Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (PS2)

“One of my favourite ever games. It combines a JRPG with the sims type gameplay, and a murder mystery story set in an anime style setting. It's very character driven and makes you build relationships with your buddies throughout an epic and slightly...”

“One of my favourite ever games. It combines a JRPG with the sims type gameplay, and a murder mystery story set in an anime style setting. It's very character driven and makes you build relationships with your buddies throughout an epic and slightly dark storyline. Persona 4 fixed a few flaws found in Persona 3 such as the combat and limited time in dungeons to create what I believe to be in the top 10 best games of all time.”

“Mysterious/hilarious story line. Great interactions with characters. I love the persona customization.”

“Mysterious/hilarious story line. Great interactions with characters. I love the persona customization.”

“First let me say up front, this one is not as dark as Persona 3 and storywise it is less mature or complex. Start up and synopsis: You are a second year transfer student to Inaba High School. Your parents are both "working...”

“First let me say up front, this one is not as dark as Persona 3 and storywise it is less mature or complex.

Start up and synopsis:
You are a second year transfer student to Inaba High School. Your parents are both "working overseas" and you've been shipped off to live with your Uncle - Dojima Ryotaro and cousin Dojima Nanako for a year. You are met at the station by your Uncle and his daughter Nanako. Seems you have not seen him since you were in diapers. He has to explain his relationship to your mother to you - ok I want to know the story there! Why has she not seen her brother since you were a baby?

You guys head back to the house, Inaba seems to be a sleepy town. You get back to the Dojima residence, sit down for dinner and Dojima's cell rings. He has to go to work leaving you and Nanko alone. You find out he is a detective and that he is gone a lot. You go upstairs go to bed and have a freaky dream that involves a figure shrouded in fog that keeps asking you if you want to find the truth. You chase it through the fog, find you can throw lightning and use some sword techniques against it. It laughs at you and tells you come on then, and you awaken.

Turns out the town might not be so sleepy after all, there is a murder your first day of school. Chie - one of your classmates - tells you all some weird story about the midnight channel where you supposedly see your soulmate at midnight if the tv is turned off and it is raining. She makes you all promise to watch it, Of course you do and see something. Turns out there is another murder and it is the person you saw, thus starts the forays into the TV world where shadows dwell in an effort to discover the culprit.


Gameplay:
The game again combines a card fighter with a High School RPG. By day you attend classes -except holidays. You fight shadows to level up and use the Velvet room to fuse personas. Your time however is limited and you must balance your after school time trips into the TV, with school clubs, working and other social activities to raise your social links.The social links affect the types of Persona you can fuse. It is better to complete a social link than to have multiple ones almost complete. Only completed ones count in the end. Part time jobs and books help raise your courage, understanding, knowledge, diligence and expression. Some of these must be at certain levels before you can start a social link with some individuals. Some can be done at night. Also there are the usual side quests and this time there is fishing added which raises diligence and gets you things you need for some quests or just better eq.

Battle in the TV world is easy enough each persona has different strengths and weaknesses. Like any RPG of this nature, you gain more party members as you rescue more people. . You can bring 3 into the zone with you and each has their strengths and weaknesses as well. You an set characters to act as they see fit or to support or to play them a individuals and you set their actions. The latter is definitely suggested for boss battles after the first one maybe even for that one and I found some characters I wanted to control because they are SP hogs and blow through all the SP in the first few levels.

With a little forethought and enough personas of your own to choose from, you can have a party ready for almost anything. Boss battles take place on the highest level of a zone and most have a mid boss of some type. You have a time limit to save each person based on the weather forecast. The person must be out of the TV world before it becomes foggy in Inaba. Fog usually occurs after "several days" of rain. Which can give you anywhere from a week playtime upward. Your real life intrudes frequently in the form of exams and school trips so you sometimes have less time than you think.

You gain money so through quests, defeating shadows, from your part time jobs and from selling things you gain in the TV world. There is a shop that makes interesting weapons for you. And the usual supply store that sells healing things. Correct answers in crucial scenes move the plot along - most are pretty obvious. But a few are not. The wrong one at the wrong time ends the game with no solution revealed. The Boss battle at the end is good and hard.

Technical issues:
None - GOOD Job!

Complaints:

1. I preferred having the weapon types to the streamlining of just physical.
2, It is not as dark as I like - less for mature audiences than the previous one.
3. Teddy is ANNOYING, I hated when he was my support as soon as I got Rise I move him off. He is just as annoying if not more so in your party. I refused to use him.
4. Too much grinding needed still and you have to spend longer bouts of time in the World.
5.The music wears on your ear after a while thank goodness for my ZEN Mp3 Player. Celldweller and Five Finger Death Punch worked well as background music in the dungeons when grinding.
6. Having to ente”

“So far, an excellent RPG!”

“So far, an excellent RPG!”

“The swan song of PS2 arguably, but true as much as it can be. Persona 4 picks up the concept that was already present in Persona 3; Mixing social simulator with a turn based RPG driven by strong story and style. The story picks up with you,...”

“The swan song of PS2 arguably, but true as much as it can be.

Persona 4 picks up the concept that was already present in Persona 3; Mixing social simulator with a turn based RPG driven by strong story and style.

The story picks up with you, with main character named and controlled by you, a Teenager at age of 16-17. You arrive to small town in outskirts of Japan, as background story explains why that is so, as you also move to live with your uncle and attend to high school.

Quite quickly though, mysterious deaths of people occur, and there the story moves on.

Game is divided to two kinds; Social sim type, where you make friends (in general, not only girlfriends), raise your social traits, and maybe some side quests, while in other world you fights against shadows in other world you enter through TV.

The game is driven by it's strong story, while also having it's share of unforgettable moments, both fun and more serious.

The story really resembles a anime series that way, what is both good and bad; as there are people who really do not care for that style, and that will be a big down for them.

The background soundtrack is something as great as game, as previous game, it has oozes of style, but almost opposite of what last game did.

As a complete package, persona 4 offers at least 60 hours of JRPG fun, where you have a lot of side quests and choices, and a lot of good style. If you can tolerate the anime style even if you do not care for it, try persona 4, as it's charm is unique in this day and age.

Long live PS2, with this to take us away presumably, we are gonna miss you.”

“So, this is my first foray into the whole Shin Megami Tensei thing... Well, technically not the first, but I don't count a 20 minute attempt, especially when I can't remember which it was. Anyway, what the hell have I been doing. I simply love...”

“So, this is my first foray into the whole Shin Megami Tensei thing... Well, technically not the first, but I don't count a 20 minute attempt, especially when I can't remember which it was. Anyway, what the hell have I been doing. I simply love this game. I don't even have a specific reason as to why I like it, but I do. I will definitely be checking out more SMT games.”

“What worked in Persona 3 stayed what didn't work was improved upon. The sim aspect taps the same vein of addiction that Sid Meier games do. The dungeons are awesome and match the theme of the game. Can't wait to see what they do next in this series.”

“What worked in Persona 3 stayed what didn't work was improved upon. The sim aspect taps the same vein of addiction that Sid Meier games do. The dungeons are awesome and match the theme of the game. Can't wait to see what they do next in this series.”