Atlus has gone through a lot since the release of Persona 4: Dancing All Night with multiple games across multiple system and a super successful Persona 5 release on PS4 and PS3. Persona 4: Dancing All Night was a fantastic release on the Vita for fans of Persona 4 and Persona 4: Golden and Atlus aims to cater to the same demands for Persona 3 and Persona 5 fans with a new collection of dancing games that arrive on both PS4 and PS Vita on December 4th. PS4 owners have the option of buying both Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight in a single package that also includes Persona 4: Dancing All Night called the Persona Endless Night Collection and this is a review of that package.
Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight are a bit different to Persona 4: Dancing All Night when it comes to structure. All three have mostly the same core gameplay where different kinds of notes fly out from the middle of the screen to targets on the left and right edges. Your aim is to input the correct buttons or combinations of buttons for the songs. The background features a character or set of characters dancing for most songs while others have cutscenes from the games or new cutscenes done specifically for the new rhythm game. P3D and P5D have a new note type called a double press note that feels pointless when you could just have two notes that do the same thing. P4D has a traditional story mode that is like the ones you have in a fighting game but instead of fights, you have dance segments. Both P3D and P5D have no traditional story mode but feature a Social mode that lets you view character interactions split up by each character and this is hit or miss in terms of quality.
Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight is definitely the highlight of this collection. Seeing ther Persona 3 cast on PS4 is fantastic and the music in the game just works in a rhythm setting. The remixes are also very nice. It is disappointing that the music from the movies and some new remixes are locked behind paid DLC when the base game has less songs than P4D. If you had to buy a single release here, P3D is most definitely the better of the two.
Persona 4: Dancing All Night in this collection is a download code included with the physical version or a digital exclusive to the digital release. It is the base game that released on Vita a few years ago but remastered for PS4 with crisp visuals and 60fps. It is funny that this bonus inclusion shows you how much better value Persona 4: Dancing All Night is compared to both the new releases in terms of modes and content. As a remaster, it is great. The only disappointing aspect is none of the DLC is included and you can’t transfer your progress.
Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight should’ve been the best of the three on paper with the superb acid jazz music but it ended up being the weakest of the lot for me. The music while great on its own, doesn’t all work well in a rhythm game setting. Some of the boss music and remixes feel out of place. Persona 5 is the most recent and most successful of the Persona games so it has had less time to get spinoffs, music arrangement albums, and anything extra to add on to the game music. This has resulted in a weak overall song selection. Atlus could have fixed this by including new music from the anime and Persona Q2 (Persona Q music is in P4D and P3D) which releases soon but the anime music is paid DLC and there’s no sign of new music from Persona Q2 being added yet.
While the biggest flaw for each individual new game is the lack of content and modes, even the PS4 port of P4D is a bit of a let down. As someone who got the platinum trophy on both the USA and Japan release on Vita, not being able to transfer progress is annoying because so much stuff is locked initially. There is no word on DLC for it as well. P3D and P5D on their own are pretty weak value propositions even for hardcore fans. This collection that includes all three is a much better set for fans.
Overall, Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection is most definitely the way to go for getting the dancing games on PS4. It is cheaper than buying both separately and it also includes a code for Persona 4: Dancing All Night on PS4 which is not available standalone. I can’t imagine a situation where this doesn’t end up selling more than the individual games because all Persona fans will likely want everything in a single package. It is disappointing that the remaster of Persona 4: Dancing All Night doesn’t include DLC and doesn’t let you sync your Vita progress to save you time.
- Great set for Persona fans
- P3D and P4D have superb music
- P3 characters in HD are great
- Loads of customisation
- P4D has no DLC included
- Some P5D remixes are bad
- Individual games need more songs
