Imagine that you are a 15 years old highschooler. It's not that hard. Now imagine that you are transferred to a new school to the town of Inaba so you can live with your uncle because your parents have to do a long business trip. Very easy, right? You are already making new friends cause you are a pretty cool, likable guy and your school life runs smoothly and quiet normal. Nothing challenging here either. You even have some crazy dreams about a velvet limousine with a creepy guy with huge eyes and nose and a beautiful blond. They tell you crazy, incoherent things that you don't understand at all, but who cares, its just a dream. We all have crazy dreams from time to time. Now imagine that a rainy night at 12 o'clock you lie in your room's sofa and suddenly the TV turns on by itself. Stunned by the occurrence you get close to it and driven by a mysterious compulsion you touch the screen. And you realize that you can stuck your hand into it. What? There is no way on earth that something like that could ever be possible? Yes, you are right. There is no way. But thanks to video games there is a way to simulate it. And that's exactly what Persona 4 Golden offers to you as the hand on the TV screen it's just the beginning to a journey full of mystery, murder, action, shadows, love and friendship where you are going to fight in the mist of a devious culprit to beat him from killing innocent people and put in danger you and all of those you care about. And everything is happening in the compact, on the go world of PS Vita.
Ported straight from the PS2 version of the game, buffed with lots of extras, challenging trophies and of course HD graphics P4G is the ultimate version of one of the best and most critically acclaimed JRPG games of all time. Plus you can play it wherever you like. On your couch, on your bed, in your toilet, on a bench in the park, on the bus, at work (don't try that except if you are your own boss), anywhere you want thanks to PS Vita.
As you take control of the protagonist (i will call him Narukami as its his name in the anime, but as in most JRPGs you get to name the guy in the beginning) Yu Narukami, there are two possible things that may happen. First is that you are a fan of the series, you have already played the game on PS2 and probably his predecessor Persona 3 too, which plays pretty much the same and immediately you start your familiar journey to your handheld. Second is that you don't have any idea what a Persona game is and you just bought it cause of the great reviews, the colorful anime characters and because you love JRPGs.
So if you belong to the second category, after the introduction to the game with a small tutorial, you are going to realize that this is not your average JRPG. There is something more to the concept than just taking quest and completing them in dungeons killing one enemy after the other. The days in the game are divided in three periods and you have a real calendar which you have to pay great attention to in order to progress to your journey -and if you are a hunter, unlock the platinum trophy, which was one of the most rewarding i ever got. The periods that the days are separated to are the following: 1) the early mornings just before school where you never get to do much besides just watching the events that occur, like friends who call you and conversations between your uncle and his daughter, 2) the mornings, where you are at your class in school and you get to answer questions your teachers asks you and often help your friends answer theirs,
3) after school where you can do many things and its the main gameplay period where you get to fight monsters in the dungeons, have time with your friends and other people you encounter so you can bond with them and raise their social link with you, and finally 4) Night time where you can also do various things like hanging with your social links, do part time jobs to earn some extra cash and raise your stats by reading books or studying for school. Like i said. Not the average JRPG.
.jpg)
It's actually a social life simulator kinda like Sims and after the Persona 3 that was used for the first time its an addition that makes the games so unique and engaging, because through this mechanic you get to experience the story by getting more involved, thus you are going to like or dislike the characters and feel for them most effectively then by just watching cut-scenes. And why is that? Because you have to make choices. You have to choose how you gonna spend your free time, which friends you are gonna hang with, which girl are you gonna make your girlfriend (you can choose all of them actually, but only one will be the special one) and other stuff like that that have a serious impact on your progress and in which ending you gonna end up seeing. So besides your swords and kunai's get ready to use your social skills too.
I bet that there must be lots of hardcore RPG fans out there with the following reaction to the aforementioned words: "What social skills are you talking about dude! Bring on the action! This is boring!" Typical reaction of people who get bored easily by too many dialogs and cut-scenes. But i can guarantee you for sure that P4G doesn't let you get bored. The dialogs, the situations and the problems that you are going to encounter trying to develop your social skills have variety, quality and lots of times true emotional impact unlike other JRPGs and RPGs in general that lack production values and focusing only in battles and monster slaying like gameplay in games relay only on those. Well is not. And games like P4G proves that. So social life is important and as the motto of the game says: "Bonds of people is the true power". But why? And why the game is called persona anyway?
