After being first introduced to the Persona franchise through Joker being added to smash, as well as my friend Clayton (SonicOlmstead) calling an installment of it (Persona 5 Royal) his favorite game of all time, I couldn’t help but become curious about trying it myself. I’ve always enjoyed RPG’s, specifically JRPG’s, and thought it would be a great addition to my gaming catalogue. Plus it was 2020, the pandemic was going on, so I had plenty of time to spare and a dusty old laptop that needed some activity. Clayton and I played through a different title, Persona 3 FES, to start off. The first two games in the franchise are quite dated and don’t have the same playstyle so it was a great starting point. Neither of us had played the game before so even though he was aware of a lot of the core game mechanics from the franchise, it still felt like we were partaking on a brand new adventure together.

That isn’t the game I’m reviewing today, however. A story for a different time. All that’s relevant is to say that I absolutely loved the whole experience and was hooked on the franchise. Unfortunately I thought it might be the only title I would get to experience firsthand for quite some time, as at the time none of them were playable on the only modern console I own: the Nintendo Switch.

The opportunity had to wait several years. It finally came in 2024 in the form of Persona 4. Specifically, the enhanced version of Persona 4: Persona 4 Golden, as it was added to Steam of all places. See, every ‘modern’ Persona game (typically used to refer to Persona 3 through 5) gets an initial release date, and then several years later the game gets re-released in an enhanced version, slightly altering the name of the game and adding some content (New characters, expanding the main story, new hidden boss fights, new music, …). For someone playing through the already released titles, I would highly recommend playing the enhanced versions for the full experience.

Gameplay

As Persona 4 Golden is a JRPG game, most of the gameplay can be found in exploring dungeons and entering battles against groups of enemies. You control the main character, aptly named Yu, as you run through corridors and attack enemies you find. In battle you need to navigate through menus to perform attacks or other action commands such as guarding or using items. I think the battle system is perfect. You don’t perform most of the attacks yourself. Every character in this game that you use in battle has their own ‘Persona’. A persona is a personification of their subconscious, taking the form of some humanoid creature. Most characters have just one that they use, although it might grow stronger throughout the game. The protagonist is one of the rare people able to use multiple, and there is a whole intricate database of Personas for you to collect and use, each being catered to specific party roles and elemental (dis)advantages.

Unlike Persona 3, you now have the option to switch your party members from being AI controlled to being able to manually control them as well. I would say this is a positive, but I have my gripes with it. The AI system used in Persona 3 was very intricate, and you had a ton of commands you could give your party to steer them in the right direction. This really gave you the feeling of being the leader of the party. In this game they removed several of these commands, and the AI feels a lot dumbed down in comparison. It wasn’t fun for me so despite preferring AI controls for party members, I switched to manual to focus on my own enjoyment. A choice shouldn’t come at the sacrifice of one of the options.

Minor gripe with the controls: in Persona 3 you were able to select a weapon class for the main character (sword, knuckles, bow, …). In Persona 4 they took this choice away, and you are left with this awkward sword. I personally found it annoying to hit enemies with it at times, especially in weirdly angled corridors.

Graphics

Persona 4 Golden might be an enhanced version from 2012, but it still takes its core mechanics and foundation from the base Persona 4 game. That one was released all the way back in 2008 for the Playstation 2. As a result the graphics of the game are certainly a bit aged when compared to modern games. The graphical jump from Persona 3 to Persona 4 was small, probably due to both sharing the same console. You certainly feel like you’re playing a nearly 20 year old game.

The character models have slightly disproportionately large faces, and their models do not really change even when the character is talking or experiencing emotions. Thankfully this is not a huge problem as Persona games, including this one, make great use of expressive character sprites overlaying on the game to convey these things instead. Still, certain cutscenes or dialogue segments can feel a bit awkward with Mii-like characters just standing still in the background. The character designs themselves look amazing in my opinion.

The backgrounds also look fairly aged. There are harsh lines between the sky and the hills/forest/… in the background, and the colors don’t really flow into each other well. It’s not a big concern though, as the story and gameplay are the primary factors keeping you engaged.

All in all the game doesn’t look bad. Certainly for its time it was perfectly serviceable in this category, though it’s become a bit dated these days. One big positive I have to say about the game is the UI. I never had trouble finding anything, the menus were clear and not cluttered. That’s always important in a JRPG, where navigating menus is about half of the gameplay experience.

