I have to say, their reviews are pretty much the only kind I bother with these days for checking out new games. While most magazine & website reviews out there are reasonably passable, Gametrailers.com reviews are concise, give you the basics and don’t need to do a half-arsed job of describing the visuals, audio or gameplay mechanics – it’s all up there on the screen for you to see. In an age where some piss poor websites encourage their self-obsessed writers to disappear up their own backsides, where they spend most of the review trying out second rate comedy routines wrapped in third rate flowery prose, I find game reviews that actually focus on the game to be surprisingly refreshing.

The games gets a solid 9.3 out of 10 from Gametrailers, and with this one more than any of the reviews I’ve linked to before, if you don’t want anything spoiled, I’d probably avoid checking this one out. As lovely as viewing clips from the game is during the review, it does tend to reveal a few scenes & settings that you might want to discover yourself. You were warned.

Given the number of people visiting the site looking for information, it’s clear that quite a few of you will soon be neck deep in a murder mystery and busy molesting TV sets in a picturesque Japanese countryside. While you’re enjoying yourself, please spare a thought for us unlucky European bastards who have anything up to half a year to wait. Hey! Stop laughing!

Since the reviews are all picking up on the same points and have a general theme of appreciation, rather than comment on them individually, here is a list of the new reviews and their scores…

• 9.6 out of 10 in this review from Digital Chumps
• 98 out of 100 in this review from Game Vortex
• 9 out of 10 in this review from GameCritics
• 10 out of 10 in this review from Thunderbolt Games
• 10 out of 10 in this review from HonestGamers

As you can see, this new series of review scores closely match the ones posted last time. Certainly encouraging for anyone with the game on pre-order or considering popping into their local ‘house of games’ to purchase Persona 4. If you were previously on the fence, get the hell off and get the game bought. Tsch!

Another related tidbit is this article from Siliconera, expanding their series of previews of the game with a look at the dungeoneering aspects. As with other previews, if you want to experience the tweaks to the game fresh, avoid but if you’re nosey like me (and you’re looking forwards to months of waiting for a European release), have at it.

Speaking of which, Square Enix have confirmed that they’ll be releasing Persona 4 in Europe next year with a slightly firmer ‘Spring 2009′ (so any time between late March and late June) in their December newsletter.

I think this will be the last Persona 4 review update. They all seem to be of a single mind (the game is great!) and there should be enough nuance in the eight to ten reviews I’ve linked over the last few weeks to help you decide if the game is for you.

Simply put, it is.

First up is Gamepro, who in this review, give Persona 4 a 5 out of 5. The reviewer is an old hand when it comes to the series and brings up (and lays to rest) the worry that P4 is merely P3 but with a minor dust and polish. While he acknowledges that the gameplay will feel familiar to fans of the series, it appears that everything Persona 3 already did well has been tweaked and fine tuned to perfection in the new game.

The game scores a lower, but still commendable, 8.7 out of 10 in this review from GameZone. Despite some odd reaching to link the game’s inspirations to other sources (wait, pyramidhead from Silent Hill?), the reviewer still admits the game is one of the best RPGs on the PS2 in recent history. A fair review, if not a little focussed on that fact the game is ‘old gen’ rather than a PS3 or Xbox360 title.

Next comes another top mark with 10 out of 10 in this review from Gamervision. Another review from a devoted fan who wasn’t expecting Persona 3 to be improved on. Like the Gamepro article, this gamer appears to have come away very pleased with the results.

This review from Hardcore Gamer Magazine gives Persona 4 a healthy 4.75 out of 5 (an average taken from the 5 out 5 of the reviewer and a 4.5 out of 5 from another writer). This time the reviewer enjoys the new storyline from the series as well as all the improvements made to the game mechanics. They also note the increase in activities to fill the protagonist’s days leading to fewer ‘what now?’ moments and the improved social link development.

Finally, 1UP gives Persona 4 a shining A+ mark in their review. This reviewer appreciates the bite-sized chunks of dungeon Persona 4 serves up in comparison to the sometimes daunting colossal tower of Tartarus. They also feel that the characters are better placed in this title than the previous one.

