Persona 4 GOLDEN Review

Not another one of your typical Japanese Role Playing Games.



I am such a big fan of JRPG's growing up but i somehow grew tired of playing them maybe because of the constant level grinding and repetitive gameplay.I almost completely forgot about the JRPG genre. Well dont get me wrong, there are still a lot of good JRPGs out there that i play and deserve gamers' attention and one of the most notable of them for me is PERSONA 4 GOLDEN on the Vita.

I liked PERSONA 3 so much when i played it on the PSP (i played the PS2 version but have never beaten it) so i already knew what to expect about P4 GOLDEN.The time when i booted the game, i just cant take my hands off of my Vita. It took me hours before i finally it put down so i can rest.

 

The story revolves around a bunch of highschool students who are curious about an urban legend called the Midnight Channel who is said to appear on tv during rainy midnights then show who your soul mate is.The students eventually saw someone on the midnight channel but it turned out that those people who show up in the tv dies a few days after.

The students then (the protagnoist "accidentally" stuck his head inside his tv) learned that they can somewhat get inside the TV world and also learned that the people who show up on the midnight channel is actually inside the TV world themselves. Knowing that those people are doomed to die, the students decided that they should look for them and rescue everyone who shows up.

This is where PERSONAs come in.Our heroes suddenly learned that they have the power to call on Personas inside the TV World. Personas are entities inside a person that has the power to defeat Shadows, the monsters that lurk inside the TV world and the cause of the deaths of the victims who were inside the TV world.

The Battle system is the same with most JRPGs but with a little bit of twist. Exploiting each of the enemies' weaknesses will give you a chance to execute an "All Out Attack!" where the whole party will simultaneously beat the crap out of the shadows!

 

Aside from the usual JRPG elements, there is a system called the Social Link wherein certain characers (both ally and NPCs) that you meet and socialize with in the game levels up depending on how you interact with them. Each Social Link is associated with a Persona Class (called Arcana). You can also fuse Personas acquired from the TV World to make a more powerful one and if a Persona you created from fusion has a decent level Social Link associated with its class/Arcana,
then you get bonus EXPs and some upgraded skills as well.

 

This game looks good on the Vita since its now in HD, after all, this is the remastered version of the original Persona 4 game released on the PS2.It took me 80+ hours to beat it and i still cant get over it because it is so much fun to play not to mention the good soundtrack as well. Good thing there's a New Game + and tons of in-game stuff that you wont get to see on your first playthrough. P4 GOLDEN will get you really involved with the characters due to its great storytelling as well as its unique gameplay.

This is definitely a must buy for JRPG fans and non fans alike and it will definitely keep you gaming for hours.