The Persona series is one of my all time favorite video game series, but Persona 4 Golden holds a special place as it was my entry point. The basic premise of each game is more or less the same, you the protagonist move to a new city and transfer to a new school shortly before you find yourself mixed in with some mystical stuff. The story takes place over a timespan of an in-game year where everyday (more or less) you wake up, go to school, have some free time to do whatever and decide if you want to fight monsters that day before going asleep and starting a new day.
One of the biggest mechanics in Persona games are the choices you are able to make in your free time. My favorite dynamic that stems from this, is the ability to build and strengthen relationships with other characters. It helps to add a narrative kind of fun as you’re able to hang out with your friends who tag along with you in dungeons, other characters related to the story, and even characters completely detached from the main story. Either way, you can gain a deeper story on that character as you essentially help them overcome some of their biggest obstacles. But the choice mechanic isn’t limited to free time, it’s also used in the overarching story. This leads to a dynamic where there are multiple endings, some that can happen quite abruptly if you’re not careful. Again this is all in relation to a narrative kind of fun, one of my most sought after types of fun personally.
But Persona 4 Golden isn’t just narrative fun, there’s also a challenge and discovery kind of fun when it comes to dungeons. Most dungeons are like a maze where you’re constantly trying to find stairs to move on to the next level, but it is ever changing as when you revisit a floor you had already discovered you are met with an entirely new layout (although some floors in some dungeons always stay the same for other puzzle reasons). This leads me to another mechanic, which is that monsters respawn each time you reenter a floor, which leads to the dynamic of grinding for levels, which leads to a fun known as abnegation! Sometimes it wasn’t even levels I was after but a specific item, either way it was time where I really didn’t need to think too much as I went through the motions. Also side note, another big thing Persona games are known for is their soundtrack! I make it rule to never skip the opening each time I boot up the game because it’s just too good and gives the best kind of sensational fun.
This post doesn’t even cover half of the mechanics and sequential dynamics that are build into Persona 4 Golden (or any of the other Persona games for that matter), but I think I’ll let you discover that for yourself. 10/10 would recommend!
