Written 17.02.2009 - Uploaded 17.02.2009
Last year saw the release of just one innovative game in the relatively stagnant genre of japanese console RPGs. Well, more accurately, Europe saw its release, and the game was Persona 3, later expanded into Persona 3 Fes. Japan had this goodness already in 2006. I actually find it rather surprising that this game became something of a hit, at least compared to other games in the Shin Megami Tensei brand. I mean, if you look at it, the whole Fes experience (Journey and Answer combined) can easily take a hundred hours just for a normal playthrough on normal difficulty, and the game is actually quite difficult. Simply put, Persona 3 is radically different from your typical Final Fantasy (the most famous series in the genre, especially here in Europe)s.
Due to Persona 3's success, it is no big surprise that Persona 4 was released in Japan last summer. The game made it to the US during last year as well, making it the second Persona release in the US in 2008. We are still waiting for it here in Europe, but impatient as I am, I had to get the US release as soon as it was available. And yes, it was released for the PlayStation 2 and isn't even Atlus' last release for that platform. It shouldn't be a big surprise that Persona 4 uses its predecessor's game engine with only slight modifications, and therefore doesn't receive innovation points anymore. However, after playing it through twice, I'm convinced that Atlus has succeeded in polishing the Persona recipe even further and brought us a quality game experience.
The basic recipe remains the same: the game is divided into two modes – the real world with dating game style gameplay, and a dark world which serves as the game's dungeon. This time around though we're no longer having events based on the moon's phases but instead on the weather. In order to keep spoilers to the minimum, periods of rain and the fog setting thereafter play a significant role in the mystery. The game's theme is shifted from mission-oriented into detective style. Instead of being told what to do, the main character and his friends need to gather clues about the incidents and try to figure out the solution. From a storytelling point of view, this brings more of a hands on approach into the story and makes all the characters more involved with the storyline. Futhermore, this arrangement keeps the player on the same level with the main character as neither knows more than the other – at least in theory. Naturally a smart player can come to conclusions much faster than these high schoolers. Do not be alarmed though, the final solution to the mystery is far from obvious.
Where Persona 4 especially succeeds is, as already stated, character involvement. This is achieved through more carefully thought out game schedule and several gameplay elements. The game is packed into a somewhat shorter timeframe, lasting about eight and half months – over a month shorter than its predecessor. The improving nature of this change is emphasized by event scheduling. There seems to be more happening more frequently. On the one hand, this follows naturally from the game's detective theme; the characters need to gather to discuss the case more often. On the other hand there seems to be a whole lot of unrelated dialog added into the game with no purpose other than bringing out the characters.
In addition to tighter packing of the game schedule, Persona 4 covers other storytelling weaknesses as well, especially the one related to pacing. For those unfamiliar with Persona 3, its biggest fault in storytelling was its very slow start. And by start I mean over half of the game where the team was pretty much just doing the same thing month after month. This fault has been avoided in Persona 4 - new aspects to the case are revealed almost every month. Storytelling culminates in the ending as the mystery is finally solved. As a sidenote, the game can end abruptly (bad ending) if the player makes wrong choices in few key dialogs, so better keep your wits sharp. This is fitting for a detective story in a sense, but I feel that some of the choices are a bit unintuitive, especially the method for obtaining “true ending” instead of “normal ending”.
So far I have merely analyzed the methods of storytelling, but none of the story content. In my opinion, the story revolves around characters with the plot being a means of creating drama. Persona 4 is a touching story about friendship. While the storyline itself is not much better than in Persona 3, the overall atmosphere is very successful. The characters themselves are nothing special: mostly normal students with a few quirks but here's the key thing: they are quite credible. This was a key strength in Persona 3 as well, but thanks to increased amount of (story unrelated) dialog and perhaps a little more careful character design, it goes a few lengths further in Persona 4. I especially like what they did to the main character by making him look a whole lot more reliable and normal than the emo boy in P3.
One important modification that really helps flesh out the characters is including social links for every member of your team, not just the girls. You still can't date guys though, but this time you don't have to date every girl either - becoming just friends is finally an option. Since the game schedule is now tighter, there are more evening social links as well as a few links that don't take up time at all. Especially the addition of more evening links is more than welcome, since evenings in P3 were quite dull. In addition to social links, there now exists a greater variety of evening activities altogether such as part-time jobs, fishing and cooking.
Most of the game mechanic changes have been reserved for dungeon exploring. First of all, the dungeon levels themselves are now larger and have slightly more variety, and in exchange are of course fewer in number. I'm having mixed feelings of this: on the one hand, dungeon layouts are slightly more interesting. On the other hand, they feel longer. It is now possible to go down to previously explored dungeon levels and they actually stay explored unless you have visited real world or another dungeon, in which case they are randomized and filled again. Overall, I'm having a hard time deciding which of these games has the better dungeons. Persona 4 does win clearly in one department though: as there are many separate dungeons, each has its own distinct theme complete with music.
Some parts of the game mechanics have been simplified: no more heart items from Personas, no added effects to Zio or Bufu spells, no fusion spells and no weapons fusion. In my opinion, all changes are negligible and I didn't really miss these features. The combat system has been blessed with two important improvements: first and foremost, you can now control every team member. Second, knockdown is now less powerful: getting up no longer uses up a turn. This eliminates a whole lot of cheap tactics. There are various other changes and overall the game mechanics seem smoother than before. Just like before, battles are both fun and fast. Difficulty is on par with P3, and experienced players might as well start on expert difficulty.
Final notes about audiovisuals: the game has a better overall look and feel. The world feels more lively as is fitting for a rural town, and the graphics are somewhat softer. Same can be said of coloring – the game uses a slightly more realistic coloring scheme which is definitely a plus. Anime cutscenes in the game seem to be of better quality. Songs in the game are great quality, as should be expected from Shoji Meguro. The soundtrack offers a variety of keyboard pieces, pop songs and rock with great compositions on all fronts. Finally there's more than one town theme song and all in all, ame songs are not repeated as often as in P3.
As a concluding note, there's not really much to say. Persona 4 beats its predecessor on pretty much all fronts, although sometimes just marginally, and is an excellent proof of strength from Atlus. It also goes to show how PlayStation 2 is still, in 2009, the platform for best new console RPGs. Even though this is most likely going to change in the near future, Persona 4 just might be the best RPG of 2009 in Europe. As for the US, it can already be said that it indeed was the best of 2008, and indeed one of the best games in its genre of all times.