Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection

When Atlus first announced that they were turning Persona 4 into an all-dancing rhythm game, I'll admit to being a bit hesitant. It seemed like a huge departure from the original game, which was more about jumping into televisions and battling monsters. Of course, I was wrong. Persona 4: Dancing All Night proved to not only be a delightful exercise in button tapping, but it perfectly highlighted almost everything I loved about the role-playing series. Now the same developers are back with dancing spin-offs based on both Persona 3 and Persona 5, and you can get both on either the PlayStation 4 or PS Vita. We all know the music and characters are great, but is this the video game dance off you've been dreaming about?

Available both individually and as a collection, the release of Persona Dancing is a little more complicated than I was expecting. You can get both Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight as standalone products for $60 each, but there's also a slightly more expensive Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection that features a downloadable version of Persona 4: Dancing All Night. In order to not post a bunch of repetitive reviews, I'm going to cover all three games in this review, with more of an emphasis on the two newest releases.

If you're wondering why your favorite Persona characters are suddenly in a dance-off, then it's worth pointing out that all three games take place in a dream. Whether it's the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad or the Phantom Thieves, all of your favorite characters are ordered to dance and entertain the young residents of the Velvet Room. And what if they don't know how to dance? Don't worry, it's a dream, so all they have to do is think about how they want to move and their bodies will make it happen.

All this is just a thinly veiled excuse to watch the Persona characters dance in front of all the iconic game locations. The idea is to tap the six buttons when prompted in order to earn a high score and unlock new music. The notes will come out of the center and move predictably towards either the left or right side of the screen, which has you pushing either the D-pad or face buttons in time with the beat. While a lot of the notes will be single, you'll also run into notes you have to hold down, double tap and time with another button. Throw in stylish scratches and chaotic charting and you have a game that's easy to learn but can get overwhelming in a hurry.

On top of keeping track of tons of notes at the same time, all three games allow you to charge up a Fever meter. These are sections of the song where a second character will come out and dance, giving us a boost in points and a fun duet routine to watch. If you don't earn enough Fever points, then you'll have to suffer with a slightly less over-the-top performance.

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The game hopes you'll want to spend your time replaying these songs in order to unlock all kinds of new outfits and accessories. There's a lot of fun in dressing up the different characters and mixing up who they dance with. And once you've mastered the admittedly simple gameplay, you can bump up the difficulty several times in order to find the challenge right for you.

Of course, the reason you play a Persona game is for the story, and these dancing games are no exception. Both Persona 3 and 5 have you unlocking different story beats and character moments while performing the songs. Believe it or not, this leads to some of the most memorable and endearing moments. These characters are so rich with personality that I couldn't wait to see how each of them would react to being thrown into a dance competition. The social moments in Persona Dancing go a long way to further flesh out these already fully realized teenagers, and it was so much fun hanging out with Morgana, Junpei, Lady Ann and Teddy one more time, even if it's only in a dream.

It's worth noting that Persona 4: Dancing All Night has a slightly different structure that better integrates the story with the dancing. The game is split up into chapters and tries to set up each performance with a lengthy conversation between characters. Persona 3 and 5, on the other hand, are near carbon copies of one another, with the only real difference being the characters and music. These newer installments feel more streamlined, both in good and bad ways. I like that I can dance without interruptions if I want, but feel that the story is a bit more disconnected this time around.

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And that's a problem I have with all three games -- they all play exactly the same way. Ignore the slightly different structure found in Persona 4, the three games are identical the moment you start dancing. There's never a point where they expand on the core mechanics, which can make the trilogy come across as a bit repetitive after a while. And it's not just the gameplay that repeats, but also the music. You'll run into the same song three times with different remixes, which is even more frustrating when you realize that there are less than 80 songs between the three games.

On the other hand, the music in Persona is impossible to resist. Even with the repeats, I love this soundtrack and found myself replaying songs just to hear them again. The music in Persona is endlessly upbeat and catchy in a way that probably should be illegal. I also love revisiting all the iconic locations and watching my favorite RPG heroes pull off sick moves. I love that there's a mode where you can turn everything off and just marvel at the choreography. The whole thing is delightful in all the ways you could hope for. And while I wish it was a little deeper and had more content, I would be lying if I said I didn't have a huge smile on my face the entire time I played Persona Dancing.

The problem with this collection is that it's too expensive. Charging full price for both Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight seems outrageous to me, and the only real deal is if you spend $100 to get the big collection with three games. But even if you can get past the steep price, each game is short and lacking in overall content. The three games are simply too similar to stand apart and probably should have been combined into a single epic dance-off. As a package, I think Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection features three fun rhythm games, but I'm not sure how enthusiastically I can recommend it at full price.