Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is a role-playing game developed and published by Atlus for the PlayStation 2. It is chronologically the fifth installment in the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series. Like its predecessor, its gameplay combines a traditional role-playing game with elements of a social simulation. Its critical and commercial success spawned a sizable media empire, including several spinoff titles.
I beat Persona 4. In the end I clocked out with 61 hours, but if you add on the time I lost because of death and resets, you can add that up to 65-70 hours. I managed to actually beat it without grinding, besides going through dungeons twice for bonus bosses. I must now warn you that if you haven't beaten Persona 4, don't read any further. I'm gonna spill the beans on everything. Everything. It's called "spoilerzone" for a reason.
Pulling the trigger isn't that hard.
The hospital scene was fairly well done, until I realized you had to choose specific choices in order to get a good ending, then the sequence kinda went downhill. Nanako "dieing" actually made me cry, I thought that game would actually do it. She was dead. I was actually pretty pissed, instead of moderately happy, at the game when they said she wasn't dead. The game just totally pulled a Metal Gear Solid 4 on me. Here's a tip: when you imply you pull the trigger, you better of actually pulled the trigger.
Choosing whether Namatame would die or not was pretty heated, too. I'm always a goody-two-shoes in games, so there was no "decision, the game never actually gave you the choice, and you'd end up with a bad ending if you did, but the game effectively raised the question of whether this guy deserved to die or not. Naoto was pretty awesome in this though. Her awesomeness definitely showed in the last ten hours or so, and I regret not really using her or even unlocking her social link.
Dang, I was Scooby Doo'd.That's why I was totally surprised that Namatame wasn't the mastermind. I knew there was a dungeon left (two if you count the true ending, which I couldn't be bothered to get), but I thought it would kind of serve the purpose of the "true" dungeon. I had looked through the Art Book while catching up to where the Endurance Runs were because I was bored, and I saw Shadow Adachi. I thought he would maybe get kidnapped or something, I never would've come close to thinking he was thee bad guy; he's just the gullible guy that helps give you leads. I can't believe how horribly Scooby Doo'd I was.
That being said, the game didn't really leave you much room to actually think it was him. There was a possibility it could be him, but the game could've done a better job of leaving clues pointing to him. His motives were kinda sketchy too. Psychotic. Yes. Good job giving him a motive. Seriously, when he was like talking to Saki about "getting close to Namatame" I just couldn't believe it. I guess you could say that he was possessed by Sagiri, but that still not a good excuse. That being said, it was kind of refreshing to see a more sadistic villain over a more Kefka-like "pure evil" one, even though I always picture those guys as the second-in-command.
The final dungeon was actually pretty fun. I was going through Heaven for a second time and I died on the eighth floor for a totally cheap reason, so I just said "screw this" and didn't try again. The final dungeon gave me enough experience with pretty fun monsters to fight. The level design was kinda cool, too, having to go between the different planes and such. The main part that made it so fun was trying out top-tier personas. I beat the game at level 70, and all my personas were in the 60-70 range. The new skills and just the total power just made the game feel fresh again, which is pretty hard to do after 60 hours of play time.
Man, he looks evil.Ameno-Sagiri and Adachi were pretty easy bosses. I beat them on the second try, mainly because I thought that all your SP and HP would be restored after Adachi. Adachi was really easy, but he managed to burn down about a third of everyone's SP, which definitely left me open. In battle, I'm more of a "be prepared and kill" type. I'll always make sure my guys have enough health to surivive a worst-case scenario and the Protaganist always has the Patience Band equipped, which leaves you with 1HP if an attack would otherwise kill you, and my Persona Sui-Ki, which has a skill that does the same thing as the Patience Band, but fully rezzes you. My party was Yukiko, Teddie, and Yosuke. Yukiko was Main Heal, Teddie was heal if everyone had like, no health with Mediaharan, and me and Yosuke were damage.
That being said, I healed well enough so that I never got to a point to where I would've died, which kind of took away the challenge of the boss. The main challenge was trying to maintain SP with no ways to recover it, as I stupidly used my Soma on the Mini-Boss that I didn't think would be a Mini-Boss. The other challenge was the length of the boss, as it seriously pisses me off to have to fight a 5-minute boss, and then a 30-minute boss.
