With the launch of Persona 4: Dancing All Night in North America today, Atlus has released a launch trailer for the game.
Additionally, The Verge interviewed producer and director Kazuhisa Wada and sound composer Ryota Kozuka about how Persona 4—originally an RPG—was adapted into a dancing game.
Launch Trailer
It’s here! It’s finally here! Persona 4: Dancing All Night, the story-driven music game that follows the Investigation Team as they try to rescue Kanamin Kitchen, mega-idol Rise’s junior group, from the Midnight Stage. Of course, things get a little more complicated when the Investigation Team’s Personas don’t work the same way as in the Midnight Channel and they can only defeat the Shadows on the Midnight Stage with the power of dance.
The Launch Edition, which includes a special PS Vita skin and the Disco Fever Edition with its veritable treasure trove of goodies are now available at retail stores across the Americas, as well as via digital download on the PlayStation Network.
Kazuhisa Wada and Ryota Kozuka Interview
An excerpt from the interview:
Why do you think the setting and characters of Persona 4 work well in so many different genres?
Wada: We’ve never thought about it that way, but from that perspective … perhaps it’s because the characters are high school students who are still maturing, and they showed the players in Persona 4 that their possibilities are endless. The players watched these characters grow — saw how they confronted their challenges head-on, and overcame them together as friends — and came to love them, so it could be that the players are more inclined to be kind, and more willing to forgive the crazier stuff we come up with.
When you made the original game did you expect that these characters would have such lasting appeal, and that players would become so attached to them?
Wada: No, not at all. None of our other titles had expanded this broadly for this long. I don’t think any of the staff predicted the game would be so well received back when we were making it. However — and this is something I talked with [character designer Shigenori Soejima] about — despite the extensive amount of time and effort we at Atlus put into making a game and developing its characters, the actual time it takes to play the game is always much shorter. And once the game’s promotion ends, so do our opportunities to draw the characters. It’s such a shame. I believe Persona 4‘s protagonist is the character Soejima has drawn the most, to date. It was our dream for a single title to have such a lasting lifespan, and receive so many accolades. We are honored, and are very grateful to all thePersona 4 fans.
Read the full developer interview on The Verge.
Persona 4: Dancing All Night released in Japan on June 25. The PlayStation Vita exclusive rhythm game released in North America on September 29 and is slated for a European release on November 6, 2015.