Persona 4 Golden Review (PS Vita)
Introduction
This is a port of Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 from PlayStation 2 to PlayStation Vita, as well as being an expanded version of the game with tons of new contents, such as two new Social Links, new scenes and new Epilogue. There are also new gameplay changes such as revamped Shuffle Time and new activities to be done. By far, this is the definitive version of Persona 4 so far.
Story
This game takes place in a town somewhere in Inaba. You are a high school student who has moved out from the city to Inaba due to your parents' overseas business. You will live with your relatives, then Dojimas. As you attend the school, you will discover that the town is not peaceful as it seems, as there are mysterious murder cases happening around the town. You will forge relationships with a number of people, and you must find the truth of the mystery of those cases with the help of your friends and your mysterious power, Persona.
I personally think this game has excellent story, Despite the more lighthearted and humourous tones compared to Persona 3, I really enjoy this game's story a lot more compared to Persona 3. Some good plot twists. The cast is also excellent, and I find that the party members felt really close with each other to me. Not to mention, they are very memorable with many likable traits.
I also find that the addition of the two new Social Links integrate with the game's story quite well, where one Social Link expands on a major character's personality and the other gives better exposition on the game's true villain.
Gameplay
1) Introduction
The gameplay of this game mixes social simluation, dungeon crawling, and turn-based battle elements. Before you start the game, you can choose a difficulty that suits you. Keep in mind that the difficulty only directly affects the combat, such as damage inflicted by you, experience gained, and etc. Below are some of the new gameplay additions to this version:
- Skill Cards. Can be obtained by choosing the card in Shuffle Time after winning battles. Can be used to teach a new skill to a Persona.
- Two new Social Links. New Personas under these two Social Links that can be fused and used in combat.
- New side activities, such as watching movies or bike rides with your party members.
- Fast-forward feature in cutscenes.
- Easier Skills inheritance when fusing a Persona.
- Night time interactions with many Social Links members.
- New and optional dungeon in January.
- New epilogue.
2) Progression and Exploration Section
The game progression is similar to Persona 3 and Persona 3 FES, which uses the 'calendar system'. As the main character, you will spend most of your days in school, and you must balance your social life by studying, working part-time, and spending time with your acquaintances. However, for every month, you have a mandatory objective where you must save a person from a dungeon in the TV World before a certain date. You may choose to save the person immediately, or choose to save the person at the deadline date in order to focus on building your Social Links. If you do not save the person before the deadline date, the game will over. Keep in mind of the weather when you want to explore a dungeon or when socialising with your friends.
Basically, there are five sessions every day where you will spend time: Morning (for lessons), Lunchtime (interacting with your party members), Afternoon (for lessons), After School (part-time work, eating, fishing, spending time with your friends), and Evening (studying or spending time with your friends). It is up to your discretion on how you balance your social life and fighting. Most of the time, there will be mandatory cutscenes that you have to watch on certain days During your free time however, you are free to do what you wish, such as exploring the dungeons in the TV World and socialising with your friends.
In the real world, you can explore and interact with people, buy stuffs, advance your Social Links, and do minigames. In the TV World, you may choose to explore a dungeon and save the person in danger before the deadline. Each dungeon have semi-randomised floors, and you must advance to the top to fight the dungeon's story boss. You will encounter monsters called Shadows in each dungeon, and you can choose to fight them or run away from them. Just keep in mind that each dungeon has it's own recommended levels for your party members, a required key item to progress, as well as their own treasure chests.
There are many side-activities to be done in your free time, such as studying, making envelopes, socialising with your friends, fishing, bike rides, and etc. All of them have different benefits such as increasing your character's social stats, increasing your Social Links' levels, and etc. One of the most notable side activity is the Social Links, where each person related to Social Link has their own schedule every day, and interacting them allows you to advance their Social Link levels by picking the right answers when spending your time with them. This is integral when it comes to fusing your Persona cards.
3) Leveling and Customisation Section
The game uses the standard leveling system, where your character gains a level by acquiring enough experience points by defeating enemies. As your character's level grows, you will gain some stats increment as well as able to fuse and command higher leveled Personas to fight in your battles. Your equipped Persona will also gain a level by acquiring enough experience points, and they will gain stats increment as well as possibly a new Skill.
Your main method of combat is Persona, where you summon your Persona to defeat your enemies. Personas can be obtained by gaining them in combat as Shuffle Time reward or fusing them. To fuse Personas, you need to have adequate level for your main character as well as the necessary amount of Persona cards. As you advanced your Social Links, fusing Personas in certain Arcanas (groups) will gain bonus levels, allowing them to learn new skills faster than usual.
You may also equip your party members with melee weapons and armours by buying from a vendor. You will gain access to new ones by selling materials to the vendor, or finding them via chests in dungeons. Items can also be bought and found, such as healing items.
Keep in mind that you have Social Stats in this game as well, where certain level of a Social Stat will allow you to choose certain choices, getting higher test scores, as well as forging new Social Links. Some Social Links cannot be advanced unless you have high level of a certain Social Stat. Social Stats can be raised by doing side activities such as studying and eating.
