Persona Month: Persona 4

Are they gone? Did it stop? I can start now? Cool!

I am thou...thou art I...

Thou hast established a new bond...

It brings thee closer to the truth...

Thou shalt be bless when creating this entry of the World Arcana...

There comes a time once every blue moon eclipse that I find a game that not only sucks me in and keeps me going until the end, but also lets me feel something that nothing else has given me. Kind of like a second coming, or in my case, the rekindling of a flame that almost dies out. Persona 4 is that game. So to celebrate the upcoming Persona 4 Arena, I thought I go for a Persona 4 month.

Persona 4 is the fourth, or fifth entry in a series of spinoffs from the Shin Megami Tensei series. I haven't played a Persona game since... man, 2000 with Eternal Punishment. It was just sitting there in a library one day waiting for it's inevitable rise to raredom. I stop playing Eternal Punishment because A) It was about due time I return it, and B) I lost to Joker Noriko. So I made a childhood promise to myself that I would not play any future installments until I beat all the games chronologically released. That included Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment and the slew of Shin Megami Tensei games in between. Some promises can't be kept I guess.

Fast forward to recent times. While watching a video on Sexual Diversity thanks to the fine folks at Extra Credits, I stumbled upon the fights with the character's Shadows including Shadow Kanji on youtube thanks to users Blitzmage and Omegaevolution. Thanks guys. After Fanime I decided to buy the game to see what the fuss was about. Boy, what a culture shock. Oh, and the SpoonyOne talked about it. So there was a lot of influence to try the game, and it was affordable. Go figure.

The story goes like this. In the rural town of Inaba, there have been a string of strange murders that have left the police baffled to find a killer. You play as Yu Narukami, or for Manga reading folk, Souji Seta, or customize your own name like Kenpachi Ramasama for the hell of it. No idea why you would have that silly of a name, but hey, it's all on you. He transfers to Inaba from the city to live there for a year with his uncle Ryotaro and his daughter Nanako. While he's attending Yasogami High School, he hears a rumor about something called the Midnight Channel. Rumor has it that at exactly midnight on a foggy night, the TV turns on and reveals your secret lover. However, he soon finds out there's more to Inaba than what he bargained for. He forms the Investigation Team with Yosuke, and Chie as they solve the mystery behind both the Midnight Channel and the murders occurring in the sleepy rural town of Inaba.

In regards to the game play, it's massive helping has a lot to offer. It's a JRPG (Hey! Get back here!) with dating sim elements (Come back here, damn it!) and the battle system borrows a bit from Pokemon. In previous installments of Persona, you summon creatures of Lore by forming contracts by talking, praising, or doing silly things to get their attention. In Persona 3, you summon them by a gun like object called an Evoker that you aim at yourself (An emo's wet dream). This time around Personas come in the form of Tarot cards. Outside of battle you have to balance out Yu's life in Inaba by going to high school, taking part time jobs and doing various tasks while unraveling the mystery behind the Midnight Channel. However, unlike 3 where you only control one character in battle, in 4 or even Persona 3 FES and Portable, you can give direct commands to everyone. This gives the player more freedom to choose what strategy will work. Quite an magnificent improvement to a minor gameplay flaw.

Guess what? It's part of the Tower Arcana

The Social Link system makes a return from Persona 3, but it's much more streamlined and easy to manage. Each character you meet (that's relevant to the story) is represented by a card of the Arcana. Yu for example is of the Fool card, Yosuke is the Magician, Nanako is the Justice card and so forth. The more you interact with your social links, you can gain various bonuses in the form of EXP when you fuse Personas. Let's say you combine Slime of the Chariot and Cu Sith of the Sun. You get Valkyrie of Strength. If your social link is maxed out with strength, Valkyrie gets 10 levels worth of an exp boost and abilities you can swipe out. As you progress on you can fuse up to 6 personas at once. Some of them are really cool, like Hell Biker of the Hanged Man (it's Ghost Rider without the copyright), while others are... well... creative , and then there's this.

Y'know in the bathroom

Speaking of character's social links, everyone in the town of Inaba is very friendly and important to the story. They are very like able and somehow feels like someone you might have in real life. Yes, even a tomboyish kung fu chick, a rebel with a secret hobby of sewing and a cross dressing detective with... issues to say the least. However, the most important aspect of each party member is their persona which before converting is a Shadow of themselves. Each person both here and real life have faults that they don't want to admit. They are their Shadows taken human form, repressed emotions representing their darker side. If one denies these Shadows, they take form of the reverse, or perverse side of themselves, and a dungeon that relates to said Shadow. I won't go into detail here, but as much as the dungeons are long, they feel rather short in the grand scheme.

