Persona 4 was probably the most miserable I have ever been while going through a main storyline in a video game in recent memory. Coming fresh off Persona 3, a game that I adored greatly for just how character focused its main story was (it wasn’t even my favorite video game at the time of starting P4), and hearing the sheer amount of praise this one received on Twitter during its re-release on Steam, I was shocked at how mind numbing this was as an experience.

Despite the intriguing premise, the main narrative is something I could only describe as factory produced. It quickly establishes a basic formula, that greatly detracts from both the emotional depth of the themes the story attempts to portray and the intricacy of the murder mystery, to create a predictable, repetitive slog of a campaign. Outside of an incident towards the end of the game, there’s little to no tension as you go through arcs with the exact same structure ad nauseam. Once the cast decide to devote themselves to catching the killer after the first arc, the “mystery” element quickly devolves into basic, deductive reasoning with no creative input required.

P4 decided to change from P3 how it would handle the time between each major event within the story. In P3, this time was filled with the cast’s introspection regarding their current circumstances and the further development of their characters arcs. In P4, this is replaced with wacky, anime high schooler hijinks that dwells more on the overall vibe between the cast rather than the individual journeys of each character. And this approach isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I can respect the greater focus on an upbeat tone, as I actually think it works pretty well and distinguishes this game from any other in this regard. And I can see why this is something that’s endeared countless people to this game. To its credit, I can say a lot of these moments do help the Investigation Team feel like a genuine group of friends. My biggest issue would lie in the fact that many of these scenes are unfunny at best and blatantly problematic at worst.

Whether it be the camping trip, where we see Yosuke blatantly accuse a sexually confused Kanji of planning to “do things” to him in his sleep solely because he’s potentially interested in men. Or in the next scene, where Yosuke pressures his female friends into wearing swimsuits so he can gawk at them. Or the cultural festival, where Yosuke signs them up for a swimsuit competition without their consent, despite the fact that one of them has made it very clear that they are extremely conscious about their feminine body... ᴵ’ᵐ ⁿᵒᵗᶦᶜᶦⁿᵍ ᵃ ᵗʳᵉⁿᵈ ʰᵉʳᵉ...

In conjunction with my lack of care for the goofy antics and the narrative’s lack of focus on organic characterization, it leaves the main story itself feeling incredibly vapid. You may be thinking “god fucking damn, he hates this game. 3/5 stars? Stop lying 😭” and yeah, I think that myself sometimes too. But I do have to remind myself that the underlying qualities of Persona 4 are really fucking good.

I think most social links do an amazing job at genuinely pushing the messages the game wants to communicate. In particular, I think they fantastically highlight the importance of self confrontation; the difficulties of acknowledging our own faults, the pain that comes with, and the betterment that we attain as a result. These stories contain the exact heartfelt writing I look for in this franchise, some of them still being among my favorites to this day. Shoutout to Dojima and Kanji in particular. My fuckin beloveds.

And I find the atmosphere, while not being something I personally clicked with, is still something I greatly respect. It’s what you’ll hear literally everyone praise this game for and for a damn good reason. A comfy small town is a genius idea that heavily contrasts with the typical big city environments we see from this franchise. The game does a good job at occasionally meshing the setting of Inaba with the motivation of individual characters and other elements within the story. And the upbeat J-Pop tracks of the overworlds sell the feel-good nature of the game’s tone perfectly.

Talking about Persona 4 makes me realize that it’s just… hard for me to talk about this game without comparing it to other entries within the series. It's hard to look back in retrospect without thinking about how this game represents everything I dislike about the series and its current direction. Not made anymore easy when recognizing that this is still technically a follow up to my favorite game ever. It turns many of Persona 3’s captivating ideas that were used to push its unique themes (The Fool’s Journey, the calendar system, the overall gameplay loop) into formulaic elements to craft a narrative that has little in common with Persona 3. And this is something that I find continues to plague the series, as Persona 5 occasionally falls into the same trappings. But at the end of the day, it’s still important for me to recognize the strengths of Persona 4. With the charming atmosphere of Inaba and consistent character writing, I still find it to be a competent, standalone game. And regardless of my faults with what I think is a flawed approach, I can still see why this could be someone’s favorite game ever.

