Persona 4 - The cure for insomnia

If you haven't read my Persona 3 post its right here:

http://theorycrafting.blogspot.com/2009/04/persona-3-destroying-world-with-apathy.html

First thing you are wondering is. If I hated persona 3 so much, why the hell would I want to play persona 4? Well, I'm asking the same question. I guess I'm just a masochist or I'm messed up and like to torture myself. I wasn't lied to this time to play this game. Where did I hear of this game? Well, I was telling someone about the horrible game that is Persona 3 when I saw Persona 4. I was laughing going what kind of horrible game has a sequel. Read the review saw a 9/10 and I was like what the hell? Well, if it makes you feel better, everyone who wrote that review is dead. They died of cancer from playing the game. Good going Persona 4.

Well it starts off just like Persona 3, in fact the whole game is exactly like Persona 3. It has the same cut-scenes, a whole new interface layout but very nicely done as usual. Probably the only good thing about Persona is the interface layout. Very artistic. Since I already have a Persona 3 post up and there is a lot of similarities I will not go into too much detail. The start is about the same you have someone sign a contract with you and you end up in the velvet room when you dream and you blah blah blah. Typical Persona stuff. One major thing you will notice at the very start of the game is that there is no lunar cycle for the calendar, instead its replaced with a forecast of the week. NOW THIS FORECAST THIS IS COMPLETELY RETARDED. Its confusing, It doesn't follow any pattern. They say when it rains, and you don't save the person in the midnight channel, they die and the game is over. Well it rains. A LOT. So what the hell? Do they die or not die? Well apparently, its only if it rains THROUGH THE NIGHT. which you have no idea of because in the afternoon/night you go out its still raining but once you go to sleep the rain suddenly stops? What?

Yeah about the story, you're this kid who came from the big city into a small town and you meet your uncle (detective) and cousin (elementary schooler) who you have to live with for an year for some unknown reason other than your uncle saying your mother insisted he take you in. There you meet a few people, Youske, which is like Junpei from persona 3. The comic relief guy. He happens to have a habit of getting hit in the balls. Ouch. Probably won't be having any kids in the future. Then you meet the two girls, Chie the tomboy who has a habit of kicking people in the balls, usually Youske, and Yukiko the quiet girl. And like Yukari in Persona 4, while everyone is wearing black school uniform these two wear red and green. So they really really stand out. No one else is wearing another color just those two. Why the inconsistencies?

Anyways right away you get thrown into a murder mystery. Wow! Isn't that great! A good story! Well, to tell you the truth. Yeah the story isn't half bad. MUCH better than Persona 3 and there aren't any emo things in the game at all. The whole game you're trying to solve a murder mystery while saving the victims and going to school at the same time. Unlike Persona 3 there isn't a tartarus or a big dungeon where there is like 300 floors to climb with 50 bosses. That's a major improvement because you won't have stupid stuff like going inside a dungeon dying and having to re-climb 20 floors and waste an hour of grinding. Instead you get small dungeon where you can leave and continue at where you left off anytime. Big improvement. The combat also is much better. Instead of you only controlling the main character, you can control your whole party now like any other jrpg.

Although combat is way better than in Persona 3 and the story is way better, the focus on the story and combat is less than in Persona 3. It seems like you have so much more free time to do whatever you want. Usually that means social links and raising your stats, (which there is 5 now instead of 3 by the way). This means you rescue someone early you will have like 20 more days until the next event. The date varies but its usually less than a month like persona 3 which is every 30 days on the spot. You will get a event and for the next few days you'll find another victim and you have to rescue them before they get murdered. While at the same time you're looking for clues to pinpoint the motive and the murderer. There are lots of fake clues and stuff and near the end if you pick the wrong choices you'll go into a bad ending.

Its a shame that they left so much free time. Like persona 3 you are just skipping days go to school come home go to sleep repeat for the week. Like come on, that's not playing the game. I know I just want to get to the end but is it so repetitive. Its like real life. Hell you know what I feel like when I play this game? I feel like if I was sitting in my Accounting class first thing in the morning. I can't keep my eyes open and I want to fall asleep so bad. THIS GAME IS THE CURE FOR INSOMNIA!

Instead of buying items this time, you get the shitty system of finding items drops from creatures and selling it to the shop to forge items with. Why the hell are all the games doing this nowadays? What happened to just going to a shop and buying an item? And who the hell sells swords, steel fans, metal claws, daggers, guns, metal chairs, steel boots to kids? And what kind of weapon is a fan? And how the hell do you make say a gun out of wooden parts you found from a table monster. Or a snake monster dropping body parts which turns into a giant katana. What the hell? Next time I'm going to a metalwork store and handing them chopped giant beetle parts and asking them to make a steel fan for me.

The characters are way better than Persona 3. Better development, no annoying voices and everything but there also seems to be a lot less focus on the characters. They did a better job but why do they have to keep everything to social links. I know a part of the game is to "date" people but half the time its annoying trying to find the right persona to have with you to gain better points and finding the right day so you can see that guy. One positive thing in Persona 4 though, is that the girls are much more aggressive. Good, I like aggressive girls. But they also don't give a crap when you date more than one girl at a time. Really? In persona 3 just talking to another girl while you're dating pisses them off to hell, but here you can be dating one girl and another girl invades on your date and chases the other one off and force you to go on a date with her instead. Damn, what a bitch. Anyways its pretty dumb and they focused on that way too much instead of the main game. The guys though, like persona 3 don't give a crap about anything.

