I’ve lengthy since been a Persona 4 stan. Out of the three trendy Persona video games, P4 has all the time stood out to me as the perfect of the bunch. You’ve acquired a killer forged, a terrific story, and a timeless soundtrack by means of and thru. And whereas, sure, Persona 5 could look loads prettier and flashier than its barely outdated-looking predecessor, I’d play P4 over P5 any day of the week.
Which is why I assume it’s an absolute crime that with the discharge of Persona 3 Reload, Persona 4 is now formally the ugliest new-school sport within the collection.
I’ve spent the previous couple weeks binging Persona 3 Reload, and it’s a unbelievable remake of the unique PS2 launch. It’s a full remake accomplished within the Persona 5 engine, with new character fashions, art work, and even loads of new fight mechanics to make issues extra streamlined and frictionless. Little issues just like the Baton Pass system, new aspect tales with teammates who didn’t get Social Links earlier than, and improved Analysis for Fuuka simply make Persona 3 really feel a lot extra trendy.
Most importantly, the sport simply appears good now. Gone are the cursors from Persona 3 Portable and tiny human figures from FES. The full-sized fashions and redone environments make Tatsumi Port Island pop, and every thing appears contemporary and vibrant. And I’m right here to inform you that Persona 4 Golden wants that therapy too.
When it first launched on the PS2, Persona 4 was seen as an enormous step-up from Persona 3. The characters and Social Links have been higher, there have been extra actions, and it was clear that Atlus had actually began to hit its stride with this entry. Since then, it’s gotten a re-release on the PS Vita (goodnight, candy prince) with a model new dungeon, ending, character, and a bunch of latest occasions that actually elevated the sport to the following stage.
In its present state, Persona 4 Golden is near-perfect. The tales, characters, and actions are all nice. It simply acquired its re-release on the incorrect time. In a post-Switch period and in a world the place Persona 3 Reload is now a factor, the graphical potential for a Persona 4 remake has gone approach up. Imagine exploring Inaba in a correct, free 3D atmosphere.
More importantly, think about having fun with Persona 4’s gameplay with an up to date fight system akin to that of P3 and P5’s. Persona 3 Reload incorporates a extra fundamental type of Persona 5’s Baton Pass system, together with Light and Dark elemental varieties, and these are parts that would work nicely in P4, too.
Persona 4 Golden additionally has so many extra fascinating environments inside Inaba and the Shadow World that would look beautiful with a graphical remake, I’m virtually salivating simply excited about the likelihood. The dungeons alone could be a visible deal with, with Heaven and the Secret Lab coming to thoughts as massive standouts.
The drawback, in fact, is that Persona 4 Golden is already a really strong sport in its personal proper. Even with out a graphical facelift and the additional bells and whistles, Persona 4 Golden nonetheless holds up extremely nicely in the present day, which you couldn’t actually say for Persona 3 FES or Portable. But look, absolutely there’s a case to be made for the sport that correctly put the collection on the map. If P3 served because the blueprint for the new-school Persona video games that we all know and love in the present day, then P4 is the fruits of the efforts and classes discovered from its predecessor.
Persona 4 Golden boasts the strongest forged of characters and Social Links we’ve seen within the collection, to not point out a tantalizing homicide thriller that sprinkles its clues proper from the very begin. The story comes with its peaks and valleys that all the time maintain you guessing and wanting to seek out out what the following trace is, and neither P3 or P5 have been in a position match the extent of writing that we get in 4.
So, is it extremely unlikely that we’ll ever see one other correct remake of Persona 4? Probably. Is that going to cease me from hoping in useless and scripting this open plea to Atlus? Absolutely not.
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