5/5 ★ – asoola's review of Persona 4 Golden.

I played Persona 4 Golden for the first time in 2020 on PC and finished it in 2021, and when the port for the Nintendo Switch was announced I decided to get the game again and experience this journey all over again and I’m proudly going to say that this game remains to be my favorite Persona game. Alright now that’s out of the way I said this back in 2021 and I’ll say it again I wasn’t expecting to like the story of Persona 4 Golden or the characters as much as I do now I didn’t know what to expect really but I had high expectations for it and it definitely managed to exceed those expectations. I just love the story, characters, Inaba, and the themes of truth it covered in this game. I LOVE GAMES THAT HAVE MYSTERIES and back in 2020 when I realized how this game is 100% like a detective mystery story I was hooked on the story I was curious to know how and why was this happening in Inaba, and the solution to the mystery did not disappoint! Before we get into the serial killings that happened in Inaba and the Midnight Channel let’s talk about the “Facing Yourself” part of the story, I love love how they talked about this it’s something that I kinda relate to I mean everyone have a side or feelings that they fail to acknowledge because they’re afraid or rather lack the courage to admit these feelings or this side exists within them. I’ll use Yosuke as an example since he’s one of the first characters I related to his loneliness and boredom issues are definitely very real feelings that I personally relate to and it was written very well he puts up a facade that’s he’s happy go lucky but he’s afraid of isolation and feels bored ever since he moved to Inaba (and at the end he grows to love the town) good character writing isn’t just limited to Yosuke same can be said about all of them and I definitely relate to all of them as well. This part of the story definitely impacted me and helped me face my own issues too that’s just proves in my opinion how good the stories for each character in the Investigation Team is! Speaking of the Investigation Team genuinely feel like a group of friends that care so much about each other their friendship and the way the writers showed and written their friendship just makes you realize immediately these aren’t just friends who only became friends to solve a case no they genuinely cared for each other and they would do whatever to help each other no matter what! Their friendship is very real and sincere if that makes sense! Before I move on I wanna talk about the found family in the story and that’s you guessed it Ryotaro Dojima, Nanako Dojima, and Big Bro- I mean Yu Narukami family relationship the way their family relationship develops as the story goes on is so GREAT and it becomes PERFECT if you do the social links for both Nanako and Dojima, I love stories that have found family themes so you bet I was gonna love this one THEY’RE SUCH A WHOLESOME FAMILY!!! Alright NOW back to the main story if you told me Adachi is the culprit and there’s hints throughout the story that he’s the true culprit before I played the game I would’ve giggled because HE COVERED HIS TRACKS SO WELL I remember in 2021 I only suspected him because I thought he kidnapped Nanako because she knew him so she wouldn’t be suspicious and would open the door for him. I can sit here and talk about how much I love Adachi’s character writing and how he’s an amazing antagonist but this isn’t an Adachi character essay so I will say he’s a VERY well written antagonist that I love very much! Obviously him not having the magic ticket called “Talent” as he says and him working so hard in school just to not get a better job isn’t a good excuse to start messing around with people’s lives HOWEVER it made me sympathize a bit for him. (That’s definitely why I love his character and well his redemption arc is good what can I say?) The murder case literally made me think hard because it’s such a well written mystery and when Namatame was explaining his own reason for doing what he did I too felt sad for him ☹️ Then there’s Mitsuo… cool boss fight and dungeon but I can’t stand the guy! Nanako arc made me cry so much SHE DESERVES THE WORLD. Now onto The Midnight Channel I love how they explained how it actually works and how if you do throw Namatame in the TV you definitely made a bad choice because what was shown is what the Investigation Team thought not what he thought it’s so brilliant! You only realize this if you went with the True Ending route but still imagine how much guilt they would feel if that was the good ending or something… chills… The social links in this game are so well written btw and the Izanami boss fight is so good! Last but not least let’s talk about Marie her arc, her dungeon, her social link! I’m well aware she’s a new addition to the game I didn’t know what to think of her when I met her she was a little mean but as you get to know her through the social link ranks I realized she’s just frustrated at her situation and she’s naive about most things and that’s when I started loving her character then we have Hollow Forest dungeon which made me like her character even more her sadness, loneliness, her protective nature and lack of purpose really made her feel that sacrificing herself is the only option which is sad because she didn’t even know what her role is she was just forced to do something she doesn’t remember I JUST LOVE HER SO MUCH she’s so well written and since I romanced her in this playthrough yeah her love story with Yu is so good 10/10 from me! (The confession in the epilogue made me laugh but it was so cute) I am like one of 1% people that actually enjoyed Hollow Forest I liked the challenge and how it made me think about every little thing I do in the dungeon before attacking or healing and even equipping gear made me think, like I had to think about every little thing before I did it so I don’t get a game over or end up with no SP or items to return to the entrance. (The SP was depleting and the items I had were flying and the good weapon I got for Yu wasn’t there) In conclusion I love Marie story and her boss fight actually! The true ending made emotional and it’s so great their farewells to Yu made me cry and the epilogue just made me cry even more 🥹, when Yu smiled at the end especially. Yu is my favorite Persona protagonist so seeing him rarely smiling in the beginning when arriving to Inaba to smiling a lot and having fun with his new friends and not feeling alone anymore (which I assume is something he felt) is why I like him so much! He’s such a silly, funny, caring protagonist I ADORE HIM. Speaking of the epilogue now that I played P4AU now I know what happened in May 2012 finally! I said this before but the Investigation Team transformation in the epilogue makes more sense if you played P4AU in my opinion! I wanna talk about the Accomplice ending real quick I love how it mirrored the true ending but you can tell it’s way worse from the background like hey you can choose to protect someone you thought is Yu’s friend and ignore the truth and their misdeeds but now Yu is an accomplice in murder IT WAS SO SCARY. But it also shows how caring Yu can be and how his belief in someone blinded his eyes from the truth. (no pun intended) Well that’s all I wanted to talk about if the Investigation Team ever comes back I will be happy because they’re characters that mean a lot to me and Persona 4 Golden is a game that impacted me a lot, Investigation Team you’ll always have a special place in my heart. 🫶🏽💛