- Anvilicious: If a drinking game were made centering around the times "bond/s" and variations thereof popped up, lethal alcohol poisoning would occur before the game was half over. Wouldn't want anyone forgetting!
- Broken Base: Oh boy. Not only is this yet another P4 game, but the fact that it's a dancing game angered the main SMT fandom more so than other Persona related games. The fact that it feels like a blatant cash grab to some fans of either series doesn't help it.
- This in itself has further been exacerbated when Atlus announced that they'd make a Persona 3 version of DAN if this one sold well enough. The reaction to that is probably worse than the reactions to DAN's initial reveal.
- Now that Hatsune Miku has been announced to be the dancer for one playable DLC song in the game, the base is split between people who adore the addition of Miku as a cute, little treat for the players and people who absolutely loathe the fact this piece of DLC exists, seeing it as proof that Atlus has sold out. To be fair, the game was partially developed by Project DIVA staff, and with Sega's acquisition of Atlus and Soejima making a Miku design prior, it was probably inevitable. Humorously, the same Miku design was later transferred to Project Diva itself.
- Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: The dark, dramatic storytelling is getting a lot of praise even from fans who can't stand the dance gameplay.
- Fan Nickname: "Shadow [insert name here]" for the various One-Winged Angel modes the idols go through, being effectively their Shadows in function.
- Fountain of Memes: The Gratuitous English used by the announcer in the trailer became quite memetic.
- "What's up everybody, how's it going?"
- "Unbelievable! Could you imagine the step?! He's genius!"
- "Wow! This smile is MEGIDOLAON CUTE!"
- "Don't miss it baby"
- Connections to Aleph's dancing skills, as well as connections between the aforementioned Gratuitous English here and Shin Megami Tensei II's "LET'S DANCING!"
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Due to licensing issues, Miku's outfit from this game couldn't appear in Project Diva, since Miku doesn't solo the song it came from. Just under a year after this game came out, SEGA added it as a DLC module to both Project Diva X and Future Tone, as well as Project Diva Arcade Future Tone's rotation.
- Yukiko's Velvet Room outfit makes her look like an older version of Lavenza.
- One of the disembodied voices used to break the morale of the members of Kanamin Kitchen is clearly Kamoshida's voice, and the comments the voice makes are not really out of character for him.
- Hollywood Pudgy: Kanamin's height of around 5'2 (157 cm), plus her Buxom Beauty Standard curves makes her feel as though she is overweight, constantly calling herself heifer and beef in her character trailer. She actually hates that her breasts grew.
- Ho Yay: Sweet Jesus, where to begin? This game arguably does not have as many moments of homoeroticism as Persona 4/Golden, but the moments it does have are cranked up to new heights. The first part of the game alone has Teddie announcing he's coming to marry Yu, and Yu is actually interested to see how that goes.
- Even the intro has this—during the song's refrain, Chie and Yukiko bump butts, rear-ends first.
- When meeting Kanimin Kitchen, it could be easily construed that Nozomi is hitting on Naoto or that Naoto is crushing.
- Dojima and the Dance Coach, with the coach blatantly hitting on him.
- The Coach has a moment with Inoue, too, calling him by his first name and remarking on his "fidelity". Inoue gets an uncomfortable smile on his face.
- A few of the lines between Dojima and Inoue come across as very flirty.
- It is possible to create a dance partner-up of any two same-sex characters, i.e. Kanji in a speedo and Yu in swim trunks, or the girls in swimsuits. One Rise quote when paired with Naoto has her calling Naoto sexy.
- If Yu is dancing well with Yosuke as his partner or vice versa, Tamamin will wonder if the two of them are a couple.Tamamin: Waaaait a sec... are you two a couple?
Kanamin: Ohhh my, the girls will come running for this. - During the first chapter of the second years' side of the case, Teddie accuses Naoto of being lonely without Yu around. When she denies it, Kanji is quick to make sure Teddie knows that's not the case for him either.
- Rise constantly calls Yukiko beautiful when they dance together.
- Memetic Mutation:
- For the western side, characterizing Yu as using the game to celebrate his last outing before Persona 5 takes his game's place.
- Drawing the casts of other MegaTen games getting a Dancing All Night spinoff.
- Now that Persona 3 and Persona 5 have their own Dancing Night spinoffs, depicting their respective protagonists as either learning from Yu or not wanting to get in the spotlight for various reasons (Makoto's antisocial attitude, Joker not wanting to get caught, and Yu just being outright loopy to them). For that matter, drawing The Pierced Boy and Tatsuya as bitter that they didn't get to join them dancing.
- "Here's another one."note
- Yu's dance to the Reincarnation version of Specialist has become this as of 2020, usually with some ironic caption. The fact that Yu is wearing Cool Shades in the most popular iteration of the video, coupled with his bombastic dance moves, made this meme another instance of the "Chad Narukami" meme as well, with Yu often celebrating something he did with a dance.
- Most Wonderful Sound: "KING CRAZY!" after completing a song near-flawlessly.
- Play the Game, Skip the Story: There is a sizable portion of the fanbase that thinks the story is ridiculous, but love the rhythm portion.
- Portmanteau Couple Name: Used non-romantically. When Kanami and Nanako are made an act together in the LMB fest, they're give the stage title "Kanakokko".
- Spiritual Licensee:
- A dark story about the brutal side to the idol industry, a topic that was explored in an even darker manner in the 90s anime movie Perfect Blue.
- Gameplay-wise, it's three-quarters of a maimai.
- Suspiciously Similar Song: The version of "Aria of the Soul" heard in the trailer
sounds like a mix between Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" and Carl Carlton's "She's a Bad Mama Jama". - Tainted by the Preview: Due to a scheduling conflict, Laura Bailey was unable to return as Rise in this game and replaced her with Ashly Burch. To say English-speaking fans weren't happy would be a massive understatement, especially as this meant that only three actors (Johnny Yong Bosch - Yu, Yuri Lowenthal - Yosuke, and Amanda Winn-Lee - Yukiko) had played members of the Investigation since the original Persona 4 game and not been recast at any point after). A lot of the reason why this recasting was also considered worse than other instances was because Pop Idol Rise was naturally going to have a larger role in a game about dancing, which disappointed fans of Laura Bailey's performance.
- That One Level: To be precise, none of the songs qualify in Story Mode as they can only be played in Easy/Normal Modes. Having said that, Naoto's rendition of Heaven is one of the closest examples, mainly due to the lack of percussion backing into one-third of the song, which can throw off your sense of rhythm. Further complicating matters is the many upbeat/irregular taps the song throws.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Kanamin Kitchen cast are actually impressively-nuanced characters with interesting issues, but most of them only get one or two scenes each to establish themselves.
- Unintentional Uncanny Valley:
- Youtube commenters have pointed out that Yosuke's neck looks unnaturally long compared to the rest of his body, possibly to accommodate his new scarf.
- The game continues the tradition of taking the character's head/faces and sticking them on to new bodies. The problem is that they are still using the same faces from Persona 4, but the bodies themselves are drawn in a noticeably updated style. So you get characters like Chie, where the skin tone on her face doesn't quite match up with the neck down. Yu dodges this problem completely since he was redrawn. Yukiko also avoids it since her dance outfit is largely the same as her summer outfit from the original, albeit with some additional details.
Don't miss it, baby
