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 4
The main focus of the game revolves around Personas, avatars projected from one's inner self that resemble mythological figures and represent the façades worn by individuals to face life's hardships. Each Persona possesses its own skills, as well as strengths and weaknesses to certain attributes. As Personas gain experience from battle and level up, that Persona can learn new skills, which include offensive or support abilities used in battle, or passive skills that grant the character benefits. Each Persona can carry up to eight skills at a time, with older skills needing to be forgotten in order to learn new ones. Whilst each of the main party members have their own unique Persona, which transforms into a stronger form after maxing out their Social Link, the protagonist has the "Wild Card" ability to wield multiple Personas, which he can switch between during battle to access different movesets. The player can earn new Personas from Shuffle Time, with the protagonist able to carry more Personas as he levels up. Outside of the dungeons, the player can visit the Velvet Room, where players can create new Personas, or summon previously acquired Personas for a fee. New Personas are created by fusing two or more monsters to create a new one, which receives some of the skills passed down from its material monsters. The level of Personas that can be created are limited by the protagonist's current level. If the player has built up a Social Link relating to a particular Arcana, then a Persona relating to that Arcana will receive a bonus upon creation.