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[adamsapple]

One thing I absolutely love (included in P4 Golden too) is the inclusion of the safety mode for story play through so the player can focus on S link and get the most out of the story and characters. Great for once you've beaten the game one time and want to do a second play through for completing all the confidants.

More games should add features like this.

 

[bizzarewars]

The only reason people prefer Persona 4 over 5 is because they like their true antagonists coming out of nowhere and shoehorned in.

Spoiler

mild /s. Persona 4's story fell apart at the end and the more people who acknowledge that, the better.

I'd rather be surprised at an antagonist than knowing who the big bad was within the first five minutes of loading up the game.

 

[AdmiralMikey]

P5 is the game that makes me wish I had more time to play games. I've mustered about 70 hours in the 6 months since it's come out and I'm fighting against trying other games until I've gotten through it. That's a pretty strong endorsement, I believe.

 

[Kitoro]

This thread makes me want to introduce Persona 4 Golden to my girlfriend before we start 5, but I'd want to play it together. I have a sealed PS TV thingy I got for $20. Can we play my Vita copy of the game comfortably on a TV, or is it wonky?

 

[kromeo]

This thread makes me want to introduce Persona 4 Golden to my girlfriend before we start 5, but I'd want to play it together. I have a sealed PS TV thingy I got for $20. Can we play my Vita copy of the game comfortably on a TV, or is it wonky?

It works fine, it just looks very blurry

 

[black070]

This thread makes me want to introduce Persona 4 Golden to my girlfriend before we start 5, but I'd want to play it together. I have a sealed PS TV thingy I got for $20. Can we play my Vita copy of the game comfortably on a TV, or is it wonky?

Currently running through it myself on PS TV and it looks just fine.

 

[mdubs]

I've been listening to Last Surprise on the daily since this game came out (notwithstanding hours of it playing in the game) and it is still just as catchy as the first time I heard it.

God-tier normal battle theme right up there with Mass Destruction. Meguro did it again

 

[sense]

A great game and will definitely be in my top 5. A bit heavy handed with the story and dragged on in the end but still thoroughly enjoyed myself to the end.

 

[PK Gaming]

I'd rather be surprised at an antagonist than knowing who the big bad was within the first five minutes of loading up the game.

If you were (supposedly) able to figure out of who the big bad was within 5 minutes of loading up the game, then the same should absolutely apply to Persona 4 (PS2 version).

lol

 

[elhav]

Didn't like it at all. Well maybe a bit at the beginning when I still had some hope things will get better, but it just remained bad all the way to the stupid ending. Persona 4's story and character motivation were far better. Persona 5 had some really bad writing. Of course, almost all Japanese games are badly written, Persona 4 included, but 4's writing was much more coherent and entertaining than anything Persona 5 had. From my experience anyway. The repetitious and boring text conversations between the group's members drove me nuts.

The gameplay is a big improvement, and the game itself is very stylized and shit. But if I can't stand the characters or the story I feel like the gameplay matters fuck all in a game like this.

In short: It is one of the most disappointing games I've played in recent years, and it, along with Persona Q and the other awful games riding on the success of 3 and 4, turned me off the Persona series.

 

[kromeo]

People opinion on P4's story really seems to have turned round since the ps2 days...

 

[Wowfunhappy]

The only reason people prefer Persona 4 over 5 is because they like their true antagonists coming out of nowhere and shoehorned in.

Spoiler

mild /s. Persona 4's story fell apart at the end and the more people who acknowledge that, the better.

I think it's helpful to think of Persona 4's "true" ending as an extra bonus, rather then the intended or best experience. It's the ending most players will discover naturally if they aren't using a guide or following instructions from the internet, and it leaves you with a better final dungeon theme, a superior final boss, and a better-paced story. From this perspective (mega Persona 4 spoiler),

Spoiler

Adachi

is effectively the real antagonist, as is hinted at throughout the entire story.

In other words, the internet ruins everything.

