Persona 4?

I'm thinking bout buying Persona 4, but I don't even know what kinda game it is. Help would be nice.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, known in Japan as Persona 4 (ペルソナ4 Perusona 4?), is a console role-playing game developed and published by Atlus for Sony's PlayStation 2, and chronologically the sixth installment in the Persona series.[3] Persona 4 was released in Japan on July 10, 2008, was released in Korea on October 31, 2008, in North America on December 9, 2008 and will be released in Europe in Spring 2009.[4] Instead of the city locales of previous games in the series, Persona 4 takes place in a fictional Japanese countryside. It features a weather forecast system with events happening on misty days to replace the moon phase system (with events happening on full moons in Persona 3) implemented in the previous games. Its story is a suspenseful countryside murder mystery with multiple twists and turns in the plot. The North American package of the game will be released with a "Visual Data" book (a collection of concept art) and a CD with selected music from the game, very much like Persona 3's North American release.

Wikipedia is wikipedia. I've never played a Persona-game before, and an introduction to the story and battle-system and stuff would be nice. Do I need to play the other games first?

Okay. Story?

I'll use Wiki for that.

Quote :

Persona 4 takes place in the same universe as Persona 3 in a rural town named Inaba. There have been mysterious murders occurring whenever there was fog after heavy rain. There were also rumors about a channel on television airing only at midnight called the Midnight Channel, during which it is said that one can see his/her "other half" when staring at the TV screen. After hearing about a recent unsolved murder which occurred during the fog, the characters—the main character, Chie, and Yōsuke—discuss how each of them had attempted to watch the mysterious TV channel and witnessed the murder victim. The protagonist later realizes that during midnight when the channel is on, his body can phase into his television set as a gateway to enter another world infested with shadows. After discovering this, they all decide to explore. When first completely entering the world, dazed and confused, the main character meets Teddie. The Midnight Channel and the town murders seem to have a connection. The murder victims may be merely victims of the Midnight Channel. Everyone decides that they will together try to solve the mysterious murders by exploring the hidden world of the Midnight Channel.

Gameplay-wise?

Quote :

Persona 4 combines elements of standard console role-playing games and dating sims. The game takes place over the course of a Japanese school year. Each day goes by broken up into several periods such as "Morning", "Afternoon" and "Evening", with the Main Character going to school and then participating in selected activities during free time. The player may opt to use the free time activities to buy equipment and items at stores, talk to other non-playable characters, or spend the remainder of the free time either to build a Social Link or to improve the Main Character's attributes.


After school is when you can enter the world of Midnight Channel. Combat is a turn-based affair. Each character can preform a standard melee attack with their weapon, summon their Persona to unleash an attack or spell, guard from another attack, or use recovery and battle items. Each foe has strengths and weaknesses; by striking a foe with an attack it is weak against, it will cause the foe to be knocked down, and the attacker will gain one more immediate attack; this can lead to a chain of attacks against each foe if the attacks are selected appropriately. If all remaining foes are knocked down, the player can opt for an "All Out" attack, with the remaining members entering a cartoon-like fight cloud, inflicting higher damage on each foe.


Social Links represent various friendships that the Main Character has with fellow teammates, classmates, and other persons around the town. Each Social Link in the game represents one of the Arcanas for Personas, and building these Links are necessary to obtaining more powerful Personas from that Arcana. Social Links can grow by having the Main Character spend a period of time with the appropriate person. This action does not always guarantee an increase in the Link. In some cases, it is necessary to spend two or more periods before the Link can be raised. At other times, the player may be asked to respond to a question from the friend; an improper response may cause the Link to stay stagnant, or even to drop a level. Several of the Links are with fellow teenage girls that can lead to romantic interests; these Links can be improved by giving the girl a gift as well, but can also drop if the Main Character spends too much time with another girl.


Social Links have a greater effect on battle. For example, for level 1, the player's allies occasionally protect the protagonist from a deathblow (If the HP of the protagonist becomes zero, the game will be over.) For level 3, if the protagonist successfully knocks down a shadow, the allies will occasionally offer to have a follow- up attack which can 100% knock down and paralyzes another shadow. For the maximum level, the persona of the corresponding ally will evolve into another persona. The biggest change is the status of the persona. Some persona 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 have a chance to survive an otherwise fatal attack, leaving them with 1 HP.

