Persona 4: Dancing All Night
Persona 4 Dancing ~ 9/14/24
I finally got around to what I hear was the definitive dancing expirence after finishing Persona 3 and 5 Dancing forever ago...
I kinda expected a bigger and better version of those games but surprisingly,
its mostly a Persona 4 version of the other two games.
real shocker.
Though there are some things that I think help it stand apart from the other two games so ill have a few categories.
Story Mode
The two biggest shockers to me after playing the story mode are its persona 5 like world building and the story engine literally being the same as the one from persona 4 arena ultimax. Like sure I should expect that from P4AU, the fighting game, to have a story presentation as bare bones with character PNGs talking, but to see it here is jarring. ESPECIALLY when it switches to high quality anime cutscenes???? To add to this, all the characters are still using their Persona 4 artwork, or modified versions of it just like in P4AU, EXCEPT Yu Narukami????? He has his own goated artwork but it looks COMPLETELY out of place next to literally any of the other characters, including some of the new cast. Doesn't help that hes like the second main character in this game as always.
The should be a nice bridge into the story itself. The story centers itself around a few main characters such as the new character Kanami Mashita, Yu, Rise and surprisingly Dojima (holy based) and Nanako. There are a few other key players but they mostly relate to those few. The entirety of the Investigation Team, besides Yu and Rise, are irelevant. Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Teddie, Kanji, and Naoto are here because friend :) and marketability. Like they are there doing there casual shenanigans as usual but don't really contribute beyond that and like half of the story follows these guys. I honestly don't mind it too much but it kinda sucks see Yosuke just get bagged on in almost all his screen time. Shit is TRAGIC. Kanji thinks. Chie and Yukiko are a little less annoying than usual and Naoto is almost important :). Teddie is still simping and bagging on Yosuke; less actual comedy and bear puns than usual (downgrade fr). And one last thing: none of them have their upgraded personas (excpet that one time Yu suddenly has izanagi no okami; so cool)
The story takes place at the end of summer following P4 and I guess P4AU as well? idk man they don't reference that game which is bizarre as Rise is still doing the navigator thing. kinda feels like it should be before P4AU but whatever. There is gonna be a huge festival in which Rise will be making her comeback in so she invites the Investigation Team to help her as backup dancers, thus the costumes and knowing how to dance. Kanami Mashita, a idol from a different group is the star of this festival with her group but is very sad because she isn't as close to anyone else as Rise and the Investigation Team seem to be. Meanwhile, rumor about the website hosting the festival saying "lol you'll die if you come at midnight" goes around and , shocker, people are going into comas because of this. Also shockingly, this is the same type of coma as apathy syndrome and thus ties back to Persona 3??? Weird continuity but they give more context to what actually happens when you have apathy syndrome so thats cool. Thus Yu, Naoto and Rise investigate and find a world, the Midnight Stage, not like the TV world but more its actually more like a Palace like Mementos but on a somewhat smaller scale??? (they dont know that) I won't explain to much because spoilers but when they reveal how it works it seems much closer to Mementos than anything else but like P5 doesn't exist yet sooooooo. I wouldn't be surprised if they "borrowed" some ideas considering it was in development around the same time and warden costumes even go unused in the final game.
In the Midnight Stage, Yu, Naoto and Rise decide the voice in there is fucked up bruh and wishes for the philosophical idea of a single collective conscious that provides understanding to all and suffering to no one. They leave, but then find out Kanami's group is in there so once the gang arrives they accidentally get sucked in again in front of Kanami while shes worrying about her crew and they attempt to figure whats up and save her crew. The make the executive decision to split up into two groups headed by Yu and Rise to save gang. This is a good time to mention it, but they REALLY improved Rise in this game writing wise. They removed all the annoying writing choices without removing her personality or flaws as a character, in my opinion anyway. It speaks to me as a grown version of the character, which is great because they are still trying to do the grown characters thing from golden.(you love to see continuity). This might even become a catalyst to her moving up on the tier list. A+
Meanwhile, Kanami is like "what the fuck, how do i tell someone a group of idiots just disappeared right in front of me." Dojima walks in. ah shit, here we go again. So during her side of the story you get to see develop as character while working with Dojima to figure out whats up and Nanako as friend :).
