In a day filled with wonderful news for Atlus and Persona fans, the Sega-owned developer has announced that Persona 4: Dancing All Night will be coming to the West in 2015.
The PlayStation Vita rhythm game takes place during the summer after the events of Persona 4. Pop idol Rise Kujikawa returns to her career as a singer, but soon finds herself on "the other side" after watching a strange video at midnight. Sounds familiar, but in this particular other side, Rise finds the "Midnight Stage" and learns that her junior idol group, Kanamin Kitchen, is trapped in this realm along with her.
In a series of rhythm dance-offs, with button presses and screen taps galore, the original Investigation Team will have to rescue Rise and her idol friends. It’s the perfect excuse to give new life to Persona 4’s soundtrack, which stands tall among the greatest video game soundtracks I’ve ever heard. I can’t wait to tap along to "Heartbeat, Heartbreak," "Your Affection," and maybe even some Persona 4 Golden-exclusive tunes.
Here’s stuff from the official press release, via Gematsu:
"Funky Student isn’t funky enough to bust a move with Rise and the rest of the Persona 4 crew in Persona 4: Dancing All Night for the PlayStation Vita handheld entertainment system. The summer following the events in Persona 4 sees Rise return to Inaba after spending the summer back in her old life as an idol. After hearing rumors about the Midnight Stage, she checks a certain website at midnight and sees a mysterious movie clip and, you guessed it, winds up on the “other side.” Worse yet, she finds out her junior idol peers from the group Kanamin Kitchen are missing as well. She has no choice but to send an SOS to the Investigation Team to help rescue the missing idols.
Not even Riddle-senpai could have seen this twist coming: Normal battle tactics don’t work against the Shadows on the Midnight Stage, but dancing does! Rise, the Protagonist, and the rest of the Investigation Team will have to dance their way to victory. 30 pulse-thumping tracks make up the new Persona Sound in this rhythm-based action game. P4DAN is made in collaboration with Dingo Inc., the company behind Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA (PlayStation Portable)."
I absolutely loved Persona 4 Golden, the PlayStation Vita director’s cut of the fantastic PS2 RPG, and I still think it’s the very best game on PS Vita. Time will tell if Dancing All Night can give Persona 4 Golden a run for its gameplay money, but if you’re not into rhythm games, Persona 5 is right around the corner.