Hey guys,
I'm probably one of the many people who got into Persona 4 after watching Giant Bomb's great endurance run videos. So, living in Europa, I'm really contemplating ordering the PAL version (which is out these days; actually, I believe it's out today~!, March 6th)
Do you have any verdicts on differences between the PAL and NTSC versions of the game? You know, in terms of 50/60Hz support, widescreen support, the like. Seems to me a lot of PS2 games suffer from bad PAL conversions, which really makes me think about importing the game from the U.S. (two thumbs down for additional costs). 'Cause, you know, the game is only 20 Euros from day one here in the "Old World". Which is ridiculously cheap!
Thanks for your help and happy gaming.

Well, I don't own the game myself and I'm planning on buying the US version -- but for what it's worth, I have yet to see a Square Enix PAL conversion that supports 60Hz.

The official site did say this, however:
Fully optimised PAL version: allows for the full experience intended by the game creators, even for owners of 50Hz television sets.

So yeah, take that as you will.

I don't see why you would care, though. It's just a turn-based RPG, not an action game with a deep combat engine like Devil May Cry 3. Losing a few frames won't hurt anyone.

Under the Features section of the Official Site it says, "Owners of 50Hz and 60Hz televisions alike are guaranteed the full experience intended by the game's creators." As for widescreen, there is no native widescreen in either the NTSC or PAL release AFAIK. So enjoy the cheapness (£17.99!!!) ;-)

  It's just a turn-based RPG,  losing a few frames won't hurt anyone."

Square Enix publishes Persona in Europe?

Differences? I noticed that the text seems to have been edited in the pal version so it matches what Nanako actually says, "Welcome home!" instead of "Welcome back!" I doubt you care about that though ;)

The visuals are truly awful on the PAL conversion. Not only is there no option for NTSC 60Hz or PAL 60Hz, the stretching performed to eliminate the borders is atrocious.

Imagine a horizontal line of graphics simply repeated every 10 or so lines. It makes curves look horribly jagged - look at the edges of Teddie whenever his portrait appears for a good example - and it doesn't even eliminate all of the borders. Perhaps I notice this more on my set-up, because I'm using component, but still I can't believe we're in 2009 and still getting such poor conversions. I miss the days when Sega stepped up on the Dreamcast and made sure every game had a 60Hz mode.

Yes, Nanako's "okaeri" line has been fixed from "Welcome back" to "Welcome home". I also noticed you can pick up Ointment in the school bathroom on occasion, but none of these changes make this version worth it for me, especially after I've seen how the game should look on Giant Bomb.

To those who think the game being slightly slower doesn't matter, think about this: If you've been playing in 50Hz for 60 hours, you could have done the same content in just 50 hours on the NTSC version. If you've spent 100 hours in 50Hz, you've wasted about 17 hours. With a game as long as this, it still matters.

I've switched to the NTSC version and even find the visuals to be less muddy somehow.

Seriously poor localisation.

I noticed that the images of the characters had a real strange outline to them, but thought it was the PS3 not emulating it properly. Everytime I watch the endurance run after playing it on my PAL PS3, it seems like it's narrower too, on giant bombs PS2. The strange thing is, if I plays MGS (JP) on my PS3 and then on my PSP, the PSP emulates it in the correct aspect ratio and the PS3 makes it slightly too narrow. Bizarre stuff.

I own the PAL version, and although I've only played the first 2 or 3 hours so far, I haven't noticed any graphical irregularities or anything. There might be minor problems that are hardly noticeable, but they seem to have met their claim of "Fully optimised PAL version: allows for the full experience intended by the game creators, even for owners of 50Hz television sets."