Persona 4 Golden was a game I was very excited to jump into. I would describe myself as a new comer to the series only having played Persona 5 Royal prior to this. Having played the latest iteration of the mainline game, it would be impossible to not draw some comparisons between P4G and P5R but I cannot and will not fault P4G for not being P5R. In a lot of ways it was fun to look mechanically at P4G and see so many of the things I really enjoyed in P5R in their earlier forms. This being said, I will never be able to have the experience of playing Persona 4 Golden at the time of its release, so all analyses will be coming from a play through that is far separated from its original debut.
Compared to the latest entry in the mainline series, Persona 4 Golden is a bright and colorful adventure. I love the vibe the game is going for. Inaba feels like a faithful recreation of a sleepy small town that’s always dappled in fading sunlight on non-rainy days. The attitudes of the locals carries that country laid back attitude mixed with concern of impending financial ruin that is always present in places filled with locally run businesses. "Heartbeat, Heartbreak" and "Signs Of Love" from the soundtrack really sell this vibe as you run around the small town pursuing relationships with the people around you and working part time jobs. This is the perfect setup for the juxtaposition this game imposes upon the player: there is something sinister lurking within the town of Inaba. People keep turning up dead, strung up in odd fashions with no clear cause of death. Even more mysterious is the ghostly Midnight Channel, an unlisted TV channel that plays on your old CRTV at midnight when its raining. It is genuinely unsettling to hear the song "Who's there?" come on when you watch the inscrutable Midnight Channel and realize that it is predicting the next murder victim. Because of this uncomfortable juxtaposition, the main quest and puzzle at the heart of this game are extremely compelling early on. While the pay-off of the entire story didn't quite live up to my expectations (I felt as though some of the characterization of the villain was not as strong as it could and should have been), I still had a lot of fun from beginning to end. During your pursuit of the serial killer within this small town you will encounter a surprisingly large cast of characters to engage with. The quality of some of these social links can vary heavily, however, the game has some really high peaks it achieves.
A large part of the Persona formula post Persona 3 is the life simulator elements. In Persona 4 Golden you are roleplaying as an exchange student from the city coming into this small town to live with your uncle and niece for the school year. During your limited time in Inaba you are able to and encouraged to build up your relationships with those around you. As a whole, the main supporting cast (specifically all the members of the investigation team and the Dojimas) is mostly well written and compelling. Save for Teddy, this games otherworldly companion (the Morgana archetype for those who have played P5R) who is difficult to watch when it comes to how he interacts with women, I enjoyed my time with all of the main cast S Links. Mechanically it is a shame that there are drastically less benefits of pursuing relationships outside the main cast, but I’ve already seen how they innovate on this mechanic later in P5R. Regardless, all S Link storylines reflect the main themes of this game, self-acknowledgement and acceptance, in ways that were sort of unexpected. Where the Persona 5 Royale confidants had story lines about self-determination and fighting against societal structures meant to keep them down, Persona 4 Golden goes quite the opposite root. Rather than have these characters have story arcs of self-determination, most of the characters instead decide to embrace their public perception and societal roles while accepting their difficulty to come to terms with it. It becomes interesting to look at because these characters are dynamic not in how they chose to conduct their life, but rather how they feel about their lot and life and choices. I'd like to call special attention here to Kanji's S Link as I believe his is the best done and most nuanced. Admittedly, the game does have some off-putting moments of mild homophobia between two of the characters and the game seems to want to include themes related to homosexuality without actually fully committing to the conversation. Ultimately this is something I was able to come to terms with and move around as it is a product of 2008 and I am approaching the game from a western perspective and background in the year 2023. All of that aside, there are two other issues with these life sims elements that I would like to touch on however.
