Persona 4: The Golden

[Happenstance]

Not sure how much more of Persona 3 FES I'm gonna be able to play. I really hate not being able to control all the characters in battles.

[Happenstance]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1113000/Persona_4_Golden/

Persona 4 Golden now available on PC. Already bought my copy.

[Shorty]

If I hadn't just put nearly 200 hours into Persona 5 Royal I'd probably be getting it just to play it on the big screen.

If you have a PC and have never had a platform to check out P4G, I urge you to give it a look.

[Hero-of-Time]

When reaching a milestone in my trophy collection I like to earn a platinum that is worthy of such a position. Usually this ends up being a JRPG or a game with a fantastic reputation. For platinum 450 I decided to meet both of these criteria and finally play through Persona 4.

I have a very weird relationship with this game. I bought it back when it was originally released on the PS2 and to this day I still have my copy. I had never played a Persona game before but seeing as I love JRPGs, and how many reviewers raved on about it back then, I figured I would give it a go. I found the game to be very slow, boring and it didn’t grab me at all. I came away very disappointed by what I had played.

Fast forward to the Vita release and once again I decided to pick up the game and give it another go but it sadly failed to impress me once again. 

I tried many times over the years to get into the game, with each time me having to restart the game due to not remembering what was going on. This is no lie when I say I think Persona 4 is the game that I have played through the first 10 hours the most out of any game. I think the furthest I ever got was when I recruited Kanji to the team. I never did make it any further....until now.

It’s taken me the best part of the month to complete and platinum the game but it is finally done and I can now cross it off the gaming bucket list.

Did I enjoy it? Indeed I did....but not as much as many other gamers have done over the years. I think Persona 5 is a vastly superior game. Better characters, better story, better dungeon design and much better paced. I think the only thing that Persona 4 challenges Persona 5 on is the soundtrack. Both have amazing tunes and it’s hard to pick a winner between them. Here’s are a few of my favs.

 

 

 

 

The characters in the game certainly have their charm but I found a few of them to be either annoying or quite throwaway. I hated Chie at the start of the game but I did warm up to her a little as the game went on. I just found her incredibly loud and annoying. Yosuke was pretty cool and funny, as was Kanji. I didn’t care for Naoto or Teddy, both being quite meh. Rise was also annoying due to her thirst for the main protagonist. I quite liked Yukiko. She was quiet, humble and a good contrast for when Chie was around. 

Two characters that I loved were Nanako and Dojima. I found her to be adorable but felt very sorry for her and the situation she was in. I also felt for Dojima. Again, the situation he was in (trying to raise a daughter whilst holding a job down) really took its toll on him and the relationship with his daughter.

I did enjoy some of the lighter moments that were sprinkled throughout the game. The camping trip, beach scene (You’re a man! Let it dangle!) and ski holiday had their moments. However, I think a lot of these scenes dragged the main story down a lot and last far too long. I know @drahkon had this issue when he was playing P5, where he just wanted to get on with the story but was forced to sit through countless conversations. I REALLY felt like that when playing this game. I think P5 had a good balance of meaningful interactions that kept the story moving and interactions that built up relationships. With this game I feel it skews in the other direction and because of that it feels far more like a VN than a JRPG.

As for the main story itself, I feel it lacks the impact that P5 had with me. I really enjoyed the some of the mature themes in that game but here I feel chasing the killer was pretty much a one note thing and because of the interruptions, the whole thing just felt quite flat a lot of the time. It only really picked up for me during the November period. It was only then when I felt the stakes were raised and things started to kick up a notch and be more meaningful.

My post may come across as negative but, as I said at the start, I did enjoy the game. I do wonder if I would have liked it more had I played it when I was a little younger, like most on here did. It does feel like a game that is made for playing during a certain period in your life. It’s possible this is why I enjoyed P5 more, what with it featuring more mature themes. 

As for the trophies, the game nearly did break me. There were times where I was contemplating just giving up on the platinum and making another title my milestone game.

