Persona 4 Review (12-2-09)

If you like the Shin Megami Tensei series, i'd suggest Devil Survivors for the Nintendo DS.

I admit beforehand i've not played any of the PS2 titles since i can't buy them where i live unless i resort to the internet and even then my ps2 has been catching dust in a corner for three or four years now, and i'm only now playing through the first persona titles for the PSX (Thank god for emulators).

That said the game seems to have pretty much all the parts you said to like in the reviews plus an interesting freedom to shape your own character and the options you leave open for your endings.

The plot unfolds as your characters led by the "insert name here" main chatracter find out more and more about the catastrophe that has fallen upon tokyo, and the most fun part is that you actually recieve, each morning, an ingame e-mail that predicts the future. However the gimmick is that it doesn't predict the effect of letting you know the future, allowing you to learn some detail in advance and thus know when and how to act.

It's also a game that is not afraid of burdening you with a character death, if you fuck shit up, people are gonna die. And sometimes even if you don't you can't save them all, at least not in the first playthrough (unless you really pay attention to almost everything, there's a shitload of parallel subplots that unravel and all of them may lead to some main character kicking the bucket if you don't handle them).

The combat is much like a final fantasy tactics game, with an isometric view and your party moving one by one taking turns, the actual fighting however is between the party of one of your characters (made up by the character itself plus two demons, attained much like the older versions, via fusions and whatnot) and an enemy party made up by three demons.

The ending might turn out kinda disappointing in the sense that all in all the way you handle the story changes very little as far as the boss fights go, you still ahve to fight the same bosses wether your preferred path is the christian one, the humanist one, the "fuck it" one and so forth, (with the exception of some changes in the final bosses, for obvious reasons) and the foremost changes you'll see are in the dialogues and the motivations your character and his followers (twelve possible followers, but each need you to be on some specific path(s) to follow you) have.

It's all in all a good game and it has the plus of being for the DS so one can play it pretty much anywhere, anytime, and since you have a job that seems to be a considerable plus.

Cheers and Great Vlog, as always

I hope you finished the game before reading the comments >.>

Spoony did you know you get to kill a shadow Teddy. I can't wait for that part *evil grin*

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I managed to beat Shadow Yukiko first try w/o much difficulty. Then again, I did take some of your advice about making sure that you keep your levels high, so thanks for that Noah. Probably would've gotten my ass kicked otherwise.

Also, I actually kinda like Teddie.

Persona 3 = Manly Tears Ending
Persona 4 = Adachi was right, all women are bitches and whores.

Persona 4 was a crazy long game...i remember watching my roommate play it.

Oh, BTW, another game that is crazy long, but FANTASTIC is Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time for PS2 (not sure if you heard of it). By far my favorite game. It is challenging, and does have a lot going on, but in a way thats fun and exciting, and quite differant. Just saying if you're loking for something new :)

Persona 4 is one of the most enjoyable RPGs I've played, if not one of my actual favourites. But man... that boss at the end of the sauna dungeon was the gayest thing I've ever kileld in a game. XD

Shadow Yukiko... yeah. Totally destroyed me the first time. XD BTW, if you try to open a chest and it says that there's a terrifying presence, don't open it unless you are endgame level or you just saved. Death itself will come out and kick your butt in seconds.

Though I liked Teddie, you don't have to worry. He doesn't narrate the rounds for the whole game so stick with it!

I must be the bazillionth person to say this, but I had to be sure. Sorry.

hey speaking of atlus and its incredibly hard games ever try out demon's souls?

You can defend and weakness spells won't knock down. Still take more damage than you would normally, but still less than not defending.

Turn-based RPG fans unite!

I'm playing through it again after stopping part way due to some asshole spoiling a huge plot development for me. I still love the game and I love Teddie's character. He doesn't get annoying for me because I ignore him in battles. Also, Shadow Yukiko is a bitch to beat but not that hard. Once you get the timing down for when she uses Burn to Ashes you can guard on Chie and not have to worry about an extra turn. I used Jack Frost with Ice Boost, Rakunda, and Bufula, with Chie using Tarukaja on the MC. I took her down in about 4 rounds. Either way, I'm glad to see you're having a good time with it. :D

I got my copy of Persona 4 and I have to say, you are good when it comes to recommendations because I havent put the game down since. I dont think Teddie is that annoying however, but the thing I will hold against you forever is 'The gay dungeon' which Ive just finished through and after beating the variety of very touchy feely monsters (yes including oiled up gay wrestlers who somehow remind me of Hulk Hogan) and the deeply disturbing Shadow Kanji Im very much resistant to having this dude on the team. I am cool with homosexuals whatever makes them happy, but Im doing my thing to impress the ladies of the game and I must say if this guy make a pass at me, Im gonna run away from the game screaming like a girl, and cursing your soul forever Spoony!

Nice review, I might just go and get Persona 4.
If you like turn-based rpg, and haven't already, try out Soul Nomad and the World Eaters.

Oh dear lord if you think the spa and Teddy are bad... wait until the next dungeon. I was twitching and had nightmares for days... The horror.

it took me about 60h to complete DA with all the sidequests and about 45 min to replay it with all the sidequests.

Actually Noah, have you tried the new SMT game for DS yet? It's called Devil Survivor, and it's like FF: Tactics. I think you would like it.

