100%Xbox One

Superb cast of characters and great change in setting. I get the hype now. P3 might still be my favorite between the two but this did have so much charm that both deserve the high praise. Dungeons were far more interesting in this one, I'll give it that.

100%PC

goat

90%PlayStation Vita

Even better than the original version 92%

95%PC

Classic Rpg

85%PC

P4 Golden is a well-made jRPG. It has a decent plot but the characters are the strength of this game. When it comes to the dungeons, I found it alright. Maybe not visually stunning because I think its partially auto generated and also the game is quite old. I probably would have found the "socialising to upgrade personas mechanic" kind of strange if I hadn't played Persona 3 first. What I love about this game is the music (good music => free points). It's pretty unique and charming. Overall, pretty good game.

70%PlayStation Vita

I am really conflicted on this game.

On one hand, for the majority of the game barely anything of note was happening. On the other hand, i did finish the entire game, and even did all the optional bosses. But owerall It wasn't the most exciting journey. I would say it is consistently alright.

Story didn't interest me all that much. Because characters weren't actually doing anything to solve the mystery. They just waited for things to happen, then solved the current problem and waited for the next same problem. It was really repetitive, and not very intriguing.

The combat was ok. I played nocturne a year prior, and that game had a lot more freedom to the battle system, which i liked a LOT more. And also, i broke the game about halfway through. And after that, there was no challenge left for me. I played on Normal, but couldn't up the difficulty, because Vita version doesn't allow that.

Social links are a fun way to game-ify time management. But many of them felt too stretched. They had interesting start, and ending, but the middle part was usually really empty. Like they decided to have all links have 10 stages, but couldn't come up with 10 distinct events for each character. There are few characters, who's social link could be shortened to just 3 encounters. Some social links were really good tho. It's a shame there were so many boring ones, but ones that were good, were Really Good!
Also, I managed to do most of them in 1 playthrough, without using a guide that much. So you too probably shouldnt stress too much over it. Just learn what social stats to level up, and you will be perfectly fine.

The music was great! It's an ATLUS game. Of course it would be!

Also, I really liked the ending. The final part of the game was really GREAT! When all the story parts come together, its really cool to see events unfold. It gave me some of the excitement i wanted from this game so much!

My general impressions are really uncertain. It was a consistent game through and through. There were no real downs in the game, but also, no real Ups too. Except for the ending, I guess. All my hours in the game were consistently ok. I really wanted to have some moments that would make me really excited, but there were none, untill the very resolution of the game.

But maybe it was the way it's meant to be. Yes, there were not parts that would make me too hyped but sometimes I think that the game wanted to just be a pleasing calm year at a rural town. Maybe it was designed to be chill and relaxing. And if so, it really delivered. I think I might be really spoiled by Japanese games (like Nocturne and Catherine) having bonkers stories that make me jump out of my seat from excitement, but probably I shouldnt have expected this from Persona 4.
If you expect this game to be a relaxing holiday with your school friends - you will enjoy it a lot more.

I know I am putting this game a 7, and telling I wasn't the biggest fan of it. But afterwards, I have watched the anime adaptations, and still plan to play the rythm game. So I guess I did enjoy it. But in a much more peaceful and quiet way then I'm used to. So maybe it is great, after all)

95%PC

Having played Persona 5 Royal prior to Golden, I can't help but compare one another. Royal has better combat features, and overall dungeon progression, but Golden's simplicity doesn't hurt it much if at all because of it's story and Pokémon like combat. Teddie is by far one of the most annoying characters you'll deal with in video game history. Outside of Teddie, the last act wasn't as satisfying as it could have been but I wouldn't go as far as to say it fell off. Heavy P5R bias in this review, wonder what I woulda thought of the game had I played Golden first.

90%Nintendo Switch

Some design elements bringing this down from a 10 - e.g. dungeon design, but this game has aged very well!

Charming characters, great character development!

Teddie caused a "wardrobe malfunction". Poor Kanji!

95%PC

Just a month after I finished persona 3 reload, I for some reason decided to begin another 100 hour jrpg by atlus and so here we are.

