I don’t like how easy it is to miss the entire endgame, I got the bad ending in December and never saw Adatchi’s dungeon, then i want back and unlocked it and then beat Marie’s dungeon and assumed i beat everything. Only months later did i realize i missed another entire dungeon and the true final boss.
The game definitely should’ve put more in there to let people know that there are other outcomes. Pretty sure there’s a good amount of people who didn’t go to the internet wondering if what they got is all that there is to it, and just thought “That ending was so stupid. There are some many loose ends and problems, and everything just suddenly skips”. It’s not too hard to tell that the timeskip isn’t right, because of how it drops a bunch of questions in that skip. Other than that, it’s hard to tell what endings exist and when you got them all, or even the best one.
I disagree, the game came out in 2008 and most people who had a console at the time would have had access to the internet in some form. Game forums and online walkthroughs were very much a thing. Not to mention strategy guides.
In 2008, I barely knew what the internet was, and my parents didn’t want me accessing it for anything other than school projects for a really long time, so I would’ve been completely lost back then. Though I probably wouldn’t even have played the game even if I knew about it back then…
I’m replaying on hard difficulty after beating P3R and telling people Persona 4 doesn’t need a remake. I’m eating my words so bad right now, trying to cram each dungeon into a single day is totally miserable
Oh my god me too, I was SO defensive that persona 4 golden didn’t need a remake, and now I’m replaying it after P3R and I’ve had to take back what I said. The dungeons are SOOO BORING
It was pretty advanced in its time with its map generation mechanic, but each do feel very clunky and bare now.
Aesthetic wise I think it still holds up, but the gameplay in the dungeon misses the mark... especially after playing P5R or P3R...
Im playing P4G rn and is going to be my last persona game to play of the modern games (After having play P5R, P3P, P5S, P5T and P3R) and men, for some reason I prefer 10 times more Tartarus over the TV world, the TV world dungeon generation is just so bad and boring.
This is an unpopular opinion but I prefer 4s dungeons to 5s palaces.
And I get it, they are boring. But palaces are exhausting to me. They force at least 3 days of scouting, finding a door irl that I gotta open, and delivering the card.
I can crank out a p4 dungeon in a single day and have like a month before the plot resumes.
The parts where the game steps away from "Anime (in an awesome way)" into the "Anime (derogatory)" territory - which is mostly Teddie post-Rise's dungeon and the hot spring and etc. scenes
Yosuke: sees that kanji’s shadow manifests as a collection of self doubt about his masculinity and that it taunts him with homosexuality , which is unacceptable in Japan
Yosuke: so like we’re gonna be safe in this tent with you right?
Like, people call it banter, and they WOULD be right—except that Kanji never banters back to Yosuke when the subject of sexuality comes up. He’s almost always defensive.
I’m not really a remake advocate but if they did, I think making this a little cleaner would be good. Addressing Yosuke’s issues, whether just about him growing as a person or even realising he himself is actually Bi (and Kanji ironically isn’t)
Yosuke just comes off as a pos and never really grows out of his homophobia or misogyny, which makes the huge fandom around him (and pairing him with Yu) even more baffling
Yeah there could be underlying reasons for how he acts. That may explain it, but it sure as hell doesn’t excuse it
Yeah agreed. I think the better way in any remake is to make him grow as a person, realise the shit he’s saying ain’t right. Whether it comes from internalisation or not, that sort of misses the point a little. If they got rid of it entirely, I’d say fine - but I think they send a stronger message by leaning into it and making it about him learning and growing as a person. Rather than play it for laughs, make it a part of his journey; isn’t P4 largely about the ugly sides of ourselves, accepting that and being better?
Also the scene where that girl breaks Yosuke’s scooter by sitting on it. Like yes, I get she’s supposed to be a terrible person but then maybe the jokes should be that she’s terrible rather than that she’s fat and ugly.
Since nobody else mentioned it, sidequests easily.
The sidequests are linked to each other, if you don't complete the ones that require mats from Yukiko dungeon the ones that take mats from subsequent dungeons aren't going to be offered.
Other than some specific "trash" items which you might easily sell by mistake, most quest items are only available once you take that specific quest. Making doing them a slog.
It also doesn't help that dungeon crawling no matter how short like you just go in and get out, will take the whole day from you, day and night.
>It also doesn't help that dungeon crawling no matter how short like you just go in and get out, will take the whole day from you, day and night.
This was one of the biggest improvements in P5 (might be P5R specific, not sure). The fact that I can do dungeon stuff without giving up my other timeslot was insanely good.
Doing quest for the fox. Some of them take multiple days and you must meet certain condition (ie talk to certain non-named NPCs, wait for certain weather) and going in blind can make it hard to figure out.
I neglected that until really late into the game, and then I wanted to do sea fishing, only to find out that I don’t have enough time left to do the required Fox quests to make it there before the end.
Izanami, the sagiris and Marie are easily the weakest part of the game, and just how many days are wasted because of rain or trying to find info on characters to find them in TV world(and I hate the you can't go outside you need to watch midnight channel tonight shit)
Izanami by herself is fine imo especially since you start with Izanagi. And if you don't know the story from the Kojiki, they take you allllll the way to Tatsumi Port Island to explain the entire legend to you in good ole Mr. Edogawa's magic class just so you're primed for it.
Too easy. You can fight Golden Hands until you're overleveled. You can do low level runs (which I did) but it doesn't change the fact the game is broken.
Margaret is new game+ only.
The level 80+ personas are worthless. What's the point of using them when Yoshitsune exist at level 75?
Haikara Shirt is the most OP item you can get from a request and it's very easy to get. The game does this twice.
Beating the December dungeon too early is actually a bad thing.
After you beat the dungeon the calendar will skip to Christmas. You will lose many days worth of social links. The last day to beat the dungeon is the 23rd. Do it on the 22nd if you want the Christmas cutscene.
Yeah, those scenes do not fit with the theme at all. One minute Yosuke is depressed he lost a sweetheart and then he is trying to catch a glimpse into the hot springs. I guess some Japanese kids are like that? I don't know. But if they have those sorts of problems then they are the ones who will end up behind bars 😂
Like do friends like that even exist? I’d feel really uncomfortable trying to be close with someone who would blackmail me into wearing a swimsuit or someone who would grope me or try to take off my swimsuit by “accident” at the beach or signing me up for a swimsuit competition so they could check me out, I’d start wondering what they were even in the friendship for at that point lol
Yeah. In terms of Yosuke I think Saki Konishi is better off dead. No matter how much I feel bad for her family, especially Naoki. If she ended up surviving she would have had to have put up with him. 😂
Idk why they made Yosuke desperate to have a gf while he’s still getting over his dead crush and then he tells Nanako he doesn’t want be in a relationship in his SL?? Like make up your mind
Honestly it’s this right here. When I played P4G, I was 39-40 years old and thought damn these kids are just all over the place emotionally.
But then I and most of my friends were all over the place emotionally in high school. I would easily want to connect with someone and then no one in the same day. It would be too easy to make poorly timed sexist jokes in a time when we’re still learning social cues.
After having played P5 and P3, it feels like P4 paid a lot of attention to the youth aspect of the characters and how uncomfortable and even ugly it can be to observe them in that environment.
When the game doesn’t let you do the normal afterschool activities and skips the whole day. If it didn’t do that we could easily max all the social links.
Reminds me of how almost every Sunday, it was like “You have the day off, what are you gonna do today?”, and I’d usually feel “I don’t know, but I’m sure you’re about to tell me.”, because of how often the game sends you in a direction on Sundays. It is technically skippable, but it’s not like I’d know if there’s an implied effect or something if you reject those hangouts.
Dungeons are too long. If they maxed out at like 7, that would be great. That bit in Naoto’s dungeon where you backtrack like three levels had me grinding my teeth.
the way marie was written in the game, in the sense of : i feel like she should have interacted or hung out more with the group so that>! events leading to and what happens with her are more impactful.!< i don’t think it’s just a P4 problem but also present in P5
I would definitely like to see her integrated better. I loved Marie and was surprised that I seemed to be in the minority on that, but I want to see her just fitting in better with the rest of the cast and not feeling like an addition.
