Persona 4: Dancing All Night Review (PS Vita)

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

Persona 4 Golden Review (PS Vita)

 Written by Bradley Marsh

This review was first published on Gamestyle.com

Persona 4 Golden is without a shadow of a doubt an instant classic, a true joy to own and play with a huge amount of content that should see you get over 100 hours of gameplay, depending on how much of the world of Inaba you wish to discover. To be honest, it is a game that you’ll never actually want to end.

The game follows you as you arrive to live with the Dojima’s in the quiet town of Inaba. You start a new school as a new mystery starts. A bizarre series of murders forces you and your friends Chie and Yosuke on a mission after Yukiko is launched into the Midnight Channel and her life ends up in danger. The mystery deepens early on and your group is eventually joined by new members the further the story goes.

Initially the game comes across as a simple RPG, as you trawl through the dungeons on the midnight channel, however as veteran Persona players will know, it is much more than that. The game combines RPG style gameplay with a wonderful story and some amazing writing. There are elements of dating sims with the relationship building that is vital to the RPG elements, as well as other areas that help build your character. It all comes together in a way that hasn’t been executed by others games in such a glorious way before.

After an initial opening couple of hours, which are glorified cut-scenes, the game really opens up and give you full control. Yet those opening moments aren’t as dull, or drawn out like some games. It is here the game teaches you the basic layout of the world around you, introduces the game’s main characters and shows off the mechanics, battles systems and the like. In other games veterans would likely be bored of yet another glorified tutorial, but in Persona 4 Golden, it is much more than that. The writing is so well done, that on a second playthrough, or even a third you are happy to sit through again. Much like watching your favourite TV series again and again.

The game is essentially broken into two main areas. One is the Midnight TV channel where much of the ‘action’ takes place. You will battle through various floors of areas within the channel, battling shadows as you progress to your goal. You wander through the floors and rather than random battles just happening, you’ll see the shadows as you move through. Attack them before they see you and you gain an advantage going into battle, however should they see you, then they get the advantage.

Battles are turn based, but never slow moving. You’ll take on all kinds of weird and wonderful monsters, each with strengths and weaknesses. You will use you Personas (more on them later) to battle, utilising their powers to defeats the shadows. Some battles will be over very quickly as you breeze through the enemy, others will become drawn out strategical battles, that require all your attention and knowledge to overcome. At the end of each you are rewarded with money and EXP based on the level of monster you have defeated. Perform well and you can even select bonuses that will give you special skill cards, new personas and much more.

Ah, those Personas! As described by the game, a Persona is a manifestation of one’s true self. It is these Personas which are the key to battle, they are used for the main and most powerful attacks and need to be managed as the game goes on, so you can get the best from them. This can be done either by earning EXP during battles, gaining bonus cards or by gaining and improving social links.

Social Links bring us nicely to the other main area of Persona 4 Golden. Away from battles you will find yourself spending most time at school and interacting with other people around Inaba. Should you have a close enough relationship, you will earn a social link, which can then give bonuses to certain types of Persona, which can either be earned by winning bonus cards in battle, or fused in the Velvet Room.

In many games, the side actions are never as important as the main quest, yet here in Persona the developing of relationships is as vital as actually being in the Midnight Channel. Going for food with friends, joining groups, reading, working, along with others will start and strengthen bonds. As these bonds get stronger, you will earn new ranks which will also earn your Personas new bonuses and powers. Simply ignoring the social aspect of the game and concentrating on the Midnight Channel will see the game end all too soon and likely make battles a frustrating experience later on as you struggle to overcome the shadows. Regardless of added difficulty, you won’t want to ignore the social side, as it is just so damn fun.

Again another side of the game that is common across other RPG style games, is the managing of an inventory, whether that be managing the Personas you carry, the weapons, armour, items, etc. Instead of being purely another menu to play with, some of this is embedded in the story. Managing Personas is done within the Velvet room, where you will fuse Personas, register new Personas, buy skill cards and even get some additional quests. It is something that is common to all the Persona games and is something that works amazingly well.

Persona 4 Golden isn’t a good game based of a few things working well. It is one of the finest games you will play because of just how perfectly every element of the game knits together. Even visually it stands out from the crowd. Originally a PS2 game, Atlus decided against simply re-releasing the game, they put the effort in to port it over to the Vita adding in extras along the way. We could easily wax lyrical about how well the game is presented, how wonderfully crafted the characters are, however anyone picking this up deserves to be wowed by the visual greatness on the Vita’s OLED screen.

Persona 4 Golden isn’t just one of the best games on the Vita to date… Actually scratch that. It is THE best game on the Vita and it is one of the finest games you will ever play. It is a lesson in craftsmanship, there is no weakness at all, at no point is there a moment where your interest falls away. Persona 4 Golden is a system seller, you must own this, even if you need to still buy a Vita to do so.

10/10

Persona 4 Arena Review (PS3)

Persona 4 arena has taken a long journey to reach European shores. Initially expected at the start of the year it was then delayed indefinitely. Now we are finally getting the chance to see the characters of Persona 4 in a new environment, but can it hope to live up to the precedent set by its RPG forebear? 

