Much of Persona 4’s success hinges on its fantastic writing, both for side characters and the main party. While there are desperate events happening in Inaba, Persona 4 makes sure to give you time to relax and take a breather. One of the unique things about the series is its mix of social sim and dungeon crawling. The game truly gives you freedom by letting you choose how you want to take time off, and more importantly giving you that time off.
Hang out with friends, work a job, read a book to boost your stats, explore, or more. There are so many options available in Persona 4, all of which tie into your overall goal. We all want epic stories in our games, but it’s important to take time to focus on your characters and who they really are, especially for JRPGs. With the amount of time you’re sinking into an RPG characters are everything, and Persona 4 shows that it’s just as important to let the characters breathe and go about everyday activities. Although the mains story of the game is linear, the side activities play into things so dynamically that Persona 4 really feels like your own unique experience.
It’s rare to find a game where everything seems like it has a purpose, but Persona 4, and Persona 3 for that matter, are those games. You can go into the Shadow World and train if you want, but you’ll be taking time away from other activities. Of course partaking in activities in the real world can give you as much of an advantage as training. Earning money lets you buy new more powerful weapons, while boosting your parties’ social links will give you access to new skills for your characters. What occurs is a tantalizing balancing act, that has you choosing where you want to sink your time. However, you always have sense that you’re moving with a purpose in Persona 4 and making Yu and his friends grow, not just mopping up a list of objectives.
At no point in Persona 4 does the story feel like it’s stopped caring about its characters, giving you multiple opportunities to just relax with the entire party and go on a skiing trip or have a day at the beach. The game knows its characters are important to you, and gives you even more reason to get invested in them.
By the end of Persona 4 it feels like you’re parting ways with your own personal group of friends, but you know they’re all on to better things. The game keeps you engaged by having the promise of something new to see and do on each day in the town of Inaba. There’s intrigue and mystery surrounding the main plot, and plenty of twists and turns to the story. The game also has a smart way of introducing its main villain, almost making them a sympathetic character more than anything. However, where Persona 4 really shines as an exemplary JRPG are in the quiet moments. Video games are often so concerned with world ending plots and epic set pieces, that they forget to slow down and let you get to know their characters. For Persona 4, character is everything, and it has it in droves.
Whether you want to battle crazy shadows, go to a virtual school, or wander around the sleepy town of Inaba, Persona 4 has something for everyone. Like most JRPGs it’s not a short game, but the 80 or so hour run time certainly seems to pass quickly. Other games in the genre should look to Persona 4 as a road map for how you write engaging characters and story, while simultaneously providing the meaty role-playing gameplay fans look for. We’ve already seen games like Conception II and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth use inspirations from Persona 4. Nearly ten years later, the game still stands as one of the best JRPGs ever made, and a pure distillation of what a JRPG should really be.