Overall, the theme that runs through all these reviews is that everything we love from the Persona series makes a happy return with a new lick of paint and some minor niggles (such a lacking team control or no fast travel) have been exorcised. It all adds up to a game I’m really looking forward to having eat up a considerable amount of my free time.

…when it finally hits Europe, of course. Bah, I’d almost convinced myself I was a US citizen and Persona 4 was only a week away. No such luck!

The first item and probably the most important, personally, is a hint… rumour… vague indication that Persona 4 will be hitting European shores before too long. According to French gaming website ‘Jeuxpo.com‘, the German classification organisation, USK (*deep breath* the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle) have rated Persona 4 (for ages 12 and over). It also mentions that it’ll be released in Europe by SquareEnix and that it should be expected early next year – though from the translated text of the article (original here), I’m not sure the entry actually says that. Oh well, fingers crossed whatever.

As, previously mentioned, the US gets Persona 4 in just over a week on the 9th of December and Japan is already enjoying the game. At least it’s nice to know that we haven’t been forgotten and plans are afoot to get the title in our grubby European mitts.

If you’re still jonesing for whatever Persona 4 information you can get, you might want to pop over to this Persona 4 Hands-On article from Gamespot posted earlier in the month. Obviously, avoid like the plague if you want to go into the game fresh and without having any of the gameplay elements spoiled for you but if you’re fine with a little preview (and let’s face it – we all know the gameplay isn’t going to be a million miles from Persona 3, anyway), then have at it.

The same can be said for this article from the Siliconera website covering the part that the protagonist’s home plays in the development of your social links and stats. It’s a bit more in-depth than the previously mentioned preview, focussing as it does on one specific area of the game so if you prefer to uncover details like that for yourself, you probably should stay away.

All in all, ‘early next year’ just can’t come quickly enough.

]]> http://www.skoardy.com/2008/11/30/more-persona-4-previews-and-info/feed/ 1 http://www.skoardy.com/2008/09/19/persona-4-review/ http://www.skoardy.com/2008/09/19/persona-4-review/#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:42:41 +0000 Skoardy http://www.skoardy.com/?p=87 While visiting the aggregate game review site – Game Rankings, I noticed there was an entry on the front page for Persona 4, signifying someone had reviewed it. Odd, given the site is US-centric, after all and as I mentioned in one of my previous posts, it’s not coming out in America until the 9th of December. After checking the game’s page, it turns out it has been reviewed – not by one of the ‘big banner’ sites, but by RPGFan, who I assume are reviewing an imported Japanese release. All in all, they seemed very pleased with it, giving it a score of 94%. A good sign.

The point of this post isn’t to rah-rah the fact it got a good score (though I’m more than happy to see it) but to mention the review does contain a fair bit of information about the storyline and gameplay of the title. Since a lot of the hits I get are Persona 4 flavoured, I thought I’d point interested parties in the direction of the review (and at the same time apologise for the lack of Persona 4 ‘meat’ on the bones of my own particular pages – sorry if you wasted a ‘trip’). It makes for an interesting read and certainly gets me thinking about that yet unannounced European release. Come on, when are we getting it, guys?

Anyway, have a look if you’re a bit of a fanboy and tend to eat up anything Persona 4 related.

UPDATE : As some people are hitting my site through this article, apparently looking for Persona 4 reviews, I just wanted to point you towards two newer posts I’ve made that link to a series of reviews. They are…

• Persona 4 reviews-a-go-go!
• Even more Persona 4 reviews

According to an article on Wired’s Game Life website, Persona 4 tops the charts with 193,000 sales! Even second place, Nintendo’s powerhorse ‘Wii Fit’, is only trundling along steadily (adding to it’s albeit still impressive existing 2,353,000 sales) with a much smaller 30,000 untis. The next ‘new’ release that week comes from ‘Densetsu no Stafy Taiketsu! Dire Kaizokudan’ on the Nintendo DS, clocking in at number 3 with only 29,000 sales. 193,000 sales?! I’m sure Atlus must be feeling all smug right about now (how about a celebratory European release date announcement, eh? No? Okay… maybe another time *bah*).