A large problem I had within the life sim elements of P4G is related to the main character that you are roleplaying as. While I was playing, it was impossible for me to ignore that he has such a weak lead in and setup within the story that it makes it difficult for the player to actually roleplay and identify with him. Atlus seemingly wanted to give the player a blank slate to work with as they adventure, but the best protagonists of RPGs do typically have some sort of identifying characteristic lead-in that allows you to get into the character better. In Persona 5 Royale, Joker may be a blank slate for the player to toy around with in dialogue options, but he has a very well defined lead-in and compelling character arc. You start Persona 5 Royale as someone punished for doing the right thing. You are constantly put down and watched closely because you are labeled a trouble maker after you had used your judgement to try to save a woman being harassed by a high profile politician. Because of this lead-in to the P5R, while I may have been provided dialogue options I could freely choose between, it made my characterization much easier to grasp and role play into. The protagonist of P4G has none of this sort of lead-in other than loosely saying "he's a good guy". While mechanically I still get to make dialogue choices just like P5R, I have a lot less commitment to a character and do not identify easily with the protagonist. There is one S Link however that Atlus tries to nudge you towards that helps with this identity issue: Atlus seemingly wants you to establish a strong S Link with the niece, Nanako. Nanako's character arc revolves around her being emotionally neglected by her workaholic and emotionally distant father Dojima. She is a character you will spend a lot of time with within the course of the game, and Atlus is always eager to provide you extra opportunity to spend time with Nanako. If you pursue Nanako's S Link, you get the firm feeling that the protagonist wants to be, and is, a good big brother to a little girl who desperately needs someone in their life to pay attention to them. This is the only real strong identifying characteristic the playable character is given, and even then it is somewhat optional. I think if Atlus had put more emphasis on this as either a mandatory characteristic established at the beginning of the game, or provided one other identifying characteristic for me to latch on to during the introduction, I would have enjoyed playing as my character significantly more. The other problem with the life sim elements of P4G is that the game feels mechanically opposite of the vibe it’s trying to sell you.
Just like the latest iteration, P5R, Persona 4 Golden offers a lot of things for the player to do. This however feels juxtaposed to mood the game is trying to sell you. Inaba is purposefully designed to be a sleepy boring town, but for me there was always a wealth of things to do other than when it was raining. There is a strong story emphasis to the player that the other characters in the investigation team are barely staving off boredom in a small town. Yosuke explicitly says that this is a feeling that he thinks you should be able to relate to as someone from the city. But other than a few rainy days, I was never bored in Inaba. There was always something to do until the very end of the game. Due to what I assume were development limitations that would have been around at the time of its release relating to complex systems of choices and consequences, the game instead opts to offer you a million side tracks to follow with no deviation narratively. What this mechanically provides is lots of choices for things do while in the town of Inaba with no little to no flexibility in how those activities and relationships end up. This feels directly opposed to the game trying to sell you on the idea that you are living in a sleepy, past its prime town. I cannot stress enough that you have so many activities that you can choose to engage with. This system works in P5R because your living it up in the bright and busy streets of Tokyo, but in P4G it feels as though it thematically clashes. As I said earlier, I understand why they might have opted for this approach, but there still could have been more effort in other places to remedy it. For example: why are all the activities you can chose to participate in above board? One of the most consistent storytelling pairings with boredom is mischief, yet there is none to be had in the life sim activities. You are an upstanding citizen in a place that has limited activities, thematically you should be bored constantly, but you are not. Even if they had your characters hanging out someplace they shouldn't be in, or had them do one kind of mischievous activity once in a while, this would help alleviate this mismatch significantly. All of that aside, mechanically this game is sound but borders on tedious outside its life-sim elements.
Persona 4 Golden's combat is exactly what I was expecting it to be having played P5R, and despite it lacking some of the flair that would come later in the series it is still rock solid. Every combat encounter feels like a puzzle you're meant to solve by exploiting your enemy’s weaknesses in the most efficient way possible. It's a lot of fun on its own, but with the dungeon design it does tend to feel a bit tedious and grindy at times. Atlus made the choice to have dungeons that are not intentionally designed but rather a set of randomly generated hallways. This tends to make a lot of the floors feel very same-y and the repetition of many combat encounters and similar scenery can really be fatiguing by the time you reach the last floor of the dungeon. Because of this fatigue, I was always excited to go back to the game when I was in the life-sim portions, and I was apprehensive when I was in the dungeons. As I said earlier, the core combat is solid, so I never disliked the game mechanically, but my mindset was always that the dungeon was something I just had to slog my way through. Lastly before wrapping up this review, i would like to touch upon the "Golden" aspect of Persona 4 Golden.
Persona 4 Golden is essentially the extended directors cut of Persona 4 just like Persona 5 Royale is to Persona 5. The edition of the game introduces a new S Link and a unique dungeon. I don't feel as though any of the additional content is particularly compelling as I felt with the additional content in P5R, but it’s not bad either. With the additional content of P4G however, the game does overstay its welcome by a few hours by the time you reach the end. I swear the game was going to end about 5 times before credits actually rolled. I definitely enjoyed my time with the game, but I was ready for it to end.
