Easily the most popular numbered instalment in ATLUS’ long-running Persona series, Persona 4 was a gem released at the end of the PlayStation 2’s golden age of RPGs, which has spawned everything from manga and anime adaptations to multiple spin-off games since. While the game was incredibly hard to come by even shortly after its release, in 2012, ATLUS released an enhanced port titled Persona 4 Golden exclusively on the PlayStation Vita. Even though the PlayStation Vita is not actively promoted anymore, the game kept is console exclusivity… until last week when leaks, and then ATLUS, confirmed Persona 4 Golden’s immediate availability for the PC.
Serving as a direct port of Persona 4 Golden, you get the definitive edition of the game which includes a wealth of new content such as a new semester to play through, new story events weaved through the original narrative, improvements to the turn-based battle system, new social links to unlock and much more. Although the core gameplay experience remains at its heart, these further improvements do nothing but enrich one of the most iconic modern-setting RPG experiences of all time.
Listed at $19.99 USD or $29.99 AUD, I consider this a bargain for what is ultimately a 100-hour long romp through a fantastic experience which mixes murder mystery, high school life and turn-based RPG combat and turns it into something incredible. However, if you want a closer look at the improvements, or this is your first time checking out Persona 4, please read my full review below:
Storyline
In Persona 4 Golden, you take the role of a protagonist you name, whom for this review I shall refer to by their canon name – Yu Narukami. Having had to change schools frequently due to his parents work, he finds himself moving to the rural town of Inaba, to reside with his Uncle Dojima and cousin Nanako. While it initially appears to be a dull year for Yu, on the first day of school, a celebrities body was discovered hanging from a television antenna. Initially sounding like a creepy once-off occasion, the corpse of the high school girl who first witnessed the body, was found hanging in a similar fashion a few days later.
Strangely enough, this followed her being seen on a mysterious television program referred to by youth as the ‘Midnight Channel’. This channel appears on blank television screens on rainy nights at 12 am. Upon discovering the link and his ability to enter televisions to the ‘TV World’, Yu and his growing number of friends work to determine the cause behind it and rescue fellow students who have been thrown into the television. They do this with the aid of their Personas, a manifestation of each individuals personality.
The storyline plays out as a high school drama, with supernatural mystery elements mixed into it. While it might sound like a simple premise at first, it actively drags you into shoes of the characters as the mystery unveils itself. Between rescuing all the characters from labyrinths generated and themed after their psyche and boss characters based on another side of their personality, the game throws many school events and everyday events your way throughout the game.
For those returning to Persona 4 Golden after playing the original release, this definitive edition offers many new events. These range from something as simple as helping Nanako make flowers for her father to following a new narrative extending the story past December centring around the mysterious Velvet Room assistant Marie. Nothing included negatively impacts the main storyline, instead providing incentive for returning players to purchase and play this port. There is no difference between the PS Vita and PC versions however, and if you are like me and have played through P4G numerous times already, there may not be that much to justify playing through again.
The storyline is a mixture of seriousness, comedy and a running gag of characters passing out over bad cooking. However, you are not just limited to a linear experience. Persona 4 is set on a day-by-day schedule, and outside of traversing dungeons or having chunks of time dedicated to story events, you are given free rein to roam your school and the wider town of Inaba. This is where the Social Link system comes in.
Many main and side characters in the game are associated with a specific Arcana Type, and by giving up an afternoon or evening, you can socialise with them to improve your social link standing. These not only give you perks in terms of improving Personas with that specific arcana type, but also gives you insight into each character. The system isn’t half-assed either. For each of the 10 levels you are given plot, a chance to interact with them as Yu to mold his personality, and enjoy (for the most part) well-written characters. Unless you plan very carefully, it will likely take you multiple playthroughs to go through each individual characters social link, as there are a total of 23. Persona 4 Golden comes with two new social links – Marie with the Aeon Arcana and Tohru Adachi with the Jester Arcana. These two do not replace any previously existing social link, instead providing new additions to the game from new endings to new dungeons if you choose to improve their rank. Most of the social links stand out from one another, and the plot for these two characters remain equally interesting.
While it might not be as dark or serious as the storylines offered in Persona 3 or the more recent Persona 5, Persona 4 Golden offers a narrative full of charm with I would argue a much broader appeal than many other RPGs on the market.