Sound

Persona 4 Golden kept the soundtrack from the original Persona 4, while adding several new ones to the mix. I always enjoyed listening to the tracks in this game, as they fit the environment very well. Suspenseful areas or moments get the right tracks to add to that atmosphere, while the more slice of life scenes (of which this game has many) feel exactly as they should: joyful and goofy.

Persona 4 Golden features voice acting. For a game this old, it’s always a hit or miss whether the quality of the voice acting can stand the test of time. Luckily that was never a problem here. Sure, the characters may not sound perfectly HD all the time, but it never felt like they had to make a serious sacrifice to sound quality in order to include it. I’ll give a personal nod to one of, if not my favorite voiceline: Teddy shouting “BEARSONA” throughout the many battles I had in the game. It’s stupid, silly, slightly annoying, and all that makes it my favorite. Stockholm syndrome? Maybe.

Addictiveness

Persona 4 Golden might be one of the most addicting games I have played in a very long time. I put countless hours into the game, often spending several marathons during quiet days just playing through more and more. They strike such a good balance between the core gameplay aspects as you use your Persona and your party members to take down enemies in turn based combat, and the story aspects as you learn more about what is happening in this remote little village. There’s plenty of slice of life content sprinkled throughout, always keeping whatever is happening on screen fresh.

Story

I am absolutely in love with the story of this game. It’s quite hard for me to find something to compare it to as it stands out that much to me. First of all, I think this is the strongest main cast of characters in any Persona game. It even beats out the modern Persona 5 in that aspect. You feel so connected to this particular group of misfits, and you can see them slowly develop and transform into a very tight friend group. This game includes more slice of life scenes with the main cast than any other Persona game, and it certainly adds to how you experience each one of them.

I think the plot is very compelling as well. Perhaps it is outdone in this aspect by Persona 5, though for a game this old it certainly holds up incredibly well. To give a Tl;dr, you are a high school student from the city, but you end up moving to this very remote mountainous village to attend a new school. After your arrival at this village, strange phenomena start happening. People start getting abducted and even killed, and nobody is able to figure out what’s causing it. Eventually you and your friends stumble upon a secret world connected to your reality. A creature there introduces himself to you and acts as your guide in this place. Soon you realize that this secret world is directly connected to all the strange disappearances in town. How? You’ll have to play the game for that information! Expect many twists and turns, some tough choices that will impact the progression of the story, and much more.

Persona 4 Golden adds some additional story elements (characters, dungeons, …). Usually this is done at the tail end of the game in enhanced Persona games, although Persona 4 Golden breaks this trend slightly and includes additional content throughout the main story. The bulk of it, including new dungeons, is still later in the game though. I never really felt like any of it was out of place, which is impressive given the fact that they inserted it in the already established Persona 4 story.

My one gripe with the story is that the ending of it just… doesn’t make a whole lot of sense? It didn’t really answer enough questions I had still, specifically the ‘Why’ of it all. I still really enjoyed the game however, and this didn’t really take much away from that as the primary focus for me was on the main cast of characters.

Depth

Persona 4 Golden is a very long game. I easily put over 100 hours into beating the main story, and there is still content that I couldn’t fit in the limited time you have. There’s a perfect mix of story, exploration, and quests for you to do to keep you engaged. Aside from the large main story, every important character will also have sidestories that you can progress throughout the game by hanging out with this particular character on particular days of the week. These can be quite emotional or entertaining, depending on who you’re talking to. It adds a lot of worldbuilding to an otherwise remote feeling location, so I highly recommend them.

The dungeons themselves can be quite lengthy and won’t be easy to take down in one go. There’s some replayability to these as well as there are some secret items you can obtain by getting to the end of them a second time.

Difficulty

Persona 4 Golden can be quite challenging at specific points in the game. The first boss battles you face are already capable of beating you if you’re not careful or unlucky, and this won’t let up as you progress through the story. A lot of the bosses in this game have very specific attack patterns that you must adapt to in order to stand a chance at beating them. It’s important to cover your bases with the personas you bring to battle.

One of my favorite things in gaming can be found here as well: difficulty settings. No need to cater a game to either a softcore or hardcore audience if you can give that choice to the player. I played on hard mode and had a blast despite losing multiple times to specific fights, but someone who wants a slight challenge while focusing more on story can choose a lower setting.

Overall

Persona 4 Golden is a fantastic JRPG in a unique remote setting that is engaging to play, while at the same time making you think and reflect on what is important to you as a person. Every Persona game focuses on a specific theme related to how you view society and personal growth. The theme in Persona 4 is self reflection and overcoming hardships and shortcomings. Not by running from them, but by accepting them as a part of you, and focusing on the good in your life.