Now I face out! I hold out! I reach out to the truth!

Persona 4 Golden is a fantastic entry into the Persona Series. Although the game does not have the most striking story or gameplay, what it does best are definitely its main cast of characters. Coming to this game after P5R, I thought I wasn’t going to like it as much as I did, but here we are, with a 5 star rating. I can’t really put my finger on it but there’s just something that this game does that make me love it so much.

Going to try keep this spoiler less, but I will talk about several characters. Now, first, let’s talk about the story. I think it’s really interesting that the game just starts talking about a marriage scandal straight away and you’re just so confused. Honestly, I thought I missed something when that started, but I guess not. The game slowly develops into a sort of murder mystery where the gang and you have to catch the culprit because the Inaba Police Department are incompetent and you don’t want anymore people dying. Honestly, a lot of the story parts just feel like filler, and some of them just don’t need to happen, but it definitely gives the game personality and allows the characters to develop. As expected from a murder mystery story, the game doesn’t really ramp up until the late game. The game is so formulaic that it starts to get a bit boring, but after Heaven, yeah, that’s where the good shit happens. I will say the culprit reveal did feel underwhelming, but it did make sense. I also enjoyed the final dungeon that occurs on the final day, it really highlights how close the protagonist and his friends have truly gotten. Overall, the story is good, but I wouldn’t expect an extremely stellar one.

Quickly, I want to talk about the setting. There’s just something about Inaba that is oddly nostalgic, and maybe that’s just why I love Inaba so much because it reminds me of where I grew up. I think the setting just also works in favour of the theme of the game, and how people in small towns still need to accept themselves for who they are.

Now, characters. There are just so many good characters. Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, Naoto, Adachi, Dojima, Nanako, Yumi, Hanako, etc, there’s a lot. Some personalities can get a bit much at times, like Rise’s horniness or Teddie, but other than those instances, I think the cast is great overall. Yosuke is the bro and I just love his character arc. They should’ve made a gay romance option for him. Chie has superb voice acting and has a very endearing social link. Yukiko is my spirit animal, however unfortunately falls under the spell of Priestess Social Link syndrome, but I also find it endearing nevertheless. Kanji is great and really shows the theme of the game. Rise is a double-edged sword, you either hate her because of her horniness, or like her because of her horniness. Joking, Rise has great moments in her social link as well that make her a great character, not to mention, some of her lines are just hilarious. Naoto is the same as Kanji, and probably one of my favourite social links. Adachi is a goof, and Dojima is essentially your second father figure. Nanako is the sweet sunshine child that must be protected because she’s more mature than the entire cast, and Yumi has one of the strongest social links in the entire series in my opinion. This sounds like a rant, but I just fell in love with the characters in this game.

Now the gameplay. The TV world is meh. I don’t love it but I don’t hate it. I hate how RNG dependant fighting the Reaper is though, no more jump-scares screaming ‘I Sense Death!’ I love shuffle time and how much customisation it has, from ranking up persona skills to increasing persona stats, to giving skill cards, to giving increased money or exp, I just love the system. Almost makes me sad that P5R didn’t have something similar. Fusing doesn’t seem all that different besides no extra velvet room functions, but I don’t mind it. I want to talk about the bosses, because I think each of their gimmicks are just really creative, and the bosses overall are just much more difficult than in P5R, even if they aren’t that difficult. They’re just really fun to take on. One thing I hate about the gameplay though is that you cannot do essentially any of the social links in the rain, it really sucks. Overall, good gameplay and very few complaints from me.

Music! IT SLAPS! Time to Make History, Your Affection, Reach Out To The Truth, Heaven, Specialist, Nevermore, Heartbeat Heartbreak are stellar. I also grew quite fond of the opening, Shadow World. Honestly, the songs in this game are bangers.

Overall, a great game, and I just love it so much. The P4 cast will always hold a special place in my heart. Despite having an above-average story, I believe the best part of this game are the characters and the themes that it brings to the table. I highly recommend playing this game, it’s awesome!

Ironicamente acabo tendo mais problemas com esse jogo que com o 3.

Ele definitivamente evolui muito o 3 mecanicamente, os social links são muito mais divertidos e envolventes como um todo, além de todas as atividades e seus status também serem mais interessantes. E as dungeons embora ainda não terem muita variação em gameplay, são muito mais interessantess por serem relacionadas aquele personagem em específico, o que adiciona carisma a elas.