Well here it goes. As you will realise after your first visit to the TV world you have more special powers than just being able to enter the TV. There, together with your friend Yosuke you will meet Teddie, a bear like creature - at least that's what it calls himself although to me he looks more like an R2D2 kind of robot with hands and legs and a really strange squeaky noise when he moves around, as if he needs oil to his junctions or something - and he will be your guide to this world and a member of your party also helping you see through the dense mist that covers it with a pair of glasses that he gives you and to all your friends, sometimes with hilarious designs. So there you will find that the source of your powers are the Personas. Each character have his own persona and he unlocks it after facing his negative self - cause that's what the TV world makes you face - beating him in to battle and accepting him in the end. All characters except you. You have the ability to control more than one persona and also fuse them together creating new ones with a greater level and more powers. And here is where everything comes together. As you dive deep in each dungeons and destroy monsters you gain experience, money and some items that are mostly useful in side quests in the real world and for providing the town's blacksmith with materials for making weapons you can buy. But each persona that you will own earns experience too as long as you have it equipped at the end of the battle or if it have a certain skill that it allows to gain a percentage of XP even if it's not equipped. Each persona belongs to an Arcana as it is called that comes straight out from the Taro cards. The Emperor, the Magician, the Hangman, the Fool are some of them and each one in connected to a specific social link that you have. For example Yosukes social link is the Magician and when you are hanging out with him and helping him deal with his problems as any good friend would do, you gain a Social Link level with 10 being the maximum. That level adds experience to any persona of the Magician Arcana you fuse in the velvet limousine making it more powerful and with new better skills. In addition when you increase the Social Links with the members of your party they unlock social skills and adds them to their persona skills. It may sound complicated to the casual gamers and it surely is, but that's the meaning of the social skills mechanic and i swear to you that is fun, addictive and rewarding in a way that you don't usually experience in other games.
There is one more thing you need to know about social links and this is that the personality skills you level up through everyday activities are very important for the social links leveling up. If you study for school you gain more Knowledge, if you work alone as a janitor in the spooky hospital at night you gain Courage, if you pet a stray cat you gain Understanding, if you talk to certain characters you gain Expression, if you do various task like gardening you gain Diligence. Those five personality traits can be developed by many ways and other part time jobs in the game and are important for social links because if you don't have a certain level of Expression for example certain characters wont let you increase their social link. You don't have to maximize them all to finish the game of course, but they add to the choice factor a lot since you have to keep them in mind depending which social links you choose to follow.
Battles on the other hand are simple enough, at least in the easy difficulties. In the difficulties above Normal you will need extra strategy and more grinding to be able to beat stronger foes. Attacks are divided in simple weapon attacks and skills meaning the skills of your Personas. Skills are also divided into physical attacks that consume health points and magical attacks that consume magic points. There are also various skills that should be used to increase or decrease attack and defence and protect you from the enemies' magical attacks. The most interesting skills though is the Light and Darkness skills Hama and Mudo and their upgrades. Those skills kill instantly anyone who is weak to them. If your persona is weak to Light there is a chance, depending on the level of the skill, that a foe can kill you with one strike. You can do the same of course and in certain dungeons those skills are very useful.
You can change personas in battles as well as outside of them and use their unique skills and spells to bring down your enemies in the best way possible. Personas and enemies have strengths and weaknesses. As for example an enemy is weak to fire, a fire attack will knock him down allowing you one more attack. But also that applies to you 'cause enemies can exploit your weaknesses to hurt you in the same way. That element provides a strategic factor as you need to be aware of the enemies weakness and act accordingly. Thanks to the Analysis this comes easier then if you just have to remember in which attacks monsters are more vulnerable. If you attack an enemy with fire for example and he is weak to that, analysis will register that and you will be able to check it when you encounter the same type of monster. That is the way you move through the dungeons destroying shadows and trying each time to save another friend because if you do not before a specific date, then it's game over and you have to start again from a previous save.