Persona 4 has easily one of the smallest scale situations in all the persona games I've played so far with Inaba, a small rural town in the countryside of japan. but due to its size there's a certain charm to the place that makes you remember it more distinctly when compared to the other setting cause there really isn't much to see in such a small place.

Persona 4 when compared to Persona 3 and Persona 5 has easily one of the best set of characters, all full of personality and character quirks which makes each and every single one of them distinctive and just fun to see talk. It lets you be able to feel for each and everyone of them and makes their character arcs all the more fulfilling to see.

Although I had been spoilt on the main villain of the game, It didn't deter from the fact that persona 4 has a really good story with some moments that just fricking break your heart and some that just make you want to explode from joy. such that its one of the most enjoyable experiences with good combat gameplay and just excellent life sim segments.

95%PC

Great game with great music. I wish I would have completed it over a decade ago when I first tried it. I felt very connected to the characters more so than the actual story itself. I was emotional by when it was time to say goodbye. This game is going to stick in my head for a long time.

90%PC

Great game.

It has very interesting and deep themes, such as the power of our bonds with people and self-acceptance. The overarching story and its mysteries also keep you hooked, trying to discover what's happening. The characters with whom you interact and form social bonds are very diverse and interesting, each one with their own problems, themes and character arcs, which make it very fulfilling to max each social link. The gameplay is also very good, being a great turn-based RPG, in which you collect personas with different strengths, weaknesses and abilities and exploit the enemies' weaknesses. The system of getting and fusing personas in itself is also very interesting.

95%PC

After playing Persona 5, I really wanted to play more Persona games. Persona 4 Golden released on steam last year, so I finally got the chance to play it.
The story in Persona 4 is really good, relatable and very engaging, even if the writing is not very consistent. Overall though, it's great, and the additional story in Golden is quite interesting as well, albeit not anything special.
The gameplay on the other hand, it's just okay; the combat system itself is fine but I'll explain later why the gameplay as a whole didn't age very well.
The main characters, however, are the best part of the game and their interactions are probably the best I've seen in a videogame.
The music took some time to grow on me but I ended up absolutely loving it!
The art style is nice, although the visual quality is a bit outdated.
Also, there are so many awesome school trips and events in the story, it's actually impressive! And it's worth mentioning that the dialogue is very funny at times... like, it had me laughing out loud! Persona 4 Golden is undoubtedly one of the funniest games I've ever played.
Now, Persona 4 has one issue that affects the gameplay though; the dull dungeon design. The dungeons in that game are literally copy/paste, empty corridors, which is something Golden could improve on but it didn't.
Another issue is the unnecessarily complicated saving system in the dungeons.

Pros:
+ Great story
+ Incredible characters
+ Hilarious dialogue
+ Events & trips
+ Exceptional music

Cons
- Poor dungeon design
- Complicated dungeon saving system

Final Rating: 9.5/10
- Outstanding -
I gotta say, playing Persona 4 Golden after Persona 5/Royal made me realize how much Persona 5 improved upon its predecessor.
Much like Persona 5/Royal though, Persona 4 Golden is one hell of an experience! One that I hopefully won't forget anytime soon.

Do I recommend it?:
Yes! Go treat yourself with some Persona, either 5 or 4, it doesn't matter.

100%PC

Usually goes on sale, full game, for $12, now for me thats a lot of money cause Im a penny pincher. But holy shit it was worth every cent put into it!

Probably my favorite game of all time, characters are all relatable in some way shape or form. If you're doing a new playthrough for the first time, just ignore guides unless you desperately need it, or if some specific character goes into the hospital as apart of the story. Writing was insanely compelling, voice acting was not bad at all. Hell I heard rise say senpai and didn't even cringe at it, it's just so well done that you can just ignore the cringe and just enjoy it! Truly, this is a Persona 4 Golden.

100%Xbox Series X/S

Best game ever of all time ever. Finished on series s

100%PlayStation Vita

Great game!

90%PC

Pros:
Persona 4 Golden's best aspect is its atmosphere. The one in this game is much more friendly and welcoming than what P3 or P5 had. You can see this clearly with Dojima and Nanako. This is greatly complemented by the interactions and dynamics between the party members. They are top-tier, especially in terms of comedy, there are so many hilarious scenes in the game.

