Persona 4 Golden

After playing Persona 5, I really wanted to play more Persona games. Persona 4 Golden released on steam last year, so I finally got the chance to play it. The story in Persona 4 is really good and very engaging, even if the writing is quite weak at times. The additional story in Golden is not anything special but it's fine. The gameplay on the other hand, not really. While the combat system itself is enjoyable, I'm gonna explain later why the gameplay overall is not as good as the story. The main characters are the best part of the game and their interactions are probably the best I've seen in any videogame. The music took some time to grow on me but I ended up absolutely loving it! The art style is nice, although the visual quality is a bit outdated. Also, it's worth mentioning that the dialogue is hilarious at times... like, it had me laughing out loud! Persona 4 Golden is undoubtedly one of the funniest games I've ever played. Now, Persona 4 has one issue that affects the gameplay though; the dull dungeon design. The dungeons in that game are literally copy/paste, empty corridors, which is something Golden could improve on but it didn't. For those who've only played Persona 5, imagine something like Mementos. Another issue is the saving system in the dungeons, it's unnecessarily complicated and it made me lower the difficulty in some parts.

Pros: + Great story + Awesome characters + Decent combat system + Exceptional music + Cool art style

Cons

• Inconsistent writing
• Poor dungeon design & complicated dungeon saving system

Narrative: 8/10 Gameplay: 6/10 Content: 8/10 Characters: 10/10 Music: 10/10 Art Style: 8/10

Final Rating: 9.5/10

• Outstanding -

I gotta say, playing Persona 4 Golden after Persona 5/Royal made me realize how much Persona 5 improved upon its predecessor.

Much like Persona 5/Royal though, Persona 4 Golden is one hell of an experience! One that I hopefully won't forget anytime soon, as it's truly one of my favorite games I've played in a while.

Do I recommend it?: Yes! Go treat yourself with some Persona, either 5 or 4, it doesn't matter.

I mean there are so many problems that suck any fun I had with this game. First with the positives: 1.Characters-Most of the characters are interesting & have a good arc to them. 2.Story/Plot-The mystery in this game is suspenseful as it was the biggest reason I kept playing this game. 3.Location-Inaba is a quiet, peaceful, & happy town where there isn't any dark gloomy atmosphere like there is in Persona 5. However, the negatives take a lot of the fun away as so: 1.Gameplay-Oh my goodness, what a disappointment. It's a pain to learn & get used to. Plus the enemies (even on normal mode) spam the most powerful attacks that takes half your health away! (Jesus!) 2.Save Points-SRSLY! Only ONE save point in each dungeon & that's at the very end of each dungeon! That's stingy & speaking of stingy: 3.Chest Keys, SP, & Yen-I've never had a game that was so stingy on allowing you to unlock chests, earn plenty of money, & limited SP. This game is the most stingy game I've played ever! 4.Enemies-Not much variety & again, they love to spam the most powerful moves even on the easiest difficulty! This takes all the fun away from the game when I have to restart hours of gameplay! Overall, very overrated & disappointing game. Made me write a serious review on it. This game is average at best & go play Persona 5, it's sooooo much better!

The beauty of this game is it will take you back to a time when things were simpler. When friendships mean the world to people, when fighting for the greater good meant something, when planning your day slow and steady lead to greater things. This game is nothing less than perfection, which includes the music, which after almost a decade of me playing it, still actively listen to its soundtracks. This will go down in my family linage as a must play at some point in my children's lives, and beyond.

I decided to write this review to counter the one that said "it isn't as good as Persona 5".

That might be true (yet to play Persona 5 due to not opening a PS4) but it is sort of like saying "Back to the Future 1 is terrible because it isn't as good as Back to the Future 2" or "Godfather part 1 is terrible as Godfather part 2 is superior". You could technically say those statements but it is dismissing all the work that the previous entry put into establishing the universe and system.

Prior to playing Persona 4, I couldn't envisage how any game could top the story and characters of Persona 3. The overall system was a lot of fun, the characters and interactions memorable and the conclusion was brilliant. After playing Persona 4 though, I struggle to go back to Persona 3 as so many quality of life improvements were implemented in the 4 that makes 3 seem clunky by comparison. Somehow they also wrote even more engaging characters (Yusuke is more relatable than Junpei, Yukiko is more real than Mitsuru, Chie is more fun than Akihiko, Rise is less annoying and more helpful than Fuka, Margaret is way better than Elizabeth), a better location (spent a couple of years in rural Japan and Inaba is spot on for how these towns look and feel), and the gameplay was even better.

The main downside for the game is that once the mechanics are understood (which is not difficult, the game holds your hand quite a bit) it becomes relatively easy. A few battles are still complex but mostly you want the shadow world sections to finish so you can get back to the story. Spend a bit of time at the beginning grinding extra levels and the game is very easy as you are almost always ahead of the difficulty curve.

I can imagine that with everything that is great about Persona 4 is made even better in Persona 5 and the few problems are fixed up making Persona 5 seem like the better game. That is the nature of game development. But if you have played 5 and want more of the series, go back and play 3 and 4 but judge them on their own merits and enjoy the story and the people you meet along the way.

I love this game, it enter on my life in a hard part, i didnt have a way to follow, this game make me a rutine on my life, always i wanted to finish everything to plays this game, the message of self acceptance did change my way to express my personality to the other people, his battle sistem is funny, easy to understand, the mistery tematic feels real, the Social links feels like persons, everyone with different personalitys, problems, and plot, the investigation team feels like more like a group of friends than a team, its like the investigation its secondary, they are teenagers, and they act like it, the difference in the way that the world of television is presented is fascinating, and above all its differences, being like a completely opposite world with few comparisons, the bosses feels real, I feel like bosses are like a repressed part of each character's personality. It feels like you are discovering the mystery with the characters, almost prompting the player to deduce it without the need for the story, as it happened to me, sometimes when I was busy I would analyze the information to deduce who is the murderer.and the final boss, despite being a classic in most jrpgs, I like the detail that basically with enough attention, you can know that it is the final boss, something as simple as a trip to another school, it warns you of something as colossal as the final boss, it's something simple, but I love it. Im not going to explain the all soundtrack, i got enough with the hours listening literally the entire ost, but in resume, my favorite ost of games and the best that i did listen to, 10/10. ITry to rate this game without taking into account my experience with persona 5. But the truth does not disappoint, if you come to consider the worst because person 5 is better, look for a better way to criticize, it is simply absurd.