FORT90

[Girls, they're all the same. Even Velvet Room attendants.]

Today’s the day that all current plus would be PlayStation Vita owners have been patiently waiting for: the Persona 4 port is finally here! Atlus was kind enough to pass along a copy a few weeks ago, which I’ve been playing every chance I’ve had.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t been enough to beat the game, thanks to my schedule, and given how massive the P4 experience can be. In fact, I’m only a few hours in, though part of that is due to me restarting several times, for the sake of experimentation.

Instead, I’m here to provide first impressions, specifically for diehard fans out there wanting to know what’s old and what’s new (and still trying to figure out if they should get a Vita for this, which is a no-brainer, btw).

For the most part, the core P4 experience from the PS2 that you know and love is here, pretty much as is. Which, is a good thing; it’s by far the best JRPG since Panzer Dragoon Saga and it’s appreciated how Atlus only added to the total package, in tasteful, controlled doses…

[WARNING: there's a few spoilers ahread, but nothing major]

Graphics

Sure it’s visuals are “last-gen” (technically, two generations ago), but they still look great, and are even better thanks to the Vita’s brilliant display. But yeah, no real enhancements here; it’s the same character models and textures as last time. The menus also look especially bold and beautiful, again thanks to the screen.

Speaking of, the interface remains largely the same, though there are some minor tweaks. On the PS2, P4 used tarot cards everywhere as a motif, but not as much here. Example: instead of a spinning tarot card to represent game loading, it’s a tiny TV that occasionally has Teddie running inside.

Personally, I prefer the tad bit more simplified and elegant feel on the PS2, but it’s nothing to get upset. Also, the character art has been updated, like when you got for an All Out Attack. And again, I prefer the old, but it’s hardly a deal breaker. I’m just here to give present every little detail for the P4 diehards out there.

On the plus side, the interface is tad bit zippier. Which is not immediately apparent at first, but try playing the PS2 version after some time with Persona 4 on the Vita and you’ll see what I mean.

Audio

The same, insanely catchy music from before is back and legitimately even better. There are many reasons why P4 works better as a portable experience, and having the soundtrack piped into your ears directly with a decent pair of headphones is at the top of the list. You know that sound effect you hear when a Social Link ranks up? It’s even more heavenly now. In fact, it’s also more of a motivation to make friends in the game, so you can hear it over and over and over again.

There are some new tracks, for the new areas, but there’s also a new battle tune. To be honest, it’s doesn’t quite do the job of getting one’s juices flowing for a fight, like the original, but that piece is still present. The trick is, it only comes up when you have the advantage (i.e if you successfully get the first initial strike or sneak up to an enemy). So, like the Social Link chime, this ends up motivating you to play better!

Oh, I guess I should mention the new voices. For whatever reason (which Atlus and everyone else refuses to get into), the voice actors for Chie and Teddie did not come back for Golden. And guess what? I like ‘em. The new Teddie is at times virtually indistinguishable as the old Teddie. Mostly due to the fact that he delivers most of his lines in the same exact manner.

Whereas new Chie sounds totally different. I personally had no problems with the vaguely soccer mom-ish approach that the previous actress employed, but I do prefer having her sound like an actual teenage girl. Plus some of the stuff said in the midst of battle is too cute, like when healing her, she’s give a very enthusiastic “Thank U!!!”

There are some new story scenes, which necessitated the bringing back of cast members in the first place (hence why Atlus couldn’t just use the voice recordings from before), and when it comes to returning actors, they sound just the same as the first time. Sometimes, even if a little bit of time passes, characters can end up sounding a bit different. But not here, in case anyone was wondering.

Story + Gameplay

As just noted, Persona 4 Golden has new narrative elements. I personally was shocked to see a fairly significant change to the proceedings almost immediately and not five hours in. I’m talking about the new girl that you get to interact with, who is introduced right up front.

There’s also a ski trip scene plus a new mode of transportation, mopeds! Sadly, I have yet to experience either, but in the case of the latter, the game plants seeds fairly early on that you’ll be on a two-wheeler (plus we’ve already seen footage of them popping up in fights).

Regarding the gameplay, the overall structure is exactly alike: try your best to dungeon crawl while also acting the part of a high school kid. Though you’ll also discover very early on that there are more opportunities to socialize with other than before. Mostly by sneaking out at night, provided your uncle is not around.

