I found Persona 4 Golden a largely frustrating experience. In my Persona 5 Royal review, I mentioned my initial experience with this game was a brief attempt as a substitute for P5R before it was on steam. That time around I only made it through the bathhouse, but I found the graphics, UI, and overall aesthetic ugly and I didn’t like Inaba or the general vibe. That wasn’t a fair appraisal, and now that I’ve finished Royal and moved on from my unfair expectations I found I love the graphics, the UI, the aesthetic, Inaba, and the general vibe of Golden. Of course, I can’t get away from talking about Persona 5 in my review of Persona 4, but I’m no longer judging Persona 4 as a Persona 5 substitute and I can recognize that Royal fails in some places Golden flourishes. It doesn’t have Royal’s cozy vibes but it isn’t supposed to, and what it’s actually trying to do is done well. From a writing standpoint, the story’s framing as murder mystery is incredibly compelling and provides a link between story moments that Royal just doesn’t have, resulting in a more cohesive and focused narrative. I prefer Golden’s serial killer concept to Royal’s superhero concept, though I do think The Investigation Team is missing The Phantom Thieves’ swag (although I have come around on the fog glasses). The Golden ending feels like a natural extension of the original whereas Royal’s ending feels weirdly tacked on (even if it is grander). From a gameplay perspective, Golden’s combat is much more engaging than Royal’s. In Royal I basically never had to worry about SP management, I definitely didn’t ever use the Rush button, I hardly ever had to Guard, I never used Hamaon or Mudoon, and virtually every combat is player advantage; Royal’s combat is so easy that one can basically ignore entire mechanics that are absolutely crucial in Golden.
Unfortunately, I went into Persona 4 hyped up by its fanbase who claim it’s superior to Persona 5 and, with that idea always in the back of my mind, I was disappointed. I can see how the dungeons in Persona 4 are the middle point between 3 and 5, and I appreciate the later levels' atmospheres especially, but they are always tedious. Door animations are non-negligible, move speed is slow, and combat takes a while. I didn’t think the Mementos requests were genius or anything, but at least they’re quick. Golden’s side quests are so tedious and unabashedly content bloat that I honestly gave up on doing them—thank god there’s no achievement or real reward attached? Going backward through a series one expects some dated elements, but the dungeon design really wore on my nerves as my 100+ hour playthrough dredged on. That said, the combat is better than 5, and if this was my biggest problem with the game then I’m sure I could ignore it. Unfortunately, the dated dungeon design presents with a far more troubling symptom: dated writing.
I’ve said that Golden has a more compelling narrative shell and concept than Royal. While that is true, the actual writing feels weaker in every aspect. Dated mechanics are easy to ignore since the medium progressed exponentially between releases, but writing is no new frontier. As a quick qualifier, while I don’t like the omnipresent homophobia in this game, I know what I’m getting into when I pick up a certain kind of Japanese text and I was ready for that, so I won’t discuss it here. For what it’s worth, it’s cool that Atlus has been steering away from that shit in recent years. The writing really fails in three core areas: story beats, social links, and downtime. In Royal, even when the story beats aren’t building toward a clear end-goal, they’re thoroughly built up and engaged with in the lead-up, dungeon, and boss fight. Comparatively, the writing in Golden is barebones. There’s occasionally discussion or light investigation before a dungeon and minor expositive narration in the dungeon and boss fight, but for the most part there’s less fanfare around story beats which dulls their impact—even when what’s happening on a macro level within the case is very interesting. In Royal I may have sometimes found myself slightly annoyed with the number of text conversations that would occur between targets when finishing the whole palace on the first day or with Morgana’s yapping, but I missed those things in Golden because they kept me engaged with the story between beats. When I finished the dungeon on the first day in Golden I had to subsist almost entirely on social links for the next month, which in turn begets a problem of its own.
The social links in Golden are unequivocal downgrades compared to Royal. The characters are less interesting, their arcs are less interesting and aren’t as clearly engaged with their arcanas, and there are less lines of less interesting text. Persona games are like 95% VN; I cannot understand how one could claim Persona 4 is better than 5 just based on this one difference, nostalgia notwithstanding. I hate to sound dramatic, but I honestly feel like the worst links in Royal are on par with the best links in Golden. I do like characters like Sayako and Hisano, but their links fail to do them justice. Also like, what the hell was Chie’s?? And with 20 levels Naoto and Adachi’s links together don’t touch Akechi’s. I think Royal’s system of adding intermittent rewards to the social links really helped motivate completion even for links that a player wasn’t feeling (although I did max all Golden’s links in NG). The social links aren’t bad per se, but they aren’t thrilling either and with so many they turn to tedium. This problem is made all the worse by the fact that the dull dungeons and limp social links are bookended with outright painful downtime.
