O wow that is quite a rubbish review...

Whew for a minute I though it was a Play magazine review, because I love their reviews.

But back to the review.... Hey maybe they're coming from a different perspective that's not use to JRPGs (I know it's a real stretch). Personally I think that's there are problems with Persona 4, a slow pace and questionable voice acting, but those don't overwhelm the experience as a whole.

"It might not have been so bad if the plot wasn’t explained to you over and over." They make some good points.

That is a putrid review there. It just goes to show that just because you get a review published on the interwebs doesn't mean you can actually write.

"Whew for a minute I though it was a Play magazine review, because I love their reviews.

But back to the review.... Hey maybe they're coming from a different perspective that's not use to JRPGs (I know it's a real stretch). Personally I think that's there are problems with Persona 4, a slow pace and questionable voice acting, but those don't overwhelm the experience as a whole."

yeah watching the endurance run was hilarious because this game looked so gay, just full of japanese culture and crap that only japanese people would find funny.  Good, fuck that game.

"ZombiePie said:

"Whew for a minute I though it was a Play magazine review, because I love their reviews.

But back to the review.... Hey maybe they're coming from a different perspective that's not use to JRPGs (I know it's a real stretch). Personally I think that's there are problems with Persona 4, a slow pace and questionable voice acting, but those don't overwhelm the experience as a whole."

Persona 4 does have some issues, but not the ones mentioned in this review."

"ZombiePie said:

"Whew for a minute I though it was a Play magazine review, because I love their reviews. But back to the review.... Hey maybe they're coming from a different perspective that's not use to JRPGs (I know it's a real stretch). Personally I think that's there are problems with Persona 4, a slow pace and questionable voice acting, but those don't overwhelm the experience as a whole."

Questionable voice acting? In what way? I think the voice acting is great."

that review is piss poor, but so is this game. It may be unique and have a cult following but that's only only because it's unique. Everything about it is boring as fuck. That isn't an opinion either. If you like Persona 4 it's because you have forced yourself to like it.

"that review is piss poor, but so is this game. It may be unique and have a cult following but that's only only because it's unique. Everything about it is boring as fuck. That isn't an opinion either. If you like Persona 4 it's because you have forced yourself to like it."

Well I really, really like persona 4. And this is coming form the perspective of someone who dislikes Final Fantasy (having played though a fair bit of 7, 8, 10 and 12, before getting bored and giving up) and games like Lost Odysee etv.. Niether am I a huge anime fan outside of some of the sci fi stuff. And yet the art style, relatable characters, and (what I think to be) a very clever story grabbed me.

And I would not have given it a second thought were it not for the endurance run. Cheers for that Vinnie and Jeff

"that review is piss poor, but so is this game. It may be unique and have a cult following but that's only only because it's unique. Everything about it is boring as fuck. That isn't an opinion either. If you like Persona 4 it's because you have forced yourself to like it."

Playing this game is like having a big muscular guy come into your house, slap you with his enormous dong and then spray his gallons of semen into your eyes and ears.  Yup, just like that.  And if you like this game, then that means you have had this happen to you, and liked it.  Case closed.  Lets move on.

"Playing this game is like having a big muscular guy come into your house, slap you with his enormous dong and then spray his gallons of semen into your eyes and ears.  Yup, just like that.  And if you like this game, then that means you have had this happen to you, and liked it.  Case closed.  Lets move on."

.""Oh and you always have to hit X to get whoever’s talking on to their next sentence. We hate that."I

You know the reviews you can just read and know the reviewer only played 4 hours of a 100 hour game?  This is one of them.

"yeah watching the endurance run was hilarious because this game looked so gay, just full of japanese culture and crap that only japanese people would find funny.  Good, fuck that game."

@Pepsiman
Yeah I agree, I guess you are right that we are not the intended audience and cannot dismiss the game for that because you could do that to any game.  But here we go, the game is gay, having to gor through text and crap that is boring.  Also, it is hard to get past the retarded story and how retarded the characters are.  Boring boring game.

It's not gay, and it's not retarded. If you have a problem with the story, could you at least try to avoid such offensive terms?
No one's forcing you to like the game, and no one's insulting you for not liking it.

Indeed, HBK, you realize that this is a lost cause as long as your articulation is limited to "This is gay/retarded/made out of eggplant, which I hate, hate, hate," right? Like I said, it's fine to dislike the game. I can see where some people would have problems with it. It's just that your opinion won't be particularly taken seriously if all you can do is insult people with genuine, perfectly okay opinions by saying, for example, that they enjoy bizarre homoerotic fetishes. Give people the time of day to express their opinions without immediate backlash and, more ofthen than not, they'll do the same for you. But without that substance of a fleshed out, legitimate argument, you're just going to be perceived as someone who flames for the sake of it. Maybe that's your intention all along, I don't know. Maybe I just value the contemplative posts, regardless of how agreeable they are, in an online society which has little room for them. It's really not that hard to say, "I dislike Persona 4 because of [reason 1], [reason 2], and [reason 3], and here's where I'm coming from."