Oh, and the true-ending antagonist was hinted at,

Spoiler

at the gas station at the beginning of the game.

. I don't think its reveal was any more out-of-nowhere than

Spoiler

fake Igor.

This thread makes me want to introduce Persona 4 Golden to my girlfriend before we start 5, but I'd want to play it together. I have a sealed PS TV thingy I got for $20. Can we play my Vita copy of the game comfortably on a TV, or is it wonky?

It's fine. Just keep in mind you'll be playing at standard definition, so expect things to look a bit pixelated.

Your other option is to play the PS2 version in an emulator, but then you're playing the PS2 version, and will have to deal with PCSX2.

 

[Wollan]

I can see why many people love it. The intertwined art style is quite something. It also deserves more hours from my side before completely backlogging it (I have merely played it for ~8 hours) but there's more tempting games right now.

But for me it's too verbose. I feel like I'm not getting enough peace of mind to mess around with gameplay. And for some reason the basic traversal joystick control feels kinda off.

 

[elhav]

People opinion on P4's story really seems to have turned round since the ps2 days...

Non of the Persona games has a particularly good story, but when compared with Persona 5 a lot of us do think it's much better.

If anyone tells me Persona 4 is even remotely close, when it comes to writing and story, to games like Witcher 3 or The Last Of Us, I would laugh at them, but Persona 4 was just fun. The group and character interaction were fun. The story progressed more naturally etc.

 

[StingX2]

Top 10 all time for me, an experience I won't see topped for years

 

[Big Green Anus]

Style over substance. Game was also too long with padding to increase length. I would rather play Knack 2 again on the hardest difficulty than this again

 

[Ceallach]

Great game but ultimately a disappointment. But a disappointing tangential Shin Megami Tensei is still better than most.

 

[totowhoa]

Just beat it this week. LOVED it. Really preferred the small town vibe of 4 and some of the characters there, but overall I’d say P5 is my favorite. The gameplay is fantastic.

 

[Vesves]

First Persona I ever played. I loved it at first, adore the music, but it really started to drag for me. Felt like a chore to finish the game by the end. There were some truly maddening puzzles in a few of the dungeons and I wanted to rip my hair out. I also got really sick of the "Ryuji is so stupid" and "Ann is so sexy" jokes everyone was STILL making after a hundred hours of gameplay.

 

[redfox088]

the velvet room being

Spoiler

at the bottom of momentos so you spend a good bit of the play through right outside the stairway to the final boss.

was pretty novel now that I think about it.

 

[ClearMetal]

The party favoritism is ridiculous. Makoto is so integral to the phantom thieves that the game would straight up end after Madarame if it weren't for her. She get's so much screen time compared to the rest of the party I ask myself if she was intended to be the main character at some point. She's also the best party member so she's a must have on your team. Compared to characters like Ann or Yusuke who contribute nothing to the team and it's evident who was the favorite in P Studio's eyes.

I mildly disagree with the bolded. Makoto is a good party member for most of the game, being able to fill most roles (physical damage, magic damage, healing and support) relatively well. She's not as good as the actual specialists, though, especially during later dungeons. Ann eventually gets Concentrate, that alone puts her damage output miles above Makoto during the end-game. Same goes for Ryuji and Charge. I guess she can be the 4th party member, but even then Morgana (dedicated healing) and Haru (great gun damage, good support options) are equally viable.

I agree about Yusuke, though. I feel they should've gone the Chie route with him and give him Apt Pupil to focus on critical hits. Now he's just a poor man's Ryuji.

 

[petran79]

Non of the Persona games has a particularly good story, but when compared with Persona 5 a lot of us do think it's much better.

If anyone tells me Persona 4 is even remotely close, when it comes to writing and story, to games like Witcher 3 or The Last Of Us, I would laugh at them, but Persona 4 was just fun. The group and character interaction were fun. The story progressed more naturally etc.

I'd say Princess Maker 5 trumps over Persona 4 too, including character interactions.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Non of the Persona games has a particularly good story, but when compared with Persona 5 a lot of us do think it's much better.