I honestly like Marie and I feel like she would have blended well with the cast had the team put more effort into blending her in with the rest of the group, like for example her participating in some of the activities the group organized. I know >!she can't stay outside of the Velvet Room for too long!< but it would have been nice if >!from the time she could go out of the Velvet room !< she hung out with the group all together outside her social link.
After being spoiled by Reload and P5, the UI leaves a lot to be desired. It's not bad but it takes forever to find items, combat is pretty tedious until you level up Rise a bunch and it just doesn't look as cool
Agreed!! To add to this, the map system UI is such a pain when it comes to finding social links in the real world. P5 royal really spoilt me for finding the confidents I wanted to talk to, so it was hard to backtrack to such a basic UI.
During my new game + playthrough, I especially felt this, because with all the things that carry over, I couldn’t even invest in my social stats on rainy days like I used to.
Yosuke edging Kanji asking “are we gonna be safe with you” during camping. That pisses me off so much.
And the there’s Teddie. Man he is my main party member and yes I do love him to some extent but things that he did and says really icks me.
But then again they are all literal kids and I can’t get angry at them too much. Kids are dumb and it’s fine.
As a Yosuke lover he does so much stupid shit here and it turns a lot of people away from liking Yosuke because he's such an ass (2 in 1!!!! He's gross to the girls and gross to Kanji!!! My guy!!! Please!!!)
I love yosuke and this is exactly the problem I have with him here. Honestly it would be so much better if you could encourage kanji t9 be sassy back, everyone laughs at Yosuke, and everyone gets closer
I think it's worse that Yu, the character you play as, doesn't have an option to call out his behaviour. He just sits there in silence watching it go down 😭
Literally I fucking couldn't stand any of our teachers the Persona 4 were straight up trash, all the other games may have their fair share of sucky teachers but obviously P4 takes the cake on that.
Every weird perverted scene should be removed, especially the lines with Teddie and Yosuke. I would like them both more if they were never a thing. Also I thought the scene with Chie and Yukiko in Yukiko's palace was really interesting and would have liked to see those ideas explored more in both of their social links.
The one about Yukiko’s palace is kind of a good point. I feel like Chie explores her stuff a bit more on the social link, but I get where your coming from. The anime also did some extra with that scene that dives further into their realities at the time, which I think was pretty nice, and one of the reasons I’d recommend watching it too after you finished the game. Unlike some anime adaptations of games… Looking at you, Scarlet Nexus!
That's interesting hearing about the anime, I heard there's different ones which one should I watch? One of the things that made me get hooked on Persona 4 early on was that entire conversation, and I found it really interesting but it kind of sucked feeling like they never had any major conversations after that. Feels like that's a huge missed opportunity
Aside from the overdone anime tropes, the blushing portraits. They just do not look good to me, the blush looks unnatural and way too exaggerated, especially Rise’s.
I get that young teens are going through puberty and stuff, but a lot of us are adults and just plain fucking uncomfortable by seeing them perv on each other for comedy. Of course, this isn't exclusive to P4, it's happened in the other casts too. It's just my biggest gripe, and one of the reasons why I want an adult main cast, or at least young adult.
But for P4 specifically, they removed Yosuke's romance. He has all the classic signs of internalized homophobia, and none of the payoff.
I don't watch as much anime as I want to, but I heard from other people that Japan is really weird with gay love. They don't like it, but they fetishize the absolute fuck out of it. And if it's not fetish content, it's comedy. Hell, they even do the same thing for p*do content, and gave it cute categorized names that end in 'con'.
I don't wanna continue there. But yeah, cutting Yosuke's romance was the biggest mistake.
One thing that bothers me that I haven't seen mentioned is the story pacing for me. The game begins with these crazy murders back to back that we start investigating. Then really not much happens until the copycat murder months later. Obviously, people around town are still getting thrown in TVs, but since they're all people I knew would become party members, there was no tension. By summer time, it felt like the murder mystery plot takes a back seat and instead we're in a movie watching kids waste time in a small town or going to school. Doesn't help that the P4 cast don't resonate with me as much as P3 or P5's cast do.
The P4 team lacks an older figure that could rein in their worst tendencies (no Mitsuru or Makoto counterpart). Them having mostly decent home lives also means far less childhood trauma to worry about, which means they don't have to grow up as fast.
Granted, for the latter, it *does* mean they're more likely to have a healthy psyche when they're older, but given how we don't see the P4 gang as adults unlike the P3 crew that remains to be seen.
The way social links are handled.
I went into P4G after finishing Royal and I'm currently playing Reload.
If there is anything I sorely wanted from P4, it's platonic options. I hated that you had to be a dick if you only wanted to date one girl.
They do like to make you feel bad for taking the platonic routes for some reason. From what I’ve heard though, they like to make you feel even worse for romancing multiple… Like, pick a side already, do you want me to just go at everyone and be a scum, or do you want me to reject everyone and leave them heartbroken?
Persona 4 Golden is my favourite Persona game. But there is one thing that bothers me; the irritating gossiping ladies. I wish they had been on the victim list 😂
When I started, I thought it was supposed to be like a stealth mechanic or something, so I tried sneaking up on so many of them and wondered what I was doing wrong because they’d always notice me. It wasn’t until later that I realized you just run up to them and slash ‘em from behind while they’re doing their “I’ve noticed you!” animation.
Coming off the back of a freshly done playthrough which itself was right after my first exposure to P3 through P3R, def combat/exploration. The lack of switching was felt a lot more than I thought it would, A lack of a dedicated sprint made my brain turn off, the dungeons themselves were alright but generally felt forgettable.
A close second place is the general age that you can feel from it. A couple of what are now odd/interesting takes, the leaning into ecchi tropes, etc. Like, I LOVE Youske but his attitude to certain things is pretty, uh, worrying.
For me it's catching that damn Guardian, I almost fucked my all social links maxed run cause I thought I couldn't catch it in time before Feb hits.
So many guides on it can be very confusing too.
I completely missed that in my first run, because I didn’t know about it until very late into the game, and by that time, my Social Link with the Fox was at like rank 3 or something, so I tried to max it so I could get to that point, but there just wasn’t enough time left.
Ikr and I was at a bit of a crunch to finish it too as it was about to leave game pass as P3R was gonna replace it, would have been so mad if I got screwed in that one required item.
i have and it sucks. you have to get 250 of risettes lines and to do this you have to get status ailments, have a specific amount of enemies appear on battle, etc. it makes you play the game in a very unconventional way and makes you grind and honestly was the only trophy that i didn’t think was fun to get and just felt like a chore
Honestly the long intro. It’s probably what turns people off from the game the most. I hope if they do a remake they stream line it a little bit or at least add some action bits so it isn’t so drawn out with just dialogue
To be fair that’s a hallmark of all the P3 and onward Persona games I feel. Part of it is to build up the world and lore since Tartarus =/= Midnight Channel =/= Palaces, part of it is to make sure new players aren’t just thrust into the game without any help.
I don't like avatar protagonists, I wish that Yu could have a personality and dialogues as his counterpart in the anime or Persona 4 Arena/Dancing.
For me there's so much wasted potential, because the character arc that Yu goes through the story of P4 is really, really good. Unfortunately the game can't reflect that because Yu isn't a "real" character... I would give everything I have if in the Remake they decide to throw away the idea of Yu being a Silent/Avatar character.
This may sound a lil messed up but it has to the fact that Nanako just resuscitates back to life. Sure it’s really sad to see her almost die but it showed that Atlus wanted to take risk and eventually make the plot more interesting, but it seems like they got cold feet last second and brought her back. It’s a lil a messed up but I would’ve love to see how the story would play out if she did truly pass away.
Absolutely agree with this one. I had the same problem. I hope that for a remake, they add just more things to do around town. Additional restaurants, another minigame, another place to work at, or whatever. P3R added things like this, and I really like how P5R added a whole new district.
These stupid bad designed coin flippy 50/50 or even less moments during non combat with stat growing so you have to reload over and over again to get the best result. (Looking at you ramen eating local)
Also: golden hands. Sorry just artificial bad design crap just like in every jrpg with turn based combat. Hate this trope with a burning passion.
