If watching your characters shoot themselves in the head in Persona 3 sent shivers of delight coursing down your spine, this could be the news of the week for you: Famitsu has posted images and info about the sequel, Persona 4, which is described as being 1.5 times larger than Persona 3. Woo! I guess this isn't that Atlus top secret project we heard about last year, but it's fine news nonetheless.
The PS2 title is slated for a July 10th release date in Japan and will feature over 180 Personas for you to obtain as you explore. The game has a suspenseful enviroment and will be set in the country, where fog means a can-kicking is imminent (murders occur when fog descends on the in-game world) and nothing is quite what it seems. The game weighs in at 60-70 play hours and will offer multiple endings for the player to discover.
Persona 3 rocked my world from concept to details, but for me the only downfall was the repetition I felt about midway through the game, so I'm interested to see how (or if) this sequel will address that. Regardless, the game was one of the most unique to hit consoles last year, so you can be sure Atlus has more greatness up their sleeves for this one.
[Via Akayuki -- thanks Jacob!]
LAUNCH GALLERY (4 IMAGES)
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
44 comments | showing # 1 to 44
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
9:35 AM on 03.18.2008
| 
Comparing Lost Odyssey to P3 is like comparing a cold ham sandwich to a New York Strip Steak.
This is rather surprising to me. Atlus usually takes forever to decide on sequels and/or usually lets a series just die out of nowhere. I am very glad to hear about Persona 4.
Only game that didn't run from my library so far was SSX3.
Sniff, wheres my SSX4? (On Tour doesn't count in my book)
Why do Japanese developers make games for PS2?
Look at Disgaea 3 and think about their situation. They aren't comfortable with the PS3 to create games that look better than PS2 games. The so called hi-res backgrounds in Disgaea 3 aren't really a good use of PS3 capabilities, its still blocky and low-res compared to many games out there. The sprites bite the dust.
They develop for the PS2 because they are comfortable with the set up. And they don't need to wow people with graphical capabilities or complex physics. In many ways this allows them to create deeper gameplay. (Folklore is a beautiful PS3 game but lacks depth compared to PS2 titles)
I personally hope they jump to PS3, just to get the experience developing on the hardware. It would be a shame for them to start the race when everyone is already running away so far.
Besides some games benefit just by playing the disk on the PS3. Odin Sphere gains slightly better looks, faster load times, and absence of graphical slow downs in certain boss battles. Full of Win. Classic Example etc.
Not saying I'll never buy a PS3 to play Disgaea 3...because I eventually will...I just didn't know 2-D sprites take more processing power than 3-D characters and surroundings.
I guess we'll be waiting another 2 years before we see this in Europe though...
Thanks, I'm not big on ham (half jewish) but love me some strip. I'll check it out after I finish the hard to find persisting adventure (my writing class encouraged the use of synonyms), and NMH.
I'm trying this thing where I make myself finish a game before I allow myself to buy another. It's saving me a lot of money.
I don't care what system it's on, as long as it's fun I'll but it and play it. I actually prefer that they leave it on the PS2, simply BECAUSE they are comfortable developing for the system, which increases the chance that the game will be spectacular like P3 was.
I have to say though, looking at those character designs I am not sure if want. Bowl cut kid just looks freaky as hell to me.
God, there's so damned many PS2 and GC games I still need to get. Blasted parents going through a divorce during the best game generation. -_-
*starts panting heavily*
I think the decision to keep it on PS2 is a smart move, but Atlus should also begin porting the series to Wii and PSP. Persona 3 and 4 would be welcome on 360 too, where there's little rpg competition.
Disgaea is already on PSP and soon to grace DS, so why not back track and also release Persona 1 and 2 on DS and PSP (if they haven't been covered already) too. I'm sure many would love to play them too.
The change to PS2 is probably to keep things cheaper and these rpgs aren't graphic heavy. Disgaea 3 shows that sprites begin to hit their peak in HD. Perhaps Atlus saw this, as well as the high development costs of PS3, and changed their minds. A sensible move. The cheaper the costs, the more different games Atlus can spend money on.
All I need now is Trauma Center 3 on DS with co op play and I'd be in gaming nirvana.
That would make Atlus a smaller Square Enix.
Milking a franchise by rereleasing them on handhelds and such.
You are forgetting that Persona is also a Franchise. And Atlus is not changing to PS2, but staying where they feel safe.
I don't think they need to push PS3 hardware, but they need to move onto it for future titles, playing it safe will help them for now, but they won't get a full grasp of the PS3 hardware.
And sprites didn't show their peak in Disgaea 3 either. Thats laziness in NIS's pars. Atlus published a sleeper gem called Odin Sphere, which was a fully sprite based game. It showed that 2d sprites can be pushed much farther than any other 2d game that came before it. It pushed the PS2 to its limits, showing slowdown because the hardware couldn't push as hard as the game wanted. As I wrote earlier, the game runs ultra smooth on the PS3, so much so that I think its proper place would have been as a PS3 title.
http://www.otaku.com/cgi-bin/productlist.asp?catsearch=&sdsearch=Persona+3&x=0&y=0
Otaku have other game art books too. Hey Ritual, you a Linn Kurosawa/AvP arcade fan too? You are in good company then.
In reply on Persona 4 to Animat, I'm aware Persona is a franchise too, I wasn't born yesterday, but thirty years ago (with a lot of gaming knowledge and games thanks). Obviously good product brings acclaim and success, but when a developer is small they pay more attention to the fans. Sometimes I feel this is something I feel Square have forgotten over the years.
What I was trying to say, is that Atlus ofcourse will produce their popular titles, nothing wrong with that. But there's a point where overkill is surpassed and I feel Sqaure have long passed that point with the FF series, so much that I kind of tired of the sight of it now (even if the game are hit and miss). Square forget their other ips like Vagrant Story, a time when they had more variety and diversity. In short they should also pay attention to want gamers want sometimes (Crisis Core/PE3 etc withholded.
On the other side, Atlus, Nippon Ichi, Success Corps etc have always been small in comparison, not as well known but still producing good games that many miss out on. It makes me more glad that Persona 3 really shined because of this fact, making many look at Atlus in a different light.
Hey I miss the days of Square vs Enix, when competition drove the creation of some great games. Its just nice to see Atlus raising their game significantly.
I still love you Atlus. You set my loins ablaze with your library of games, and insistance of staying on the PS@
very, very excited for P4. don't really mind that it's on the PS2 as that means we'll see it sooner (FFXIII anybody?) and it'll be at a lower price point ($40-50).
only thing that bothers me is that, while i love LOVE the art style of P3 and now P4, it almost looks like a reskin of P3 to me... oh, and there's only 1 cute girl. NEEDS MORE HOTTIES! where's the Yukari and Mitsuru of the countryside?
I don't have a PS2, but damn...Either I need to get a backwards compatible PS3 or a PS2 because I've been starting to notice all the games I've missed out on.
@mistic Just wait for Persona 3 FES, it's coming out at $30 and has the full original game plus the bonus content released in Japan.
In the same genre and world Nocturne is a much more balanced RPG with more depth and complexity and lacks the repetitiveness.
I hope that Persona 4 will address those issues and even if it doesn't I will still pick it up just for the fact that it is an original game but won't make me play for more than what I need to complete it.