Persona is a spinoff of the Shin Megami Tensei RPG franchise. Well, to call it a spinoff would do it a disservice, as it manages to stand out in its own right, almost becoming more popular than the SMT series itself. Taking place in modern day Japan, the Persona series eschews old school fantasy-style conventions in favor of Japanese high school life, and Persona 4 is no different. Playing as a transfer student, you and your friends must get to the bottom of a series of murders involving the Midnight Channel, a mysterious tv station that is said to show viewers the image of their true love. Players must venture inside the world of the tv, doing battle with demons. Fortunately, like in all SMT games, they can summon demons that they can power up. During the day, players must socialize with friends, attend classes, and participate in other extracurricular activities. The PS Vita port includes loads of new content, including personas, cinematic, and side quests. Persona 4 is one of the more popular RPGs of the past few generations, and its one of the more popular installments in the series. In fact the game had an animated adaptation, two fighting games, a rhythm game, and even a porn parody based on it. If you have yet to experience Persona 4, now is a great time to check it out.ir-leasing.ru

A few weeks ago, I did a Lost Classic about Captain N. If that show represented every gamer’s ultimate fantasy, this might represent every kid’s delusion: video game characters coming out of their games to hang around with them. Even worse, most of the characters were from spme rather forgettable titles, and it was made by the late, not-so-lamented, Acclaim entertainment.
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While remakes, spinoffs, and re-releases of the demon summoning franchise Shin Megami Tensei series seem to be released every few months these days, for the longest time the releases were confined to Japan only. In Japan, the franchise is the third most popular RPG series after Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. However, the game didn’t hit U.S shores until almost a decade after its 1987 debut on the Game Boy, largely in part due to its religious themes and Nintendo of America’s stance against such material. Thankfully Sony, just beginning the recognize the popularity of RPGs like Suikoden, Vandal Hearts, and the upcoming FFVII, had few such restrictions.

The first SMT game to be released in North America was part of SMT spinoff series Persona. What’s so unique about this game, and much of the SMT series in general, was that the game didn’t take place in some sci-fi/fantasy timeline, but instead in Modern Day Tokyo. Instead of summoning demons, the characters summon figments of their psyche. Playing as your typical nameless RPG hero, you and your friends, a group of Japanese high school students, find yourselves at the center of some weird happenings after visiting a sick classmate. From there, it’s up to you and your crew to save the city from a demonic threat. You do most of the exploration in a first person view (at least until one of the many random encounters, this being an JRPG and all), while you go into an isometric view for battles and conversations. The game underwent several changes for its U.S release. It was re-named Revelations: Persona, and its cast underwent several changes to make them more westernized. In many cases, characters were given different faces. One character originally named Masao was renamed Mark and made into an African-American. Several places were also renamed as well, and some enemy names were changed in order to avoid referencing Japanese folklore.
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