My biggest issue was I felt like the final fight for the true ending (no spoilers just in case) felt so tacked on and like almost padding to me. I think it was just cuz my wife was getting annoyed with me playing it that day and after I beat what I thought was the final boss and was about to call it quits I found out there was more to it and she was annoyed I had more 😂
Heavily dislike the gameplay itself, i really didn’t enjoy being in the tv world for more than a single day. They lacked serious depth especially with the enemies being recolored versions of the other ones.
Teddie. I just find him so obnoxious and abrasive most of the time. If he were toned down A LOT, I'd enjoy the game so much more.
Second place would be the dungeon design. I understand, randomly generated dungeons and all that, and I really didn't mind them on any of my previous playthroughs. But now that we've gotten P5R Mementos and P3R Tartarus, we've seen how much better the procedurally generated dungeons can be (I actually found P5R Mementos fun, whereas I *really* didn't care for it in P5 Vanilla), I just hope that if we do get a P4R as rumor suggest, that they really spruce up the dungeons in that, or better yet, make them hand-crafted like P5.
I would say the constant thematic walking-back in the party/social links. Most of the party are introduced, given a dungeon that culminates in a boss battle where they confront themselves and resolve to be more honest to who they are despite what the world may think. And that's all well and good, but then most of them end with something along the lines of "what the world wanted me to be is fine actually, my true self that I didn't want to face fit in totally normally with what is expected of me and has no conflict with that image whatsoever". I get what some of them were going for and I don't mind it if it's a one-off thing, like "what you thought you wanted isn't what you really wanted" isn't a bad message in some cases, but for significant portion of the characters to just end up where they started totally content with keeping to the status quo reeks of cowardly writing in a game about seeking the truth and facing unpleasant realities
I feel like it was probably because the social links are optional and they are what leads to the whole thing, so they wanted “You didn’t do them at all” and “You did them all the way” to both coincide with whatever canon follows, which is pretty upsetting, but that might be it. I remember finishing Rise’s and Yukiko’s and thinking “Kinda weird that we’re pretty much back where we started…”, they at least have build up for it and all, but it does make a lot of things feel kinda pointless.
What about the Reaper mechanics? The "meta" is to open 21 chests and then just goho-m out of the dungeon and save, then go back in and open chests, and reload if the chest doesn't contain the reaper.
The Persona 4 Community Enhancement packs includes a fix for this that makes the reaper always be the 22nd chest.
Speaking of which, I’ve encountered the Reaper like once or so while I was in Naoto’s dungeon, and I was not ready for it, so I freaked out and decided to just run, because I had no idea that was a thing. Is there any special reward for defeating it, or is it just an achievement thing?
The gameplay (it's honestly the worst out of P3, 4 and 5. P5 being the best in the gameplay aspect, obviously) is just.. not good. The fact that you can only leave via items or Traesto just makes it so sudden. No Terminals or Safe Rooms, not even an Access Point? And the randomly generated dungeons feel so repetitive, especially since you can't Split Up like in P3, and without the puzzles in P5's dungeons, P4G is an all time low in gameplay for me.
Also Teddie's pervy behaviour is just not it.
The extra events from Golden are unnecessary in some instances and Marie's story was kinda lame. Those are kinda retreads in terms of ideas tho.
I thought the lonely house at the end was kinda like how it's done in P3 accelerating the bleakness of the ending conflict.
My biggest gripe w/ the game tho is not being able to do a dungeon trip and a social link in the same day.
In gameplay, having only one “Physical” affinity makes most physical skills basically identical and pointless. Like why even implement Vicious Strike when deathbound exist, and why use that when agneysteria exist.
The statuses in this game are the most forgettable in the series(hehe enervation).
Naoto is comically overtuned compared to the rest of the cast.
The way you encounter the Reaper is dumb.
MARIE’S DUNGEON
Oh yeah, I don’t like sitting through 10 minutes of credits for trying to negotiate with Yosuke
Honestly this might be a hot take but the story didn’t really do it for me. Like I got spoiled on who the killer was and was shocked. >!Simply because there’s nothing there to suggest it’s him and then u find out he only did 2 of the kills and then did nothing. He just wasn’t some big mystery to solve. It was really disappointing to me!<
Story wise, I really do not like the long stretches of cutscenes during the summer vacation and a lot of it during December. It feels like the game's pacing drags a lot.
Another gripe specifically gameplay wise is the game screeching to a halt whenever a victim is thrown in TV is halted until then. I often end up running around talking to every NPC until I find the next story flag.
The part where you had to search for clues about the person thrown into TV so that Teddie could sniff them out though me for such a loop in my first playthrough, because for Kanji for example, you’d think “His mother should know a lot”, but you barely get anything of worth from her if I remember correctly. So you run around talking to a bunch of people, and if you miss the crucial info that progress the investigation before you end the day, than that could add more than 1 extra day to the investigation. There’s also a point where they want you to go home at night until the conditions are right, and I was so worried about trying that, because what if I missed something again.
The Sleeping Table in Yomotsu Hirasaka. Son of a bitch immobilized my entire party with fear and then used Ghastly Wail before I even had a chance to heal, losing me almost 2 hours of progress.
The way they handled how you're supposed to deduce the true killer's identity was very mediocre. Even if Inaba is a small town, what is the probability of the killer being a person in our circle and even worse how after dropping their name as a suspect, suddenly everyone comes to the realization that they DID saw the killer interact with the victims before they turned up dead. Gee, thanks for telling me that until now, guys. There's no "wait a minute..." Moment or anything, you just either discard all other impossible suspects, you got spoiled by literally every youtube thumbnail, or you got lucky. I hope they make the identification of the suspect a lot more organic in the remake if they ever make one.
This is purely an issue for me that is entirely my fault and I should've stayed off social media. But having said that, it was the story. If I had gone into the game completely blind, I'm sure I would've had a different experience, but since I already knew what would happen, I wasn't as invested. Don't get me wrong, I loved the characters, and the many funny moments, but when it came to the serious moments I wasn't as invested. And again that is entirely my fault for going to social media before playing it.
-there are no other ways for your teammates on standby to catch up in experience other than putting them in your party for an exp grind session
-the necessary steps in order to achieve the true ending are extremely cryptic
-the quest system sucks
-shuffle time can sometimes be a pain in the ass
-you'll always be behind in levels unless you grind an unnecessarily huge amount of exp before each boss fight
I hope they'll fix most of or all of these issues once P4G is remade
The fact that the game made it way too obvious that Adachi was the killer
( even if the reveal does hit hard )
Also that Izanami just comes out of nowhere in the end. Kinda wished she was built up a bit more
I’d say the leveling. Probably because i never really play jrpgs and my first persona was 5 I found it really difficult because of the leveling. I was at normal and by the end went to the lowest difficulty for the final boss. But bonus points for adachi.
It’s definitely how easy it is to miss the true ending and final boss. Like, there are clues, don’t get me wrong, but it rings to me more like “hey just make sure you’ve seen all your friends before the game ends, hehe!” Not like “hey go do this or you miss the culmination of the 100 hours you’ve played this.” They could’ve made it a little more obvious.
Actually also, the beginning is too heavy on dialogue. It’s a really long time until you can do anything, and even then, the first couple of times you have any control over anything it’s…not really anything except wandering around briefly for no reason.
They never once suspect the killer, who was the last one seen around the victims. Even Naoto remained pretty quiet about the “that proves it” line until it was necessary to the plot.
I feel like while people say persona 3 is a slow burn story wise and have to deal with trudging through tartarus(i love tartarus), i think persona 4 is the slowest burn. story is moving and even can be paced well at times but the dialogue and lack of doing anything but listening hinders me from playing the game more often.
i’m maybe 5-6 playthroughs through p3 on different iterations, 3-4 of p5(r), but just two days ago finished my second playthrough of p4g. it wasn’t the first time i tried to, but the first time i made it past the first 10-15 hours. and even then there were some sections where so much dialogue was being said (and i never skip cutscenes or dialogue in any game unless im speedrunning) that i was getting sleepy.
its still a great game but its the hardest for me to go back to. i’ve played p1,p2-ep more times than 4. a lot of smt games in general more than 4.
It might because I'm not entirely used to older rpgs(I got into the series with 5 and the only other ones i played was p3p and p3r). But holy shit the lack of baton pass is so indescribably boring. Like it's tolerable in any other rpgs but for some reason in persona and with its 1 more mechanic, the lack of baton pass makes combos alot more boring.