4) Combat Section
Basically, the battle system is a turn-based battle system. You will find enemy called Shadows while exploring them, and you can ambush them by striking them to initiate a preemptive battle. If they ambush you, they will gain first attack against you.
Like basic turn-based battle system, each enemy and party member have their own turns accordingly to their speed stat. However, if your character or party member hits an enemy's weakness or land a critical hit, the character can have an additional turn. This applies to the enemies as well, so finding out enemy's weaknesses is a key to win many battles.
In battles, you can command your party members to do their own thing, directly command them, use items, use Personas to damage an enemy, or defend against attacks, You may also run away from battles if the enemies are too tough on you. It is recommended to bring plenty of items and have high levels in order to clear a dungeon's boss. Skills can be used in battles as well, where magic skills consume SP and physical skills consume HP.
As story progresses, you must defeat a story-related boss before a certain deadline, which are tougher than regular enemies. They have their special attacks, stats, and resistances. It is best that you study a bit of each boss' patterns, as they can be quite dangerous in harder difficulties if they hit your party members' weaknesses and then getting a second turn. Depending on how far you are in the game, you may want to go back to the real world if you don't have enough healing items and SP to defeat the dungeon's boss, and come back on the next day.
5) Gameplay Conclusion
This game has excellent gameplay. Despite the slow start like Persona 3 and Persona 3 FES, I really enjoy how well Atlus mixes the social simulation elements, dungeon crawling, exploration and battles very well. The addition of new content such as new minigames, new character, new Social Links, and story scenes make this game much better than the original version on PS2. I do not have major issues with the gameplay itself, other than the inability to dispatch your party members to find the stairs on a floor like Persona 3, no puzzles required to progress in dungeons, and the slow start. Still, extremely good gameplay.
Graphics
This game has colourful visuals. Although the character models and environments are carried over from the PS2 version, this port has more cleaner visuals and better performance. The character portraits and animated cutscenes are well-done as well.
No bugs and glitches encountered while playing the game.
Sound
Like the original version, this game has no dual audio. The English version has only English voiceovers, and the same goes to the Japanese version. That being said, the English voice acting is excellent. I do not find any unmemorable or terrible voiceovers from the actors for any characters in this game, personally. Chie's and Teddie's English voice actors are recast in this game, and they did splendid job in voicing respective characters.
This version also has new themes. The game's music is excellent, with great variety of genres such as rock and pop. I enjoy this game's music a lot that I bought two soundtrack albums for Persona 4.
Replay Value
This game has very high replay value. You can play the game again in New Game Plus mode, where you can try to max out your Social Stats, max out all Social Links, fight the Secret Boss, collect all Persona, and get the Golden Ending. You may also choose to play the game again in easier or harder difficulties, which you can change freely in New Game Plus mode.
Conclusion
This is one of the best RPG games I have ever played, and it made the excellent original game obsolete in terms of content. Great and interesting story, solid chaarcters, great gameplay, colourful graphics, excellent English voiceovers, great music, and high replay value made this game a worthy purchase for any RPG fans. Highly recommended to RPG fans and to any PS Vita owners.
Score
Story: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Score: 9/10 or 36/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Tons of new content.
- Many good gameplay refinements.
- Interesting story.
- Some good plot twists.
- Excellent epilogue.
- Many likable and memorable characters.
- Many funny and humorous scenes.
- Good balance of exploration, social activities, and fighting.
- Interesting interactions for many Social Links.
- Colourful graphics and presentation.
- No bugs and glitches.
- Good English voiceovers.
- Great music.
- High replay value.
Cons
- Slow start like it's predecessor, Persona 3.
- Cutscenes may be too long for new RPG players.
**Screenshots are from US PlayStation game page, Siliconera site, and RPGfan site.
This is a port of Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 from PlayStation 2 to PlayStation Vita, as well as being an expanded version of the game with tons of new contents, such as two new Social Links, new scenes and new Epilogue. There are also new gameplay changes such as revamped Shuffle Time and new activities to be done. By far, this is the definitive version of Persona 4 so far.
Story
Enjoy your experience with the P4 gang,
This game takes place in a town somewhere in Inaba. You are a high school student who has moved out from the city to Inaba due to your parents' overseas business. You will live with your relatives, then Dojimas. As you attend the school, you will discover that the town is not peaceful as it seems, as there are mysterious murder cases happening around the town. You will forge relationships with a number of people, and you must find the truth of the mystery of those cases with the help of your friends and your mysterious power, Persona.
I personally think this game has excellent story, Despite the more lighthearted and humourous tones compared to Persona 3, I really enjoy this game's story a lot more compared to Persona 3. Some good plot twists. The cast is also excellent, and I find that the party members felt really close with each other to me. Not to mention, they are very memorable with many likable traits.
I also find that the addition of the two new Social Links integrate with the game's story quite well, where one Social Link expands on a major character's personality and the other gives better exposition on the game's true villain.