Meu problema é justamente com o que é melhor no persona 3, a história. Ainda acho que é uma história divertida e que te prende bastante em acompanhar, mas acaba tendo muito potencial desperdiçado. Você acaba tendo muitos arcos de personagem onde você tem uma ideia muito interessante, mas pouco aprofundada, como o arco da Naoto e do Kanji, que são os mais interessantes tematicamemte, mas que são pouco aproveitados, todos os arcos são muito resumidos nessas dungeons, diferente de Persona 3, onde os personagens tem arcos que duram o jogo todo, e mesmo em momentos onde eles estão de férias e sem grandes coisas acontecendo, você ainda tem o desenvolvimento deles, e você sempre vai ter pontos chaves onde eles mostram a evolução, enquanto o 4 apenas rusha seus arcos nas dungeons.
Além do próprio jogo esquecer do arco do personagem, o Kanji passa pela aceitação de ter um gosto considerando feminino e que ele n deixa de ser homem por isso, mas ele continua querendo pagar de machão depois disso e ficando puto quando insinuam que ele é gay, sem contar que esse jogo tem muita homofobia, além de gordofoba e assédio sexual sendo tratado como piada, o que já tinha no persona 3, mas esse jogo tem MUITO mais, o festival cultural foi a parte mais difícil de passar por ser uma junção de todos os preconceitos desse jogo. É muito estranho que um jogo sobre se aceitar seja tão problemático nisso.

Com as minhas críticas, parece que eu odiei o jogo, mas eu amei, mesmo com todos esses aspectos ele me divertiu muito, mesmo com o desperdício de potencial, os personagens são fantásticos em carisma, muito mais carismáticos que os do 3, e o jogo acaba investindo mais nas relações dos personagens do que a profundidade deles, e é efetivo nisso. O assassino é bastante bem escrito mesmo com o resto só jogo falhando nisso, e embora a narrativa envolta do assassino não se manter tão bem pra desenvolver a investigação, porquê o jogador sempre tá muito a frente dos personagens nos passos, ainda é interessante acompanhar a investigação, a vibe e o clima geral do jogo são muito gostosos, jogar o dia a dia no jogo é muito gostoso, a cidade é um setting fantástico. Pode pecar em falta de profundidade, ainda mais comparado ao 3, mas a simplicidade dele acerta bastante como um todo apesar das falhas. Não tem como se despedir do jogo sem sentir falta desse elenco e esse clima.

Every day's great at your Junes!

Look, it's a Persona game on the PC. That alone makes this a must-buy.

If you're not aware of what Persona brings, it's a JRPG with added, heavy, focus on social aspects and trial-and-error (unless you're following a guide, you're not gonna come even close to getting most things done or even beating the game.)

It may have difficulty, frustrating difficulty spikes (even early game can see you get your ass kicked hard) but it has great charm, excellent, catchy soundtrack, nice looking graphics (this originated as a PlayStation 2 game, though this HD version is taken from the PS VITA version) and rewarding if you stick with it makes this highly recommended.

If you're looking for something that, even today, is different and refreshing in the JRPG market, Persona 4 Golden is it.

Rating: 10/10

It took me three tries over the years for this game to finally click, but wow did it ever. Even if the dungeon gameplay was a low point, I couldn't stop playing.

The cast makes this game what it is. Every character in the main cast is incredible, and their individual story moments all had me engaged and interested to see what came next.

The story itself surprised me multiple times throughout. The twists kept me on my toes throughout, all the while having great moments to showcase.

The game definitely shows its age in some respects, but overall I'm glad I finally got around to getting through this game and understanding the appeal. What a ride.

No, you’re NOT a real gamer.

I’m so sick of all these people that think they’re gamers. No, you’re not. Most of you are not even close to being gamers. I see these people saying “I put well over 100 hours in this game, it’s great!” that’s nothing, most of us can easily put 300+ hours in all our games. I see people who only have a Nintendo Switch and claim to be gamers. Come talk to me when you pick up a PS4 controller then we be friends.