Persona 4's plot was nothing special, but the characters felt more believable, relatable, and "real" than any other fictional characters in any other type of media I've experienced.

 

[Ostrava]

I like persona 5 but its events are lacking, it often feels as though you don't get to spend meaningful time with your party members.

 

[meerak]

I really loved it at the beginning, but dropped off about 30 hours in. I just found the pacing of the game was really fighting me often, as much as l loved the music, art and quite a lot of the dialog. I could only really get in the groove when playing for very long sessions (3-4 hours +) and that got harder and harder as time went on. Ultimately I realized that what I really want is something *like* Persona 5, but with a little (or a lot) more freedom in my day to day activities.

I will say it was really mind-blowing (this was my first Persona game) to play a JRPG with true-blue fun/challenging/interesting combat, at least coming from old FF games which were just Press X to Eliminate Foe.

I still have this feeling that I will go back to it one day, but, I don't know to be honest.

 

[gfxtwin]

Played for I guess seven or eight hours and couldn't get into it. It kinda has almost nothing but all of the things I don't like about anime lol. Couldn't get into the style of gameplay and how focused it was on dialogue+story+characters that were not very interesting to me. Love the soundtrack though.

 

[see5harp]

The games are so mechanical and repetitive. I really don't understand how anyone believes any of the dialogue or characters are realistic compared to characters in other mediums like fiction or television shows.

 

[Replicant]

I find it a bit disappointing.

Too repetitive for my taste and the twist (or is it double-twist?) was needlessly over-the-top and bordering on unbelievable. I don't find myself liking any of the characters either. This was my first persona, which makes it even more disappointing as I was looking forward to enjoying the series for the first time.

 

[Q--_-]

Makoto is my GOTY

But on the real, it is still my GOTY

 

[Jolkien]

Disapointed a bit. Thankfully, much better jrpg came out this year otherwise I'd care a bit more.

P4G is still the best in the serie I found.

 

[Spinosaurus]

The party favoritism is ridiculous. Makoto is so integral to the phantom thieves that the game would straight up end after Madarame if it weren't for her. She get's so much screen time compared to the rest of the party I ask myself if she was intended to be the main character at some point. She's also the best party member so she's a must have on your team. Compared to characters like Ann or Yusuke who contribute nothing to the team and it's evident who was the favorite in P Studio's eyes.

Nah, far from it.

(although her ultimate weapon bonuses definitely makes me think the devs had a favourite loool)

 

[kromeo]

The games are so mechanical and repetitive. I really don't understand how anyone believes any of the dialogue or characters are realistic compared to characters in other mediums like fiction or television shows.

It's still an anime game, if people want the characters to behave like they were designed by naughty dog then they're looking in the wrong place

 

[tiebreaker]

Best Persona game

 

[Novel Mike]

The only reason people prefer Persona 4 over 5 is because they like their true antagonists coming out of nowhere and shoehorned in.

Spoiler

mild /s. Persona 4's story fell apart at the end and the more people who acknowledge that, the better.

I'm sorry but what?

Spoilers for both Persona 4 and 5.

Spoiler

Are you referring to Adachi or Izanami? Both of them have proper foreshadowing with Adachi having a slip of the tongue when they capture Namatame which Naoto later points out not to mention him always pointing the kids in the 'right' direction he wanted them to go in while always seeming to be a goofball making mistakes.

Izanami is foreshadowed twice once in the very beginning of the game with the handshake (which is extra revealing as the controller rumbles on PS2 when this originally happens) and then later on during the school trip when one of the P3 teachers tells you about the story of Izanami and Izanagi. Simply put knowing the story of the two it would be very strange that the make characters persona is Izanagi but Izanami isn't anywhere in the game, hell it also gets foreshadowed towards the end with Adachi's Persona also being a form of Izanagi drawing a direct link between Yu and Adachi which leads to the letter he writes to Yu that connects everything together and them (as well as Namatame) all visiting the gas station when arriving in town.