Gameplay
1) Introduction
The gameplay of this game mixes social simluation, dungeon crawling, and turn-based battle elements. Before you start the game, you can choose a difficulty that suits you. Keep in mind that the difficulty only directly affects the combat, such as damage inflicted by you, experience gained, and etc. Below are some of the new gameplay additions to this version:
- Skill Cards. Can be obtained by choosing the card in Shuffle Time after winning battles. Can be used to teach a new skill to a Persona.
- Two new Social Links. New Personas under these two Social Links that can be fused and used in combat.
- New side activities, such as watching movies or bike rides with your party members.
- Fast-forward feature in cutscenes.
- Easier Skills inheritance when fusing a Persona.
- Night time interactions with many Social Links members.
- New and optional dungeon in January.
- New epilogue.
2) Progression and Exploration Section
Balance your social life and fighting well.
Basically, there are five sessions every day where you will spend time: Morning (for lessons), Lunchtime (interacting with your party members), Afternoon (for lessons), After School (part-time work, eating, fishing, spending time with your friends), and Evening (studying or spending time with your friends). It is up to your discretion on how you balance your social life and fighting. Most of the time, there will be mandatory cutscenes that you have to watch on certain days During your free time however, you are free to do what you wish, such as exploring the dungeons in the TV World and socialising with your friends.
Defeat the dungeon's boss before it it's too late.
There are many side-activities to be done in your free time, such as studying, making envelopes, socialising with your friends, fishing, bike rides, and etc. All of them have different benefits such as increasing your character's social stats, increasing your Social Links' levels, and etc. One of the most notable side activity is the Social Links, where each person related to Social Link has their own schedule every day, and interacting them allows you to advance their Social Link levels by picking the right answers when spending your time with them. This is integral when it comes to fusing your Persona cards.
3) Leveling and Customisation Section
Level up your Social Links to fuse stronger Personas.
The game uses the standard leveling system, where your character gains a level by acquiring enough experience points by defeating enemies. As your character's level grows, you will gain some stats increment as well as able to fuse and command higher leveled Personas to fight in your battles. Your equipped Persona will also gain a level by acquiring enough experience points, and they will gain stats increment as well as possibly a new Skill.
Your main method of combat is Persona, where you summon your Persona to defeat your enemies. Personas can be obtained by gaining them in combat as Shuffle Time reward or fusing them. To fuse Personas, you need to have adequate level for your main character as well as the necessary amount of Persona cards. As you advanced your Social Links, fusing Personas in certain Arcanas (groups) will gain bonus levels, allowing them to learn new skills faster than usual.
You may also equip your party members with melee weapons and armours by buying from a vendor. You will gain access to new ones by selling materials to the vendor, or finding them via chests in dungeons. Items can also be bought and found, such as healing items.
Keep in mind that you have Social Stats in this game as well, where certain level of a Social Stat will allow you to choose certain choices, getting higher test scores, as well as forging new Social Links. Some Social Links cannot be advanced unless you have high level of a certain Social Stat. Social Stats can be raised by doing side activities such as studying and eating.
4) Combat Section
Fight against a variety of Shadow enemies.
Like basic turn-based battle system, each enemy and party member have their own turns accordingly to their speed stat. However, if your character or party member hits an enemy's weakness or land a critical hit, the character can have an additional turn. This applies to the enemies as well, so finding out enemy's weaknesses is a key to win many battles.
In battles, you can command your party members to do their own thing, directly command them, use items, use Personas to damage an enemy, or defend against attacks, You may also run away from battles if the enemies are too tough on you. It is recommended to bring plenty of items and have high levels in order to clear a dungeon's boss. Skills can be used in battles as well, where magic skills consume SP and physical skills consume HP.
As story progresses, you must defeat a story-related boss before a certain deadline, which are tougher than regular enemies. They have their special attacks, stats, and resistances. It is best that you study a bit of each boss' patterns, as they can be quite dangerous in harder difficulties if they hit your party members' weaknesses and then getting a second turn. Depending on how far you are in the game, you may want to go back to the real world if you don't have enough healing items and SP to defeat the dungeon's boss, and come back on the next day.
Extremely solid gameplay, despite the game's slow start.
Graphics
Colourful graphics.
No bugs and glitches encountered while playing the game.
Sound
Excellent English voice acting and great soundtrack.
This version also has new themes. The game's music is excellent, with great variety of genres such as rock and pop. I enjoy this game's music a lot that I bought two soundtrack albums for Persona 4.
Replay Value
High replay value.
Conclusion
One of the best RPG games.
Score
Story: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Score: 9/10 or 36/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Tons of new content.
- Many good gameplay refinements.
- Interesting story.
- Some good plot twists.
- Excellent epilogue.
- Many likable and memorable characters.
- Many funny and humorous scenes.
- Good balance of exploration, social activities, and fighting.
- Interesting interactions for many Social Links.
- Colourful graphics and presentation.
- No bugs and glitches.
- Good English voiceovers.
- Great music.
- High replay value.
Cons
- Slow start like it's predecessor, Persona 3.
- Cutscenes may be too long for new RPG players.
**Screenshots are from US PlayStation game page, Siliconera site, and RPGfan site.
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