It makes me happy that the PS2 is still managing to command such a healthy share of the market but should we really be surprised? According to this article from Kotaku covering hardware sales for the same week, the PS2 is only trailing the PS3 by just over 2000 sales. In this age where some console manufacturers are eager to push us all into the next generation of hardware at the earliest opportunity possible, I’m glad to see that the old PS2 can kick ass/take names show the big boys that it’s still far from dead.

By the way, apologies for the link-fest in this post. Got a little carried away.

Of course. with the game being released in Japan yesterday (lucky sods *cough* sorry), I’m guessing this is one of those final marketing pushes just to keep the game in the public eye but I’m still happy to see new artwork and scenes from the game anyway. Even happier if we got a European confirmation for the game seeing our shores (or even, *gasp*, a date for it’s arrival) but you take what you can.

The characters seem to be matching the standard archetypes introduced with Persona 3 but I guess that’s to be expected and not really a bad thing. School setting, small town environments and what appears to be another holiday locale – great stuff, can’t wait.

The video is only a YouTube affair so fairly blocky but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, eh? You can find it here…

Still, it’s nice to see some firm dates and signs of movement even if it isn’t for my local brethren specifically.

But that’s not all – along with the date there’s also news that “each copy of the game will come bundled with a soundtrack CD featuring “select music” from the title“. The music to Persona 3 really stood out for me, both fitting and strangely infectious. It’s rare I find myself humming music I hear in games but Persona 3 had just such a soundtrack. As Shoji Meguro will be returning to take up the music director reins, hearing Atlus are bunging in a ‘free’ soundtrack taster CD in with the package is great.

And still there’s more. The Joystiq snippet features a nice blurry YouTube English language promotional trailer just to get you wishing it was December already. You can find the article (and the English language trailer) in question here.

In a round about way, it’s those very posts that brought about this one. You see, on my stat plugin’s list of ‘things people searched for’, above searches for “Roguelike News”, “Sims 3″ and “Persona 4″ was the entry – “George Hamilton“. I know why too. It’s all thanks to my old site and one of the posts I made on it about email spam. I was marvelling at the type of spam I was getting, which was basically a mix of mail pimpin’ fake gold watches and medical remedies for erectile dysfunction (see, this is how I get suggested for the wrong types of searches!). I mused that perhaps the spammers saw me as some sort of gaudy, aged lothario. A ‘George Hamilton‘ type, if you will.

Ever since that post, I used to get the George Hamilton traffic. And still do, apparently. I’ve nothing against the man. He’s a star in my book. His self-deprecating ability to parody the persona he’s developed is genius, if you ask me. And he carries off orange with a straight face. Very few can.

But no, I’m sorry visitor, if you came here looking for your George Hamilton fix (or remedies for erectile dysfunction, for that matter), I’m afraid you’ll find no joy (or George Hamilton), here.

‘Trailer’ might be the wrong word for it as weighing in at 17 minutes, it’s more like an presentation, or an introduction to the new world and characters of Persona 4. Summary? It’s definitely more of the same. With no way to read the text and a complete lack of understanding of the language, from what I saw it seems our protagonist moves to a rural town, makes new friends and gets drawn into some bizarre occurrences. And, of course, everyone discovers a previously unknown ability.

The long-nosed ‘mentor’ and his entourage is back, riding in what appears to be a limo. School life again seems central as does making social links and discovering back-stories to gain abilities. We see some trotting around a typical looking Persona dungeon, the cards make a re-appearance and so does the disturbing mask-wearing gloop. Of course, now I’m just depressed that it’ll probably be a year or more until I see an English language version of this game (best case scenario – worse case, they don’t bother). *sigh*

Anyway, if YouTube don’t get bullied into taking it down (magazines really don’t like their exclusives plastered all over the interwebs, strangely enough), you can find the ‘trailer’ here.