Either way though I don't know how you think that the plot was better laid out with Fake Igor (no foreshadowing in the game, just the voice change), or 'The Holy Grail' or whatever god of whatever that is revealed at the end. None of it is foreshadowed at all, it all comes out of literally no where and has no prior build up that makes any relevant sense.

 

[Wamb0wneD]

Most of the characters and pacing weren't up to par with the rest of the game and the repetitive nature of meeting someone, going into a dungeon, awaken their Persona, bossfight, rinse and repeat gets really stale after a while. The story was also a bit on the weaker side. The music, artstyle, the Personas and mood the game conveyed overall kept me going till the end. I really like the game but it's not some GOAT stuff for me. Also fuck Morgana. Let me go outside.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

My GOTY, but it is a biiiiiit too long.

 

[T.O.P]

Ended up getting bored of it halfway through, started skipping dialogue than i just dropped out and watched the ending on YT

Meh

 

[FlaygletheBagel]

It's a great game, but it's held back by horrendous pacing. It's just way too drawn out, and I'd argue it would be way, way better if it were 2 or 3 dungeons shorter.

I did enjoy my time with it despite that. I don't think I could do a replay of it anytime soon though.

 

[Afrocious]

Novel Mike, your verbose justification on the ending to Persona 4 is a testament on how folks are so quick to prop the game on a pedestal. Not that it's a bad thing, but I think stepping away for a bit to look at the game objectively would be wise.

Spoiler

Game would've been better without Izanami. Regardless of what happens in the beginning with the handshake, that's essentially dropped up until the last bits of the game.

At least with Persona 5, expectations were played with due to Igor's VA changing, bringing up the question why it was changed to begin with when only his Japanese VA passed away. Then it comes together, which I can't help but applaud.

I love me some Persona 4 but damn man.

 

[PK Gaming]

I think it's helpful to think of Persona 4's "true" ending as an extra bonus, rather then the intended or best experience. It's the ending most players will discover naturally if they aren't using a guide or following instructions from the internet, and it leaves you with a better final dungeon theme, a superior final boss, and a better-paced story. From this perspective (mega Persona 4 spoiler),

Spoiler

Adachi

is effectively the "true" antagonist, as is hinted at throughout the entire story.

In other words, the internet ruins everything.

Oh, and the true-ending antagonist was hinted at,

Spoiler

at the gas station at the beginning of the game.

. I don't think its reveal was any more out-of-nowhere

Spoiler

fake Igor.

This is pretty much how I see it. The game's true climax is the

Spoiler

Adachi dungeon

, with the Ttue final antagonist essentially acting as a superboss that tied up all loose ends.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

This is pretty much how I see it. The game's true climax is the

Spoiler

Adachi dungeon

, with the Ttue final antagonist essentially acting as a superboss that tied up all loose ends.

there is also a lot more foreshadowing in golden than vanilla.

 

[Chie Satonaka91]

I think it's helpful to think of Persona 4's "true" ending as an extra bonus, rather then the intended or best experience. It's the ending most players will discover naturally if they aren't using a guide or following instructions from the internet, and it leaves you with a better final dungeon theme, a superior final boss, and a better-paced story. From this perspective (mega Persona 4 spoiler),

Spoiler

Adachi

is effectively the "true" antagonist, as is hinted at throughout the entire story.

In other words, the internet ruins everything.

Oh, and the true-ending antagonist was hinted at,

Spoiler

at the gas station at the beginning of the game.

. I don't think its reveal was any more out-of-nowhere

Spoiler

fake Igor.

It's fine. Just keep in mind you'll be playing at standard definition, so expect things to look a bit pixelated.

Your other option is to play the PS2 version in an emulator, but then you're playing the PS2 version, and will have to deal with PCSX2.

