14 DAY TRIAL // 
Persona 4 is not in any way or shape a modern game, first being released for PlayStation 2 and later rereleased for PS Vita. It is not the best episode of the franchise and it’s not even among the most popular titles of the handheld platform. So why should you care about a 15-year-old JRPG? Because it remains a fun and immersive experience, that proves the huge evolutionary steps between the different episodes of the Persona series.
Without the tremendous success of Persona 5, probably Atlus would not have made the effort to dust off the older titles in the series, and even more so people would not have paid so much attention to them. But if you liked any of the latest entries of the IP, you have to try Persona 4 Golden or even Persona 3 to understand the evolution of the series and appreciate even more the developers’ effort to make the experience better and better.
The first two lesser-known parts of the series focused on adults and were a great example for the Japanese creative mindset that knows no boundaries, the developers including even Hitler in the story. Starting with the third episode, the Persona games adapted a much more relaxed and lighter direction, with stories built around teenagers and their struggle to save the world. The story itself is no less serious and the developers are still presenting troubling social issues, but the way they are doing it is more palatable.
In Persona 4 Golden you start as a high school student that moves to the countryside to continue his studies and everyday life in general supervised by his uncle Dojima. As a result, our city boy who you can freely name ends up in the small town of Inaba, supervised by a single dad who is also the chief detective of the local police. The whole adventure is supposed to last a year, while your parents are aboard with some uninteresting and irrelevant business.
As such the clock starts ticking from the moment you step out the train station, the game follows the well-known tradition of JRPGs, of making you follow the calendar and plan your activities day by day. Beyond studying and making new friends as any high school student would do, our hero will find himself in the center of a series of mysterious murders linked to the legend of the Midnight channel, that of course leaves the local representatives of the law baffled.
As usual, you and your partners in crime are the only ones who can discover and punish the culprit, while also forming life lasting bonds and friendships. From this point of view Persona 4 Golden is no different than any other Persona game, but the devil is in the details. The writers of the game deserve huge praise for the way they build the story and the tension, and for the topics they poke at, that remain relevant even 15 years later. During the 60 hours it takes to complete a playthrough you will often find yourself in scenes that revolve around issues that are still actual.
Just like in any other Persona game, the events happen in two worlds: the mundane and the supernatural. The first sees you as a regular high school student trying to improve their skills in order to better prepare for the life ahead of him. You can learn, read books, build maquettes, work several jobs, grow vegetables or just hang out with your friends to increase your skills and deepen your relationships.
When it comes to the supernatural part, you have the chance to explore an alternate dimension in which you have to fight different monsters in order to rescue various people struggling with parts of their personality they cannot accept.
All the main characters will develop Personas, which can be best described as over the top alter egos that can use magic and various abilities so powerful that they can turn the tide of every battle. Your hero is the only one who can have more than just one Persona, and who can also fuse them in order to obtain more powerful creatures. In order to be able to do that, the protagonist must thoroughly explore the dungeons of the game and discover new Personas.
If you played any of the recent Persona games, this will feel like a walk in the park. Persona 4 Golden has a lean learning curve, so even if you’re new to the series, you will learn quickly by simply playing and following the in-game tutorial. It only takes a couple hours to find yourself hooked and planning each day in order to maximize your stats and increase your bond with your friends. The only disappointment for those who tried Persona 5 is the complexity of interactive tasks and missions, most of them in Persona 4 Golden being fetch quests.
The turn-based combat system has aged well and is still as exciting as in any Persona game. The same goes for the extra reward system that grants you the possibility to choose from cards if you performed well in battle. These cards can be new Personas, extra experience or money, and even cards that improve the abilities of your already known Personas. The system may seem complex at first, but you will learn it in a jiffy and find yourself developing tactics both on the battlefield, and during the Shuffle in order to get the most number of cards.
Persona 4 Golden contains all the original content and some quality-of-life features like the Quick Save available in the dungeons. Thanks to this function, if the worst-case scenario happens and your hero is downed you don’t have to restart the whole dungeon, only the current floor. Another useful feature is the possibility to adjust the difficulty in real time, without having to start over the entire game.
The graphics have been improved too, but this is the part where Persona 4 Golden shows its age. Even with the improved textures and the new high quality graphical overlay associated with the dialogues, the game looks dusty. It is a sharp contrast to see PS2 style Chibi run around in the game world, while the dialogue overlay presents infinitely more detailed and colorful characters.
The surroundings look a bit dull in day-to-day life, while the dungeons are over-the-top and bursting with oversaturated colors. The animations are still stiff both in battle, and outside where the lips of the characters are glued together during dialogues.
The Good
- Great story, well-designed characters
- Immersive gameplay with multiple tactical layers
- High replay value
The Bad
- Outdated 3D graphics
- Repetitive and annoying sound design
- Grindy secondary quests
Conclusion
The rest of the players will tolerate it together with other quirks of the game, in order see through the great story, while focusing on the gameplay experience. With some more effort and budget invested, we could have gotten a true remaster, which could have elevated the entire game and make it memorable for new audiences.
Review key was provided by the publisher.