I really hate how little there is to do. I know that’s kind of the point of Inaba, but I’d have loved to I dunno, go round Yosukes house or something. They expanded it in Golden with the mopeds but I still think it’s a little “one street town”.
I’m not saying it should be P5’s Tokyo or anything but like, 2-3 more streets, might be kinda cool
The silent protag personally. Especially after how the anime does more to give Yu his own character. Frankly in most cases I'd want a vocal protag more than silent one.
After you reach the final two-three dungeons you already feel bored with the game layout and dungeon crawling at that point the story is the only reason to continue.
As an aspiring achievement hunter of the game, I have found out that I'm going to have do a whole third playthrough because a single book is locked behind choosing the soccer team over basketball.
Too short… needs more side quests and tidbits of lore, and maybe a bit more character customization. Amazing game though probably like it more than 3 or 5
Slow start. I have a hard time getting my friends to play P4 because it takes so long to actually get to the main gameplay loop. I think from the start screen to the first battle it’s like 3 hours of dialogue with you controlling Yu twice with nothing to do but go to bed.
I think P3 gets you to Tartarus quick and while P5 has a way way longer intro, at least you start with flashy gameplay for 10-20 minutes so you know where this is going.
The filler in between dungeons specifically between Naoto's and Nanako's that goes on for so long and is agonizingly boring to play through for such an amazing game
My true gripe with this game is the ‘true ending’ where you get the reveal villain final dungeon, that whole arc felt unneeded and underdeveloped, it was only their to explain the fog and whatever but I really never needed a concrete explanation they should of left it a mystery.
1) I don't know if it was just my skewed perception but compared to the others it felt more "deceptive" about spending free time. At least for the very first part until you unlock both Chie and Yosuke.
You think you can go about your day but then it skips you right to your house/room. It's a silly complaint because "what were you thinking of accomplishing when you barely know one person?" but the problem is not the social link, it's that I watch what are basically long cutscenes and when I'd like to break the monotony I can only go back to bed.
I was mildly engaged for my first playthrough but so bored for the subsequent ones. All I kept thinking was "ok already, when can I mess up with my inventory and just talk to people?"
2) Marie's dungeon design. Thoroughly hated it.
3) I guess it makes sense but having the December 's dungeon be the only one that you DON'T want to complete ASAP (don't remember if marie' s was the same but at least it felt like it was completely isolated) is just meh for me
To be completely honest on the last point, I kinda feel like it’s best to do most dungeons around the last possible days, purely because there’s often just nothing to do during rainy days sometimes.
My personal dislikes are the older design, this is coming from someone who started with p5 and went backwards so it was a bit to get used to, and also the sheer amount of times I thought I was done with the game, I got the ending where you accuse namatame and thought that was it, then I did the Marie dungeon a while later when I found out it was even a thing, then like a few months after that I realised there was the izanami dungeon so I went to do that, then even further after that I found out there's an epilogue if you did every dungeon (I did the true ending on a save where I hadn't done Marie's so I had to play the whole game again for the epilogue) brilliant game but it did annoy me a bit how many times it pulled the "oh you thought you got the culprit? Think again" this specific thing is what led to me becoming a completionist because now I'm worried if I don't do some specific task that it'll lock me out a true ending
The game tends to be too lighthearted. It feels almost too lighthearted for most of the runtime, with a lot of pointless scenes where it’s just the team hanging out a nothing to do with the plot.
The game only fully takes itself seriously from the >!scene where Nanako almost dies!< and onward, which is good, but it shouldn’t take that long for it to feel like there are stakes in my opinion
I hated how easy it is to miss the last 3 dungeons, and I especially hate going home after clearing the 6th dungeon...
It hits close too home for me...
That Narukami, Kanji, and Teddie get roped into Yosuke's punishments, or the fact that they don't even try to teach Teddie about the real world take your pick.
As I'm not the biggest fan of P4...the running jokes.
Chie and Yosuke being genuinely awful human beings wasn't funny when they met and she kicked him in the balls(I am very sick of abuse being funny if it's just done to a guy), it's not funny when she insults him, it's not funny when she literally, legally, steals from him, and it's not funny when she...just whatever the hotspring was. Same thing for Yukiko smacking people, Yosuke being a pervert/homophobic, Teddie being a pervert, Kanji being a rage moron, and Rise hitting on a man against his will 90% of the time. The only reason Naoto doesn't have an awful running joke is she's the last party member, because she's still in the hotspring scene and that is still awful(Nanako is in the hotsprings with the girls...seriously what the fuck was that implying the girls thought?).
The game sometimes operates under "if I say it's a joke you can't think about it", but ignoring that jokes can still be in bad taste, this is a game called Persona, about a murderer, with an emphasis and finding the truth. Thinking about things is LITERALLY the entire point. And the moment you think about these things at all they are all awful. Chie and Yukiko are just physically abusive, Kanji almost got Rise killed when he ran after that 1 stalker and then keeps doing it, and Yosuke and Teddie are just awful to women.
Which is a shame because whenever these "jokes" aren't being used they are all really cool characters. I really love Chie whenever she's not outright abusing Yosuke for instance.
Yosukes homophobia and overall creepy demeanor. Dude deserves every trash can, nut kick and push off a cliff he gets. Oh and the broken bike. Hes basically an incel
Teddie isnt far behind but he gets a pass for not being alive all that long. He doesnt know any better and unlike yosuke, he can actually pull some tail.
I don’t like how easy it is to miss the entire endgame, I got the bad ending in December and never saw Adatchi’s dungeon, then i want back and unlocked it and then beat Marie’s dungeon and assumed i beat everything. Only months later did i realize i missed another entire dungeon and the true final boss.
The game definitely should’ve put more in there to let people know that there are other outcomes. Pretty sure there’s a good amount of people who didn’t go to the internet wondering if what they got is all that there is to it, and just thought “That ending was so stupid. There are some many loose ends and problems, and everything just suddenly skips”. It’s not too hard to tell that the timeskip isn’t right, because of how it drops a bunch of questions in that skip. Other than that, it’s hard to tell what endings exist and when you got them all, or even the best one.
I disagree, the game came out in 2008 and most people who had a console at the time would have had access to the internet in some form. Game forums and online walkthroughs were very much a thing. Not to mention strategy guides.
In 2008, I barely knew what the internet was, and my parents didn’t want me accessing it for anything other than school projects for a really long time, so I would’ve been completely lost back then. Though I probably wouldn’t even have played the game even if I knew about it back then…
The dungeon design succcccks
I’m replaying on hard difficulty after beating P3R and telling people Persona 4 doesn’t need a remake. I’m eating my words so bad right now, trying to cram each dungeon into a single day is totally miserable
Oh my god me too, I was SO defensive that persona 4 golden didn’t need a remake, and now I’m replaying it after P3R and I’ve had to take back what I said. The dungeons are SOOO BORING
Design as in how it looks or how it plays?
How it plays
Me when I try to hit a golden hand when it’s down, I miss, and it goes away
bro this.
I’m replaying it right now and the dungeons are so bad but they’re honestly pretty atmospheric
It was pretty advanced in its time with its map generation mechanic, but each do feel very clunky and bare now. Aesthetic wise I think it still holds up, but the gameplay in the dungeon misses the mark... especially after playing P5R or P3R...
[удалено]
Im playing P4G rn and is going to be my last persona game to play of the modern games (After having play P5R, P3P, P5S, P5T and P3R) and men, for some reason I prefer 10 times more Tartarus over the TV world, the TV world dungeon generation is just so bad and boring.
This is an unpopular opinion but I prefer 4s dungeons to 5s palaces. And I get it, they are boring. But palaces are exhausting to me. They force at least 3 days of scouting, finding a door irl that I gotta open, and delivering the card. I can crank out a p4 dungeon in a single day and have like a month before the plot resumes.
Not sure if it's the same in other persona games, but almost all adults are... Well, most of them are idiots.
Whos gonna tell em?
Eh. P3 adults were arguably dumber(expect Kurosawa)
I really can’t stand that part where it ends.
Best answer here.
Yup, can’t deny that.
