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Intro:
Can you imagine real life at its most basic form being a good game? No! Not at all, Sims is a boring game. But if what if you took some elements of real life, cut down on some of its most mundane parts and make it into a JRPG? Thats what Persona achieved. And while I havent played Persona 3 or any of the others, I can safely say that Persona 4 does it in Spades, and heres why.

Story:
Persona 4 fools you at the beginning by making you think that its story is going to be about normal school kids doing their everyday lives. But like any story that follows the Heros Journey structure (AKA most stories out there) There will always be that inciting incident that forces the hero to leave their ordinary world and cross the threshold to the extraordinary world, Persona 4 takes that concept very literally.

The game starts with the player character who I shall refer to as Yu Narukami from now on as thats his canon name, leaving his city life to study in Yasogami High School in Inaba. When he arrives there, he meets with his new friends Yosuke and Chie, and some people he didnt want to meet like Mr. Morooka AKA King Moron (Yes, they call him that). At that point, it doesnt take too long for Yu to adapt to the new environment and consider Inaba like its his home

But then, you guessed it, the inciting incident happened! A big one, too. An announcer called Mayumi Yamano was found dead with her body hanged on a streetlight. The cause of death is unknown, no physical signs on her body, nothing. Before that was when a rumor about the mysterious Midnight Channel was spread, and after the death of Yamano occurred, Yu and Yosuke decided to check it out. When they did so is when they found one of their friends called Saki trapped inside, Yu tried to reach out for her and weirdly enough, he got sucked into the TV, but not all the way since it was too small. Its not too long after when the fog appears on Inaba and Saki being found dead, now is when Yu and Yosuke come to the conclusion that something fishy is happening, and somebody out there is killing those people by throwing them in the Midnight Channel. So Yu and Yosuke decided to use the mysterious power of entering TVs to investigate the murder mystery.

When they entered, they encountered a bear named Teddie and some evil beings called shadows, thats when Yu unleashed the power of Persona and a spirit of his soul called Izanagi appeared and killed all of the shadows. This power was later given to Yosuke after he faced his shadow self. With this newfound power, Yu, Yosuke and Chie promised to help Teddie return the TV world to order. And from that point is when the real journey begins, people get kidnapped and your goal is to save them in the TV world before the fog lifts and they die.

Along your journey, most of the characters you rescue will join your party, and they are mostly exceptionally written, three dimensional characters. The side characters are also interesting, throughout Yus journey, he will forge bonds that allow him to create new and more powerful Personas to use. The story and characters will always be there to keep you engaged and excited to see what happens next. And the murder mystery is one of the most intriguing Ive seen in fiction. There are a lot of mysterious plot elements presented such as the velvet room, Igor and Margaret. But they are all part of the world and get enough explanation in the plot. Every plot element comes together in the end to present the truth to you. I wont give it away, but when you piece it together near the end, itll blow your mind. Especially when you see the true ending.

Graphics and Presentation:
For a PS2 game, Persona 4 looks alright, its not a technical masterpiece by any stretch, but its visuals get the job done. Its 2D anime art is where its at, the characters look good and have facial expressions that fit them perfectly. As for the environments, half of the game looks like an ordinary world and the other half looks like a twisted manifestation of ones imagination of the real world, sometimes worse. But the most impressive thing about thee visuals is that they never feel repetitive, the first dungeon is a castle, and then the second one is a steamy bathhouse? The third one is a striptease? I dont want to give anything away but this dungeon crawler action RPG will never run out of new things to make you look at, and theyre all very creative.

The animations look pretty cool, too. The how the players break their persona cards is always in a way that makes sense with their character. And the battle animations as a whole are pretty impressive. Every persona has different animations based on their personality. Its all epic stuff.

The sound design is superb! From the haunting ambience of the dungeons to the regular worlds traffic sound, to the attacks the player performs, it all comes together to create this cohesive world that makes sense. Immersion is pushed further by the games phenomenal voice acting, the characters feel like they are real people, thats how good it is. The dialogue rarely feels cheesy or forced and its always there to keep the player engaged and immersed in the games world.