This is certainly one of the more unique collaborations to have happened. The game basically takes the story elements from the Persona team and adds in a fighting game developed by the makers of Blazblu. The music, art style and voice acting will be familiar to Persona fans and it certainly sets the scene very well.

The story is set a few months after the events of Persona 4 (and several years after Persona 3), and has our hero returning to Inaba to visit his friends. Upon arrival it soon transpires that something isn’t right, a feeling that’s confirmed when the midnight channel bursts into life once more to show all the main protagonists as targets for a strange new tournament.

From then on our team decide to dive into the world inside the television once more and soon become locked into a battle against each other. It’s fair to say that as plots go it’s completely crazy. It makes the plot of the original Persona 4 look positively normal and realistic in comparison. But it’s best not to think too much about it and just go along for the ride.

Along with the main playable cast from Persona 4 there are also a couple of the investigation team from Persona 3 and some new ones thrown in for good measure. The thematic choices in storyline and design of the boss character may ring a few bells with Blazblu fans and it has Arc Systems personality stamped all over it. That isn’t to say characters from Blazblu are copied over to here – far from it in fact, but there are certain times you can see the core of a Taokaka or Nu 13 spread across a couple of the characters move sets.

A fighting game lives and dies on its combat system and Persona 4 Arena has one unlike any we have come across before. Arc Systems have not created a Persona 4 version of Blazblu and have instead tried to produce something that fits the characters and game world more completely. 

Along with the usual super and special moves there are a fair few unique things to look out for. Attacks are designed around the four face buttons with the square and X buttons making your character perform light and heavy attacks. The interesting part of the system comes with the triangle and circle buttons. These are used to summon your persona to attack. If carried out carefully and precisely it’s possible for both your character and their persona to hit at the same time. This opens up the possibilities for big combos if executed successfully.

It’s also possible to disable an opponent persona by striking them. Do this enough and they will need to recharge before being used again. This gives a major advantage to the attacking player as it effectively cuts your opponents move list in half. 

The combat system is deep and will take a very long time to master. It is also not really comparable to other fighting game systems which means for hard core fight fans you are going to need to re-wire your brain to think in a new way in order to get the correct flow and timing. Luckily there is an extensive tutorial and challenge mode available to get you used to the new characters and the way the game works.

Hitting the square button continuously while your special bar is filled carries out an auto combo that leads into a super move. This may well be aimed at getting more casual players involved but it doesn’t really serve much of a purpose and can certainly end up being overused.

Something else that may need levelling out in an update is the ‘awakened’ mode that characters drop into when they fall below a certain amount of health. In our experience, both against the computer and other humans, this proved to be far too powerful. Opponents who simply weren’t in the contest suddenly managed to destroy our health bars, sometimes within seconds of awakening. We are all for leveling things up but we hate to think how this could be used by someone who had put hours into training.

The other thing that seemed to be slightly off was the games focus on trapping characters against walls. Again, whether playing against the computer or a human it seemed far too easy to be forced against the edge of the screen and simply be spammed over and over by the same cheap move (even the computer does this). The ability to attack as two separate characters often seemed to leave no way out.

We’re sure with training all these points can be counteracted but new comers to the genre may well be put off by the high entry level required to progress. That said, is Persona 4 Arena really the type of game that anyone other than a hard-core fan might buy? You could argue it isn’t. But then we can envisage a fair few RPG fans picking it up, maybe not that familiar with other fighting games, and being roundly ground into the dirt by it. 

This frustration is also compounded by the fact the standard PS3 pad doesn’t seem to be up to the input requirement needed. An arcade stick works fine but this is certainly the most precise input we have come across in any console fighting game. When a Street Fighter veteran can’t pull off a double fireball input every time you know something is a little off. Again, this may well be worked out in a patch but for now perfect precision is key.

Negatives aside, there is much to like about this. The story mode in particular captures much the same feeling as that of the original Persona 4. The story itself is interesting and told in a dedicated story mode where players will take control of each of the characters as the mystery unfolds.

There has also clearly been a lot of care and attention into making this game feel a part of the Persona universe. All of the characters remain true to types and act in the way fans will expect. The presentation and art style is also of the highest of standards and ticks the boxes for both bringing up nostalgic memories of the original source material and excitement about seeing it used in a new way.

The game does throw up some truly spectacular battles as well. When you find a character you’re comfortable with and get to grips with the game system it really does open up into a veritable wealth of different attacking options. It certainly isn’t lacking in flashy special moves either and at times things can become a blur of sparks and colour as characters and personas smash around on screen.

Chances are you already know if this game is going to appeal to you. This game will find fans with both Persona 4 players and gamers who spend their days mastering combos in Street Fighter, Blazblu and King of the Fighters. The fight engine is solid and the game is filled with charm. Be prepared to have to put the hours in though, this is a game that needs to be mastered in order to get the most out of it. 

8/10

The Midnight Channel is calling you.

 

Monday 06/05/2013