The music in Persona 4 is absolutely fantastic and I can honestly say that it ranks up there amongst the best of the best. Each theme gives you a sense of feeling and tells you about the setting. Some of them I might disagree with, but overall it just sounds natural. The dungeons in general each have their own theme that partakes in the dungeon that Yu traverses through. Special mention to one dungeon that feels scifi-ish, but innocent-like; Like a child in a person's body. I won't tell who, but it's pretty fascinating. Except the one dungeon, feels out of place. Special mention goes out to Pursue My True Self (shown below) and Reach Out for The Truth.



The graphics are great for being a late gen PS2 game. The character models take some getting used to, and some of the areas you explore are very creative. It does however give me this sense of a washed out look every time I explore places like the Samagawa Flood Plains. If you go to the left of the screen, you see the graphics have this blurry look. It's a bit awkward since there is no frame rate drop or pop in, except when it comes to loading the NPCs. Plus, personal opinion, the opening is great and catchy. Persona 4 just has alot of style and flair and it shows.



The voice acting is phenomenal with an all star cast in the mix. Each performance is filled with personality and it feels like each of the characters are a part of your life. Sure you may cringe on Teddie's bear puns, or his pathetic attempts to "score with the ladies", but he doesn't mean harm, he's just a horny bear. Also worth mentioning the usual cast of Yuri Lowenthal as our favorite disco ninja Persona wielding and bumbling bro Yosuke, Troy Baker as the rebel with a conflicting side Kanji, and Johnny Yong Bosch as our silent/bumbling idiot cop. I did notice that Dave Wittenberg's role as Teddie sometimes in battle sounds a bit like Keith Ferguson when he played as Bloo (I hate Bloo). Also, Chie just doesn't sound like a regular kung fu teenager chick, but that's just me.

The dungeons this time around are more linear than in the previous installment. In Persona 3, the dungeons are randomized and have certain limitations such as team split. This time around each dungeon is based on a character's Shadow. For example, Yukiko has a castle because she thinks she's a princess, Kanji has a sauna for reasons left to the imagination, and Rise has a strip joint...she is an idol I guess. Each has their own style and though it may seem repetitive to hear the same theme of each dungeon over and over, it doesn't deteriorate from the over all experience. There are mini events such as mini bosses to mix things up, but that's it.

I'll be completely honest and say that this game will take you a long time to complete. Roughly at over 90 hours, or 200+ if you took your sweet time with it like I did, most of it consists of 3 parts: Your social aspect where you progress in relationships with each character, doing menial tasks that will give you boosts in your character traits such as courage, knowledge, and understanding which you need to unlock more social links, and the last is dungeon crawling. Most of the time if you aren't knee deep in trying to getting a girlfriend with many of the available girls in Inaba, you are level grinding up to a good level. The difficulty is tough, not going to lie. First it seems like a good time just working your way through the dungeon and then this boss just kicks your balls through your nose or you win by the skin of your teeth. For the former it's probably because of a certain Shadow near the beginning of the game lurches ahead in brutal unmitigated torturous difficulty (You know who I'm talking about (Shadow Yukiko). For the latter, there is nothing more of a satisfying feel of winning something at the brink of losing hours upon hours of level grinding. You will need a bit of strategy to fight against these Shadows.

Speaking of strategy, this game is the kind that you will need a guide for (almost most of the SMT games require it). Some may believe that playing with a guide on the first playthrough is cheating, but for a game this complex and the lexicon confusing for newcomers, it's definitely essential. For example, I cast Agi against someone who is a Bufu user, but weak against an Agi type. Probably a few of you are going "wtf" just now. Agi is fire and Bufu is ice, but the good thing is there is a mini description to each of the Persona's abilities, plus either Rise or Teddie will give you a small guide to what strengths and weaknesses each Shadow you fight has. The guide will most likely be for the Social Links.

For a game this complex and deep, it's definitely a roller coaster ride with like able characters, a simple yet difficult battle system, and a soundtrack that you can listen to over and over, it's definitely worth a spot in your PS2 library and considered the last best PS2 game I ever spent $20 on. You heard me right, if you go on Amazon, you too can get this game easily for $20. It's well worth the value and there's plenty of meat to go around. It gets Rare's Seal of Approval.

That however is just the tip of the iceberg. Next up, I'll be tackling on a recent fighting game spin off of Persona 4. Persona 4 Arena. How will it stack up against it's predecessor?