Persona 4 has certainly turned out to be a flexible
franchise for Atlus. In the last few years we have had wide ranging spin offs
from the core JRPG game. It started with fighter Persona 4 Arena and then the
Etrian Odyssey crossover Persona Q. Now we have another genre to add to the mix
with this rhythm action game.
Dancing All Night is told to the player by Margaret (from
the Velvet Room in Persona 4), and takes places about a month after Persona 4. It’s
a very strange story (even for Persona), and revolves around the idea that
Persona’s pop icon Rise is putting on a show with the other cast of the game
being invited along as backing dancers. It gets weirder.
Soon another female group named Kanamin Kitchen (each member
is named after a type of meat), start going missing and the team are drawn back
into the strange Midnight world. Only this time it’s the Midnight Stage not the
Midnight Channel. They soon find that they can’t attack their enemies as
violence is banned and all the shadows that inhabit the world are tied together
with a strange yellow ribbon. The ribbon brain washes them and traps them into
the rhythm of a strange and eerie song that keeps playing. Of course the only
way to break the spell is to fight back with music and dancing.
We completely love the fact that everything is played
straight with all the characters taking this deadly seriously. It’s completely insane
and entirely better for it. After a slow start the story rolls along at a good
pace and there are a ton of excellent anime cut scenes implemented to draw you
in (though I’m not sure we needed to keep seeing down Rise’s top at every opportunity
in them).
If you don’t want to go through the story the game can also
be played out as individual songs which when completed unlock tougher tracks
and other bonuses such as dance partners. It’s a good way to practice while
also allowing for quick hits of fun which suits the Vita very well.
The presentation and structure is excellent so it’s a good
thing the actual game underneath it is strong as well. The action takes place
with one of the heroes in the centre of the screen dancing and stars flying out
towards the left and right edges. Players then have to hit the corresponding
buttons that they pass in time to the beat. This utilises three of the buttons
on each side of the Vita and gets pretty hectic as you progress.
Notes soon begin to change to require more complex inputs
with buttons needing to be held and pressed at the same time as well. There are
also extra points and a ‘fever’ circle that shoots out from time to time that
requires the tilt of an analogue stick in order to hit it as it fills the
circle surrounding the play area. Filling the fever gauge allows for special
events to happen at certain points in the song and adds up to big points.
It’s a solid and fun system and the notes hit precisely with
no input lag. The graphics behind the scene are also excellent and keep things
lively. The music itself is a collection of various types of Japanese style
music from pop to dance and a hint of metal and there’s nothing here that’s
going to ready grate on you with the best songs being rather good.
Overall, Persona 4: Dancing all Night is a good rhythm game
in its own right. It obviously has a fairly niche market to aim at and I’m not
sure we were all crying out for ‘Persona does rhythm action’ but now that it
has we’re rather glad it did. It’s humorous, breezy fun and suits the Vita
perfectly. It might not be the next Gitaroo man or Ouenden but it’s certainly
something that fans should enjoy and it’s clearly had a ton of effort put into
getting just right. Newcomers will likely be completely lost though.
Overall 8/10
Colour Blind Issues - No
Review Code - Yes
Colour Blind Issues - No
Review Code - Yes
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