Gameplay:
Gameplay, gameplay, gameplay. Most modern JRPGs rely on their narrative to hide how shallow their gameplay is, there are exceptions, this one is one of them. Before I talk about how good the gameplay is, theres this pet peeve I have with a lot of modern JRPGs, its intro sequence is sooo slow. It feels like theyre ordinary school kids forever, this one is even slower than the average JRPGs because you could potentially spend 4 hours before anything cool happens. Kingdom Hearts 2 was similar in that regard, but it at least had activities that were exciting enough to keep the player going until the real game starts.

And with that out of the way, lets talk about how the basic game works. Persona 4 is first and foremost a dungeon crawler. Your primary goal is to finish every dungeon before the due date. But what sets it apart is the social links system. In a day, you could spend your time either hanging out with friends and party members, make a girlfriend if you so desire, take part-time jobs, read books, have dinner or of course, go to the TV. On weekends and holidays, you have double the time you usually have to do what you want because you spend half the day in school on weekdays. Every activity you do will have benefits and some cons. That presents the player with a lot of meaningful choice, and meaningful choice is one of my favorite things in a game. Having the player choosing between good and bad is not nearly as interesting as making them choose between different choices that have different benefits. Going to the TV allows you to progress further in a dungeon, grab loot, experience and money but the huge drawback is that after finishing a day after TV, your character will be too tired to do any evening activity whatsoever, he just hits the bed when he comes back home. Doing any of the other activities will allow you to still have enough energy to do evening activities but you wont go any closer in solving the murder mystery.

Choosing between the characters to spend time with is also a meaningful choice in its own right. The player gets different arcana levels from them that offer different Personas each. That brings me to the fusion system. It allows you to craft personas if you will, you fuse different Personas together to create one stronger Persona. This is a masterful system since it cuts down on tedious grinding that JRPGs are infamous for. It lets the player get stronger by doing relaxing activities. It still doesnt replace grinding in a dungeon because Yu still needs to increase his level in order to get stronger Personas, but it at leasts makes it minimal in a way where its not too powerful or too weak.

The games exploration in the real world allows them to go to different locations in Inaba to do different activities, and it always has a fixed camera with the exception of Yasogami High School. The TV world mostly offers free camera, though. It allows you to go to current dungeons or dungeons previously visited. If you go to dungeons previously visited, they have a new boss thats sometimes tougher. Most kidnappings require you to ask questions and investigate in the real world in order to get enough clues to get to the new dungeon, which kinda slows down the gameplay, but it makes sense with the narrative.

The games battle system is turn based, an improvement over Persona 3 is that it allows you to command every party member separately if you wanted to. Thats very useful considering that the player mostly makes decisions better than the AI will. Or you can leave them on specific tactics if you feel like its too much for you. Different Personas have different strengths and weaknesses to specific elements, and the same goes for enemies. The tutorials are mostly taught by NPCs rather than having giant text boxes appear which they sometimes do, but they dont feel overwhelming. Theres also Teddies commentaries that allow you to know quickly if youre facing a tough or weak enemy, he also keeps track of the enemy's strengths and weaknesses for you.

There are a few issues I have with the gameplay, but not enough to ruin the game at all. First of all, the animations are quite slow, which is a problem that some modern RPGs such as Bravely Default and Fire Emblem: Awakening solved easily by allowing you to speed up animation. The rush command in Persona 4 makes it bearable but still not fast enough for me. Its not that I always want animations to be fast but when I spend a lot of time grinding or fighting the same enemy over and over again, I get the point. Another problem is that theres quite a bit of RNG BS like enemies getting critical hits, they generally speaking have more health than the player, so they can afford getting critted more than the player does, I had this very same problem with Bravely Default, but the difference is in this game, getting critted will make you fall until your turn comes, leaving you vulnerable to dizziness and preventing you from dodging attacks. I get that its a huge part in the game since having items that cure that will be useless then; but Im frankly not a fan of it. Another problem is that theres no solid SP restoration items, SP are spirit points, this games equivalent of mana. Theres soul drops, snuff souls and soma. And in the mid to late game, somas are the only ones that are useful in restoring mana, and theyre super rare, I mostly keep them for really tough bosses. Another problem is that the checkpointing is horrendous like most JRPGs up until today. Its not as big of a problem with dungeon crawling since you can always use Goho-Ms to get you out of the dungeon to save, but its annoying with pre-boss battle save points since you have to watch the cutscene over and over again all the time, but this ones more of a nitpick since Im used to it at this point, but Xenoblade spoiled me since it mostly restarts the game right next to the boss with no cutscene thanks to landmarks. But oh well *Sigh* I guess this isnt the last JRPG to pull this move on me. And with all of that out of the way, lets get to the final verdict.

