Persona 4 Review
Having never picked up any of the Persona series I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into, but after playing this game I can at least tell you my opinion of this PlayStation 2 RPG. You are a big city kid who has to spend time in a little country town of Inaba. There you create friendships as well as try to solve a mystery that only you and your friends can truly solve.
The music and sounds really get old after a while. At first you are so into the game that you don't really notice that the battle music is the same, other than when you're fighting a boss. Also the same commands are repeated over and over again in battle, most of the time resulting in someone screaming "Persona".
The controls aren't anything special, but they get the job done. You'll have a chance to gain the initiative for every battle, other than boss battles, by swinging your weapon and hitting the enemy. The camera does bug me a bit, I kept getting turned around in the game going the wrong way because I thought the camera, which you control completely, left and right at least, was pointed in the opposite direction.
The graphics show you that this game is made by those who know a thing or two about anime. It has an anime tone to it that can't be ignored. The cut scenes are sometimes in game models, and they really don't do much for me, but there are so animated sequences, which I wish had subtitles, but they look great. I could never decide if I like the fact that the enemies outside of battle really didn't tell you what you were going to face, or not.I will give you a helpful tip, you'll notice that they come in all shapes and sizes, the bigger the size outside of combat the harder its going to be. The in battle designs for the monsters that you face look fantastic.
The game play is the thing that about killed me. It wasn't until 2 hours into the game that I was actually truly able to control my character. This would have been a deal breaker for me, but for the sake of trying to find out what this game was all about I pressed on. What I discovered is that there is a ton of micromanaging in the game. You'll have to keep to a schedule and as the game goes on you'll have the chance to join sports clubs, intellectual clubs, go visit a library, do part time work, go investigate the mystery, hang out with your friends, and the fine nail, you have specific times that you have to do those things, as well as you have a defined time limit to research a specific part of your investigation.
I'm a huge fan of RPGs, but I have to say that after many many hours, and feeling like I was working my ass off to feel like I was just treading water, I had to put the controller down. If you are looking for a very deep and highly complex RPG this is for you, if you are a fan of the series you're probably use to this style of play. The storyline is a very good one, but it takes patience, and a bit of lucky to get through the majority of it. This game gets a 7.9 out of 10.