I plan on revisiting Persona 4 some day, but through the original PS2 version. I’ve seen many discussions online regarding how Golden’s added scenes heavily detract from the atmosphere of the game. Mostly through how Inaba is now seemingly only an hour drive away from the biggest attractions in Japan. And the added padding in general is something I never really cared for. It’s important to me, as like I said earlier in the review, Persona 4’s atmosphere is something that I didn’t really click with, despite how much I respect the approach. I hope that playthrough helps me focus on this game’s strengths, as this is something that I want to like, despite the constant complaining I direct at it.

SPOILERS FOR CASE 3 OF ACE ATTORNEY 2

Coming right off of my Ace Attorney 1 replay and just loving that game to death, I admittedly had some preconceived thoughts about Justice for All. I was under the impression that it was merely a subpar follow-up to the original game whose only notable addition to the series was the revered Farewell, My Turnabout case. Having heard these thoughts repeated ad infinitum, I was genuinely not looking forward to getting into this game. I even dropped it just under a year ago after getting less than halfway through the second case because my ass was just not feeling it. I will say, dropping the game was probably the best choice I could've made for maximizing my enjoyment of it, because I was in a much more receptive, accepting mindset towards it this time around. I stopped being a sheep and just played the game hoping I'd at least be entertained. And coming out of it, I can say that I was more than just entertained.

With all that setup in mind, how does the game actually stack up? Well, in many places, this game has both the best and worst shit I've seen in the series up until this point. A game of highs and lows, if you will. And frankly, no case in the entire game exemplifies this idea to such an extreme extent and my experience with JFA as a whole, better than the notorious Turnabout Big Top case, which is why I want to focus in on it specifically, as opposed to going in chronological order of each case.

I had heard so much bad stuff about this case before starting it that I was honestly a little nervous that this would be another point where I might consider dropping the game for almost a year again. I had thoroughly enjoyed the previous case and was hoping I wouldn’t share the complaints I had heard other people have for this next one. And for the first half of the case? Most of the complaints I had heard rang absolutely true and THEN SOME. Turnabout Big Top starts off with an unbearably long low point that lasts all the way throughout the first trial day. Now, Ace Attorney is known for having wacky, zany, over-the-top characters, and I’ve always considered that to be one of its strengths that makes it infinitely charming to me. However, this case officially takes it all much too far. The client for this case, Maximillion Galactica has a neat design, but good God, after more than a few minutes of interacting with him, I just wanted him to shut up. He attempts to feel “flashy”, but all of that flash just burned my eyes out in frustration at how flat of a character he actually was. You could replace him with a stock image of a lamppost and I genuinely think the case would greatly benefit from it. And don’t even get me started with how he (and one other character) is lusting after an actual SIXTEEN-YEAR OLD. Like holy shit, how was I expected to want this guy to be anywhere other than prison? Need an alternate ending where Phoenix, after finding this out, purposefully helps put him in jail where he belongs tbh!!!!!!

Anyways, Max is ass but the next character I want to focus on is Ben the Ventriloquist. He is an equally worthless character who tries too hard to have some charming gimmick with his puppet and ends up being yet another uncomfortable personality in how he’s a grown-ass, 31 year old MAN trying to marry a fucking 16 year old girl. And honestly, I generally try to look past shit like this in stories if there’s at least decent writing behind it, but the whole love triangle between him, Max, and Regina feels so out of left field, unnecessary, and crammed in your face that it’s impossible for me not to ignore. His whole puppet schtick was extremely unbearable as well. I never found him funny or entertaining in the slightest. These two characters are possibly my least favorite in the series by a wide margin. They’re an attempt at charming, wacky characters, but they both fall flat on their faces by being so genuinely unlikable and irritating.