I couldn't bother getting the true ending, so I watched someone much better at the game beat the final boss and witness the True Ending. Izanami was definitely the challenging boss that Sagiri wasn't, and the battle was amazing to watch. The True Ending also offered closure. When Naoto said "this could happen again," I thought "well that sucks". The True Ending also showed off how awesome Persona's art style is. I'm not talking about the anime cutscene where the TV world turned into a beautiful place (but that was pretty cool) I'm talking about Izanami and Izanagi no Okami. Izanami's a horrible demon, and Izanagi's a slick savior. The Persona 4 artbook is definitely an awesome addition to an awesome package--for free!
Awesome Game!All in all, despite my criticisms, Persona 4 is one of my favorite games of all time. The incredible story, setting slick art style, catchy soundtrack and addictive mix between dungeon crawling and dating sim just mix together to make one of the greatest JRPGs I've ever played. I think the real thing that made me not run into as many walls as I normally do in JRPGs was the bonus bosses. This was an excellent way to mask grinding--and I didn't mind it one bit. Persona 4 can be incredibly frustrating sometimes, that's why I rushed to beat it, but it's still an incredible experience that I'd recommend to anyone that has even the slightest interest in JRPGs and anime. What did you guys think of it?
I beat Persona 4. In the end I clocked out with 61 hours, but if you add on the time I lost because of death and resets, you can add that up to 65-70 hours. I managed to actually beat it without grinding, besides going through dungeons twice for bonus bosses. I must now warn you that if you haven't beaten Persona 4, don't read any further. I'm gonna spill the beans on everything. Everything. It's called "spoilerzone" for a reason.
Pulling the trigger isn't that hard.
The hospital scene was fairly well done, until I realized you had to choose specific choices in order to get a good ending, then the sequence kinda went downhill. Nanako "dieing" actually made me cry, I thought that game would actually do it. She was dead. I was actually pretty pissed, instead of moderately happy, at the game when they said she wasn't dead. The game just totally pulled a Metal Gear Solid 4 on me. Here's a tip: when you imply you pull the trigger, you better of actually pulled the trigger.
Choosing whether Namatame would die or not was pretty heated, too. I'm always a goody-two-shoes in games, so there was no "decision, the game never actually gave you the choice, and you'd end up with a bad ending if you did, but the game effectively raised the question of whether this guy deserved to die or not. Naoto was pretty awesome in this though. Her awesomeness definitely showed in the last ten hours or so, and I regret not really using her or even unlocking her social link.
Dang, I was Scooby Doo'd.That's why I was totally surprised that Namatame wasn't the mastermind. I knew there was a dungeon left (two if you count the true ending, which I couldn't be bothered to get), but I thought it would kind of serve the purpose of the "true" dungeon. I had looked through the Art Book while catching up to where the Endurance Runs were because I was bored, and I saw Shadow Adachi. I thought he would maybe get kidnapped or something, I never would've come close to thinking he was thee bad guy; he's just the gullible guy that helps give you leads. I can't believe how horribly Scooby Doo'd I was.
That being said, the game didn't really leave you much room to actually think it was him. There was a possibility it could be him, but the game could've done a better job of leaving clues pointing to him. His motives were kinda sketchy too. Psychotic. Yes. Good job giving him a motive. Seriously, when he was like talking to Saki about "getting close to Namatame" I just couldn't believe it. I guess you could say that he was possessed by Sagiri, but that still not a good excuse. That being said, it was kind of refreshing to see a more sadistic villain over a more Kefka-like "pure evil" one, even though I always picture those guys as the second-in-command.
The final dungeon was actually pretty fun. I was going through Heaven for a second time and I died on the eighth floor for a totally cheap reason, so I just said "screw this" and didn't try again. The final dungeon gave me enough experience with pretty fun monsters to fight. The level design was kinda cool, too, having to go between the different planes and such. The main part that made it so fun was trying out top-tier personas. I beat the game at level 70, and all my personas were in the 60-70 range. The new skills and just the total power just made the game feel fresh again, which is pretty hard to do after 60 hours of play time.
Man, he looks evil.Ameno-Sagiri and Adachi were pretty easy bosses. I beat them on the second try, mainly because I thought that all your SP and HP would be restored after Adachi. Adachi was really easy, but he managed to burn down about a third of everyone's SP, which definitely left me open. In battle, I'm more of a "be prepared and kill" type. I'll always make sure my guys have enough health to surivive a worst-case scenario and the Protaganist always has the Patience Band equipped, which leaves you with 1HP if an attack would otherwise kill you, and my Persona Sui-Ki, which has a skill that does the same thing as the Patience Band, but fully rezzes you. My party was Yukiko, Teddie, and Yosuke. Yukiko was Main Heal, Teddie was heal if everyone had like, no health with Mediaharan, and me and Yosuke were damage.
