A Brief Overview of Persona 4 and its Programming Persona 4 Box Art6 Anthony Perno ENGL 202C Melissa Kaye March 22, 2014 Introduction Videogames are a huge part of today’s culture. In 2012 research found that about 58% of Americans play videogames.7 Additionally, consumers spent approximately $20.77 billion dollars on videogames.7 Atlus is just one of the many videogame companies that exist today. Atlus’ most well-known product is the Shin Megami Tenesi series. The Shin Megami Tenesi series is comprised of about 49 games.8 This report is just an introduction to one of the many games in the Shin Megami Tensei series. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, usually just called Persona 4, is a PlayStation 2 (PS2) role playing game (RPG) developed by Atlus. Persona 4 is the fifth game in Atlus’ ongoing Persona series. Persona 4 revolves around the lives of seven high school students and Teddie (a teddy bear who can speak and interact with humans) as they attempt to capture the culprit responsible for the recent murders and kidnappings happening in their town of Inaba, Japan. Persona 4’s playable characters from left to right: Teddie, Rise Kujikawa, Yosuke Hanamura, Naoto Shirogane, Kanji Tatsumi, Yu Narukami, Chie Satonaka, Yukiko Amagi1 How a Player Interacts with the Game Just like how a movie without a story feels wrong so does a game without a story. Many game companies spend months developing a story. Persona 4’s story is played out in two parts. There are cutscenes (in-game movies where the player has limited control) and then there is gameplay. Gameplay is when a player has full control over a character and can choose freely what that character does. Cutscenes: In-game Movies where player has limited control Almost every modern game uses cutscenes to tell the story. Persona 4 puts the player in the life of Yu Narukami. Throughout the 100hr. campaign (story) there will be many cutscenes. An example of this is Yu school life. Six days a week, excluding holidays, Yu will go to school, take test, hang out with friends and even enter the Midnight Channel. All of these cutscenes you will be forced to watch and they help tell the story of Yu’s life in Inaba. Cutscenes have a technical aspect to them depending on what actions you take you will trigger them. Most cutscenes are just a video that will play upon being triggered. However, in other cutscenes the player will be able to choose the action that Yu does. These dialogue choices and their outcomes are determined by “if else” statements. This means if option A is chosen then result A happens else if option B is chosen then result B happens and this can go on forever. An example of this is seen in the picture to the right 10 Yu taking his first final by picking the right answer Yu will get a better score on his test, but pick one of the other three choices and Yu’s grades will drop. Gameplay: When the player has total control over the character If games were just cutscenes they would just be movies. What separates games and movies is the gameplay or player control actions and events. Since you play the daily life of Yu Narukami, you must choose what Yu does in his free time. There are tons of options that the player can choose from such as studying, fishing, reading, working, hanging out with friends, and exploring dungeons in the Midnight Channeli. Although there are a lot you can choose from most of these choices are controlled by “if else” statements that result in simple actions. A few examples are if you work you make money else if you study Yu will get smarter resulting in better grades. The real meat of the gameplay is found in exploration of each dungeon and the battles that happen within those dungeons. Exploration of the dungeons The final area of the game is the exploration of the dungeons and the battles that take place within them. When a character gets kidnapped Yu and his friends (The Investigation Team) enter the Midnight Channel and attempt to save the kidnapped victim. The player will control Yu and explore the dungeon and try to find the victim. While exploring the dungeons shadowsii will attack the Investigation Team and they must use their personasiii to fight the shadows. Once you enter a dungeon a random number generator (RNG) is triggered this number is then used to determined what version of the dungeon should be picked. A RNG is a device designed to generate a number or sequence of numbers that lack a pattern. The reason why the layout i) Midnight Channel – “contains dungeons that materializes the dreams and desires of those trapped inside.9” ii) Shadows – “Suppressed feelings and emotions within humans.9” Once a shadow is born the host (human the shadow was born from) must accept the shadow otherwise, the shadow will attempt to kill its host. iii) Persona – a shadow that has been accepted by its host. Once accepted a Persona will fight for its host inside the Midnight Channel. Example of the same dungeon, but a different map layout to show how humans are constantly changing 3 of each floor is random is because the Midnight Channel is supposed to materialize the desires of its victim, and since the desires of the human are constantly changing the Midnight Channel must constantly change to represent its victim accurately. Battles The battles are a combination of “if else” statement, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and a RNG. The first “if else” is to determine what type of attack (melee or magic) the player will use. Once the move is determined the next step is to determine if the attack will hit. This is done by using the weapon’s accuracy and a RNG. First, an RNG will generate a number in the range from 1 to 100. This number is then compared to the weapon’s accuracy if the 4 generated number is less than or equal to the Example of Yu stats with the Persona Izanagi weapon’s accuracy the player’s attack will hit otherwise it will miss. So if a weapon’s accuracy is 90 any number generated from 1 to 90 will allow the player to hit. However, if the generated number is greater than 90 the player misses and no damage is done to the enemy. If the player’s attack will hit the damage the enemy receives must be determined. If the player uses melee on the enemy the game uses the player’s strength stat plus weapon damage and then subtracts the enemy’s endurance stat to find the base damage (damage done to enemy without any multipliers). If the user has a weapon with 100 attack and a strength stat of 79 and the enemy has 59 endurance. The base damage is 120. This same process happens with magic attacks except the player’s magic stat is used instead of the player’s strength stat. After the base damage is found the final damage must be calculated. If the enemy has no resistance, Example of Yu attacking a shadow5 the base damage is equal to the final damage. If the enemy is weak to the attack, the final damage is equal to the base damage times 1.25. Finally, if the enemy is resistant to the attack, the final damage is equal to the base damage times 0.75. Once the final damage is determine it is subtracted from the enemy’s remaining health if the enemy’s health reaches 0 the enemy dies. If not the battle continues and this process happens again. This same process is also used to determine how much damage a player will receive from an enemy. However, once you die a game over screen is triggered. Conclusion Persona 4, just like many videogames, is composed of two parts cutscenes which are just in- game movies and gameplay, where the user has total control over the character. However it is how the programmers at Atlus combined the cutscenes and the gameplay that makes Persona 4 standout of the crowd. However even though programmers are a huge part of all videogames, it is not just programmers that make the game. Videogames also have artist, voice actors, writers, directors, quality assurance tester, and musicians and that just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how many different types of people work together to make videogames. Many game companies nowadays have anywhere from 100 to 10,000 people working on a single game and when all of their hard work comes together we the players get these amazing products. The entire staff of Persona 4 was about 250 people and with each new Persona game the staff gets bigger. Glossary Video Game Engine – is a system designed for creating and developing videogames. Most video game engines are built using a combination of programming languages such as C, C++, C#, and Java. Some common video game engines used by game developers today are the Unreal Engine, Unity, CryEngine, Nintendo Web Framework, and MT Framework. Role-playing game (RPG) – is a game in which the player assumes the role of a character that can interact within the game's imaginary world. Works Cited 1. Atlus. "Persona 4." Moetron, 2008. Web. March 2014. <http://moetron.com/uploads/20110409_persona4b.jpg >. 2. —. "Persona 4." Ign, 2008. Web. March 2014. <http://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/shin-megami-tensei-persona-4- golden/6/61/YHPath3.jpg>.