If you like me love JRPG´s but like me think that in later times they have often taken a turn for the worse then the PS2 game Persona 4 will seem like a breath of fresh air.
Set in a small town the protagonist is hurled into a good old fashion murder mystery, and with his friends he is forced to try and solve it.
However the murder instead of murdering people like normal murders would do is actually doing it by throwing them literally into the tv where they are transported into another world.
The main person, also have the ability to enter this very strange world, and together with his friends and a strange teddy bear named, you guess it, Teddy they set out to catch the murder and at the same time save all the people thrown into this tv world as it is quite deadly for them to remain there for too long.
Persona looks a first glance like any other JRPG´s you control a group of people and they are running around in different dungeons slaying monsters or shadows as they are called with different weapons and other abilities.
However once you look closer at the game you´ll soon find that it is a world different from traditional games.
First of all, all the persons in the game with the exception to some degree of Teddy aren´t super humans or anything like that but plain average teenagers and MANY of them act just like you and me when facing different situations which makes identifying and feeling compassion with them THAT much easier.
Also instead of having the ability to throw off tons of different moves and abilities they are actually pretty average in battle and use something called a Persona to do all the fighting with special abilities.
Another difference is the ability and the demand of creating a social network and the inclusions of schools and exams, but also different personal attributes like courage, Understanding, knowledge and so forth traits that might seem useless to begin with but actually gives you more options in the game and social abilities.
Having a part time job to increase your Courage helps you in the way that it gives you the option to invite the hot sports manager (which sometimes gives interesting cut-scenes that can make you either laugh or cry) out on a date this in turn fives you the social link Empress that in turn allows you to create stronger Persona´s.
Another difference is that unlike many a JRPG that has the feeling of being turned into something more for western people to understand, this game is actually 100% Japanese to such a degree that they even use the titles Japanese gives a person after his name as such you can expect titles such as Sensei Senpai Kun, Chan and so on to be used A LOT of times.
However there are some things that can prove a little annoying
First of is that in a battle all your other party members can be knocked unconscious without it changing anything but the moment, you go down its game over no matter how many of your party members are still standing.
In the beginning Teddy acts as support throwing of different lines, unfortunately they aren´t that different from one another and soon they grow repetitive and annoying.
The songs/music there are three music numbers one for walking one for fighting and another one which I can´t remember when it is played.
And with a game 30 hours (at least) long you will hear those three songs A LOT OF TIMES.
The different activities length going on a date or doing part time jobs might seem like a good idea at the start but when it turns out that doing so will eat up your entire day, you can often find yourself loosing pressures amount of time.
No autosaves, okay I know it’s a luxury, but often you kinda forget to do it and your left with a an urge to smash the game into a billion pieces because you died and didn´t save thus ending up a REALLY long way back to your last save.
All in all despite these flaws what do I think of it?
Persona 4 is the a good reason if not the ultimate reason to dust of your old PS2, that coupled with a great story, great voice acting (though sometimes they go a little overboard with the S sound in their words) interesting and likable characters this game and kick ass anime cutscenes and great manuscript is a DIFFINAT KEEP IT.
In fact I would say if you haven´t already gotten a hold of this game and the previous game Persona 3 FES do it now because you´ll be cheating yourself of a GREAT game if you don´t.
Ohh and remember to listen in class or have a good walkthrough guide at the hand because the exams and questions your character is asked and put through can be MURDER to say the least.
So any other people out there other then me who have tried and fallen for this game?
Black Flag NC
I hear a lot of good things about the whole Persona series. Never tried them. I hate 99% of JRPG's though. Just not my thing (too anime).
One exception is Disgaea(PS2). That game is the shit.
