Persona 4 beaten – Final Thoughts

You can read most of my previous thoughts which could be considered a preface to this entry. There are some major spoilers in this entry.

After 121 hours of playing I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy myself. Persona 4 is definitely a solid game that polished all the elements used in Persona 3. I am going to have a hard time playing that now that I experienced all these improvements.

In the beginning I really didn’t latch onto the Persona 4 characters much, but after a while I just really started to like them all. They’re a great bunch, and Persona 4 does an excellent job making you feeling like you’re all friends and came a long way together. There were far too many times I laughed. A lot of the NPCs were great too. I specifically liked Dojima and Nanako. I actually shed some tears at her death during the bad ending and shed some more when she didn’t die if you don’t throw Namatame into TV. I actually thought she died regardless of what ending you choose. So I was happy that she didn’t die.

I felt the plot got kinda hokey by the point you can choose to get the bad ending or not, and got even more so when you fight Adachi. There were a lot of points in the game where I felt like it should have just started to end. I felt Naoto’s addition to the party as tacked on or maybe should have come before that one Void Quest dungeon. The real final boss, Izanami, felt like fighting the end boss to Final Fantasy 9. The ever present true end boss that makes you feel, “Um, where did you come from?” I liked the true ending. Sad, but happy. I don’t know what it is about Japanese media. It’s always the coming together as friends, forming bonds and working towards a common goal that make up a large amount of their stuff and it never really gets old.

I’m sad I didn’t at least finish the social links for all my party members even at least Rise and Kanji because I liked them fairly much. I wouldn’t have minded it if just Chie and Naoto were the only ones I never maxed out because I really didn’t like them AS MUCH as the other characters. Chie because I’m not a fan of tomboys and Naoto because she just came too late in the game for me to get into her character.

I am extremely satisfied with the difficulty. I played on normal but even that had its challenges and I found myself dying a few times on random encounters and bosses, but nothing a little grinding couldn’t solve. Although I found myself at a low level most of the time I think. I beat the game at level 77 and most people say it’s around the 80s. I tried fighting the end boss (Izanami) at 75 but I couldn’t do it. I don’t know how two levels really made a difference…

I really caught on late to the fusing new Persona. It’s too bad because it was only at the end where I tried doing things, but after awhile I got kinda bored. I only really ended up fusing Alice because undead loli. I actually ended up using just one or two of the same Persona during the entire game. I forget which one I used up until the halfway point but once I fused Black Frost, I just used him the entire game. Mind Charge and Agidyne got the job done on most bosses. Besides I found most bosses used Bufu or Agi skills more than anything else, and Dark resist is always good.

Well now that Persona 4 is over I’m going to take some time to get my life back together because I’ve been kind playing it nonstop just to get it done. I started up Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne though. I wonder what ending I’ll get in that? Also disappointed it has no Alice fusion. I was kinda looking forward to having Alice on my team. I guess I could always try and get her in the online game. I would seriously replay Persona 4 again though but to be honest I think Persona 4 is really lacking in extra content. Sure you get to breeze through the game and have access to all your old Persona but there really is no reason to. Maybe if there were more than just one added secret boss I might be more willing to clock in some more hours. Regardless, it was a fun game.

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