1. No Random Battles

The number of RPG’s still employing the archaic genre convention of random encounters seems to have decreased dramatically over the past decade, and Persona 4 makes the final case against them. While there was a time when I thought the absence of random battles in Japanese RPG’s would be the end of the genre itself, planned encounters significantly decrease frustration in a game where even simple encounters can be challenging. Even though the Dungeons in Persona 4 are little more the randomly generated corridors, the option to try and sneak by enemies or face them head feels much more rewarding then having to go into a battle every 6 steps.

2. Crafting System That Makes Sense

Lots of RPG’s these days have interesting and thoroughly deep crafting systems that I usually don’t even pay attention too because of their inherent complexity. Persona 4 remedies this usually bothersome system by simply giving crafting materials as rewards for battling which in turn are sold to a vendor in town who automatically creates new items and places them in his store for sale.

3. A Silent Hero With Personality

While I suppose this is a moot point as you are supposed to be Persona 4’s protagonist, however the way in which the localization team at Atlus seemed to mould the hero’s personality is nothing short of amazing. Instead of being annoyed by sprawling text conversations, I found myself enjoying the way in which I, as the hero, interacted in the group dynamic. Persona 4’s dialogue isn’t quite the best in the industry, but for having such consistency over an immensely large game is an accomplishment in itself.

4. A Fast and Dynamic Battle System

With normal battles ranging anywhere from 15 seconds to a minute, Persona 4’s battle system is quick and to the point. By using both team attacks as well as strength and weakness effects for extra turns, a turn based battle system has never been so much fun. By creating such a refined system, grinding isn’t a bother and is almost something you begin to look forward to.

5. The Social Link System

The social link system (although difficult to thoroughly explain) boils down to being a way to boost your Persona’s (The entity through which you use your skills in battle) level through interactions with NPC’s found throughout the world. As you continue to spend time with certain characters you earn experience buffs associated with their archetype of persona. While this may seem like a really strange system it is actually one of the most rewarding additions to an RPG as it adds both a way of expanding the story and giving you measurable rewards for spending time away from battle.

6. The First game with an artificial time limit that benefits from it.

Persona 4 operates on the basis of a year calendar allowing a player to choose what and when they do certain tasks. Be it exploring and leveling in the current dungeon, or strengthening your social links with certain characters, Persona 4 doesn’t tell you what to do. Although certain tasks need to be completed by certain dates, it helps keep the game focused making these tasks all that more fulfilling.

7. Voice Acting that Doesn’t Make me want to Kill Myself

Voice acting in Japanese RPG’s often tends to be the vocal equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard but Persona 4 manages to avoid this pitfall with relative ease. Certainly there are some questionable actors, but as a whole Persona does more right then wrong. Even if you find a character’s voice that you can’t stand, 99% of the dialogue can be skipped through making it the best of both worlds.

8. An RPG that didn’t go to the Square-Enix school of storytelling

While I enjoy post apocalyptic space dramas and the occasional airship, it is refreshing to play an RPG where none of these usual staples show up. Persona 4 takes many RPG story clichés and leaves them behind, forging an interesting story that is the better for it. Much like how Earthbound on the Super Nintendo was a radical departure for RPGs at the time, Persona creates a world that feels real allowing the player to actually relate to what is happening. I have never been on a space ship, but I sure have been in a high school classroom.

9. The Ability to play from 10 minutes to 3 hours

With tons of ways to save your progress and leave dungeons at any time, Persona 4 has an almost handheld like quality that is desirable in an RPG. With contemporary RPG’s playing for 10 or 15 minutes often seems pointless, but no matter how long your play session is with Persona it is easy to progress both the story and your level in short amounts of time.

10. Price

With the PS2 nearing its viability as a console, Persona proves that there are still quality titles coming out at this stage. Providing such a long game for a budget price (40 dollars) allows Persona to feel like a bargain in comparison to some of the 6 hour current generation titles. While not quite as tight of an experience as Persona 4, Persona 3:FES (Which come with both the Original and Expansion) is also only 30 dollars so for just about the price of an Xbox 360 or PS3 title you can have well over 120 hours of playtime, and if that isn’t getting bang for your buck, I don’t know what is.

-Eric Wall

Tags: Persona 4, PS2, RPG, SMT, Value

Subscribe to the Check Your HUD RSS Feed