I like the mystery angle that Persona 4 used for its story. As a big murder mystery fan, I was instantly hooked. Even though I pretty much already knew it was Adachi due to spoilers, it was still interesting to see how exactly it was foreshadowed using certain aspects. The party members facing their true selves to awaken their personas seemed to be the most in-depth and interesting way to do it across the 3 Persona games I've played. You actually learn a good amount about each character that way and I was always looking forward to how the next party member would handle theirs.

The music in P4 is also absolutely superb. I think it might also be that the musical style of the game really fits me. I especially enjoy all the main day themes. The only real disappointments are the first 3 dungeon themes, but luckily there's also a bunch of bangers in those as well. My favourite song is I'll Face Myself. It plays during those aforementioned Persona awakening scenes but also during other impactful emotional scenes, which is what makes it extremely strong for me.

The number of references to the person you're dating is much more than you'd expect. P4 has a large amount, especially minor ones in small scenes. No idea why it was cut back in P5 because it makes the relationship seem so much more believable.

The customizable difficulty options in the game are nice as they allow you to change specific aspects to fine-tune the difficulty to what you think is appropriate.

The true ending is also great. It ties up all the remaining plot threads and reveals the true culprit behind the entire game. I wasn't expecting the scene where you return to Inaba for the summer either, it's a great showcase of how the characters have truly grown after you helped them face themselves. This is illustrated especially well through the new designs that each character has, which break the color coordination each character had before alongside drastic alterations to their design overall.

Neutral:
Speaking of the true ending, I missed it the first time and had to reload a save to get it. I didn't even have a clue I didn't get the best ending until my friends told me. The game barely gave any hints that there was more to the game, especially the moment where you have to find the route to the true ending. You have to go back to the Junes food court after talking to all the social links you maxed on the last day. I find this illogical because you had to go all over town to talk to the social links, so you think that there's nothing left to see at that point. That's on top of the fact that it's the last day of the game. I was already considering the game done at that point. Because how could there be anything else? There's only one day left in the game.

Regarding the story there are some minor nitpicks. I already knew the culprit was Adachi all along and was expecting some grand reveal, but the way it was eventually revealed felt a bit too cryptic. You have to choose him from a list of your social links, but I don't think there was enough evidence given to the player at the time to support that conclusion. Of course, since I knew the culprit from the start, I can't say this for certain.

Cons:
There are only two parts of the game that I truly disliked. The scene in where you can get the bad endings and the Golden dungeon. Starting with the former.

The way to get the path forward wasn't clear in the slightest and I was very confused as to what it was until I got it. If it was just that I would be able to excuse it since it's a mystery game after all. But it's so incredibly tedious and annoying that I can't forgive it. Every time you fail you have to go through the unskippable credits sequence. But you can't even save right before you make the choice so you have to redo the same segment over and over. It's the only time I got so annoyed at the game it took me out of the game emotionally.

Lastly, there's the Golden dungeon. It goes against the mechanics you've been taught throughout the rest of the game. You can't use the items you had before, you don't gain money and you lose half your SP after every battle. It restricts your strategy and makes you play a simpler playstyle. That's the last thing a JRPG should do, it should be trying to facilitate the creation of unique strategies by new challenges. Not removing features. I have no idea how this dungeon made it into the final game.

25%PC

played for 12 hours really tried to finish it but dame this shit tooo boooring daaaaaaaaaaame , this shit to freaking boring ,repetitive gameplay

