I will say that Persona 4: Dancing All Night is hands down one of my favorite games on the PlayStation Vita. The game’s visual novel elements and unique rhythm system just worked well for the handheld and I played that game long after the Platinum Trophy notification. So it’d come as no surprise to hear how excited I was when finding out that there would be a Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight versions of this amazing spin-off idea.
However, this time around the game would be coming to PlayStation 4 as well as the Vita, so I was interested to see how the game’s rhythm controls would work with the DualShock 4 controller in hand and how the game would play on a larger screen. Thankfully, Atlus understands the hype and the team released a free demo for both titles on PS4 to give players a small preview of the games before their official release on December 4.
I don’t think the rhythm system in P3D and P5D is very difficult, instead, I see it as one of the more forgiving rhythm games out there. The game is very forgiving and allows the player to press buttons too early or too late and still give them a “Good” rating. With that said, the game does have it’s more difficult moments and requires the player to use their peripherals to see which button to hit next. There are also moments when it’s tough to see whether you’re supposed to hit a note or scratch first. This is more evident when there are dozens of notes flying towards you and those blue circles come out of nowhere.
Speaking of the Scratch action, using the DualShock 4 was a bit difficult when trying to reach the scratch button which is located on either of the analog sticks. The sticks are just a little too far away to include them in some of the more intense moments and often just led to me messing up. However, I’m thinking these buttons can be remapped to the shoulders buttons, but I’ll follow up in the official review.
Suffice to say, I had a great time playing the 2 tracks each available in P3D and P5D. It made me want to replay each of the titles just to hang out with these characters more. I believe that’s what made Persona 4: Dancing All Night so good, the game give fans a chance to spend more time with these characters that they’ve already spent well over 100 hours with getting to know over some of the best stories in JRPG history.
I’m excited to check out the visual novel sections of the game because that’s where I found the other half of the fun lies in these titles. I know this genre isn’t for everyone and these dancing spin-offs don’t get the same appeal as a mainline Persona entry, but I think they deserve a moment of your time if you are a fan of the series. However, it’s too be seen how the team presents the respective story in each title and ties that to the fact that these characters have to dance in order to defeat enemies. As crazy as it sounds, I am 100% all for this.
You can watch our gameplay below of us playing on Hard Mode for all four songs (not perfectly, but we clear the level):