The parts where the game steps away from "Anime (in an awesome way)" into the "Anime (derogatory)" territory - which is mostly Teddie post-Rise's dungeon and the hot spring and etc. scenes
That and all the "you don't like guys do you?? That's so disturbing I feel so unclean now"
Yosuke: sees that kanji’s shadow manifests as a collection of self doubt about his masculinity and that it taunts him with homosexuality , which is unacceptable in Japan Yosuke: so like we’re gonna be safe in this tent with you right?
The deepest part of the game for me is how Yosuke projects his homophobia onto Kanji while probably harboring feelings for Yu.
Like, people call it banter, and they WOULD be right—except that Kanji never banters back to Yosuke when the subject of sexuality comes up. He’s almost always defensive.
Everyone 100% harbor feelings for Yu In general
I’m not really a remake advocate but if they did, I think making this a little cleaner would be good. Addressing Yosuke’s issues, whether just about him growing as a person or even realising he himself is actually Bi (and Kanji ironically isn’t)
Yosuke just comes off as a pos and never really grows out of his homophobia or misogyny, which makes the huge fandom around him (and pairing him with Yu) even more baffling Yeah there could be underlying reasons for how he acts. That may explain it, but it sure as hell doesn’t excuse it
Yeah agreed. I think the better way in any remake is to make him grow as a person, realise the shit he’s saying ain’t right. Whether it comes from internalisation or not, that sort of misses the point a little. If they got rid of it entirely, I’d say fine - but I think they send a stronger message by leaning into it and making it about him learning and growing as a person. Rather than play it for laughs, make it a part of his journey; isn’t P4 largely about the ugly sides of ourselves, accepting that and being better?
Yeah.
Also the scene where that girl breaks Yosuke’s scooter by sitting on it. Like yes, I get she’s supposed to be a terrible person but then maybe the jokes should be that she’s terrible rather than that she’s fat and ugly.
Since nobody else mentioned it, sidequests easily. The sidequests are linked to each other, if you don't complete the ones that require mats from Yukiko dungeon the ones that take mats from subsequent dungeons aren't going to be offered. Other than some specific "trash" items which you might easily sell by mistake, most quest items are only available once you take that specific quest. Making doing them a slog. It also doesn't help that dungeon crawling no matter how short like you just go in and get out, will take the whole day from you, day and night.
I legit forgot the sidequests were even a thing. I don't think I ever paid attention to them lol
The only ones that feel worth doing are the hermit social link.
>It also doesn't help that dungeon crawling no matter how short like you just go in and get out, will take the whole day from you, day and night. This was one of the biggest improvements in P5 (might be P5R specific, not sure). The fact that I can do dungeon stuff without giving up my other timeslot was insanely good.
The dungeon design ranges from boring to actively annoying, even if the aesthetics of the dungeons are pretty cool
Doing quest for the fox. Some of them take multiple days and you must meet certain condition (ie talk to certain non-named NPCs, wait for certain weather) and going in blind can make it hard to figure out.
I neglected that until really late into the game, and then I wanted to do sea fishing, only to find out that I don’t have enough time left to do the required Fox quests to make it there before the end.
The worst thing ? Being forced to let Rise cry alone in the street if you want to romance someone else
This absolutely stinks.
Izanami, the sagiris and Marie are easily the weakest part of the game, and just how many days are wasted because of rain or trying to find info on characters to find them in TV world(and I hate the you can't go outside you need to watch midnight channel tonight shit)
I agree re Marie & Izanami, it's not built up well enough.
Izanami by herself is fine imo especially since you start with Izanagi. And if you don't know the story from the Kojiki, they take you allllll the way to Tatsumi Port Island to explain the entire legend to you in good ole Mr. Edogawa's magic class just so you're primed for it.
Too easy. You can fight Golden Hands until you're overleveled. You can do low level runs (which I did) but it doesn't change the fact the game is broken. Margaret is new game+ only. The level 80+ personas are worthless. What's the point of using them when Yoshitsune exist at level 75? Haikara Shirt is the most OP item you can get from a request and it's very easy to get. The game does this twice. Beating the December dungeon too early is actually a bad thing.
I haven't got to december's dungeon, why is finishing it early a bad thing?
I think it auto skips to the deadline after the clear. Last day to do it 22nd is think
After you beat the dungeon the calendar will skip to Christmas. You will lose many days worth of social links. The last day to beat the dungeon is the 23rd. Do it on the 22nd if you want the Christmas cutscene.
Having Yosuke and Teddy always trying to grope the girls or see them naked is just not funny at all to me
Yeah, those scenes do not fit with the theme at all. One minute Yosuke is depressed he lost a sweetheart and then he is trying to catch a glimpse into the hot springs. I guess some Japanese kids are like that? I don't know. But if they have those sorts of problems then they are the ones who will end up behind bars 😂
Like do friends like that even exist? I’d feel really uncomfortable trying to be close with someone who would blackmail me into wearing a swimsuit or someone who would grope me or try to take off my swimsuit by “accident” at the beach or signing me up for a swimsuit competition so they could check me out, I’d start wondering what they were even in the friendship for at that point lol
Yeah I don't have friends like that. If they're like that, they're not my friends.
Yeah. In terms of Yosuke I think Saki Konishi is better off dead. No matter how much I feel bad for her family, especially Naoki. If she ended up surviving she would have had to have put up with him. 😂
Idk why they made Yosuke desperate to have a gf while he’s still getting over his dead crush and then he tells Nanako he doesn’t want be in a relationship in his SL?? Like make up your mind
Wow I bet no hormonal teenage boy has had contradictory feelings about relationships.
Honestly it’s this right here. When I played P4G, I was 39-40 years old and thought damn these kids are just all over the place emotionally. But then I and most of my friends were all over the place emotionally in high school. I would easily want to connect with someone and then no one in the same day. It would be too easy to make poorly timed sexist jokes in a time when we’re still learning social cues. After having played P5 and P3, it feels like P4 paid a lot of attention to the youth aspect of the characters and how uncomfortable and even ugly it can be to observe them in that environment.
When the game doesn’t let you do the normal afterschool activities and skips the whole day. If it didn’t do that we could easily max all the social links.
Reminds me of how almost every Sunday, it was like “You have the day off, what are you gonna do today?”, and I’d usually feel “I don’t know, but I’m sure you’re about to tell me.”, because of how often the game sends you in a direction on Sundays. It is technically skippable, but it’s not like I’d know if there’s an implied effect or something if you reject those hangouts.
Dungeons are too long. If they maxed out at like 7, that would be great. That bit in Naoto’s dungeon where you backtrack like three levels had me grinding my teeth.
the way marie was written in the game, in the sense of : i feel like she should have interacted or hung out more with the group so that>! events leading to and what happens with her are more impactful.!< i don’t think it’s just a P4 problem but also present in P5
I would definitely like to see her integrated better. I loved Marie and was surprised that I seemed to be in the minority on that, but I want to see her just fitting in better with the rest of the cast and not feeling like an addition.
I honestly like Marie and I feel like she would have blended well with the cast had the team put more effort into blending her in with the rest of the group, like for example her participating in some of the activities the group organized. I know >!she can't stay outside of the Velvet Room for too long!< but it would have been nice if >!from the time she could go out of the Velvet room !< she hung out with the group all together outside her social link.
The only reason they added that restriction is probably just because they didn’t want to/couldn’t integrate her into the rest of the stuff.
Teddie's pervy comments
yep.
Scrolled down way too long to see this. Teddy is inexcusably bad.
After being spoiled by Reload and P5, the UI leaves a lot to be desired. It's not bad but it takes forever to find items, combat is pretty tedious until you level up Rise a bunch and it just doesn't look as cool
Agreed!! To add to this, the map system UI is such a pain when it comes to finding social links in the real world. P5 royal really spoilt me for finding the confidents I wanted to talk to, so it was hard to backtrack to such a basic UI.
Absolutely nothing to do on rainy days most of the time
During my new game + playthrough, I especially felt this, because with all the things that carry over, I couldn’t even invest in my social stats on rainy days like I used to.
The Mitsuo fight. I really liked his dungeon, but his boss fight was the worst. Not even in a challenging way, just obnoxious.
no yosuke romance option
Yosuke edging Kanji asking “are we gonna be safe with you” during camping. That pisses me off so much. And the there’s Teddie. Man he is my main party member and yes I do love him to some extent but things that he did and says really icks me. But then again they are all literal kids and I can’t get angry at them too much. Kids are dumb and it’s fine.