80%Nintendo Switch

Not the best persona game but it is my favorite

95%PC

I´ve played Persona 5 Royal before, so I´m familiar with the Persona series. I will be comparing these two games here a lot, so here goes. I must say P5R is a superb game and I think, in many aspects, it is a superior game to P4G. But there is a domain in which P4G absolutely outclasses P5R and that is the characters, social links and the sense of camraderie that is sadly kind of missing in P5R. This is the main draw of these games for me. The high school sim, getting to know the characters and places in which the games take place. In P4G I really got the feeling that these people are dear friends that formed deep bonds with the MC and with each other, and would do anything for one another. I fell in love with most of them. Standouts for me were I guess Yosuke who is the MC´s best friend archetype, but he is such a bro. Naoto, the smart boy-detective who is actually female and Rise, the pop idol that has a career crisis and must take a break from showbiz. From the characters who are not part of your investigation team my favorites were Ai, the beauty who seems superficial at first, but has hidden depth within her and Naoki, brother of a murder victim who needs to find a way to move on from his loss and live a fullfilled life. There are many others, some who I liked better than others, but overall I think all of them have something interesting going on. That said, I didn´t manage to max all of the Social links so I don´t know all the characters storylines. In contrast, from P5R I cannot really remember much about the confidants apart from Ryuji, Ann and Makoto. It´s been a while since a played it but also a lot of them weren´t all that interesting.
One thing that P5R did much better than P4G are dungeons and turn-based battles that are a trademark for this series. P4G has randomly generated dungeons and they are quite bland and dungeon-dvelving gets repetitive fast. Actually, this part of the game gets more fun the longer into playthrough you get. That´s because in early game you have weak personas and fewer companions to choose from, so the battles are more difficult and less enjoyable. In latter part of the game, you gain access to powerful personas, equipment and companions. Rise in particular is a great asset to the team. She has a passive role as the team navigator, but also has very powerful skills that she uses when the team is in trouble or at the end of each fight. Now, in P5R the dungeons are handcrafted, so not randomly generated and that works wonders, kinda injects soul into them. There are more QoL changes like baton passing, stealth that lets you ambush enemies more reliably and so on.
As for the villians, it feels like in P4G there is one main villian, aka the murderer, but as it turns out, the fog, murders and midnight channel are connected. And there is more behind these mysteries than meets the eye. So yes, the true final boss is a god you must defeat. It is a nice twist. Of course all of this is connected to this god, who is the pupeteer pulling the strings. In P5R given the fact that the castles each have a specific villain the crew must defeat, they are more involved in the story and you get to know them better. But the main antagonist of P5R is absolutely in his own league, apart from any other. He is very relatable and tragic character. I guess you could say he is more of an antihero. Someone whose goals are understandable, maybe even comendable, but his methods are wrong, thus creating tension between him and the heroes who must stop him. It is very sad.
All of this is enhanced by the emotional and beautiful OST that permeates the whole game. Throw Away Your Mask and Rivers in Desert for example are absoulte masterpieces that make me emotional everytime I hear them. In case of P4G, I would say the OST is a bit weaker compared to P5R, but it is still very good and it also contains some beautiful pieces of music. So I´d say that OST is a strong side of both of these games.
You know, when viewed as a whole, maybe P5R is the better game, a more polished game with tons of side activities, great dungeons, engaging battles and top-notch presentaton. But my heart tells me I liked P4G more. I laughed, I cried along with the Investigation team/Seekers of Truth. They really feel like they are MY friends. Someone who I forged irreplacble bonds with, which, no matter the distance between us, will never break.

95%Nintendo Switch

amazing

100%PC

Really good Persona title, on par with P5 vanilla

100%PC

It has yosuke hanamura and souyo

100%Nintendo Switch

THE BEST PERSONA I'VE EVER PLAYED!!! (maybe ill change my mind later cuz im currently playing persona 5 royal)

100%PlayStation Vita

One of the best JRPG’s ever.

Characters and their interactions with each other and the story, the story and the pacing; the social sim elements, combat, soundtrack, etc. It’s all top tier.

This is my favorite Persona game - easily besting both P3 and P5.

100%Nintendo Switch

peak

90%PlayStation Vita

My first Persona that really hooked me. Persona 3 PS2 combat was oof, so being able to control all party members sold me on this one.

So this will always be nostalgic Persona, but having played more I definitely see the issues it had. Maybe we'll get a remake eventually seeing the success of Persona 3 Reload!

90%Nintendo Switch

True Golden ending
That's my first persona game i ever played.
The game is quite interesting for its time, the perfect balance between difficulty and grind, something I haven’t seen in completing other parts of this series (maybe because it's was my first experience with this series of games and i make a lot of mistakes 🤔)

80%Nintendo Switch

My favorite persona game great music like always good story and characters with a few exepctions like chie

60%PC

Tried to watch anime last year. This game is so goofy, and I love it. It's been fun and an interesting who-done-it narrative. I am enjoying everything about it except not seeing my social stats progression in real time or that if I die, I lose all progress from the beginning of a dungeon floor. I'm also feeling that once I'm done with this game, I'll have no motivation or reason to try rewatching the anime.

