Ages: Mature
In a single word - it's brilliant. I suspect that the game will become a thesis for some aspiring game student exploring the game's social relationships and its effect on the player.
While it is a truly Japanese game - there are American counterparts - Bruce's persona is Batman, Clark Kent, Superman. Imaging the Marvel heroes hanging out as teens with all their varied persona, Flash, Torch, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and you can begin to get a grasp on Persona. But with the Japanese ethos - it is the social development, the interactions between the characters that develop the personas which are built upon their strengths and facing their fears. The designers have spent time and treasure developing these many characters and that is what engages the player and makes the game linger in the mind.
In Persona 4, instead of shooting yourself as in Persona 3, entry into the other world is through Midnight TV - which is both the portal and in some way is involved the serial killings. The game takes place in a secondary school campus - and this other world - that place through the TV - a place which is dreamlike, with recognizable but distorted images. Days are filled with schedules - school and classes and socializing with the other students, and nights in TV land where the serial killings are being investigated and battles are being fought.
Days are divided for you into morning, afternoon and evening and the days themselves go
from May to March - two semesters.
This is a game requiring commitment - and a pad at your side.
Atlus produces a walkthrough
which is helpful in optimizing your game and keeping the Japanese names straight.
This is a game that will insure the life of the PS2, at a time when Sony is
producing PS3's that will not play PS2 games.
The game comes with two disks, the game and the soundtrack which is composed by Shoji Meguro,
and deserves mention for its excellence.
Whether it is cloudy, fair or rainy now has an additional meaning for me. I have to stop writing about it - go get it.
Fun Factor: Amazing, intriguing
Female Factor: Many good female characters
Player Friendly: A beginner level exists. Saves at the end of the day.
Reviewed by: Editor - 12/08