Final Verdict:
Persona 4 is a masterpiece despite anything bad I said against it. Fire Emblem 7 and Awakening showed me how much meaningful choice the Fire Emblem series has, and its a huge reason for its popularity. And that is why I love Persona 4 as much as I do, because it has an insane amount of meaningful choice. And while in the events of the story in this game dont change as much as Mass Effect or Dragon Age, I still prefer it. in the end, its all about the overall experience. And Persona 4 delivered one of the most enthralling stories, some of the deepest and most engaging gameplay, and one of the most immersive, believable worlds that Ive ever had the pleasure of experiencing. But its also one of the greatest video games I've ever played.

Final Score: 10/10 Masterpiece Kirby-Platinum-Medal.jpgKirbys Platinum Medal of Approval ;)

Update on Upcoming Reviews:
Im sorry, a lot of change of plans happened since I got my gaming PC and Playstation back to me. So I played Persona 4 instead of Okami, and as you can tell, I loved it. It looks like The Witcher 3 will be my next game, a game that also has its fair share of meaningful choice. Though I will probably only post that review on the other sites that I usually post on. Well, it's been fun everyone, but I have to go for a while. I'll come back for the occasional Nintendo game or JRPG review and of course, Fire Emblem discussions. Can't forget dem Fire Emblem discussions.
And I will play Okami sometime in the near future.

Edited by Rxmonste
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Hahahaha. Nice review. I don't necessarily agree with the entirety of your review, but it's a good review overall.

Now if you want a game with meanful choices, Play SMT 3: Nocturne. I'll tell you right now it's got pretty much the same problems you have with the gameplay, ESPECIALLY WITH THE RNG AT TIMES, but it also gives you a lot more party freedom. Based on your very well articulated review here, you would most likely enjoy the Shin Megami Tensei game many hardcore fans consider the absolute best of all the series and spin offs, which includes Persona 4.

Either way, nice review.

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Actually, I think that JRPG has deeper gameplay than WRPG and they are not so afraid to change the formula again and again despite the perfected formula of the previous games. It's just that there are too many young Japanese studios who keep pumping out JRPG while most western studios who still make RPG are big studio with a lot of experience in making RPG. If you take a look at steam, there are plethora of poorly made WRPG by small studio/indie.

Also, the meaningful choice is misleading, it's unforgiving choices we have to make. Either you pick the right choice or wait for the 2nd playthrought. I missed a lot of links in my first try and sub-quests in my first try.

Edited by Magical CC
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Hahahaha. Nice review. I don't necessarily agree with the entirety of your review, but it's a good review overall.

Now if you want a game with meanful choices, Play SMT 3: Nocturne. I'll tell you right now it's got pretty much the same problems you have with the gameplay, ESPECIALLY WITH THE RNG AT TIMES, but it also gives you a lot more party freedom. Based on your very well articulated review here, you would most likely enjoy the Shin Megami Tensei game many hardcore fans consider the absolute best of all the series and spin offs, which includes Persona 4.

Either way, nice review.

Ever since I became a game developer, meaningful choice became my number one thing to look for in a game, so I'm more than willing to try out Shin Megami Tensei 3 if they truly offer that.

I'm interested to know what points of the review you disagreed with. I'm always open to discussion.

Actually, I think that JRPG has deeper gameplay than WRPG and they are not so afraid to change the formula again and again despite the perfected formula of the previous games. It's just that there are too many young Japanese studios which keep pumping out JRPG while most western studio who still make RPG are big studio with a lot of experience in making RPG. If you take a look at steam, there are plethora of poorly made WRPG by small studio/indie.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Such as Bound by Flame, that game was terrible. What I meant was that modern big name JRPGs are generally not as successful as modern big name WRPGs. Take the FF 13 trilogy and the new Tales games. Generally speaking, they're not as good as Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Fallout and Elder Scrolls. As for my opinion on JRPGs vs WRPGs as a whole, they all have their strengths and weaknesses, but I tend to go for JRPGs in that regard. I just it's hard to find good modern ones.