That review was pretty damn shitty. How the hell am I suppose to take you seriously when you review a 60 hour game with 4 extremely short paragraphs. However, he did make one very good point.

"It's not gay, and it's not retarded. If you have a problem with the story, could you at least try to avoid such offensive terms?No one's forcing you to like the game, and no one's insulting you for not liking it. "

HBK is just a kid who is afraid to play anything that involves thought, reading, or anything at all that isn't spelled right in front of him or that he feels his little friends would approve of. No, he wants to make sure that he only plays the coolest games. Games that involve aliens and guns. Guns with big men holding them. Big men who don't wear too much clothes. Big sweaty men who glisten in beautiful high definition. It's alright HBK, I know you just want a hug. Come give me a hug.

But I guess his terms of this game being retarded could be justified. I mean, this is a 100 hour game which could seem a little slow. But I doubt big ol' HBK knew retarded meant slow in the first place...

I have no problem with homosexuals or retarded people. But you seem to, since you're the one using them as insults.

"HBK is just a kid who is afraid to play anything that involves thought, reading, or anything at all that isn't spelled right in front of him or that he feels his little friends would approve of. No, he wants to make sure that he only plays the coolest games. Games that involve aliens and guns. Guns with big men holding them. Big men who don't wear too much clothes. Big sweaty men who glisten in beautiful high definition. It's alright HBK, I know you just want a hug. Come give me a hug.But I guess his terms of this game being retarded could be justified. I mean, this is a 100 hour game which could seem a little slow. But I doubt big ol' HBK knew retarded meant slow in the first place..."

Ok, everyone, drop it. HBK, if you don't like the game, just ignore it. No need for insulting.

"Fr0Br0 said:

"HBK is just a kid who is afraid to play anything that involves thought, reading, or anything at all that isn't spelled right in front of him or that he feels his little friends would approve of. No, he wants to make sure that he only plays the coolest games. Games that involve aliens and guns. Guns with big men holding them. Big men who don't wear too much clothes. Big sweaty men who glisten in beautiful high definition. It's alright HBK, I know you just want a hug. Come give me a hug.But I guess his terms of this game being retarded could be justified. I mean, this is a 100 hour game which could seem a little slow. But I doubt big ol' HBK knew retarded meant slow in the first place..."

And how the fuck is this game 100 hours?  by making your read a bunch of crap where the characters have to repeat shit like 50 times?  yes we know there is a murderer!  We know she was kidnapped! What the fuck stop telling me.  Also if you can stop fingering your vagina, maybe you could take the time to read people's bios.  Also, stop being so racist, man you need to grow up and go beyond anime for once.  Are you telling me you dont play shooters and only stay with games that offers hours of gameplay by making you sit through high school kids having retarded conversations?"

You do have to love a guy stealing his name from pro-wrestling calling things gay

"Ok, everyone, drop it. HBK, if you don't like the game, just ignore it. No need for insulting."

I've heard claims of 60 hours. Myself, I'm over 70 hours in. I probably won't go up to 100 hours though, unless I end up enjoying the end-game grinding, like I did in Persona 3. Grinding is probably not the right term though, since it was so damn enjoyable.

The review definitely feels like they didn't want to give it a chance from the start.

the game is awsome, the review definitely is biased,  i mean come on the boring conversation are also apparent in GTA4 and such, i mean i hate those idiots calling me on my cellphone complaining that i dont hang out with them like a bunch of losers. Wether u like it or not this game is for more patient/smart ppl, who want to get intellectualy challenged as supposed to have their  dexterity tested into brainless shooting. If someone who loves final fantasy tells me this game is bad however i will take that into account  because they are both games requiring patience and understanding and i will ask them why, but if some kid starts complaining that its boring then i will discard it,

"that review is piss poor, but so is this game. It may be unique and have a cult following but that's only only because it's unique. Everything about it is boring as fuck. That isn't an opinion either. If you like Persona 4 it's because you have forced yourself to like it."

"rerty said:

"that review is piss poor, but so is this game. It may be unique and have a cult following but that's only only because it's unique. Everything about it is boring as fuck. That isn't an opinion either. If you like Persona 4 it's because you have forced yourself to like it."

I don't know where to start..."

"BoG said:

"Ok, everyone, drop it. HBK, if you don't like the game, just ignore it. No need for insulting."

Agreed, I just dont understand why people attack me, you seemed to enjoy my exaggerations. Besides, I don't take it upon myself to insult anyone, just the games. Anyway, loved the endurance run."

Wow...I wake up to this and it makes me a grumpy man. I officially kind of want to smack some people over at Play right now...

Five paragraphs that barely tell you anything about the game? Yeah, this more of an impression than a review. Right off the bat with a pretty stupid statement.

