Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 – The Small Town Murder Mystery, Now With Demons!

In late 2007 Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 garnered support among RPG enthusiasts for its refreshing story and gameplay, and I was completely oblivious to it all. I eventually went on to buy Persona 3: FES and Persona 4. Thanks to viewing the gorgeous 100-page art book included with P4 I was intrigued enough to try the game. What followed was an RPG experience so engrossing that I’d poured well over 120 hours and many months into the game before I knew it. As much as I enjoy typical RPGs P4 was a badly needed breath of fresh air. As for the hype that surrounds the latest Persona, I’ll boldly declare that the forth installment lives up to much of the hype. I also didn’t play any of Persona 3 before starting 4, so I have a different take on the game compared to many other reviewers.

Persona 4 is set in the year 2011 and takes place in a rural Japanese town called Inaba. You play as an unnamed silent male protagonist. Your parents are away for a year so you’ve been sent to the countryside to live with your uncle and cousin. Before reaching the town you have a mysterious dream where you are warned of an upcoming disaster and of a binding contract you must adhere to.

The day after arriving in town you begin your first day at Yasogami High. You meet Chie Satonaka, Yosuke Hanamura, and Yukiko Amagi who will eventually become your friends. You then learn of the “Midnight Channel,” a rainy night phenomenon where one’s soul mate is reflected if they stare at a blank TV screen at midnight. Bored, you give the legend a try and surprisingly a girl from your high school is reflected on screen. You also discover you have the ability to enter the TV at will by just touching the screen. Shortly thereafter, a strange series of grotesque murders are committed. The police are unable to find a culprit, much less a cause of death for the victims.

When you reveal the TV incident to your friends they are incredulous, until you drag them inside of the TV. Inside the TV you all discover a strange world perpetually shrouded in fog. After wandering around you meet a somewhat anthropomorphic bear named Teddie. He’s a resident of the mysterious world and warns you the place is dangerous to humans. He then reveals an exit and sends you home. You soon realize that people shown on the Midnight Channel eventually turn up dead. Eager to know the truth you, Yosuke, and Chie return to the TV world. There Teddie reveals that someone has been throwing people inside of the TV. Once there, they are eventually attacked and killed by their shadow, a dark version of themselves consisting of repressed or hidden feelings. Throwing someone into the TV world essentially amounts to murder. With your friends’ and Teddie’s help you promise to apprehend the murderer while rescuing any future victims from the TV world before they are killed.

Persona 4 plays heavily on themes of deception, truth, and the concept of the psychological terms persona, ego, and shadow. Within the game a shadow represents a character’s repressed feelings manifested into a human form. If someone refuses to acknowledge these inner feelings their shadow transforms into a monster and kills them. If the character can accept their darker side as a part of themselves the shadow transforms into a mystical being known as a persona. The entire process can be thought of as a catharsis that allows a character to fully accept and understand his or herself over time (with the added coolness of having a demon able to fight for them).

Persona 4’s gameplay consists of a traditional RPG, collecting and fusing demons (as standard in SMT titles), and a life simulation game. The odd concept works quite well. Half of the game is spent roaming around dungeons found within the TV world. You’ll spend the other half of the game as a typical high school student. With the exception of attending school, the game doesn’t force you to participate in extracurricular activities, take jobs, or make friends– though it would be foolish not to.

In the TV world every dungeon is semi-randomly generated upon each visit. Battles are mostly a traditional turn-based RPG affair with a few added strategies. Unlike Persona 3, controlling your party members directly is possible. In battle all allies and enemies have weaknesses that can be exploited. If the exploitation is successful an ally or an enemy will be given an extra turn, known as the “1 More” system. Both allies and enemies can also be knocked down. If your party is successful in downing every enemy on the field everyone can combine their physical strength to beat down a foe in an “all-out-attack.” Unfortunately, if the main character dies in battle it is an instant game over. This alone can make the game frustratingly difficult when exploring dungeons, given the “1 More” system and various instant-death spells found in the game. Fortunately, Persona 4 is a bit forgiving and will allow players to protect the protagonist in various ways via social links established in the real world.

Social links can be thought of a measure of friendship (ranked from one to ten) between the protagonists and various people throughout the game. The social links are based on the 22 Major Aranca groups found within the world of tarot cards. Thusly, there are 22 social links to be discovered within the game, each with their own corresponding magic arcana and tarot card.

The first purpose of social links deals entirely with your party members and their ability to help you in dungeons. The higher a character’s social link is the more useful he or she will be in battle. If a social link reaches the maximum at level ten an ally’s persona will evolve into a stronger form. The character will then lose his or her inherent weakness (with some exceptions) and gain complete immunity to their magic arcana type.