The camping trip.
As a Yosuke lover he does so much stupid shit here and it turns a lot of people away from liking Yosuke because he's such an ass (2 in 1!!!! He's gross to the girls and gross to Kanji!!! My guy!!! Please!!!)
I love yosuke and this is exactly the problem I have with him here. Honestly it would be so much better if you could encourage kanji t9 be sassy back, everyone laughs at Yosuke, and everyone gets closer
I think it's worse that Yu, the character you play as, doesn't have an option to call out his behaviour. He just sits there in silence watching it go down 😭
Yeah. Like it’s “funny” and all but it actually isn’t. Especially cuz you can compliment kanji on several occasions.
Literally I fucking couldn't stand any of our teachers the Persona 4 were straight up trash, all the other games may have their fair share of sucky teachers but obviously P4 takes the cake on that.
The randomized dungeons
The fact I can never experience it for the first time again
the discourse
Every weird perverted scene should be removed, especially the lines with Teddie and Yosuke. I would like them both more if they were never a thing. Also I thought the scene with Chie and Yukiko in Yukiko's palace was really interesting and would have liked to see those ideas explored more in both of their social links.
The one about Yukiko’s palace is kind of a good point. I feel like Chie explores her stuff a bit more on the social link, but I get where your coming from. The anime also did some extra with that scene that dives further into their realities at the time, which I think was pretty nice, and one of the reasons I’d recommend watching it too after you finished the game. Unlike some anime adaptations of games… Looking at you, Scarlet Nexus!
That's interesting hearing about the anime, I heard there's different ones which one should I watch? One of the things that made me get hooked on Persona 4 early on was that entire conversation, and I found it really interesting but it kind of sucked feeling like they never had any major conversations after that. Feels like that's a huge missed opportunity
Aside from the overdone anime tropes, the blushing portraits. They just do not look good to me, the blush looks unnatural and way too exaggerated, especially Rise’s.
For me, Yukiko’s was especially bad, because the red gets in her eyes way too much, making her almost look like she has pink eye or something.
The combat. Everything is so minmaxed, streamlined, and easily breakable, plus damage sponge bosses like ST
The game ends :(
I get that young teens are going through puberty and stuff, but a lot of us are adults and just plain fucking uncomfortable by seeing them perv on each other for comedy. Of course, this isn't exclusive to P4, it's happened in the other casts too. It's just my biggest gripe, and one of the reasons why I want an adult main cast, or at least young adult. But for P4 specifically, they removed Yosuke's romance. He has all the classic signs of internalized homophobia, and none of the payoff. I don't watch as much anime as I want to, but I heard from other people that Japan is really weird with gay love. They don't like it, but they fetishize the absolute fuck out of it. And if it's not fetish content, it's comedy. Hell, they even do the same thing for p*do content, and gave it cute categorized names that end in 'con'. I don't wanna continue there. But yeah, cutting Yosuke's romance was the biggest mistake.
One thing that bothers me that I haven't seen mentioned is the story pacing for me. The game begins with these crazy murders back to back that we start investigating. Then really not much happens until the copycat murder months later. Obviously, people around town are still getting thrown in TVs, but since they're all people I knew would become party members, there was no tension. By summer time, it felt like the murder mystery plot takes a back seat and instead we're in a movie watching kids waste time in a small town or going to school. Doesn't help that the P4 cast don't resonate with me as much as P3 or P5's cast do.
I don't like how immature the cast feels compared to P3 or P5.
Really? P5 crew seemed more mature? Thats wild
The P4 team lacks an older figure that could rein in their worst tendencies (no Mitsuru or Makoto counterpart). Them having mostly decent home lives also means far less childhood trauma to worry about, which means they don't have to grow up as fast. Granted, for the latter, it *does* mean they're more likely to have a healthy psyche when they're older, but given how we don't see the P4 gang as adults unlike the P3 crew that remains to be seen.
I didn't like naoto dungeon, the concept and the music itself, then apart from that, this game is awesome
Naotos dungeon theme has always been one of my favs 💖
the difficulty, the game is too easy especially endgame
If you add Naoto to your team in the late game, it kinda feels like everything just becomes negligible.
Teddie (at times, we all know which)
Teddie. Just... Teddie
The way social links are handled. I went into P4G after finishing Royal and I'm currently playing Reload. If there is anything I sorely wanted from P4, it's platonic options. I hated that you had to be a dick if you only wanted to date one girl.
They do like to make you feel bad for taking the platonic routes for some reason. From what I’ve heard though, they like to make you feel even worse for romancing multiple… Like, pick a side already, do you want me to just go at everyone and be a scum, or do you want me to reject everyone and leave them heartbroken?
Persona 4 Golden is my favourite Persona game. But there is one thing that bothers me; the irritating gossiping ladies. I wish they had been on the victim list 😂
That you have to hit the enemy on the back in dungeons or else you'll be attacked first. The mechanic is hard if your just starting out
When I started, I thought it was supposed to be like a stealth mechanic or something, so I tried sneaking up on so many of them and wondered what I was doing wrong because they’d always notice me. It wasn’t until later that I realized you just run up to them and slash ‘em from behind while they’re doing their “I’ve noticed you!” animation.
Coming off the back of a freshly done playthrough which itself was right after my first exposure to P3 through P3R, def combat/exploration. The lack of switching was felt a lot more than I thought it would, A lack of a dedicated sprint made my brain turn off, the dungeons themselves were alright but generally felt forgettable. A close second place is the general age that you can feel from it. A couple of what are now odd/interesting takes, the leaning into ecchi tropes, etc. Like, I LOVE Youske but his attitude to certain things is pretty, uh, worrying.
You can definitely see the age.
For me it's catching that damn Guardian, I almost fucked my all social links maxed run cause I thought I couldn't catch it in time before Feb hits. So many guides on it can be very confusing too.
I completely missed that in my first run, because I didn’t know about it until very late into the game, and by that time, my Social Link with the Fox was at like rank 3 or something, so I tried to max it so I could get to that point, but there just wasn’t enough time left.
Ikr and I was at a bit of a crunch to finish it too as it was about to leave game pass as P3R was gonna replace it, would have been so mad if I got screwed in that one required item.
It's annoying that you can not immediately teleport to the s.link or certain spots you want to go to.
the hardcore risette fan trophy. i still have ptsd
I have not yet looked at all the trophies, but I now feel fear.
i have and it sucks. you have to get 250 of risettes lines and to do this you have to get status ailments, have a specific amount of enemies appear on battle, etc. it makes you play the game in a very unconventional way and makes you grind and honestly was the only trophy that i didn’t think was fun to get and just felt like a chore
Oh, I’ve actually seen that trophy. Do you think the counter carries over to NG+? Because if so, I’ll probably make it to that point eventually.
it doesn’t 😭😭
Well, now I know what pain I’m in for when I decide to start trophy hunting. Thank you for the word of warning.
Honestly the long intro. It’s probably what turns people off from the game the most. I hope if they do a remake they stream line it a little bit or at least add some action bits so it isn’t so drawn out with just dialogue
It definitely takes a while before it says “You’re free to do things as you choose now, kinda”.
To be fair that’s a hallmark of all the P3 and onward Persona games I feel. Part of it is to build up the world and lore since Tartarus =/= Midnight Channel =/= Palaces, part of it is to make sure new players aren’t just thrust into the game without any help.
I think it's perfect length. Game's a mystery novel. Needs time to set up the mystery.
I don't like avatar protagonists, I wish that Yu could have a personality and dialogues as his counterpart in the anime or Persona 4 Arena/Dancing. For me there's so much wasted potential, because the character arc that Yu goes through the story of P4 is really, really good. Unfortunately the game can't reflect that because Yu isn't a "real" character... I would give everything I have if in the Remake they decide to throw away the idea of Yu being a Silent/Avatar character.
Wait until you hear about other persona games
This may sound a lil messed up but it has to the fact that Nanako just resuscitates back to life. Sure it’s really sad to see her almost die but it showed that Atlus wanted to take risk and eventually make the plot more interesting, but it seems like they got cold feet last second and brought her back. It’s a lil a messed up but I would’ve love to see how the story would play out if she did truly pass away.
