Persona 4: Dancing All Night is a sublime blend of rhythm game and story-driven teen-sleuthing

If there’s one thing the Persona series has proven, it is the versatility of exuberant youth.

Developer and publisher Atlus releases its rhythm-action Persona 4 spin-off, Persona 4: Dancing All Night on September 29 on PlayStation Vita. A non-RPG spin-off from a RPG series isn’t anything new; just look at the Final Fantasy franchise. For Persona (which itself is a spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei series), it’s not a question of whether it was deserving of another sidetrip but what genres would make sense for this well-praised Japanese RPG. And when you have a cast of young adults brimming with ardor, a fighting game (Persona 4 Arena) would make as much sense as a dungeon crawler (Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth). It even makes more sense to imagine the Persona 4 universe in the context of a rhythm action game, especially since one of its key characters Rise Kujikawa is an idol singer. It wouldn’t be that far-fetched that her close friends would join in with their own dancing talents.