Take Persona 4: Golden, for example. Originally planned as a PSP game by developer Atlus, the Tokyo-based developer soon saw the error of its ways, and released it for the far more capable PS Vita. It was rewarded with exceptionally good sales in Japan, and if there’s any justice in the world, the same thing will happen in the West.
Persona 4: Golden follows the templates of previous Persona games, but adds more than enough new mechanics – particularly during combat – to make it the definitive game in the series. This is most notable in the story, which deals with your character moving to a small town, where a number of strange murders are being committed. Without giving too much away, you discover that there is an alternate world, which brings out all the dark desires of whoever goes there. A clever killer is pushing
people into this world via TVs and then letting their dark sides kill them, creating the almost perfect crime.
You catch wind of these dark shenanigans and soon go about rescuing targets, who in turn join your party upon rescue. It’s a long twisting story to be sure, but it’s filled with snappy dialogue, plenty of humour and some pleasingly deep characters.
Well-written characters are essential to Persona 4’s success as you’ll need to build relationships, called Social Links, with many of them to power your Personas (the strange avatars in the other world that are the main source of your powers). More great dialogue comes out as you start interacting with your peers – your cousin Nanako’s is particularly good, dealing with death, loss and isolation – and it’s possible for some relationships to go beyond being just friends. This takes time though, and time is one thing that you’ll find yourself managing furiously throughout Persona 4’s lengthy play time as you build the five key traits that fuel the narration.
In Persona, while you’re battling weirdly outlandish monsters, you’re also battling the peer pressure that any young teenager has to go through. As a result, making friends at school, finding sports and clubs to fit into, juggling odd jobs and doing chores are just a few of the things you need to master. You’ll be attending school most days and then you’ll typically have afternoons and evenings to plan your hectic schedule. It’s a clever mechanic, because you’ll never be able to excel at everything, so your best bet is to make your character as balanced as possible. Things become tougher however when school tests crop up, certain characters want to double book your precious time or you simply
want to build up your character by entering the TV and gaining new levels.
This intricate balancing act has always played a large part in past games in the Persona franchise and it’s no different here. It becomes even more hectic than before, as Persona 4: Golden delivers new areas once you acquire a motorcycle licence, allowing you to visit things like cinemas, which can further build your relationships and subsequently enhance your Personas. For all its time-management and dating aspects – which are highly enjoyable – Persona is also about combat, and Atlus has continued to build on the franchise’s popular mechanics. It’s possible to customise your Personas as they gain more skills, while characters no longer lose a turn if they’re knocked down. The ‘Once More’ combat also returns, where you’ll earn an additional attack if you strike out at an enemy’s elemental weakness. Although this in turn can be used against you.
Personas, like Pokémon, have a variety of elemental strengths and weaknesses, which can help or hinder you in battle, and they unlock more skills as you level up, or build relationships outside of combat. Add in the fact that Personas can also be combined in the Velvet Room (a mysterious location you’ll constantly revisit throughout your journey) to create new ones, and the depth of Atlus’s game becomes readily apparent. There are a total of eight characters to unlock and all of them play significantly different to each other, but you can only take three with you when you go exploring
dungeons, so you’re back to making those difficult choices again.
Persona 4: Golden may be a remake, but it’s a remake of arguably one of the best RPGs for some time. Enhanced with crisp new visuals, greatly lengthened dialogue and a brand new character (the mysterious Marie) it’s a superb game, with bite-sized gameplay that’s perfectly suited to gaming on the go. If you love games, you need to experience this delightful gem, it’s really that simple.
Darran Jones
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