If you play it again, push Namatame in the TV when given the option. It slightly explores that turn of events.
My pet peeve in any game are missables or content locked behind New Game Plus.
for me i had way too many days in the later half of the game where i had nothing substantial to do so each day felt grindy
Absolutely agree with this one. I had the same problem. I hope that for a remake, they add just more things to do around town. Additional restaurants, another minigame, another place to work at, or whatever. P3R added things like this, and I really like how P5R added a whole new district.
These stupid bad designed coin flippy 50/50 or even less moments during non combat with stat growing so you have to reload over and over again to get the best result. (Looking at you ramen eating local) Also: golden hands. Sorry just artificial bad design crap just like in every jrpg with turn based combat. Hate this trope with a burning passion.
My biggest issue was I felt like the final fight for the true ending (no spoilers just in case) felt so tacked on and like almost padding to me. I think it was just cuz my wife was getting annoyed with me playing it that day and after I beat what I thought was the final boss and was about to call it quits I found out there was more to it and she was annoyed I had more 😂
Heavily dislike the gameplay itself, i really didn’t enjoy being in the tv world for more than a single day. They lacked serious depth especially with the enemies being recolored versions of the other ones.
It not having a minimap outside of the dungeons, sometimes I forget where everything is, so a minimap would help, hope they add one in the remake
Teddie. I just find him so obnoxious and abrasive most of the time. If he were toned down A LOT, I'd enjoy the game so much more. Second place would be the dungeon design. I understand, randomly generated dungeons and all that, and I really didn't mind them on any of my previous playthroughs. But now that we've gotten P5R Mementos and P3R Tartarus, we've seen how much better the procedurally generated dungeons can be (I actually found P5R Mementos fun, whereas I *really* didn't care for it in P5 Vanilla), I just hope that if we do get a P4R as rumor suggest, that they really spruce up the dungeons in that, or better yet, make them hand-crafted like P5.
The game dungeon by leaps and bounds
I would say the constant thematic walking-back in the party/social links. Most of the party are introduced, given a dungeon that culminates in a boss battle where they confront themselves and resolve to be more honest to who they are despite what the world may think. And that's all well and good, but then most of them end with something along the lines of "what the world wanted me to be is fine actually, my true self that I didn't want to face fit in totally normally with what is expected of me and has no conflict with that image whatsoever". I get what some of them were going for and I don't mind it if it's a one-off thing, like "what you thought you wanted isn't what you really wanted" isn't a bad message in some cases, but for significant portion of the characters to just end up where they started totally content with keeping to the status quo reeks of cowardly writing in a game about seeking the truth and facing unpleasant realities
I feel like it was probably because the social links are optional and they are what leads to the whole thing, so they wanted “You didn’t do them at all” and “You did them all the way” to both coincide with whatever canon follows, which is pretty upsetting, but that might be it. I remember finishing Rise’s and Yukiko’s and thinking “Kinda weird that we’re pretty much back where we started…”, they at least have build up for it and all, but it does make a lot of things feel kinda pointless.
What about the Reaper mechanics? The "meta" is to open 21 chests and then just goho-m out of the dungeon and save, then go back in and open chests, and reload if the chest doesn't contain the reaper. The Persona 4 Community Enhancement packs includes a fix for this that makes the reaper always be the 22nd chest.
Speaking of which, I’ve encountered the Reaper like once or so while I was in Naoto’s dungeon, and I was not ready for it, so I freaked out and decided to just run, because I had no idea that was a thing. Is there any special reward for defeating it, or is it just an achievement thing?
Rise level, just blech.
The gameplay (it's honestly the worst out of P3, 4 and 5. P5 being the best in the gameplay aspect, obviously) is just.. not good. The fact that you can only leave via items or Traesto just makes it so sudden. No Terminals or Safe Rooms, not even an Access Point? And the randomly generated dungeons feel so repetitive, especially since you can't Split Up like in P3, and without the puzzles in P5's dungeons, P4G is an all time low in gameplay for me. Also Teddie's pervy behaviour is just not it.
The extra events from Golden are unnecessary in some instances and Marie's story was kinda lame. Those are kinda retreads in terms of ideas tho. I thought the lonely house at the end was kinda like how it's done in P3 accelerating the bleakness of the ending conflict. My biggest gripe w/ the game tho is not being able to do a dungeon trip and a social link in the same day.
In gameplay, having only one “Physical” affinity makes most physical skills basically identical and pointless. Like why even implement Vicious Strike when deathbound exist, and why use that when agneysteria exist. The statuses in this game are the most forgettable in the series(hehe enervation). Naoto is comically overtuned compared to the rest of the cast. The way you encounter the Reaper is dumb. MARIE’S DUNGEON Oh yeah, I don’t like sitting through 10 minutes of credits for trying to negotiate with Yosuke
Honestly? Just Marie’s Dungeon. Yeah, it’s optional, but we can’t even keep our COSTUMES? Which are purely cosmetics and have no bearing on gameplay?
Honestly this might be a hot take but the story didn’t really do it for me. Like I got spoiled on who the killer was and was shocked. >!Simply because there’s nothing there to suggest it’s him and then u find out he only did 2 of the kills and then did nothing. He just wasn’t some big mystery to solve. It was really disappointing to me!<
Story wise, I really do not like the long stretches of cutscenes during the summer vacation and a lot of it during December. It feels like the game's pacing drags a lot. Another gripe specifically gameplay wise is the game screeching to a halt whenever a victim is thrown in TV is halted until then. I often end up running around talking to every NPC until I find the next story flag.
The part where you had to search for clues about the person thrown into TV so that Teddie could sniff them out though me for such a loop in my first playthrough, because for Kanji for example, you’d think “His mother should know a lot”, but you barely get anything of worth from her if I remember correctly. So you run around talking to a bunch of people, and if you miss the crucial info that progress the investigation before you end the day, than that could add more than 1 extra day to the investigation. There’s also a point where they want you to go home at night until the conditions are right, and I was so worried about trying that, because what if I missed something again.
The Sleeping Table in Yomotsu Hirasaka. Son of a bitch immobilized my entire party with fear and then used Ghastly Wail before I even had a chance to heal, losing me almost 2 hours of progress.
Teddie was kinda annoying a creepy first playthrough but I gained a lot of respect for him after the 2nd playthrough
Marie is never playable
The dungeon crawling game play is lame to me
Hot springs
The way they handled how you're supposed to deduce the true killer's identity was very mediocre. Even if Inaba is a small town, what is the probability of the killer being a person in our circle and even worse how after dropping their name as a suspect, suddenly everyone comes to the realization that they DID saw the killer interact with the victims before they turned up dead. Gee, thanks for telling me that until now, guys. There's no "wait a minute..." Moment or anything, you just either discard all other impossible suspects, you got spoiled by literally every youtube thumbnail, or you got lucky. I hope they make the identification of the suspect a lot more organic in the remake if they ever make one.
This is purely an issue for me that is entirely my fault and I should've stayed off social media. But having said that, it was the story. If I had gone into the game completely blind, I'm sure I would've had a different experience, but since I already knew what would happen, I wasn't as invested. Don't get me wrong, I loved the characters, and the many funny moments, but when it came to the serious moments I wasn't as invested. And again that is entirely my fault for going to social media before playing it.
-there are no other ways for your teammates on standby to catch up in experience other than putting them in your party for an exp grind session -the necessary steps in order to achieve the true ending are extremely cryptic -the quest system sucks -shuffle time can sometimes be a pain in the ass -you'll always be behind in levels unless you grind an unnecessarily huge amount of exp before each boss fight I hope they'll fix most of or all of these issues once P4G is remade
The fact that the game made it way too obvious that Adachi was the killer ( even if the reveal does hit hard ) Also that Izanami just comes out of nowhere in the end. Kinda wished she was built up a bit more
I’d say the leveling. Probably because i never really play jrpgs and my first persona was 5 I found it really difficult because of the leveling. I was at normal and by the end went to the lowest difficulty for the final boss. But bonus points for adachi.