Also DEAR ALL WOMEN: Pokémon is not a real game. Animal Crossing is not a real game. The Sims is not a real game. Mario is not a real game. Stardew valley is not a real game. Mobile games are NOT.REAL.GAMES. put down the baby games and play something that requires challenge and skill for once.

Sincerely, all of the ACTUAL gamers.

Well, compared to the other games in the series, i'd say this is the worst one, all the Social interaction elements are honestly better than persona 3, but EVERYTHING involving actual dungeon crawling gameplay feels worse 10 fold, i don't even know why it feels that bad, but man if Tartarus felt like a chore sometimes in P3, the dungeons in P4 feel like medieval torture, otherwise, in regards to aesthetics, i think this game sits on both ends of the spectrum, i like the use of yellow and the theming of the early 2000's and CRTs and all of that, but some of it looks really lame when compared to P3 or P5, it is functional though so i can't complain too much.

the social links... they're pretty good, except for yosuke's, his is kinda boring, his character in general is a bit annoying, not as much as teddie but he's up there, and at least teddie has some actual funny non-perv moments in the game, yosuke is just not funny ever.

This game does a great job on making the characters feel like real friends you have, only to them have them do some weird anime trope that makes me go "oh..", only to then fix itself again, it's inconsistent but the good generally outweights the bad.

as for the story... when playing through it you don't really notice because you are wayyy more invested in the characters than in actually solving the mystery, but even then the story is basically just a loop that goes on for 30 hours, you get almost NO clues as to who the suspect is until the end, so it can feel like a drag, but the game gives you enough to distract yourself to not worry about it too much.

It's OK

Eu com certeza errei em querer rejogar esse jogo, joguei tem tipo uns 8 anos e resolvi comprar a versão Golden pra PC, mas me bateu uma preguiça impressionante, comecei em dezembro de 2021 e fui terminar só agora. Mecanicamente o jogo envelheceu muito bem, mas eu sinto que ele não sabe calibrar tão bem os momentos onde você vive a vida do personagem e as lutas em cada dungeon como no 5, então você fica numa constante entre estar super interessado no jogo e super desinteressado, sem contar que ele se estende muito desde a dungeon do Adachi até a do Izanami.

A coisa mais legal desse jogo é a estética e a temática, tudo rodar em torno de canais de TV e ainda te permitir ver a programação, tudo isso enquanto você entra dentro de outras TVs pra resolver um mistério como se fosse a gangue do Scooby-Doo é muito divertido. A jornada de autoaceitação do elenco de personagens que você encontra é muito interessante, cada dungeon e chefe tem uma temática diferente baseada no aspecto de si mesmo que o personagem em questão não aceita, nem sempre temos que mudar, nem sempre temos que deixar de ser quem somos por algo ou alguém, às vezes é melhor só se aceitar como você é.

Cada social link além de desenvolver melhor sua relação com cada personagem, mostra a evolução tanto deles como a sua, ninguém permanece do mesmo jeito desde o começo do jogo e a quantidade de eventos e interações diferentes que um jogo de 2008 tem é realmente impressionante, eles parecem personagens de verdade e você vive uma vida que parece de verdade. Ainda que os eventos sejam meio scriptados, que algumas conversas sejam engessadas e o jogo tenha uma pegada meio ridícula de anime, tudo isso faz parte do charme dele, você consegue estudar, trabalhar, namorar, ir no cinema e muitas outras coisas.

A história em si é até que bem simples, principalmente em comparação ao 3 e 5, por mais que ela lide com temas bem pesados, ela tem um clima bem leve até a reta final, e já falando dela, o mistério montado em cima de quem é o assassino na cidade é muito bem feito, você não tem o menor motivo pra suspeitar do culpado e a própria motivação dele nem sentido faz, ele é o total oposto do protagonista e você não nota isso até o jogo te contar.

Sobre a gameplay, Persona é basicamente um dos únicos JRPGs de turno que eu aguento jogar sem ter vontade de cometer suicídio, eu nunca fui muito fã desse tipo de jogabilidade, mas Persona consegue fazer ela de uma forma tão dinâmica que fica divertido, além de mesclar com os trechos de slice of life pra não ficar na repetição de luta, luta e luta o tempo todo. Tem alguns momentos meio complicadinhos e o spam de inimigos é bem chato, principalmente na dungeon do Adachi, mas no geral é bem tranquilo até pra quem não curte jogos do tipo.

