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.