With the upcoming releases of the persona 4 remake on the vita and the Fighting game Persona 4 Arena I figured it would be a good time to put my opinion out there on the 2008 RPG by Atlus.But It kinda started long before that so go with me on this.Years and years ago a friend of mine mentioned an RPG with a weird concept and an even weirder cameo.A game Called Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne.
This game is a damn masterpiece.The music is gorgeous and the story is incredibly thought provoking.It's also the game that introduced me to the Four horseman mithos which I've become as weird as it sounds Intrigued by.That topped with A cameo from Dante of devil may cry fame and you've got a winner but that's for another time.But I had never heard of the game company Atlus at the time.Suffice it to say I had their name ingraved in my mind for further notice.And then a few years later I hear of another game from them called persona 3 and once again I was blown away.The gameplay crossed with the social link system was once again a winner and you could tell they really sunk alot of money into the production and it paid off cause persoan 3 was a huge success.And alongside a remake called Persona 3 FES they started immediate work on persona 4 to capitalize on the success and while on the surface it may appear to just be a clone they shoved out to make money it was alot more then just that.They took the amazing system from persona 3 and alot of (Not quite as but alot of) The depth of Nocturne,Put them in a blender and it came out glorious.
For those who don't know Shin megami tensei is a series made by the aforementioned Atlus that all have a similar system.Namely the demons and a similar Pokemon-esque demon collection system.The system is simple but very effective in that you fuse demons you get in combat into bigger stronger ones.the combat being very simplistic trying to figure out what the enemy demons are weak against and usually exploiting the crap out of it get more damage out of it and if you do an attack that the enemy is weak against you'll usually (game depending) get another turn as well making you want to carry a variety of demons or personas (Again game depending) to use this effectivly.Trust me though it's not as easy as it sounds most SMT titles are ball breakers at some point in it.Still haven't beaten Lucifer in nocturne.
Ya Giant Blue bastard.
Yeah one thing you have to get used to is the demons/personas are from every culture and mithos from bhuddism to Christian.lemme put it this way my personas from the end of persona 4 were. Satan and beelzebub and yes apparently they are different.(I'm not exactly a religion scholar) along with Odin and the chinese dragon Kohryu.It's pretty badass having these huge mythological beings at your beck and call and really It is pretty badass telling the God Asura what to do.But I'm getting sort of off track.
Using the basic persona system of using multiple persona's that change your characters stats works well in persona 4 but here's the thing.The gameplay is the weakest part of persona 4.Now Don't take that as a bad thing in fact It's a great sign as the fusion system is rewarding and general combat is satisfying learning what enemies weak points are and exploiting them in a very strategical manor.It's more that though.The story,Characters,Soundtrack,and Style are so good that It's hard to really put even the best combat system on par.
The story takes place in the Foggy town of inaba where mysterious murders are taking place with victims ending up hung on roofs with no definate cause of death.Suffice it to say something like this has the whole town buzzing and just after the arrival of a new school student.You play said school student coming to inaba after his parents go off on some kind of trip.Which is admittedly a bit uncreative but at least his parents didn't just die of CPPS or Cliche Plot point syndrome.Nonetheless they've Left you with your uncle and cousin.I have to say one of the best parts of the game is Dojima and nanako the aforementioned uncle and cousin respectivly since they give the game a very warm feel that really does get you into the tone and locale very quickly giving a very real home kind of feel.
On your first day of school (Which gets cancelled due to the first murder by the way) You meet up with local unluckiest kid ever and son of the local family run chain of Junes(Read wal-mart) Yousuke Hanamura and local kung-fu enthusiast and the most unintentionally adorable girl in anime history Chie satonaka.After the second murder of a close friend of yousuke's you all find yourselves looking into the murders and end up oddly enough finding another world inside of a television inside junes,And saying it there almost made me check my "Anime WTF moment" Bingo card.Though it gets a bit stranger as you find it's connected to the murders and houses an unknown creature named teddie who ends up helping everyone out.
Oh also I hope you like puns cause He's filed to the brim with them.
Throughout the Investigation you meet up with other characters like local Inn Heiress and Chie's Best friend (I repeat FRIEND) Yukiko Amagi, A punk who beats up biker gangs by night and knits animals plushies by day and also One of the most Awesome characters in history Kanji tatsumi.A pop Icon Resting in inaba after debating on returning to normal life Rise Kujikawa,and Nicknamed the detective prince Naoto Shirogane.I wouldn't have actually mentioned who you get but in both of the opening cinematics the game has they show all the characters which personally I think it would've been a bit more interesting keeping it a secret but nonetheless.
The characters are a very strong point in the game.The uncle and cousin you live with,the rest of the investigation team,and the social links you complete all have interesting and most importantly are all Easy to like.Alot of people didn't like teddie and I see why but personally I always found his decent writing for his actually good comedic stuff made up for a few bad puns.
The Story is once again pretty damn good and maybe that may be from a bias of mine.I love mystery stories.Love them to death.So maybe the whole murder mystery and the fact that you do actually have to find out who the culprit is to get the good ending just adds to how cool of a mystery it is.But aside from that the plot is pretty good giving alot of twists and turns that makes you think you've found the culprit right before another murder happens or clues lead to another suspect.It's a ride to say the least.
