Hi everyone,

So I'm looking to get Persona 4, but I can't figure whether I should go with the vanilla version, about $37 USD at amazon.com, or try to get the artbook too for about $45 incl. shipping.

Obviously subjective, but do you think the artbook is worth it for the extra $8 or so? I managed to find a link with scans, are these basically all the pages in the book?
http://dokuganryu.com/scans/megaten/p4/

Also, I'm not very familiar with Atlus and their marketing strategies, being relatively new to  JRPGs and all (Endurance Run convert!).  Would you expect Atlus to be re-issuing Persona 4 soon, either as a Greatest Hits title or otherwise?

Thanks!

Every copy of the game comes with side A of the soundtrack. Also, the art book is not the same one that you can see on that site. That's the Japanese art book, and the North American one has a lot less content unfortunately.

And in the case of Greatest Hits re-releases, Atlus USA has only released two: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and Odin Sphere received the GH treatment this past September.

By less content, do you mean the N. American version only has a few of the pages from that website? Or different material, but less altogether?

Less material, period. There is a fair amount of text as well though, which may be of use to you since it's in English in the North American art book.
I also answered your Greatest Hits query, so take another look at my post if you missed it.

Are you talking about the listing at play-asia?  That's the pre-order art book that Amazon has been including with most shipments (the partial sountrack comes with all purchases).  The scans you have are from the Japanese art book which is 191 pages vs 100 for the US book.  So basically its $15 more (s&h) to be sure the get an artbook that you might get anyway with Amazon.

The art book is kinda meh, but the soundtrack is amazing. It's the only game soundtrack I ever found myself going back to more than once.

@LordAndrew - Thanks for the info about how Atlus has done Greatest Hits in the past, doesn't look too promising for a Persona 4 GH anytime soon.

@ endaround - Oh, so if I were to order through Amazon for the regular $37 version, I might still get the art book anyway? Any idea if this is still happening?

Yeah, every copy off of Amazon still has the artbook included.

What is this limited edition you speak of? Amazon.com doesn't list it, and from what I've heard they ship the art book with every copy of the game.
Of course, the Social Link Expansion Pack is a different story entirely. :)

Sorry, I mean the pre-order art book, I think I just assumed that extras were part of a limited edition deal.