Product Description

Persona 4 is the latest in the renowned adventure series from Atlus, following on from the critical success of Persona 3. Persona 4 is an innovative adventure game experience with a super-cool audio/visual style, combining RPG and social simulation gameplay with a suspenseful murder mystery plotline that will have you guessing all the way to the end!

In the small town of Inaba, nestled in the Japanese countryside, a young man settles in with his uncle and cousin. Sudden circumstances have forced the arrangement, but it is for the most part an agreeable place to live, if a little boring. Everything changes when a shocking and mysterious killing leaves a town aghast and searching for answers. As all signs point to involvement of a twisted serial murderer, a young hero and his friends will discover hidden powers and use them to save innocents from certain death. Together, they must find the trail of the unknown attacker... before they strike again!

• Includes the official Persona 4 CD soundtrack
• Balance your double life: Beyond exploring dungeons, engaging in intense battles, combining Personas to make new ones, and creating new weapons exists a normal high school life of making friends and taking part in classes and part-time jobs. The way you manage and integrate your activities within each day will determine your progress through the game.
• Remember, you are mortal: Every day is irrevocable, each decision impacts on your fate - from who you hang out with, to when you decide to enter a dungeon and how far in you choose you go. Plan your progress around the various events of each day and even the weather forecast!
• Unprecedented team control: With an emphasis on developing bonds in the goal to solve the mysterious murders, strong friendships are key to your success. Directly control teammates in battle, earn greater party support for combat, and master ind

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2093 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Square Enix
• Released on: 2009-03-13
• Platform: PlayStation2
• Format: Unknown format
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English

Manufacturer's Description
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is a console role-playing game (RPG) for Sony's PlayStation 2. Chronologically the sixth installment in the Persona series, Persona 4 is a suspenseful countryside murder mystery with multiple twists and turns in the plot that will have you guessing all the way to the end.

Chronologically the sixth installment in the Persona series, Persona 4 is a suspenseful murder mystery. View larger.

The silent male protagonist wields a two-handed sword weapon. View larger.

Using Mayonaka TV, you can phase into the television set and enter a shadowy world. View larger.

Game play and style are similar to Persona 3, but there are plenty of new twists and additions. View larger.

Myth and Occult Mixed with Contemporary Japan
Megami Tensei was originally based on the novel series Digital Devil Story by Aya Nishitani. A major franchise in the RPG genre, MegaTen games take place in the contemporary or near-future Japan, mixing occult and cyberpunk elements. The games feature mythological references from multiple mythologies, and the player is often asked to make moral or philosophical choices that affect the game's storyline and ending.

The silent male protagonist who represents the player in Persona 4 attends Yasogami High School with Chie, Yosuke, and Yukiko. His entire personality and name is decided and portrayed by the player's in-game actions and decisions. He wields two-handed sword type weapons, but unlike Persona 3, he doesn't use alternative weapons.

Mysterious Murders Abound
Persona 4 takes place in a rural town named Inaba where mysterious murders occur whenever there is fog after heavy rain. The town has a television channel that airs only at midnight called Mayonaka TV, during which it is said that one can see their "other half" while staring at the screen. After hearing about a recent unsolved murder, some characters realize that they had witnessed the murder victim while watching Mayonaka TV.

The protagonist discovers that during midnight when the channel is on, his body can phase into his television set, using the set as a gateway to another world infested with shadows. Mayonaka TV and the town murders seem so connected that it's possible that the victims may in fact victims of Mayonaka TV itself. The characters decide to solve the mysterious murders by exploring the hidden world of Mayonaka TV.

Brand-New Yet Familiar game play
Persona 4's game play and style are similar to the popular Persona 3. Players familiar with Persona 3 will quickly recognize the social links and dungeon crawling game play, as well as the engine itself. The battles also have some similarities, such as the One More system, All-out attack, and the AI controlled support characters.

However, unlike Persona 3, characters can be set to take commands from the player, new glasses allow characters to see through the heavy mist inside Mayonaka TV, and tarot cards can be shattered to summon the characters' respective Persona. Other changes include an increase in player stats from three to five, and the removal of health status, allowing players to explore dungeons continuously.

Let the Action Begin
Battle-wise, Persona 4 lets you directly control the actions of other party members and continually exploit an enemy's weakness. Post-battle card shuffles have added Arcana Chance, which bring you good or bad status depending on the Arcana. Battles now occur after school instead of at midnight, like in Persona 3, giving the player less time in which to do social activities. This turns out to be significant because Social Links now have a greater effect on battle.

At higher levels, the player's allies progress from occasionally protecting the protagonist from a deathblow, through occasionally offering follow-up attacks, to eventually allow the persona of the corresponding ally to evolve into another persona. And persona can retain or even lose weaknesses and can be immune to certain kind of magic attacks. All allies who have their corresponding Social Link levels maxed out now have a chance to survive an otherwise fatal attack, leaving them with one remaining HP.

Media Reviews:

o    EDGE 9/10 – Highest scoring game in issue

o    “An absolute must buy” (10/10 GamePro)

o    “A true masterpiece” (RPG Fan 94%)

o    “An RPG classic in the making.” (IGN 9/10)

o    “A superb role-playing adventure with something to offer to everyone.” (Gamespot 9/10)

o    “Stylish Persona 4 Is RPG Perfection” (Wired 10/10)

Customer Reviews

JRPGs simply do not get any better than this
Sweet merciful lord this game is absolutely gripping in the best possible way!

