Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
originally released in Japan as
simply
Instead of the city locales of previous games in the series, Persona 4 takes place in a fictional Japanese countryside and is indirectly related to both Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (in terms of gameplay, story and production) and the Persona 2 duology (in terms of Shadow selves and confronting them to awaken Persona). The player-named main protagonist is a high-school student who moved into the countryside from the city for a year. During his year-long stay, he becomes involved in investigating mysterious murders while harnessing the power of summoning Persona.
The release of the game in Japan was also accompanied with retail merchandise revolving around the game's theme such as character costumes and accessories. The North American package of the game was released with a CD with selected music from the game, and, unlike Persona 3, the European package also contained a soundtrack CD. The music was composed by Shōji Meguro, with vocals by Shihoko Hirata who sang the theme song "Pursuing My True Self". The game was positively received by critics, and it continues to be promoted by Atlus through releases in other media such as adaptation in manga and anime, followed by an enhanced remake a fighting game spinoff, and side stories in the forms of a manga and light novel.
Game Play
Gameplay of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3
Like its predecessor,Shin
Megami Tensei: Persona 3, the gameplay of Persona 4 alternates
between that of a traditional role-playing video game and of a simulation
game. The protagonist of Persona 4 is a teenage boy, named and
controlled by the player. The game takes place over the
course of a traditional Japanese school year.Outside of key events, the protagonist attends school, and can interact with
other students and characters, spend time at part-time jobs to earn money,
or engage in other activities.The player may also enter
the "TV World", an alternate reality where the game's
dungeon-crawling gameplay occurs.Each day in Persona 4
is broken up into different periods of time, such as After School or Evening.
Certain activities are limited to certain times of day. In addition, the
ability to engage in certain activities is based on the day of the week, or the
weather.
By spending time with people, the
protagonist forms "Social Links", which are friendships the
protagonist makes as the game progresses, each represented by one of the Major
Arcana. When a Social Link is first formed, it starts at Rank 1, increasing
over time as the protagonist spends time with that person, until it reaches MAX
Rank,which is Rank 10. Social Links grant the player bonuses when creating new
Personas in the Velvet Room.Social Links are also
influenced by the protagonist's five attributes: Understanding, Diligence,
Courage, Knowledge and Expression, which can be improved through various
activities, such as part-time jobs and sports teams. These attributes in turn
may also affect the protagonist's interaction in daily activities outside of
Social Links.
Persona 4's timeline is driven by the disappearance of characters
from the real world into the TV World, indicated through the "Midnight
Channel". The one-week weather forecast indicates the amount of time
players have to rescue people who have disappeared, in which foggy days mark
the deadline of the rescue mission.The game ends
when the player fails to retrieve the missing person in time, and is given the
choice to return to one week before the fog appeared.While in the TV World, the player explores randomly generated dungeons in the
field map; each dungeon is of a certain theme, based on the victim that has
been kidnapped.Dungeons are divided into floors, each
containing Shadows, enemies the protagonist and his friends fight, and treasure
chests, which contain items or equipment.
Combat
Offensive abilities cause certain types of damage, such as "physical", "wind" or "almighty". Enemies the player encounters may have a weakness to a certain type of attack. By exploiting an enemy's weakness, it will be knocked down, and the attacker is given the opportunity to act again.If every enemy in a battle is knocked down, the player may initiate an All-out Attack, a powerful attack in which the player's party rushes the downed enemies, removing weaker enemies and inflicting heavy damage on stronger ones.
At the end of the battle, players are awarded with experience and items, and may be given the chance to choose a new Persona to summon in battle.