Edited by Rxmonste
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Oh, yeah, absolutely. Such as Bound by Flame, that game was terrible. What I meant was that modern big name JRPGs are generally not as successful as modern big name WRPGs. Take the FF 13 trilogy and the new Tales games. Generally speaking, they're not as good as Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Fallout and Elder Scrolls. As for my opinion on JRPGs vs WRPGs as a whole, they all have their strengths and weaknesses, but I tend to go for JRPGs in that regard. I just it's hard to find good modern ones.

I dont think so. What if I tell you that DA2/3 gameplay are much more simple than the Japanese Action RPGs with dump downed crafting, characters bonding, leveling and combat? So does ME3 which is a dump downed version of the first and second game, even Dead Space 3 which is a FPS, has deeper gameplay than ME3's which is actually hilarious when I think about it. I say that new RPGs made by Bioware have less deep in gameplay than most big JRPG title. Even The Last Remnant, a JRPG made by squinix in 2009 has better gameplay than any DA game's. I do agree about Elder scrolls and Fallout. However, Skyrim itself is a dump downed version of Oblivion and especially Morrowind and Fallout is also a dump downed version of the first 2 games. Honestly, I am not impressed by the current generation of WRPG.

I cant think of any big title WRPG that have better gameplay than JRPG games but Wasteland 2, Legend of Grimrocks and Divinity OS have very good gameplay, although all of them are classified as indie games. They are the best candidate of WRPG in the term of gameplay and certainly outplayed the JRPG games. And of course, the Witcher 3! It is the new god of RPG. If you havent played it, play it.

I think the trend of simplify everything and concentrate on action and FPS is killing western RPG with only indie studios or studio that has RPG making tradition still make good RPG.

Edited by Magical CC
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I dont think so. What if I tell you that DA2/3 gameplay are much more simple than the Japanese Action RPGs with dump downed crafting, characters bonding, leveling and combat? So does ME3 which is a dump downed version of the first and second game, even Dead Space 3 which is a FPS, has deeper gameplay than ME3's which is actually hilarious when I think about it. I say that new RPGs made by Bioware have less deep in gameplay than most big JRPG title. Even The Last Remnant, a JRPG made by squinix in 2009 has better gameplay than any DA game's. I do agree about Elder scrolls and Fallout. However, Skyrim itself is a dump downed version of Oblivion and especially Morrowind and Fallout is also a dump downed version of the first 2 games. Honestly, I am not impressed by the current generation of WRPG.

I cant think of any big title WRPG that have better gameplay than JRPG games but Wasteland 2, Legend of Grimrocks and Divinity OS have very good gameplay, although all of them are classified as indie games. They are the best candidate of WRPG in the term of gameplay and certainly outplayed the JRPG games. And of course, the Witcher 3! It is the new god of RPG. If you havent played it, play it.

I think the trend of simplify everything and concentrate on action and FPS is killing western RPG with only indie studios or studio that has RPG making tradition still make good RPG.

I've played it before I wrote this review, I'm 20 hours in and I gotta say, good lord it makes every WRPG I played look terrible in comparison. I don't hate the "Making WRPGs simpler" as much as you do, but I greatly appreciate the depth Witcher 3 offers. I have played older WRPGs like Planescape Torment and Fallout, and I think Witcher 3 makes takes these incredible games to the modern world without turning it into a third person shooter, much as I like Mass Effect, I can't deny that it did that.

It's like Witcher 3 is my new favorite game already. I mean, side quests that are as interesting as the main quest? Wow! The game oozes RPG quality that I cannot wait to talk about.

Edited by Rxmonste
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I've played it before I wrote this review, I'm 20 hours in and I gotta say, good lord it makes every WRPG I played look terrible in comparison. I don't hate the "Making WRPGs simpler" as much as you do, but I greatly appreciate the depth Witcher 3 offers. I have played older WRPGs like Planescape Torment and Fallout, and I think Witcher 3 makes takes these incredible games to the modern world without turning it into a third person shooter, much as I like Mass Effect, I can't deny that it did that.

