Persona 4
Persona 4 is a role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus for Sony's PlayStation 2, and chronologically the fifth installment in the "Persona" series, itself a part of the larger "Megami Tensei" franchise. The game was released in Japan in July 2008, North America in December 2008, and Europe in March 2009. "Persona 4" takes place in a fictional Japanese countryside and is indirectly related to earlier "Persona" games. The player-named protagonist is a high-school student who moved into the countryside from the city for a year. During his year-long stay, he becomes involved in investigating mysterious murders while harnessing the power of summoning Persona. The game features a weather forecast system with events happening on foggy days to replace the moon phase system implemented in the previous games.
Persona (series)
Each "Persona" game also includes unique elements. In "Persona", battles take place on a grid-based battlefield, with characters' and enemies' movements dictated by their placement on the battlefield. This system was abandoned for the "Persona 2" games: the party has free movement across the battlefield, and is assigned a set of moves which can be changed in the menu during and in between battles. In "Persona" and "Persona 3", there is a lunar phase tied to gameplay, time progression, and the plot. In "Persona 4", this was changed to a weather-based system, where changes in the weather keyed to the story affected enemy behavior. "Persona 5" introduces elements such as platforming and stealth gameplay to dungeon exploration. The All-Out Attack can be initiated in a "Hold-Up" session, triggered when all enemies are knocked down.