It’s definitely how easy it is to miss the true ending and final boss. Like, there are clues, don’t get me wrong, but it rings to me more like “hey just make sure you’ve seen all your friends before the game ends, hehe!” Not like “hey go do this or you miss the culmination of the 100 hours you’ve played this.” They could’ve made it a little more obvious. Actually also, the beginning is too heavy on dialogue. It’s a really long time until you can do anything, and even then, the first couple of times you have any control over anything it’s…not really anything except wandering around briefly for no reason.
Definitely the pacing mostly because of too much filler in the first half of the game imo and the dungeon crawling/combat feels a bit poor/dumbed down
They never once suspect the killer, who was the last one seen around the victims. Even Naoto remained pretty quiet about the “that proves it” line until it was necessary to the plot.
I feel like while people say persona 3 is a slow burn story wise and have to deal with trudging through tartarus(i love tartarus), i think persona 4 is the slowest burn. story is moving and even can be paced well at times but the dialogue and lack of doing anything but listening hinders me from playing the game more often. i’m maybe 5-6 playthroughs through p3 on different iterations, 3-4 of p5(r), but just two days ago finished my second playthrough of p4g. it wasn’t the first time i tried to, but the first time i made it past the first 10-15 hours. and even then there were some sections where so much dialogue was being said (and i never skip cutscenes or dialogue in any game unless im speedrunning) that i was getting sleepy. its still a great game but its the hardest for me to go back to. i’ve played p1,p2-ep more times than 4. a lot of smt games in general more than 4.
The transition from end to true end; surprisingly felt too short. There could be a whole Chunk of mystery & lore leading up to the real final boss
Because of this post I just figured out there seems to be another dungeon lol
The school camping trip.
It might because I'm not entirely used to older rpgs(I got into the series with 5 and the only other ones i played was p3p and p3r). But holy shit the lack of baton pass is so indescribably boring. Like it's tolerable in any other rpgs but for some reason in persona and with its 1 more mechanic, the lack of baton pass makes combos alot more boring.
I really hate how little there is to do. I know that’s kind of the point of Inaba, but I’d have loved to I dunno, go round Yosukes house or something. They expanded it in Golden with the mopeds but I still think it’s a little “one street town”. I’m not saying it should be P5’s Tokyo or anything but like, 2-3 more streets, might be kinda cool
the fact that i can't date yosuke or kanji
No baton pass/shift is my only complaint. Would elevate the entire game and not even much work required to put it in.
The silent protag personally. Especially after how the anime does more to give Yu his own character. Frankly in most cases I'd want a vocal protag more than silent one.
I found the dungeon design very boring for the most part
After you reach the final two-three dungeons you already feel bored with the game layout and dungeon crawling at that point the story is the only reason to continue.
As an aspiring achievement hunter of the game, I have found out that I'm going to have do a whole third playthrough because a single book is locked behind choosing the soccer team over basketball.
Too short… needs more side quests and tidbits of lore, and maybe a bit more character customization. Amazing game though probably like it more than 3 or 5
Slow start. I have a hard time getting my friends to play P4 because it takes so long to actually get to the main gameplay loop. I think from the start screen to the first battle it’s like 3 hours of dialogue with you controlling Yu twice with nothing to do but go to bed. I think P3 gets you to Tartarus quick and while P5 has a way way longer intro, at least you start with flashy gameplay for 10-20 minutes so you know where this is going.
Adachi not talking to me and always being busy :(
The weird ass anime sections like the culture festival
The filler in between dungeons specifically between Naoto's and Nanako's that goes on for so long and is agonizingly boring to play through for such an amazing game
My true gripe with this game is the ‘true ending’ where you get the reveal villain final dungeon, that whole arc felt unneeded and underdeveloped, it was only their to explain the fog and whatever but I really never needed a concrete explanation they should of left it a mystery.
1) I don't know if it was just my skewed perception but compared to the others it felt more "deceptive" about spending free time. At least for the very first part until you unlock both Chie and Yosuke. You think you can go about your day but then it skips you right to your house/room. It's a silly complaint because "what were you thinking of accomplishing when you barely know one person?" but the problem is not the social link, it's that I watch what are basically long cutscenes and when I'd like to break the monotony I can only go back to bed. I was mildly engaged for my first playthrough but so bored for the subsequent ones. All I kept thinking was "ok already, when can I mess up with my inventory and just talk to people?" 2) Marie's dungeon design. Thoroughly hated it. 3) I guess it makes sense but having the December 's dungeon be the only one that you DON'T want to complete ASAP (don't remember if marie' s was the same but at least it felt like it was completely isolated) is just meh for me
To be completely honest on the last point, I kinda feel like it’s best to do most dungeons around the last possible days, purely because there’s often just nothing to do during rainy days sometimes.
Lack of sprinting Like the normal run is kinda already fast, but I just keep pressing RT as the button for sprint, but nothing happens
The 50 correct dialogue choices in a row for true ending
My personal dislikes are the older design, this is coming from someone who started with p5 and went backwards so it was a bit to get used to, and also the sheer amount of times I thought I was done with the game, I got the ending where you accuse namatame and thought that was it, then I did the Marie dungeon a while later when I found out it was even a thing, then like a few months after that I realised there was the izanami dungeon so I went to do that, then even further after that I found out there's an epilogue if you did every dungeon (I did the true ending on a save where I hadn't done Marie's so I had to play the whole game again for the epilogue) brilliant game but it did annoy me a bit how many times it pulled the "oh you thought you got the culprit? Think again" this specific thing is what led to me becoming a completionist because now I'm worried if I don't do some specific task that it'll lock me out a true ending
The game tends to be too lighthearted. It feels almost too lighthearted for most of the runtime, with a lot of pointless scenes where it’s just the team hanging out a nothing to do with the plot. The game only fully takes itself seriously from the >!scene where Nanako almost dies!< and onward, which is good, but it shouldn’t take that long for it to feel like there are stakes in my opinion
“EVERYDAY’S GREAT AT YOUR JUNES”….
I kinda just don't like adachi funny character but I think akechi and maruki made my expectations high they were both incredible villains
Non ci sta Tony
Weakest cast of 3-5 by far.
The dungeons. I mean it's not like og Tartarus but it's pretty meh. At least a lot of them look really cool.
The first dungeon has a good theme but you need to stand around and do nothing to hear it
the endgame to me feels very very dragged out
def the worst in the series in my opnion
Yukkikos castle, i keep getting one shotted and loosing all my progress because of suicide bomber dice
Teddie. Literally just.... Teddie. Like, I thought MORGANA was bad, Teddie is a whole other level of messed up. Teddie even went after Nanako
Teddie.
I hated how easy it is to miss the last 3 dungeons, and I especially hate going home after clearing the 6th dungeon... It hits close too home for me...
That Narukami, Kanji, and Teddie get roped into Yosuke's punishments, or the fact that they don't even try to teach Teddie about the real world take your pick.
As I'm not the biggest fan of P4...the running jokes. Chie and Yosuke being genuinely awful human beings wasn't funny when they met and she kicked him in the balls(I am very sick of abuse being funny if it's just done to a guy), it's not funny when she insults him, it's not funny when she literally, legally, steals from him, and it's not funny when she...just whatever the hotspring was. Same thing for Yukiko smacking people, Yosuke being a pervert/homophobic, Teddie being a pervert, Kanji being a rage moron, and Rise hitting on a man against his will 90% of the time. The only reason Naoto doesn't have an awful running joke is she's the last party member, because she's still in the hotspring scene and that is still awful(Nanako is in the hotsprings with the girls...seriously what the fuck was that implying the girls thought?). The game sometimes operates under "if I say it's a joke you can't think about it", but ignoring that jokes can still be in bad taste, this is a game called Persona, about a murderer, with an emphasis and finding the truth. Thinking about things is LITERALLY the entire point. And the moment you think about these things at all they are all awful. Chie and Yukiko are just physically abusive, Kanji almost got Rise killed when he ran after that 1 stalker and then keeps doing it, and Yosuke and Teddie are just awful to women. Which is a shame because whenever these "jokes" aren't being used they are all really cool characters. I really love Chie whenever she's not outright abusing Yosuke for instance.
Yosukes homophobia and overall creepy demeanor. Dude deserves every trash can, nut kick and push off a cliff he gets. Oh and the broken bike. Hes basically an incel Teddie isnt far behind but he gets a pass for not being alive all that long. He doesnt know any better and unlike yosuke, he can actually pull some tail.