

Game: Persona 4

System: PS2

Year Released: December 2008

Plays Like: Shin Megami Tensei: ‘Insert misc. subtitle here’, Persona 3, Jade Cocoon

What a year 2008 was. Nostalgia abound. I had just graduated from high school, the smell of depression, fear of the unknown, they all weighed heavily on past ‘me’. The year also represented critically acclaimed entertainment. Rockstar released GTA 4 for the Xbox 360 / Ps3; The Dark Knight released with one of Heath Ledger’s most method based but most tragic of roles; Pixar released Wall-e to the masses.

Persona 4 hit shelves in December, bringing another entry of the rpg-story centric-dungeon crawler on the PS2. The dubbing in my opinion was handled with about average attention to detail. The performances weren’t earth shattering but they also didn’t disappoint. I hate to call something mediocre due to the negative connotations that entails, so I say so without any negative intentions. In fact, the soundtrack for the game is quite catchy, and reminiscent of P3 in terms of style. The game has a lot of neo-jazz vibes that compliment the games themes quite well.

Gameplay

The gameplay is the number one reason why fans become so hooked to this franchise, and, no surprise. The mechanics are tried, tested, and true. In Persona, the main cast are all granted a power that represents a true part of themselves. This is represented by a conflict within one’s self that the main cast must overcome in order to progress further into a labyrinth made from a graveyard of television sets.

Persona 4’s combat is a straight forward turn based system, incorporating elemental damage into the mix. This is achieved by allowing the player to ‘scan’ enemies at any point during the combat phase. Information that has been discovered will be displayed in an easily digestible format. The player will be shown any weaknesses that have been uncovered for that particular type of enemy. To ensure that this doesn’t get tedious, certain enemy types will retain their weaknesses throughout the different dungeons that you will be traversing.

The player can level up their self, their persona, and can buy equipment to provide increased boons for their character. Weapons, armor, accessories all play roles within the combat system. It can really be the difference between a win and a loss. When defeating enemies, monsters will drop certain trophies that can be sold to the blacksmith. Certain items will unlock weapons and armor to be purchased by the player.

The persona system is reflective of other Shin Megami Tensei titles, as in, the player increases their threat by fusing together personas to create ‘new’ personas. You obtain personas by playing a mini-card game randomly after battles. The game is reminiscent of slight-of-hand tricks. The cards move around the table, and the player can stop which card is highlighted. The player wins that card.

The fusing system has two modes the player can work from. The straight fusion or two-way fusion is the classic ‘X+Y=Z’ or ‘Y+X=Z’. The other mode is a Triangle fusion that resembles ‘A+B+C=D’, ‘B+A+C=D’, or really any combination of three personas. The triangle fusion tends to provide higher level persona’s for the player. Player level doesn’t dictate the max level of the persona created, but it will dictate the max level of a controllable persona. Think of Pokemon’s leveling system that requires a number of badges to control ‘x’ level of Pokemon.

Story

Persona 4 takes place in a small Japanese town that the player had just recently moved into. You’re going to live with your uncle for the year, and now you have to enroll in their town’s school. Immediately after attending, you start to hear rumors about a t.v. channel that comes in around midnight on rainy nights. If you watch the channel around midnight, you’ll be able to see your one true love. Curious, you decide to try this. Much to your amazement, you see a young woman on the screen.

The story unravels from there, turning into part murder mystery and part self actualization. In between trying to solve the murders of pop icons and other residents, you play the game on a day by day basis. You get up, go to school, go into the tv, then go home. Little segment break up the grinding and slow the speed of the game by building character arcs. The player can choose whether to invest themselves in other people. Doing so provides boons known as ‘Social links’. Links will give the player added bonuses to personas, so building social links with as many residents as possible is key to success.

There is a deadline in all of this as well though. If you don’t pull together as a team and solve the mystery after the one year mark, it’s game over. If any of the cast member victims die, it’s game over. They make it seem daunting, but it isn’t too frightening. Pacing your outings into the labyrinth seems to be the best way to avoid dying horrible agonizing deaths. Its not that the game is particularly difficult, it’s just that the longer you stay in the tower, the more dangerous the outing becomes.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Persona is a game about managing resources and making choices. There is a simulation aspect to day planning in this series. You get a number of choices to make throughout the day, so you really have to make each and every decision count towards something. An opportunity missed can throw you way off from your target. Therein lies the other focus of the Persona series. The player tends to set the agenda. If you want to grow closer to certain characters, you can choose to spend your time with them opposed to a different cast member. Or, if you’d rather not get to know anybody, that’s a possible choice as well (just not advised). Persona is about choice and consequence. Not always in a way that seems immediately apparent or direct. You don’t have little quick time events where you do either ‘A’ or ‘B’ or ‘C’ (Like mass effect or other games with similar choice making). The choices you make are much more subtle, but that’s closer to real life. You don’t always see the repercussions to a bad choice until you’ve made a couple more of them.

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