Like persona 3, there is also some gay innuendo for your male social links. There's no guy telling you he dreams of you when he goes to sleep and when he closes his eyes its you he sees. What he hell, it reminds me of that Michelle Branch song. Anyways they seem to have changed it around. Now you get a "gay" guy (party memeber) running in a bath towel in a steamy bathhouse (dungeon) with lots of guys making gay sounds in the back and muscle men doing very gay poses with weird moaning. You know I think the Japanese has some kind of fetish of moaning muscle men. In Godhand you had to fight a pair of gay muscle men on your way into Elvis' club. These guys they seemed weak at the start but holy hell are they tough. Butt slam you and then crotch hump the air. And when you kick them in the balls they don't go apeshit like other male mobs they just continue beating you. Assholes. Back to persona 4, there is also a cross dressing contest. Yeah...

Sigh, it has the stupid school system and tests and quizzes and everything. Its exactly like persona 3. The questions are just as hard and you'll still need google to get the right answers. But just to turn up the shittiness, they decide that you will have annoying quests and cooking! Cooking isn't that hard if its something easy. Like for example Croquettes, and California rolls. You pretty much have to pick the right order on how to do things that's pretty easy. But once you get a food that's pure gibberish in Japanese you know you're fucked. Quests are annoying. Most quests involve, talking to someone who only shows up on certain days at certain places so you usually forget you have that quest unless you wander around the town EVERY SINGLE DAY talking to everyone. Then you have the collection quests where they want something but they can't find it. So they ask you who happens to be able to go into the other world and collect items from magical places. For example, a guy wants a crystal ball. Why? who knows. He will also say, "You might find one from some statue maybe in an area with an adult atmosphere?" Ok so you know where it is. It must be from the relic statues in Markuyu Stiptease. Yeah a striptease, I won't get into it so just use your imagination. So you go back and fight endless monsters until it appears and kill it hoping it'll drop. You go back give it to the guy now what. "Oh I want some blah blah blah you might find it from a table, maybe in a secret base?" WELL? HOW ABOUT FUCK YOU? Stupid quests.

One thing I also like to point out is a lot of options you can't pick because you don't have the stats to on your first play through. Like for example, you get to ask Chie and Yukiko for their numbers if you have a high enough courage if you started a second play through. But on your first you can't. WHY NOT!? Geez how much courage do you need to ask for their number. Not like it makes a difference because you can get their numbers from Youske later anyways. All you get is them being shy and then they give you. Another thing. Whats the deal with your cousin. She's like being modeled into a freaking housewife. I hate housewives. Freaking scary people.

Last but not least, you have riddle quests. These riddle quests are completely retarded. You get two groups, group a and group b. and the guy will give you 2 items in each group and give you a 5th item where you must guess which group it goes into and why.

Protractor is in group A
Alarm Clock is in group B

Basketball is in group A
Eggbeater is in group B

What group does Running shoes go into? and why?

Obviously this isn't the riddle but its similar. The answer is A and its human motion. What!?

Other than that its pretty much the same game repackaged into Persona 4. The persona are almost exactly the same. Some have different skills, some got rebalanced some changed Arcana entirely but 90% of them are exactly the same. Also they use the same creatures you find in Persona 3 in Persona 4. Exactly the same sprites but different names and colors. And some mini bosses are repeated as well. You fight the exact same boss in Persona 3 in Persona 4. The annoying table boss that does shit loads of damage. Except this time its way easier because of the better AI. Talking about difficulty, Persona 4 is MUCH easier than Persona 3. MUCH easier. Boss battles may be annoying but unlike Persona 3 there really isn't much strategy than keep your 3 turn defense/attack/hit/dodge buffs up the whole time and heal when low. Really? I know Persona 3 is hard but they made Persona 4 into a time wasting joke. But the thing is it may be easy but the fight isn't any shorter. It takes like half an hour each time you fight a boss. Annoying as all hell.

Don't get me started on the last boss. Its a joke in Persona 4. It doesn't do anything but spam the same moves over and over and over. Unlike Persona 3, it only took about an hour-ish to finally kill it. And it has 2 forms? Persona 3 you had to fight through like 13 forms before you reach the real one and each form has different skills and weakness/immunity and strategies. Took hours to kill that guy. I know it wasn't worth it but do they have to drag it on forever? Also they went WAY overboard with instant death in Persona 4. There is one dungeon where every mob spams instant death you enter combat you see 6 mobs each of them spams instant death. It works 100% of the time as well and once your main character dies its game over. So I kept dying and dying the second I get into combat. Also you can't just escape from combat. When you click escape, they go "ok let me find you an exit," and by the time you can escape, you are dead or your enemies are dead already so what is the point? So I ran past every single creature and went directly for the boss. I was 10 levels under the recommended level and I still beat him after many many tries. God. That place makes me sick. Heaven my ass, more like hell. Yeah the dungeon was Heaven.

Anyways, to summarize everything. This game sucks. Its like persona 3. It did better than persona 3 but that's not saying much. Anything can be better than persona 3. This is the type of game you should be ashamed of playing. Like you secretly play it alone without letting people know and people ask if you heard of persona you go "huh whats persona?" Yeah one of those games. Rhapsody: A musical adventure was one of those but unlike that, this game isn't cute, it isn't funny, it isn't fun at all! Once you play it you're infected with cancer as well! The end and I hope the cancer kills me fast.