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Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4System: PS2
Price: 39.99
Genre: Japanese RPG
The game contents:- A copy of Persona 4.
- A bundled soundtrack. 24 tracks are included on the disc.
- If you place a pre-order at Gamestop you can recieve Persona 4 Visual Data -- an official art book full of sketches, character designs, and art.*
* - Whether or not the artbook will delay Persona 4 has not been determined, but it's not out yet until it's in our hands.
I also highly recommend this:
For any Megaten player, Double Jump guides are always a life saver. Time is put heavily into trying create the best guide possible rather than fill it up with a bunch of pretty pictures -- although those are there too. Even if you rarely use guides for help like me, Double Jump's SMT guides are invaluable if only for their Fusion Charts and Guides.
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What's the story in Persona 4?--------------------------------------
Persona 4 revolves around a series of murders that have occurred in the town of Inaba. At the same time, you and a group of peers from school have strange powers awaken inside. You and your team mates decide to attempt stopping these murders with your newly received powers, both of which appear to be connected.
The game summary on various websites and reviews gives me personally, a Persona 2: Eternal Punishment vibe. Which is good. The soundtrack sounds like old Persona as well. Which is good.
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I didn't play Persona 3, would this be a good starting point for playing the series?-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Every Persona game aside from the two connected Persona 2's has its own self contained story. At most, and this is a guess, the only thing you'll miss are a couple of tie-ins that may be explained through the game anyway.
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I haven't played Persona 3, what's it like?-------------------------------------------------
Persona is a spin off series to the Shin Megami Tensei series developed by Atlus R&D1. This entry in particular bases most of its gameplay around the framework created in Persona 3, which was a drastic change from the typical Persona formula.
The game followed a sim-like structure, with multiple periods during the day. You go to school, chat and hang out with friends, and kill demons at night time. The game used a unique system for npc interaction system called Social Links which were essentially the bread and butter of the level up system.
Bosses appear only on specific dates, and it's up to you and your party to prepare for the upcoming boss by completing specific increments of a large tower called Tartarus. It's important to stay on top of your game before these nights so you can be prepared for the upcoming battle.
The unique mix of day (social links, stat maxing) and night (battling in the tower), and calendar system helped create an addicting formula that had players pining for "One more day..." in the wee hours of the morning.
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There have been two releases of Persona 3 in the past year. What is so different in Persona 4?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The graphics are not only better the art direction appears to be more cinematic, featuring fancy camera angles to help the game world come alive:
- There are three difficulties unlocked from the beginning: Beginner, Normal, and Expert. This sounds great especially for those who want a higher difficulty.
- The difficulty has been increased, highly apparently.
- S. Links are back, and there's more emphasis on the Social Links of your team mates rather than random npcs. This includes male team mates.
- Female S. Links branch into 'Friend' or 'Girlfriend' branches. So those who feel uncomfortable can make them just friends. I'm definitely going that route.
- S. Links have a larger impact on gameplay this time around. Some will take a blow for the main character if their S. Link level is high enough.
- You have the option to fully control your entire party in Persona 4. For people like me who didn't have much of a problem with P3's AI settings and felt it helped make the fight pacing so much more natural, you have the option to use AI in P4 as well. Everybody wins.
- A whole bunch of refinements to the battle system, including a guard function which changes a weakness element to normal damage. You don't lose a turn when knocked down, but getting hit with a weakness while knocked down puts you in a state that will waste a turn.
- Instead of having one, concentrated multi-level dungeon in a roguelike fashion, Persona 4 features multiple dungeons with their own themes, central to the story.
- Persona 4 features a weapon crafting system, and if you like weapon crafting as much as I do, that should be a welcome addition.
- The pacing for the game is much more frantic. While Persona 3 was relaxing since you only had to fight one boss a month and always had an infinite amount of time to grind or get prepared for the upcoming battle the night before the Full Moon, in Persona 4, the cycle is entirely based around the weather which is far more random and less routed in the pattern used in Persona 3.
- You have a finite amount of days one can clear a dungeon. If you are unable to slay the boss in x amount of days the game is instantly over. You can go back a week before you fight the boss to prepare better, creating a better battle plan along the way.
- No more Fuuka.
- The game has more content. There's way more to do. Mini games such as fishing exist.
- You no longer get tired, so people who were bothered by that should be quite happy. This should ease off stress while crawling.
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Wow! Why should I buy this over the other games released this fall/winter?--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Persona 4 is the sequel to the game of the year 2007! It also costs 40 dollars and not 60.
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Media-----------
Images
VideosGame IntroCan you ride a bike and carry an umbrella at the same time?Exploration trailer---------------
Reviews---------------
TheTrin's *excellent* review1upRPGFan
