this is one of my absolute favorite games of all time because it is a piece of media that holds a very special place in my heart. it feels like home, and not because of the ambient nostalgia it its trying to evoke; it is truly my heart's home. a lot of the specific experiences Yu and his friends have here are surprisingly similar to mine, both in that same high school period and at the time i played this game. also the general theme(s) of P4 are central to my own worldview, to the point where i cannot listen to both vanilla and Golden openings without breaking down into tears. it is incredibly simple, but that simplicity is not plainness; it is fundamentality.

there is a number of valid criticisms for P4 as a game and specifically as a game in the Persona franchise, but i firmly believe that this is the best Persona game to date. it utilizes the Persona and Social Links mechanics in the most suitable way in terms of procedural rhetoric—aka making a statement via gameplay mechanics—because the very core of it is about people and that loving others is just as incredibly beautiful, courageous and kind as is loving yourself. (one could argue that Persona 3 does it better but i am ready to die on this hill)

i was skeptical about diving in at first because i'm very picky about videogame visuals and i sternly dislike yellow, but after pushing a tiny bit i fell in love with the skrunkly low-poly artstyle, the TV effects, and the coziness that is achieved by very simple graphics.

the music was also a huge selling point; i usually don't like pop very much, but i think this game has permanently changed the way my musical taste works — i go from the thematic/vibal (is that even a word? well it is now) context in which a certain music exists now, not from the way it sounds on its own. and we all know Meguro-san just doesn't miss. never

and THE CHARACTERS. holy hell. i am a Kanji Tatsumi stan through and through; his arc and his personal growth throughout the game is one of the dearest narrative lines to me in fiction, and the Sauna theme?? best track in the OST. Yosuke reminds me so much of my closest highschool friends, he makes me feel the absolute same things as them and it makes me so comfortable and happy. but... Yu Narukami... i am so in love with him. i love this little autistic chad man so much. i want to adorn my entire existence with images of him.

i don't wanna give it a rating because i don't feel like assigning any kind of numeric values to my experience with it. it's just... something. it's beyond ten and not even close to ten at the same time. i just love it with my whole heart, and it's enough. <3

Je n'ai jamais eu l'occasion de jouer à un jeu d'Atlus et P4G à été mon introduction et... Quel jeu. Le système à la Shenmue avec un côté RPG pour les donjons, un véritable plaisir pour moi.
Même si refaire une partie pour pouvoir obtenir la vraie fin tue un peu la magie du jeu, la première a été incroyable et restera un très bon souvenir.
Je ne le conseille tout de même pas au joueur qui souhaite entrer dans l'action tout de suite. L'histoire prend son temps et le côté tutoriel des premières heures peut repousser plus d'une personne (j'ai eu moi aussi du mal au début). Mais il mérite tout de même qu'on s'y attarde. Si vous arrivez à tenir le tutoriel très dirigiste et cette mise en place très lente de l'univers, vous pouvez tomber sur une petite merveille qui ne va pas vous laisser de marbre.

The definitive edition of Persona 4, golden improved EVERYTHING from Vanilla, even marie was a great adition, i genuinely don't understand why some of the fanbase dislike her, she goes through a lot of character development from her social link to the end of her dungeon.

if you want a great JRPG with memorable characters and catchy ass soundtrack, give Golden a shot, you'll have a great time!

pd: haha Hassou Tobi go brr

Out of persona 3,4 and 5 it has the best music and in my opinion the strongest group of characters/dynamics between them out of the three.

Obviously looks a little bit dated but still charming nonetheless. Gameplay for me ranges from okay to good, not the biggest fan of the dungeons but the combat, social links etc are pretty good.

Story wise I was a bit meh on it, I didn't find Adachi to be that compelling of a villain but the TV world and the impacts on real life was really interesting.

This game was truly something special, I can definitely see why people say that this is the best persona game in the series. The main cast is fucking phenomenal, I don't think I dislike a single character in the main cast. Unfortunately the side cast is very forgettable and I couldn't care less if they were gone. The game mechanics were HELLA different from P5R, after spamming Myriad Truths in P5R (my bad, I regret it immensely) I experienced a very rude awakening in P4G, I died multiple times. The game mechanics are the only reason why this isn't a 10/10 because I didn't enjoy them as much compared to P5R. The soundtrack is amazing, ESPECIALLY THE BOSS THEMES. Most of the dungeons are amazing (Fuck the hollow forest). Adachi was an amazing twist villain, and im ashamed i didnt finish his SL. However, there are A LOT of critical dialogue choices that need to be made in order to get the true ending, which makes the story even greater in my opinion. Overall this truly is a great persona game, I like P5R slightly more but this a close second. I will see you next month when I finish P3R.