I mean (huge Persona 4 spoilers)

Spoiler

Izanami was hinted at earlier in the game, when the Investigation Team visits the school from the third game and gets that long lecture from that teacher who tells the story of Izanagi and Izanami. Your starting persona is Izanagi, that should be fairly obvious that Izanami appears somewhere in the game

.

 

[phoisgood495]

The game is really good, but it's sooooooooo long. I enjoy it when I play it, but every time I turn it on I know it's like a 3-5 hour time commitment minimum to feel like I've made any progress so I've been taking my time and playing once every so often in a long stretch.

My GF loves watching it, so she keeps bugging me to play it, but I find it really hard to build up the motivation to play knowing I'm only about halfway-2/3 of the way through...

 

[PK Gaming]

I absolutely get liking 4's cast over 5's, but I really don't get the "4 had a more natural cast."

It really... really didn't. This is something 5 absolutely nails over 4; the characters feel far more grounded (and perhaps less likeable as a result).

 

[edgefusion]

Playing through this now and the games over-reliance on false choices is really frustrating. Right now I'm looking at two options which read "Let's do this tomorrow" or "Let's stop for today". The three or four dialog choices I had before this one were all in the same vein. It's too much, I know the game wants me to feel like I'm involved but it's having the opposite effect. I'm constantly being made aware of how little impact I have on the story, or characters responses.

 

[Thoraxes]

Novel Mike, your verbose justification on the ending to Persona 4 is a testament on how folks are so quick to prop the game on a pedestal. Not that it's a bad thing, but I think stepping away for a bit to look at the game objectively would be wise.

Spoiler

Game would've been better without Izanami. Regardless of what happens in the beginning with the handshake, that's essentially dropped up until the last bits of the game.

At least with Persona 5, expectations were played with due to Igor's VA changing, bringing up the question why it was changed to begin with when only his Japanese VA passed away. Then it comes together, which I can't help but applaud.

I love me some Persona 4 but damn man.

Not to mention the

Spoiler

Grail is just a physical representation of what had been building up for the entire game. The object itself may come out of nowhere, but what it represents and the ideals it shackles humanity to is deeply seeded the entire game in absolutely everything everyone does in all of the storylines/confidants. That the people you saved from those fates are the only ones untainted at the end when everything goes to shit is just further proof that you've unshackled them from the unjust status quo that stands to enslave humanity. It being connected to all the people its imprisoned in its ideals helps show it too, though for some reason people like to take it literally, which is absolutely not what the ending is or represents.

The essence of rebellion and the will to reject unjust norms permeates everything the game does.

Izanagi had almost no foreshadowing, was never a prevalent figure throughout the game, didn't have any long build-up, and no real hints throughout that were notable in any fashion. Even Persona 3 managed to nail this aspect extremely well through Nyx, with Apathy Syndrome, death, and the homogenization of humanity always being present.

 

[GTR R35_Supra RZ]

Ended up getting bored of it halfway through, started skipping dialogue than i just dropped out and watched the ending on YT

Meh

Mah nnnggghhhaaaa.

 

[Novel Mike]

Novel Mike, your verbose justification on the ending to Persona 4 is a testament on how folks are so quick to prop the game on a pedestal. Not that it's a bad thing, but I think stepping away for a bit to look at the game objectively would be wise.

Spoiler

Game would've been better without Izanami. Regardless of what happens in the beginning with the handshake, that's essentially dropped up until the last bits of the game.

At least with Persona 5, expectations were played with due to Igor's VA changing, bringing up the question why it was changed to begin with when only his Japanese VA passed away. Then it comes together, which I can't help but applaud.

I love me some Persona 4 but damn man.

Yeah, no.

Spoiler

Izanami is how you do a good twist. They basically tell you THIS SCENE IS IMPORTANT when you first start the game with the controller rumbling and what happens to the MC getting sick afterwords and then dreaming about being in the final dungeon and trying to fight Izanami but Yu can't see anything because of the flog. You forget about it though because the plot changes from that point on and becomes about the murders and trying to find that truth. When you learn about Izanami at the school trip its clearly setting up a 'continuation' of that story with Yu's Persona being Izanagi. It's setting up the actual endgame at about 2/3rds through the story just without directly spelling everything out for you since the murder mystery is still the primary focus of the story right then.