Se você tiver vontade vale a pena conferir, não tem o mesmo nível técnico do 5 por razões óbvias, mas se mantém divertido, funcional, com uma história foda, uma trilha sonora viciante e personagens tão marcantes que você dificilmente vai se esquecer deles, só queria que esse jogo não se estendesse tanto e as missões secundárias não fossem tão podres.

that's not fucking fair mannnnnnnnnnnn........ fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck okay ive tied up all the loose ends, seen the conclusions to some of the social links i didnt finish in time.. and i fully beat the game and started a Little of the new game plus for the first time ever...

I THINK i can type my thoughts in good conscience now

warning this review in particular in your eyes will have me getting sappy and sentimental, but ive never played this game before:

This was the first persona game i had ever even Seen or heard about. When I was a kid watching mat and pat from two best friends play this, i retained almost Nothing about it aside from the two being at each other's throats and Mat may or may not actually deleting Pat's 300 plus hour save file
In sophomore year of highschool i had a really good friend that'd show me the openings for both persona 4 golden and persona 3 portable alike, this was almost comically insane timing because it wasnt often id even have the opportunity to get a new game.. hell i didnt even have a ps4 still, my crappy laptop, wii u and my 3ds for the bulk of the 2010s were what i relied on for video games. It was about 2017 when Persona 5 dropped, and Id actually be able to TRY one of these.. id get it for ps3(while just the Existence of this version of this game being released for such an old console was laughed at.. to Me it was another very lucky moment)
and id love it, id be talking about it so often.. and then thatd kinda just! be it! for a bit atleast
id listen to the music when i was alone, id listen to the other games ost's
it was far from my first JRPG but it felt like a lightning in a bottle moment because id never touched anything SMT before and id hold these thoughts and memories and theyd peter(heheh) out as time marched... i wound up playing persona 1 and having my fun trolling my friends into thinking that id play 3 or 4 next, and i enjoyed my time with that too but in a Different way.
It's been 7 years since i played persona 5
and since then i think i can totally call myself an "smt Fan" instead of just someone with passing interest, ive played about 10 games now at this point and im levelling with you..

I think Persona 4 has the worst gameplay of these 'modern era' type persona games,

No, really!
I think this Process of going through persona 4 dungeons sucks! There's some exceptions here though... the GaMEr dungeon is neat.. the laboratory one.. the two before the endgame one that i wont say the names of..
but in general I think while the aesthetics are a step above persona 3's tartarus blocks... i do wish they took more advantage of sending you back to previous floors or even having mid bosses thatre more interesting, some of them are so utterly stupidly hamfisted in one way or another that just makes them not stand out to me AT ALL compared to persona 3 mid bosses
The closest thing to a smooth dancer or sleepy table moment was the big fuck you jarhead mech asshole that has an ungodly amount of defense
But even in spite of this there's so much variety that goes in with your party and having party members remember shit from doing side activities.. ultimate personas getting a THIRD tier.. its incredible
HAFHAHF INFACT LIKE EVEN THE MOMENTS WHERE A BENCHED PARTY MEMBER CAN JUMP IN AND DO A FUNNY ATTACK ON THE ENEMY WITH THEIR MOTORCYCLES, THE TEAM ATTACKS THAT CAN SOMETIMES JUST H A P P E N, ALL THAT I love that
I love how involved everyone is to the point of even showing up in some random blocks of the dungeons just for idle interactions, persona 3 had some moments like this too! but nowhere Near at this extent even in FES
And thats really why this whole game works for me in general

Yeah you could say the plot technically doesnt kick into gear until the latter quarter of the game, yes there's absolutely disgusting momentary segments of for lack of a better term

'atlus moments' where theres punching down at being queer or even having whole actual just predator/pedo characters in this shit while at the same time having arguably the fruitiest fucking cast in this entire series with yosuke, naoto, kanji and even teddie and the others getting glimmering moments of acceptance and self affirming perspective about them. This is where the game comes into a sort of cognitive dissonance that makes it so conflicting to talk about and I think to wrap my head around in general while playing and even after playing ....
This game WAS written in the 00s after all, and the bulk of the cast that this game centers on.. are kids! freshmen and sophomores just trying to do the right thing out here and it shows. Yosuke MAY be goonerer supreme in some moments of the narrative, and then be one of the most realistic characters in self doubt and isolation and wanting to Be something and have a grip on who he is.. in his social link!.. but bits of that Do trickle into the narrative too.. so you have this guy thats just so gross but it gets brushed off so quick as if the game itself knows its just a stupid silly thing that he had bought girls swimsuits in advance for his friends in a creepy manner...?????????