I think if Persona 4 was half as long and all social links and dungeons with no downtime I might’ve still loved it for its flaws. But the downtime is so poorly written that I actually felt the urge to skip it, and I think that really leaves Golden dead in the water in the debate against Royal. Though Golden has a cooler narrative and concept, Royal is much more enjoyable as a holistic piece; it’s a perfect cozy hangout game. It might not be as technically engaging, but if these games are 95% VN then it’s more important that the VN part is good. The Phantom Thieves feel like a real friend group. Granted there are some weird interactions where team members hit on Ann, but like I said I’m willing to suffer some sexual or gender hiccups with media like this, and they still feel primarily like friends. Conversely, Golden’s gender politics are suffocating. The Investigation Team doesn’t feel like one friend group, it feels like a group of male friends and a group of female friends stuck together. The female cast faces constant sexual harassment and romantic passes from the male cast such that the group feels unable to mesh on a deeper level (except maybe in the closing scene) because it is divided starkly along heteronormative gender lines. This really breaks my immersion as a queer person as it is constant and unavoidable. I understand it’s a dating sim, but to me that doesn’t mean constant peeping and boundary violation. I understand it’s an older game, but I’m not willing to disregard rape culture for that. Whereas Royal broke my immersion once or twice with Joker making cartoon wolf eyes at Ann’s tits, Golden all but refused to allow me to immerse at all. This is most egregious when Teddie makes advances to Nanako, who is SIX years old. I don’t care that it’s comedy relief or he’s from another world or whatever, it’s an absolute immersion shattering blow. There’s a place for sexual and romantic tension in Persona, but this is not that. This game is absolutely dripping in male gaze and frankly it's hard to tolerate.
It might seem unfair that I said I’m no longer comparing Golden to Royal and then spent my entire review doing just that, but I believe my criticisms of Golden stand apart from Royal and I would still have them had I not played the newer game first. I recognize that later installments build on earlier ones, and that’s fine! I don’t think Golden is bad because Royal is better. Rather, I’m writing this review in response to the contrarian discursive element that maintains even now that Golden is better than Royal. At the time of writing one day removed from completion, I can’t bring myself to delve back into NG+ to get the rest of the ludicrous achievements and I don’t know if I ever will. I just don’t want to brave that tedium and, while I usually don’t factor the achievement quality into my appraisal of a game, Golden’s are both low effort and low quality. I didn’t get a single fusion accident in NG having completed 90% of the compendium. I’m sitting at 84% game completion and I think I can make peace with that. I know gender and sexual politics is a red flag topic for anime and JRPG fans but for me it was my biggest hangup with this game. Also keep in mind I haven’t even begun to broach what the hell is going on with Kanji and Naoto. In case you’re wondering I’m personally in favour of a reclamative reading: Kanji is a trans man coming to terms with his disconnects from hegemonic masculinity and Naoto is a trans woman coming out of the closet and they’re t4t and in love <3. Oh and shout out the drag outfit !!
Unfortunately, I went into Persona 4 hyped up by its fanbase who claim it’s superior to Persona 5 and, with that idea always in the back of my mind, I was disappointed. I can see how the dungeons in Persona 4 are the middle point between 3 and 5, and I appreciate the later levels' atmospheres especially, but they are always tedious. Door animations are non-negligible, move speed is slow, and combat takes a while. I didn’t think the Mementos requests were genius or anything, but at least they’re quick. Golden’s side quests are so tedious and unabashedly content bloat that I honestly gave up on doing them—thank god there’s no achievement or real reward attached? Going backward through a series one expects some dated elements, but the dungeon design really wore on my nerves as my 100+ hour playthrough dredged on. That said, the combat is better than 5, and if this was my biggest problem with the game then I’m sure I could ignore it. Unfortunately, the dated dungeon design presents with a far more troubling symptom: dated writing.
