When reflecting upon the current generation of consoles I cannot escape the haunting feeling that RPGs, as a gaming genre, is steadily withering away. It’s been some 3 ½ years since the Xbox 360 heralded in the arrival of the “next-gen”. Since then, store shelves have been inundated by hoards of shooters and mini-game compilations while there have been fewer RPGs released than eggs in a carton. There may be plenty of reasons why, including the skyrocketing costs of game development or shifts in gaming culture, but that’s a topic for another article. The point that I’m trying to get across here is that, from my point of view, the present state of the genre is disheartening while the future is lit only by a few faint glimmers of hope (known more commonly as Final Fantasy XIII and White Knight Chronicles). But that’s precisely why I’m glad that Persona 4 came along.

Developed by Atlus, Persona 4 follows a year in the life of the Main Character (whom you name), a seemingly ordinary Japanese high-school student. Upon the departure of his parents overseas for work, he moves to the sleepy country town of Inaba to live with his uncle. The adventure begins, innocently enough, with an urban legend circulating around school that you’ll see your soul mate if you watch TV at the strike of midnight on a rainy evening. Suddenly, a string of murders leads to the discovery of a hidden world inside TVs. It quickly becomes apparent that the rumor, killings, and TV world are somehow connected. The local police are powerless leaving only you and your new friends to solve the mystery and catch the killer.

It’s tempting to describe Persona 4 as a RPG mashed together with a Japanese style dating/social simulation as the gameplay is neatly divided between those two genres. But, in fact, they’re beautifully integrated in an interesting and purposeful way. Inside the TV world you’ll encounter all the trappings of a traditional RPG: dungeons to explore and monsters, called Shadows, to fight. Combat is turn-based and heavily involves the strategic use of physical and magical skills. These skills are granted from and used by summoning a Persona.

Personas are like guarding beings unique to each individual and a reflection of their personality. As you earn exp, they become more powerful and learn new skills. Aside from the main character, each playable character has only one. The main is special in that he can “carry” up to 12 at once and change which one is equipped at the start of each turn. New ones are obtained from battle, or by fusing two or more together. Fused personas will also inherit skills from those fused to create them, allowing some customization of their abilities. Players are spoiled for choice, as there are over 170 useable personas arranged into 22 arcana or types.

While these features alone could constitute the bulk of any other game, what makes the Persona series unique is the way in which social simulation mechanics are structured around the RPG elements. The passage of game time emulates daily life. Most days begin with you waking up and heading off to school. While at school, there may be dialogue events or you may be asked a question in class otherwise time skips directly to the end of the school day. Typically you can spend this time any number of ways including working part-time jobs, exploring the TV world or, more importantly, building social links. They’re the relationships you can build with your fellow persona-users and other secondary characters. Inviting friends to lunch or hanging out after class triggers brief events that earn relationship points. Once enough points have been accumulated, the next event is more specific, revealing more about the character, allowing you to earn more points depending on your dialogue responses and leveling up the link. Links max out at level 10 and are essentially little mini-dramas. There are a wide variety of social links you can build. Beyond the primary cast, who are an eccentric enough bunch on their own, there’s also the young mother, naughty nurse and an apron wearing fox to name a few. There’s also a fair selection of possible girlfriends like the tomboy, the snooty rich girl or the former pop idol.

Rather than just being an interesting diversion from dungeon crawling, social links have a direct impact on you fighting capabilities. At certain link levels other persona-users will gain extra combat abilities such as follow-up attacks, taking mortal blows for the Main Character or curing status ailments. All 21 possible social links are also tied to one of the 22 arcana or person types. When creating a new persona using fusion, it gains bonus exp based on the level of the link with corresponding arcana. But aside from relationship building, there are an astounding number of things to do in your spare time or in the evening before bed. There are part-time jobs, a restaurant to eat at, books to read, studying and fishing. Most of these activities either reward you with items to use in the TV world, money or improve your personality stats, which are often requirements to initiate certain social links. Ultimately though, both areas of gameplay are fun, entertaining and time spent between the two is well balanced.

Persona 4 also has one of the most cohesive presentations I’ve seen in a while, with themes of a dark TV fantasy world, humour and Jungian psychology permeated throughout. The menu graphics and interface use a cheery pallet of yellows and oranges with effects reminiscent of TV colour bars. While in the TV world, the edges of the screen blur with light static and some Shadows and dungeons parody pop culture. But the strongest thread that dissects the game is the influence of analytic psychology. The arcana that are used to categorize personas are taken from the 22 trump cards from tarot, many of which symbolize common archetypes. The personas themselves are primarily based on prominent figures from world religions, mythology, folklore and the occult. Often the personas within a given arcana are merely different examples of the same archetype only from different cultural traditions. Without giving too much away, these themes touch upon the very nature of the TV world itself.

On the more sensory oriented side of its presentation Persona 4 delivers appropriately styled graphics for its genre and platform. It’s nothing technologically stellar by today’s standards but nice looking nonetheless. Musically the game is top notch, with a soundtrack full of catchy blends of techno, pop, rock and opera. The OST that comes free with each copy is a superb bonus and has quickly become one of my favourites. As well, the English voiceovers are of above average quality with only a few poorly performed characters. Kudos, too, to the localization team as they did a remarkable job translating the humour while trying to preserve the dialogue’s original meaning. Some of the Japanese vocabulary is left intact as well along with the addition of a glossary of Japanese terms to the back pages of the manual; both well appreciated by us anime nerds.

So what I’m really trying to say is…

If you love RPGs, have a PS2 or even a 1st generation PS3 with backwards compatibility, this game is a must-have. There is a huge amount of content, great cast of characters, loads of humour, phenomenal music (plus a free copy of the sound track), good voice acting and a style executed from beginning to end. My only complaints are that the dungeons tended to be quite small, minimalist in terms of textures and easily explored in less than 15 minutes if there weren’t enemies to fight. Those who’ve already decided that they won’t like the social simulation part of the game should avoid this one, as it is as significant as the RPG elements in content and required investment of time.

Persona 4 completed in 115 hours with persona compendium 65% unlocked. It is currently available for $49.99 CND (includes soundtrack).