Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 [Review]

[Kikuri-Hime]

The Shin Megami Tensei series has long remained an largely cult related phenomenon. With the release of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 last year it gain a tremendous amount of acclaim and popularity. Naturally anticipation was high for this newest entry into the Persona branch of Shin Megami Tensei series but does Persona 4 live up to it's predecessor well lets see.

Story: Once again you play as a silent protagonist which you can name, although his name in the manga is Soji Seta, who transfers to the rural town of Inaba from the city due to his parents job. You are to live with you uncle and cousin for a year. Rumors have been going around about this mysterious network called the Midnight Channel which which is supposedly a way for people to discover their soul-mate. You decide to check out this Midnight channel only to find that you not only can you venture into the TV world but people who are kidnapped and eventually killed are shown on this channel. When the dead body of one of the seniors at your high school is discovered hanging upside down from antenna you and your friends are embroiled with curiosity as you set out to discover the culprit. Only by facing yourselves and confronting your inner demons can you and your friends get to the bottom of who is kidnapping and trying to kill them by throwing them into the TV.

The game for the most part starts out extremely slow and has a rather long and over drawn Prologue. This may turn off some players as most people more fond of just being able to dive directly into the action. However once the game starts going it still takes several months for it to actually get going. But once it does it becomes one of the best stories you'll probably see in an RPG.

One of the main highlights for me in Persona 3 was how well the characters meld together and how excellent they were portrayed. While Persona 4 does this in some ways for the most part It seemed like the characters didn't fit well together and didn't really have a lot of character. It always seemed like they were too quick to appoint you as the leader or changed how they were too abruptly. Also for the most part a lot of the character unique and individual story-lines are mostly meshed into social links. So you really won't get that deep sense of who the character is and what they are really about and the problems they face unless you establish them as social links. It's not particularly a bad thing but it really takes away from the character development that was shown in Persona 3. Party member social links were primarily an extra scenario involving you and one of them.

Presentation: The presentation for the most part reminds about the same as it was in Persona 3. The only real change that comes to mind is the overly used Yellow color contrast in a lot of the text boxes and menus. This maybe a matter of personal taste but I was more fond of the blue and black contrast since it went more with the darker feeling the game was trying to convey. Persona 4 on the other hand has a very upbeat presentation which may seem a bit odd considering the dark subject matter. The town menu was always very well done and extremely detailed. A nice improvement in this entry was the ability to press the square button and basically go any where instantly as opposed to actually having to go walk all the way there. This helps save a lot of time when you're trying to find out various things as well as interact with the many social links.

Graphics: The Graphics remain largely the same as Persona 3. You can see some minor upgrades in details and other small things which for the most part aren't really noticeable. Unless you're looking at both games side by side. I suppose the best way to compare the graphics would be to look at Final Fantasy X and then Final Fantasy X-2. The graphical differences are pretty like the differences you saw in those games. One of the things I really enjoyed was how wonderful they really mapped on the shopping district. You have various stores you can go to and interact with. It seems a lot more lively then the shopping mall and other small little areas that you encounter in Persona 3. Which brings me to another issue I had with the environment. It's very well detailed but you can't interact with a lot of it. There are various stores in the shopping district but you can't go into them or even get jobs there. This really let me down as I had to go to the town bulletin board to go get a part time job. Even when you go to the bulletin board you can't work at a lot of the stores that are on the shopping district.

Gameplay: If you've played Persona 3 then you pretty much already have a relatively solid understanding of how the gameplay in Persona 4 works as pretty everything is the same with some few minor tweaks. In Persona 3 you only had three social parameters to be concerned with which were "Academics, Charm, and Courage." However Persona 4 decides to change things up a bit introducing 5 parameters, "Knowledge, Understanding, Courage, Diligence, and Expression." While different they for the most part serve the exact same functions as Academics, Charm, and Courage did in Persona 3. Increasing your Knowledge by studying helps improve your scores on exams. While increasing your understanding makes you better able to sympathize with people. While Courage makes you better able to held difficult situations. Increasing your diligence makes you more persistent in various tasks. Finally Expression helps you with expressing how you feel and what you think. Having these at high levels and open up various options in conversations and social links.

A new aspect to the Persona series is the ability to have a part time job as mention above. However before you can actually get a job it's necessary to make sure your social parameters are at a high enough level to that you can take it. By working you enable yourself not only to increase other social parameters but also earn extra money. Some jobs also present you with the opportunity to establish new social links.

