.+ Direct control of ALL characters.Cons- Cheap one-hit bosses even near the beginning of the game. Leveling up does help but grinding can get lack luster after awhile.-You feel rushed to save people from the TV world because the next time there is fog in your world that person dies and it is an automatic "game over". You are given a generous stretch of time between foggy days but that does not take away the pressure of a ticking clock.- Some character designs look too similar to P3 designs. This can lead to confusion and false assumptions if you are a true fan.- There are not as many ways to leave dungeons or as many mid-way points. Stock up on items you need often. This is no cat-walk.- You have less time to do things in P4. in P3 you could go out during the evening but in P3 once you return home that is it. Certain "night shift jobs" and your work table occasionally offer more to do, but I miss being able to go to other areas after hours such as the nightclub in P3.As a side note I'll add I sincerely hope Atlus makes P5. A game like this on a next gen system with even more ways to socialize, bigger environments, more Persona fusions, and a longer life-simulation aspect balanced with fascinating dungeons would give big companies like squareEnix a run for their money.