Social links are also established with various NPCs (with the option to date some of the girls within the game). By establishing social links with people of corresponding arcanas, personas that are fused gain extra experience points. The higher a social link, the more levels a persona can gain from fusion. While the process can be time consuming it is worth the effort.

Regrettably, time is also an enemy in this game. You only have nine months to solve the murder mystery while in Inaba. Each game day is broken down into roughly three parts, Morning, After School and Evening and you’re only allowed to enter the TV world after school or during your days off. If you enter the TV world you’re generally unable to advance social links for that day. The game essentially forces you to decide between rescuing victims and cultivating your social links. Furthermore, weather cycles replace the moon cycles found in other SMT games. Depending on if it’s raining or not, you won’t be able to talk to certain NPCs or advance side quests within the game. In short, time management is everything.

In terms of translation and dubbing, P4 features a great translation free of any errors and voice acting work comparable to almost any Bandai or FUNimation anime dub. Atlus managed to get heavy hitters such as Johnny Yong Bosch, Yuri Lowenthal and Dave Wittenberg as voice actors. I found the acting to be excellent for the most part. Repetitive lines uttered in battle sounded forced at times and Teddie’s puns can be annoying– but those are minor complaints. If you enjoy newer dubbed anime you’ll have no problems with Persona 4. If you hate dubs then you might have issues with this game.

Shoji Meguro reprises his role as the music composer and the soundtrack consists of a fusion of J-pop, rock, orchestra, and even some techno. The music personally reminds me of a cross between Persona 3 and Digital Devil Saga with a touch of J-pop. The soundtrack is exceptional and makes dungeon crawling enjoyable. The boss battle’s guitar theme and the final dungeon’s piano theme are among my favorites. In short, Persona 4’s music may easily be one of the game’s best features, more so than the already excellent story and gameplay.

The game’s graphical engine is identical to Persona 3’s. Unlike a Square Enix game Persona 4 doesn’t come close to pushing the PS2 to its graphical limits. While the graphics can be beautiful and stylish at times this is clearly a previous generation title. Numerous anime cut scenes sprinkled throughout the game helps a lot in the visuals department. If you’re looking for cutting edge graphics in a game P4 is sure to disappoint. However, the game has more than enough substance when it comes to story and gameplay.

Despite P4 being an outstanding game there are a few points of contention. Most notably the game has six different endings and four of them are bad endings. The endings themselves range from apocalyptic to bitterly sad. The problem isn’t with the endings per se, it is how they are obtained. For the majority of the in-game year you are faithfully led down a very linear path. All is well as the game is like a good friend. Suddenly, the game turns and punches you in face nearly breaking your nose. While trying to overcome with pain and emotion you are asked to make a series of important decisions that will determine the ending you get.

If you remain clear headed and remain committed to finding the truth you could stay on the path to the game’s good ending. (Or if you have a strategy guide you will stay on the path to the good ending.) If you are swayed by your overflowing emotions the game is over and almost immediately ends without revealing the final dungeon. It’s frustrating when everything depends on a series of questions asked by one party member. Answer even one of his questions wrong and you’ll automatically get one of the bad endings. Sadly there is no way to know this, as the game gives you few hints before hand. Atlus doesn’t even indicate that the game has multiple endings. So getting the good ending requires luck, a high level of skill deciphering RPG plots or a walkthrough. Likewise, good luck finding the game’s true final dungeon and true ending (different from the good ending) without the
said RPG plot deciphering skills or a walkthrough.

Another point of contention with Persona 4 lies in the game’s limited settings. In the game you are confined to the TV world, Inaba’s shopping district, a floodplain, the lobby of Junes, a Wal-Mart like superstore, and Yasogami High (which is sadly the largest area in the game besides the TV world). The small town limitations are fitting, but if you prefer the sandbox style overworld P4 is going to let you down. Finally, if you aren’t open to the idea of being completely immersed in Japanese culture (complete with honorifics) then this game probably isn’t for you.

Minor flaws aside, Persona 4 is hailed as one of the greatest RPGs on the PS2 in recent years. It combines innovative gameplay with a refreshing storyline to deliver an experience different from the typical fantasy RPG. If you’re a fan of video games who is open to RPGs Persona 4 is worth a try. If you’re a fan of RPGs Persona 4 should already have a place on your shelf– that goes double for anime fans. Picking up P4 is a decision you won’t regret.

Images courtesy of GiantBomb.