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Games of the Decade #11/Blog a Day #20

Hello friends, how are you?

There are games out there that you have always been interested in but have never tried because you never had the console that is home to those games. This game was originally a PS2 game but years later it found a new life on the PS Vita. Today we'll be looking back at a PS2 modern day classic that got remade for the PS Vita known as Persona 4 Golden.

                                                Music in the game is really good ♥

Backstory: I have always been aware of the Persona games, but I never had a PS2. Yes, shocking I know. It wasn't till years later that the game got a remake on Sony's new handheld (at the time) known as the PS Vita. I never had one either. A friend told me to try out Persona 3 which I did via digital download on PS3 and I loved it. Eventually I got a PSTV, it's quite the little system. It can almost play and do everything the Vita could, the only thing it couldn't do is play games that require the touchscreen. I eventually bought Person 4 Golden with some birthday money back in 2017 and was excited to finally use my PSTV. Was the game worth giving another go on different hardware?

In P4G, you play as a high-school student player-named protagonist, who moves into the countryside town of Inaba for a year. However not everything is what it seems as the small and quiet town has been a host to a number of murders shortly after our protagonist moves in. It's up to you and a group of friends to solve the mystery behind the murders and find the culprit committing murders as you investigate the mysterious TV World, a mysterious world that's home to monsters known as Shadows, while using the power of Persona.

The game is a mix of both rpg and simulation gameplay. The game has a calender system and a weather forecast system, the calender shows you the days of the month and dates of importance while the weather system dictates the type of activities you'll be able to do per day. You can do 2 types of activities, like going to school on weekdays and nighttime activities. This is where the simulation part of the game kicks in, you spend your day by going to school, with activities like attending school clubs, doing part-time jobs, studying and more. This is half of the game in terms of gameplay. But you have to make sure you manage your time well as well as paying attention to weather forecasts, especially the weather forecast because it plays a big role in the plot of the game.

 

                               You can hang out with various characters in the game

The second half of the game is going to take place in the TV World, which like the name implies, is a mysterious world that's inside the tv. In here is where the rpg part of the game happens. The TV World is filled with dungeons that have randomly generated floors every time you visit so you'll never see the same layout twice. Inside these dungeons are home to monsters known as Shadows which you fight with Personas, which basically are avatars that are manifested from one's inner self. Each of your party members have the power of Persona and every Persona has strenghts and weaknesses. The difference here is while each of your party members have 1 Persona, you the protagonist can use more than one which is useful for covering a variety of weaknesses while exploting the weakenesses of enemies and bosses. Also going into the TV World is another way to spend time in the game so plan accordingly.

Each dungeon in the game is based around a victim who has been kidnapped and in each dungeon you must reach the end to save that victim. Here is where you have to pay attention to the weather. When it rains in the real world in the game, the television shows who could be the next potential victim and as days go by the image on the tv shows the next victim. You have to save said victim(s) before the fog rolls by or they are killed inside the TV World and thus the game ends.

I can't talk about the story of the game because I'll give something away. But I can talk about the characters and I really loved the characters. As you progress through the game you meet more characters that you befriend that become party members as well as other npcs. You can interact with them and you can spend time with them by doing various activities or hanging out with them, which in turn increases your bond with them known as Social Links. As you level up the Social Link of a character, you get to learn more about them but also if it's a party member, they get a boon in skills for themselves and/or their Personas.

 

                            You have various commands to choose from during a fight

"But Captain N, where can I play this game?" Well if you have a PS Vita, or at the very least a PSTV then you can play it there. A bit of a warning, the game is unfortunately expensive if you wanted a physical copy. It's around $60 if you want it new and about $30-$40 if you opt for a used copy. However the game goes on sale often digitally via the PS Store, sometimes going below $10 but even at its full price of $20, I say is definitely worth it.

Final Thoughts: If you asked me what my favorite Persona game then I'll say it's the very first one I ever played, Persona 3 FES, but that game didn't release within 2010-2019 and I can't count it in. However, P4G is such a fantastic game in its own right, They improved upon the original game with more content like more features and more story elements. There's a reason why this game is always on Vita games you must play and it's usually the number 1 game to play on the system. It's definitely worth of the praise it gets.

The most recent game in the series, Persona 5 is definitely the most popular one and the one that has gotten more attention. The game overhauled the gameplay and it looks really good. But sometimes being popular doesn't mean it's the best one. In my opinion, P4G is the better game between the 2. One of the reasons is the story of P4G, with it I was always trying to guess what was going to happen next (even though I deduced the true culprit of P4G at the start of the game). But I feel that element was gone in P5. I won't say why because of spoilers but I feel it could be because the story of P4G is more like trying to solve a mystery.

Also, the characters. The characters in P4 feel much more genuine or human to me and they feel like they could be your friends in real life. Still, the fear of not being able to see is very strong, without any info you don't know what's going on, but as long as you have good friends that are there for you then you can conquer life's hardships along the way.

 

                                                              Very well said

And with that, we have gone through 20 games with this game. Coming soon are the last remaining 10. Which games are they? You'll find out soon enough. Anyway that's all for now, I'll be back after I finish solving this mystery.

 

*All images except for the first one were taken thanks to my copy of P4G and my PSTV*