It's like Witcher 3 is my new favorite game already. I mean, side quests that are as interesting as the main quest? Wow! The game oozes RPG quality that I cannot wait to talk about.

Side quests in The Witcher 3 are truly amazing and hilarious. Playing TW3 reminded me how terrible the "side quests" in ME3 were. All you do is talk to the quest giver, go to the planet in the quest, scan the planet, click on the shiny dot, go home and talk to the quest giver again. I believe the amount of time I wasted on the loading screen is even longer than the time it took to finish a quest. All of them are simple like that, all of them! All of them!! ALL OF THEM!!! I dont get to land on the planet, shoot something or even have any choice and the rewards are horrible! Once, a stupid Alien asked me to save his planet. He said his people mount a cannon on the back and charge into enemy, every other race mock his people as "something tank". I was excited and rushed to his planet only to scan the god damn planet, click on the dot and return! The same with DA3, but at least you get to find some generic stuff here and there. Shame on you, Bioware! Shame on you! Shame on you! Both two worst RPG I have ever finished are both from you! I had to clear the games only so that I have the right to throw it back at you damned studio!

Side quests in Persona 4 are good too, if you consider miss-able links as side quests.

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With all the oldschool RPG issues you mentioned, I expected a 9/10.

BTW, why do all the characters wear glasses?

Yeah, the impact of the true ending pushed the score from 9 to 10. I was torn between those scores. Stayed for days asking myself "Nine or ten? NINE OR TEN?!"

The characters only wear glasses in the TV world because it's foggy. These glasses cancel fogginess apparently.

Side quests in Persona 4 are good too, if you consider miss-able links as side quests.

I dunno if I would officially call them side quests but they suffice.

Edited by Rxmonste
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Yeah, the impact of the true ending pushed the score from 9 to 10. I was torn between those scores. Stayed for days asking myself "Nine or ten? NINE OR TEN?!"

I know that feeling.

The characters only wear glasses in the TV world because it's foggy. These glasses cancel fogginess apparently.

They wanted an excuse to make the characters look edgy, methinks.

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something I'd like to hear your opinion about is Persona 3. Specifically P3 FES for PS2 (you can get it on PSN) vs PSP, the portable remake of Persona 3, Both games are VERY different despite being the same game. It's quite a massive slap how different they are, and it splits a lot of ppl on which is better. The VN-style of PSP personally turns me off, as well as restricting you to just your MC's starter weapon type, but it actually allows control of your party, unlike P3 and P3FES.

Also, SMT3: Nocturne is far darker, Post Apocalyptic. As such, each decision you make in the game, even minor ones and ones on side quests affects your standing with the world between 5 different possible endings and sides.

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I love this game. Beat it twice, and I would play it more, if it weren't for how tedious it is to sit through those exposition scenes. And of course you have those awful scenes like the hot springs one, but doesn't ruin the overall experience of this game.

I really want to play Golden, but hard to justify getting a Vita for one game.

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Well Vita also has Disgaea 3 and 4's Definitive editions, which are massive time sinks as well, and a bunch of other new games like Criminal Girls and others from NIS and Atlus, so if you love those two companies, the Vita has plenty for you to sink your teeth into.

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something I'd like to hear your opinion about is Persona 3. Specifically P3 FES for PS2 (you can get it on PSN) vs PSP, the portable remake of Persona 3, Both games are VERY different despite being the same game. It's quite a massive slap how different they are, and it splits a lot of ppl on which is better. The VN-style of PSP personally turns me off, as well as restricting you to just your MC's starter weapon type, but it actually allows control of your party, unlike P3 and P3FES.

Also, SMT3: Nocturne is far darker, Post Apocalyptic. As such, each decision you make in the game, even minor ones and ones on side quests affects your standing with the world between 5 different possible endings and sides.

Man, P3 on psp has female main character. She's the goddess.

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Eh, in my opinion, P3P's female protag wasn't really necessary. It didn't change much, was non-canon anyways, and didn't further the story like The Answer did. Also the VN style annoys me because the 3D models and animated cutscenes conveyed the feelings going on FAR better than the VN scenes. There are a number of examples I could give, but spoilers.