Those two are at the core of most of my issues with this case because the entirety of the plot surrounding them was inherently brought down by their mere association. The actual mystery at this point in the story wasn’t doing me any favors either as most of the first day dragged its feet, feeling less like a mystery and more like a washed up, unfunny circus routine (which I suppose is fitting).
My enjoyment of the series had never been lower, and I even considered skimming through dialogue just to get past this tedious, unbearable case.
But then something really strange happened.

Turnabout Big Top

Got good.

The difference in quality between the first and second days cannot be understated. For the most part, the terrible characters I mentioned before have very, very little screentime. And the characters that actually DO get focus are not only compelling, but genuinely emotionally gripping, incredibly charming, and actually likable. Moe the Clown, a character that initially caused me the same level of irritation as Max and Ben due to his eye-burning design and unfunny gimmick, became a surprisingly touching character when all he wanted was to help Regina come to terms with her father’s death, rather than allow her to stay in blissful ignorance. It was a turn for his character that I didn’t expect at all, but it helped elevate my emotional engagement with the case and him as a character, so I’m all for it. And speaking of Regina, she was pretty much the only character introduced in the first day of the case that I actually liked. She was a bit of a brat, yeah, but I could tell that she meant well and she was absolutely adorable. It was abundantly clear that she lived a spoiled, sheltered life, but I couldn’t help but feel for the poor girl in spite of that. Her father had just been killed, but she hardly seemed to really comprehend the gravity of that fact. While she was undoubtedly a very “cute” character, it’s the juxtaposition of that and this undercurrent of somberness that was prevalent in most of her scenes that really helped me connect with her. And finally, we have Acro the Acrobat.

What a phenomenal killer.

Like no other killer before or after him, Acro stands tall as possibly THE MOST tragic and sympathetic character in the series up until this point. In contrast to the previously over-the-top characters, Acro instantly stands out from the moment we first meet him. He’s not some loudmouthed, unfunny CLOD like most of the others, he’s gentle and soft-spoken, with birds sitting with him on his wheelchair highlighting the tranquil, calming energy that his personality gives off. Despite this, there’s this general feeling of sadness that pervades all of his scenes, much like Regina. This gives the two of them a sort of connective tissue, as their role in the story would become more pronounced as it reached its climax.

Acro brings a lot of emotional depth to this case that I haven’t really felt with other killers in this series, even the best ones. He’s possibly the most unique killer the series has seen yet, thanks to his heartbreaking circumstances and understandable motives. He’s just a broken man who lost everything because of one girl’s naïveté, but he understandably cannot bring himself to forgive her for it, despite knowing deep down that what he wants to do is wrong, without doubt. It is a very mature idea for this series to tackle and I think it’s an incredibly “human” concept.

Even if it’s not on the scale of outright murder, there do come times where someone wrongs us in ways that we simply cannot reconcile with, even if it was unintentional on their part. Sometimes we’re hurt so profoundly by someone that it can make us someone we’re not, we lose the ability to understand, to empathize. Blinded by hatred, Acro ended up accidentally killing the man that meant the most to him. The man that gave him and his, now comatose, brother a chance when everyone had abandoned him before. He not only hurt himself in doing this, but wrongfully took the father of an innocent young girl who could barely even comprehend what had happened.

And when it’s finally time to corner him in the trial, and Phoenix exposes his crimes, there’s no twist “unmasking” where he reveals that he was actually crazy the whole time and laughs maniacally while cursing Phoenix for foiling his plan.

All we get are tears.

A sea of tears from a broken man who couldn’t let go of his hatred and heartbreak. Tears from a broken man who couldn’t find it in himself to understand the person who hurt him so much. And in his sadness and newfound self-hatred, he’s taken away, forced to think about what he did for the foreseeable future, with the audience never knowing for sure if he’ll find peace.

What a special, special character.