The graphics are one of the maybe not weaker points but they're nothing special.The actual 3D sprite work looks okay but it's nothing to write home about.The Anime stills they use are actually pretty good and the anime cutscenes range from pretty good to looking a bit off.I can't quite put my finger on it but some of them namely ones with alot of charcters actually in the scene can look a little strange but again it's nothing terrible just an off point.
The music on the other hand is absolutly amazing.I've often said that Sonic generations has THE best soundtrack of all time to me and I stand by that but alot of it is Previous tracks slightly or massive mixed not alot of new ones and that is why Persona 4 Has the best original soundtrack to me at least.The quiet tracks are beautiful and the battle music "Reach out for the truth" Is Amazing.I seriously thought I'd be tired of it fairly quickly but honestly I still love it to this day.But that combined with I'll face myself which is off the top of my head my favorite Boss track of any Rpg and it's just a work of damn art.Oh by the way that Bonus disc on the cover at the top of this post.That's a soundtrack disc that COMES WITH THE GAME FREE!!!!.....That's just awesome.
But here's the kicker the Recently released "Persona 4 The golden" Remake for the Ps Vita actually outdoes it at least in battle theme and opening theme.Hell even the animation scene seem better.I mean I cannot think of anything more flat out awesome then the opening animation combined with Shadow world by Shihoka hirata.(the woman singing basically every female vocal in P4)
Okay This is but It's practically cheating really.
But it's a game So how's the gameplay? Well as I said the main concept behind it is basic Rpg with the schtick that enemies have certain elemental weak spot that you can Exploit to usually do more damage and get another turn with that character.Like most SMT games this is the main idea in combat.Use every element you can and see what certain enemies are weak against but this game seems to throw a wrench into the works after a while having enemies with no weakness that take massive damage from certain elements but it doesn't count as a weakness or take very little damage from their weakness and it's a better idea to try something else.Another thing that happens when hit by a weakness is that they fall down and if all enemies are down you can perform an all out attack where all of your teammates strike at once in a cartoony cloud and do massive damage usually killing off the enemies in one swoop.
Also one thing to note is that Physical skills actually use HP and are a bit risky to use while Light and Dark skill (named Hama and Mudo) don't deal damage but have a chance to auto kill anything it hits (anything weak to either is basically an auto kill on contact)
One thing that alot of people would see as a massive problem is the difficulty.Now SMT games have been known to be hard.Fair but hard.But wow the first two areas in particular the bosses are absolute jackasses.There is such a difficulty spike in those two bosses it's absolutly maddening if you're not used to it.Seriously I would not blame someone for looking up a walkthrough or an FAQ.Though For beating them you get one of the best healers in game and a crazy boss killer for the first two fights respectivly.Trust me It's worth it just get through those two and you're gold....well it's still hard just not as bad.The Worst part is easily this spike.
Another aspect of gameplay is fusing and social links.Fusing is pretty enjoyable just trying to get certain moves and planning personas for boss fights.Though I will say that it can get annoying trying to get certain moves on personas that don't inherit certain skills.I know this from experience trying to get Magarudyne on Beelzebub and only succeeding after more time then I'd like to admit.
Social links are realy enjoyable just trying to tetris together your schedule with combat and social links plus the actual stories of the people in the social links are pretty good if potentially a bit depressing with some.But as I've said It's just fun to plan ahead plan when to raise stats like knowledge or courage (Heavily Social link Involved stats that can unlock new social links and/or side jobs) or when to head into combat or do social links.Again schedule tetris.
One other thing is that there is one more thing that new players may not be a fan of at first and that's that the game is rather talky.Personally this never bothered me but especially since it does take a while to actually get into the action at the beginning of the game some people could easily have issues with this but once you're used to it you'll be fine.
So long story short (beyond too late) What do I think of Shin Megami Tensei Persona 4? Well let me put it this way.There was for the longest time a three way tie between P4,Breath of fire 2,and Final Fantasy 9.While I love the latter two and while FF9 has an amazing gameplay and soundtrack and Breath of fire 2 has a great story and characters,Persona 4 has all of these elements and then some.In my opinion This is just the most quality RPG I've ever played And I cannot reccomend enough that anyone who reads this give this version or the upcoming Vita port a shot.Also as a side note and a sign of how much I love this game,The new banner for this blog actually features a persona.Take-Mikazuchi.Love this game.
I really need to try a game I don't like in one of these.....this may require searching.
One other thing is that there is one more thing that new players may not be a fan of at first and that's that the game is rather talky.Personally this never bothered me but especially since it does take a while to actually get into the action at the beginning of the game some people could easily have issues with this but once you're used to it you'll be fine.
So long story short (beyond too late) What do I think of Shin Megami Tensei Persona 4? Well let me put it this way.There was for the longest time a three way tie between P4,Breath of fire 2,and Final Fantasy 9.While I love the latter two and while FF9 has an amazing gameplay and soundtrack and Breath of fire 2 has a great story and characters,Persona 4 has all of these elements and then some.In my opinion This is just the most quality RPG I've ever played And I cannot reccomend enough that anyone who reads this give this version or the upcoming Vita port a shot.Also as a side note and a sign of how much I love this game,The new banner for this blog actually features a persona.Take-Mikazuchi.Love this game.
I really need to try a game I don't like in one of these.....this may require searching.
