Persona 4 proved to be an incredibly successful JRPG for the PlayStation 2 to end its life on, capping off a console generation which prospered with a fair few memorable RPG’s. Although years passed before anything else was done with the title, in recent years, ATLUS have treated the title with a range of spin-off titles. These spin-off’s have seen the familiar characters presented with a whole range of different battle genres – from 2D fighters (Persona 4 Arena / Persona 4 Arena Ultimax) to first-person dungeon-crawlers (Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth).
Potentially their last game prior to the launch of Persona 5 in 2016, the development team have opted to completely forsake traditional combat and pit the Investigation Team into dance battles with Persona 4: Dancing All Night. While I actually managed to Platinum this game, I would say that it is perhaps the weakest Persona game released to date.
Storyline
Serving as a canon instalment in the Persona 3/4 timeline, Persona 4: Dancing All Night takes place after Persona 4 Golden’s epilogue chapter, although all characters have adopted appearances similar to their staple appearances in other games. Persona 4: Dancing All Night see’s the Investigation Team come together for a new adventure, one which is more than they bargained for when agreeing to perform as back-up dancers for Rise Kujikawa’s comeback performance as an idol during the “Love Meets Bonds” Festival in the city. Following the appearance of the mysterious ‘Midnight Stage’ and the disappearance of four members of “Kanamin Kitchen” (The idol group led by Kanami Mashita – who has been referenced in previous games on multiple occasions), the Investigation Team are forced into this new world where their Persona’s are ineffective and they must rely on dance to both survive and rescue those trapped in this world.
Although fairly linear in the way you can approach each chapter, the same route tree from Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is used, allowing you to see how story events chronologically correspond to one another. This is useful as characters are split up on multiple occasions, with the most prominent incidence of this being around the middle of Story Mode. In this example, the Investigation Team split up into “2nd Year” (Rise, Kanji and Naoto) and “3rd Year” (Yu, Yosuke, Chie and Yukiko) groups, with each required to rescue two members of Kanamin Kitchen each. While serving as the longest section of the story mode for these characters, it is in my opinion the most drawn out and underwhelming section of this mode. Each group simply comes across a character they need to rescue, does three dances to rescue each one of them (complemented by some limited character development of the rescuee), and then move on to the next one. While it does tie in with the “facing ones true self” concept, each new character really needed some more development to see them beneficial to the story mode. As they were, I would have rather seen more attention put towards each individual Investigation Team member. Fortunately the story does progress into a more interesting conclusion, but the main storyline surrounding the Investigation Team was simply average at best.
The third main group present in the story mode follows Kanami and Nanako Dojima, the latter of which came to the city alongside her uncle to watch Yu and his friends perform at the festival. Their chapters tend to juggle the overarching “Midnight Stage” storyline and preparations for the Love Meets Bonds festival (With most of the hard investigative work being done by Ryotaro Dojima, who is now the only frequently recurring character without a playable role), with the main focuses being the development of Kanami Mashita who has minimal development from previous games, and showcasing Nanako’s own dancing abilities and general cuteness. The chapters featuring this duo do help highlight some of the mysteries surrounding the Midnight Stage and later on in the story mode do present a sense of urgency for the Investigation Team members to complete their task. Therefore, it should not just be written off as filler content or a means to give Nanako some time as a playable character.
Given the concepts used, the storyline itself doesn’t feel too out of place, especially given that there was the potential for such a game through references to Rise’s idol career in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. Coming in at approximately 12 hours in length, the story mode delivers a no-frills but otherwise adequate storyline.
Design / Music / Voice Acting
Given this is a rhythm game, the production quality is critical in ensuring that the experience is pleasing to both the eyes and the ears. In terms of design, Persona 4: Dancing All Night provides arguably the best looking visuals out of any game in the Persona franchise. Each character have fantastically designed character models that are detailed, are well animated when it comes to body movements on the stage and have a range of costumes and accessories that gives the player a good number of customisation options in Free Dance mode. Although only offering a limited number of stages, these are also well designed. When it comes to the visual novel system of delivering the main storyline, standard character portraits (Which have been customised to feature each character’s dance apparel) and static backdrops are present. My only complaint regarding the design is that while returning playable characters have a range of costumes to purchase for them, newly playable characters including Nanako, Kanami and Margaret have a very limited range on offer. There is also the issue faced by similar games that it can be very distracting to hit all the right notes when you have such attention-grabbing animation playing in the background.
