Hi, everyone, and nice to meet you! The name’s Kavi, and I, too, am now bringing you the latest with the rest of the WRS staff as your all-new resident Japanophile. I am a bit new at writing reviews, but being a writer on my own, I am more than willing to take a crack at it, so here’s hoping I do you all justice!

On tap today, we look at ATLUS’ latest installment in the Shin Megami Tensei series, Persona 4. Now, if you call yourself ANY type of gaming expert, the words “Shin,” “Megami,” and “Tensei” should already have sent shivers of excitement and joy down your spine; the widely known game series has always had great praise, ranging from Digital Devil Saga to the Persona series itself, now on its fourth installment. So, without further ado, let us tune in to ATLUS’ newest take on the ever-deepening world of Persona.

You, the Protagonist, have moved to a small rural town known as Inaba, away from the big city because your parents both have work that leaves them overseas, unable to see you into your second year of high school. You’re left in the care of your distant uncle, Dojima and his daughter Nanako instead, both of which help you set up your room and get to school. Around the same time, an eerie fog rolls in, and the day it clears, a person is found dead, hanging from an antenna pole! As if that wasn’t enough, strange rumors start passing around about the “Midnight Channel” – a strange broadcast that plays on a powered off TV every rainy night at—you guessed it—exactly 12:00 AM. And it is in this ‘show’ that the real plot of the game begins.

Now, I’m going to avoid heavy spoilers, but you’ve been warned—some of it needs to be explained to understand game flow. Every in-game day consists of sections of the day such as “Morning,” “Afternoon,” etc. After school’s out (on school days, Monday through Saturday, just like real Japan schools), you can go to various shops and areas of Inaba to buy food, items, and weapons. Why weapons? To save people, of course! Every few weeks, you’ll see a person on the Midnight Channel (a soon to be member of your party, usually), or, at least, what appears to be them. It’s actually their Shadow, a reflection of the person’s true thoughts and feelings made manifest in the TV world. You have until that creepy fog rolls in again (after a long stretch of rain) to save the person who appeared by defeating their Shadow, helping them come to terms with who they really are.

The battles, while still challenging, are greatly improved from Persona 3, with a bit of an easier balance of enemy levels and an improved 1more! system. The enemies (especially the bosses) have some amazing and sometimes even downright disturbing designs. Oh man, the bosses… did I mention how awesomely horrifying the bosses are? But that’s spoiler, so I won’t touch there. You can now issue commands directly through your partners, which is a thankful addition after the frustration of trying to get your comrades to cast a particular spell with inadequate tactic options. You no longer have to wait for your Analysis tactic to work, but as a drawback, it will only tell you about what you’ve tried against an enemy. Landing a Critical Hit or Weakness attack twice now causes a new stat affliction, Dizzy, on the enemy (or you, so be careful!), forcing them to lose 1 turn (this effect cannot be repeated indefinitely, sorry). Your partners even have their own special moves they can perform every here and there when either you or your partners land Weakness or Critical strikes against the enemy that can pick you up if you’re Down or Dizzy, boost the party’s stats, or even just knock an enemy out of the match with absolutely no damage calculation whatsoever! Overall, it’s a beautifully improved system that you won’t have to repeatedly get frustrated with. The only flaw: if the Protagonist dies at any time in battle, regardless of who can revive, or how many revival items you have, it’s an INSTANT Game Over. Weak.

Your overall strength with Persona types and your friend’s double-team abilities ultimately depend on your Social Ranks, as before. You have five personality traits now, compared to P3’s three, and in order to talk to certain people (Like Dojima, usually too flustered or awkward to talk to you), you’ll need to boost those stats by reading, working a part-time job, and doing well in your studies at school. You’ll have periodic quizzes over various subjects, some of which you’ll feel somewhat dumb for not knowing, and some of which you’re going to have to look up because you don’t know Japanese Literature 101. And make sure you remember those answers; you’ll have a weeklong exam that rehashes all the ones you’re asked in that semester, and you get goodies for scoring high.

Well, that’s a (wow, rather lengthy, sorry!) pretty good look into the world of Persona 4.It’s got a deep, compelling storyline along with the good ol’ dungeon-crawling RPG action you’ve come to know and love from the series and the company, ATLUS. If you’re a fan of the series, and you don’t have it yet, you have done yourself a great shame and your parents will never love you. However, if you’re new to the series, but love RPGs, anime, or anything of the sort, you owe it to yourself and your PS2 to pick this game up. I couldn’t find too terribly much I didn’t like about this game, and I doubt you will, either. Persona 4 is a wonderful addition to the Shin Megami Tensei series, one that will be hard to top if we get another addition!