Yea
This game has some moments like that. and I never like it but I think it speaks volumes on it all when there can be fuckshit in this game and I primarily remember and Felt at the forefront what was going on when it mattered.
Shopping for groceries, getting drivers licenses for the motorcycles, the silly shit at the beach, the camping, the ski trip, going to the movies, yosuke needing help at junes', the fuckup with halloweeennn all of it.. i loved All of that more than the actual boss fights, more than the personas more than any of that more than anything that shit stuck with me

ESPECIALLY when it came down to Nanako and Dojima whichre two of my favorite characters in this franchise now too because in some ways I think it feels like somewhat of a peek into what itd be like if i could be there for a little version of myself going through shit alone with her dad when her mom's passed, what itd be like if there was someone to make things right and close the rift between my dad and i instead of it rolling harder and harder in contempt for one another. This is a lot of projecting im aware, but honestly this is the meat of why this game is even a 4/5 at All because if none of this landed to me, idve probably gave this game a 3/5 at most.
Which still isnt bad, but there's so much here that i think is Objectively hampering whats going on.. but theres so much soul fighting through to the point where itd feel like i was Lying through my teeth telling you this game as a whole sucks
because i loved it so much
I didnt wanna say I did
because everybody and their fuckin mama's goldfish meatsuckle this shit to hell and back
and i think i was afraid of being biased like that too
I even had some contempt for how id been spoiled on this years ago on instagram... but Im so glad i didnt play this as a teenager because it felt like the most brisk wave of nostalgia i didnt think a game i never played could ever give me.. a piece of media ive never experienced evoking so much out of me so different from what made persona 3 so special to me. I grew up in a town where jackshit happened apart from hanging with friends to talk and play games, there wasnt much going on for being one of the most boring towns in the entire state of florida at that too. But it was always PEOPLE that got me through my first time being homeless, it was always people that got me through the passing of loved ones, the decay of my enjoyment of school, first car, venting, movies, all of it bitch
im talking all of it
This made me think about all of that to the point where I think it was around december or january, these stupid asses teddie and yosuke were at the door of your place and i started to cook yosuke for being dumb as all fuck and how karma always shines and repays in full with every stupid ass little thing he says and thinks to do during the game.. but tears kept flowing cause he felt like a friend or atleast someone id know from back in those days and his growth was absolutely felt(until atlus thinks to do stupid shit for a joke)

It's that shit that matters, its that shit that makes the whole journey worth it, its that shit that makes even the several BAD endings that much cooler, its that shit that makes pressing through the social stats feel so much more Earned, its that shit that makes you wanna actually talk to everyone and get to know everyone because the group chemistry is so knit together well. I love S.E.E.S but the Inaba investigation group is so specifically bumbling and sweet and dumb all at the same time that I think they give the vibes of a cast that can literally have conversations about Anything and keep going and going without a writer being pressed for how to handle a situation.
Having been spoiled on shit in this game prior also made following along the killer really interesting too, it even got me keeping an eye open for them at all times and catching onto how their alibis would form and all that
which honestly just made the mystery that much more fun.

So yeah, i only got one more set of Persona(s) to play through
I was gonna make this one the last one and keep my weird play-pattern for this series rolling till my last breath but I really needed something to make me feel Good lately with how heavy life's been. I think this game has and probably still will continue to be there for people like that with how many characters can resonate with you regardless of age and regardless of identity. I think it's beautiful in it's own.. sometimes ugly little way. I cant let some shit slide though so its capped at 4/5 on here because like, THERES TOTALLY SOME THINGS THAT PISS ME OFF

which brings us to this lightning round of things i like and dont like since this is already probably my longest backloggd review

-margaret's social link is a farcry from what elizabeth's was that shit is so depressing and only is nice for some momentary nods about the past i GUESS.