I read horror stories about the Hardcore Risette Fan trophy (hear 250 unique lines of dialogue in battle) but it wasn’t that bad. I printed off all the lines I could find and just made an effort to cross them out as I heard them in battle. Completing the persona compendium and maxing out the social links were time sinks as well. I also had a touch of the @Julius where I cocked up and missed something and so had to revert to an earlier save, costing me 5 hours of game time. Man, that was rough. It was there where I nearly threw the towel in. Had I not had that save I would have had to start from scratch and do all the social links again. 

One trophy I wasn’t keen on was the one for fighting the secret boss. The fight itself wasn’t too bad but to get to it you have to play through pretty much the whole game again. Even if you fast forward the conversations, it still takes a stupid amount of time to get through the game. What makes it worse is that if you done everything you could during your first play through, which I did, it means there’s sod all to do during your second. A typical in game day was leaving the house in the morning, walking back into the house to make it evening and then going to bed to skip to the next day. Rinse and repeat. A time skip feature for such a play through would have been ideal.

Still, the game is done and I’m happy I got to play through the game. Playing, completing and platinuming such a game on the Vita in 2021 feels amazing. Vita means life!

[drahkon]

Had a hunch you'd choose this one for your 450th Platinum
Congrats

Reading your post also reaffirmed my lack of interest in this game.

4 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

This is no lie when I say I think Persona 4 is the game that I have played through the first 10 hours the most out of any game.

Same with me. But make it 15-20 hours. I will never give it another go and on my tombstone it'll say: "Here lies drahkon. FUCK P4G!"

6 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Vita means life!

[Happenstance]

Sigh...

[Julius]

35 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I also had a touch of the @Julius where I cocked up and missed something and so had to revert to an earlier save

Edited May 25 by Julius

[drahkon]

"Touch of the Julius".

I think this is how the pandemic started.

[Magnus]

I saw a lot people complain about Persona 5 when it was released, saying that the plot and pacing were much better in Persona 4, and I remember thinking, "these people have not played Persona 4 recently."

Great game, though, even if I think it'd be a bit hard to go back after all of the quality of life improvements in Persona 5.

[Julius]

9 minutes ago, drahkon said:

"Touch of the Julius".

I think this is how the pandemic started.

Anyone else getting déjà vu? 

[drahkon]

Oh, so you're denying Covid's existence?

Ehem, this was about H-o-T's achievement. So...yay

Edited May 25 by drahkon

[Goafer]

I loved Persona 4 and 5 for different reasons:

P4: Better plot and characters. I felt like I was leaving friends at the end of the game.

P5: Better style and gameplay/dungeon design.

Both fantastic games as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Sheikah]

I loved Persona 4 and 5 for different reasons:
P4: Better plot and characters. I felt like I was leaving friends at the end of the game.
P5: Better style and gameplay/dungeon design.
Both fantastic games as far as I'm concerned.
 

Nail on the head there, and also the crown for soundtrack goes to P4 for me. Which is why overall I prefer P4.

I am also probably biased in that P4 was the first proper Persona game I played (well, I played P3 portable, but that's not quite on the same scale). There's definitely a bit of wonder the first time you play one of these games that you don't get second time round.

[Hero-of-Time]

10 hours ago, Sheikah said:

I am also probably biased in that P4 was the first proper Persona game I played (well, I played P3 portable, but that's not quite on the same scale). There's definitely a bit of wonder the first time you play one of these games that you don't get second time round.

I do think there is some truth to this point. It's the FFVII effect. It's a fantastic game but I think there are better entries in the series. However, because it was many peoples first experience with the franchise or JRPGs in general, it's easy to be a little biased towards it. Maybe this is another reason why I enjoyed P5 more than P4G?

[Shorty]

When my other half played P4G, she got the Risette dialogue trophy in her first playthrough without trying just putting that out there. (It took me a long time and a big checklist)