Persona 4: Dancing All Night Review by: zanderlex - 9.8/10
How To Dance Like A FoolIf you are a fan of the persona series and have a Playstation Vita, then this is one game that you really need to try out. Yes it’s true that it’s not like the other games in the series, it’s not an RPG, but a rhythm game, but it still has one of those amazing Persona stories, and many other great aspects. This is one of the very few games where I had to get a collectors edition and it has not yet let me down.
GRAPHICS 9/10
There’s really nothing to complain about when you are talking about the graphics, which are in fact better than most of the other games in the Persona series. That’s because there’s no actual fighting and moving around. Take a look at the regular Persona 4 and Persona 4 Golden games, there are a ton of cut scenes that look like they are straight out of an anime, and the actual game play looks more like something you would see on a 3DS. However, there’s none of that here, most of this game is cut scenes and dancing, so it ALWAYS looks like you are watching an anime. All of the animations look great and flow smoothly, and for a grade is going to get a 9 out of 10.
SOUND: 10/10
The sounds are what makes this game what it is, and it’s not just because it’s a music game. First of all you have the voice acting, which itself is amazing for multiple reasons. For starters, the voice acting is amazing for pretty much every character from Yu and Youske all the way down to the rest of the investigation team and the other characters, it just works so well and has worked well with all of the other Persona 4 games. There’s so many different pieces of dialogue both in the story mode and in Free Dance and it just gives the game a nice mood hearing the changes in character, like hearing Youske and Teddie arguing. Beyond the voice acting you have the music, which is what makes the game even more special. Sure it’s a music based game, but it used music from the Persona 4 series, which in itself is amazing. There’s a large collection of not only songs from the games, but also remixes of those songs and even songs from concerts and other media. Some of the songs are really amazing and in addition to being able to play and dance with the songs, you can also just listen to them normally and for a grade, it’s pretty obvious that this aspect is going to get a perfect 10 out of 10.
ADDICTIVENESS: 10/10
If you are not a fan of these kinds of music games, then this game isn’t for you but if you are either a fan of music games or just Persona in general, then this is for you and it’s a blast. I played the game for about 10 hours, just in free dance alone before I even started the story mode because I was having so much fun just dancing, going after high scores, and listening to the music. Then I started the story and had even more fun watching the really cool story (which is common with Persona) unfold. That’s really all there is to it, music and dancing, along with a very in depth story, but that’s enough to keep you occupied for many hours and for a grade, addictiveness is going to get another perfect 10 out of 10.
STORY: 10/10
Like any Persona game, the story is a massive part of the game. All of the members from the original Persona 4 game come back together to perform at a festival with Rise who is getting back into her career, when another world similar to the Midnight Channel from the previous games appears called the Midnight Stage. Members of one of the groups performing at the festival all get pulled into this world and it’s up to the investigation team to go in after them and use their new dance moves to save everybody and beat the shadows. The game would not be a true Persona game if it did not have one of their famous in depth and really well written plot lines and for that, the story aspect gets another 10 out of 10.
DEPTH: 10/10
The game has a HECK OF A LOT to offer. First lets look at the story mode, which has a ton of chapters. Aside for the very long cut scenes and dialogue marathons, there’s a ton of dances for you to go through before you beat the main story, and just that alone will take you a while to complete if you really pay attention to the story instead of just dancing. Then you also have the Free Dance, which eventually will have dozens of songs for you to dance to as you unlock them, with 3 basic difficulties and another really hard one after you unlock everything. Just playing each song in each difficulty once will cause you to waste away at least a dozen hours and then there’s still so much to do like buy a ton of items, accessories, and costumes, collect various medals, listen to the songs, and more. There’s so much, and honestly if you haven’t played the game for at least 50 hours, then you haven’t really experienced everything that it has to offer. For a grade, depth is perfect yet again.
DIFFICULTY 6
The game can be difficult, especially when you are playing a song on a hard level, but with practice even the most hard songs can be doable. When I first started playing the game in free mode, I was trying to do the very first song on hard mode and failed about a dozen times before I was able to complete it once, and yet now I have completed each of the available songs on hard mode with a brilliant rating. It will be hard to get to that point though because you need to be really quick and you also need to have amazing coordination and a lot of practice before you can call yourself good. When you start the game it will be difficult and will get easy after a few hours of practice so for a grade, difficulty gets a 6.
OVERALL: 9.8/10
If you buy the game just for the story, it’s worth it. If you buy the game just for the hilarious character interactions and the amazing comedy and character development, it’s worth it. Even if you only buy the game to listen to the 50 or so songs, it’s still worth it. Everything about the game makes it really fun, a combination of great music, amazing humor, and an incredible story makes it another great entry in a terrific series. For a while, the game was terribly expensive because of the demand and how much was in the game, but now you can get it for pretty cheap which makes it a no brainer to get it, even getting the Collectors Edition for full price is so worth it if you are a big Persona fan because it comes with a bunch of sweet stuff. Overall, Persona 4: Dancing All Night might be a very different change in scenery from the other Persona 4 games but it’s a Persona 4 game nonetheless and it’s amazing. It’s easily one of my favorite Playstation Vita game and for an overall grade, it’s going to get a 9.8 out of 10.
Graphics
9 Sound
10 Addictive
10 Depth
10 Story
10 Difficulty
6
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