Need Help: Should I Buy Persona 4 Golden?

[DaytonaUSA]

I recently re-bought a Vita. I had one at launch, but after I got through all the launch titles, the system just became a bit of a bore. There are not many more games I want for the system, about half of which I've now purchased. I have a bit more money left this month, and it's coming down to games I'd typically buy vs this.

 

Let me start out with one thing. I don't typically like RPGs. I haven't liked a Final Fantasy since 7 (I just liked the story enough to suffer through the mindless battles), and the only RPGs I've honestly enjoyed in semi-recent memory are Pokemon and Disgaea. And even with Disgaea I usually stop playing part way through.

 

I grew up in the early-mid 90's, meaning that I generally lean towards racing games and fighting games for my gaming fixes. However, I do sometimes want a game I can really sink my teeth into and pre-occupy myself with for a long period of time. Mass Effect 3 did this for me (until I got to the end, which was not only bad but came far too soon) and Batman Arkham Asylum. Sometimes games are too grandiose for me to be able to enjoy, like Skyrim, as I do like direction. Not just keys to the city type of gameplay.

 

But I can't seem to ignore this game. Between the Pokemon similarities and the fact so many non-RPG owners love it, I just want to try it. But my old-tried-&-true self wants to just download something like DoA, though I know it'll be a short-lived experience, like all fighters.

 

So is the game worth it for someone like me? I want something more fleshed out, while still letting me know what to do. I don't want a game that will be over in a couple days worth of hard playing, but then again I don't want something where I feel like there's no goal (Skyrim).

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[Reaperman]

I really like jrpgs when I can get into them. The thing is that I can't 'get into' the vast majority of them. Persona 4 was an exception to that. It was fantastic.

 

Unlike games like final fantasy, it's not trying to be a huge, epic world-saving experience. Actually Persona 4's scope is smaller than any other rpg I can name. However it's a very stylish game, has a great story and truly likable characters. It did the unthinkable by making me really care about the social problems of highschoolers in a video game.

 

Actually, for a good part of playing it, I cared more about the story (both the main story and the relationship side quests) than the actual dungeoning. "I wish it were thursday so I could help out the woman at the hospital who may or may not be Satan. Since it's not thursday, I guess I'll just have to settle for hacking stuff up in the dungeon again."

 

I don't know how much they've zazzed-up the game for vita, though. On ps2 it was just amazing to see such a unique take on everything. Best RPG on the PS2, IMO, and that system was just loaded with them.

Edited April 15, 2013 by Reaperman

[+Gemintronic]

You don't like hard core RPGs and you're on the fence about Persona? That's like someone who doesn't like sports pining over a season ticket.

[Algus]

Persona is one of my favorite franchises and I consider Persona 4 to be the best entry in that franchise. It has an excellent story, great music and in general is just a lot of fun.

 

Now that that's out of the way: flee, flee now. It takes about two hours just to get through the intro cutscenes in this game. That's right, no actual gameplay, just story for close to two hours (and no, I am not exaggerating). Even after that, you still have another hour and a half or so before you really get into the meat of the gameplay of being able to choose how to spend your time. Decent action moments of wandering the dungeons and fighting monsters are interspersed with lengthy cutscenes and one of the core elements of the game is spending a lot of time doing bonus cutscenes in order to build up your relationships with other people in order to strengthen your spells for battle. Summoning Personas isn't truly collecting in the manner of Pokemon either. You do have a compendium that collects all your Personas and allows you to "summon" (aka re-equip) them for the purposes of re-use or fusion (combining multiple Personas into a new one) but you'll do a lot more fusion and experimentation then you will hanging out in the wild collecting.

 

Again, I think this is one of the greatest games I've ever played but if you do not like RPGs, THIS GAME IS NOT FOR YOU. That said, I hope you ignore this advice, play it, and fall in love with it.

[cimerians]

Buy this game. It should be the only RPG you will ever need on the Vita and enjoy it.

 

If your into a bit of anime or Japanese culture along with old school western turn based RPG's then this is the game for you.

 

Its kind of like Pokemon where you gather Pesona's and mix them to create others and throw in some supernatural bizzare stuff and you have Persona.

 

Most of the Persona games use similar battle systems and gameplay so if you play one game all the others will be basically the same so you dont have to learn new systems unlike Final Fantasy which changes every game.

 

Throw in a cool story and you have a great RPG.

 

Persona 4 is probably the best RPG on the PS2 and it seems they improved it a lot on the Vita.

 

Like I said, go for it.

[MagitekAngel]

On a system anchored almost entirely by PS3 cross-buy ports, P4 Golden is a no-brainer.

[DaytonaUSA]

You don't like hard core RPGs and you're on the fence about Persona? That's like someone who doesn't like sports pining over a season ticket.

 

I said there are certain RPGs that I love, and I named them. I only play the certain few that really make me fall in love with it, which aren't many.

 

One of the reasons I'm so interested is all the amount of content and gameplay. I also like the heavy cultural content in the game, as some if what I've seen in YouTube makes me remember my time in Japan.

 

I'm just missing that game I can keep coming back to, and enjoy for a long time. If the story and characters are there I'm sure I can get used to the turn based combat.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone. I just wish there was a demo. Been liking the DoA demo quite a bit. Heck I guess I should just get both...

[Hatta]

So is the game worth it for someone like me? I want something more fleshed out, while still letting me know what to do. I don't want a game that will be over in a couple days worth of hard playing, but then again I don't want something where I feel like there's no goal (Skyrim).

 

I would say yes. Persona is very good about keeping you on track. You won't get lost and have no idea what to do. And yet they give you plenty of room to make choices. Not choices that affect the plot, but choices that affect your character and his relationships. And since you enjoy Japanese culture, you'll enjoy the setting a lot.

 

As long as you're not someone who is bothered by long cutscenes, you should enjoy Persona. It can be a little grindy too, but Persona 3 was worse in that respect. But if you enjoyed Pokemon, you should enjoy the combat here. It's a bit deeper.