I appreciate it more than Q, that's for sure, but I just don't feel the game really did anything worthwhile and a lot of the changes it made to make it more like P4, like the party member Social Links (which are useless since your party still gets their persona upgrades via story) and one weapon types for the main character removed some of the positives from P3 that made it unique from P4. Not every Persona needs to be Persona 4. Persona 2 is still my favorite by far.

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Well Vita also has Disgaea 3 and 4's Definitive editions, which are massive time sinks as well, and a bunch of other new games like Criminal Girls and others from NIS and Atlus, so if you love those two companies, the Vita has plenty for you to sink your teeth into.

I've also heard good things about Danganronpa. What are other Altus vita games?

Wrt P3P: I prefer it by far to fes. The lack of animated scenes is a serious drawback, so I think the ideal way to play is to do fes first and then all subsequent playthroughs on p3p. Yeah the female route is frivolous, but it's a fun what if scenario. The answer is "important," but imo it's terrible from both gameplay and story pov, so perceived importance doesn't mean a whole lot to me personally. Things like skill cards that allow me to engineer awesome skill sets for guys like Thanatos and messiah makes the gameplay so much better IMO. I also love being able to skip through text heavy scenes I've already seen.

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Because they figured having characters shooting themselves with gun is a bit too hardcore.

Theming is important. Persona 3's theme is momento mori, "Remember, you will die". The evokers were just one aspect of that, along with Protag's Orpheus and Thanatos, even the theme song.

Persona 4's theme is the power of truth. Hence, the fog of ignorance, and the glasses, the need to confront one's own darkside before gaining a Persona, et cetera et cetera.

The Persona franchise as a whole, including 1 and 2, are actually quite smart games. The only games I can think of with that strict of an adherence to a centralized theme in gameplay, story, and presentation are the Zeldas, specifically Ocarina, Majora, and Wind Waker.

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Let's face it though, guys. Persona 3 was far more than just a bit heavy handed with the theming. Yes some of it was clever, but it was about as subtle as the ol' shovel over the head. It might have been smart, but still, P2 weaved some of its themings of percieved truths and social stigmas and such into more than just the rumor system and didn't beat on and on about it aside from the rumor system. P3? makes the theming painfully obvious everywhere. It's still great and smart, but I like how P4 seems to have multiple themes, like percieved truth and how opinions can be pushed onto others as truths and its a lot less obvious until near the end of the game.

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Theming is important. Persona 3's theme is momento mori, "Remember, you will die". The evokers were just one aspect of that, along with Protag's Orpheus and Thanatos, even the theme song.

Persona 4's theme is the power of truth. Hence, the fog of ignorance, and the glasses, the need to confront one's own darkside before gaining a Persona, et cetera et cetera.

The Persona franchise as a whole, including 1 and 2, are actually quite smart games. The only games I can think of with that strict of an adherence to a centralized theme in gameplay, story, and presentation are the Zeldas, specifically Ocarina, Majora, and Wind Waker.

Now I face out

I hold out

I reach out to the truth of my life seeking to seize

on the whole moment to now break away

Oh God let me out

Can you let me out

Can you set me free from this dark inner world

Save me now Last beat in the soul

Hahaha, seriously, that's why I love it as much as I do. Reaching out to the truth couldn't have gotten more intense and more interesting.

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Persona does have a ton of issues, though. TBH, my biggest issue with 4 is probably Social Links. They work the same as in P3 and are easier to manage, but having your allies as social links just always seemed a bit...lazy to me. Yeah they attempt to resolve side plots and show how the char has changed, but a lot of times, it feels shallow. Seriously, Yukiko's and Yosukes feel kinda annoying, since it's Yosuke dealing with the death of the girl he liked and his boredom. Now, remember, that's something he apparently accepted. This is a similar problem with Yukiko's, where it's all about the problem's at the Inn. I can understand bonding with your allies and learning more about them after they accept their shadows, but we don't really get too much of a show for that unless you do the side social links. Instead of showing off how they've changed outside of the group, it's up to you to find their changes. I would have preferred that we can spend time with the party, but that the story work so we can see these characters more personally after accepting their shadow.