Design
The visual quality for Persona 4 was of fantastic quality for a game on the PlayStation 2, even if it didn’t push the bounds of what was possible on the console. As you can see in more detail within Udon Entertainment’s release of “Persona 4: Official Design Works” or to a much lesser extent the PC’s Digital Deluxe Edition’s artbook, a lot of work was put into initially designing the characters and building the world of both TV and Inaba. In particular, one of the highlights were with the Persona designs – with the protagonist having access to a “Gotta Fuse em’ All” system where he has access to around 150-200 Persona’s all of which come with different designs and are overall interestingly thought out.
There are a couple of new additions to Golden such as the inclusion of even more Persona designs, which were evidently not just thrown in for the sake of boosting numbers. But as they have done with other titles, albeit this time without any DLC requirement, you can dress up your characters in different costumes within dungeons. These lead to some interesting conversations between characters, depending on what you force them to wear. It was a nice touch and made completing some of the side-tasks worth it.
The PC release doesn’t receive enhanced models or environments, and in some sections of the game, this can be blatantly obvious. However, with full-HD, anisotropic filter and anti-aliasing support which can be toggled to meet your preferred balance of performance and visual quality; this is by far the best version of Persona 4 Golden if you want to enjoy its aesthetics.
It is also important to remember that Persona 4 was released almost a decade prior to the aesthetically pleasing Persona 5, therefore there are some technical limitations which prevent it from looking completely like a current-generation game. The most noticeable example of this are the randomly generated dungeon designs, which offers almost nothing in terms of visible landmarks.
Music and Voice Acting
Those who have previously played a previous Persona 4 game will be familiar with the style of music included in this game – with it heavily slanted towards J-Pop. The entire soundtrack has returned alongside a couple of new tracks to add to the mix, and are songs I will admit spending years jamming to on my iPod Classic while away from the game. The new battle theme ‘Time to Make History’ equals the original ‘Reach Out to the Truth’ in quality which it alternates with. You can replay any previously played track at your leisure through the HEE! HEE! HOO! Music King segment through the new TV Listings.
The voice track from Persona 4 Golden on the PlayStation Vita was brought across to the PC version, meaning that (aside from Chie and Teddie), you get the voice cast which started with the game back in its original release. Highlights again include Yuri Lowenthal as Yosuke, Amanda Winn Lee as Yukiko, Troy Baker as Kanji and Michelle Ann Dunphy as Margaret.
Unlike the PlayStation Vita version, players are no longer forced to play with only the English dub. The Steam release comes with both English and Japanese voice-tracks as standard, meaning if you fell in love with the Japanese voice acting from any other Persona 4 games, you can finally enjoy the main campaign with them.
Gameplay
Dungeon Crawling
Many times throughout the game, a character will appear on the Midnight Channel, and Yu alongside the rest of the Investigation Team will have to travel into the TV World to rescue them. Each character has a themed dungeon developed after one aspect of their personality. Each of these dungeons consists of 10 or so floors, and in true dungeon crawling fashion, you are required to travel to the end of them to reach a boss. Hindering your way are many enemies which you battle using a simple turn-based battle system driven by determining the enemies weaknesses (There are seven types – Physical, Agi, Garu, Bufu, Zio, Hama, Mudo) and sicking your characters and their respective Persona upon them.
Each party member aside from Yu has a single Persona, which focuses on one or two elemental specialisations for attacks. In turn, each character has select strengths and weaknesses from elements used on them. Only able to have four characters in your party at once, you will therefore be stronger and weaker against certain enemy mobs. Yu, on the other hand, can switch Personas at-will. This makes him a ‘Jack of All Trades’ character, which you can use to fill missing elements to the party’s arsenal while being mindful of each persona’s weakness. Attacks strong against the other party may net you extra turns or the ability to perform an “All-Out Attack” while attacks that are weak can restore health to the other party, be reflected back or just have little effect.
While being a simple system, it does provide some challenge, especially in the later stages where enemies can hit hard and have various strengths. While you are given access to an Analysis service which highlights known information about the enemy, at least for the first part of the game it is near impossible to tell who is weak against what without trial and error. Fortunately, with Persona 4 Golden, Rise gets access to several abilities earlier through her social link so it is a less trivial system. Either way, the gameplay remains mostly unhindered by the port and while it can come down to a grind at points it never really feels overly easy unless you overlevel.