Personas
Each party member has a Persona (an example of one would be
the main protagonists default persona (Izanagi) that they can use during
battle, with its own unique skills, and a specific set of strengths and
weaknesses to certain attacks. Personas will gain experience from battle and
learn new skills as they gain levels.The Personas of the other party members will also transform to a more powerful
form after completing certain events in the game's story relating to that
character. The protagonist is unique in that he can carry multiple Personas and
switch between them during battle, giving the player access to a new set of
skills. Outside of battle, the
player can access the Velvet Room, where new Personas can be obtained. Two or
more Personas can be fused to create a new one; the new Persona will inherit a
certain number of combat skills from the Personas used to fuse it.Each Persona is of one of the Major
Arcana. Fusing Personas of an arcanum that matches an established Social Link
will grant the Persona a bonus when it is created.The bonus is greater based on the current
rank of the Social Link.
PLOT
Setting
Persona 4 takes place in the fictional, rural Japanese town of Inaba,
which lies among floodplains and has its own high school and shopping
districts. Unexplained murders have taken place in the small town, where bodies
are found dangling among television antennas and their cause of death unknown.At the same time, rumor has begun to spread that
watching a switched-off television set on rainy midnights will reveal a
person's soulmate.Following the rumor, a group
of high-school students discovered a fog-shrouded world accessed through
television sets infested with monsters called Shadows.They also discovered each of their Shadow Selves, symbolizing their suppressed
personalities. Confronting their Shadow Selves awakened their ability to summon
beings known as Personas. Using Personas, the students form an Investigation
Team to investigate the connection between the TV world and the murders, and
possibly capture the culprit.
Character
Yu Narukami is a high school student who has recently moved
from a large city to the town of Inaba, where he is to live and attend school
for a year. He is the protagonist. While in Inaba, he stays with his relatives:
his uncle Ryotaro Dojima, a police detective who is often on duty throughout
the day, and Dojima's six-year-old daughter Nanako who has managed to take care
of the household chores for her father.At school, he quickly becomes friends with Yosuke Hanamura, the somewhat-clumsy
son of the manager of the local megastore Junes; Chie Satonaka, an energetic
girl with a strong interest in martial arts; and Yukiko Amagi, a calm and
refined girl who helps out at her family's inn.The four of them discover a world
inside televisions, where they meet a friendly creature that lives there: a
small, literally hollow bear with a costume-like appearance named Teddie. As
they perform their investigation, the group gains new friends including Kanji
Tatsumi, a male delinquent who is confused about his sexual and social identity;Rise Kujikawa, a former teen
idol that moved to Inaba and is another new transfer student; and Naoto
Shirogane, a young female detective investigating the case with the local
police but who is forced to take on a male identity to associate with them.Persona 4 opens with Yu Narukami arriving in Inaba to live with the Dojimas for one year (starting April 11, 2011), about one year after the events of Persona 3: FES), as his parents are working abroad.Just after his arrival, a TV announcer is found dead, her body hanging from an antenna; Saki Konishi, the high school student who'd discovered the body, is later found dead under similar gruesome circumstances.After Yu Narukami and his friends (accidentally) enter the TV world, they encounter Teddie, who helps them travel freely between the TV and real worlds.They awaken their Persona abilities (Yu Narukami first, Yosuke second, Chie third, etc.), and, realizing that the murders stem from Shadow attacks in the TV world, are able to rescue several would-be victims. Yosuke Hanamura, Chie Satonaka, Yukiko Amagi, Kanji Tatsumi, Rise Kujikawa and Teddie accept their other selves, which become giant Shadows in the TV world, and join the group as Persona-users. Mitsuo Kubo, a student from another high school who disappears following the death of Kinshiro Morooka (Yu Narukami's foul-mouthed homeroom teacher), claims credit for the murders; it is eventually learned that Kubo only killed the teacher and played no part in the other murders.Naoto Shirogane, a nationally renowned teenage detective investigating the case, is also rescued and joins the party, who learn that "he" is actually a girl who assumed a male identity to avoid the police's sexism.
