So my Brother (Leviathan666 on Here) went on a trip for a week and I stole his Persona 4 copy. I opened up the case, popped it in the Disk Drive and started my adventure into this world of Gruesome Murders caused by a Channel that plays only at Midnight. This is My Full Review on Persona 4, hope you enjoy.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4

* Atlus Co.
* Role-Playing
* Release: Dec 8, 2008 »
* ESRB: Mature
Box Art

"Close your eyes, lie to yourself, it is a much smarter way to live..."

Character Pics:

The Protagonist

Izanagi (Protagonist's Persona)

Teddie

Kanji

Story:
There have been weird things happening to Inaba lately. People randomly being murdered in gruesome ways. Detectives are baffled, and cannot find this Killer. Welcome to the world of P4. You play as the Protagonist, who come from a Big City to this small town of Inaba. You kick it with your Uncle and his Daughter. After going to school for a few days, meet a couple of friends, and be the main talk of the school, you would think nothing could go wrong. Well, things don't always go to plan. You wake up in the middle of the night, exactly 12am, and your TV Screen is Blank, but yet you feel as though something is looking at you, as if you could feel a presence. Now after telling a few of your friends about this you try to understand this "Midnight Channel" Then all hell breaks loose. Whoever's picture is shown on the Demonic Midnight Channel is Gruesomely Murdered. So now You, and some Allys, might fight your way through Hell and Back to save the people who you care for and to find this murderer who is causing all this.


Persona's:
Your inner power, manifests itself into a demonic form. As the Protagonist, he has such power to have multiple Persona, not like his teammates who can only have one Persona. This makes the game as good as it is, you just don't stick to a single Persona, you can have your own combo of Ice, Fire, Wind, Electric, Shadow, Light, ect. You can train lesser Persona to combine with each other to form Stronger Persona's. Now just because you can do that doesn't mean it comes free, you must gain Social Links (Paragraph Under this) to make your Persona's strong. There are over 100 Persona to choose from and the Persona levels with you along the game as your character does as well. The Persona are you, and without them you are useless, and vice versa for the Persona's not having Users.


Social Links:
Half of P4 is like a Sim Date, you must interact with the people around you, when given a choice you have 3 options, usually Nice, Neutral, and Stubborn. As you progress with the storyline your comrades will want to "Hang Out" or do activity's with you. If you complete these activity's that specific Social Link will level up. The Higher the Social link the More Damage your Persona's do, and the more Persona's you can create. Now maxing out each of the Comrades Social Link allows you to Create the Ultimate Persona of the Social Link (Example Maxing out the Fool Social Link will get you Loki, the God of Mischief) Which not only adds to the Story of the Game but makes P4 stand out from any other JRPG. Social Links are very important and if you don't spend time working on them you will most likely not succeeded in the Shadow Realm.

Gameplay:
There is two different types of Gameplay in P4. There is the Typical RPG turn based gameplay, and there is the Sim Date gameplay. Unlike P3, P4 allows you to control your teammate's actions which makes the game so much easier than P3. Also the Social Links actually mean something, unlike P3. So the Turnbased RPG element is pretty much basic, run around in a dungeon, hit the monster, BOOM! battle time. During this time you may attack the monster with you equipped weapon or let your persona's do your bidding. If you are too lazy to do anything you can Press Triangle and P4 will go into a Rush Mode where everyone just does a basic attack while the gamespeed goes from 1x to 2x. There are Weakness to the "Shadows" you fight in the game such as Fire > Ice > Water > Electric > Wind > Shadow > Light but that is just a basic outlook there are far more weakness, but with weakness come Strength. If you shadow is Prone to a certain element you better lock and load that element because if you do, the Shadow gets knocked down and you have a chance to One Hit KO all the Shadows. Now moving on to the Sim Date, it is pretty much what I explained in the Social Links Paragraph, Hang out with you Friends, go to the Mall, Play Arcade games, ect.

Pro's:

• Last Great Game made for PS2
• Awesome Graphic Style
• Great Soundtrack
• Lots of Emotion in this Game
• Teddy is has the same voice actor as Gaspard from .hack//GU
• Improves so much from P3
  

Con's:

• Game can be over 60 Hours (But that is also a Pro for me)
• Might be a bit repeatable at times
• Grindfest RPG if you don't take the time to level when you are supposed to
  

Joe's Thoughts
I really enjoyed playing this game, I really love that fact it is 60 hours because it really gives you alot of time to connect with everyone in the story. This game has so many plot twists, it keeps you breathless till the very end. People who you think are friends can be your closest enemy's. This is one of, if not, the last Solid RPG titled for the PS2 so if you are a Turnbased JRPG player this is a must have game.

This is yet again another Spoil-Free Review, so here comes my Judgment.

Persona 4 gets 4 Amazing Shadow Hunters Outta 4


Thanks for Reading and I hope you pick this up soon
-JoeSchmo

*updates will be made in the future*