Persona 4 Golden Review

Persona 4 Golden for the PlayStation Vita is one of the first solid, non first party, titles to hit the vita. So far it most definitely has delivered exactly what I've been looking for in my vita, a console like experience that I can play on the go. Now it is a port of Altus' 2008 jrpg persona 4, but what Golden brings to the table is absolutely worth the second look for players who have already walked this path into the TV world. Especially if you've never played the original or even any of the previous installments.

In persona 4 you play as yu a high school transfer student from the big city, that has moved in with his uncle and niece in the small town of inaba, because his parents are both working. You quickly get settled in and then its off to school, where you meet some new friends and hear a rumor about an alleged “midnight channel” which supposedly means if you watch your TV at midnight when its raining while its turned off, you will see your soul mate on the screen. Yu does just that on the first rainy night only to see the image of a young female reporter, who was staying as of recent at an inn in inaba. The next day as it turns out the young reporter was found dead. This then leads yu down a path of determination to find out who is killing people how and what the connection is with the midnight channel. Luckily yu meets a few friends along the way that join him on this adventure. Eventually yu discovers a whole world inside the TV that people are being thrown inside of in order to end their lives. Obviously the police, including yu's uncle who is a local detective, have no leads, nor know anything about the TV world so it is up to yu and his friends to find the killer and save people from this dark TV world inhabited by creatures called shadows, and all at the same time find and accept their true selves for who they really are.

Over all the story is solid, its dark at times and the characters are interesting and you will have no problem feeling involved in their individual stories. It also carries a good amount of humor to keep the mood balanced. At times the story can feel rather cliche compared to some of the more popular anime series out now. More often than not it has enough of its own flare to keep it original. It also (depending on what ending you get) has a rather refreshing twist at the end.

Persona 4 is without a doubt a gorgeous game one thing that will stand out from the first time you start it up is the vibrant colors scheme that it follows throughout. The menus and UI all run flawlessly and look amazing on the vita's 5” oled screen. The graphics also look really good especially now that persona 4 golden has brought a 16:9 aspect ratio and HD visuals. All the character models both 2D and 3D look clean. The dungeons can look rather bland but do differ enough to keep it somewhat fresh. This game is very dialogue heavy so being that most of the important sequences are fully voiced is a plus, very well voiced I might add. Persona 4 from start to finish feels like a solid total package game that keeps a certain level of continuity throughout.

Now as far as gameplay is concerned, I would have to break it down into two distinct types of gameplay one being when your in the TV world. This world plays a lot like a few other notable JRPGs most similarly being popular titles like final fantasy, and most of the tales series. You explore several dungeons usually each themed after the hidden personal feelings of whoever you are currently trying to save from the TV world. Each dungeon contains several levels, usually between 6 and 10, and once you reach the top you fight a boss in the form of the victims persona. Persona's are basically one individual's power or weapon, they take many different appearances, and unlike your companions you as the main player can collect multiple persona's this plays out similarly to collecting pokemon, as well when you collect Persona's you can “fuse” them to create new Persona's which if you want to discover the entirety of the persona “compendium”. Now when it comes to the dungeons in the TV world it can at times feel like there could be more to them with most of them containing a series of hallways and a few single rooms on each level until you find the stairs to move onto the next level. At the same time the ability to revisit these dungeons, in order to grind, has been made more enticing by adding stronger side boss shadows to old dungeons that you may have already completed. While in the dungeons you will see the enemy shadows represented in the same generic form in the real time exploration of each dungeon, however when you run into one of these shadows you are taken into a battle arena, (unlike the tales series) these battles are played out in your more traditional turn based style of combat. On occasion (seemingly at random) you will be greeted by something called “shuffle time” after the battle is over, those who have played the previous installments (like persona 3) are familiar with this, it is a card selection menu where the player has the option of selecting one of the cards presented (usually between 3 to 5 cards) some cards will increase the money or experience you gain from the battle where other cards will directly increase certain states for your persona, some will also contain negative results like a decrease or even total loss of experience, money, or items, but will add more picks for other more important cards. Then there are persona cards which are pretty self explanatory, they offer you to choose a persona to add to your collection. This adds a refreshing twist to the some times monotinous grind of battle after battle.

On the flip side of this you have the interactions in the real world. This is where the game really shows its diversity. The main focus of your real world life will be to social aspect. You have a collection of stats you can increase while in the real world like knowledge, which can be increased by answering correctly when called upon in class, studying either in the school library or at your desk in your bed room at night. Then there is diligence which you can take on jobs like making paper cranes at night or working with your niece Nanako in your garden. Courage is another skill that will come in handy this can be fortified by eating suspect food you will find in the fridge at home and working night shifts at the hospital as a janitor. Courage is one of the skills that can also be increased in the TV world by defeating strong side bosses. Expression g is something else you will find yourself working on by joining the after school drama club. Finally understanding is another handy skill you will build up by taking on a job as a translator, and making correct dialogue choices during conversations. These skills come into play in many different forms. High knowledge will result in high scores on your midterm exam, with a top score getting you extra special rewards, and allows you to seek relationships with some more intellectual characters in the game. Courage will open up more options when talking to people, for example being very forward with some of the female characters will require high courage, as well you will find yourself unable to not able to visit the shrine section of the central shopping center at night if your courage is not high enough. Diligence is important if you want to pursue some of the more advantageous jobs on the job board, some of which have a high diligence requirement for acceptance. Understanding will play a role in certain conversations, with some conversations not even being made available to you unless your understanding is high enough to have it in the first place. Lastly expression will play an important role in working on your “social links” which you will find becomes the most important part of your time spent in the real world.

Social links can be started with key characters in persona 4 primarily all your party members bring with them a social link that can be leveled up by spending time with them outside of school. Their are also a few other important characters that social links can be explored with. A social link is tied directly to a certain class of persona's increasing a social link will grant you extra exp bonuses when creating persona's in their correlating class. Social links max out at level 10 starting out in the early levels you will level up a social link every time you spend time with the character who has a social link with you. Later levels (around 5 or 6) you'll find yourself spending time with them a few 2 to 3 times before the social link is actually increased.

Something important to keep in mind in the real world specifically is that unlike the TV world where you can grind for hours at a time, the real world is run on a pretty strict schedule that breaks down over early morning, morning lunchtime after school and finally evening. Unless you have the day off from school where you will only find morning and then upon returning home it becomes evening. On school days however the only time you really get to do as you please is after school, the way it plays out in most cases (unless there is a story event that forcefully passes time) is that you can visit all the open locations around town and upon obtaining your scooter license you can visit the big city of okina. While walking around town you will run into the different characters who you have begun a social link with, the only down side is that if you choose to spend time with any specific person it will take up the remaining free time you have and will transition you directly to evening back at home. So spend your time wisely. You can also spend your free time taking part in the many activities around town such as fishing, reading, catching bugs, working a job, or going to the movies.

Finally the last remaining component of persona 4 is called the velvet room. You are introduced to the velvet room from the start of persona 4, this is where you will meet with igor who is seemingly the lead overseer of your journey. The other inhabitants of the velvet room consist of Margaret, and Marie, who will be the ones to talk to about your persona compendium, collecting and purchasing skill cards and fusing persona's.

Upon finishing the game you are treated to the option of loading your save file into a new game plus mode which adds a whole new level of excitement to the deep and involving story that lies within persona. With that considered as well as the sprawling compilation of persona's skill cards, and social links to collect this game has tons of content and replay value. One play-through offers at the least a solid 30 to 40 hours of play time. However you could easily spent 60 plus house with this title without even considering a second play-through.