ORIGINAL POST - 06/29/2021:
So, I recently (i.e. last night) purchased this (Persona 4: Golden) for the PC. I have some thoughts on this legendary JRPG that is loved by fans & critics alike, after some say 4.2 hours in total here spent with it, so....let's begin.
A lot of games, they often take care one a certain thing, first and foremost: being a game. Often, games are more so built on game mechanics than actual focusing on storytelling, narrative, and character development. Well, enter Person 4: Golden here, as it definitely makes sure that storytelling, narrative, and character development is extremely important in this game. This game certainly takes its time with all of this stuff - and this is also for the best here, as it's great so far at all of this stuff. If this isn't enough, this game certainly takes its time to often develop all of this & litter the game with lots of details in this regard, too.
Then there's the voice-acting. A lot of the main story stuff is voice-acted here. While there is some stuff that isn't voice-acted here, it's often unimportant stuff period and/or NPC's who aren't main characters that isn't voice-acted, so this isn't a big deal and isn't even a matter at all. Also, what's here that is voice-acted is also great, for the most part.
Oh, and if this all isn't enough - there's plenty of world-building and Lore here, which will also keep the player immersed in the game & its actual world. Since the game is done on a daily schedule and in that matter, you will often be going around to the same places & areas often - you'll get to know the areas & learn the area, which will immerse the player into the place & give the player the feeling that they are also in a place that they can & will call home.
At 1080p on my old laptop (i7 4720HQ; 16 GB RAM; 4GB of GTX 960m; W10 x64), this game runs really well. At 60fps without any hitches & issues here, which is what's expected here as this game isn't really new or anything of that sort, this game runs just fine & flawless. Cranked-up to the max here and rendered at 200%, the game looks fine in the game-world. The character models have their own doll-like look & style, which is fine & nice. P4 (original) came out in 2008 and this Golden version hit the Vita in 2012, so I'm not expecting the moon here in technical graphics quality here - but what's here does look fine & probably is very much cleaned-up since its original release.
That isn't all, either. In conversation when in the game-world, the game has the character's head and its dialogue float-over part of the scene, all in its beautiful hand-drawn-looking style in all of its anime-style glory. If that also isn't enough, this game often has excellent full-blown anime-style sequences and cut-scenes, which also look great and make you feel like you're watching an episode of an anime TV show.
Combat is here is a turn-based affair, similar to that of older Final Fantasy games and even FF13. While I haven't run into a ton of dungeons and combat so far over the 4 hours of so of game-time here, what's here feels very old-school FF. You have a party, but so far...mainly you control your main character and the AI controls any other party members. You have attacks, items you can use, skills, and even Personas (i.e. Summons) that you can use for battles.
Combat here is often stylish in not just its look of combat & flashiness of it, but even in its UI and whatnot too; everything there is stylized and looks great - making even turn-based combat, which might not be everyone's cup of tea, even look like it could become your new cup of tea. Since there's constant bantering from your party members and Teddie (once Teddie watched over you), the game is constantly keeping things going, so that there is not a dead moment even during turn-based combat. Like most RPG's, you do have a weapon shop in town - so you can buy equipment, sell equipment, and the usual RPG stuff over there - so that you can be prepared for combat; and you'll also level-up from battles and from going into dungeons too.
So, here's the game's story so far: some people have been disappearing and some people have been murdered, as your new Guardian/father-figure is a detective trying to crack this case. You, as a High-Schooler in the year 2011, are trying to balance both school and solve these disappearances & murders, as you also get roped into this. This premise sounds like it's something right out of a modern "coming of age" high-school movie & noir-style murder-mystery, all thrown into a (somewhat) modern year & world of sorts. If this isn't enough - there's some cards of Fate being thrown around in a Tarot card style, a nightmare world/Shadow World, mirror-images of things, and whatnot - often feeling right out of some David Lynch movie or TV show and/or some horror movies. Of course, then you can throw a JRPG style game with turn-based combat on top of all of this...and you basically have Persona 4: Golden.
But, of course - that's certainly not everything, as I'm only 4 hours in or so; and this game often takes cliches, tropes, and whatnot - and then does something with them, whether expanding on them or doing something else with them. I don't know if this game opens up more & gets more free-form at times, at all, and/or whatever else. I don't know if these first few hours here are mostly tutorial and will stop a lot of the hand-holding and be more free-form. I don't know if there'll be more combat and/or grind, later on in the game...or not. I don't know who the killer is yet and why these people are disappearing - but I pretty much will guarantee you at some point, I want to find out & I'm going to find out all of this, at some point.
So far, this JRPG is great. Need to go play more.
ADDENDUM - 07-04-2021:
Almost some 20 hours into this...and I've certainly got a bit more to say about this game.
As if dealing w/ school isn't enough, you also have to spend time with your friends, so you can learn more Personas; level up friends' Personas; improve your skills w/ them and their skills; and a lot more. Besides being a School simulator; turn-based JRPG; part visual novel; and probably something else that I missed - this also feels like a Friend simulator. Not sure if this all will later turn into a Dating Simulator too - but you can also hang out with Friends in certain locations.
You can also get jobs and go to work too, to earn money. Besides sometimes getting an allowance, you'll also need money to buy equipment, items, books for studying & leveling-up skills & stats...and who knows what else.
So, after those first few hours - yes, the game does open-up a bit and feel a bit more free-form, in some ways. Though, you'll still have to often go to School and whatnot, but you also have Clubs you can join after-school too, which feels like something you'd deal with in real school. You can, for example, join the basketball club or soccer club (Sports clubs); and even some cultural clubs like music club or drama club - but you can only join one of each two types of club types (one sports club and one cultural club).
Often spending time with friends and whatnot, can help you gain Personas. And once you get further along, you can - and should - fuse Personas to quickly make stronger Personas, so that you can have multiple skills in one new persona & upgrade to stronger & more leveled-up Personas. You're certainly going to need these, for when you get into dungeons and get into combat.
Not only do you have to juggle your friendships, clubs, school, dungeon-battling, jobs and whatnot - but you have to juggle all of this on a Daily Schedule. All of the days of the week are here, so you have to juggle what to do & when to do certain things. Everything here is a typical Calendar year here, as there's Months here too. It's basically a real-life simulator in some ways here, too.
You can also change the game's Difficulty at anytime. There's a handful of Difficulty presets already - but you can Customize that even further, too. You can have more or less Damage Taken & Damage Given, for starters. When you die in a dungeon, you can also have it set that you Die in a Dungeon you can Restart the Floor Entirely, Restart A Battle, or even Restart The Entire Dungeon. Restarting A Battle doesn't feel like that entirely, as you basically just get revived in the middle of battle, which feels like this could be endless and a basic cheat code....just so you can push through a battle. Restarting A Floor, since these dungeons have multiple floors often, feels a bit more fair here, as you can just go back to the beginning of the floor and whatever you had for stats, equipment, HP, SP, etc etc. It's great to have this customizable for players, as it does ensure players who want to push the story forward - in which this story is great, BTW - can actually push the story forward and not get stuck in a rut & in a dungeon, since this game even on Normal can be difficult.
So far, I'm really enjoying this really unique JRPG a lot. So far, so great.