Each member of the group has a Persona that they can summon with their Evoker which can perform special attacks and offensive and healing spells. Each Persona belongs to a specific Arcana and has set strengths and weaknesses against certain types of attacks. Personas level up with the characters as the result of successful battles, gaining new spells and abilities. The Personas of the characters (excluding the Main Character) can also change to a new, more powerful Persona after certain key events regarding that character in the game. The Main Character is unique in that he is able to summon multiple Personas, even changing these during battle. The player can select up to a maximum of twelve Personas to use within battle.

Within the Velvet Room, the player is able to store Personas, including their current experience and skills, and later recall them for a price. The player can also fuse from two to six Personas into a more powerful one. The result of a fusion will include selected abilities of all Personas used and will gain an experience bonus equivalent to the strength of the Social Link the Main Character has with the new Persona's Arcana. Fusing is limited by the strength of the Main Character and his Social Links; fusing the most advanced persona for an Arcana can only occur once the player has maximized the Main Character's Social Link in that Arcana.

And no you do not need to play the other games first. Each of the Persona's are stand-alone titles with very few references to the previous games.

Thank you

You are welcome.

Game comes out the 13th. Even though I'm no fan of RPGs, I'll prolly get it

Is the Dating sims thing a big part of the game? Or can I just skip it?

Changed my mind. I'm very anti dating sims

if your gonna play SMT get nocturne instead aka lucifers call

or play SMT: imagine and join me and snake

its a free MMO

Superbuu3 wrote:

if your gonna play SMT get nocturne instead aka lucifers call

They only sell P3: FES and P4 here. Just seen two copies allthogether

Persona 4 is ace. The first three or so hours are stupifyingly dull, there's little to no real interaction on your part, though things soon pick up. That said, the dungeons themselves are a little repetitive, and trying to scale 10+ floors in one sitting is both tedious and very hard, at least early game, due to the simple fact that once your SP have been drained, your offensive capability is hugely compromised, and there aren't many items that can top you up.

Lycaon wrote:

Persona 4 is ace. The first three or so hours are stupifyingly dull, there's little to no real interaction on your part, though things soon pick up. That said, the dungeons themselves are a little repetitive, and trying to scale 10+ floors in one sitting is both tedious and very hard, at least early game, due to the simple fact that once your SP have been drained, your offensive capability is hugely compromised, and there aren't many items that can top you up.

You do know you can raise the Fox's S-Link to make SP Cheaper, right?

DevilKingBaal wrote:

You do know you can raise the Fox's S-Link to make SP Cheaper, right?

Yeah, but it's still massively expensive. I'm up to the Kanji boss fight, my levels are around 25 and the Fox wants 35000 to heal me. My Hermit S Link is level 3.

You could just go back to earlier dungeons, beat up weaker shadows and try to get a Judgement Arcana Chance.

DevilKingBaal wrote:

You could just go back to earlier dungeons, beat up weaker shadows and try to get a Judgement Arcana Chance.

The arcana chances are so random, I'd be there forever! What does Judgement do?

Upwards= Refills your party's SP to full.

Reverse= Reduces SP to One

You could also use Death.

Upwards= Reduces HP to 1, Refills SP to full, returns you to the entrance but you can go back to the floor you got death on at the entrance.

Reverse= Same but Reduces SP to one and Refills HP to fill.

They'd be handy, but the odds of getting that hand are rather slim.

FUCK!

Ok, so this game is awesome, and even though it's only the second day of school, I'm enjoying it immensely. That Morooka is so awesome!

Anyway, I had to restart because my name got messed up, and it got messed up a second time, too. Do I need to restart it again, or do I need to stick with this shitty name for the rest of the time?

It got messed up? You typed it in wrong?

I typed it perfectly, but the game disregards spaces, and two letters from my first name got added to my last name.

That's odd.

On the subject of the game itself, the thing that's really got me is how long it is. I'm only at the end of June, and I'm already 30+ hours in, with loads still to do. It'll be 100+ quite easily.

Really? I beat it with 70+ hours on mine.

I've just done the 3rd dungeon, and I'm just over 30 hours. Assuming the calendar is a whole year, then 100+ doesn't seem unreasonable.