Persona 4, published by Atlus, is a role-playing game with an odd pedigree; it draws inspiration from two distinct game genres: the traditional Japanese role-playing game and the Japanese dating simulation. Although, this combination of genres may appear at first to be some sort of unholy union, Persona 4 blends the constant progression and incentivization mechanics of role-playing games with the character interaction mechanics of a dating simulation to create a game with a very specific focus. Through the blending of genres, Persona 4 becomes a game which uses traditional rpg mechanics to incentivize social interaction rather than combat or traditional role-playing game character building. In Persona 4 the player is rewarded more for forming Social Links with the various characters in the game than for fighting enemies, earning money, or buying new weapons. What is truly significant and remarkable about this game, however, is not merely its focus on social interaction and ordinary human activity, but that it does not force these interactions upon the player. The player may, if she/he wishes, play the game completely ignoring the Social Links and ignoring the rewards there in. It is up to the player to realize that the most efficient and gratifying way to play the game is to spend as little time fighting monsters as possible and instead spend time joining the school basketball team or taking up a part-time job at the hospital. Through the use of strong incentivization and interesting characters, Persona 4 mounts a campaign to convince the player that what is truly meaningful in a world full of murder investigations and TV monsters is spending a Sunday afternoon listening to a grieving widow down by the riverbank.

Social Links in Persona 4 provide the player with several in-game benefits that in other games would be tied to a traditional, combat based, leveling system. Upon establishing a Social Link with a character in Persona 4, the player immediately receives an experience bonus whenever he/she fuses a persona that corresponds to that Social Link. This experience bonus increases as the player increases the level of their Social Link through interaction and socialization. As a result, this experience bonus can become quite substantial over time. Towards the middle of the game, due to this experience bonus, the player is able to immediately level-up a newly fused persona by several levels and, in doing so, allow that persona to rapidly accrue abilities and stat bonuses. This single experience boost can remove the need for hours of combat and leveling, as the player’s personae can often learn every ability it is capable of learning immediately after it is fused. Therefore, a concerted focus on increasing the level of one’s Social Links allows for a reduction in the number of hours of level grind in the game. However, rather than simply removing an unnecessary grind from the game, the experience bonus provided by Social Links replaces the combat grind with a social one. Instead of rewarding endless hours of combat in dungeons, Persona 4 rewards players who actively seek friends in the game. Players are rewarded with faster persona growth when they spend their in-game days out of the TV, rather than in it.

Social Links also serve as a motivator for personal growth in Persona 4. Over the course of the game the main character can increase several personality traits, namely: diligence, courage, knowledge, understanding, and expression. All of these character traits represent desirable qualities for a human being and, as such, it is unsurprising that the game incentivizes the player to make the main character as well rounded an individual as possible. However, the way the game incentivizes his personal growth is not through the promise of statistical rewards or combat benefits. Instead, the player is presented with social links that cannot be established until certain levels of personal growth are met. For example, Naoto’s social link, an essential social link for any player who intends to use Naoto in combat, is blocked off until the main character has level five knowledge. In this case the main character is not only encouraged to be intelligent, but the reward for intelligence is first and foremost a social one. All of the personality traits in Persona 4 are treated in a similar fashion and as a result the player is shown that traits such as knowledge and courage are not necessarily useful in and of themselves. On the contrary, these traits are only as useful as the relationships that they allow you to pursue.

The final aspect of Social Links that I wish to touch on is their ability to affect permanent change on the characters in the investigation team. Each of the investigation teammates level up and gain abilities through combat; they accrue experience points after each victory and those points allow them to level up and gain new abilities. However, there are levels of growth that each character can only attain though Social Links. In fact, certain team based abilities can only be unlocked by socializing with the members of the investigation team, such as follow-up attacks. Follow up attacks can completely change the way that the player approaches battles as characters like Yukiko and Teddie gain the ability to dizzy opponents after a knock down and Chie gains the ability to instantly kill one opponent. Each of these follow up attacks add options to the battles in Persona 4 that are completely unique and can change the strategy of combat fairly significantly. Furthermore, to gain these combat advantages as well as the investigation team’s evolved personas the player must choose to forgo the TV world for weeks of game time. The player must make a conscious effort to prioritize socializing over the fantasy world of the TV. Also these added bonuses that the investigation teammates receive further incentivize the player to prioritize these teammates over the other Social Links in the game. Rather than taking the ordinary rpg tact of leveling characters based purely on using those characters in combat, Persona 4 elects to instead reward players for getting to know the characters on a more human level.

What makes Persona 4s rpg mechanics so interesting for me is that the Social Link system allows the game developers to take ordinary rpg leveling and incentive systems and blend them with something resembling reality. The player is rewarded with fantastical things like experience points and elemental bonuses for studying after school and for participating in school clubs. Furthermore, these bonuses always come at the expense of another day in the TV. To get the best results in Persona 4, a proper balance must be stuck between entering the TV world and socializing. It seems to me that this game is both making a statement about balancing fantasy and reality while also showing a way to season reality with aspects of fantasy. This blending of fantasy and reality, thus, makes reality into something more interesting and exciting than it otherwise might be. Yet, what is always most important is social interaction, without it none of the fantastical rewards can be reaped.