The biggest change, by far, is when you set foot into dungeons. Battles play out just as they did on the PS2. The key different with the Vita port is after you fight. Often you’ll get be presented numerous cards after a victory, but instead of them just spinning around and you trying to figure out what they might be, all the cards here are presented in a face up fashion, plain as can be.

Huh? Doesn’t that dumb things down considerably? That’s what I thought too, initially, but instead we get a neat little mini game. Normally you are given the choice to pick just one card, but if you play your cards right (literally), you can nab the entire deck, Doing so enables you the chance the ability to pick right from the get go next Shuffle Time.

The element of risk and reward is very much up front and center. Obviously, the cards you’ll want are ones that will boost your stats, but to clear the hand, you’ll have to consider nabbing ones that can cause harm. It’s a neat little way to add some spice to the proceedings (not that the game was boring without it, far from it) and I overall really dig.

Though I say this now, very early on. Ask me again when I’ve turn downed a card that would have given me 50,000 experience points and 250,000 pieces of gold. On that note, another big difference is how you don’t get as much of either, at least as far as I can recall. But I haven’t played enough to determine if this makes the game indeed harder (or if the aforementioned new Shuffle Time helps to offset this).

Another new thing is how pals can now team up to do attacks, though this is mostly involuntary and based entirely on stats. I don’t know what triggers Chie and Yukiko’s team up attack, but it’s always awesome when they happen!

Plus, you can change the appearance of you and your pals during the dungeon crawling segments, but thus far, it’s only variations of school attire. Thus far, I have not encountered any maid or S&M attire for the ladies, like in Persona 3 FES. Sadly.

There are two other Vita specific additions: you’ve got trophies and achievements and the such. That’s cool I guess. There’s also the ability to go into another person’s game and help them out, plus ask for help. Unfortunately, I was not able to test this, since only press folk have had access to the game, and none of my peeps on that end have been playing the game, sadly.

But also, it depends on the PlayStation Network, which sucks a dick, so I doubt I’ll be able to use it once the game is in the wild, even if I wanted to.

Extras

The game has a few neat additionals. First is the new animated intro. I absolutely love the original, but the new one, where everyone busts out super cool dance moves, is equally fab. Plus, you at least have the option to watch the original, along with other neat videos.

You can either watch everything in game, on your TV, on a lazy Sunday afternoon, or in the main menu. Aside from being one of the few areas of the game in which touchscreen functionality is employed, all content is presented like televised programing.

Along with the “channel” that allows you to watch both intros and all the cut scenes up till that point, there’s another that has the Japanese ads for Persona 3, Persona 3 FES, Persona 3 Portable, and Persona 4 on tap oddly, there’s nothing for Persona 4 Arena), plus a music channel that lets you enjoy the soundtrack. But that’s not all!

You also have one featuring lectures from Mr. Edogawa (the school nurse from P3 that’s obsessed with occult) who goes way in-depth with how Personas work in the first place, plus another that has footage from the live Persona music shows from Japan! That was an unexpected surprise. You get more content as you play, so I’m really looking forward to what else pops up (especially the Inaba cable access station).

… And, I guess that’s it? Thus far, Persona 4 Golden is exceeding expectations, which were pretty damn lofty to begin with. I generally hate ports with new elements since, at best, they often don’t truly fit in with the rest of the package, but not here.

End result is a game that was already the absolute best in its class that is now even better, without question. If time permits, I’ll do a real deal review once it has been beaten. Till then, all interested parties can view my review of the original release as well as the art contest results for those who missed that.

Oh, and once more, be sure to keep abreast of my attempts at getting into the pants via my Photo Dump Tumblr. Or simply follow me on Instagram. BTW, the best comment thus far…

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Time for another mid-week report, and there are two primary highlights from the past seven days. First is all the schmoozing that took place; Thursday was the Polygon launch party, in which myself a number of other NYC-based game journalists were all invited to…

It was also filled with tons of gaming PR peeps and even a few game makers. Including Noah Sasso, who was fresh from launching the Sportsfriends Kickstarter. I love how, after talking the guy for just ten minutes, he out of the blue busted out with: “Hey, do you like Trailer Park Boys?”

