With the massive influx of Persona games in the past few years, and the series’ massive – and still expanding – fan base, Persona 4: Dancing All Night was released into a great atmosphere for another Persona game. Unfortunately, whether or not Dancing All Night is a welcome entry is a rather touchy subject for big fans of the series.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night (From here on referred to as P4:DAN) is yet another break from the main line games and is a spin-off into an entirely different genre. Much in the same way that P4: Arena brought Persona 4 into the fighting game genre, P4:DAN brings Persona 4 into the rhythm game genre.

Truthfully, it’s not a bad move on its own – the Persona games, especially 3 and 4, are notorious for their absolutely phenomenal soundtracks (I’m listening to the Arena version of Reach Out To The Truth as I type this to just be in the right mood, even).

P4:DAN, however, doesn’t do as well as it probably could have done on a few fronts, which I’ll get to shortly. First, let’s talk story.

I went into DAN expecting a fairly lackluster story, thanks mostly to the trailers which basically cited dancing as the new way to beat back the Shadows. It sounded somewhere between silly and just downright stupid. However, the way that the game puts forth the story was actually very much in line with many of P4’s overall themes, and I think it actually worked really well.

Just like P4’s big theme was accepting your ‘True Self’, P4:DAN explores an extension of that; namely your ‘True Self’ vs. ‘Who Others Want You To Be.’ While the dancing used in place of combat feel campy at best, the idea that’s put forth by the story is that letting loose and having fun while dancing is akin to showing your true self and rejecting the idea of being just who others want you to be. Again, it’s cheesy, but it does work.

And that said, the storyline in the game itself is actually pretty good. While there are some bumps here and there where everything just seems to feel contrived, overall the story is consistent with its tone and even the tone of the original game, somewhat. In this particular area, I would even say that those who really hate the idea of the whole dancing to defeat Shadows should reconsider if that’s your biggest gripe – the game handles it well without disrespecting the original.

Moving on from that, the gameplay is also something of interest. For those people who like rhythm games, P4:DAN is actually really well put together. It still follows all the typical rhythm game constructs, though it’s more similar to something along the lines of Love Live! School Idol Festival rather than Project Diva, where the notes move toward the button prompt areas, rather than your prompt following a track of notes.

You have Up, Left, and Down on the left side of the screen and Triangle, Circle, and X on the right. You’ll have basic notes come toward the prompts, as well as unison notes which are multi-button presses, held notes, and scratches, which require you to bump a control stick, or a shoulder button if you turn that option on.

As many of the trailers have shown, each character’s dancing style is pretty stand out and definitely matches their character. It’s fun to watch the characters dance, and since the choreography goes through the whole song (even if moves do repeat), it’s potentially more fun than a music video would be.

The first issue the game runs into hard is content. There’s tons of costumes and accessories to unlock, and that will keep you with stuff to do for a while. In addition, there’s also the story mode which is actually surprisingly long, and even an extra chapter that you’ll unlock after clearing everything.

However, there’s a pretty distinct lack of content in the form of songs. Or rather, the song list is a massive missed opportunity. While there are 29 songs in the game – which isn’t a bad number – many of them are remixes of songs that are in the game, and some even have the original and two remixes. This leaves significantly less unique tracks, in a game that could have been loaded to the brim with absolutely awesome music.

While some songs in the game just needed to be there, like Pursuing My True Self and Reach Out To The Truth, others that would’ve been awesome to play are sorely missing. Where was I’ll Face Myself? Or Long Way? There were so many missed opportunities in P4’s soundtrack that could’ve been awesome additions to a rhythm game.

Or, perhaps more upsetting for some, is the utter lack of any P3 songs, which could arguably be even better ‘dance’ tracks, like Mass Destruction or The Battle For Everyone’s Souls. Or, my personal favorite, Afternoon Break. Even the Iwatodai Dorm theme could’ve been great.

And, unfortunately, this is the sort of thing that really hurts P4:DAN – a combination of what could have been and what’s not there rather than what is. I mean, anyone who has played the main line games will each have a bunch of favorite tracks from P3 and P4, and there’s a good chance that only a handful will list tracks that are actually in the game.

However, If you don’t think about what’s missing and focus on what’s there, the game’s got good stuff. The remixed tracks, despite being the same song, are remixed enough that they feel different.

There are definitely some great tracks in the game with Reach Out To The Truth, Dance!, Shadow World, and more. Oh – and a fully lyrical version of the Junes Theme, which is adorable with Nanako’s dancing.

In my entire time playing the game, I really only had two gripes with it. First, the layout takes some getting used to. With the way they show the circle on the screen, each button prompt has enough distance between them that when you’re on a higher difficulty, it’s easy to miss notes if you focus on one part of the screen too much.

And second was difficulty. P4:DAN has three difficulties available from the get-go and a fourth available after some work. However, the difficulty gap between the normal and hard difficulties seemed to be a bit of an undue jump. T

he game would have really benefited from a difficulty between normal and hard, though I suppose that would’ve been hard to add with the Dancing All Night difficulty which is unlocked later on.

Ultimately, this is one game that’s difficult to judge fairly, and is really going to depend on the person playing. However, the game is definitely a study rhythm game with plenty of merit to warrant picking it up if you’re a fan of Persona games, or even if you just want another rhythm game to play.

Hopefully they’ll put out some good (and free) DLC to beef up the track list with some of the more beloved songs from the series.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night was reviewed on PS Vita using a code provided by Atlus. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here.

The Verdict: 8

The Good:

• Good rhythm gameplay
• Stays true to Persona 4’s tone and feel
• More fun with the P4 cast
• Dancing!

The Bad:

• Disappointing when considering what could have been
• Lots of remixed songs
• Fairly small song list when compared to other rhythm games (usually have upward of 35-40 songs)
• Main dancers are song locked.