My favorite game when I was growing up was Final Fantasy IX. I loved every character in that game, especially the more “colorful” characters like Freya the rat-woman dragoon and Quina gender-ambiguous, blue-mage chef. My favorite of all of them was Amarant, the rogue with a heart. He is the classic, archetypal, "he is your enemy at first but then joins you because he really is a good guy deep down inside," rogue. I always loved his silly red dreadlocks and his lone wolf dialog, but during my first few playthroughs I couldn’t find a way to actually use him in my party. You see, he really is one of the only characters in Final Fantasy IX that does not seem to have a clear place in combat. He doesn’t deal a ton of damage, he does not heal particularly well, and his most damaging attacks throw money or weapons at the enemy. Furthermore, all of Amarant’s abilities only target single characters; this made it difficult to count on him to be a healer or a damage dealer. He was a little bit of everything and completely incomprehensible to a young me.

When I went back to the game some years later I took it upon myself to finish the game using Amarant in my party. As I forced myself to use this awkward character some of his abilities really did not make sense to me. Throughout the story he acts like a loner and a cut-throat: someone who, until he joins the party halfway through the game, is supposed to be completely self-sufficient. This image fell in line with some of his skills. For example, his chakra ability healed one character’s hp and mp by a small amount. This ability made perfect sense for a loner; he could heal himself and keep his mp high so he would not need items or rest to recover. Even his throw abilities made sense as money and possessions seemed of little value to him. Yet, abilities like revive, curse, and cover made no sense for a self-sufficient loner to have. Curse was an ability that inflicted a random elemental weakness on an enemy. Revive, well , revived one ally. Cover allowed Amarant to take damage in place of one of his allies when they were attacked. It was odd that Amarant could create elemental weaknesses as he has no elemental attacks; he could not exploit the weaknesses he created. Revive made little sense because he could not heal himself if he was already knocked out. Also, cover made little sense because a loner would not have an ally to cover.

These abilities did not fit the lone warrior persona that Amarant had shown through much of the game; however, they did make a lot of sense when Amarant became a willing party member and opened up a little. Towards the end of the game Amarant learns the value of teamwork after an encounter in Ipsen’s Castle, during which he elects to go solo into one of the most dangerous dungeons in the game. He expectedly gets beaten to a pulp before being saved by Zidane. From this moment on Amarant became a full member of the party: no more espousing the virtues of solitude and no more complaining about the other party members holding him back. It is at this point that I realized Amarant’s role in combat and in the game.

He was the ultimate “glue guy.” Amarant’s role was to do the dirty work and the support stuff that other characters cannot. He could heal other character’s mp; he could revive allies; he could cast auto-life and regen; he could deal good damage; he could create weaknesses for others to exploit. When he tranced (FFIX’s version of a limit break) he became an even better role-player as all of his abilities changed from target-one to target-all. He was the most versatile and unique support character in my party and the little touches to his abilities, as well as some story turns, made me see it. Using him in this capacity I was able to cruise through the game, until the final boss. My whole party was mauled by the final boss’s high damage attacks and my healers were berserk, yet Amarant’s healing abilities kept everyone alive. His high damage throw ability added a much needed punch to my attack. Once he reached trance I was able to make my party near-invincible, thanks to his aura ability which cast auto-life and regen on the whole team. At one point he was the last man standing and, thanks to trance, he was able to cast revive on everyone, thus saving the team. The former loner became my team MVP.

What makes this character so interesting for me now is the subtle design decisions that made him more than a sum of his parts. Amarant was not the simple mix of Final Fantasy character classes that he seemed to be at first: ninja, samurai, and monk. In a game where many characters simply were their archetypes in both story and gameplay, Amarant was a character who created a new archetype. The rogue with a heart may not be a new character type, but the way his abilities complemented his characterization was new, at least for me. It is one thing to talk about his heart in cut-scenes, but it is quite another to allow me to discover it in a heated boss battle when he is the only thing keeping my party alive. Amarant’s character development was not merely aesthetic, but it was taken into account in his abilities.

I am new to fighting games with street fighter IV being the first fighting game I've ever seriously played.  I went into street fighter assuming that the community would be the same ass holes and scumbags that seem to blight halo and gears of war.  Those people who never seem to shut up, talking trash at every opportunity. 

However I was amazed at the sportsmanship and friendliness of the street fighter IV community.  I'm a scrub and as such I get my as handed to me 75% of the time.  However most of the time after I get my ass kicked my opponent sends me a message saying "gg keep up the practice"  or they will send me a message with tips on how to play.   I have only ever had one player drop during a match.  I must say Street Fighter IV has one of the best communities that I have ever been a part of.