Returning again in the Persona series is the ability to summon these other selves called Personas. Each character has one Persona that they can use and as they gain experience can unlike new and more powerful skills. Like it's predecessor the main character has the arcana of "The Fool" or the wild card and has the ability to switch between various personas and use a much more wide reach skills then his respective party members. One thing that I liked about the how they characters were set up this time around is the fact that the characters actually feel like they are a member of your group as opposed to being tag along's. That was pretty much the impression I got in Persona 3. You couldn't just go to the menu and look up the health and status of your party. You had to go to the support member in order to do that. This really gave me a feeling of detachment from my party members as I could only manage my own skills from the menu.

The dungeons in Persona 4 have also been changed from their predecessor. No longer do you have to make a long journey through a seemly endless tower. Instead of going into these dungeons at night you can only go through them After School. Speaking of the Night time the "Dark Hour" and moon phases has been replaced by the weather forecast. On rainy days you'll be able to watch the Midnight Channel and figure out who is going to be kidnapped next. Make sure you save them before the fog sets in or it's game over. Another change made to the dungeons was the length. Pretty much all of the dungeons are short and don't last much longer then about 10 or 11 floors. You'll also notice that each dungeon has it's own particular style, feeling, and attitude unlike in Persona 3 where the entire dungeon for the most part looking generally the same. The strategy for going through them has also changed as you no longer have transportation devices to save you if you get in a bad position. However this is compensated by the fact that you can actually exit the dungeon you are in rather then having to stick it out until you find a way out. Another change is the fact that when you do exit the dungeon your HP and SP are not recovered. This takes some adjustment if you're a Persona 3 veteran as you can not longer power your way through the dungeons. Persona 4 rather encourages you to get as far as you can and pull out and come back and go farther in. Also each floor that you do get to if you decide to leave you can in fact come back to that floor and continue from there. This is a good idea on paper however once you complete the rescue mission you have to wait a long time for the person to recover leaving you with not a lot to do. One thing that does remain constant is the level of difficulty so be prepared for a challenge whether you play it on Easy, Normal, or Hard.

Sound: It's very rare for me to come across soundtracks that I would actually purchase even Final Fantasy soundtracks by in large lack the experimental elements showcased in Persona soundtracks. However I must say this soundtrack left me a bit disappointed. Maybe it was because the feeling they were trying to convey changed from dark to more upbeat. It does go well with the overly used yellow color contrast though. Now I'm not saying this soundtrack is bad but it may leave you a bit disappointed if the dark tone of Persona 3's soundtrack worked for you. The battle them "Reach Out To The Truth" pretty much sums up the entire feeling of game. It's really hard to grade this soundtrack as it's not bad it's just not to my liking. You may enjoy it though.

A side from the soundtrack the voice acting really wasn't on par with what I heard in Persona 3. The voice actors in Persona 3 were cast flawlessly and did an superb job bring all of the characters to life. While the voice acting in Persona 4 is definitely above average it is a little rough around the edges. An example would be Chie which really felt odd for a while. Though I did eventually become able to accept her voice. The first few hours really were difficult for me. There are so other really peculiar voice acting in the game but by in large it's a strong vocal performance and a pretty good english dub. Just not as good as predecessor.

Final thoughts: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 pretty much takes the, "if it ain't broke don't fix it approach." While the game does have some issues with plot development, and some slightly uninspired voice acting, overly short dungeons, the game by in large does live up to the standards set by Persona 3. It's a very strong sequel while not quite as good I'd definitely say it's the best RPG release of 2008, and has my vote for RPG of the year.


10.0
Presentation
From the very moment you view the title screen and see the all of the characters in silhouette while the main character runs to the middle you know you're in for a top notch presentation.

9.5
Graphics
The beautiful and highly detailed town of Inaba is brought to live Persona 4.

8.5
Sound
Unfortunately I wasn't as blow away by the soundtrack of Persona 4. While it definitely ranks up there as some of the better RPG soundtracks it's definitely not in the same league as Persona 3.

10.0
Gameplay
The same gameplay mechanics used in Persona 3 were implemented here but with many new enhancements.

[Contra Fates]

Very well done review! I'm rather impressed with how in-depth you went with it. =) You motivated me to pop P4 back into my PS3 and finally finish it. xD I tend to replay my Persona games all the time, get midway, but never really finish it.

[Kikuri-Hime]

Very well done review! I'm rather impressed with how in-depth you went with it. =) You motivated me to pop P4 back into my PS3 and finally finish it. xD I tend to replay my Persona games all the time, get midway, but never really finish it.

I'm replaying Persona 3 right now. I completed the Answer not to long ago and now I'm doing the Journey again.