Persona 4: Dancing All Night Reviews
Atlus doesn’t throw around the prestigious Persona brand lightly, and takes care of its characters in this visual novel/rhythm game mashup. The lengthy story mode fumbles with its first act, but picks up and develops into the kind of great Persona mystery that we’ve come to expect. The story is meaningful, the characters are full of personality, and the music is fantastic. The rhythm portion is a little too kid-gloves with its scoring, to the point where it might even hold you back in learning the rhythms, but the fun patterns and interesting items keep me coming back to my favorite songs.
A mediocre rhythm action game that is not made any better by tacking on a silly and insubstantial Persona story mode.
A challenging, gorgeous rhythm game that marks a joyous reunion with characters you adore. It's a new way to enjoy Persona 4’s outstanding soundtrack.
If you’re a Persona fan, you’ll enjoy seeing your favorite characters bust a move and besting your previous scores, but it doesn’t offer much beyond that
The combination of a flawed rhythm game and a disappointing narrative make Persona 4 Dancing All Night an underwhelming experience.
Dancing All Night succeeds at more than just Persona charm
Get to know your friends from Persona 4 even more intimately, and maybe dance along.
While its overly long story mode amounts to a tragic waste of resources, Persona 4: Dancing All Night's strongest qualities can be found in just how well the series' pop art aesthetic meshes with the rhythm game genre. This might not be the most complex or inspired take on rhythm games to date, but DAN certainly knows how to have a good time.
The combination of fun rhythm gameplay, impressively choreographed dances, and costume variety make Persona 4: Dancing All Night a worthy addition to the Persona 4 universe. It offers a strong challenge for players and even includes in-game items to make individual tracks easier or harder depending on skill level. The narrative falls short of other games in the franchise, but at least it features the familiar faces that fans have come to love. Now put those familiar faces in wacky costumes and watch them dance for their lives. Ya know, Persona-style.
This fusion of visual novel of rhythm game isn't exactly perfect, but speaking as someone who loves Persona (and Shoji Meguro's work in particular), I really enjoyed my time with this one. It might be pure fan service, but sometimes maybe that's enough.
Even with a few missteps, the presentation for Persona 4: Dancing All Night is as colorful as it gets and a beauty to behold. The anime art style remains crisp and if there's anything better than seeing the Persona characters in prime form, it's watching them get their groove on. Ultimately, a rhythm game like this is only as strong as its soundtrack, but fortunately for Atlus, there are some truly enjoyable tracks to be found, including a few remixes of some old favorites. All of those earworms can easily be accessed through Free Dance mode, which is good for anyone that just wants a few quick sessions aboard a plane or in line at an amusement park.
A hugely successful departure from established formula, Persona 4: Dancing All Night is further proof that Atlus can take the franchise anywhere.
The ideal entry point for any Persona 4 newcomer (and the franchise as a whole) should be the PlayStation Vita enhanced remake, Persona 4 Golden. Yet if you cannot foresee making a 70 hour commitment to that JRPG, Persona 4: Dancing All Night is more than suitable as a gateway experience to the series. It’s themes on teen angst and the value of friendship are in line with the main game, more so than the fantastical Persona Q or the outlandish Persona 4 Arena. It’s not without its tough challenges, but any superb game in this genre should be demanding. As one of the better and more charming rhythm action games to come out in recent years, Persona 4: Dancing All Night is not only an apt and engrossing spin-off, but it’s an effective side story that will help pass the time while we impatiently wait for Persona 5.
Dancing All Night is full of spirit and celebration unparalleled in the series thus far. Despite the dark and implausible story in the background, Dancing All Night is a concentrated dose of the most uplifting, cheerful, and fun side of the series, all set to a fantastic soundtrack that will get anyone dancing.
Persona 4: Dancing All Night has some big negatives against it, including a short song list and rough difficulty. But it's a ton of fun, the music is great, and the visuals are top notch. It's great for Persona fans. But, for everyone else, it's a tough sell.
Persona 4: Dancing All Night proves yet another success in branching out to another genre for the folks at Atlus. If not for the relatively short list of songs and lack of multiplayer, this could’ve easily been the premier rhythm game on the Vita.
Packed full of the charm and character that you'd expect from the series, Persona 4 Dancing All Night is a thoroughly entertaining rhythm game that could warm even the coldest heart. With an understandably focused choice of music, a large part of the enjoyment you'll get from this title will rest on how much you like its particular brand of upbeat audio, which admittedly won't be to everyone's taste. If, however, you're a Persona 4 fan – who also owns a Vita – then this is undoubtedly for you, and while it may not be the best example of the rhythm genre out there, it certainly has the most personality.
Dancing All Night is a joy to play and a powerful nostalgia trip for Persona 4 fans, but it’s slim on content in a way that could limit universal appeal.
I wanted to like Persona 4: Dancing All Night a lot more than I do because this might be the last we see of these eternally memorable characters for a while. I really wanted to enjoy the time I spent with them like I did in Persona Q, where they were mere caricatures of their personalities, or the Persona 4 Arena games, which kept the cutscenes to a slightly more tolerable level, but the script and its length are just too impenetrable for anyone looking to actually enjoy the gameplay.
One of the best games this year, one of the best game on Playstation Vita and possibly the best music/rhythm action game I've ever played. If that sounds good to you, make this an essential purchase.