One of the likely reasons that Persona 4: Dancing All Night even exists in the first place is that the previous games have a plethora of fantastic songs to work with. While some songs remain untouched, a good number of them have been remixed to suit the different dance styles and themes of each character. While the original songs are strong, I would say that the remixes are a mixed bag (although generally of a high quality), with some I found myself playing over and over again and others I had enough with after one run-through.
Like all other Persona 4 video games, Persona 4: Dancing All Night includes a newly created English dub. Although there have been many voice cast shifts throughout the years, this title see’s a new voice actor take on the role of Rise Kujikawa. This means that from the original main voice cast for Persona 4, only Yu Narukami, Yosuke Hanamura, Yukiko Amagi, Nanako Dojima and Ryotaro Dojima have retained the same voice cast member from start to finish. Although the new voice actress for Rise doesn’t sound that similar compared to the shift between the Kanji VA’s for example, once you get used to her, the new voice cast member is competent with their character.
Gameplay
Persona 4: Dancing All Night should be very approachable to anyone who has played a similar rhythm game before. The gameplay primarily involves the player pressing one of six buttons (Up, Left, Down, Triangle, Circle and X) in-time with notes and indicators that appear on the screen. The more synchronously timed a button press, the better the grade and score that press receives. Depending on your accuracy, you will either pass or fail a particular stage (With several grades of pass grades available), receive currency to trade in for items and obtain a score which can be used in online leaderboards.
Although completely optional, there are also blue and rainbow circles that occasionally head outwards from the screen and can be hit by moving an analog stick when they are near the edge of screen. Activating enough rainbow circles can activate pre-determined “FEVER!” sections of the song, which will see your character dance alongside another and seemingly provide a score bonus.
There are two primary dance modes available in Persona 4: Dancing All Night. The first is the aforementioned Story Mode which locks you in with certain characters and songs suited to story progression. The second is “Free Dance” mode, which allows you to play any unlocked song and customise your characters with new costumes and accessories if so desired. The game starts players out with four songs in this mode, with others unlockable by playing through each song in Free Dance mode. There are a few exceptions however, which are either unlocked by completing the storyline, purchasing DLC content or purchasing certain items (Such as Margaret and her respective song Electronica in Velvet Room). Unfortunately, many of the DLC songs to be made available for purchase (without a character attached to them – Adachi, Marie or Hatsune Miku) only feature animations rather than actual choreographed dances.
Unlike the Hatsune Miku: Project Diva games which allow you to select any Vocaloid to perform during any song (Even though the vocals do not change between characters), Persona 4: Dancing All Night locks each song to one character in particular. This means that you will always have, for example, Yu Narukami dance to the game’s theme song “Dance!” in both Story and Dance mode. There is a bit more leeway with companion characters who appear during the “Fever!” modes however, with a handful of characters (but not all) available to dance alongside the main character. Although this is not a deal breaker, it would have been nice to have some of the more prominent songs feature choreographed dance routines for two or three characters each rather than the one.
Final Words on Persona 4: Dancing All Night
Persona 4: Dancing All Night is an adequate game, with a reasonably sized tracklist of remixed songs, strong visuals and an approachable albeit not particularly revolutionary rhythm-oriented gameplay system. But with a storyline that can be lackluster at points (despite its short length) and could have used further character development, I don’t think it manages to achieve the high standard that previous games (Both main and spin-off) have achieved. That being said, it is not a bad game by any stretch of my imagination, and think of it as something that fans of the series would still enjoy.
and now… onward to 2016 and Persona 5!
A review copy of Persona 4: Dancing All Night was provided by ATLUS USA for the purpose of this review. Testing was conducted on a PlayStation TV unit.
