Grasping for Truth In a World of Fog, Persona 4 Review
Persona 4 is a Playstation 2 game that has been out on the market for some time now. As the first foray into this series, I only had scant ideas of what to expect from this game. My guesswork was that the story was going to be out of this world, characters would be insightful and very relate-able, and that the combat would be based very much on strategy and managing the party correctly.
Did all of these expectations come to fruition? You bet your bottom. Did Persona 4 surpass these expectations? You better buy another bottom to bet.
Having just completed the game last night and getting the true ending (of which there are 3, including the true ending), I can't adequately express how satisfying this game was from start to finish. Suffice it to say, if you have the time necessary to put in a couple hours a night to play this game, do yourself a favor and go buy this game. Do it, right now. If you're still unsure, hopefully my meager opinion will help you jump on the bandwagon.
Starting the game off, you're introduced to the main character, the situation surrounding his arrival to his new home in Inaba, and the surrounding cast that you will constantly be interacting with the entire game. Each segment of the game is so well thought out, but intentionally leading so that you can guess what you think will happen next in the plot and once it happens, you'll be saying, "Wow, I never thought that would happen," and things will still make sense.
Each character is so full of.....well...character. You get to really understand, care about, and feel what they are thinking and going through. This process is done through self-discovery of which a character will be opposed by their true feelings, and they will have to confront those feelings or otherwise die. These confrontations can get pretty intense and involved which makes the game all the better. As the story progresses, you piece together the overall plot from these confrontations, moving one step closer each time. I don't want to give too much away because the fun of the game is experiencing the first time yourself.
To quickly describe combat, it is very simple. Your party of 2, 3, or 4 against an enemy party of X number. Turn based based on agility stat (I'm guessing), and full of physical attacks and elemental attacks. The trick to combat is that you must find an opponent's elemental weakness, if they have one, to exploit which gives you an extra turn. Attack all enemies with the weakness and you get a unison attack which is pretty flashy and more than likely destroys all the monsters. It's fun stuff, doesn't get too repetitive at any one time, and keeps you guessing.
Hopefully, I've written a little crash course here that can get you started on your way to getting Persona 4. Trust me, this is a game that you will not be disappointed with.