That being said, I healed well enough so that I never got to a point to where I would've died, which kind of took away the challenge of the boss. The main challenge was trying to maintain SP with no ways to recover it, as I stupidly used my Soma on the Mini-Boss that I didn't think would be a Mini-Boss. The other challenge was the length of the boss, as it seriously pisses me off to have to fight a 5-minute boss, and then a 30-minute boss.
I couldn't bother getting the true ending, so I watched someone much better at the game beat the final boss and witness the True Ending. Izanami was definitely the challenging boss that Sagiri wasn't, and the battle was amazing to watch. The True Ending also offered closure. When Naoto said "this could happen again," I thought "well that sucks". The True Ending also showed off how awesome Persona's art style is. I'm not talking about the anime cutscene where the TV world turned into a beautiful place (but that was pretty cool) I'm talking about Izanami and Izanagi no Okami. Izanami's a horrible demon, and Izanagi's a slick savior. The Persona 4 artbook is definitely an awesome addition to an awesome package--for free!
Awesome Game!All in all, despite my criticisms, Persona 4 is one of my favorite games of all time. The incredible story, setting slick art style, catchy soundtrack and addictive mix between dungeon crawling and dating sim just mix together to make one of the greatest JRPGs I've ever played. I think the real thing that made me not run into as many walls as I normally do in JRPGs was the bonus bosses. This was an excellent way to mask grinding--and I didn't mind it one bit. Persona 4 can be incredibly frustrating sometimes, that's why I rushed to beat it, but it's still an incredible experience that I'd recommend to anyone that has even the slightest interest in JRPGs and anime. What did you guys think of it?
If you had actually killed namatame, Nanako would have died. Its a really sad way to end the game, gave me some tears.
If there was one thing I didn't like about the final boss, its that izanami's motivations were basically a copy of adachi's/ameno sagiri's. And all three of them pretty much copied the motivation behind P3's end boss. Felt way too repetitive listening to "But humanity WANTS me to end the world" for like the tenth time.
oh you forgot one thing. The final boss, the one in December, has some sweat music and background. Also I get at the start that Adachi was the murderer but I guess since I watch so many anime, I can tell who good and who bad. Generic anime clue, if you see a dumb person that somehow now what going on, then his or she turn into the bad guy. Also I was sad at the ending, at the ending that you get are cheerful to but because it over and to make thing ever worse the last thing that you get in the true ending(the picture that the Main Charateur pull out.), I was has hell no, this sad but also get a sense of satisfaction at the same time.
I pretty much agree with everything you said. I have the same gripes about the endparts of the story and motives, but I did enjoy the game as a whole. One thing that I appreciated was that the game didn't totally go heavy on me at the end--it tried too, but it ultimately pretty much maintained its light tone throughout the game. That's all I want in a JRPG, a pretty good story that doesn't get heavy, great characters, and a quick battle system with challenge w/o much grinding.
I was getting a little pissy at how long it was taking me to beat it. I clocked in with 99 hours and I got the true ending. At times, I was thinking to myself "Screw it. I'm just going to get the next ending and watch the true ending on youtube." But for some reason, I wanted to see how things were meant to go down. I think it was the characters,. I couldn't handle giving the characters a second thought ending so I had to go with the best closure possible.
It was well worth it. I'm glad I didn't half ass one of my favorite games of all time.
I think you hit the nail on the head mostly. The nanako dying bit was the 2nd time ive ever cried in a videogame; despite 19 years old (FF10's ending being the first), and was equally pissed when they resurrected her. I also did the same as you and used all my SP on adachi, leaving me royalling screwed for mr giant eyeball and not knowing whether to laugh or cry as i got rinsed.
Even so, you really should have made the effort to go for the true ending. The way the final showdown played out, coming from the jaws of defeat to single handedly picking apart a god with izanagi, was truly worth the 3 hours spent crawling through her dungeon. And I should also like to give major props to Atlus for the true ending - i was convinced all the way through that the only non-suicidally depressing way to end it would be to kill the protaganist in the finale. But no, they somehow managed to give it an ending that didnt make me want to run for the kitchen knife.
I'm glad this game has been getting more exposure even months after its release. I spent so much time hyping myself up for this game, P3 was amazing and I was looking for my next experience. I was afraid that P4 wasn't going to live up to my hype, and that I'd never have another gaming experience like P3. However, this game blew my expectation, and was amazingly amazing.
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