-if you played persona 3 and loved persona 3, and its your favorite one like me, this shit will meatsuckle you like crazy for a little bit and i think thats kindof cool

-shuffle time i THOUGHT was completely fucked up at first, but I think that sweep bonuses and everything pertaining to it are good I just miss the mystery guessing aspect of shit now

-The final boss funnily enough aint even the hardest fuckin fight in this game LMAO

-I think its fucking disgusting that atlus went out of their way to have two bath house scenes that suck ass in this game

-THE PINK ALLIGATOR GOT PUBLISHED!!!!!!!!! AND SLEEPY TABLE HAD A COMEBACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

-This is now my most played steam game at 230 something hours...

-Marie is rly cool

-Kamui Miracle is the best additional skiill in the whole franchise and we should always make it mandatory to have a way to gamble when you fight in a persona game thank u

so yeah this game sucks and i hate atlus, loved it, bye

Safe to say this is my favorite game of the Persona franchise by far. Every character was likable, the narrative was amazing from beginning to end. Not to mention the OST is easily favorite to listen to on Spotify.

After doing multiple playthroughs where I fully indulge myself with each peace of content P4G has to offer, It's arguably a potential masterpiece.

Of course I had some gripes with the dungeon systems being "Okay" at best. It works fine and keeps you busy where you would be grinding to 100% the game. For a casual experience, it's something you get the hang of it rather quickly and most likely find it to be a rather repetitive sequence.

Aside from that. Turn base mechanics were managable and pretty enjoyable. Boss designs were rather interesting albeit could be frustrating at times but nothing worth complaining about regarding its difficulty.

Fair warning; 100%ing this game was so not fun. Most of the achievements were doable sure, but ones you have to keep constant tracking (i.e., Hardcore Risette Fan) made me want to blow my brains out. If you value your sanity and time, take heed of my warning and be sure to have a spreadsheet and several guides to follow so it makes life less miserable.

The Persona high didn't go away after I finished Reload, so I decided to sit down and get additional achievements for a full playthrough of 4. I'm very happy I did, because I feel like my opinions on this game have solidified really well.

I find the gameplay here fine. It has controllable party members and a dungeon format instead of a 100 floor tower or subway system, but it lacks anything that adds a lot of depth to the game. I don't blame Golden for this, as it's mainly just due to how long ago the game came out. The life sim aspects are as fun and addicting as any other Persona, and the music grows on me each time I hear it. (Heartbeat, Heartbreak in particular is great).

What makes 4 slightly worse than 3 and 5 in my eyes, unfortunately, is the writing. That statement alone probably turned anyone reading this away, but I ask you hear me out. I don't really agree with sentiments you'd find on Twitter (I find Kanji and Naoto's arcs to be the best in the game), but that said I do feel that this game is extremely, and I mean EXTREMELY, dated. A better way to describe my feelings is I feel as though two different people wrote this game: one that cared about a murder mystery featuring high schoolers and an overwhelmingly stressful atmosphere, and another who wanted to write the most generic slice of life anime you've ever watched, gross tropes and all.

The members of the Investigation Team are all individually very enjoyable. Its when they share scenes, usually in the added golden content, that their annoying sides come out. Teddie is a character that deeply upsets me. I find that he has some genuinely good emotional moments throughout Golden's runtime, but a vast majority of his lines are creepy as all hell. I fucking despise the pervert trope, it's the main reason I don't really watch anime at all, and Teddie's perv energy is so massive that it infects the other characters while he runs his mouth. Yosuke in particular loses all of his brain cells as Golden's story goes on. Not only is he regulated to pervert comic relief with Teddie, but he's also really fucking rude to Kanji, like to an unfair degree. This is getting informal, but the dude literally accepted his magical dark shadow self by admitting that he isn't gay, just afraid of rejection, and yet Yosuke still gives him shit. Like I thought the whole point was to support your friends in accepting themselves, bad and all. Why tear into the dude about something that isn't even true and clearly tormented him. It sucks even more because Yosuke's writing before Kanji's dungeon and in his S-Link is really solid, and I REALLY want to like him more than I do.

