Persona 4 Impressions (Spoiler Free)

I Finished playing the game yesterday afternoon. My final save had a little over 120 hours clocked in for a first play through on expert difficulty. I actually think I may have had a tougher time playing through Persona 3 on normal difficulty than this game. I know that play time count is a little ridiculous but I think I tend to take abnormal amounts of time to complete games. One thing to consider is that I do not leave my console/game on and walk away, in fact most of the time if I do need to step away then I save and put it on the title screen and load it when I resume. I am not sure why I acquired this quirk (for RPGs mostly) but I like knowing the total time required to complete a game for some odd reason (I don't even consider playtime when considering the value of a game). I enjoyed the game a great deal, but am unsure where it ranks when compared to Persona 2 or 3 yet for me. I think I'll come to this conclusion a little further down the road when I have thought about it some more.

The story this time around is that you, the protagonist, are going to live with your relatives in a small town while your parents are out of the country or something. Right as you begin high school a series of gruesome murders begin, one thing leads to another and you become embroiled in a very unique and intriguing murder mystery which grabs hold and doesn't let go. The game is filled with plenty of social themes such as big store chains moving in on smaller family owned businesses, the pressure of inheriting family businesses, the normal lives of pop idols... you know typical RPG issues? Hah, the story does a good job of weaving these things, and obviously many other arcs, into a normal high school life drama that happens to have a killer on the loose in this small town. If I had to relate it to something it would actually be an anime, Higurashi. Granted it isn't similar to it in many aspects at all, but I felt it was close to it in mood (unfortunately P4 did not have it's own Rena). The story hooked me and it has some great twists and turns that keep you going.

In terms of gameplay they have adjusted it so that party-members can be set to AI or manual control. The ability to do things both after school and in the evening I think opens up more possibilities on how to allocate your time to events. The social link system remains similar to P3 and the fusion system remained the same from the previous iteration. I am sad that they didn't bring back the demon conversation system from Persona 2 but oh well, we can't have it all. I am still coming out of the trance of playing the game for such a long period so I haven't been able to "zoom out" and fully compare it to my other RPG experiences yet but I can say that it was fantastic and a solid entry into the Persona series. I recommend the game to anyone who is willing to pour a good amount of time into an RPG (I think on normal mode and going through it quickly you could probably do it in 60-80 hours? Just a guess). The only thing about this fantastic gem is that it isn't for everyone. I tend to play and enjoy most ANY type of video game. Whether it be Western RPG, JRPG, FPS, Platformer, Shoot 'em Up, Action, Racing, what have you I tend to enjoy them. I say this because I feel that even if people are down with RPGs they may not like the new iterations of Persona (see Persona 3 and on). The emphasis on dungeon crawling and introduction of the schedule mechanic and social link/interaction/dating sim mechanic makes for a very different and unique experience. Those that would find this interesting I think is someone who already plays dating/social life sims, already played the previous and liked it, or is just looking for a really different take from the average console RPG. While I loved Persona 2 the new direction the series is taking is enjoyable to me as it is something totally different than what I am used to.

Now to savor my last days of break...