Persona 4 Golden includes several additional features when it comes to the battle system. Rise can make appearances in the middle of a battle to strengthen your characters rather than just remaining moral support during battle. There are other random events which can take place during battles, such as a non-battling party member ploughing their scooter into enemies, or specific sets of characters forming random fusion attacks.
School Life
Most of your time in-game will not be spent defeating shadows in the middle of dungeons, but instead scheduling Yu day-by-day to develop them as a person and form relationships with the wealth of characters included in the game. As mentioned several times above, Social Links are not only a key aspect of the game’s storyline, but also the gameplay itself. Upon reaching each Social Link rank, for every Persona you fuse under that specific Arcana you will obtain added experience points which can level the Persona up past even the limits set by Yu’s level. Upon reaching Rank 10 for your party members their Personas will upgrade into a second form which provides Evade Skills for the characters element weakness, and later a third form providing an unique high-SP ability which can turn the tide of battle. Furthermore, party members can now learn new skills otherwise unlearnable and gives them an extra edge in battle (Naoto, for example, is not so useless with boss monsters who are immune to Hama and Mudo).
Outside of social links, you are required to develop Yu as a person in five separate categories – Knowledge, Understanding, Diligence, Expression and Courage. These unlock bonus social options and other gameplay features and can be built through everything from reading books, sport/cultural clubs and undertaking jobs to name a few. It provides you with a lot of choices which helps immerse you in the High School life experience limited only by the schedule of everyone else and your funds.
This is the area which has been improved upon the most by Persona 4 Golden. You can now take scooter rides by yourself and with other characters, take advantage of several new shops at Okina City (Promoted from appearing just in cutscenes) and take party members to the cinema which can improve your characters stats. In addition to these, you can take part in side-events such as Bug Catching and Gardening. At night, you are given more freedom than before and can take a new night job and socialise with friends who are at the Shopping District.
From early in the game, access to Vox Populi (Voice of the People) is granted. Given there is so much to do in one playthrough, this provides some ideas by providing you with a look at what other players did during that day. The usefulness of this decreases as you make your way through the game as it doesn’t take into account where your standing is with your social links, so if you have already maxed Yosuke, for example, it will still tell you to consider talking to him.
PERSONA!
Following protagonists in other Shin Megami Tensei games, Yu can switch between Personas during battle. There are a handful of ways to obtain Persona, from obtaining them through a simplified “Shuffle Time” segment at the end of battle to fusing them. The system remains unchanged from the original release, where you select two or more Persona to merge into a stronger one – taking advantage of skills carried over and social link experience.
While it is a system you may initially only use a few times during your first playthrough, there is quite a lot of depth to this system and provides ample replay value… especially if you have a “Gotta Catch ’em’ All’ mentality.
The TV Shows
Persona 4 Golden’s Extras menu takes the form of TV Listings. As you progress through the game you will earn access to bonus channels which range from music and animated cutscene viewers to footage from Persona Music Live 2008 and 2009.
Most notable is the inclusion of ‘Mr. Edogawa’s TV Classroom’ which provides you with extended information on the themes of the game and the ‘Midnight Miracle Quiz’ which is an interesting and fully dubbed quiz show which quizzes you on some of the more obscure facts about the game. These questions range from the name of a specific low-level move to the name of a teacher you never really paid attention to. Unless you are fast though – Yosuke, Chie or Yukiko will buzz in with varying levels of success.
Keyboard or Controller
The PC port of Persona 4 Golden gives you the option to play with either a keyboard or controller. With the game being originally developed for a controller, I would highly advise playing with one if at all possible. The keybindings for the keyboard are fine enough, if not a little finicky, so if they are the only option you have, then it won’t lead to a troublesome gaming experience.
Persona 4 to date remains one of my personal favourite RPG’s, with Persona 4 Golden being a downright fantastic definitive edition with evident love being put into it by the original development team. ATLUS brought everything that made the original game great and built upon it – making it a fun play for both newcomers and veterans alike. The PC port was a pleasant surprise, and with the support for high-definition gameplay, this is the version I would recommend to anyone. You can purchase your copy right now via Steam.
Now… back to our regular waiting for ATLUS to announce Persona 6.