The biggest theme of Persona 4 is finding 'truth' this is why the ending battle scene is so epic. Yu removes his glasses because he doesn't need them anymore because he sees the truth, he can see through the fog, through Izanami and her devilish form. It's the entire point of the entire game. Without Izanami we'd be left with so many questions, where did the midnight channel come from, where did the Persona powers come from, why didn't Yu have to awaken a Persona from a shadow, ect. By seeing the truth Yu fully understands everything that has happened and with that known he can truly say goodbye to his friends and new family at Inaba, nothing is left nagging him that isn't explained.

Also just want to mention this... Izanami as the gas station attendant is around the game on rainy days. She is a NPC that you can interact with on those days so she doesn't just disappear after meeting Yu, shes literally there the whole game you just don't know who she really is then.

I'll give you that the voice actor being changed for Igor to symbolize that its not Igor is a GREAT twist but not the 'god' thats behind him. You talk about how Izanami wasn't foreshadowed well but what about Yaldabaoth whose name I had to look up because I didn't remember it because he has NO significance in the story until the 'reveal' theres no foreshadowing or build up hes just suddenly the mastermind and is evil for the sake of being evil, Izanami we already knew her backstory from the school trip so her desire made sense. Yaldabaoth doesn't have anything like this hes just kinda there because they wanted to repeat as much of the previous Persona's endgames as possible when they didn't need to. You said Izanami being in P4 would've made the game better but I can argue the exact same thing about Yaldabaoth because outside of the Igor twist he brings nothing to the game besides a final endgame sequence that is going out of its way to try and be as epic as possible when it doesn't need to be.

Persona 5 has a big problem with trying to constantly outdo itself by have more and more grandiose events. Each Palace is bigger then the last as well as the target the group goes after. You go from a school teacher to a con artist, to a mob boss, to a CEO, to the soon to be prime minister, oh and then a god because how you do you surpass the leader of a country? We had to keep going to something more epic right? Oh the entire world is being taken away and then Joker has to summon a mecha sized Persona to defeat the final boss because we need to be as grandiose as possible right? For 'Phantom Thieves' whose whole goal the entire game has been about about doing everything secretively with a cover mechanic that literally makes you invisible to enemies and the final sequence is basically summoning a Gundam sized Persona in space to take out the god of control? Really?

*ahem* I'm getting a bit off topic now but yeah, Persona 5 has a lot of fucking issues as I've stated multiple times in this thread already. I'm not going to call Persona 4 perfect either, elements of it certainly haven't aged well but if you don't understand why Izanami works so well then I highly suggest you read through: http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Izanami to really dive in to her ultimate role in the game. I think the biggest difference between the two is that Izanami generally acts in a 'god' like role in Persona 4 never truly being evil where as Yaldabaoth acts more like an evil super villain plotting and taking over the velvet room and what not instead of acting like a god in any way. I don't think his plan was bad but for the being behind it all to be a god that is never once properly foreshadowed? Yeah it never really seemed well thought out to me.

If you want to debate about this fine but I'm not going to go in depth anymore if you aren't going to explain your reasoning for the various arguments you keep presenting.

 

[ZeroX03]

Re: voice actor stuff,

Spoiler

it’s a nice twist if you’ve played the past games and especially if you’re aware of the Japanese VA history but narratively that’s fucking meaningless if P5 is your first game in the series. That’s should be a cherry on top, not the main hint. There should be self contained hints.

 

[Y2Kev]

Are there ANY good characters in this game?

Ryuji - aggressively stupid
Ahn - first world problems the person
Makoto - walking waifu archetype
Haru - lol
Morgana - just shut the fuck up
Yusuke - I forgot he was a character
Futaba - I guess the least bad

That's the problem with this game. Everyone sucks.