Overall, I really did enjoy my time with Persona 4 Golden despite its age and flaws. If I was to recommend a game from the series, I think that I would still recommend P5R way before P4G. As a newcomer to the series and a fan of its mix of combat and life-sim elements, I'm glad I visited this title, and I’m excited to explore Persona 3 Reload when that is released.
Compared to the latest entry in the mainline series, Persona 4 Golden is a bright and colorful adventure. I love the vibe the game is going for. Inaba feels like a faithful recreation of a sleepy small town that’s always dappled in fading sunlight on non-rainy days. The attitudes of the locals carries that country laid back attitude mixed with concern of impending financial ruin that is always present in places filled with locally run businesses. "Heartbeat, Heartbreak" and "Signs Of Love" from the soundtrack really sell this vibe as you run around the small town pursuing relationships with the people around you and working part time jobs. This is the perfect setup for the juxtaposition this game imposes upon the player: there is something sinister lurking within the town of Inaba. People keep turning up dead, strung up in odd fashions with no clear cause of death. Even more mysterious is the ghostly Midnight Channel, an unlisted TV channel that plays on your old CRTV at midnight when its raining. It is genuinely unsettling to hear the song "Who's there?" come on when you watch the inscrutable Midnight Channel and realize that it is predicting the next murder victim. Because of this uncomfortable juxtaposition, the main quest and puzzle at the heart of this game are extremely compelling early on. While the pay-off of the entire story didn't quite live up to my expectations (I felt as though some of the characterization of the villain was not as strong as it could and should have been), I still had a lot of fun from beginning to end. During your pursuit of the serial killer within this small town you will encounter a surprisingly large cast of characters to engage with. The quality of some of these social links can vary heavily, however, the game has some really high peaks it achieves.
A large part of the Persona formula post Persona 3 is the life simulator elements. In Persona 4 Golden you are roleplaying as an exchange student from the city coming into this small town to live with your uncle and niece for the school year. During your limited time in Inaba you are able to and encouraged to build up your relationships with those around you. As a whole, the main supporting cast (specifically all the members of the investigation team and the Dojimas) is mostly well written and compelling. Save for Teddy, this games otherworldly companion (the Morgana archetype for those who have played P5R) who is difficult to watch when it comes to how he interacts with women, I enjoyed my time with all of the main cast S Links. Mechanically it is a shame that there are drastically less benefits of pursuing relationships outside the main cast, but I’ve already seen how they innovate on this mechanic later in P5R. Regardless, all S Link storylines reflect the main themes of this game, self-acknowledgement and acceptance, in ways that were sort of unexpected. Where the Persona 5 Royale confidants had story lines about self-determination and fighting against societal structures meant to keep them down, Persona 4 Golden goes quite the opposite root. Rather than have these characters have story arcs of self-determination, most of the characters instead decide to embrace their public perception and societal roles while accepting their difficulty to come to terms with it. It becomes interesting to look at because these characters are dynamic not in how they chose to conduct their life, but rather how they feel about their lot and life and choices. I'd like to call special attention here to Kanji's S Link as I believe his is the best done and most nuanced. Admittedly, the game does have some off-putting moments of mild homophobia between two of the characters and the game seems to want to include themes related to homosexuality without actually fully committing to the conversation. Ultimately this is something I was able to come to terms with and move around as it is a product of 2008 and I am approaching the game from a western perspective and background in the year 2023. All of that aside, there are two other issues with these life sims elements that I would like to touch on however.
A large problem I had within the life sim elements of P4G is related to the main character that you are roleplaying as. While I was playing, it was impossible for me to ignore that he has such a weak lead in and setup within the story that it makes it difficult for the player to actually roleplay and identify with him. Atlus seemingly wanted to give the player a blank slate to work with as they adventure, but the best protagonists of RPGs do typically have some sort of identifying characteristic lead-in that allows you to get into the character better. In Persona 5 Royale, Joker may be a blank slate for the player to toy around with in dialogue options, but he has a very well defined lead-in and compelling character arc. You start Persona 5 Royale as someone punished for doing the right thing. You are constantly put down and watched closely because you are labeled a trouble maker after you had used your judgement to try to save a woman being harassed by a high profile politician. Because of this lead-in to the P5R, while I may have been provided dialogue options I could freely choose between, it made my characterization much easier to grasp and role play into. The protagonist of P4G has none of this sort of lead-in other than loosely saying "he's a good guy". While mechanically I still get to make dialogue choices just like P5R, I have a lot less commitment to a character and do not identify easily with the protagonist. There is one S Link however that Atlus tries to nudge you towards that helps with this identity issue: Atlus seemingly wants you to establish a strong S Link with the niece, Nanako. Nanako's character arc revolves around her being emotionally neglected by her workaholic and emotionally distant father Dojima. She is a character you will spend a lot of time with within the course of the game, and Atlus is always eager to provide you extra opportunity to spend time with Nanako. If you pursue Nanako's S Link, you get the firm feeling that the protagonist wants to be, and is, a good big brother to a little girl who desperately needs someone in their life to pay attention to them. This is the only real strong identifying characteristic the playable character is given, and even then it is somewhat optional. I think if Atlus had put more emphasis on this as either a mandatory characteristic established at the beginning of the game, or provided one other identifying characteristic for me to latch on to during the introduction, I would have enjoyed playing as my character significantly more. The other problem with the life sim elements of P4G is that the game feels mechanically opposite of the vibe it’s trying to sell you.
