Play Persona 4! It’s Addictive. at Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

Play Persona 4! It’s Addictive.

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Popularity: 6% [?] Published by tj_han June 18th, 2009 in Games

In recent years, there’s been an increasingly wide division in styles between American and Japanese-made games. On one hand, we have the Halos, Gears of Wars, GTAs, where the main character is some gruff macho man who plunders the sandbox or shoots aliens, and across the Pacific, we have pretty boys dating pretty girls anime-style while saving the world one menu option at a time a la Persona, Final Fantasy, Suikoden etc.

Suffice to say, the former category really does not interest me in the least. In fact, the only American games I’ve enjoyed in the past few years were Plants vs Zombies and Team Fortress 2! Most of the other games I’ve played or am playing are Japanese, and almost all have anime in them. This is a sign of the times, with anime becoming really popular and mainstream, and is a hugely effective and way cheaper alternative to CGI cutscenes. While the expensively-produced likes of MGS4 are wowed at, their prohibitive costs push Japanese developers back to using good old anime for cutscenes. And honestly, a well animated anime is just probably just as good as a fancy CGI scene for story-telling purposes.

As you all might know, my brother bought a PS3 and I bought a HDTV a while back. It’s currently his block leave from the army, so he’s playing Disgaea 3 on the PS3. I took out the dusty PS2 and decided to start on Persona 4, which I never did get to play during my school term. It’s awesomely addictive and I can spend up to 12 hours without leaving my seat, and in fact, when it rains in the game, I actually forget that it’s sunny outside in the real world.

Basically, the game is a mix of RPG, dating simulator and trivia quiz! I’ve learnt how to make sushi and many other obscure Japanese foods, learnt world history and real science etc via the many situations that pop up. Since it’s a anime-styled dating sim, there are hotties of course, and the obligatory fanservice episodes involving the bikinis, pageants and girlfriends stayovers. The BGMs are not epic like the FFs, but all Jpopish full songs with lyrics, which are nice as well.

The only problem is the lack of space on the PS2 DVD to store the original Japanese voices, and I’m stuck with the English ones, which are decent but nowhere as good as the Jappy ones which feature the likes of Horie Yui, Paku Romi and Kugimiya Rie. Horie voices Chie, who’s sort of like Minorin from Toradora.

There’s also tonnes of Persona 4 doujin if you’re into those things. I checked Fakku.net haha!

I also mentioned a while back that I was playing Valkyria Chronicles. I’ve since finished it, the DLC is way too expensive to purchase so I’m probably not getting them. And I quit playing MGS4 cos I got pissed off at missing too many secrets and items without referring to FAQs.

I thereby conclude that the most enjoyable games these days are all anime-styled ones. Are there any others you guys would like to recommend me?

Btw, my favourite Persona 4 girl is Naoto, followed by Chie.

Popularity: 6% [?]

18 Responses to “Play Persona 4! It’s Addictive.”

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1 Fabio 8 comments Jun 18th, 2009 at 7:47 am

Persona 2, 3 and 4 are awesome.

If you want something more “nice”, go get Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne.
2 super rats 105 comments Jun 18th, 2009 at 8:07 am

I’m going through P4 myself. It’s eating up all my anime watching time, which isn’t a bad trade. I find the menu based games like P4 relaxing, because they’re very easy so it’s almost like watching tv, a very passive experience (you nominally provide input) that I almost don’t think of it as a game.
3 SnooSnoo 175 comments Jun 18th, 2009 at 10:47 am

The problem for me is where to get P4. The PS2 is sitting in the living room collecting dust.
4 tragic comedy 47 comments Jun 18th, 2009 at 10:48 am

i like P3, personally.
5 bp 2 comments Jun 18th, 2009 at 12:44 pm

>>The only problem is the lack of space on the PS2 DVD to store the original Japanese voices,

