Persona 4 is incredible in every single way.
There is so much depth and heart to each of the characters in the story and while, it can be jarring to see just how much the female characters can be sexualised at times, they, luckily have plenty of deep and meaningful scenes where they discuss their past and hopes for their future.
It’s gameplay is split into the somewhat standard JRPG turn-based battling with the addition of ‘Personas’ which act in a way similar to that of Pokémon (only in terms of giving you skills - magic, buffs, higher damaging physical attacks - outside of your normal ‘attack’ command. It also is part ‘life-sim’ in that you spend a year going to school, making friends, sitting exams, studying for said exams, working part-time jobs all while uncovering the mystery of the story.
Now, the best part of the game is indeed the story. Persona 4 is a very story heavy game, featuring probably more dialogue than actual gameplay or combat but that really helps it build up this ‘murder mystery’ as people of the town of Inaba start to disappear on rainy nights (I’m reluctant to dive into more of the story incase of spoiling anything, yes, even for this old game).
I did find a few things that annoyed me though. The final few ‘months’ of the game felt far too dragged out with little to nothing to do (unless you did certain things to unlock content that would fill this time up).
The somewhat ‘forced’ romantic aspects also didn’t mesh well with me, especially when there were absolutely no non-heterosexual options (I’m aware this was a late 00’s japanese game, but still!!!) oh and the creepy ass predatory nurse (whose social link i ignored after a while because it made me uncomfortable).
This was my first experience of a Persona game and it absolutely made me want to go and try out 5 next just to see how the series evolved…
There is so much depth and heart to each of the characters in the story and while, it can be jarring to see just how much the female characters can be sexualised at times, they, luckily have plenty of deep and meaningful scenes where they discuss their past and hopes for their future.
It’s gameplay is split into the somewhat standard JRPG turn-based battling with the addition of ‘Personas’ which act in a way similar to that of Pokémon (only in terms of giving you skills - magic, buffs, higher damaging physical attacks - outside of your normal ‘attack’ command. It also is part ‘life-sim’ in that you spend a year going to school, making friends, sitting exams, studying for said exams, working part-time jobs all while uncovering the mystery of the story.
Now, the best part of the game is indeed the story. Persona 4 is a very story heavy game, featuring probably more dialogue than actual gameplay or combat but that really helps it build up this ‘murder mystery’ as people of the town of Inaba start to disappear on rainy nights (I’m reluctant to dive into more of the story incase of spoiling anything, yes, even for this old game).
I did find a few things that annoyed me though. The final few ‘months’ of the game felt far too dragged out with little to nothing to do (unless you did certain things to unlock content that would fill this time up).
The somewhat ‘forced’ romantic aspects also didn’t mesh well with me, especially when there were absolutely no non-heterosexual options (I’m aware this was a late 00’s japanese game, but still!!!) oh and the creepy ass predatory nurse (whose social link i ignored after a while because it made me uncomfortable).
This was my first experience of a Persona game and it absolutely made me want to go and try out 5 next just to see how the series evolved…