As usual, I went on a rant. I want to end by saying that I feel the setting of Inaba is the strongest setting present in modern Persona. I'm not sure how, but Golden does a great job of making the scenery feel comfy and safe. I also, despite the creepy writing, can tell how much each member of the Investigation Team cares for one another, and to me they form a better group dynamic than S.E.E.S. and the Phantom Thieves. It's just a shame that when you inspect closer, ironically, the darker parts of some of these characters are hard to ignore.

Every bit as good as its successor, centred around a more intimate, personal theme of accepting yourself and striving for the truth. This theme is most present in the social link aspect of the game, which is done excellently, deepening your investment in these characters, specifically your fellow party members, by telling these very emphatic human stories. Additionally, this also furthers your immersion, making the setting of Inaba feel less like just a game world and more like a real place with real people, which is funny when the map of Inaba is so limited.

While I certainly missed the intricate palaces from Persona 5, Persona 4 by no means has weak dungeon crawling, as each dungeon still oozes personality, and I generally found the battles on Hard difficulty more consistently engaging than Persona 5 even though it has more complex combat due to Baton Pass and Technical. This is because in Persona 5 Royal it is much easier to start battles with player advantage and battles are frequently over before the enemies’ turn whilst this is less the case in Persona 4 forcing you to consider your moves better and play more strategically. However, I do think Persona 5 still has Persona 4 beat on boss battles both visually and mechanically. The visual design of Persona 4’s bosses are still strong though, reaching the end of each dungeon was always a highlight, as I loved seeing how the twisted shadow of each victim would manifest. As in any Persona game the music is fantastic and does an excellent job of capturing the essence of the game.

Additionally, the scenes of the investigation team hanging out do a great job in convincing you that the group are genuine friends, and it was always a joy watching the characters interact with each other and seeing their relationships develop during these. Persona 4 is downright hilarious at times too which I can’t say about many other games.

In conclusion I think the best word that describes Persona 4 is ‘genuine', and I think that is an amazing achievement.

Persona 4 is a game that will always hold a special place in my heart. I remember playing it back in 2014 and I loved the game from start to finish, and over the years I always thought about the game fondly. But unfortunately, I never really replayed the game. It was just a game associated with my childhood until 2023 when Persona 4 Golden got re-released on modern consoles. Being a massive fan of Persona 5 Royal and loving the original Persona 4 made Persona 4 Golden a day 1 buy for me. As soon as I started the game, I was hit by massive nostalgia; just hearing the music made me feel like a kid.

The problems for me started with Marie. Marie was a character that I was very excited for simply because she was the new addition to one of my favorite games at the time. However, Marie's character ended up being one of my least favorite aspects of Persona 4 Golden. She felt very forced into the story, especially within her terrible social link, which did not really progress her character until rank 8. Even after seeing her hang out with the team and Yu for six links, she had zero chemistry with the cast besides maybe Yu. This led to every poorly executed arc of the investigating team trying to save a ‘friend,’ but besides Yu, every other team member barely even knew Marie, so every ‘emotional moment’ in that arc felt mediocre at best. The best two additions to Persona 4 Golden from the original Persona 4 were the new ending and Adachi's social links. But my main issues with this game did not end with the additional Golden content.

Another thing that bothered me with Persona 4 was the lack of development from the main cast after their Persona awakenings, which caused me to feel very disconnected from them on an individual level. This does not apply to every character, though. Kanji and Naoto, for example, were characters that I noticed continued to keep developing through the main story and their social links, which caused them to quickly become my two favorite characters among the main cast. Persona 4 Golden is often considered to have the best side social links in the entire franchise, which is something that I sadly do not agree with. Outside of Dojima and Nanako, who both have a top 10 social link in the franchise for me, I found every other side social link in this game to be good but mostly forgettable.

By far my favorite aspect of Persona 4, though, is the cast chemistry between the main cast members. No matter the situation, the cast of Persona 4 always brought a smile to my face when they were together. This is by far Persona 4's best aspect. I can feel a genuine connection between all members of the cast, which makes them spending time together feel way more organic and genuine. Outside of everything I mentioned, the only other minor complaint I have is the gameplay. I do not think the gameplay of P4 is bad at all, but it did not age as well as I remember. Even though I went over some negatives in this review, I still find P4 to be an amazing game, and I have no doubt that if this game ever gets a remake, it will once again end up as one of my favorite games ever because most of my issues with it are very easy to fix.

