Quick question(s) about Persona 4

[MajorTomServo]

I just noticed Persona 4 (the PS2 version) is on sale for $5 on PSN. I was thinking about getting it, solely because I've heard it's good and it seems to have an extremely devoted fanbase.

Thing is, I've never played a Persona or SMT game before. I know nothing about the games or universe. Will I have any idea what's going on, both in terms of story and gameplay? Would I be doing myself a disservice by starting with 4? And finally, is the PS2 edition passable, or should I get one of the many ports/remakes/enhanced editions/whatever?

Thank you for your time.

 

[MerlinCross]

P4 can be picked up and played with playing any of the other games. Hell most games in the series can. P4 Golden adds some things but you won't be stiffed if you play the normal game. As for the story; Teen gets kicked out to the sticks to live with his uncle cause his parents are busy(Not really explained just move on). As he tries to settle in some odd murders take place which eventually lead the main charcter to awakening to his Persona. A small rag tag team is formed to stop the murders

Could say more but posting from iPod.

 

[crono738]

The story is self-contained so you shouldn't be lost. Gameplay is explained in the first 2 hours of the game. The only other remake is for the Vita, so I'd recommend that version if you have one. Original P4 is perfectly fine though.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Essentially what Merlincross said.

Anyway, the basic idea is that while your main character is trying to fit in, murders happen, and then some supernatural stuff goes down, a strange hidden world is discovered, leading to the hero and his band of friends learning to harness the power of their inner selves in order to fight the creatures in that hidden world and try to crack the murder.

Gameplay has two main aspects.

First, there's the regular world, where you deal with school, exams, social situations, and choosing which friends to hang out with (hanging out with friends increases their combat abilities and allows the main character to increase the strength of new skill-and-stat-granting Personas he can create for himself).

Then there's the hidden world that uses regular RPG rules. Basically, each new potential victim of the murderer causes a new semi-randomly-generated-dungeon to appear, and you have to complete it by a certain date. Combat is essentially about figuring out what each enemy is weak to, either element-wise or strategy-wise.

That's...basically it. It's not the best JRPG ever, but it's a pretty good one.

EDIT: BTW, word to the wise. The ending isn't the "final ending". There's a specific set of things you need to do after the story is done that unlocks a bonus dungeon that answers ALL the remaining questions. (you can just reload a save from that day to do it if you missed it the first time, no huge big deal). I almost returned the game to my friend before finding out that "oh, there's MORE?! ". I almost missed out on it.