THAT is how you write a compelling, layered, and emotionally-investing antagonist. He has a sympathetic, sufficiently-explored backstory that informs his motive, and we may not agree with what he does, but we can certainly understand his actions as a result. These certainly aren’t the only way to effectively write an antagonist, but I cannot sing Acro’s praises enough, he almost single-handedly flipped my view on this case.

After the dust settles, Regina, after watching all of this unfold, is unable to continue with the blissful ignorance that had defined her character at the beginning of this case. She weeps, she shouts, she blames herself for what happened, and still has trouble wrapping her head around it, but she can finally begin to accept what happened to her father. And with that, the process of healing can begin, and she can grow as a person as she plans to right her wrong, and this most intriguing case can finally end on a hopeful note.

When all is said and done, Turnabout Big Top ended up being the biggest surprise in the game by far. A difficult case to truly explain my thoughts on. One I vehemently hate and undeniably love in equal regards. It truly had some abysmal lows that I absolutely cannot forgive. The characters in the first half, the mystery being nonsensical for the most part throughout (even in the second half), and don’t even get me started on the annoying ass cross-exam where you lose health JUST FOR PRESSING MOE. I can 100% understand why someone would look at this shit and say this is the worst case in the whole trilogy.

But at the same time. I respect and appreciate so much of what that second half manages to accomplish that I can’t, in good faith, agree with the majority of people here.

And that’s kind of how I feel about this game as a whole (just to a much less extreme extent). There were times during some of the cases early on that felt a bit padded or aimless. The music of the game is a noticeable downgrade from Ace Attorney 1’s soundtrack, I feel. But similarly to how I feel about TBT, I really do believe that the highs of this game are more than enough to make up for its unfortunate missteps.

Franziska might not have the complexity that Edgeworth did in the first game, but she’s still a damn entertaining prosecutor with a great design that I thoroughly enjoyed arguing against. Speaking of Edgeworth, his return in this game was everything I could’ve hoped it would be. Picking up right from where he left off in the first game, it truly felt like he’s grown and matured as a person, cultivating an ideology that shakes Phoenix to his core. And how could I forget that last case that everyone RIGHTFULLY hypes up so much? It is quite confidently one of the finest stories this series has produced yet. Boasting a deliciously devilish villain that caused my jaw to hit the floor on multiple occasions, the most urgency, tension and suspense in an AA case so far with how it was a constant race against time, and an unbelievably satisfying finale that had me out of my seat and on the brink of tears at every step (while also giving Franziska some much-appreciated development).

So all in all, I left Justice for All incredibly satisfied and impressed, thankful to have stuck with it through to the end. Because I don’t care what anybody says, this is a good ass game and a worthy sequel to the first.

Most reviews of Persona 1 start and end at "wow, this gameplay fucking sucks" and… yeah that's so true. It’s overly convoluted and can be either extremely trivial or downright frustrating. But if you found yourself in a situation like me where Atlus executives unlawfully broke into your home and started injecting Megami Tensei loving juice into your water supply or thinking about checking out the Persona 2 duology, I'd recommend trying to bear it for the sake of experiencing this game's unique story and atmosphere.

The franchise is well known for using broad topics, like the importance of aspirations, the inevitability of death, the strength in truth, or resistance in the face of injustice, almost like a backdrop to push the overarching themes of emotional connection and self discovery that thematically connects the rest of the series together. For me, seeing these two ideas in their most pure state within Persona 1’s narrative was a very intriguing experience, in addition to its focus on what it means to “be your true mind.” Being the first game in the series, yeah, it’s pretty obvious that this is where you’d find where the franchise’s roots came from. But while this game does a great job in highlighting those ideas, it brings many of its own unique concepts that the series has yet to try and replicate again, most notably in its atmosphere. The much heavier focus, relative to the other games, on philosophical concepts is perfectly portrayed through dungeons with a sense of atmosphere that could only be described as “dream-like.” Hell, at times, the game goes for an approach that you’d only find within horror titles. Whether it be an apocalyptic city, a zombie infested hospital, or a forest straight out of a fairy tale, the game has many vibrant set pieces that kept me enjoying the experience.

