Persona 4: Dancing All Night is a personality-driven game. People recognize the members of the Inaba Investigation Team. They’ve followed them through adventures that easily lasted over 40 hours. These are their buddies, and much of the spin-off revolves around them. The story mode revels flavor text that shows character interactions. Much of the grinding might even be done with the goal of earning more in-game cash that can be put toward additional character costumes.
It’s funny, then, that the Persona 4: Dancing All Night music DLC often pulls people away from these characters. The P4G Animation Set and P4 Animation Sets A and B, for $1.99 each, add the songs “Next Chance to Move On,” “Dazzling Smile,” “key plus words,” “Detective in Love,” “sky’s the limit,” and “Beauty of Destiny” all have videos based on the animated series running in the background. The same goes for the $0.99 “Never More” and free “Reach Out to the Truth (Persona Music FES 2013)” and “Shadow World (De De Mouse shadow swing mix)” songs. We’re seeing the characters, but there isn’t the same personal touch as found in the base songs that have character models dancing around.
That isn’t to say they’re bad. (Though personally, I’m not a big fan of “Never More.” Rather, the DLC offers Persona 4: Dancing All Night players a more conventional experience. The add-on tracks allow a player to focus more on the music, rather than the person dancing around in the center of it. They could prove to be good learner tracks for beginners to test in Free Dance before taking on greater challenges.
At the same time, it also highlights how much difference a good remix can make on a Persona 4: Dancing All Night track. As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t care much for the “Never More” additional track. It isn’t well suited for a music game, dragging on and offering uninteresting note patterns. “Shadow World (De De Mouse shadow swing mix)” is another good example, as it’s the third version of the song within the game and easily the most unappealing remix of the three. It’s overkill.
Conversely, some of the DLC tracks are quite well suited to the game. I particularly enjoyed “Detective in Love,” “key plus words,” and “Reach Out to the Truth (Persona Music FES 2013).” Each one enhances the existing catalog. If pressed, “Detective in Love” would probably make it into a list of my top five Persona 4: Dancing All Night songs.
Persona 4: Dancing All Night is immediately available for the PlayStation Vita, as are the “Never More,” ”Reach Out to the Truth (Persona Music FES 2013).” and “Shadow World (De De Mouse shadow swing mix)” add-on tracks. The P4 Animation Set A will be released October 6, the P4 Animation Set B on October 13, and the P4G Animation Set on October 20.