Persona 4 Golden foi uma experiência fenomenal, com sua história mais contida e misteriosa, além de seus personagens extremamente carismáticos e bem construídos. Com pequenos problemas que foram melhorados nos jogos subsequentes.

Pra fazer essa review, eu vou separar em alguns pontos:

História
Persona 4 Golden é o jogo mais "adolescente" dos últimos 3 Personas. Trazendo como tema principal a descoberta pessoal de seus personagens, fazendo-os descobrir como eles são e o que podem se tornar. A trama se passa na pequena cidade de Inaba, onde um assassino em série está matando algumas pessoas da cidade e você e seus amigos são os únicos que conseguem entender como ele faz isso e interromper esses assassinatos. A história é bem escrita e cheia de plot-twists, deixando-a sempre misteriosa e interessante. O escopo da narrativa é bem menor que dos outros que joguei da série, e foi exatamente isso que fez com que eu gostasse tanto dela. O brilho da história para mim é o grupo de personagens principais, que conseguem ser extremamente carismáticos e divertidos. Para mim, é o melhor grupo dos últimos 3 Personas, junto com seu protagonista que realmente parece um líder e alguém em quem você pode confiar.

Gameplay
A gameplay é bem parecida com a do Persona 3 FES, porém para mim é sem dúvida a parte mais fraca do jogo. As dungeons são chatas de explorar, diversos inimigos não possuem fraqueza para algum tipo de elemento, resultando em uma batalha pouco instigante e maçante, além de algumas Bossfights que são extremamente chatas e maçantes. Felizmente as últimas são bem legais e bem feitas.

Trilha Sonora
A trilha sonora é muito boa, porém não chega perto das do 3 e 5, que ficam na cabeça e são sempre boas de escutar, não importando a quantidade de vezes que você escuta.

Pontos positivos e negativos
Para mim, o único ponto negativo é certas partes da gameplay, que acabam ficando maçantes algumas vezes, além de escolhas específicas para fazer o final verdadeiro do jogo, porém isso não anula o resto do jogo, que é incrível.

Conclusão
O jogo foi uma experiência incrível e com certeza se tornou meu segundo Persona favorito, ficando atrás apenas do 3. A história principal e personagens são o ponto alto do jogo, o que o torna especial. Além dos conteúdos novos adicionados na versão Golden, que incluem o True Ending e 2 novas dungeons e bosses. Nota 9/10.

This review will mostly cover the added content without trying to spoil it!
This version of Persona 4 fixed all my issues I had with the original, with additional content including new animated cutscenes, new social links, a new story line, new music, a new dungeon, and a great effort of rebalancing the game, This is the definitive way to experience one of the best JRPGs ever released.
Touching upon the new content itself, the new social links are the best and worst thing added. Giving the player time with one of my favorite characters and introducing a new character that is one of my least favorite, regardless of my thoughts on their social links themselves, both add to the story extremely well overall, alongside the added month this works great together.
The new dungeon is horrendous if you don't figure out the trick to understand it which is why I can't give this game a perfect score.
This is definitely still after all this time my favorite game, with nothing coming close to giving me that feeling I get while playing this game.

Persona 4 is a title that has been acclaimed, rereleased and replayed by thousands of people for years. It is indeed a certified classic in the pantheon of gasming RPGs.

But with time, there is no denying that some of the bigger flaws of this titles emerged for a lot of people, myself included: the dungeons can become too repetitive, combat may feel unbalanced or too forgiving, and some of the dialogues in the games.... didn't age that smoothly.

So why I still love it despite all of that? Because Persona 4's biggest trait for me is its "soul": the way it presents the town of Inaba and all of its elaborated facets. The way it makes you care of the friends and character you meet in your journey. The way the writing is able to make you laugh, think, cry and also express yourself, while being accompanied by one of the best OST in gaming.
And the whole message of the game: Persona 4's story has been able to change the lives of lots of people for a reason: it is immaculate in the way it is presented and able to inspire you for the rest of your time.

Absolutely incredible title. Hot take, it may be better than Persona 5 :)))))

sinto que tava jogando uma grande sitcom de mistério o tempo todo

dei muitas risadas, me apaixonei pelos personagens e gostei bastante da história

gameplay travadinha, mas 100% jogável

bom demais