Persona 4

Persona 4 (ペルソナ4, Perusona 4) is the fifth game in the Persona series. The game was developed by Atlus for the PlayStation 2.

Release Dates

 * Japan: July 10, 2008
 * North America: December 9, 2008
 * Europe: March 13, 2009

Plot
In the rural town of Inaba, mysterious murders have been taking place whenever there was fog after heavy rain. There were also rumors about a channel on television airing only at midnight called the Midnight Channel, during which it is said that you can see your soulmate when staring at a turned off TV screen at midnight when it rains. After hearing about a recent unsolved murder which occurred during the fog, the protagonist, Yosuke Hanamura, and Chie Satonaka discuss how each of them had attempted to watch the Midnight Channel and witnessed the murder victim. They later realize that their bodies can phase into the television set as a gateway to enter another world infested with Shadows. Thus begins an adventure to discover the connection between the Midnight Channel and the murders and kidnappings around town.

Characters

 * See also: List of Persona 4 Characters

As in most Persona games, a majority of the characters are high school students, this time from Yasogami High School. The main characters include:
 * Yu Narukami: The silent protagonist of the game. He recently moved to live in Inaba with his uncle and cousin after his parents had to work overseas.
 * Yosuke Hanamura: A clumsy, awkward boy who is often used as comic relief through physical comedy. His dad is the manager of Junes, a department store.
 * Chie Satonaka: An upbeat girl with a short temper and an obsession with martial arts. She was born and raised in Inaba.
 * Yukiko Amagi: A wealthy and elegant, but introverted girl who is the heiress of the famous Amagi Inn. She is always busy training herself for the business.
 * Kanji Tatsumi: A juvenile delinquent with piercings and a tough look. However, his mother runs a textile shop in their home, making him very skilled at tailoring.
 * Rise Kujikawa: A former idol in Japan, she quit her job to have a normal life in the countryside. She acts as support in battle.
 * Naoto Shirogane: A young, serious detective who is dubbed as the "Detective Prince", but still attends high school.
 * Teddie: A strange bear mascot who resides within Mayonaka TV. He serves as outside support in battle, but later becomes a party member during battle.

Gameplay
The Moon Phase System, which has been in a vast majority of Megami Tensei games, has been replaced with a Weather Forecast system. The game features a more retro style compared to Persona 3.

Persona 4's gameplay and style stays similar to Persona 3's. Persona 4 has kept the social links and dungeon crawling gameplay and it appears to be run on the same engine as its predecessor. Features such as Community (Social Link in English localization,) One More and All-out Attack from Persona 3 return. The glasses, given by Teddie, play an important role in the game, and allow the party to see through the heavy mist inside Mayonaka TV and decrease stamina loss. The pistol-like Evokers of Persona 3 are replaced by tarot cards, which the main characters shatter in order to summon their respective Personas. The battles also have some similarities, such as the one more system, all out attack, and the AI controlled support characters. However, characters can be set to take commands from the player, deviating from Persona 3's system.

However, several major changes have been made. The player now has 5 stats in contrast to P3's 3 and lacks the health status, enabling players to explore dungeons continuously. Only now, the constraint is SP. HP and SP will not be restored when the player goes back to the dungeon entrance, but the player can choose to restore SP by talking to the fox (who will join the group after some time into the game), although it will cost a significant amount of money.

Battle-wise, P4's is more forgiving. This is partly due to a new tactic in battle enabling you to directly control the actions of the other party members. This time you can continually exploit an enemy's weakness, as they will stay down instead of getting up after the second consecutive exploitation of their weakness. Multi-target spells give a bonus turn as long as you hit at least one enemy's weakness (However, the same works for your party). Battles now occur after school instead of at midnight like in P3. This gives the player less time in which to do social activities. Post battle card shuffles have been revamped with the addition of arcana chance (which can bring you good or bad status depending on the Arcana and the way the card lands).

Social Links now have a greater effect on battle. For example, for level 1, the player's allies occasionally protect the protagonist from a deathblow (If the HP of the protagonist becomes zero, the game will be over.) For level 3, if the protagonist or his allies successfully knock the shadow down, the allies will occasionally offer to have a follow-up attack which has a 100% chance to knock down and can paralyze another shadow or shadows (or in the case of Chie, instantly defeat). For level 5, if the Social Link character knocks down a foe, they will help an ally who is Down or Dizzy. For level 7, if the Social Link character knocks down a foe, they can cure one ally of Rage, Fear, or Confusion. All allies whom had their corresponding Social Link at level 9 will be able to survive an attack that should have killed them with 1 HP once per battle. For the maximum level, the persona of the corresponding ally will be evolved into another persona. The biggest change is the status of the persona. Some Personas may lose their weakness and become immune to certain kind of magic attacks, or allow them to resist a completely different element.

Trivia

 * In the True Ending of the game, Yosuke asks the protagonist whether he has plans in May, hinting at the release of Persona 4 Arena which starts in May, more specifically during Golden Week, two months after the True Ending of Persona 4.
 * In the Persona 4 disk you can find the BGM (Background Music) from Persona 3 FES.