Events come to a head when Yu Narukami is mistakenly accused by Ryotaro Dojima of having some kind of role in the murders.Nanako Dojima is kidnapped while Yu Narukami is being interrogated, leading Ryotaro to engage in a vehicular pursuit with the culprit. The chase ends as they both crash; the kidnapper escapes with Nanako through a television set in his truck, and the gravely injured Ryotaro entrusts her rescue to the party. The group tracks them down within the TV world; the culprit, Taro Namatame, attacks them as a "human/Shadow" hybrid - Kunino-sagiri - but is defeated and both he and Nanako are taken to the Inaba hospital. When Nanako appears to die, the group furiously confronts Namatame; as the protagonist, the player must help the others realize that Namatame is not the killer by pointing out the lack of a proper motive, and subsequently work to determine that Ryotaro's assistant, Tohru Adachi, is the true killer. Failure to do so ends the game with the party being unable to solve the case; Nanako's death being permanent; and the recurring fog permanently setting in, the latter of which will eventually result in humanity's demise.
Having identified the culprit as Adachi, the party chases and locates him within the TV world. Adachi explains his motives and ideals to the group; his claims are dismissed by the party.
After fighting Adachi, he is possessed by Ameno-sagiri, the Japanese God of Fog, who reveals that the fog is lethal to people and will eventually wipe out humanity.Upon his defeat, he agrees to lift the fog, congratulating the party on their resolve.Defeated, the wounded Adachi agrees to assume responsibility for his actions and turns himself in.The game moves forward to the day before Yu Narukami must travel home; if the player returns to the Dojima residence, the game ends with the party sending Yu Narukami off as he departs Inaba. Alternatively, should the player be able to identify the unexplained origins of the Midnight Channel and attempt to resolve this plot element, Yu Narukami meets with the party and together they decide to put the case to a permanent end.
Yu Narukami confronts the gas station attendant encountered at the start of the game, who reveals herself to be the Japanese goddess Izanami and the "conductor" behind the game's events. The cause of the recurring fog is established as an attempt to eliminate humans by merging the TV world with the human world, all for the sake of humanity.The party tracks Izanami down within the TV world and battle her, but is at first unable to win; the defeated protagonist is given strength by the bonds he has forged with those around him, and with this power awakens a new Persona - Izanagi-no-Okami - which he uses to defeat Izanami.In doing so the fog in each world is lifted, and the TV world is restored to its original form. The game ends with the party sending Yu Narukami off the following day, and a post-credits scene depicts the group resolving to remain friends forever as Yu Narukami examines a photo of the party.
Development
According to the game director Katsuro Hashino, while "ideas [had been] thrown around earlier", development on Persona 4 in Japan did not begin until after the release of Persona 3.The development team consisted of the team from Persona 3, all of whom retained their roles from the previous game, as well as new hires who were "fans of Persona 3".Atlus intended to improve both the gameplay and story elements of Persona 3 for the new game, to ensure it was not seen as a "retread" of its predecessor. Hashino said that "to accomplish that, we tried to give the players of Persona 4 a definite goal and a sense of purpose that would keep motivating them as they played through the game. The murder mystery plot was our way of doing that." Feedback from players on Persona 3 and Persona 3: FES was considered a "great help", as well as over 2,000 comments generated by Atlus staff on the company's internal website.The plot of Persona 4 was "greatly inspired", according to Hashino, by mystery novelists such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Seishi Yokomizo. "The discovery of a bizarre corpse in the countryside, and...a story that reflects Japanese mythology" are common elements of Japanese mystery novels reflected in the game.Persona 4 was officially unveiled in the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu in March 2008. An article in the issue detailed the game's murder mystery premise, rural setting, and new weather forecast system. The game's North American release date was announced at the 2008 Anime Expo in Los Angeles, California.Atlus has stated that there will be no "Persona 4 FES".
