The Persona series by developer, Atlus has been one of the most successful series I've ever seen. There's the anime, the different variety of games from dance, RPG and soon upcoming fighting game - Persona 4 Arena. So it was pretty much imperative that this PS2 classic be delivered to the PS VITA. And around 2012 November, that's exactly what happened.
Before I start of the review, Always got to go over the basic info of the game. Persona 4 Golden is the PS VITA port of the PS2 classic, Persona 4. It's an RPG game where you play a city boy who moves into the small town, Inaba. There you find out that people are being abducted and mudered via television and it's your job, along with your band of misfits to find the culprit and save the victims.
Alright, on with the review.
Like I said before, the story revolves around you, - you can choose your own name - A city boy who just moved to the quiet peaceful town of Inaba. Soon after your arrival, there has been a string of murders in the town. It turns out that people are being abducted into a TV world and murdered. With the help of your persona and other friends you meet along the way, it's your job to find the culprit and save people before they die. That's basically the gist.
Graphics-wise, there isn't much to boast about in P4G. I mean, it's a PS2 game with some decent visuals, nothing eye-opening. The textures look a bit edgy at times and character models look a bit stiff but all in all, P4G is a decent looking game. The different j-pop music that keeps playing when you're in different sections of the town is addicting and you'll soon find yourself humming along as you play, even 60 hours into the game and it's still doesn't get boring.
Gameplay has got to be, both, Persona 4's biggest strength and weakness. Rather the gameplay's sheer length and size is it's strength and weakness. There is A LOT to do in Persona 4 Golden. From building relationships, leveling up your persona, obtaining better gear, doing side quests, acing your exams, improving your traits (Knowledge, Courage, Expression etc.), On top of - of course - saving lives. There's a lot to do and that might put off some people.
The single player campaign alone can pack in north of 60 hours of gameplay. With several different endings, you're going to be playing Persona 4 a whole lot. The game's characters are focused on high school kids, meaning that you go through things that high school kids go through. Exams, Holidays, Getting a girlfriend, getting guy friends etc. And, almost forgot, fighting monsters in another world. You know... high school problems. The game allows you to refine your relationships with your friends. The better your relationship is with the person (assuming they're going to fight with you), then the more they can do for you during a fight. Increasing these relationship levels can benefit you when you're crafting personas as well. Personas are basically like Pokemon. There are many of them of differing types. They are categorized by groups like Sun, Aeon, Death, Fool, Priestess etc. And each human character can influence a certain kind of persona type. Example, If I level up my relationship with character A, then I can get exp bonus when creating persona of the Death type. It's kind of confusing at first, but it gets clearer along the way.
If you're a fan of dungeon crawling and grinding, the Persona 4 is definitely for you. Every person that you have to save has their own special themed dungeon. You fight through stages and stages until the final boss. It's quiet repetitive and a bit boring seeing as you do this for 4 or more people. You can always go back to the dungeons you cleared to defeat a special kind of boss. Materials obtained from the dungeon can also be used to craft new and better items that can't be bought elsewhere. The battle system in P4G is just like any other turn-based combat. You give commands to characters, there are elements which can counter other elements, use different skills. The usual.
All in all, with the wealth of things to do in the game, the 60 hour long campaign, dungeon grinding, Persona 4 Golden is one of the best PS VITA RPGs to date and anyone who's an RPG fan should play this. Personally, I like how 95% of the game is fully voiced, and it's good voice-acting at that. The game might be 2 years old (at the time of writing this review) but hey, A good game is a good game is Persona 4 Golden is definitely a GOOD game!
Final Score - 8.5 / 10
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