Decided to pick up the Japanese version of Persona 4 after all, even though I only have access to a PAL PS2. Just received it a few days ago. To my relief, it works fine on Swap Magic and doesn't swirl as badly as the other games.

I had the good fortune of having a contact over in Japan who was willing to pre-order the game for me so, out of all the pre-order goods I decided to go for the postcards Seven Eleven had. I had thought about trying to get the wall scroll but, that would be quite a hassle to send over. Besides, it wasn't really my kind of illustration.

The set of five postcards came inside a yellow envelope. Not bad, although the hidden illustrations that they didn't show on the site could have been better... They're not all original despite what the site may say. There is only one which shows Chie in a kimono.

Of course, this isn't quite a good as the mini OST that the US version will be getting in December later this year.

The back of the postcards with the usual rectangles for writing Japanese postcodes.

Inside the case itself, there's an assortment of other things besides the manual. There's a registration card for filling in an online questionnaire which also lets you gain access to downloadable wallpapers for both the PC and mobile phones.

There's also a leaflet advertising the two guides available for the game - a normal guide which doesn't cover all endings and a "perfect" guide which does. Not going to get either when there's always plenty of guides on the internet but, don't really plan on using a guide. Never used one for P3.

At the back of the same ad, there's an ad for the Persona Trinity Soul DVDs. There was also a free Weib Schwarz trading card packed in with a mini poster of Metis, another little advertisement for the new "Persona 3" Booster Packs that are now available for the card game.

The sample card I have shows the MC with his Izanagi. It's a level 1 card so it doesn't cost that much to use in the game supposedly and has 6000 HP... Reminds me of Yu-Gi-Oh. It's funny to see they have the Da Capo series in the game too.

I think only the first batch of the game will have these sample cards packaged inside because there's a red sticker outside saying, "limited quantity". I'm pretty sure Play-Asia will have been shipping the same version, though.

I'm enjoying the game so far. It seems to be very much the same as P3 as expected but, with a lot of little changes and additions here and there. The atmosphere feels a lot lighter and there's a lot more hilarious scenes. Right from the beginning, you're presented with the familiar multiple choice dialogues but, it took quite a while before there's any dungeon crawling. Travelling around is quicker now with a shortcut menu so you don't have to run about to the main places and the music's great. The glasses aren't evokers as many believed.

Expect a full review from me in a few weeks. Maybe longer if the game really is 1.5 times bigger than P3 and that took me more than 70 hours to finish!