And it’s here! The review to celebrate Simon’s completion of Persona 4, it’s also one of the longest reviews I have ever written. Let’s go!

When it comes to the Playstation 2, there hasn’t been a company lately as loyal as Atlus. Most other companies have abandoned the Playstation 2 to put their games on the main systems that are on sale at the moment. Atlus on the other hand are still releasing console exclusive quirky Japanese games on the very successful Playstation 2. For that we have to give a big thanks to Atlus. I’m sure a lot of Japanese RPG fans are extremely happy for Atlus to still be sticking to the system, which in Japan has had a tremendous amount of RPGs. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be seeing as many RPGs cross the border.

One of the most successful Atlus titles to be released in recent years was 2007′s amazing Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, and the even better, in 2008, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES was released, which was a add on budget priced game, but for a bargain came with the FES remix version of Persona 3 as well. Following along in the footsteps of shooting yourself in the head to release your inner souls, Atlus made a brave decision to keep with the Playstation 2 for its next instalment of the Persona series. Persona 4 has arrived and I’m proud to say it is even better than its predecessor.

“The thing with Persona 4 is that everything about it is an improvement over 3″

The thing with Persona 4 is that everything about it is an improvement over 3. It is like Atlus decided to get fans of the series into a room and ask them what their problems with the last game was. Persona 4 is a big thank you from Atlus to all the Persona 3 players.

Murder is the key aspect of the story in Persona 4. Also the setting has moved away from the busy streets of the city. The location is now a quiet rural town that goes by the name of Inaba, which is in the middle of nowhere. Shortly after the protagonist arrives to stay at his Uncle’s house, you learn about “The Midnight Channel.” It’s a bizarre and surreal supernatural channel that appears at midnight on a rainy day. Set one year after the events of Persona 3: FES, Persona 4 has you investigating the deaths of two murders that erupt shortly after you arrive, and also the exploration of the midnight channel and its shadow inhabitants, talk about bad timing.

Your uncle, who is a detective at the police force in Inaba, is having trouble finding clues or any sort of leads in these peculiar murder cases. Here’s where you come in. You soon figure out that the murders are appearing after Inaba is covered in fog, along with the fact the Midnight Channel is slowly revealing people each time it rains, which shows who is going to be murdered next. Meeting Teddie, a strange person who lives in the TV world, you bark on a journey to find out who really is trying to murder all these inhabitants of Inaba.

There’s a lot of story introduced at the start of Persona 4. You don’t get into the full swing of things until you’ve passed the two hours of plot. Once that is over though, you are ready to delve right into the game. The story itself is certainly unique and most of the time manages to keep away from any clichés you’ll mostly be familiar with if you play RPGs. The story feels like a giant murder mystery and comes with plenty of surprises to keep the player fascinated. It’s one of the weirdest stories you’ll come across for a while, but it is extremely well written and should be praised for not settling for one of the usual cliché storylines. It’s not always serious as well because certain parts of the game and its characters are put into action to supply some comical scenes. It mixes both well.

Atlus have used the familiar gameplay settings of Persona 3 for its building blocks of Persona 4, except now they come with plenty of enhancements. The day clock system is identical but now has the addition of weather to take into account. One of the two major gameplay elements of Persona 4 is dungeon exploration and quest completion. This also fits in with the time system as you can only do certain things at specific times. The same time periods are in effect as before. This means your day is filled with Mornings, Dinnertimes (depending if there’s something to do then), After School and Evenings.

The main bulk of the dungeon exploration comes into the after school section. You no longer fight the shadows late at night like you did in Persona 3′s Dark Hour. Instead you’ll be entering the TV world after you get out of school. This makes for some design changes as you now have an evening free to do what you want. There’s actually not that much to do in the evening, which is a bummer. You can’t leave your house unless you have a job or to go fishing.

Jobs are a new inclusion in the Persona series. If you feel you don’t have anything to do, you can use a job to gain yourself some extra spending cash. Also some of jobs available will open up new S. Links for you to try and max out (more on that later) or increase one of your character’s stats. It’s a shame you can’t enter the TV world or hang out in town at evening as it would have relieved some of the stress of mismanaging your time. I guess the murders that are happening are a reasonable logic why you shouldn’t go out late at night in the village of Inaba.

“Each dungeon is given a theme based around an inner secret of the character that is about to be killed”

Dungeon exploration isn’t as much of a primary focus as with Persona 3′s Tartarus. Long gone is the mammoth towering 250+ floor Tartarus tower. Now the dungeons are actually in separate areas. Entering the TV world acts as the hub to the dungeon locations. Each dungeon is given a theme based around an inner secret of the character that is about to be killed by the murderer. The themes add much more variety to the designs of the dungeons, making them instantly more appealing than the different colours of the floors in Tartarus. The layout plan of paths in the dungeons is identical to the style of Persona 3. This means that entering the themed dungeon comes with randomly generated maps, unless the floor you on is a key focus in the story plot. The size of the dungeons are usually around 10 floors, which makes it far less of a challenge to work your way up to the top to fight the boss.

Supporting the refreshing dungeon themes are some of the weirdest boss fights you’re going to see. Bosses are also based on the theme of the character that is trapped in the TV world. This leads to some extraordinary boss designs. One of my favourites is the erotic pole dancer that is decorated with psychedelic colours as she sexily dances up and down the pole. There’s nothing to actually see on her, but the design is fantastic and fresh. Another one that comes to mind is the boss of the 8-bit RPG themed dungeon. That’s got to be up there for one of the best unique takes on a boss battle so far, it’s extremely amusing for old school JRPG players.

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