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.