Game: Persona 4 Golden
Developer: ATLUS
Publisher: ATLUS
Platform: PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Year: 2012
Usually for the first Wednesday of the month, I’d be taking a look back at games I had enjoyed and sharing my thoughts. As I fully locked in on Persona 4 Golden and didn’t spare much time for anything else, I thought I’d write a review today!
Persona 4 Golden takes the classic Persona formula of the protagonist having a fresh start in a different town. Our protagonist is a city boy moving to the sleepy countryside of Inaba, hoping to enjoy a quiet year while his parents are away. However, as soon as he arrives, a murder mystery unfolds which he must solve alongside his friends, who awaken to their Persona abilities.
The extended version of Persona 4 which released in 2008, Persona 4 Golden released in 2012 originally and adds new social links, dungeons and cutscenes to enhance the original experience. As I jumped straight in at Golden and didn’t experience the original, I can’t talk as much about the comparison aspect as I could with a game like Persona 5 where I played both. But, I’d love to share my thoughts on a classic ATLUS RPG!
What I liked:
No pun intended, but Persona 4 has always been ATLUS’s golden child; fans have always acknowledged that Persona 4 is shown a lot more love than other Persona titles by the developers and its often cited as the “best” Persona game in the franchise. I can see why people love it so much; the ups and downs of the plot really kept me on my toes, and the twist villain towards the end (not naming any names!) would have really hit hard if I hadn’t been spoiled before I started playing. It was one of those moments where when you thought back on their actions, it was so obvious that they were behind it all, but during the game itself you wouldn’t pick up on it.
The main cast of characters is varied and likeable, with nobody acting out of line or frustrating just for the sake of adding artificial tension to the plot. You really got to know everyone in the short space of the in-game year and it makes you sad at the end when the main character has to leave them in Inaba to go back to the city. I actually ended up really liking characters I wasn’t expecting to, such as Naoto and Kanji. The game does a really good job of showing you an idealised teen life, hanging out with your close group of friends and doing activities together. It made me miss the days of having the same time off as my friends, rather than trying to find little gaps in a busy adult schedule. These slice of life moments really offset the tension of the brutal murder mystery nicely and I never felt like they came at a bad time.
Some of the writing actually felt ahead of its time with explorations of sexuality and gender from some of the characters. I was pleasantly surprised by this and I’d love to see more of it in future Persona titles; even Persona 5 didn’t explore these topics in any amount of depth. It made the characters feel more like real teenagers in my eyes. If only we had gotten that Yosuke romance!
Persona 4 Golden has a challenging but rewarding difficulty scale. I played on Normal difficulty and it doesn’t hold back; I actually struggled towards the beginning of the game as I was under-levelled and trying to brute-force my way through dungeons to get them finished in time and continue social links. It felt really rewarding once I figured out the best Personas to bring and did well at a tough boss! There weren’t any super sharp jumps in difficulty that felt unnatural or frustrating.
What I didn’t like:
I know that as a woman I’m not ATLUS’s primary target audience with their Persona games. Sure, a lot of women play them, but their main target audience is men, and Persona 4 Golden makes that glaringly obvious with the fanservice ramped up to 1000. I’ve never been in a mixed gender friend group where myself and my friends are so desperate to see the other gender friends in revealing clothes or taking a bath. Thankfully, my male friends are not like that either or I don’t think we would be friends anymore. It just felt strange to me that characters like Yosuke would try and make moves on the girls in his friend group; it kinda proved to me that the mindset of this game is that men and women can’t just be friends and leave it at that.
On a first playthrough, social links can be really difficult to complete as many require high stats or for you to have completed certain tasks which need to be grinded from the beginning of the game. With a lot of hand holding at the beginning, there’s not much time to get those stats increased until you begin the first dungeon, and then it can be tough to decide how to spend your time. Some social links I barely made any progress in by the end of the game which was disappointing.
While the difficulty didn’t feel like it jumped dramatically, it was frustrating that the characters who aren’t in your current party don’t level up unless you bring them with you. I had a few annoying sessions just spent grinding levels because I realised a different party member would work better at the boss battle and they were around 10-15 levels under what I needed. I intended to play P4G completely blind but had to ditch that as I would turn up for boss battles with party members who were useless in those circumstances. I cheesed my way through a boss towards the end of the game because of this, and needed to grind a lot for the end of the game as I was wildly under-levelled for the final boss.
P4G can be a little unkind towards people who play blind such as myself, as it can be difficult to figure out the requirements for the bonus dungeon and the dialogue options that lead to a bad end or the neutral end. You do get one little warning before a big moment where the game branches off into a bad end, but you’re on your own for multiple dialogue options where one wrong move spirals you down the wrong way. I had to panic complete Marie’s social link in order to get the bonus dungeon as I didn’t realise I needed to complete it. I don’t think I would do it again though; the bonus dungeon really wasn’t for me as it felt artificially difficult with way too many enemies and a mechanic that sucks away SP with each combat. I understand that they want you to replay the game to get all of the secrets, but as someone with a blog wanting to finish the game, I have to experience everything on offer quickly!
Closing thoughts:
While some aspects of Persona 4 Golden haven’t aged too well and it has some logistical issues, I can definitely see why it’s such a beloved game by Persona fans worldwide. I’m willing to forgive a lot for a game that is so intriguing, addicting and has plenty of challenge to keep you busy. I love a murder mystery, and this one did not disappoint! I’ll definitely be picking up the remake next year for a side-by-side comparison.
Rating: 8.5/10
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