Persona 4 Golden

I played the original part four when it came out and loved it, even after playing five it was my favorite Persona game. Now, I have completed Golden and by golly it was actually better. At first the new touches are small, but then you get to play through the town while it is covered in snow, enjoy a ski trip with your friends, save Maria who adds a lot to the ending which makes the final boss battle better and the ending is even better! Of course, it easy for the ending to this one and five to be better than three the original and Reload as it tears your heart out.

The story remains roughly the same, as I said, most of the add-ons really enhance the ending more than the first portion of the story. You are a young man who is arriving in a small town to live with his uncle and the uncle's daughter. He meets Maria a new addition to the game and then soon makes friends with people at school like Youske, Chie and Yukio. Rumors of a strange channel begin, a murder occurs and soon our hero and Youske meet up with Teddie who lives in a strange otherworld, filled with yellow fog. Playing it now, this realm is a bit like the backrooms. You soon begin saving people like Kanji, Rise and Naoto as you try to figure out the person responsible for the murders!

The game play is great featuring turn based combat, exploiting weaknesses and going in for an all out attack. You also establish bonds and nurture them to the fullest. Honestly, I dude not do too well my first play through. I got all my party members and Mary's maxed out, but only one other. So, of course, I will play it again.

I think I enjoy this one the most because the characters are so good. All the girls are super cute, especially Rise. I enjoy interacting with them and the whole mystery really works well. The game has good humor too. I am going to play five again now as I did not get to enjoy that one as much as I could due to my fiance's passing, but i doubt it can overtake this one as my fave. I think the only Persona that could defeat this is a remake of this one done like Persona 3 Reload.

It's quite unbelievable how good this game is, the writing is amazing as it make you feel a whole lot of emotions, the cast is incredible and every single one of them are likable with their own set of problems that you have to solve through their social links and with the edition of golden there are a lot of new added scenes which makes the party to feel even more alive than the original p4 and most of their interactions are very funny and heartfelt to the point that it actually feels like these kids are your real friends which makes the ending all the more emotional when you know that you have to say goodbye to them.

10/10 One of the best in the series, characters, music, story, combat... They all stood the test of time so it's definitely a must buy, with the fact that now it's on steam you can easily pick it up and enjoy this masterpiece of a game.

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 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!

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.