I dunno, I just never felt as fulfilled by the party as I do Persona 3. I feel like I have more a peak at their social lives and their personal history and problems. I know them and the trials they go through. While in Persona 4 it's just a bunch of friends working together. Not until late game do you really any of the chars blossom, and even then, many of the characters have flatlined and stop progressing. Persona 3 has them constantly progressing by shoving their problems into the light and resolving them not in their entirety, but in a way that shows more than them not accepting who they are.

TBH, besides Yosuke, Teddy, and Kanji, and MAYBE Naoto (though they tend to turn her into joke or waifu bait near the end of the game and at most possible joke moments), I just feel the party of Persona 4 wasn't as fleshed out. It might have to do with the theming and the way the game worked.

Also Skill Cards are still dumb as hell. In p4 Golden they hand them out to at a consistent enough rate for you to make actual use of them. This isn't the case in Persona Q or P3P. Skill Cards are meant to allow you to play the meta, but outside of P4G it just isn't used efficiently and cards are so ridiculously expensive.

TBH, Persona 4 Golden is objectively the best game in the series with its presentation, atmosphere, mechanics, and content. I'd argue that my personal favorites are the Persona 2 games and that every other Persona game besides 4 Golden has a number of issues. P3P's presentation and restrictions compared to P3 FES, P4's character issues (which were retouched and improved in P4G along with more non social link cutscenes to flesh the chars out), P3's lack of party control, P2's difficulty and mixed translations from the PSP and PS1 games (seriously Atlus give us both games in one or at least on the same system for god's sake,), P1's....everything.

imho, objectively P4G is the best game, followed by Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and Arena, with P3 FES behind that and P3P and the original P4 behind that, P3 with the Persona 2 games, P1, and then Persona Q as the absolute worst persona game out there. See the Etrian Odyssey for my little rant on all the problems, both objective and subjective, I have with it.

This is becoming the general Persona thread, isn't it?

Play Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga already. You want atmosphere, GODDAMN PLAY DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA ALREADY! D:

I'm crazy and rant to much, good day.

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Play Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga already. You want atmosphere, GODDAMN PLAY DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA ALREADY! D:

Or you could just play any SMT game that isn't Persona 3 or 4 for atmosphere.

Persona started losing me when it started to become happy go lucky. ( I like 3 despite this but still.). They don't feel like SMT games. Maybe its just me (And its just an opinion. Not saying they are bad lol)

Edited by Jedi
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Or you could just play any SMT game that isn't Persona 3 or 4 for atmosphere.

Persona started losing me when it started to become happy go lucky. ( I like 3 despite this but still.). They don't feel like SMT games. Maybe its just me (And its just an opinion. Not saying they are bad lol)

Devil Survivor 2 and 1 kind of (its more closer to P3 in this perspective) also is kind of like this. Persona 5 either way looks to be back to the thick atmosphere of the past game.

but yeh, Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga (1+2), Raidou Kuzunoha(1+2). Great PS2 games that Atlas has kinda just shrugged off at this point :/ Really wishing we could see some of these return as well. Hell, Catherine, which is heavily hinted at taking place in (or at least features copious references and easter eggs to) the world of Persona, and that game has a ton of atmosphere...outside the actual frenetic stages. When you get time to look around your world, it's great.

No but seriously play Nocturne, it'll blow your mind after the 1st playthrough and have you go mad from the 3rd. Also Dante from Devil May Cry is in it, so that makes it immediately amazing :D. It's DMC 2 Dante. What? No it's not, it's pseudo DMC2 Dante! He's closer to DMC1 Dante, really! I mean, subjective right?...

Am I arguing with myself? wth have you all done to me.

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Decent review. I'd like to see you do the same for Persona 3, since I think interesting discussion could come out of it

Or you could just play any SMT game that isn't Persona 3 or 4 for atmosphere.

Persona started losing me when it started to become happy go lucky. ( I like 3 despite this but still.). They don't feel like SMT games. Maybe its just me (And its just an opinion. Not saying they are bad lol)

To be fair, the SMT title was only shoved into their names in order to be a marketing tool outside of Japan; I don't think the SMT moniker is in any of the Japanese names. Not calling them Shin Megami Tensei games isn't incorrect, in my opinion. But neither is the opposite

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