Persona 4 is the JRPG I’ve Always Wanted, But Never Knew Existed

IGN: "A game that throws away the rulebook in an all-too stale genre. Better discovered late than never."

[jujubee88]

Keep the VITA hits coming, ATLUS!

[Snookies12]

Yeah, the Vita version has to be one of the highest rated games in a LONG time. It certainly deserves it too. Such a memorable game... I remember getting it on a whim back in the day on PS2. Never looked back, and it instantly solidified the Persona series as one of my favorites.

[jujubee88]

What other types of JRPG's do you like?

[ApolloTheBoss]

This was my second JRPG. I have to say that I made some good calls when it comes to buying incredible games I know absolutely nothing about. I bought it on sheer impulse and it's easily among my top 3 best games I've ever played. (Oblivion, P4G, and Ni no Kuni). And may I say that ALL of these games were bought on impulse and nothing more.

[Snookies12]

@jujubee88 - Final Fantasy used to be my all time favorite, though they've slipped since the Enix merger. Not saying they make "bad" games now, but not nearly what they used to be.

I love the Disgaea series, Tales of series, Ys series, Xenoblade was fantastic, Last Story was great, still love Kingdom Hearts despite it not having a console entry in ages (excluding 1.5 HD lol). I know there are some I'm forgetting, but I'm pretty dang tired. XD

[knifefight]

Persona 4, finally getting the respect it deserves, 5 years later.

[Baka-akaB]

mm ? it always had respect and success on ps2 too . Now of course it uses some added popularity via the anime too

[knifefight]

Review scores and the like are one thing, but I never heard this many people talking about Persona 4 back in 2008. It's on another level.

[Baka-akaB]

like i said it had more exposure via the anime . But the game had lots of popularity , just like persona3 .

The ps2 pretty much sold close to million , if not more by now , and easily half of that was from the west .

[Protagonist]

I believe the persona games especially Persona 3 Portable being released for the PSP has much to do with succes too.

[Kratoscar2008]

Nah the Mainline SMT series is better, Persona is good too butnot as the mainline series.

[Heisenburger]

What is a.... butnot?

[Kratoscar2008]

space bar problems i guess.

[overrated44]

I can't say this enough, and I'm sure I've said it more than a handful of times just on N4G comment sections...but as a 27 year old gamer that has played games since I can remember, after playing Persona 4 on the PS2 is became my favorite game of all time overtaking Final Fantasy VII (cliche I know). But the characters are some of the best in the business and the story always kept you wanting to know just what exactly was going to happen next. I should probably go start this game again, it's SO good.

[MelonSaurus]

It's the JRPG we deserve, but not the one we need right now.

[Blank]

Wrong comment persona always kept their identity considering the times but hey feel free to express your opinion all I know is that the persona series keeps evolving in a proper way look from the the ps1 days to the modern times the story isnt bound by time you can learn alot from persona but as for FF yeah great series but is a fantasy a good one except for now depending when you started but persona is in a way realistic idk but im a persona fanboy and thats my perception on the series

[MelonSaurus]

MFW Nobody got the reference... :/

Whatever, I'll just go back to playing Persona.

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

I dont have a vita yet but I am thinking of getting persona 3 FES on PSN whens summer starts.

[Bladesfist]

This is currently in the post and will be my first JRPG. It seems like I am discovering Japan at the moment after watching Spirited Away and another harder to type ghibli film.

[Protagonist]

You need Persona 3 Portable too. The story and gameplay is equal good as P4G ;))

[vickers500]

Personally I don't like it that much. P4G is my first and only game I've actually purchased for my vita (have a few through ps+), and I can't bring myself to play much more, let alone finish it.

The characters and dialogue are awesome, but the gameplay is starting to get really boring, and some of the restrictive scheduling the game imposes on you just annoys me(can't improve a social link at night time, what kind of crap is that).

Oh and the music, dear god the music. I initially liked the music, but with no option of turning it off, having to listen to the same f'ng town/store/school pop music for hours and hours, I grew to loathe it.

And there isn't really a good balance between the dungeons and the real world. Hour or two of stat boosting through friend hangouts, book reading, crane folding, etc. and then what seems like 3 and a half grueling hours of going through dungeon floors (random encounters are the biggest reason for this, but shouldn't be avoided because you need all the xp you can get).