The design of Inaba is based on a town on the outskirts of Mount Fuji.Its rural design was a source of conflict between Persona 4's developers, as "each staff member had their own image of a rural town", according to director Katsura Hashino. The entire staff went "location hunting" to determine Inaba's design.Inaba does not represent a "a country town that has tourist attractions", but rather a non-notable, "'nowhere' place". Hashino described the town as being "for better or for worse...a run-of-the-mill town".
Unlike other role-playing games, which may have large worlds for the player to explore, Persona 4 mostly takes place in Inaba. This reduced development costs, and enabled Atlus "to expand other portions of the game" in return. A central setting also allows players to "sympathize with the daily life that passes in the game." To prevent the setting from becoming stale, the development team established a set number of in-game events to be created to "keep the game exciting."
Despite living in the countryside, Persona 4's characters were designed to look and sound "normal" and like "modern high-schoolers", according to lead editor Nich Maragos. Initially, he wrote the game's cast as being "more rural than was really called for." "The characters aren't really hicks...They just happen to live in a place that's not a major metropolitan area."While interviewing members of Persona 4's development team, 1UP.com editor Andrew Fitch noted that the characters from the city—Yosuke and the protagonist—have "more stylish" hair than the other characters. Art director Shigenori Soejima used hair styles to differentiate between characters from the city versus the country. "With Yosuke in particular, I gave him accessories, such as headphones and a bicycle, to make it more obvious that he was from the city."
Music
Persona 4's soundtrack was released as a 2-disc Original Soundtrack on July 23, 2008, by Aniplex with the catalog number SVWC-7566/7. While Persona 3 had a more modern style and design, Persona 4 features a more retro one. The soundtrack is also available in the North American release, containing a Side A and Side B.The Side A of the soundtrack is the bonus disc packaged with each game, while Side B of the soundtrack is part of the Amazon.com Exclusive Persona 4 Social Link Expansion Pack.Similarly to Persona 3, a "Reincarnation" album for the game's original soundtrack titled Never More was released on October 26, 2011, featuring full length cuts of the game's vocal tracks and extended mixes of some of the instrumental tracks.Never More made it to the top of both the Oricon Weekly Album Charts and Billboard's Japan Top Albums chart for the week of its release, selling nearly 27 thousand copies to beat out Girls' Generation's The Boys by a margin of 6 thousand units.
Persona 4: Golden
Persona 4: Golden, released in Japan as Persona 4: The Golden (ペルソナ4 ザ・ゴールデン Perusona Fō Za Gōruden), was announced in August 2011 as a remake of Persona 4 for the portable PlayStation Vita. It was originally planned by Atlus to be a PlayStation Portable title, similar to Persona 3 Portable, which would have required removing some of the features of the PlayStation 2 game. However, the Vita provides sufficient resources that has allowed Atlus to expand the game.It will be an expanded version of the PlayStation 2 title, adding new features and story elements to the game. A new character named Marie, voiced by Kana Hanazawa, will be added to the story, aiding the main party. Additional Personas, character outfits, and expanded spoken lines and anime cutscenes will be included. The game will support the wireless networking features of the Vita, allowing a player to call in help from other players that may be online at the same time to help in dungeon battles. Another new feature is a garden that produces items you can use in the various dungeons. The game is scheduled for a Japanese release on June 14, 2012. It is stated to be released in North America in the 23rd of October 2012.
A P4G soundtrack is set for release on June 27, 2012, consisting of one disc of tracks composed by Meguro.
In an interview with RPGamer at E3 2012, Atlus USA revealed that in terms of bonus content in the special "TV Channel" feature, the US release will have 99.9% of the content the Japanese version has, with only one or two commercials missing, presumably due to rights issues.