I’ve said that Golden has a more compelling narrative shell and concept than Royal. While that is true, the actual writing feels weaker in every aspect. Dated mechanics are easy to ignore since the medium progressed exponentially between releases, but writing is no new frontier. As a quick qualifier, while I don’t like the omnipresent homophobia in this game, I know what I’m getting into when I pick up a certain kind of Japanese text and I was ready for that, so I won’t discuss it here. For what it’s worth, it’s cool that Atlus has been steering away from that shit in recent years. The writing really fails in three core areas: story beats, social links, and downtime. In Royal, even when the story beats aren’t building toward a clear end-goal, they’re thoroughly built up and engaged with in the lead-up, dungeon, and boss fight. Comparatively, the writing in Golden is barebones. There’s occasionally discussion or light investigation before a dungeon and minor expositive narration in the dungeon and boss fight, but for the most part there’s less fanfare around story beats which dulls their impact—even when what’s happening on a macro level within the case is very interesting. In Royal I may have sometimes found myself slightly annoyed with the number of text conversations that would occur between targets when finishing the whole palace on the first day or with Morgana’s yapping, but I missed those things in Golden because they kept me engaged with the story between beats. When I finished the dungeon on the first day in Golden I had to subsist almost entirely on social links for the next month, which in turn begets a problem of its own.
The social links in Golden are unequivocal downgrades compared to Royal. The characters are less interesting, their arcs are less interesting and aren’t as clearly engaged with their arcanas, and there are less lines of less interesting text. Persona games are like 95% VN; I cannot understand how one could claim Persona 4 is better than 5 just based on this one difference, nostalgia notwithstanding. I hate to sound dramatic, but I honestly feel like the worst links in Royal are on par with the best links in Golden. I do like characters like Sayako and Hisano, but their links fail to do them justice. Also like, what the hell was Chie’s?? And with 20 levels Naoto and Adachi’s links together don’t touch Akechi’s. I think Royal’s system of adding intermittent rewards to the social links really helped motivate completion even for links that a player wasn’t feeling (although I did max all Golden’s links in NG). The social links aren’t bad per se, but they aren’t thrilling either and with so many they turn to tedium. This problem is made all the worse by the fact that the dull dungeons and limp social links are bookended with outright painful downtime.
I think if Persona 4 was half as long and all social links and dungeons with no downtime I might’ve still loved it for its flaws. But the downtime is so poorly written that I actually felt the urge to skip it, and I think that really leaves Golden dead in the water in the debate against Royal. Though Golden has a cooler narrative and concept, Royal is much more enjoyable as a holistic piece; it’s a perfect cozy hangout game. It might not be as technically engaging, but if these games are 95% VN then it’s more important that the VN part is good. The Phantom Thieves feel like a real friend group. Granted there are some weird interactions where team members hit on Ann, but like I said I’m willing to suffer some sexual or gender hiccups with media like this, and they still feel primarily like friends. Conversely, Golden’s gender politics are suffocating. The Investigation Team doesn’t feel like one friend group, it feels like a group of male friends and a group of female friends stuck together. The female cast faces constant sexual harassment and romantic passes from the male cast such that the group feels unable to mesh on a deeper level (except maybe in the closing scene) because it is divided starkly along heteronormative gender lines. This really breaks my immersion as a queer person as it is constant and unavoidable. I understand it’s a dating sim, but to me that doesn’t mean constant peeping and boundary violation. I understand it’s an older game, but I’m not willing to disregard rape culture for that. Whereas Royal broke my immersion once or twice with Joker making cartoon wolf eyes at Ann’s tits, Golden all but refused to allow me to immerse at all. This is most egregious when Teddie makes advances to Nanako, who is SIX years old. I don’t care that it’s comedy relief or he’s from another world or whatever, it’s an absolute immersion shattering blow. There’s a place for sexual and romantic tension in Persona, but this is not that. This game is absolutely dripping in male gaze and frankly it's hard to tolerate.
It might seem unfair that I said I’m no longer comparing Golden to Royal and then spent my entire review doing just that, but I believe my criticisms of Golden stand apart from Royal and I would still have them had I not played the newer game first. I recognize that later installments build on earlier ones, and that’s fine! I don’t think Golden is bad because Royal is better. Rather, I’m writing this review in response to the contrarian discursive element that maintains even now that Golden is better than Royal. At the time of writing one day removed from completion, I can’t bring myself to delve back into NG+ to get the rest of the ludicrous achievements and I don’t know if I ever will. I just don’t want to brave that tedium and, while I usually don’t factor the achievement quality into my appraisal of a game, Golden’s are both low effort and low quality. I didn’t get a single fusion accident in NG having completed 90% of the compendium. I’m sitting at 84% game completion and I think I can make peace with that. I know gender and sexual politics is a red flag topic for anime and JRPG fans but for me it was my biggest hangup with this game. Also keep in mind I haven’t even begun to broach what the hell is going on with Kanji and Naoto. In case you’re wondering I’m personally in favour of a reclamative reading: Kanji is a trans man coming to terms with his disconnects from hegemonic masculinity and Naoto is a trans woman coming out of the closet and they’re t4t and in love <3. Oh and shout out the drag outfit !!