Persona 4

[Fishin]

Persona 4, published and developed by Atlus, is a RPG for the PS2. It has a rather unique concept - your nameless protagonist goes to school during the day, and during the afternoon/evening you have the choice of either spending time building relationships with different people (which powers up your Personas, the beings that you use in battle), or dungeon crawling, which ties into the murder mystery set in a rural town plot. Atlus has had a website up for the game here if you're looking to sample the voice acting or see some videos:

http://www.atlus.com/persona4/home.html

So far, reception from reviewers has been extremely positive, as well. A few reviews for you suspicious folks:

A+ from 1UP
4.5/5 from RPGamer
5/5 from Gamepro
4.75/5 from hardcoregamer
99/100 from Gamertell
4.5/5 from Gamecyte

Also, it's selling at $39.99 and comes with a soundtrack CD. Anyone else planning to get it/has it reserved?

 

[Bran]

I have actually wanted Persona 3 for quite some time, because of the great reviews it received. I knew this game was coming out months ago, but I got a phone call last week from my brother asking what I wanted from Christmas. I wasn't so sure, but he then immediately suggested this game, and told me the reviews of this game so far. I flipped, lol! Mainly because the overall scores (metacritic.com and gamerankings.com) have rated this game so far in the top 10 PS2 games of all time! That's saying a lot for a system with TONS of great games!! So I know for a fact I will be getting this game

By the way, I looked on-line on those two sites, and there was nothing for the first two games of this series. Were they called something else, or were they for like the PS1?

 

[Fishin]

Yeah, both Persona 1 and 2 were for the PSX. Persona 1 was criticized a lot for its localization (one quest was removed, the names of characters, locations, even character portraits/nationalities were changed to be more American) and hasn't been printed for a long time, so it's one of those games that ends up selling for obscene prices on Ebay. Persona 2 is a direct sequel to the first game and is split into two separate games, Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. Innocent Sin was never released outside of Japan, though apparently a translation patch was made. Eternal Punishment was released in the US and is in nearly the same boat as Persona 1 as far as availability goes (though there was a recent, very limited reprint for 39.99), albeit apparently without the localization issues.

 

[Firestorm]

Yeah, a translation patch for Innocence Sin was released one or two months ago. You can find it here: http://tsumi.wordpress.com/

 

[Doomsday]

I kinda have wanted to try Persona ever since 3 came out. I might get this this christmas i think! it seems solid enough.

 

[Amelia]

Just to point out.

P3 was awesome, there were so many good points about it. It rated around 9/10 for me.

P4 gets a 12/10. It's such a huge step up, i couldn't believe i was playing a PS2.

 

[Fishin]

Yeah, after playing it for a few days, I'm enjoying it a lot. The other thing to note is the big difficulty increase - normal mode is quite a good deal harder than Persona 3's normal. I am seriously glad I did not choose Expert.

The game as a whole is excellent, though. It's managed to fix pretty much all of Persona 3's problems and improves on its good points - while I do have a few complaints (especially how the protagonist's only weapon choice sucks on the field), they're pretty minor.

 

[Amelia]

<.< I don't know how many times the enemy managed to get an advantage just because i missed hitting them, TWICE.

BTW, the story is freaking great. I'm around 1/2 of the game (i think), and i'm still kept at the edge of my seat wondering what the hell is going to happen next. The plot twists are great.

 

[Hiro]

I finished P3 about a month ago and I loved it. I picked this up today and I wasn't really in the Persona "mindset," so this hasn't sparked with me yet (I'm only about 2 hours in). I expect that to change soon though =)

A few things that stand out:
- Voice acting is great!
- Persona animations are much more fluid and pretty =)
- Shadows are harder to hit. Stupid golf club =<
- Teddy.

 

[Doomsday]

i got this game earlier today and... i haven't felt so immersed in a rpg ever since my first final fantasy game. damn, this is good. one minor thing i really enjoyed was the swearing, it really makes the dialogue more realistic.

i reallllllllllly got bored in the first (second?) dungeon. (yumiko's) I am at like 6F and I keep running out of items and SP and losing. god. it's so annoying.