With the answer being yes; would later learn that his clue was my use of the phrase “king shit of f*ck mountain.” Which is actually from Mr. Show, but that’s neither here nor there. Afterwards I was invited to karaoke with the Vox Media folk…

Got to sing Punk Rock Girl with an actual Punk Rock girl! That was pretty neat.

The following day saw the grand arrival of my houseguest for that weekend: Lamar! The first order of business (aside from gladly receiving and immediately consuming his brand new mini, which was debuting at the Brooklyn Comics And Graphics Festival, the reason why he was in town) was getting him fed.

Took him to my fave Korean chicken joint, where Mike from Beat Bun joined us. Though mostly just for the booze, and to finally meet the guy who did that totally rad OutRun shirt for his company. Because his dinner was overpriced, overrated ramen at Momofuku (lulz), Mike had no room to partake in the delights that Boka contains…

Here’s another picture that Mike took, of Lamar’s reaction to a story I told…

…About a dude (an ex boyfriend of a former roommate of mine), who while performing a skateboard trick, wiped out in a manner that caused his prince albert to split his penis in half, in a 60/40 fashion (meaning his urethra was totally in tact). And how he refused to go to the hospital, because was scared to death of them.

Afterward, he basically had a split penis, which apparently looked like an over-boiled hot dog, but was super useful during sex (I think both halves were able to move independently, or something like that).

Anyhow, moving on, Lamar took plenty of pictures during his trip as well, which can all be found on his Flickr. Here’s a shot of Mike and I, getting our drink on that night…

And here’s myself and Kyle, the following evening at my place, and also getting our drink on…

Here we have Lamar and Kyle, doing a little pre-drinking before heading out to the post BCGF party. With a little help from my collection of wacky Japanese PSone & PS2 games…

Naturally, since it was a special occasion, I had to bust out the Love Love 2…

And here we are, basically debating what works (and what doesn’t) in Sonic 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic CD…

To be honest, that there was the high point of the after party, as well BCGF as a whole. That and talking to Alex about James Bond, figuring out if the PS3 is the best Blu-ray solution for Dave, how Kris had confused me for some other Matt Hawkins on Facebook who spams her wall with video game related nonsense (stuff that’s not nearly as cool as what I generally post, naturally), and discussing with Ryan my #1 favorite subject: girls.

Oh, and I also got the chance to admire Heidi‘s sweet as hell jacket…

Otherwise, the show was what it was: not something for me. But because I’m not as connected with the world of comics as I once was, I’m not nearly as wound up about the show as I might have once been. Though I will say, this year had far better stuff than last year. Then I again, far more cool people (mostly out of town peeps) were exhibiting than last time as well. Though it was also far stinkier this time as well, which is saying A LOT.

Anyhow, time for a few random pics: had Chinese Sunday night, and got this rather ominous fortune…

As some of you might recall, I’m currently teaching in upstate New York, and here’s what my commute generally looks like…

So there’s this bar near Port Authority that once upon a time was simply referred to as “the hot dog bar”. For every beer you got a hot dog, and it was awesome. The place is still open, but under new management. It’s still a fairly divey joint, but the free franks have been replaced by girls in bikinis. That might be okay with some guys, but not me…

Here’s a new thing I’ve been doing: Instagraming all my attempts at getting into the panties of the girls of Persona 4 Golden! Here I am, trying to get a birthday blowjob from Chie. Unfortunately…

Though I was able to ask a close approximate…

Back to Lamar; as noted, I was the lucky first person to get ahold of his brand new comic, which I immediately took pictures of and posted onto the Attract Mode blog…

Beat Monster will be making its way to the Attract Mode shop very soon, as will SCUZZI! I’ve posted pics from John Pham‘s latest foray into the video game zine space once already, after TCAF, but here’s another look…

And real quick, two additional Attract Mode posts that some people might dig, I hope. First: screw the Halo 4 launch, let’s take a closer at the Halo 3 launch, courtesy of Splendid Recipes. And second: behold Blip Festival Tokyo, through the lenses of Marjorie Becker…

Though the other major highlight from the past week, as noted at the very top, is the long overdue appearance of Fangamer VERSUS Attract Mode artwork in our shops!

But believe it or not, that’s not all! By the time you read this, there should be another heads up regarding further awesomeness that’s currently available in the store! And, you know, Christmas is not that far away…

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