Media
Merchandise
With the release of Persona 4, Atlus has also produced a line of merchandise, including action figures, published materials, toys and clothes. Atlus collaborated with the Japanese publishing company Enterbrain to publish the game's two strategy guides, an artbook detailing character and setting designs, as well a fan book called Persona Club P4 which included official artwork, fan art, as well as interviews with the design staff. Most items were only released in Japan, while other Japanese third-party manufacturers also produced figurines and toys. The action figures include a 1/8 scale PVC figurine of Yukiko Amagi as well as Teddie and Rise Kujikawa, produced by Alter. Licensed Atlus merchandise sold by Cospa includes Persona 4 t-shirts, tote bags, and the jacket and other accessories worn by the character Chie.Udon recently announced that they will release an english edition of Enterbrain's Persona 4: Official Design Works artbook to be released May 8, 2012.
Manga
Persona 4 was also given a manga adaptation. It is written by
Shūji Sogabe, the artist for Persona 3's manga, and started
serialization in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Black Maoh
magazine on September 19, 2008. The first tankōbon volume was
released on September 26, 2009, and six volumes have been released as of
February 27, 2012.
There is also a spin-off of the
manga featured in the Persona Magazine, released on November 7, 2011.
Anime
Main articles: Persona 4: The
Animation and List of Persona 4: The Animation episodes
A television anime of the
game has also begun airing, produced by AIC A.S.T.A. and directed by Seiji
Kishi. Main voice actors from the original game are also set to reprise
their roles in the TV series including Daisuke Namikawa (protagonist,
renamed Yu Narukami in the anime series), Showtaro Morikubo (Yōsuke
Hanamura), Yui Horie (Chie Satonaka), and Ami Koshimizu (Yukiko
Amagi).
The episodes started airing in Japan
on MBS on October 7, 2011 and have a simulcast by Anime Network
in North America. On November 23, 2011, Aniplex
started releasing the series in DVD and Blu-ray volumes, with the first one
including the first episode in a director's cut version and bonus CD
single for the opening and ending themes. Following
volumes will contain three episodes and a single CD with the second released on
December 21, 2011.The releases have been popular in
Japan with the first Blu-ray selling 27,951 copies during 2011.
The anime has been licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks for
Blu-ray and DVD combo pack release during 2012. Sentai
have confirmed that the English dub will retain the same cast from the game.
Also, a 90 minute film titled
"Persona 4 The Animation -The Factor of Hope-" was released on June
9th in 10 theaters in Japan. This film is a condensed version of the anime that
contains new footage that wasn't shown earlier. However, unlike the anime, it
is edited to include the "true ending episode" that was to be
released exclusively on the final volume of the anime's Blu-ray/DVD.
Fighting
game
A fighting game sequel, Persona
4 Arena, will be released during 2012. As with
the anime the protagonist is named Yu Narukami. Some Persona 3 characters
will be playable as well, Aigis, Mitsuru, Elizabeth, and Akihiko are the only
confirmed characters at this time. Set two months following the True Ending of
the original game, the Investigation Team enters into a fighting tournament
called the "P-1 Grand Prix" hosted by Teddie. Arc System Works,
known for creating Guilty Gear and the BlazBlue games Calamity
Trigger and Continuum Shift, will be developing the game.
Stage
production
A live stage production titled VisuaLive:
Persona 4 (VISUALIVE『ペルソナ4』 VisuaLive:
Perusona Fo) will take place from March 15, 2012 to March 20. Confirmed
actors starring in the stage production include Toru Baba as the
protagonist (whose name will be chosen by the audience within every
performance), Takahisa Maeyama as Yosuke Hanamura, Minami Tsukui
as Chie Satonaka, Risa Yoshiki as Yukiko Amagi, Jyōji Saotome as
Daisuke Nagase, Motohiro Ota as Kou Ichijo, and Masashi Taniguchi
as Ryotaro Dojima, and Masami Ito as Tohru Adachi. Kappei Yamaguchi
will reprise his role as Teddie in voice. Following the
announcement, Youichiro Omi was cast as Kanji Tatsumi on December 1,
2011.
