So, I don't see myself playing Persona 4 anytime soon (especially not when there's going to be a newer, likely better, version coming out for a system I don't see myself buying for a while), but I figured now's as good a time as any to get some insight on whether I'd enjoy Persona 4 at all, while Persona 3 is still fresh in my mind. And Board 8 seems to have a lot of Persona fans, so it seems like a good place to start.
I got the PSP version of the game about a year ago when PSN was having that huge Atlus sale, didn't get around to playing it until last summer, almost completely forgot that I had played it soon afterward, picked it up again about a month ago, and recently finished a second playthrough. You'd think that if I spent fifty hours on my first playthrough and forty hours on a second that I was in love with this game and eager to play the next in its series, but I'm not entirely convinced, hence the topic.
The battle system, dungeon crawling, and persona fusing/customization were all solid. I hear Persona 4 has multiple small dungeons rather than one big one like in 3; does that change anything? The different segments of Tartarus may as well be different dungeons, so the only way I can see this change affecting the game is forcing the player to stick to one of these segments during one excursion. Am I missing something here?
Pacing-wise, it was hit-and-miss. I liked how open-ended most days were. It reminded me of my college days, when I'd have to decide whether I should spend my night studying or hanging out with depressed old monks in bars. I also liked being able to quick-jump to just about any location during the day (I hear Persona 4 introduced this feature). Apparently in the PS2 versions, you had to physically walk to each and every location. That probably would have grated my nerves by the time the game was a quarter of the way over. There were a couple lengthy periods of time in both of my playthroughs when I couldn't advance any further in Tartarus or do any Social Links, so I was stuck just killing time for a couple of in-game weeks. "Well, it looks like I can't do anything but go to the fortune box at the shrine over ten times in a row. This is so much fun."
The plot was mostly "meh." I wasn't a fan of the high school aesthetic or the use of Japanese stock phrases like "Let's do our best!" or "Let's work hard/together!" And while I appreciate that the game is supposed to take place in Japan, honorifics sound ridiculous to me when they're spoken in English ("Akihiko-senpai! Koro-chan! Junpei-kun! Yuka-tan! Cleese-san!"). I'd expect this from a fansub, not an official localization. This plus the stock phrases did a lot to take away from the immersion, since no one freakin' talks like that, at least no one I know. I didn't find any of the characters to be terribly interesting either (though I thought the ending was done well; it might have actually done something for me if I had cared about the characters before that point). Apparently Persona 4 has a greater emphasis on plot, and the thought of characters like these getting more screen time scares me.
Random musings:
Female MC > Male MC; naginatas for life
Apparently the PS2 versions of Persona 3 didn't let you directly control your non-MC party members. What's the point of not allowing direct control over your party in a turn-based game? Were they trying to emphasize the whole "this character is you and you alone" angle, or...?
TL;DR: I enjoyed P3's gameplay but was put off by the "anime"-esque atmosphere. Would I like P4?