And unless you're currently online (which I'm not the majority of time I did feel like playing the game), you never know who's available to hang out with, there's no in game list that tells you, so you have to check every area in the game just to see who all is available EVERY SINGLE TIME, and make your decision from there.

I regret paying full price for it, I should have waited for a price drop.

I don't think it's a bad game, I just don't think the gameplay is for me.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

I think those are some fair points.
I initially felt the same way a few hours into the game and I agree the music can get a little annoying sometimes when you've heard the same track for the millionth time.
You tend to get plenty of time to strike a balance with when you want to go into the dungeon for grinding and just hanging out with people improving social links and making some cash though. So the schedule thing just serves as a reminder of the initial deadline to go into the dungeon for the boss.

It used to bother me too but then I realised that I actually had quite a lot of time and didn't need to really worry about it.
Thing is though I really enjoyed the dialogue and loved the battle system so I would spend hours in a dungeon just because I was having fun finding different Persona's and mixing them up.

The story get's a lot better the more you play it, do you have Kanji in your party yet? I would say the game gets a lot better when he turns up and I recommend sticking with it to see if you change your mind. I certainly did and I'm glad I stuck with it.
Oh and just so you know you can go to the shrine at night time and improve a social link with somebody if you miss them in the day, costs you some yen though.

[vickers500]

Yeah, I think I put it down a little bit after I rescued Kanji.

The way currently play it, is spend all my time in the real world, doing everything I can do, until I absolutely have to go into the tv world, and then go into the tv world and plow through that. The tv world requires some VERY long gaming sessions if you do it all at once.

I've thought of doing just half of the floors, then going back to the real world and take a break, then go back later, but I'm not sure if you have to redo all those floors over again, because I know enemies respawn, but I don't know if you lose your ability to teleport to your last floor or not, and I'm not so good with time management, so it feels a lot safer to just get it out of the way all at once.

I wish there was a save point at the half way point of the dungeon levels, that way I could do half, take a break and put it down until the next (real) day and pick it back up and finish it.

Another thing, so far I don't see the need to use different personas. I've been using my parties physical attacks with a mix of elemental attacks from Izanagi and my parties personas, and they seem to be doing the job just fine. I'm hesitant to start using something else because what I'm using right now seems to be working just fine and I don't know if using a new fused persona will be much of an improvement.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

I think if you use the GOHO item to escape the dungeon next time you go there it will give you the option to resume from the floor you were on last or start at the bottom. So make sure you have enough of those in your inventory because they are very useful.
About the Persona's I played it safe using the same persona's for awhile but it is worth fusing them for something cooler (you also get to choose some ability's to pass on over from your previous Persona).
Just stick with it you might find yourself enjoying it a lot more than when you first started. If not though at least you gave it a good try and it's just not for you.

[Chrono]

This game is good but I don't consider it a traditional JRPG. It is a dungeon crawler with social simulation. I don't like it when it's compared with the other traditional JRPGs, because it's too different gameplay-wise. It is good for what it is.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

I just love the dialogue in this game, There have been moments when I literally burst out laughing because of something Kanji has said or done lol The camping trip had me smiling all the way through especially the scene at the waterfall.

[BlaqMagiq24]

I agree about the dialogue as well. This was so well done I really can't think of a lot of games that could top it in that area. Atlus made them sound like people you could actually hang out with.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

That's what I like about it too.
Some of the jokes are just really down to earth and I've missed that in JRPGs. I'm very impressed at how well it's all been translated to English too.

[souljah45]

Yeah same here Kanji is funny as hell

[Protagonist]

Been promoting the persona series for years now and with Persona 3 Portable being my favorite, I always recommend gamers getting it before Persona 4: The Golden.

[TheColbertinator]

Love Persona 4 to death.Great game.

[profgerbik]

I think the best part for me is how fluent the turn based combat system is. It makes the game really fun and almost seem as if it isn't turn based.

I have played many RPG's but not one with a turn based system this good, it is just laid out so well and so attractive that you can do skills in pretty fast succession.

[Luke_fon_Fabre]

I heard of it before I even played console-style RPGs that aren't Pokemon. I still haven't played it.