Realease and reception
Persona 4 was highly acclaimed by critics within and outside Japan, and remained on top of sales charts on its initial release. In Japan, the game sold 193,000 copies within a week of its release, while in North America, Persona 4 was the highest-selling PlayStation 2 game on Amazon.com for two consecutive weeks.A soundtrack disc was included in the North American release of Persona 4, containing a selection of tracks from the full soundtrack released in Japan.
Amazon.com exclusively sold the Persona 4 "Social Link Expansion Pack", which included an additional soundtrack disc, a t-shirt, a 2009 calendar, and a plush doll of the character Teddie.
Persona 4 was awarded the "PlayStation 2 Game Prize" in the Famitsu Awards 2008, voted by readers of Famitsu.It was also recognized by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association as one of the recipients for the "Games of the Year Award of Excellence" in the Japan Game Awards 2009.
The game was given the award for its "high quality of work", "excellent story, automatically generated dungeons and impressive background music".
Persona 4 received critical acclaim from most game critics upon release. The game received a Metacritic score of 90/100, based on forty-seven reviews. Famitsu pointed out that while "there isn't much new from the last game", it favored the changes over the battle system, where the pacing "is quick so it doesn't get to be a pain", and the ability to control party members "makes play that much easier".
IGN on the other hand noted that "the pacing can be somewhat off", and "some things feel repurposed or unaffected from previous games", while praising the game as an "evolution of the RPG series, and an instant classic". It also noted that the soundtrack can be "a bit repetitive".
RPGFan's Ryan Mattich recommended Persona 4 as "one of the best RPG experiences of the year", noting that "among the cookie-cutter sequels and half-hearted remakes", the game is "a near flawless example of the perfect balance between 'falling back on what works' and 'pushing the genre forward'."
1UP.com's Andrew Fitch summarized Persona 4 as "some of this decade's finest RPG epics", although the reviewer criticized its "slight loading issues" and the time spent "waiting for the plot to advance". GameTrailers gave the game a score of 9.3, stating it's an exception to the rule of the Japanese Role-playing genre, and that it stands out of any other JRPG, including its predecessor, Persona 3. Wired pointed out that while the graphics are not up to par with those of the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, "the clever art style makes up for that". It also praised the game's soundtrack as "excellent, especially the battle music".
The game's setting garnered mixed reactions. IGN labeled Persona 4 as "a murder mystery set against the backdrop of familiar Persona 3 elements", and while this element adds "an interesting twist" to the dungeon crawl and social simulation gameplay, it also causes the plot to "slow down or suffer". Hyper's Tim Henderson commended the game for "willfully embellish[ing] absurd urban legends and other ideas with such assured consistency that the resulting whole is unshakabl[y] coherent". However, he criticized it for the narrative's sluggish pace and for how he felt the game is "lacking in elaborate set-pieces".1UP.com called Persona 4 a "stylish murder mystery", the comparison given being a "small-town Scooby-Doo" adventure.
The game is also noted for its "significant portion of the story revolving around sexual themes", as quoted from RPGFan's Ryan Mattich. One of the playable characters given attention by reviewers is Kanji, who is considered to be one of the first characters in a mainstream video game to struggle with their sexual orientation, and Atlus has been commended for the inclusion of that character.
Atlus has stated that they left Kanji's sexual preferences ambiguous and up to the player. According to Dr. Antonia Levi, author of Samurai from Outer Space: Understanding Japanese Animation, the questioning of Kanji's sexuality in the script is a "comment on homosexuality in a greater Japanese social context," in which "the notion of 'coming out' is seen as undesirable ... as it necessarily involves adopting a confrontational stance against mainstream lifestyles and values".
Brenda Brathwaite, author of Sex in Video Games, thought it "would have been amazing if they would have made a concrete statement that [Kanji] is gay", but was otherwise "thrilled" with the treatment of the character and the game's representation of his "inner struggles and interactions with friends".[20] RPGFan had expressed hope that attention be given on the localization effort as "homosexuals could certainly take issue with the manner in which they are represented".
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