Personae, Social Links and Teddie bears oh my!
Persona 4 takes place in the exact same world in the year 2011, a year after the events of Persona 3. This will be made evident at some point in the game, I assure you. The location is a rural town called Inaba where you, the main character or protagonist or whatever the heck you wanna call him (Lord Hufflepuff Grundlefinger if you so please), is picked up by his uncle who happens to be a detective and his daughter who... happens to be your cousin... duh. You roll into town and go to school like a good high schooler should. You get the chance to make friends and get jobs and join sporting teams and clubs (these are the basis of your social links). In case you have no clue what a social link is let me break it down really quickly.
The Persona series is based on two things. Persona, which are basically the entities that are bottled up in humans and can fight for them and give them strength. I won't say any more because that ruins part of the mystery in the Persona series. Social Links are essentially mini stories where your character makes friends and acquaintances (the metaphysical meaning of why it's important is eventually explained, but again I won't say why). Besides being cool to watch and making you care about characters, your social links can infuse your Persona you fuse (this is done in a place called the Velvet Room, which you will be introduced and explained in game which I won't go into detail). The stronger your friendship with someone, the more experience your persona will gain when being made. In the end game we are talking 250,000+ experience for a maxxed social link, or in other words, something on the order of 1000 fights to gain that experience manually.
So it's worth pursuing Social Links on more than one level. This time, unlike in Persona 3, the majority of your social links are your actual team mates, ranging from the tomboy Chie, to the hardworking anti-Junpei, Yosuke, to the questionable sexuality but ever so awesome Kanji, the odd sense of humor laughing machine Yukiko, the stuffed bear Teddie, the pop idol Rise and the detective "Prince" Naoto. Each of their social links gives rise to a great story and their inner turmoil is exposed to the player, acting as a microcosm of the human condition. However, the most important aspect of your in game partners being your social links is that the further you progress the more in game combat abilities they gain. This ranges from follow up attacks, to assisting downed allies to transforming their Persona into a more powerful (in a few cases, no elemental weaknesses) version.
In addition to the team mates in combat, your social club and sporting event groups and jobs provide additional bonuses. These include money/gifts, or stat increases. You have 5 stats instead of 3 from Persona 3. These stats need to be increased from either studying, doing a job, hanging out at basketball or soccer, tutoring, etc. Oddly enough, to participate in some social links or chose certain dialogue options, you have to have enough of a stat like Courage or Expression in the first place. Needless to say, you will have plenty of options to increase stats throughout your time in Inaba.
Having explained the majority of how the social links and bonuses work in Persona 4, let's get back into the story. A few days into the school year, you start hearing a rumor about the "Midnight Channel". Turn on the TV during a rainy night and you will see someone. Eventually, this rumor becomes truth and bizzarre murders take place. When one of the murders hits close to home, the team assembles and tries to figure out what happens. The heroes eventually find out they have the ability to enter into the TV, which is where the combat takes place.
Combat is very similar to Persona 3 in terms of the skill names, persona abilities, elemental weaknesses, all out attacks etc. The two major differences are this. The "1 more" system works the same in that one hit with the weakness of the target or a critical hit will knock that target down, and allow you to attack again. But if you do not follow up the attack, the character or enemy will not remain down for their turn and miss that turn unlike in Persona 3. This time, you must hit the downed opponent again to make them dizzy. This adds a bit of balance to the game and takes some of the cheapness off.
Know how the protagonist dies = game over? That still holds true, but there are actually 2 major caveats here. Homunculi are still around. But that's not it. Remember how I said social link increases with your combat teammates help? Well your allies can take a mortal blow for you at social link rank 9. Can't tell you how many times I've been saved by that. What does that say? Increase your combat party social link as a priority and early.
But the most sweeping change to Persona 4 is simply this, you have the option of putting each character into manual mode. Yes, you can control your entire party as if they were the protagonist. No more waiting for that diarama you wanted. Yosuke, cast Masukukaja, Chie Power Charge now, etc. No leaving stuff up to a nebulous AI script. This makes the game much easier if you are a competent player, but then, the normal difficulty was increased to somewhere between Persona 3's Journey and Answer.