I'm not going to get deep in to the story to avoid spoilers but in general it is about someone how puts people in the TV world to kill them and everything evolves around that culprit and his evil plans that escalates in threatening the entire town. In your quest you will save some of those people and they will become friends and join you to battle.
Graphically the game is simply an HD remake of the PS2 version. That makes it look amazing for a handheld console with clean textures, high resolution and lots of details that we are not used to see in the small screens. The PS Vitas vivid OLED screen helps a lot for that too. In general you will feel like playing an PS3 JRPG rather then just a PS2 or a PSP one. The anime cut-scenes that you will be watching here are few but they are top-notch and help to maximize the impact of the engaging story with some laughs occasionally.
The sound is great too -except Teddie's squeaky sound effect- in cut-scenes and in battles providing variety and non-repetitive character comments. The music adjust to every occasion and becomes more intensive in dungeon exploration and battles while more relaxing in everyday activities. Lots of time it becomes sensitive and moody when you come to experience more romantic or sentimental moments. Overall a great soundtrack, matching the colorful aesthetic and design of the games locations, dungeons and menus.
The controls are the same as the PS2 version and there is no touch controls except when you navigate on the extras screen which has videos, trailers and a very fun mini game that is like a TV trivia game. You run around with the right stick doing actions with the X button. Simple, easy and functional. Menus are working smoothly both in battles and out and the persona fusion menus successfully help you combine the personas with ease.
Now the flaws. Hmmm... flaws. Honestly is hard to find any flaws. Of course every game could always be more polished and be packed with more extras but that only adds to the experience and doesn't correct anything that can't be corrected. People -including me- often say: "Oh i would like that more" or "that would be more interesting" but that's just a matter of opinion. However, this doesn't mean that it has flaws or that is bad in any way. What does make a game bad is bugs, poor production values, lame dialogs and story, bad voice-over, glitches, eye-straining bad graphics and boring, repetitive gameplay. Persona 4 Golden doesn't have any of these. It is consisted by exactly the opposites.
Finally, as i plan to do with every game i will get deep in to value for money. The game retail and digital download price is 39.99 $ (39.99 euros in Europe's PSN). Does it worth so much money? Lets analyze that.
The game is a HD port which means flashy but nothing new, right? Wrong. Like i said the game is packed with lots of extras like a whole new dungeon which adds even more playtime to the already enormous 60-70 hours that will take you to finish it without fast forwarding the cut-scenes plus there is a New Game+ option after the first playthrough that lets you keep the personality levels and the weapons of the game making a second playthrough more relaxed if you going for 100%. So in the part of playtime it definitely worth the money for new and old players alike. And don't forget of course that you can spend all that playtime anywhere. PS Vita goes wherever you go. Trophy hunters and completisionists will find his trophies a fair challenge that also adds value in comparison with the old PS2 version. But what about the casual gamers who just look for a fun way to spend their time and don't know much about JRPGs? For you P4G is a great way to start learning. The story will captivate you, the 5 difficulties will help you adjust the game to your skill, the battles will keep you wanting more and if you don't want to get involved with the more complex parts like persona fusion you don't have to.
To conclude Persona 4 Golden is a gold addition to PS Vita library, totally worth its price. But if you still think it is steep then make your self a favor and find a cheaper used card or when the game is on sale on the PSN store just don't miss it. As fans of JRPGs you will put it high on your favorites list and as a newcomer it will initiate you in the genre with the best, most exiting way possible. I would honestly rate the game with a solid 10 if it wasn't for that damn squeaky noise..... Just kidding.
MUST BUY!!!
0-1 = Avoid at all cost!
2-3 = Only if it costs 2-3 bucks.
4-5 = It can entertain you a little. Better buy on sale.
6-7 = You will have fun playing it. Not worth its price.
7-9 = You will have lots of fun playing it. Worth its price.
9-10 = Must buy!!!
