Title: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
Genre: JRPG
Format: Playstation 2
Release: July 2008 (Japan) December 2008 (North America) March 2009 (Europe)
Grab the Remote
Persona 3 FES was such a meaningful experience for me for a few reasons. The main reason is that it was the first JRPG that captured my interest. It had such a dark atmosphere and the main objective of the game wasn’t in stat building but in establishing and improving Social Links. Building relationships of your own free will and having those relationships help increase your power as time goes on was a revolutionary concept to me. Another reason has a lot to do with the length of the game. It took me roughly 70 hours to complete one playthrough and that is the longest it has taken me to complete any game.
After I came home from college I found the game sitting waiting for me. I instantly opened up the package and was disappointed to find that my Play.com UK exclusive Persona 4 t-shirt had not yet arrived. In spite of this, I was glad to see it still came with a nice extra, which was a CD soundtrack for the game. Despite my excitement, I admit I had my doubts about Persona 4 even when I was reading the instruction booklet and looking at the game case. The things I read about it beforehand weren’t encouraging. Amidst this doubt, I still found I really wanted to play it. The game started up and I was treated to possibly the best game introduction I’ve came across. Pursuing My True Self had quite an upbeat feel to it. Despite the upbeat feel, the lyrics capture the mood of the song and the video playing during it very well. The second introduction, Reach Out to the Truth, is an instrumental version of the battle theme in the game which shows you some gameplay, and it’s quite appropriate for getting you pumped up and ready to kick some Shadow arse.
Turn On The TV
One thing I noticed straight away was the change in atmosphere from Persona 3. This game has a much brighter art style and the atmosphere isn’t so chilling. I had plenty of time to take note of this fact because the intro itself is roughly 2.5 hours long! It beats the length of P3’s intro by a long shot. Anyway, when you finally get into the game, you accidentally end up in a TV world, and as you would expect from P3, you summon your Persona for the first time and fight off a Shadow. The bosses this time around are different. In Persona 4 the Shadow bosses are Shadows that reflect the darkest parts of a person’s soul, and this is a more interesting idea. I felt like I was fighting something rather than some faceless enemy that I didn’t know the intentions of.
When a Shadow boss is defeated it transforms into a Persona for the person it originated from. Why is this happening? It turns out that someone is throwing people into the TV World with the possible intent of letting them die at the hands of the Shadows or letting their own Shadow consume them from within. Just who is doing such a horrible thing and why are they doing it? That’s what you and your friends need to find out! So as you progress through the game you gather more friends through rescuing them and they join your group. The cast is quite typical, but they are still lovable. Yousuke (or as I like to call him, Brosuke) is the joker of the group, Chie is the popular “straight-man”, Yukiko is the pretty princess, Kanji is the brawler, Rise is the bubbly girl, Naoto is the aloof intellectual and Teddie is the mascot.
Change the Channel
As for the gameplay I noticed it had quite a large change. Now you can control each character if you wish as well as letting them decide their own actions. While useful, you’re better off using it just for boss battles so that you can get through the game a little quicker. Most of the time the characters will make the right decision about attacks. Another thing I noticed was the absence of multiple physical attack types. Now physical attacks are all in the same attack group, Physical Attacks. I guess that makes things easier but I like being able to select different weapons and the Main Character only gets to use swords this time around. Oh well. Pretty much everything else is the same in terms of gameplay.
In some ways the cast in general is better than Persona 3. They have a more diverse range of emotions and they don’t sound as robotic. This isn’t to say the cast of Persona 3 was bad or the actors did a poor job. I just think the script this time allowed for better interactions between the characters. Also, Nanako is adorable. Rise is hot…but anyway, um, nevermind. What I found quite interesting the Social Links aspect was you could choose if a girl would be your friend or a girlfriend. I tend to opt for friend in these things because I just feel guilty dating multiple girls in these games. I do believe there is one scene where you get confronted by each girlfriend you have at the same time. Better remember this, guys. You still won’t get away with cheating on your video game girlfriend!
Switch Off
The game is roughly the same length as Persona 3 but you need to make it that length yourself because you can end the game slightly earlier. I won’t spoil it for you. To be perfectly honest, as much as I liked this game, the twist on who the culprit behind the murders was was kind of anti-climatic. Still, they made for a decent villain in the end, even with the shaky motive. Regardless of this setback, it’s a great game.
