Before even starting the Persona series, I was told about Persona 4 Golden a few times last summer from a few friends, but it never seemed to interest me until the beginning of this year. I had finished Persona 4 Golden not that long ago after I had finished Persona 3 Reload. The story for this game had probably stuck with me more than Persona 3 Reload, even the characters once again. Friends had wanted me to play just for the story which is the main reason I played the game right after Persona 3. The music is probably my favorite part of the game too, more enjoyable and emotional with the game even. Still not entirely sure which Persona game is my favorite still as I’m a few hours into Persona 5 now, but Persona 4 could be my absolute favorite with just the story, characters, and the music.
Most people usually don’t hear about Persona 4 as most people know Persona from just the Persona 5 characters, and it being the same with Persona 3 with its music. They usually acknowledge those two as Persona 4 Golden has low quality models as it was made back in 2014. At first, I didn’t enjoy the game for a bit from how the models were and how confusing it was at first with the gameplay, but later on with playing it more and more, I began to love the atmosphere of the game much more, still was a little confused on the gameplay at times. The story was most likely one of the main reasons why I enjoyed it so much.
For me, the story is a little more realistic with the characters involved and with how the characters look other than just having colored hair like the other games. It may start off slow at first with the few characters you’re usually introduced to, but the characters get closer with each later on even with the main character’s little cousin. The main character doesn’t live in the small town, but stays with his uncle Dojima and his daughter Nanako for a whole year. Later on with the few characters you meet, everyone loves Nanako and always lets her hang out with them and have fun, showing how much they really do care about each other which was one of my favorite parts of the story at times. The characters together have funny parts in the game as they may sometimes argue over little small things, and sometimes the character may laugh about it all together or just one. One of the characters, Yukiko, she’s usually known for her family inn around the little town. Most people think she would be a serious character, but really she’s like everyone else even and laughs at whatever may seem funny to her, having a huge laughing fit about it for no reason which always made me laugh since you wouldn’t really expect it from her even. When meeting the other characters later on in the story, they have more of a realistic friendship with each other, like they’re a whole big family together which makes the game so much more enjoyable than just the fighting.
Like most of the main Persona games, there’s obviously the combat, being the same as Persona 3 Portable and a little to Reload. As usual, you’re able to get different personas as the main character and fuse them for combat in each dungeon. When fighting shadows, instead of going to a tower like Persona 3, instead you go inside the TV and fight in the dungeon of the character you’re usually about to meet or a character you just have to save for the story. Even if the game is really old as both Persona 5 and Persona 3 Reload have better graphics than the game itself, it’s still enjoyable with just the bad graphics, it brings a charm to it. Though when in combat, it is a little upsetting at times when fighting as the protagonist may get one shot a couple of times having to restart from where you last started in the game or going back to the battle even when changing the settings, it’s not entirely fair as you still do get one shot too. Other than just getting one shot in the game, it’s still fun at least with the dungeons having different themes from each other and each dungeon fitting the character of what their shadow thinks of them from things they think but don’t want apart of them
Going into the dungeons is entirely one of my favorite parts of the story as you do get the character to join your party after a few days from rescuing them. When going into their dungeon, there’s usually a shadow of them, being their dark feelings of what they sometimes think entirely but don’t even believe that’s a part of them at all. After rescuing them though, basically fighting the final boss of the dungeon, they realize the other shadow is truly a part of them, they always tell the shadow that they aren’t them when truly they are. The characters always accept the other part of them and it really makes me enjoy the game so much, accepting the fact that the shadow is truly a part of them even if they never want anyone to know about it. Doing their social links is one of my favorite parts, understanding them more of their past or why they’re like this. Everyone’s social links in the group are all enjoyable. One of my favorite links was Kanji’s, he seems like your typical mean guy character from how he looks and talks even, but when doing his social link, it gives you a whole different perspective on him. Instead of being into motorcycles and stuff, he tells us that he always enjoyed sewing, but was bullied for it since kids would consider it as just a girly hobby, though a kid in the small town appreciates it as he helped make a bunny plushie for the kids friend and was surprised from his skill, telling his mother and friend about it even wanting to pay Kanji for his skill. It surprises him so much on how someone is finally appreciating his skill other than bullying him for it, one of the things that he was hiding from people fearing he would get bullied, but eventually gets over it and accepts the appreciation he gets from sewing. Most of the social links are just everyone accepting who they truly are, which makes all of them so enjoyable to me even with one of the NPCs in the story.