The main storyline, while not my favorite in the series, still goes for something I wish the franchise did more often. It features a cast of characters who initially reluctantly fight together for the sake of getting down to the bottom of the shitty situation they found themselves in, but learn they must find their true selves and confront their differences as the narrative progresses. It’s a concept that I feel only Persona 2 Eternal Punishment and Persona 3 went for and I am an actual sucker for that type of writing in a piece of fiction’s cast. It makes it such a gratifying experience when you see them all come together. I also really love its use of the self-insert, silent protagonist trope. The game actively tests whether or not you’re picking up on the game’s themes through choices presented to the protagonist as a way to showcase his/your world views. It’s to the degree where it’s possible to fail the game and get a bad ending. But by picking the options that lead the cast in a better direction, from a mental standpoint, it reflects on your intuition as a player and the protagonist’s growing role as a leader.

I will admit, with regards to the side route, the Snow Queen Quest, I was absolutely not a fan. While still relatively short compared to the main route, it’s an RPG side quest story stretched to the length of a campaign and the cast isn’t engaging enough to justify it. Yukino is cool, but I feel learning the basics of her character in this route is enough to understand her arc in Innocent Sin. And I have many words to say to Ayase. None of them are nice. I’d definitely only recommend going through this if you’re one of the 18 people on the planet who completely fell in love with the game.

I’ve said in the opening that I’d recommend this game if you’re planning on checking out Persona 2 Innocent Sin and its sequel, Eternal Punishment. This is entirely because some plot beats in the duology act as a direct continuation of arcs belonging to various Persona 1 cast members. It’s definitely possible to play the duology while only knowing a vague outline of this game’s story, or even no knowledge at all, but I’d imagine those storylines would hit harder with the full experience in mind. I played Persona 1 after the duology and it made me realize in retrospect just how well Nanjo’s arc in Eternal Punishment worked, with how it combined Persona 1’s theme of learning to find direction in life with Eternal Punishment’s theme of the responsibility that comes with adulthood.

As I’ve already alluded to, I don’t find much enjoyment in the game’s actual gameplay. It’s not hard, it can just be very irritating to deal with. Regarding the battle system, it can be easily trivialized once you start finding Nuclear spells, which is what the “Megido” class of skills fall under. Earliest you can get one is level 18 on a Persona called Gozu-Tennoh. Some braindead ape at Atlus decided that nuclear spells should have absolutely insane damage scaling in comparison to other spells, which means it two shots most enemies on normal who don’t resist it. Even ignoring the battle system, a lot of dungeons can just be frustrating to go through, especially if you don’t have any experience with first person dungeon crawler RPGs. Regardless, I’d imagine the game not being very fun is an immediate deal breaker for many. And while it ultimately does restrict my enjoyment of the game in the long run, I still recommend trying it for those who hold a great deal of interest in Persona as a franchise.

Regardless of if you come out hating the game, loving it, or just simply casually enjoying and respecting it, as I do, I hope you're able to take something away from Persona as a franchise. Whether it be how far it's come, how hard it fell off, or how shitty it's always been, I feel this game deserves a lot more attention with regard to discussion of the series as a whole.

Also play Persona 2.

Side Note: If you do plan on checking out the game, try to play with the PSX music patch. Despite enjoying modern Persona’s soundtracks, I personally can’t stand the PSP port’s OST. It was changed for the sake of marketing the game to players just coming off Persona 3 and while many are divided on its quality, I’m firmly in the camp who feels it destroys a lot of what the game was trying to go for. But most importantly, it’s a great disrespect to the original composer and sound director, Hidehito Aoki, who passed away prior to this version’s release. While the patch is far from perfect, as it's a simple replacement mod and the PSP port cuts out MANY songs from the original soundtrack, I still feel that it does a decent job of retaining the original game’s vision.

The only other alternative is learning Japanese to play the original. Or playing the US PSX port, Revelations, which features a horribly sloppy localization and a whitewashed cast, so... you do you.