Atlus’ JRPG franchise – Persona – is legendary. The fourth entry, Persona 4, is a murder mystery set in a small Japanese town called Inaba. Although all the entries in the Persona series deserve high acclaim, Persona 4 presents a uniquely endearing setting. Characters like the former idol Rise Kujikawa, punk-with-a-heart-of-gold Kanji Tatsumi, and the gender-challenging Naoto Shirogane bring a one-of-a-kind life to the town of Inaba in the Persona series’ most character-driven entry.

Importantly, Persona 4 is also the subject of one of the best anime adaptations of a video game ever. It’s hard to adapt video games. The Persona series itself is grimly aware of this, with its blockbuster Persona 5 having a notoriously disappointing adaptation.

Persona 3, on the other hand, didn’t receive an episodic anime adaptation, instead getting a series of well-received movies. While Persona 5‘s anime wasn’t bad, and Persona 3‘s movie series is acclaimed by critics and fans alike, Persona 4‘s anime is special.

Why Is It Hard To Adapt Games?

The Same Things That Make Video Games Unique Make Them Hard To Adapt

The same thing that makes video games unique is also what makes adaptation hard, although video game adaptations are currently in a golden age. Video games offer a special form of interaction where the player is directly related to the characters and processes on the screen. By contrast, although every viewer will experience and interpret a film or television series differently, the presentation of those media is more finite and rigid.

For role-playing games in particular, this can raise problems for adaptation. Since the structure of the game is based around the player’s projection of the player character, it’s almost impossible to implement these kinds of games in a way that is faithful to the actual experience of the game. With the experience built on the player’s combination of projection and interaction, recreating it through another format is excruciating. However, for a game of Persona 4’s brilliance, capturing the essence of that experience is paramount.

What Does Persona 4: The Animation Do Differently?

Persona 4: The Animation Invents a Lovable Protagonist in Yu Narukami

Persona 4: The Animation manages to strike the right balance by not trying to present the “experience of the game” at all. More concretely, Persona 4’s anime separates what one might call player-dependent and player-independent parts of the narrative. It then interweaves the overarching player-independent parts with an opinionated perspective on the player-dependent parts. The focus is on making a good anime, rather than on merely presenting the story of a good game. Examining the protagonist is an excellent vantage point for this.

Strictly speaking, the protagonist of the anime, Yu Narukami, is nothing like the video game’s protagonist. He can’t be. The game’s protagonist is an extension of whoever is playing it, and nobody “plays” an anime. Instead, in adapting the game’s story, Yu Narukami is written in such a way as to be an interesting protagonist to watch. It’s rare that Yu’s dialogue will match up with options provided in the game. Indeed, Yu has many more interjections, jokes, and minor lines than his game counterpart. However, that humanizing writing gives life to his character.

In fact, one might go so far as to argue that in creating a protagonist who is unfaithful in many ways, the viewer experiences a similar sort of humanizing projection to if they were simply playing the game. In the game, the player would project themselves onto the character in between dialogue options and tactical decisions, weaving a story and personality for the protagonist in their head. The protagonist of the anime looks and acts like the version of the character that a player of Persona 4 might craft on the inside, constructed and punctuated by in-game choices.

What Can Persona 4: The Animation Teach About Adapting Games To Anime?

Persona 4: The Animation Shows That The Best Way To Adapt Games Is Loosely

Because Persona 4: The Animation decides on such an opinionated presentation, it’s able to make story decisions that make it more interesting overall. One of the most engaging parts of Persona 4 is choosing who you spend your time with, and when. However, one must essentially experience relationships one at a time. By not focusing on a “canon” iteration of the game and its plot, Persona 4: The Animation gets to quilt together the game’s many storylines, providing a thrilling narrative up to its amazing final episode.

Consider Ai Ebihara, whose storyline is entirely optional in the game, but who receives a good deal of screen time in the anime. The way Ai’s storyline is written isn’t totally faithful. But because of the narrative format of anime, her story connects with other storylines (for instance, basketball player Kou Ichijo, another optional relationship from the original game) in a way the game can’t mechanically mimic. What the anime presents isn’t the game; it’s the game’s world.

Through this presentation, the anime accomplishes a very impressive deception — a deception which is in fact key to making it a good adaptation. With the Persona series, when one is finished with an entry, there’s a feeling of astounding loss while leaving behind its in-world friends and memories. Not in spite of, but because of these changes, the feeling when finishing Persona 4: The Animation is just like finishing the game it adapts.

Video games are a uniquely interactive medium. For this reason, they offer an experience which is impossible to mimic. For a game as successful as Persona 4, that presents a big risk. Persona 4’s adaptation doesn’t try to bring the best parts of this experience to the screen. Instead, it patches its source up with the strengths of its own medium, developing a relationship where it stands alongside the source — rather than being its shallow imitation. Persona 4: The Animation makes the case that Persona 4’s world is alive, no matter what medium presents it — as an adaptation should.