I thought Persona 3 was a bit of a fluke with how good it is, as I thought the first two Persona games on PS1 stank to high heaven when I checked them out recently(Maybe they've aged badly, I don't know), but with Persona 4, Atlus have proven that they have the concept that drives the Persona series now down to a fine art, and know exactly how to make the experience better... although not by much in some places it must be said.

Once again placing you in control of an unspeaking character you name yourself, Persona 4 begins with you moving to small town Japan to stay with relatives so you can go to school, and almost as soon as you arrive, people start getting murdered in mysterious circumstances and you seem to be having dreams connected to it. It isn't long before you team up with a group of oddball students at school to investigate the murders and discover a connection to 'The Midnight Channel', a gateway to a world inside the TV made up of the darkness inside human beings(All true folks). This leads to the discovery of your ability to use 'personas'(Monsters that you use to fight battles with) and with that, you're leading a group of pesky kids attempting to find the connection between this monster filled world of corrupted human psyche and the real world murders as you venture into various people's very souls made form in the shape of large dungeons not dissimilar to the tower of tartarus from Persona 3, but smaller(There are a lot of these dungeons though).

Sounds messed up, right? Well, in places it is, but Persona 4's real charm lies in just easy to follow it is. Gone is the messed up 'experiments' and 'secret organisations' of Persona 3 as you have here a group of perfectly normal teenagers thrown into a situation beyond their understanding who struggle to cope with the burden placed on them. The characters in P4 are all so human and believable you really grow to care deeply for them fairly early on. Also unlike Persona 3, the game now has much more of a sense of humour to it's story, with a mostly light hearted approach to a horrifying situation that is occasionally broken up by moments of shockingly grim twists, such as early on the game when you're meeting your classmates for the first time, one them who seems like she'll be as regular in the game is murdered almost immediately. It isn't a game that's afraid to shock.

The game plays identically to Persona 3 with some minor differences, not least of which is you can now control all your characters in battle if you wish, or let the AI do the job yet again if that isn't your thing. The social links, dungeoning, and exploration are all as they were in Persona 3 though, just bigger and more refined. The one real drawback is that the town you live in has a lot less to do and see compared to Persona 3's large city, making the game feel quite small and confined at times.

Visuals are slightly better than Persona 3, with walking around looking a lot nicer than before, but battles looking more or less the same as last time. It's a decent looking game though, with the visuals never getting overly boring over the game's 60-70 hour run time.

The soundtrack though is a massive highlight, with a series of awesome fully vocal songs playing throughout and moody, atmospheric dungeon tunes setting the tone perfectly. The 'battle' music may get on your nerves after a while though.

This game is simply a joy to play, even with it's horrendously long dialogue scenes and initially grating english dubbing(The character's voice actors become noticeably better as the game progresses) it never fails to engage with it's multiple threads exploring friendship, loss, guilt, love and confronting the darkness within your own soul. It's an emotional rollercoaster like few you will ever experience, but it's not going to be for the faint of heart as a huge time investment to play is necessary, as is being prepared to level grind through dungeons more than a few times.

It's a tough game, but the rewards offered are richer than any game you're likely to play. An essential purchase if ever I saw one and the inclusion of a free CD of the game's excellent soundtrack is a true deal sweetener to boot.

Awesome!!
Just a note to add to all the other reviews, I am a huge RPG fan and have played most popular (and some not so popular) series from Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest to Paper Mario and have always maintained that Persona 3 was my favourite of all of them. Not any more - after having devoted far too many hours to playing this I can quite happily say it's the best game I've ever played . The characters are likeable, believable and well thought out, the story is dark but not too emo (like Persona 3) and it has some incredibly LOL moments! Worth far more than the £15 you'll spend on buying it! Now I'm off to play it through for the third time!

Stylish, sweet and well crafted.
This game is excellent even when put side by side with modern, current-gen games. Sure the graphics are certainly out of date but its charisma, art and balanced game design means it doesn't need to upgrade, in fact the low tech graphics add to the charm. The game is about creating and deepening relationships whilst balancing that with dungeon crawling and leveling up, and both improve statistics in different ways. I won't detail it for you.

Yes, you do have to grind occasionally and it can sometimes feel like a chore but the fuel that pushes the player on are the supporting characters and the narrative. The characters might seem like cliches or stereotypes of many anime movies but being able to interact with and guide the characters, sees them blossom into deeper personalities and creates touching bite-sized, sub-plots as well as a bond and a fondness for them. The detective story of the game involves a group of high schoolers trying to find the culprit behind a string of murders, whilst saving the victims by entering the TV world. This provides suspense and intrigue throughout the game as well as a host of new characters. Everyday gives you something to do; socialise, study/work, dungeon crawl etc. And day by day somethings gonna keep you glued in to that seat. All these elements tie in perfectly to become the game equivalent of a page turner.

The soundtrack is the best, most original in-game music I've heard for years. The J-Pop music is exuberent, catchy and unrestrainably joyful, it makes all the epic, orchestral music in many modern games seem stodgy, tired and unoriginal. And it's just one of many things which standout for me. Not to mention the enemy character design is crazy and bizarre, I mean, how did they come up with them?

After many 'next-gen' console games being decidedly dull and underwhelming, this gem is a breath of fresh air that has turned me into an instant fan. This game has certainly shown me what is lacking in many, many cutting-edge games- a sense of humour and vibrancy. I'm not particularly partial to RPGs, I like them but I like everything else as well, and still, I find this game a rare treasure. It's a keeper and it will be remembered as a defining experience.