I also dislike how there are so many ugly personas. I mean you start off with this awesome samurai-warrior persona for the protagonist right? but if you fuse personas (which, the way I see it, is what you should do if you want a stronger character) you get all kinds of ugly-ass piece of crap demon shit. Right now i have this stupid green dog and a pink pony. that made kinda hesitant.

I'm glad the other characters have fixed personas though, they are mostly awesome

 

[Fishin]

The fact that there's no SP recovery is meant to keep you switching between dungeon-crawling and doing social links. It's a lot better IMO than the Persona 3 system, where your SP was recovered when you returned to the start but characters would get tired and become weaker/leave your party. In general, you want to be as conservative with SP as possible, and mainly use it to exploit weaknesses and heal.

Later on, a way of recovering SP does become available, but it's extremely expensive. You can start at whatever floor you were at if you leave with a Goho-M (buyable at the shop, and Teddie gives you one to start), so it's much better to warp out and come back another day since your SP will be restored.

And yeah, the Personae tend to ramp up in quality as you get further in the game, most of the early ones are at the bottom of the barrel.

 

[Doomsday]

You can start at whatever floor you were at if you leave with a Goho-M (buyable at the shop, and Teddie gives you one to start), so it's much better to warp out and come back another day since your SP will be restored.

And yeah, the Personae tend to ramp up in quality as you get further in the game, most of the early ones are at the bottom of the barrel.

ohhhhhhh alright that makes all the dungeon crawling way more bearable! i didnt know you could re-start from the floor you left off. that's cool then.

i'm glad about that bit regarding the personae too. i guess I was just hasty, I mean, was I expecting to get all the cool stuff right off the bat ?_?

anyway i am looking forward to finishing this game, the story so far has been gripping, the dialogues witty and realistic and the characters diverse and colorful, but not outright extravagant.

 

[Bender]

Been thinking of picking this game up and the reviews seem good but never played any of these games before. Have a few questions before I buy it if someone wouldn't mind answering because I want to make sure its worth picking up because I don't have a ton of disposable income right now. Whats the story and battle system like and also does it have a lot of replay value?

 

[goborage]

Got my copy Thursday and I've been playing a lot since. I love how they reworked the dungeons. P3's were bland, repetitive, and tiresome and were my biggest complaint about the game. The battle system is a real step up from the find-the-weakness -> win in P3. The music is awesome too. Screw posting, I'm gonna play some more.

 

[gorm]

i played some shin megami tensei nocturne and it was pretty good so i'm pretty excited about checking out persona. this is probably the first game i'll buy when i get my ps2 back =)

 

[Hiro]

I also dislike how there are so many ugly personas. I mean you start off with this awesome samurai-warrior persona for the protagonist right? but if you fuse personas (which, the way I see it, is what you should do if you want a stronger character) you get all kinds of ugly-ass piece of crap demon shit. Right now i have this stupid green dog and a pink pony. that made kinda hesitant.

I'm glad the other characters have fixed personas though, they are mostly awesome

my personal favorite makes its return from p3:fes http://s184.photobucket.com/albums/x189/atm1986/persona 4/?action=view&current=Mara.png

I like the increased difficulty of the dungeons since it's actually a challenge but I still find myself powering through them in one visit (Invigorate 1 & 2) mainly since I like putting more time into social links.

 

[Fishin]

Been thinking of picking this game up and the reviews seem good but never played any of these games before. Have a few questions before I buy it if someone wouldn't mind answering because I want to make sure its worth picking up because I don't have a ton of disposable income right now. Whats the story and battle system like and also does it have a lot of replay value?

The story follows a group of high schoolers as they follow and ultimately try to solve the mystery of a series of murders taking place in a small rural town through an alternate world inside a TV. It's hard to say any more than that without starting to reveal spoilers, but so far both the plot and characters have been extremely good.

The battle system looks like a standard RPG at the start (4 characters with HP/SP bars face off against a number of enemies), but the Persona system is what makes it unique. The protagonist can acquire and fuse a huge amount of Personae, each with different skills and elemental weaknesses/resistances and can switch between them in battle. Enemies have weaknesses and resistances as well, and exploiting weaknesses (and avoiding having your own exploited) is key, since hitting a weakness provides the attacker with an extra turn and knocks down the target. The battles tend to be pretty fast-paced, and you can attack enemies behind on the field to get a first-strike advantage. While not in the dungeons, you're free to live out your school life, and build relationships with other people, which are called Social Links. Each Social link boosts a different type of Persona, so you have to balance dungeon-crawling and maintaining your S links in order to really succeed at the game.

