Persona 4 Golden – Review, we are all on TV!

Persona 4 Golden, among the many chapters of the series, and of Atlus more generally, is undoubtedly one of the most loved ever. This not so much because he was the first who actually approached a different setting and general artistic direction, which would later pave the way for that other marvel called Persona 5, but because it made a story line that already worked well, even more interesting.

Arrived in Japan in 2008, therefore only two years after Persona 3, Atlus’ work immediately became one of the most loved by JRPG lovers, as well as immediately establishing itself as a success by critics. Persona 4 Golden is a re-release of that same title, arrived on the unfortunate PSVITA and representing, for clear reasons, one of the most beautiful games on the Sony laptop. Let’s be honest, if PSVITA continued to exist for more than a few years on Japanese territory it was mainly thanks to the great JRPGs. Among them was just Persona 4 Golden, who relentlessly led the PlayStation Store charts. Then came Persona 5, and it’s history from there.

The series explodes all over the world and even those who didn’t like the genre began to take an interest in the Atlus productions. It goes without saying that many players who have not been able to try Persona 4 Golden on PSVITA have been waiting for a long time to be able to recover such an important work and that, although it already arrived on Steam in 2020 with some refinements and the possibility of choose between the English language and the original Japanese languagean artful console port was missing.

Persona 4 Golden becomes even more accessible

Well, that day has finally come, now that Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royale have been made available on all current consoles, including Switch, and added to Xbox Game Pass as well. We got to try the PC and Xbox versions, rediscovering a timeless work in all its improvements. Among these, there is no doubt a visible increase in the quality of the textures and the models themselvesalthough it still remains very clear that we have a PS2 title on our hands with years of experience.

However, we were pleasantly surprised see how the cleaner image manages to breathe new life into the title, significantly rejuvenating it and making it much more pleasant to play than we would have expected. I respect Persona 3 Portable which, as we said, really feels the weight of the years, the porting of Persona 4 Golden is now a much more interesting and accessible experience for all those who have played Persona 5 and want to go back to the series.

Among other novelties we also have the possibility to choose between English or Japanese dubbing, and a very convenient function quick save always available and which returns the user to the main menu. There is also the addition of a difficulty level selector which doesn’t affect the story, but it’s a great way to tackle a bigger challenge, so perfect for those who had already played Persona 4 when it was initially released.

Persona 4 Golden finally in Italian

So let’s talk about introductions as important as they are useful, but which are clearly not a fundamental reason to push you to buy it as much as an absolute novelty: for the first time, Persona 4 Golden is fully translated into Italian, thus undergoing the same treatment as Persona 5 Royale. We are of the opinion that every title that gives great importance to the narrative system, such as JRPGs in general but above all the chapters of the Persona series, requires the translation of the texts into Italian.

This is not so much because otherwise it would be not very appreciable, but because being able to read the dialogues of the characters – essential for fully appreciating such a work – without having to commit too much mental translation, it is extremely important in order to obtain an experience that is not too demanding.

We therefore remain of the opinion that Persona 4 Golden remains a work to try, though it happens to perceive it more dated than it may appear. In fact, we are talking about the dynamics and mechanics of the gameplay, including the combat system and the exploration of dungeons, which could make the detachment from the current canons feel a lot, especially to those who had played Persona 5 first.