Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4

If you play any PS2 RPG this year, you won’t want to miss out on Persona 4. Persona takes the standard turn based RPG combat style and injects it with strategic elements in a modern setting. You’ll essentially be managing two aspects, which all contribute to your overall success. You’ll manage your school and social life, and the typical RPG level grinding inside the Television dungeons.

One of the best aspects of Persona 4 is its story and character development. Right away you will meet endearing characters who you will grow attached to over your lengthy quest in the town of Inaba. Every character you encounter has personality that you will want to take the extra time to explore. I found myself really caring about the characters, and that transcended to the dialogue decisions I had made. Even the voice actors do a phenomenal job injecting the humor or drama appropriately, which is incredibly rare in RPGs. I have to warn you, set aside a fair bit of time when you first start this game. It took about 6 hours to get through the game’s opening exposition and really start “playing”. Once you get going though, it’s a fantastic experience from start to finish.

There are two aspects like I mentioned before that you will need to manage to get through this game. The combat and level grinding in the dungeons is where you’ll spend most of your time. Unlike Persona 3, the dungeons have a bit more variety. Although the general layouts are similar, you won’t be able to regain your health or skill points simply by going to the entrance. You will either have to call it a day, or pay a hefty fee to recharge. SP (skill points) management becomes a very important aspect of the combat, so you get as much done within a day as possible. There aren’t tons of surprises here, kill monsters, gain experience and level up. There are no stat increases with level grinding aside from increased HP and SP. Leveling up also allows you to create higher level personas, which in turn provide the stat increases.

Combat is also more strategic than typical RPG titles. Although it is a little trial and error, you will have to expose the weakness of enemies in order to have an easier time in battle. If an enemy is weak to an attack, or element, it will be knocked down when hit with the corresponding attack. When an enemy is knocked down, you will be given the opportunity to attack again, which will allow you to either finish the enemy off or attack other enemies on the field. Be careful though, enemies can exploit your weaknesses as well, so you need to plan carefully sometimes what persona to equip and use.

The second aspect to your progression is your persona creation and social link establishment. Each individual you interact with could become a social link, which is linked to an arcane symbol or “Arcana”. A persona is attached to the cards you will acquire when playing the shuffle mini game which randomly pops up after each fight. When you level up your social link, you get an XP bonus when merging the personas. Merging a persona creates a new (and usually stronger) persona. The stats of the persona you have equipped are the stats you possess. I know it might sound complicated, but once you figure it out it will make sense, and its system is very intuitive.

The calendar system has returned from Persona 3, continuing the daily management of tasks. Essentially you either spend the day and grind in the dungeon, or you hang out with your social links, or you perform part time jobs or tasks that will increase your character traits (such as Knowledge, or Expression). These character traits have no bearing on combat, they merely open up possibilities with social links. For example, you may be unable to progress with a social link until you reach level 4 expression. So you would continue reading manuals, or attending band practice to increase it. Again it may seem overwhelming with the number of stats to maintain (and sometimes it can be), but once you find a personal strategy for it, it won’t seem too over bearing.

If you enjoy the anime art style, then you’ll love the look of Persona 4. Dialogue sequences display the character art, and occasionally you’ll be treated to an anime cut scene, which are all very well done. The music is great too, all j-pop sounding and very catchy. You’ll find yourself humming the tunes while at work or school. I found myself humming them while writing this review.