Person 4: Golden, the review

How weird to write a Persona 4 review: Gold Today. Atlus, in some very recent ways, first came out in 2008, even on the PlayStation 2. Although fifteen years isn’t a short time, this extraordinary role-playing game isn’t going to tarnish in the face of one last release.

If it’s true that the graphics are now dated, then what Persona 4 fails to do with Polygonal, it does so with designs that are of boundless beauty and, in fact, are timeless. The soundtrack is also basic: we don’t want a beautiful Persona 5 soundtrack, but from here Shoiji Meguro’s touch is essential, blending perfectly with the visual style from which he can no longer be separated. A coup de grace is delivered by the cast and the setting: compared to the flashy sequel, Persona 4 is much more intimate and warm, and once completed, intertwines with our personal memories as if that year passed in the small town of Inaba, which is the backdrop for the events that are told in the game. We already tested it.

serial killer

There are games with a certain charm, and sometimes unseen bonus that are unintentionally created by a particularly inspiring team. Persona 4 is undoubtedly one of these games. If with Persona 3, which these days also arrived in the development team, it reinvented the series to modernize it, then Persona 4 is the chapter that Atlus has used to perfect it. Here you’ll find all the features that made Persona 5 great: social bonds that turn friendships into new experience and powers, fast and fun turn-based combat, a soft background tone and of course that other Mephistophelean when inspired by David Lynch’s darkest, along with more music Shinto pop, you will take us on a trail A serial killer threatens the city.

The guardian of Persona 4’s parallel world, accessed through the TV, is as always the skinny Igor, one of the few characters who is present in every game of the series. The official mascot of the game, the character that you will find in place of Morgana from Chapter 5, is the lovable and irresistible Teddy. But in general, it is really difficult to find a character who is not of the highest level: from the protagonist to the gruff Kanji Tatsumi, through all the girls in the group, but not forgetting the very cute Nanako (who will now repeat “Totti days especially since Junes! ), those for Persona 4 are as diverse as they are cohesive.

The cast, however, can’t finish us either Inaba, this rural town that has been hit by the same economic crisis that has made many local towns desert, where young people are so busy dreaming of distant capitals that they don’t understand how important what is slowly fading around them: the small temple equally small and ancient legends, the distinctive river where you can go fishing and of course the beach Shichiri, the beach that is proposed here in the gold version will be the backdrop for exciting summer motorcycle trips that will take the heroes towards adulthood. Like all people, the fourth too The coming-of-age storyspread over just one year in the end will prove to be the most important of a lifetime.

Dojima apartments will make the city much warmer, where the hero will move at the beginning of the game, after his parents left on a long business trip away from Japan. Although smaller and less elaborate than Café Leblanc’s attic, our refuge in person 4 is much more welcoming, almost a veritable nest that shelters us from Increasingly heinous crimes That would threaten the credulity of the city. Finally, here we are in front of Yasugami High School which as a rule will act as the glue that will unite the heroes into an indomitable team of fighters.

The usual waiter…

In terms of gameplay, Persona 4 is almost indistinguishable from its famous sequel except for the dungeons. In the fifth game, it’s split between actions, set in the subway, and the main, whose form is predetermined, while in Persona 4: Golden, it’s all procedural, and thus devoid of that characterization that would have made it more elaborate and interesting. It’s the only fly in the ointment, then expertly resolved in the next game, from an adventure that runs like clockwork, finally freeing from that age-old difficulty that brought you back in Persona 3, after a mistake, to the last minute, often too far, rescue.

In this new version we find a file Smoother graphicsbut not in more detail and some improvements that will make our raids more comfortable including a quick save system and the ability to select the difficulty level, in order to make things more difficult than the last time you played Persona 4 or to reset the proposed challenge from the battles, an excellent thing for those Who just want to enjoy the plot.

A small and appreciated effort on Atlus’ part, however, in some ways it’s also a hit minimum. We didn’t get much more than that, it’s true, but the result is another version of Persona 4 Golden, and not that final, truly updated version by today’s standards that this game probably deserves.