Persona 4: Dancing All Night

All in all, I’m super impressed with Persona 4: Dancing All Night. It essentially hits every high mark when it comes to the rhythm genre, while at the same time delivering a great story with a cast of characters that I certainly love.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night is a game I will be constantly going back too. It will fill you with a nostalgic joy if you're a fan of the series but even if you're not there's still a great story and solid gameplay to have fun with.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night is a game for Persona fans, a game for rhythm genre fans, and definitely a game for Persona fans who love rhythm games (like me). Perhaps more importantly, it’s a milestone for rhythm games, pushing the bounds of mastery and player-defined difficulty, and demonstrating that this genre has as much capacity for a deep and compelling narrative as any other.

Dancing All Night is full of spirit and celebration unparalleled in the series thus far. Despite the dark and implausible story in the background, Dancing All Night is a concentrated dose of the most uplifting, cheerful, and fun side of the series, all set to a fantastic soundtrack that will get anyone dancing.

I mentioned before that Persona 4 Dancing All Night feels like a celebration of these characters. Yes, this is a fan-service game meant specifically for fans of Persona 4. That’s fine, but it’s also a legitimately fantastic rhythm game with a surprisingly great story mode.

A hugely successful departure from established formula, Persona 4: Dancing All Night is further proof that Atlus can take the franchise anywhere.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night has managed to surpass all expectations in what it set out to do. This love letter to Persona 4’s music and fans hits every single note.

As one of the better and more charming rhythm action games to come out in recent years, Persona 4: Dancing All Night is not only an apt and engrossing spin-off, but it’s an effective side story that will help pass the time while we impatiently wait for Persona 5.

P4 Dancing All Night is the best possible example about how an IP should be handled when switching genres. It's a rhythm game, but has a deep story like any Persona RPG, and stays faithful to the P4 characters, soundtrack, menu feeling... It's a Persona game, transferred to another genre. And it's very well done. But as a rhythm game has its issues, like a scoring system that it's a little bit unclear and permissive, maybe to avoid frustration in the newcomers. Anyway, if you're a fan of the series and/or the genre, you have a very high chance to fall in love with it.

Fans of the series or not, Persona 4: Dancing All Night has all the right moves.

There are touches of flawed execution in Persona 4: Dancing All Night, but they do little to upset what is otherwise a spectacular rhythm game. Genuine strokes of genius can be found in its modifiable gameplay and superb soundtrack, and they're compelling enough to keep the game from solely relying on its buckets of patented Persona charm.

Atlus somehow finds a way to craft a music game based around Persona 4 and have it end up as a serious entry to the rhythm genre. Persona 4: Dancing All Night is a great experience, with gameplay, visual, and a soundtrack that all come together in one heck of a package.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night highlights the wonderful music from the Persona series while building a solid story.

Persona 4 Dancing All Night's gameplay, tracklist and atmosphere makes it essential on PS Vita. Only the too-long conversations and the lack of content may let you have a break.

Quotation forthcoming.

It can get you a cheerful and naive smile through the power of their songs.

P4: DAN is fun and addictive, even though it lacks some content. If you like the main series and you're ok with the genre chosen for this spin-off, we're sure you'll enjoy it.

With over 30 songs and a long story mode as per usual visual novel style, Persona 4 Dancing All Night is a good, even if somewhat chaotic, rhythm spin-off.

Packed full of the charm and character that you'd expect from the series, Persona 4 Dancing All Night is a thoroughly entertaining rhythm game that could warm even the coldest heart.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night is a real party from the beginning to the end. The music is amazing and the remixes of iconic pieces in the series are worth enough to acquire the title just to get them. The design of the interface, characters and stages are a visual delight. If only it had an engaging campaign mode with more depth in the characters it would be a perfect game.

The combination of fun rhythm gameplay, impressively choreographed dances, and costume variety make Persona 4: Dancing All Night a worthy addition to the Persona 4 universe.

Dancing All Night is a joy to play and a powerful nostalgia trip for Persona 4 fans, but it’s slim on content in a way that could limit universal appeal.