That’s why you get a modded PS2 and hunt for the undub version
6 DKellis 15 comments Jun 18th, 2009 at 3:06 pm

I’ve not played P4 yet, but I found myself oddly addicted to P3FES. Currently trying to get all social links maxed (on a New Game Plus) to get Orpheus Telos, although I may be burning out since everyone is already level 99 and days without social link opportunities are spent wondering whether to laze about at home or laze about in Tartarus.
7 sentinel011 3 comments Jun 18th, 2009 at 3:34 pm

Slow.
8 Tasaio 3 comments Jun 18th, 2009 at 3:46 pm

I played it a few months ago, and it really is addictive! Really loved the whole game, 10/10.

Since I played it in English, I consider getting it in Japanese and replay it…

As people seem to be thinking Persona 3 is as good as Persona 4, I might start that as well!
9 tj_han 1442 comments Jun 18th, 2009 at 3:53 pm

But the English language versions are all dubbed right?

The dubbing is super weeaboo too, with words like sempai, san, chan and all that untranslated the way fans like it.

Also, sentinel, not everyone is as NEET as you to have so much time to play games, lucky you.

bp: I have a modded ps2, and I didn’t actually buy the game.
10 Kairu Ishimaru 13 comments Jun 18th, 2009 at 4:21 pm

Youre late dude.
What? What about Yukiko!?
11 Nephillim 5 comments Jun 18th, 2009 at 5:34 pm

@ tj_han: Correct as far as the official English versions are concerned, but the undub (being a fanmade mod) is a swapout of the Eng dubbing with the JP files.

@Kairu Ishimaru: ….. but her blushing face is a bit on the creepy side.
12 tj_han 1442 comments Jun 18th, 2009 at 9:37 pm

Indeed, I don’t find her very pretty, she’s decent at best in the animations but her character art just sucks.
13 Kherubim 32 comments Jun 18th, 2009 at 9:57 pm

I got pissed off with MGS4 because of Kojima’s cod-philosophy, by gawd, that man’s even more pedantic than Nasu… Fortunately there’s an option to cut out the ultra long inane cutscenes…

I’m rather annoyed with the two standardised archetypes in video games these days, in one corner, representing the games of the US and Europe, is the pin headed steroid fuelled space marine, fed on a diet of raw beef and macho BS. In the other corner is the wangsty emo-pretty boy often found in Japanese games. I just can’t take games with these archetypes as player characters anymore, which is why I now play racing games…

Btw, have you played Okami?
14 sentinel011 3 comments Jun 19th, 2009 at 11:28 am

tj_han>

Even ume completed it a couple of months before you. And she’s not NEET.
15 H4kuro 4 comments Jun 19th, 2009 at 11:31 am

I call shenanigans. Wols.
16 tj_han 1442 comments Jun 19th, 2009 at 4:52 pm

What! Even a girl defeated me by completing a game earlier?? What is the world coming to? Ok next time a game gets released, I’ll buy it from Japan and then complete it within 20 hours so sentinel can be pleased.

Alternatively, I can actually you know, get on with life and play it during my free days. But no, I wouldn’t want to offend sentinel’s otaku pride. After all, RPGs are like fruits, they spoil if you don’t play them as fast as you can right?
17 GlenGrimLoch 12 comments Jun 22nd, 2009 at 1:16 am

Meh can’t say I’m in the same boat. I truly enjoy anime and manga far more than any other Western comic book/graphic novel (with some exceptions - Art Spiegelman etc.) and cartoons, but certainly prefer Western games and music over the Japanese ones. I’m rarely capable of enjoying J-Rock and J-Pop lolz.
18 Dylan White 1 comment May 13th, 2010 at 7:45 am

my favorite character on the Plants Vs. Zombies game is none other than the Michael Jackson zombie.;.”

Do not use any < and > for your own sake. It will end the comment there and then. Also, there is an automatic IQ filter which weeds out comments made by those who accidentally got transported from the stone age.

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