Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4

There comes a point at the very end of nearly every console's lifespan where the console is about to die, having been supplanted by the next generation.  Unwilling to go gentle into that good night, the console proves it's still got some fight left, screaming its defiance at the millions of arrows streaking at it by releasing one last final amazing game, one that stands as not only the last great game on that console, but one of the best releases on that console ever.  For the SNES, it was probably Kirby Dreamland 3 or Terranigma.  For the N64 it was somewhere around Paper Mario (which is totally underrated and everyone should go play if they haven't yet).  And now, for the PS2, it is Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4.

It is with some sadness that I write this, because in my opinion the PS2 was not only the greatest console of the last generation, it was quite possibly the greatest console ever.  However, as times change and consoles move on, we do have to say goodbye, and it is only fitting that we send it out with not only a bang, but a veritable 21 gun salute.  Atlus have created a game that I have had more fun playing that any current-gen release, which is saying quite a lot considering I enjoyed the hell out of games like Left 4 Dead, Gears 2, and Fallout 3.  However, Persona 4 not only wins because it is a ton of fun to play, but also because it manages to tell a deep, thoughtful story, despite a semi-weak ending and the occasional Engrish slipup.

I started this having never played a Persona game before, but this is not an issue: Persona 4 uses completely new characters and a new setting.  You play as a high school student, whom you can name yourself but whom many people on this site know and love as Charlie Tunoku.  Charlie's been kicked to the curb by your parents and sent to the countryside to live with your detective uncle and his adorable daughter for a year.  Fortunately for Charlie (and you), however, the game gets a lot more interesting very quickly when dead bodies start popping up around town dangling from telephone wires.  Charlie, aided by his new friends, the hapless yet lovable loser Yosuke and the tomboy Chie, decide to try and get to the bottom of these kidnappings.  The plot is difficult to explain without giving too much away, but I can say this much - Charlie and his friends end up fighting enemies called Shadows in an alternate world in an attempt to rescue the killer's victims before they are killed by their innermost fears and insecurities made manifest, and they fight the shadows using Personae - the "facade used to overcome life's hardships", or, if you will, the physical manifestation of that force within us that keeps us going when life gets us down, allows us to tough out hard times, and sees us through to a brighter tomorrow.

It's ambitious, certainly, and it could have gone horribly wrong, but Atlus knew what they were doing, and they made the story succeed by crafting a cast of completely believable and real characters.  Before a character joins your party, they have to acquire their Persona by facing down and defeating their own Shadow, that part of themselves that they hide from the world around them and pretend doesn't exist.  Because each character has different insecurities and emotional complexes, the bosses are varied and interesting, and the game keeps you guessing on what is going to happen to each victim of the Shadow World.  A juvenile delinquent who hates girls and secretly likes sewing is questioning his own sexuality and trying to hide the softer side of him behind a tough guy facade, while a teen pop idol who is tired of being treated as a sex symbol and a celebrity has to confront the part of her that secretly enjoys being treated as a sex object.  A mysterious creature with no memory of his past has issues discovering who he really is and what his purpose in life is.  It's all told in a very mature thoughtful way that doesn't shy away from being NPC or risque, while avoiding the usual throw-as-much-shock-value-in-as-possible mentality that plagues most M-rated games.  That alone should warrant it consideration.

Gameplaywise, it plays a lot slower than your average game, and even a bit slower than most RPGs.  Your time is split more or less evenly between dungeon crawling in the Shadow World, and building social links, stats, and advancing the story in the real world.  Atlus made the ballsy decision of making a full, 2-hour long intro sequence that basically sets the entire premise up for you, tells you exactly what you need to do, and ensures you are totally familiar with how the game works before setting you loose in the world.  On one hand, its a lot of cutscenes and pressing the X button to advance dialogue, but on the other, it's very interesting, and it serves to get you totally ready for the game itself so you aren't overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff to do.  In the real world, you are generally building your social links, which improve your allies' abilities in combat as well as the Personae you can summon.  When you aren't building your SLinks, you're raising stats - not normal RPG stats, but stats like Courage, Knowledge, Diligence, and other things a highschool student would normally have.  The stats, in turn, help you improve your SLinks (some links require your stats to be at a certain level before you can develop them).

Once you enter the Shadow World to rescue someone, the game shifts from life sim to dungeon crawl.  The dungeons are randomly generated, but never too long, and while the enemy models do repeat, they are varied enough and look cool enough for me not to care.  The battle system is turn-based and centered around exploiting weaknesses - if you hit an enemy with an attack it is weak against, they are knocked down and you get to go again, and if you knock them all down you can bum-rush them all for a ton of damage.  The catch is your characters have strengths and weaknesses too, and enemies can take advantage of the same rules you can - they smack your weakness and they get another turn to mess you up.  The game has hit that perfect balance where you are always challenged in the dungeon you are currently in, but there is almost never a time when you need to go back and grind levels somewhere.  I had to go grind precisely twice over the course of my 68-hour playthrough, which is an incredible achievement.  Boss fights are great battles of endurance - the bosses look awesome, are interesting, and each plays just differently enough to keep you on your toes.  One final thing about the combat - Persona 4 also manages somehow to make status-altering skills worthwhile.  Anyone else who played Pokemon ditch stupid attacks like Tail Whip in favor of more damage dealing skills?  That won't fly in P4.  You need the ability to drop enemy attack and defense as well as raise your own, otherwise you are going to get stomped, especially in boss fights.  Hell, even the ability to guard and reduce damage can save your life.  Overall, the combat is varied, challenging, fun, deep.  It's like the tagline for that boardgame Othello - a minute to learn, a lifetime to master.

Of course, not everything is perfect in Persona 4-land.  The graphics, quite obviously, are not up to next-gen standards.  Atlus has mitigated this somewhat by giving Persona 4 a fantastic art style and throwing in some well-drawn anime cutscenes and manga portraits whenever possible, but the 3D animations are fairly wonky and can look downright hilariously bad at times.  In addition, while the English voice acting is mostly decent, a couple characters sound ridiculous, and some bad Engrish translations can lead to hilarity (case in point, when a basketball player, attempting to explain why he takes such good care of his equipment, says, straight up, "I looooooove them balls."  Whoops).  These flaws are minor, however, and really do not detract from the overall experience at all.

Persona 4 is also intended for every gamer - it's probably too slow paced for hardcore shooter fans, and the depth and level of strategy will definitely scare off casual gamers.  However, if you like Shin Megami Tensei games, RPGs in general, or your curiosity has been piqued by Jeff and Vinny's Endurance Run, I would highly recommend this stellar example of what can be created when a developer creates a good, thoghtful, mature story, backs it up with very solid gameplay mechanics, and releases it as the last hurrah for a great system.  The PS2's swan song it may be, but oh, what a song it is.