Quotation forthcoming.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night has some big negatives against it, including a short song list and rough difficulty. But it's a ton of fun, the music is great, and the visuals are top notch. It's great for Persona fans. But, for everyone else, it's a tough sell.

Like Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, this is a game that is simplistic in concept but catered heavily toward fans of the series. Yet unlike Theatrhythm’s serviceable-yet-sterile insert of characters and compositions, Dancing All Night goes the extra mile to ensure that Persona 4’s beloved cast bring their A-game to this endearing love letter in addition to its plethora of toe-tapping remixes.

This fusion of visual novel of rhythm game isn't exactly perfect, but speaking as someone who loves Persona (and Shoji Meguro's work in particular), I really enjoyed my time with this one. It might be pure fan service, but sometimes maybe that's enough.

A challenging, gorgeous rhythm game that marks a joyous reunion with characters you adore. It's a new way to enjoy Persona 4’s outstanding soundtrack.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night proves yet another success in branching out to another genre for the folks at Atlus. If not for the relatively short list of songs and lack of multiplayer, this could’ve easily been the premier rhythm game on the Vita.

Dancing All Night looks like it’s set to be the final game before we have to say goodbye to our favorite cast of characters in Persona 4, and I’m perfectly fine with that. The Investigation Team solves one more mystery, and they’ve once again reminded us never to lose sight of our ‘true selves’. I’d say that’s a job well done.

Persona 4 Dancing All Night is a delightful departure from the series norm, and even fans that only have a passing knowledge of the franchise will get a kick out of how fun P4DAN really is to play.

A good game with average visuals. Although it may seem easy to play, it's hard to master. Probably it's weakest aspect is that it abuses certain songs instead of different ones that give the game some variety.

If you stumbled over Dancing all Night because you like rhythm games, you might be in shock since it is very much story-driven. While the mechanics are solid you will be probably better off with Hatsune Miku’s last outing.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night is an easy, funny rhythm game. A saga lack of knowledge is not a big problem, but in that case, you lose a lot in terms of appeal.

Worth it for Persona 4 fans, but misses the mark in regards to its rhythm gameplay.

It's fun and lighthearted and sure to make fans smile, but Dancing All Night isn't anything special; it's just an average rhythm game that's begging for a better interface and more song variety.

There are far better rhythm games connected to famous JRPG sagas, but this one can still deliver some moments of good fun.

Dancing All Night is a decent story-driven rhythm game that every Persona fan should play.

A few awkward steps threaten to spoil its performance, but strong characters and exceptional production values earn Dancing All Night a rousing reception. [Christmas 2015, p.77]

Enjoyable mostly for its Persona heritage. [Issue#168, p.99]

A decent rhythm game that fans of Persona will lap up and newcomers may be left a little bewildered.

It's not the greatest concert you'll ever witness, but Persona 4: Dancing All Night gives a solid performance, one that does its catchy soundtrack proud.

Atlus has got themselves one hell of a spinoff.

While its overly long story mode amounts to a tragic waste of resources, Persona 4: Dancing All Night's strongest qualities can be found in just how well the series' pop art aesthetic meshes with the rhythm game genre. This might not be the most complex or inspired take on rhythm games to date, but DAN certainly knows how to have a good time.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night brings back the deep, familiar characters and introduces them to the rhythm genre in a game that, while short on content and steep in price, is still a blast set to an iconic soundtrack.

All of which leaves Dancing All Night as a rare mix: at once a good dancing game, a bad Persona game, and a Vita game.

The game makes such a point to establish itself as a tangential side story to the franchise that I have trouble recommending it to even the most avid of Persona collectors.

Not for everyone, Dancing All Night will suit players who love rhythm action enough to overlook a lack of content, or who love Persona 4 enough to forgive the length and leaden pace of its script. [Jan 2016, p.123]

A mediocre rhythm action game that is not made any better by tacking on a silly and insubstantial Persona story mode.

Its gameplay is marred by the scoring system, the off-key notes, lack of song variety, and the amount of distractions. Being a rhythm game, that’s too great a toll.