Part of the reason why P3 can be extremely frustating is that you cannot control what the NPCs do besides vagues commands. Since in P4 you CAN give direct commands, fights become significantly easier

They are going to release a remake of P3 for... DS or PSP, I forget which, which takes a lot of the mechanics from P4 and puts them to use. Also, you can make your character a female if you wish.

Also: Chie kicking a mook out of the fight = always awesome. If it comes up, there is at least one mini-boss against which said kick works.

I'm curious what you think of Demon's Souls, speaking of Atlus (although they only published it)

If anybody feels like having a good laugh check out this guy's P4 comics.

http://hiimdaisy.livejournal.com/

I guarantee you won't be disappointing so give it a shot at least.

I haven't finished 3 yet and I shutter to think about starting it over... I think between me and my Ex playing we got 60+ hours throw just grinding to beat the bosses... all we wanted is the MMO teacher ending!!!

Teddy won't be narrating forever, rest assured.

And yeah, Shadow Yukiko is bitchtacular.

Hey, if you liked Persona 4, then you'll probably like Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. It's a pretty awesome game, although the random battle system can be kinda tedious at times. The story and characters (the cast is a mixture of adults and teenagers) totally make up for it. It doesn't have social links though (because when you're trying to save the world from Nazis, Hitlers, demons, and general psychos, you don't really have time for things like school and hanging out at the mall).

Besides, who can't love a boss whose body and limbs are the main characters fathers dressed in S&M gear?

The only part of the review I had to comment was about Teddie's in-combat reports. Wait until you get Rise. That is all.

“and it’s funny you should use the phrase “doesn’t insult your intelligence” and P4 in the same sentence considering it does so constantly. They keep repeating the same plot points to you over and over because the story really isn’t complicated enough to span the 80 hours it can take to beat the game. Also, the characters are unbelievably dense and can’t put the simplest clues together (except for sometimes when they pluck facts out of thin air).”

Didn't see that.

As much as I prefer P4 over P3, I still kind of agree,sadly(though he does overblow it a bit).

I still think P3 had the bigger issues plotwise, and the P4 cast's slowness can partly be explained by the fact that they are experiencing this in days/weeks as opposed to the player who only sees it through hours.

Dectilon commented (like... 100 posts ago):

"and it’s funny you should use the phrase “doesn’t insult your intelligence” and P4 in the same sentence considering it does so constantly. They keep repeating the same plot points to you over and over because the story really isn’t complicated enough to span the 80 hours it can take to beat the game. Also, the characters are unbelievably dense and can’t put the simplest clues together (except for sometimes when they pluck facts out of thin air)."

I coundn't agree more. ^^

Haha
Hum... putting that way, I can't really dissagre with you.

But about the childish thing...
It was kinda like... a character dissapers, you search for him in his respective dungeon, you see some NICE char development, and after that, almost every scene regardind that character is a comedy one, where they all acted very childishly (in my OPINION), and if you want to see some development again, you need to do that char's SL, which isn't nearly as cool.

I really did thought the P3 characters were more deep, and that there was more development (all the chars took the hole game to grow, and not the end of a single dungeon).

AND, I would say that P4 chars were more likeble in fact, but P3 chars more mature.
Again, JUST MY FUCKING OPINION. ^^

About the "vague" simbolism... nothing to coment,
I just thought that "Death" was a more cool theme then "Search for Thuth" (which is cool too) ^^.

Sorry for my english... again.

''and the characters were more… human (I thought P4 characters were too childish).''

Because they are children? (Especially Nanako and Teddie, who are halfway toddlers)

That is a huge issue with P3.

Despite all its melodrama, P3's characters might as well have been adults. The isseus the characters in P4 dealt with were very mature and relevant issues, a lot of teenagers have to deal with in everyday life. As opposed to P3 which wasn't character-driven like P4, but plot-driven.

I think that is a lot more mature than some vague, lame symbolism with regards to death. Just my opinion.

I liked P3 more. The story was more interesting and dark (not AS good as people say, but good), and the characters were more... human (I thought P4 characters were too childish).

I have to agree that P3 has practically no story until like... half of the game, but I didn't mind much, I was interested enough in the Social Link's stories (I guess I'm one of the few).

Tartarus indeed IS an offence to the player's intelligence, P4 dungeons were not MUCH different in essence, but there is some improvement.

Something that never bothered me (but apparently bothered everyone else) was the AI-controlled team in P3. I liked the idea of NOT been a collective conscience that controls everyone as it appears to be in all the TB-RGPs, you are the main character and the main character alone. Also, it was not that hard to manage (at least I thought so).

P4 had a lot of improvements in the gameplay indeed, and I can see why people like it the best. But, as a SMT hardcore fan (yes, I even played SMT1 and SMT2 for the SFC), I enjoyed P3 more.

Ah, and just to note: the Persona series are NOT really part of the SMT series, in fact, in Japan, the games don't even have "Shin Megami Tensei" in the title.
P series are more like an spinoff of SMT.

AND...
Sorry for my bad english (not my native language).

Oh, wait till you get to the fourth level.

Though in Persona 3, I don't remember too many bosses being that long except for the last one, which...well, by the time I beat it, I'd already bought and beat Persona 4.

I love persona 4 and ive played i about 3 times now and I still love it ^.^

But I do got to say when it comes to the music I like the P3 music... but i still love p4 and all of its wackiness : D