55%PC

bored as hell

100%PC

Величие.

80%PC

Wrapped up my playthrough at about 60 hours, got the "true" ending (more on that in a bit) and just absolutely adored this game.

The writing of this game is top notch, in my opinion. Spending time in school in the Japanese countryside with a bunch of other weirdos never stopped being endearing to me. It's been a long time since I've been this attached to so many characters. For a game that's essentially about facing your own inner demons, the character development for pretty much everyone was clear to see and well done.

If I'm being honest, I wasn't wild about the dungeon crawling! It wasn't terrible, sort of standard "find the enemy's affinity weakness" type thing, but any time I was deep in a dungeon, I couldn't shake the feeling of just wanting it to end so I could return to the story.

One other thing I strongly disliked was HOW EASY it is to lock yourself out of the true ending for this game. Pretty much one wrong choice during a critical point later in the game and you can lock yourself into a bad and very dismal ending. If any of my friends play this game later, I will put a spoiler tag at the end of this review for a few hints and/or key moments to help get the true ending.

All in all it's been years since I've had an RPG dig its claws into me like this one did. I won't forget the journey, I won't forget the characters, and this game solidified itself as one of my favorite RPGs.

---

Will edit in hints here later behind spoiler tags.

80%PlayStation Vita

My favorite persona game to this day

90%PC

Most memorable one out of the persona series

70%PC

too many parts of this game are horrible in my opinion and some of them are only getting worse with time

80%PC

Pros:
- Best characters in the series
- Great story (though it was impossible not to get spoiled by it)
- Enjoyable combat (though if you played P5 you probably wouldn't enjoy it as much)
- Best social links in the series
- Great soundtrack
- Great voice actors

Cons:
- Combat system got way too easy and repetitive at the end on normal mode
- Progressing through the story and dungeons got stale at the halfway point
- Story felt pretty predictable and like a loop
- Got spoiled on the story, so it wasn't as enjoyable to play through it

80%PlayStation Vita

Makes a ton of changes from vanilla P4. The quality of life changes are nigh-essential and just make the overall experience so much better.
The story additions aren't very good imo. Characters are poorly written, Marie feels really tacked on, and so on and so forth. Not bad in theory, but executed pretty poorly.
Gameplay is made much easier in this version. A lot of that, like adding checkpoints, is great. It really eases the frustration from dying suddenly to hamaon. That aside though, the game's difficulty balance is just busted open by all the new additions. SP refills much faster, it's easier to make broken personas, and some enemies/bosses have new weaknesses added which take the challenge out of them. Playing on a harder difficulty may be recommended for anybody familiar with the series.
I also didn't realize until looking at side-by-side comparisons, but it also changes a lot of P4's atmosphere. P4G also has a great art design, but it is unfortunate that some of the charm of P4 was replaced with P4G's. Just a different feeling, not inherently worse.

I still think the game is great, but i don't consider it an all out replacement for the original like i used to.

95%PlayStation 4

Great game, I wish it was longer. It does take a few hours to get the story rolling, but the voice acting is great. The biggest gripe for me are the random procedurely generated dungeons. Some of the social links are lackluster, but the story is paced well and all of the characters are likeable.

90%PC

peak

85%PC

여전히 재미있는 페르소나
이제는 어지간한거 아니면 예전 그래픽도 거슬리지 않는듯
5는 플레 달았지만 이건 중도포기함

100%Xbox Series X/S

God damn I'm loving this game series. I loved the game, it has an amazing story, the mystery is great and the main characters are awersome I love them all and hold them closely. Overall had an amazing time with it, can't wait to start 5 Royal.

After playing 3 Reload, 4 Golden years show a little bit but it doesn't stop the game from being super polished and well done.

5%Nintendo Switch

Game so bad I couldn't bring myself to finish it.

95%PC

Japanese HS simulator with murder mystery plot and fantasy elements, its also a dating sim.