"The best thing about Persona 3 was the way the cute kids would slowly put a gun to their head and wince just before they pulled the trigger. Every time you needed to summon a persona it looked like they just couldn’t take it any more and decided to end their teenage lives. It was thought provoking, shocking and hilarious all at once. And it’s been taken out of Persona 4. Why? Because it gave the game a bad reputation as you can’t have kids shooting themselves."

Erm. No, you ignorant jackass. The purpose behind the evokers in Persona 3 was a symbolism within the story of Persona 3 it has no place in Persona 4.

I don't agree with the review overall but I have to agree with the spell names. Elements aren't an issue (they show icons depicting the element, for god's sake) but the various buffs and debuffs are cryptic as hell. I still have to double-check everything with square just to make sure that yes, I'm upping my hit and dodge and not my defense.

Buffs and debuffs can be tricky. I wish the game would give explanations on items and spells without having to press the square button. There's certainly enough room for it.

"Buffs and debuffs can be tricky. I wish the game would give explanations on items and spells without having to press the square button. There's certainly enough room for it"
Because pressing one button is so hard? (although it would help our boys in the endurance run since they don't check the effects of new items/skills anywhere near enough...)

" the various buffs and debuffs are cryptic as hell. I still have to double-check everything with square just to make sure that yes, I'm upping my hit and dodge and not my defense."
That was confusing for me at first too, but after a few casts it becomes pretty cemented in my memory that taru=attack, raku=defense, and suku=hit/dodge. -kaja refers to buffs and -kunda refers to debuffs. Really, it's not that much harder to learn than Zio, Agi, Hama, -dyne, ma-, etc.


As for the review itself:
"The best thing about Persona 3 was the way the cute kids would slowly put a gun to their head and wince just before they pulled the trigger. Every time you needed to summon a persona it looked like they just couldn’t take it any more and decided to end their teenage lives. It was thought provoking, shocking and hilarious all at once. And it’s been taken out of Persona 4. "
Oh boy, more people who focused on the evokers to a frightening degree. Like anyone actually cared about them after the first 15 times you saw the kids fake-blow their brains out with EVERY SINGLE ATTACK.

"Why? Because it gave the game a bad reputation as you can’t have kids shooting themselves."
...uh...what? No it didn't.

"But what’s giving Persona 4 a bad reputation is the incredibly slow and dull start"
I will concede that the intro part took WAY TOO DAMNED LONG. I just started NG+ and even with using triangle to brush past all the dialogue and skipping the cutscenes, it took about an hour and a half to get to the actual game.

"and the constant exposition given by the characters as well as semi-internal narration"
"It might not have been so bad if the plot wasn’t explained to you over and over. It doesn’t help that the kids are all so slow on the uptake either; you’ve usually worked out what’s going on a good 15 to 20 minutes before their speech finally ends and you can get on with the game."
Welcome to RPGs. Enjoy your stay.

"and again the names of the attacks and spells could have been made a lot clearer. For example, a lightning attack is called Zio, which is just confusing until you’re about 20 hours into the game and don’t have to keep looking it up in the game’s glossary."
It takes maybe ten minutes of fighting to remember what a spell does, assuming you're in the early stages of alzheimer's. Regular people have no excuse for not remembering what names go with what element within two minutes of fighting. Seriously, it's not that hard. Not to mention that the elemental attacks have nifty little icons next to them such as LIGHTNING BOLTS and FLAMES...

"Oh and you always have to hit X to get whoever’s talking on to their next sentence. We hate that."
waaaah I have to press a button to do something waaaah why isn't this game a movie.


"As a swan song to the PS2 Persona 4 isn’t the highest note and all the bizarre characters, storylines and Personas you unlock can’t change that. But if you don’t mind grinding too much then there is some enjoyment to be had"
P4 involves zero grinding once you're out of the first dungeon. The characters really aren't bizarre(at least they're more realistic than the walking cliches from P3, Junpei aside), and they probably gave up before beating the first dungeon if the pictures from the article are any indication.

"Because pressing one button is so hard? (although it would help our boys in the endurance run since they don't check the effects of new items/skills anywhere near enough...)"

Speaking of which, it seems we don't have any screenshots of Shadow Kanji yet. Anyone up to the task? :)

I feel sorry for those dumb-asses who had never even heard of an RPG before.

Oh no a badly written review! I've never seen one of those before. Seriously though the review is pretty crap.

I'm still torn on whether or not I want to play this game. It sounds like such a demanding game, but I agree that this review is crap. It reminds me of a review I read the other day for Legends of Wrestlemania (TeamXbox.com I think). The reviewer barely mentions anything about the actual gameplay but writes up three paragraphs on the box art and gives the game an 8. Like, wh-what?! Some reviewers are completely laughable, this guy obviously being one of them.

Also, thanks for the laughs HBK. You're so vulgar and offensive yet you make me chuckle. Bravo!