As far as replay value goes, I'm not 100% sure what post-game content there is, though I know you can start a new game+ with all the Persona from the previous game recorded, so you can re-summon them (provided you have the money). There's also multiple difficulty levels, and you may find yourself using different Personae than the ones you had during your first playthrough. A few social links are different depending on which choices you make. It's also important to note that this game is pretty long - most estimates I've heard range from 70 to 90 hours of gameplay for one playthrough.


Compared to P3, one other nice thing I've noticed besides the improved dungeons/higher difficulty is that there are a lot more social links available fairly early. I'm on 7/26, and I've unlocked all but 3, one of which is because my Understanding isn't high enough.

Also, Reach Out to the Truth is a great random battle theme, worlds better than Mass Destruction.

 

[LoveDensity]

omg.. i have this game and its great. Since I had experience with other personas and SMT, I started straight off with Expert Difficulty. I love the challenge

 

[DeathScythe]

My PS3 is is in dire need of a good RPG, and I'd rather not get an inferior Fallout 3, compared to the 360/PC ones (No DLC, more glitches, no mods >.>)

So it's between this or Valkyria Chronicles. I only have enough money for one of them right now, so what do you guys think I should get?

 

[Fishin]

I own both and can vouch for both of them being great games, but I'm leaning slightly towards Persona 4 since Atlus has a habit of not printing a whole lot of copies, which can make them harder to find later on. I think I like Persona 4 slightly better, as well, but that's just me.

 

[Firestorm]

Valkyria Chronicles is already impossible to find actually. I think even Persona 4 has a better chance of finding down the line than Valkyria Chronicles =/

 

[Bender]

Just finished the game and was pretty damn good overall anyone who has a PS2 should pick this game up.

 

[Bran]

Just finished the game and was pretty damn good overall anyone who has a PS2 should pick this game up.

Agreed! Just look at my avatar, lol.

 

[Truthi]

Yeah I just played, beat it too. It was at first for Persona 3 that I noticed the series, but the game felt like too japanese for me to play. I wasn't wholly into the pop culture / sim deal that was outside of dungeon crawling. Also the Persona 3 had that whole shoot self in the head with gun thing to summon personas and I didn't like that sorta emo stuff at all.(Don't like emo stuff) But when this thread posted the links to the reviews for this game and stuff, I ended up getting it.

Top notch game, I did enjoy the regular school stuff, I did end up liking the characters in the game, when I told myself in the beginning just to mindlessly fly through that part. And the story was great too. Before getting this game I ended up looking the final boss for the last game and seeing that footage and stuff, and thought wow, this game did get pretty serious, and I wondered how that good happen for the the murder plot in this game. But yeah the story was great.

So yeah, the game ended up really impressing me when I went in thinking I was dumb / nerdy for playing some japanese odd game. But it was a really good game, and I'm actually trying to get Persona 3 FES now, yeah I'm aware of some of the downgrades(lack of control over party members, emo looking main character), but now I just want to play some more Persona. Highly recommend it.

 

[Bran]

I was also interested in getting Persona 3 FES, because of the great reviews it received and for being a stand-out game for the PS2. But every time I went to GameStop, I always said to myself "Meh, I'll get it next time." Now I can't find it, lol. However, whenever I heard of Persona 4, I was a little interested......then the reviews started flying in, and now, according to gamerankings.com and metacritic.com (two review sites that give a rating based on the overall average rating of all the top review sites and magazines), this game is now rated as the TOP RPG on the PS2, and that's saying a LOT!!!

So I got it for Christmas, and I never played a JRpg before. I have heard of the Shin Megami Tensei series from years ago, but I never thought anything about it. After about 20-25 hours into the game, I was hooked on it. I spent the remaining days of my winter break playing this game with at least a dozen all nighters, because I just couldn't put the game down! It's that damn good! And now, with a pretty big lack of RPG's on the market, this game stands alone as one of the best of all time, and NOW, very possibly the last good game on the PS2.