Those meddling kids: Persona 4: Jumping all sharks

I dismissed the idea about blogging about Persona 4 for this topic, but now that I think about it, I do have something to say about Persona 4. Right now, some of you are likely playing and enjoying Persona 4: Dancing All Night. I will get it as well later on, but honestly, Atlus may as well have just called the game Persona 4: Sega Made Us Do This So Something with Hatsune Miku in it Would Actually Sell in the West.

I love Persona 4. The game is easily one of my top ten RPGs of all time. I've played through it just about every other year since it released and will soon do so again soon. That said, I'm hoping after Persona 4: Dancing All Night has shuffled and shimmied into the sunset that I never see or hear about a new game featuring our favorite meddling kids in Inaba ever again.

Persona 4 has enjoyed the kind of hype and fan adoration that I haven't seen since Final Fantasy VII. Debuting very late on the Playstation 2 and just over seven years later, P4 is still making excited, new fans. It is a game so beloved its greatness veers into the vastly overrated. Beyond the game, Persona 4 has had mangas, two turns at an anime, a stage play, a fighting game, live concerts, another fighting game, it has found itself in the kissing booth with Etrian Odyssey, there was a spin-off novel for Naoto and there's probably more than that.

And for the most part, these have been good, high-quality spin-offs and adaptations, though Persona 4: The Animation and Persona 4 Ultimax's story were both something I would pass on if I had a second chance to do so. P4's first anime just had too many liberties taken with the story and after Persona 4 Arena's ending, everyone was hoping for a plot way more ambitious than the one we got in Persona 4 Ultimax.

And now we're dancing off against The Shadows to save the hearts and minds of aspirng pop idols. And dancing instead of summoning Personas to fight Shadows like you normally would. Persona 4 has finally jumped the shark, folks. Yu Narukami, Rise Kujikawa and their friends have nothing left to conquer but the dance floor and they had to remind me of John Travolta and Saturday NIght Fever to do it.

It is time for Yu and his pals to go.

This isn't really even about it bring a rhythm game. I'll buy it and play it. This is really about characters with nowhere left to go over-staying their welcome

While the recent revelation that Youske Hanamura was originally written to be gay is interesting, I kinda already knew. He just protested Kanji a bit too much and kept calling Yu "partner" enough that it convinced me it was more than his boredom he was suppressing.

And yes, Chie is a sweet girl, as is her BFF, Yukiko. I really only want them gone because Chie reminds me a bit too much of my sister and what would happen when her BFF had the nerve to give other people attention. Also, Chie cannot be best girl if she reminds me of my sister.

Yukiko was always a little bit of a disappointment to me in terms of her character. She wanted to move far away and stand on her own two feet, but eventually succumbs to family traditions and agrees to take over the family inn anyway. Beyond that her cooking just seems to get more lethal with every culinary attempt she makes

Teddie... do I really even need to explain this one? Korumaru he ain't. Sorry, a perv in a bear suit doesn't top a dog with a knife that can summon the keeper of the gateway to the underworld. There's just no winning that fight.

Rise returns to being an idol, obviously. Kanji probably takes over his mother's textile shop and keeps on making cool stuffted toys for kids and Naoto goes on to become a master detective. Nanako gets older, Dojima pulls many more late hours at work and all the Persona 3 kids grew up to be really weird. Mitsuru is Bruce Wayne, Junpei coaches little league baseball, Yukari is the Pink Ranger, Akihiko is basically Ryu, Ken plays soccer, Aigis is still a robot and Shinji is still dead in the male P3 timeline and potentially alive in the female one.

The only thing that Persona 3 and 4 haven't given me is Elizabeth and Margaret in bikinis. If I'm not going to get that by now, it's time for P3 and P4 to go. If Atlus wants to continue with spin-offs, I may have to go to Japan and arrange an intervention because as much as I'm sure they'd like to have a Persona 4 Mystery Dungeon or Persona 4 Warriors game it is time to stop

But given this is the Shin Megami Tensei multiverse, I can at least take comfort in knowing the Demi-Fiend eventually destroys time itself, kills all worlds and the casts of Persona 3 and 4 along with them. He might not have social links and he might not appear in a fighting game, but he kills the multiverse to wage war against the Almighty at Lucifer's behest and in doing so will one day also stop the tyranny of Persona 4 spin-offs.

All good things must come to an end. We had some good times in Inaba, but now it's time for the Persona 5 kids to shine. Or maybe even do another main series SMT game or a Devil Summoner sequel. I'd love to see Atlus put Raidou Kuzunoha XIV and his pals in the hands of Vanillaware for some sidescrolling, demon summoning goodness.

There are plenty of possibilities, so let's just close the door on Inaba for good, okay?

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