Persona 4 Golden

Release

Friday, June 15, 2012

Critic score

86/100

Platform families

Editorial overview

Inside Persona 4 Golden

What it is

Persona 4 Golden is an enhanced version of the role-playing game Persona 4, combining turn-based combat with daily life simulation. Players control a high school student who moves to the rural town of Inaba for one year and becomes involved in investigating a series of murders linked to a mysterious world inside television sets. Gameplay is divided between exploring randomly generated dungeons where players fight Shadows using summoned creatures called Personas, and navigating daily life by attending school, building friendships through Social Links, and developing character attributes.

Golden adds new story content including the character Marie, additional Personas, online features, new difficulty settings, expanded voice acting, and additional animated cutscenes over the original PlayStation 2 release.

The premise

A high school student arrives in the rural town of Inaba to spend a year living with his uncle and young cousin. Shortly after his arrival, a series of mysterious murders begins. Victims are found hanging from elevated structures with no clear cause of death. The protagonist and his classmates discover they can enter a fog-filled world through television screens, and that people who appear on a local urban legend broadcast called the Midnight Channel are the next to be targeted. Using the power of Personas, physical manifestations of their psyches, the group forms an Investigation Team to rescue potential victims from the TV world and identify the killer before the fog rolls in.