Persona 4: Dancing All Night (PS Vita) Second Opinion Review

Two main modes make up the core of Persona 4: Dancing All Night: a story involving the kidnapping of a popular J-Pop band, and a free mode to leisurely choose and play any song and difficulty to unlock more tracks and cash. With the money accumulated, costumes and accessories can be purchased for characters to wear during their performances, and items can be bought to add a notch of difficulty or provide extra help overcoming the notes that need hitting in a timely rhythm.

The way in which notes start from the middle of the screen and spread outwards to the edges wouldn't be a problem if only it wasn't so hard to see them appearing in the first place. With the dancing performance going on in the background, and the fact that notes don't seem to be visible at all until they are a good distance away from the centre, there's a needless difficulty barrier preventing enjoyment reaching maximum. The selection of songs is expectedly brilliant, with remixes and new tunes alike that slot right into that disco and dance vibe, but higher speeds and difficulties are made extra troublesome because of the aforementioned issue that unnecessarily hurts this as a fun rhythm game.

Usage of the analogue sticks feels awkward and odd, partly because of the lack of a "click" that buttons have to assure input registration, and it's a wonder why rhythm titles feel it's essential to utilise them (Project Diva also uses analogue sticks for certain notes). For free play, there is a great little option to adjust the speed of the notes, and this works wonders even for harder difficulties, because it simply means more notes are thrown out, but at a slower pace. It makes following them easier than it is at a normal or faster speed, whilst still retaining the challenge. This somewhat decreases the problem of the notes not being so visibly apparent from their starting positions, but isn't a complete solution. Adding to the troubles is how the note accuracy confirmation texts ("Perfect," "Good," and so on) can hide quickly-following notes, making it harder to see when exactly to press buttons at the precise moment - a killer when trying to go for perfect runs on fast-paced tracks with lots of notes.

The story, meanwhile, is very "Persona 4," bringing back the Investigation Team and, somehow, successfully marrying dancing with rescuing a J-Pop band stuck in another world. The reality of it is a light-hearted and silly storyline that's on par with - or, perhaps, even worse than - Persona 4 Arena's, but as far as excuses to turn Persona 4 into a rhythm game go, it does the job. It can't help but be noticed how many of the original voice actors are absent from the cast these days, but the replacements do a respectable job of staying true to the characters. Why on earth it still isn't possible to save mid-chapter and resume from the last screen of text that was read (as in BlazBlue scenarios) is anyone's guess; it's another blemish on Dancing All Night that didn't need to be present.