Persona 4 doesn’t have the NPC Marie, but in Persona 4 Golden, she’s a character that they added which is relevant to the story later on in the game. Doing her social link and maxing it out is entirely important as getting towards the end, which is entirely a major spoiler for people who don’t want to get spoiled about it. Though doing her social link was one of my favorite things as well, a little similar to the group’s social links even. At first you’d probably think it would be like most social links as it’s just you and the other character that you’re spending time with, but instead ranks later, the main cast of the story randomly pop up and hang out with Marie. All of them had accepted Marie as their friend even, only us the main character knew she wasn’t a part of the real world as she’s part of the Velvet Room, it’s always enjoyable as she was able to make friends and have them help her out on figuring out who she really is.
The music in this game has to be my favorite soundtrack from the other big Persona games. It’s a little bit more memorable to me than Persona 3 and Persona 5. Some of the songs are a little of major spoilers towards the game, but you wouldn’t entirely tell until you play it yourself. I remember listening to one of the songs for quite a bit not knowing when the song would start playing through the game until I got a little closer to the end. It might be one of my favorite songs for the game from what it entirely means in that part of the game, making it much more memorable for me and a little emotional hearing the song anytime. You could say it is a heavenly song even as the song is called “Heaven”. The lyrics even fit entirely to the song and where it happens in the game fitting the character. Lot of people would agree the same with me, probably one of the best songs in the game other than the songs that play throughout the days in the game. The songs played after school or during the day in the game are really enjoyable, sounding like they were in the summer a lot no matter what season the game may be in and I think it’s one of the best parts of the game.
What I enjoy a lot about the game even is the little moments all the characters may have either during the summer, spring or during a school trip. They each all have their funny moments throughout the game with each other, making fun of each other, being mad, just laughing all together, or having fun from what’s happening. Those little events would always stick with me from how their friendship is with everyone, making you laugh even with them like you’re part of the friend group. They do obviously start small with only the main four being the protagonist, Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko, but it does grow more when you find the other four characters in the game, growing a strong friendship with each other. One of my favorite moments in the game they have all together as the Investigation team is when they try to do a band together for a festival in their city. None of them even knew how to play instruments as they only had a few days left before the festival, but learned quickly and were able to perform in the city that joined in on the festival.
While writing about the review on Persona 4 Golden, not that long ago people have found out that a domain opened in the companies website of a Persona 4 Remake soon. It hasn’t been entirely announced when it’ll happen but people have said that this happened with Persona 3 Reload two years ago even expecting for the announcement to happen in a few months and wait another year or two for the game to release. It’s a big thing for many of the Persona fans as Persona 4 Golden overall is one of the oldest games right now other than Persona 1 and Persona 2 which is only on the Playstation 2.
Overall though, Persona 4 Golden may be one of my favorite Persona games overall as I did finish Persona 5 before completing this. Both Persona 5 and Persona 4 are fighting entirely for my favorite Persona games in the series as I liked the story, gameplay, music, and characters for both. The same thing goes with Persona 3. Even if the remake could be coming soon now, I think people should at least still try Persona 4 Golden, it would definitely feel more realistic than the other games from how the characters are with each other, even if the combat is annoying at times when being one shot by the enemies and having to do the fight all over again. I’d probably recommend Persona 4 to people as their first game when starting the Persona series really even if some may want you to start with the first one. It never matters which game you start with in the Persona series as they aren’t entirely connected to each other, just some references in them.