Just like the latest iteration, P5R, Persona 4 Golden offers a lot of things for the player to do. This however feels juxtaposed to mood the game is trying to sell you. Inaba is purposefully designed to be a sleepy boring town, but for me there was always a wealth of things to do other than when it was raining. There is a strong story emphasis to the player that the other characters in the investigation team are barely staving off boredom in a small town. Yosuke explicitly says that this is a feeling that he thinks you should be able to relate to as someone from the city. But other than a few rainy days, I was never bored in Inaba. There was always something to do until the very end of the game. Due to what I assume were development limitations that would have been around at the time of its release relating to complex systems of choices and consequences, the game instead opts to offer you a million side tracks to follow with no deviation narratively. What this mechanically provides is lots of choices for things do while in the town of Inaba with no little to no flexibility in how those activities and relationships end up. This feels directly opposed to the game trying to sell you on the idea that you are living in a sleepy, past its prime town. I cannot stress enough that you have so many activities that you can choose to engage with. This system works in P5R because your living it up in the bright and busy streets of Tokyo, but in P4G it feels as though it thematically clashes. As I said earlier, I understand why they might have opted for this approach, but there still could have been more effort in other places to remedy it. For example: why are all the activities you can chose to participate in above board? One of the most consistent storytelling pairings with boredom is mischief, yet there is none to be had in the life sim activities. You are an upstanding citizen in a place that has limited activities, thematically you should be bored constantly, but you are not. Even if they had your characters hanging out someplace they shouldn't be in, or had them do one kind of mischievous activity once in a while, this would help alleviate this mismatch significantly. All of that aside, mechanically this game is sound but borders on tedious outside its life-sim elements.
Persona 4 Golden's combat is exactly what I was expecting it to be having played P5R, and despite it lacking some of the flair that would come later in the series it is still rock solid. Every combat encounter feels like a puzzle you're meant to solve by exploiting your enemy’s weaknesses in the most efficient way possible. It's a lot of fun on its own, but with the dungeon design it does tend to feel a bit tedious and grindy at times. Atlus made the choice to have dungeons that are not intentionally designed but rather a set of randomly generated hallways. This tends to make a lot of the floors feel very same-y and the repetition of many combat encounters and similar scenery can really be fatiguing by the time you reach the last floor of the dungeon. Because of this fatigue, I was always excited to go back to the game when I was in the life-sim portions, and I was apprehensive when I was in the dungeons. As I said earlier, the core combat is solid, so I never disliked the game mechanically, but my mindset was always that the dungeon was something I just had to slog my way through. Lastly before wrapping up this review, i would like to touch upon the "Golden" aspect of Persona 4 Golden.
Persona 4 Golden is essentially the extended directors cut of Persona 4 just like Persona 5 Royale is to Persona 5. The edition of the game introduces a new S Link and a unique dungeon. I don't feel as though any of the additional content is particularly compelling as I felt with the additional content in P5R, but it’s not bad either. With the additional content of P4G however, the game does overstay its welcome by a few hours by the time you reach the end. I swear the game was going to end about 5 times before credits actually rolled. I definitely enjoyed my time with the game, but I was ready for it to end.
Overall, I really did enjoy my time with Persona 4 Golden despite its age and flaws. If I was to recommend a game from the series, I think that I would still recommend P5R way before P4G. As a newcomer to the series and a fan of its mix of combat and life-sim elements, I'm glad I visited this title, and I’m excited to explore Persona 3 Reload when that is released.