Persona 4: Dancing All Night is available on PS4 as part of the Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection. Learn more about this one in our Persona 4: Dancing All Night review!
Persona 4: Dancing All Night was originally released for the PlayStation Vita back in 2015 as a spin-off/sequel of Persona 4, a JRPG that launched on PlayStation 4 back in 2008, to later be ported and enhanced for the PS Vita as Persona 4: Golden. Yes, it is weird that a JRPG gets a sequel in a very different genre, but when you think about it, this is not unheard of. Just look at the Super Mario Bros. franchise and how it has a spin-off series that evolved into its own thing from Super Mario RPG to Paper Mario and beyond, not to mention that Persona 4 also got not one but TWO fighting game sequels on the side as well! As for Persona 4: Dancing takes place roughly half a year after Persona 4 proper.
Notes are color-coded to make it easier for you to see what needs to be done. Regular notes are one color, and for these, you need to press up, left or down on the D-Pad for notes on the left side of the screen, or the Triangle, Circle or X button for notes on the right side of the screen. Scratch notes ask that you press up or down on the left or right analog stick, and they are blue in color. Double notes that require you to press two directions at once with be purple, while hold notes that ask that you hold a button and release it when the note ends will be presented as green notes.
As for the game’s story, without spoiling too much, here is how it goes: Soon after starting the game, you will realize that the Persona 4 cast is currently hard at work getting some dance classes to be able to perform next to Rise in her big presentation during the Love Meets Bonds festival – The LMB festival. You’ll get to meet idol group Kanamin Kitchen and her five members who are actually younger than Rise. They’re not an up and coming group, and are actually already famous in the industry.
This being a Persona 4 game, things go very wrong within minutes. There is a rumor going around that says that there is a website for the LMB festival that, when accessed at midnight, will make something special happen. Trying to see if the rumor is true, you know, because of their previous experience during everything that happened during Persona 4 proper, the group ends up in the Midnight Stage, where all they can do is dance to keep danger away. There are bonds that are good, and also bonds that are very bad and dangerous, as you’ll soon find out.
Even after succeeding during their first foray into the Midnight Stage, they soon realize that members of Kanamin Kitchen have gone MIA, and that means it’s time for the group to start to dig around to see what they can learn about the festival and the people participating in it, so that they can find out what is really going on. Can you help the Investigation Team to find a way to stop whatever it is that is going on before someone ends up being hurt or, worse, goes missing for good?
Overall, Persona 4: Dancing All Night is a fun rhythm game that those of you who liked the original RPG and who are ready to dive into a new story with the whole gang back for another adventure. You could see this as a visual novel adventure in which instead of RPG battles you take on songs that you must complete by way of rhythm game mechanics to move the story along. You’re looking at 8-10 hours or so before your time with the game is over. Are you up to the challenge?
Disclaimer
This Persona 4: Dancing All Night review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by Atlus.