After the 2nd boss, I never lost a battle again due to my prowess at the game (and incessant need to breed better Persona).
Like Persona 3, the day is broken up into morning, and sometimes classes/lectures/quizzes, then lunch, then afternoon classes, then after school. After school is when you enter the TV, as opposed to night for the Dark hour in Persona 3. Evening time is when you can study, do jobs, a few social links, fish or read or cook lunch (eating lunch with a friend boosts their social link points, sort of like having the same arcana of that social link gives you more points).
Instead of getting tired like in Persona 3 and limiting your time in the Midnight Channel (which oddly enough is accessible in the middle of the day), you cannot return to your base camp entrance and recover your SP. This can only be accomplished by asking the Fox to heal you (it's another social link worth investing in). About half way through the game you can complete each cycle in the Midnight Channel with one entrance with enough money or a high enough Fox social link. I'd suggest doing that if you are a power gamer and wish to max social links, seeing as the game runs on weather cycles. When it rains for more a while, the fog comes, and if the fog stays for 3 days or more, you will lose the mission as whoever is in the TV will die unless they are rescued. So again, balancing your time with exploring the TV, social links and jobs is of utmost importance. Almost every stat increasing action or exploratory action will advance your time in the day to the next section, so plan accordingly (Mind you this doesn't lock you in to a fixed schedule, but too much social links will not allow you to finish the rescue in time, or too much dungeon crawling will take away your days for social links).
Graphically Persona 4 is a step forward from Persona 3 in terms of the diversity of locales and how each Person's inner feelings influence their specific locale within the Midnight Channel. The same anime inspired 3D models as well as the 2D sprites in the dialogue are present. For a Playstation 2 era game, the graphics are still perfectly acceptable and still remain some of the most vivid and colorful on the market, but unless Persona 5 provides a major overhaul to the graphical aspects, this series will become a relic on a next gen console.
The soundtrack is dramatically different, shying away from hiphop and funk, but instead embracing a more traditional J-Pop style mixed with some hard rock reminiscent of Nirvana. Stand out tracks include "Signs of Love", "Your Affection", "Reach out to the Truth", "Heaven" and more. This is one of those soundtracks that I can listen to constantly and is also on my iPhone.
The voice acting is also superb in all aspects with one or two exceptions. Chie's voice actress sometimes sounds a little old for her part. Like you're to expect someone who sounds like a mid 30s woman to play a 16 year old high school girl? I mean I guess Chie is the self proclaimed awkward tomboy who likes steak and kung fu with a husky voice. Needless to say, some of the one liners delivered are nothing short of classic.
So after about 100+ hours of social link exploration, more twists and turns, an increasing body count and a seemingly unsolvable murder case, you and your friends overcome the mystery of the midnight channel, the identity of the true culprit and the even truerer identity of why everything is happening in the first place (unfortunately I have to say that the "True" ending is more of a cop out in the vein of Final Fantasy 9 and sort of feels tacked on). You will go on unforgettable campouts, visits to familiar places and meet familiar faces as well as participate in an event that rivals the infamous Yakushima Beach from Persona 3.
A worthy successor to the phenomenal Persona 3, don't miss this last hurrah on the Playstation 2.
Gameplay : 10 out of 10
Graphics : 8 out of 10
Sound : 9 out of 10
Value : 10 out of 10
Tilt : 9 out of 10
Overall : 9.0 out of 10
Good :
+ You can control everyone. Biggest improvement over Persona 3
+ Bonuses from social links enhance gameplay with combat partners
+ Great soundtrack and voice acting as usual.
+ Still a cast of amazing characters with an engaging story...
Bad :
- ... The ending sequence is a bit hollow and tacked on I think
- Graphics are "good" but cannot stay this way for ever
- The time commitment balancing might turn off some players as in Persona 3. However it is less stringent I believe in Persona 4.