70%PC

I would say Persona 4 is a great game extremely weighed down by its major defaults: uninteresting dungeons (except for the bonus Golden content), poor writing in a lot of place, huge queerphobia and very weird and cringe dialogue, but I am glad I finished it. If like me you are around 20 hours in and feels lacking, know that the finale is in my opinion worth it to push further.

100%PC

Good music, really great story with crazy twists, fun and awesome characters. The gameplay when it come to being in the dungeon is kinda meh, mostly in it for the story and characters

95%Nintendo Switch

Great game, the worst in the modern Persona trilogy, although is not bad, it's a 9+ game

80%PC

Persona 4 Golden’s social elements are the perfect addition to JRPG gameplay and its storyline is well done, but the high school drama can be grating and the combat feels like a step back from mainline Shin Megami Tensei.

100%PC

I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game, I love this game.

90%PlayStation Vita

Overview - Persona 4 Golden Edition was a lot of firsts for me. First Persona game, first game completed on PS VITA, and the first game I'd played with an in depth social system that I later learned was somewhat of a staple for the genre. For a while I considered it my favorite game of all time, and although that spot has changed hands several times since, Persona 4 will always have a place at the table when I recall the most fun I've had playing a video game. It's a near perfect JRPG experience that feels timeless. For a game that's nearly 20 years old as of this review, it still stands head and shoulders above most JRPGs released before or since.

Story - The story is a compelling mystery surrounding a series of ritualistic deaths that are plaguing a town in Japan, a town that your character has just moved to. The main cast of characters are fun and vibrant, with lots of cute and comedic interactions balancing the darker moments that drive the main plot forward. The mystery is always at the forefront, but getting to know and love the characters is equally fulfilling. Each character has their own backstory, unique motivations, and with such an expansive cast, there's plenty of charm and story to find.

Gameplay - The gameplay is split between your day to day social life as a Japanese high school student, and the turn based combat found in an alternate world you can go to at night. The social aspects during the day help strengthen your bond to the characters that comprise your party, which in turn results in greater strength when battling at night. The turn based combat is unique and interesting thanks to the Persona system. Persona are essentially spirits that help you fight, and in many ways act as your proxy in battle. If you're familiar with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Personas are analogous to Stands, with each character having a signature Persona with strengths and weaknesses that somewhat mirror the personality of their wielder. All of this makes for highly customizable parties, deeply strategic and satisfying combat, and an overall great experience.

The Bad - Firstly, graphics. It's a game that's nearly 20 years old, and while it was really well done for the time, it does still show it's age, especially if you've already played the newest entry in the series. This is actually helped by playing on the PS Vita, since the screen is smaller so the flaws are smaller too, but it's still worth noting.

And lastly, as late as 50 hours into the game, if you haven't done a small sequence of things, then you'll get the "Bad Ending" which is particularly crushing because of how attached you get to the characters while playing. Because of the nature of the game, even if you had a backup saved data, it would take several hours to course correct, and by that time you've already learned the game's biggest twist, so it can feel tedious, and getting the "Good Ending" after getting the bad ending feels hollow. You can't really find out what it is you need to do without spoiling the ending somewhat, so it's just up to you to do as much as you can before the late game to avoid that.

80%Nintendo Switch

O melhor cast de personagens da franquia disparado. O nível de humor e sinergia deles é de longe o mais divertido e impactante. Agora eu entendo porque esse jogo é o mais querido de uma boa parte da fanbase. Os personagens parecem que tem vida entre si, independente do protagonista (ao contrário do P3 e principalmente do P5). A história não é a melhor e nem a mais impactante, eu achei que se arrasta um pouco além da conta (é o mais curto dos 3, mas pareceu o mais longo por isso), mas vale a jornada para quem já jogou os outros 2. O jogo é muito bem balanceado, mas as boss fights são cansativas demais porque são repetitivas e eles tem muito HP. O remaster deixa tudo mais palatável e fácil, que é muito bem vindo. Os social links são bons, um ótimo upgrade do P3, mas todas as barreiras e "esconder" as coisas é bem ruim. Impossível jogar isso sem um guia para várias partes cruciais do jogo, e eu particularmente detesto jogar qualquer coisa com guia. Excelente pra época, mas muito datado pra jogar em 2024 (se você não conhece e é fã da franquia).