Thats a small version of the plot without explaining too too much I think. I really like where they take goofball Kanami in relation to the story with the war flashbacks and all that jazz. Despite facing herself she dont get a sona ;(. big fan of this character. Her crew, despite being players in the story, I guess, don't feel that important :/. I don't know much else to say about them. Inoue is there too and hes pretty cool. Hes a real one.
Gameplay
a. Rhythm game
The game is pretty simple in its execution, hit the buttons when the line up with the left or right sides. Icons corresponding to the left three and right three buttons on the controller. Sometimes there are circles you have to hit a stick or L/R to hit. Its simplicity makes it very intuitive while remaining super fun. I'm constantly surprised how much I enjoy the format.
The dances are cool too I think. I never sat down to watch them outside of playing songs so they were pretty much always in peripheral vision :/
I can't tell you how much you would enjoy it so I would suggest just trying it and seeing how you like it.
b. Tracks
The track list in this game is about what you would expect for a Persona 4 focused dancing game with tracks from Persona 4, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 4: The animation, Persona 4 Golden: The animation, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, and Persona Q.
But notably there are some crazy exclusions from this game including
SMILE, Heaven (OG Version), muscle blues, Reach out to the Truth (OG), The Almighty, Light the Fire up in the Night, eta. but most importantly, THIS GAME DOESNT HAVE I'LL FACE MYSELF?????? Like THE Persona 4 Song???? Why?????
This game didn't even have The Fog or Never More before DLC which is also so jarring. But no I'll Face Myself is insane.
I do like alot of whats here though. For alot the base game tracks they use the Reincarnation versions of the songs, most of which I prefer greatly (no worlds most epic music though). Glow-ups from tracks like specialist, Heartbeat, Heartbreak, Your Affection and Like a Dream Come True sound alot better here than I think the OG's ever could. I loved It. Signs of Love really could have used their OG track though.
Don't know where else to put this but, they made a full ass version on the JUNES theme for this game. Incredible.
This game follows the other two in which there are some ass remixes but there are some absolute BANGERS.
shoutouts to my homie remixes:
"Backside of the TV" (Lotus Juice Remix)
"SNOWFLAKES" (NARASAKI Remix)
"Reach Out To The Truth" (Dancing on PERSONA Stage)
"Fog" (ATLUS Konishi Remix)
"Heaven" (ATOLS Remix)
Also notably there is 3 different versions of Pursuing My True Self. So cool ATLUS.
misc. (featuring hatsune miku)
This game has alot of random good fanservice, especially for Persona 1 and 2 fans. Like Adachi having a Katsuya costume is still unreal to me. A couple other notable ones are Teddie's Koromaru and Ken P4AU outfit, Kanji's Baofu fit, Kanami's Labrys and Metis outfits, Yukiko's Chidori and Rei outfits and of course Yu's Tatsuya and P3MC costumes. All great stuff.
The game also makes the player a canon person in Persona. They visit the velvet room during intermissions and talk with Margaret. I appreciate the velvet room not being a focus of the narrative at all compared to usual but the ay its in the game now makes it feel a little out of place. Hatsune Miku is also now a canon Persona character. The Heaven remix is really cool. Thanks ATLUS. Shes only in the one DLC song and has no alternate outfits, bare minimum here for this. Still crazy though.
I'd love to see Kanami and her group show up in future persona whatever since she is just a part of the world and shes cool. Her not having her casual fit be playable in Dancing Mode is criminal though.
Conclusion
Overall though I really enjoyed the game. I knew I was gonna be a fan of the gameplay thanks to it being the same as the other two games and this game had some good tracks to keep up with the other two games. The story had some interesting but not ground breaking stuff going on for persona lore and I though Kanami as a character was cool. You love to see Dojima being an important character. If you like the Investigation Team they are here too and you'll probably enjoy it. I would say overall the the story is pretty comparable to the social link like setting of Persona 3/5 Dancing and I would hardly say this game having a story makes it inherently better than they others. This game just has events that are canon, but will probably never mean anything ever again outside of cameos. (just like the semi-canon spinoffs) Though I almost though the whole game was gonna be Investigation Team banter to transition from location to location and if it was I could say I definitely would have preferred P3D/5D. If your a "real" persona fan or rhythm game enjoyer I would recommend this title. I would go back to it more but playing it through an emulator is kinda janky. If ATLUS made an all 3 in one title on PC with extra songs from newer games and more from 1 and 2 it would so PEAK. I would clock in 1000 hours maybe idk.
6 or 7 out of 10 seems about right for this game
