Welcome, LGBT Gaming Fans, to Mile High Gaymer where I'll be bringing you the best in games that you should (or maybe you shouldn’t) be playing. I’m your host Jason Anderson and let’s get started on this High School Murder Mystery that is Persona 4 Golden. A remake of their classic game for the PS2, Persona 4 Golden or P4G is almost everything that Atlus could put in that the crowds called out for. The game itself was already popular with it’s own anime (currently on Hulu) and a kick ass soundtrack, but with these new add-ons and changes it turns the game from an obscure hit to a must-have RPG.
The game starts as the player is sent to Inaba to stay with relatives since his parents are working abroad. On the train ride over he dreams of the Velvet Room and meets with the otherworldly Igor and his assistant Margaret which leads him on an adventure that will affect both Inaba and the rest of the world.
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“Is that a bear?” - Chie Satonaka
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The story starts off simple enough, you’re thrust into a mystery and you gotta solve it, but it’s so much more than that. The game separates into two parts. Dungeon Crawl and School Day Visual Novel. We’ll get into the dungeon crawling aspect later on.
From your first day in Inaba you are subjected to school life, you go to classes and have club activities. As time goes on you’ll begin to interact with more characters and npcs opening up jobs and other after school activities to go to. The game constantly calls for you to make connections with other characters, and once you create these Social Links or S.Links your power, as well as your teammates, grows in battle as well making the dungeon crawling a lot easier for the player and providing boosts to your Persona.
If a player goes through, just dungeon grinding away, they’ll find out early on that not pursuing these S.Links can be stagnating to the game process as a whole and take away from a good chunk of the entertainment value. Each S.Link has it’s own individual storyline and it’s your job as the protagonist to connect with these different people.
Links that you can interact with:
• An elderly woman coping with the loss of her husband• A relative of one of the victims dealing with the rumors and hearsay that affect a small town
• A young woman who is trying to understand her stepson while her husband is overseas, but can’t and vice versa.
• Each side storyline is done well and will give the player a small insight into Inaba.
Gameplay
Persona 4 Golden plays similar to it’s predecessor, but just retooled for better balance and providing ten more hours of gameplay. But for new players it’s like a well oiled machine. For classic players of RPGs the Dungeon Crawl aspect will seem like a walk in the park. Interact with the enemy, find a weakness, defeat it, and repeat until you get to the end of the dungeon. Each of your teammates will uses a certain element and it’s your job to test these elements against the enemy.
The biggest difference from the main character and your teammates is the “WildCard” ability. The WildCard ability allows the main character to change out personas once per a turn, but each persona that you summon is unique and makes your main character the most versatile utility in the group.
One of the best features that P4G introduced into the game is a changeable difficulty. Difficulty itself doesn’t affect the story, it just provides a harder or easier battle for the player. There are five different standard levels as well as a custom difficulty that the player can setup after beating the game for the first time.
Art
If you’re not a fan of classic anime, or anything Japanese, then maybe you should pass on this one. Each persona that you summon is rendered fantastically with a few color rehashes here and there.
The characters themselves are designed very well, with their color choices representing their elements and personalities as well as wearing outfits unique to the Japanese school culture.
Replayability
New Game + is your biggest draw when replaying P4G. While some players may wanna pursue every S.Link with their first playthrough, New Game + allows players to retain the protagonists stats as well as equipment and money that you earned in the previous play through. This makes running through the game again and interacting with NPCs a lot faster, and allows you to finish dungeons and S.Links in half the time, giving you more time to interact and level. Add that with the ability to fast forward through dialog your second playthrough won’t take as much time.
Multiplayer
While the game has no multiplayer so to say it does have a unique SOS and Voice System. When connected by 3G or WiFi in a dungeon the SOS button will ask for help from other players, while outside the dungeon the Voice button will enable you to hear the choices that other players have chosen for the protagonist.
Differences from the Original
P4G introduced a number of additions to the game such as extra arcanas, more enemies, and new personas. One of the new features is the dungeon Hollow Forest. Instead of testing your ability of procuring the best armor and weapons, you instead must work with the equipment given to you, making your personas an even more invaluable asset.
Nice little extras
• The Pokemon Meta Game - There are over 100 Personas to find and create. The more personas you find, the better the discount to resummon personas you registered in the Velvet Room.
• Kanji Tatsumi - One of your teammates dealing with his view on masculinity and his possible attraction to a boy.
• Naoto Kurogane - One of your teammates struggling with gender roles as a young woman in a male dominated profession.
• Use of the Tarot - Each of the S.Links represent one of the Major Arcana of a Tarot Card Set while the Minor Arcana is used in the after battle mini game.
• There’s a bear in the GAME!
