It’s time to talk about fusing personas in Persona 4, which is another major staple of the SMT series. In other SMT titles, you would fuse demons together and even though we’re dealing with supposed fragments of your personality the same rules apply here. Each persona is represented by a creature which if you read the compendium is based on a mythological creature, from gods to minor monsters. In past SMT games (especially Nocturne) ignoring the fusion system is impossible and you will not even be able to stand a chance against the final boss without it. Since then the series has loosen up a bit in this regard and while it’s not life threatening not to use the fusion system, it can make life a lot easier.
First off you need to acquire them, as it turns out for being a silent protagonist you are pretty deep. After every fight there is a mini game where you need to pick a card being shuffled, if you pick one with a persona then it can be added to your stock. Once added it shows up in the compendium which I’ll get to later. Every persona has a list of skills it will learn at different levels and once it has learned everything it is basically done growing and a prime candidate for fusing. This can only mean one thing for returning Persona fans, a trip to the Velvet Room.
Ah the Velvet Room with its lovely piano playing the background, here is where you will be able to fuse personas together. Each persona belongs to an arcana which is based on tarot cards. The basic rule is that you have to take the base levels of the personas, get the average, if you have a guide on hand consult the arcana chart to see the result, then the new persona will be the next highest level of the average in that arcana. You could also try a triangle fusion which is taking 3 personas and fusing them into one which has its own rule set. As the game goes on you’ll eventually unlock special fusions that require you to fuse 4, 5, or 6 specific personas together to form a very powerful persona. Yet there are even more powerful personas out there.
During the time spent outside of dungeons you can meet up with various students (or teammates) to talk and get some melodrama going. Each person or “S Link” represents a specific arcana and has 10 ranks. As you go up further in it you’ll be able to find better personas after combat and receive an experience boost when creating a persona from that arcana in the Velvet Room. For maxing out an S link you’ll be given the ability to create the ultimate persona from that respective arcana. The ultimate persona is guaranteed to be incredibly power and most likely have access to a unique skill that no one else can use. To aid you in creating personas and keeping the ones you like, the compendium can record any created personas which can be re summoned for a modest fee. Trust me for those wanting to see the best personas in the game you’ll be using this feature a lot.
What’s great about the fusion system is how varying skill levels can make use of it. For beginners it can be used to just fill up the compendium and get those special fusions. Advance players can try to keep specific skills available by making sure they transfer over. Depending on the resulting persona, certain skill types are easier or harder to transfer. A fire persona has a less chance of getting an ice spell for instance. Expert players can go for using triangle fusions and go for creating the best personas in the game along with the best skills to create some incredibly powerful creations. The hallmark of a great mechanic is that you get what you put into it and this is easily true with the fusion system.
My next entry could be my last on Persona 4, as I’m nearing the end of the game and it’s time to talk about Persona 4 as a whole.
Josh
