Unlike your average UK teenagers, who are more interested in staying in bed all day, energy drinks, Instagram and Skrillex, the denizens of Inaba are far better equipped to track down off-world, telly-dwelling serial murderers thanks to their Personae. Your protagonist teams up with peppy kung-fu tomboy Chie, likeable lad Yosuke and the enigmatic Yukiko to form the Investigation Team – an alliance dedicated to solving this horrible mystery. The teens of Inaba join forces and uncover a plot involving the mysterious Midnight Channel – a late-night television show that sucks viewers into an otherwordly realm populated by malevolent beings known as Shadows. In the midst of the confusion, a frantic Ryotaro even tries to pin the blame on you, dragging you into a complex and labyrinthine whodunit. Life in Inaba begins with you establishing some social connections, making friends and visiting the shops – pretty standard stuff for a teenager upping sticks to a new place – however, your life in Inaba takes a sinister turn when people start getting murdered, and the cops are unable to identify the culprit. Add into the mix other oddities like an incredibly foul-mouthed teacher, sinister hunchback Igor and oddly unsettling anthropomorphic bear-toy, Teddie, and you have a very interesting setting that’s hardly your run of the mill RPG fantasy land. There is a huge cast to interact with or add to your party. There is Uncle Ryotaro Dojima, a hard boiled, overworked detective who is effectively allowing the television set to raise his old-before-her-time daughter Nanako Kanji Tatsumi, a punk-styled teen tearaway who is a veritable maelstrom of confusion and teenage angst Naoto, a female detective forced to act as a man in order to avoid discrimination and Rise, a fallen teen idol relocated to the sticks as a reluctant transfer student. Quite simply, Inaba is no ordinary country bolt-hole – it is packed with unusual oddball characters, all going about their own routines and with their own distinctive foibles and characteristics. STORY: Unlike previous Persona titles, which tend to be based around larger city environments, Persona 4 revolves around a more idyllic country setting, with the high-school-aged protagonist moving to the village of Inaba to live with his uncle and younger cousin whilst his parents are working abroad. Persona 4 Golden is an enhanced Vita port of that game. Persona 4 is the latest – and finest – instalment in the series, arriving to universal acclaim on the PlayStation 2 in 2008. As the series progressed, Atlus began to incorporate elements of life sims into the equation, lending the role-playing action a unique feel and unparalleled depth, genuinely evolving the genre in the process. Unlike the Megami titles, which are usually set in a fantasy demonic realm, Persona often translates the fantastical summon monster scenario to a setting grounded more in reality, and deals with young adults confronting incredible situations using their Persona – spiritual manifestations that can be used in combat the same way as a Pokemon or the celestial Tarot beings from Arcana Heart. Even if you haven’t heard of it, the devil-summoning Megami Tensei series sits behind only Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest in the J-popularity stakes. Persona, for the uninitiated, is a spinoff from the long-running Megami Tensei franchise that has been a Japanese rpg staple since the MSX and Famicom days. With Ni No Kuni having reinvigorated the 16-bit style role-player with incredible panache, Atlus now seek to accomplish two goals with this release: to give the PS Vita a kick up the arse, games-catalogue-wise, and to unleash the ultimate incarnation of their excellent Persona series for Western audiences. We are barely months into a new year, and already we have something of an RPG renaissance on our hands.
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