Persona 4 was originally released in 2008 for the Playstation 2.
Persona 4 is basically a small-town coming-of-age murder mystery story. It's an anime Stephen King story. P4 takes place in Inaba, a fictitious middle of nowhere town. The drab infrastructure is dated and grimy. It is, in every sense, lost to time. Inaba only has, like, ten or so unique screens. And despite the PS2 graphics, I am obsessed with its environments. Something about the specificity of the details and the layout, combined with the camera angles, make Inaba feel like a place.
Despite the main plot, P4 has good vibes. It seems to play into nostalgia quite a bit. P4 feels like a fond reminiscence of youth, energy, and curiosity. The title screen's opening track, A Corner of Memories, seems designed to remind you that you will never be young again, while the silhouettes (the memories, if you will) of the cast stand idly in the school hallway that stretches into a brilliant bloom. This screen activates longing instantly. During the expansive narrative, the player gets to know the cast as if they're our friends. We're with them as they interact in a way that is not unlike real teenagers hanging out after school. The narrative is structured episodically, with frequent events and intermissions that don't push the plot forward, but define the characters and develop their relationships. They go to the beach, they go camping, they go shopping. It's like we're all hanging out. Remember when you had a group of friends that would meet up regularly to hang out? Remember when the days felt countless and boring? Remember how nice your skin used to be? You're going to die btw :)
Despite the positivity emanating through every song, and the warm, summery atmosphere, all is not well in Inaba. A recently opened megamarket, Junes, is responsible for what one might call the "Wal-Mart effect". Inaba's economic collapse parallels the ambivalence the youth feel about the local culture. This dynamic ties in with the themes relating to television and its impact on culture, though I must admit these are not as developed as they should be. Television is, I think, intended to be the medium through which Inaba's culture becomes flattened, but this is not properly explored. I actually think the whole television thing is pretty superficial. That said, the fact that the party has to wear glasses to see in the TV world is pretty funny.
Rise, a retired idol, a symbol of modern superficiality, should have been one of the most important characters. She struggles with her role and returns to Inaba to work at her family's tofu shop, which is a very traditional craft. Considering her connection to both the television industry and Inaba itself, her arc should have been emphasized in the main plot. Her social link also kind of sucks, but these are a general weakness of P4 IMO.
In the same vein, Yosuke and Yukiko should have had some form of ideologically-driven conflict between them. Like, I get that Persona is basically a feel-good series where friends are nice to each other, but as the Junes kid, Yosuke's presence is an implicit threat to Inaba itself. This is explored as some early drama and a tension that is present in his social links, but I think it should have been more central to the main plot throughout the entire game. Yukiko, on the other hand, is something like an Old World authority figure and symbol of tradition and culture. Due to their respective roles, there should have been some sort of drama between them. I think a little preestablished Montague/Capulet type dynamic could have gone a long way. The conflict is so perfectly telegraphed but none of the characters are allowed to have any bad outside their scheduled shadow interaction. Junes is fine actually, don't worry about it. Culture? What's that we caught the bad guy.