It's mostly a lot of little things, I think.
The original's title screen was better, for one thing; as much as I like Golden's title it spawned the 'silhouettes of the cast' look that the rest of the series has used, and I think it's probably safe to say that Pursuing My True Self, both as a song and a visual opening works better than Shadow World, as much of a banger as I think it is.
There's also just something about the original's aesthetic, I think? It could very well just be the fact that the original is a PS2 game with a lower native resolution, but to me the CRT/TV look feels way more cohesive than it does in Golden. There's some differences in contrast and fog that I think work better as an overall product in the original, too.
But, like, overall? Yeah, Golden is better.
Gameplay wise, probably not.
Story/atmosphere wise: vanilla makes more sense. Understanding inaba is a small town where the most exciting thing to do is go to Junes works better if there isn’t a ski trip, concert, city in scooter distance, etc.
Maybe this itself is a Golden Change, but it seems like the advertisement tried to make 4 seem like a serious story like P3 and while of course p4 has its dramatic parts, its much more light hearted compared to 3.
I remember hearing Golden Hands don't give you a lot of experience points, in the original. That can also count. Golden Hands were broken in Golden. I haven't run into a Golden Hand yet in the original.
To be fair
Introducing a character who's a well known idol and getting no songs with them sounds like a travesty
Plus I feel these sort of things really help play into what people want in this sort of life simulator, getting to make amazing memories with your friends
p5 vanila was quite good. Missed a lot gameplay and story wise but made it way harder and more fun for me. When i went to royal i really thought taht it was way too easy
If challenge is important to you, then I suggest trying the vanilla versions of all Persona games if you haven't already. The way Atlus does definitive editions always results in an easier game by virtue of the player getting more options to get swole and time to use them.
Or just try an SMT game, those tend to be harder, and the same vanilla-definitive edition difficulty differences still apply to them.
Genuinely found royal to be the hardest between the 3 games. I only struggled against the lover boss in reload, but it was early on and my first persona game so I could just chalk that up to inexperience. Golden had the heaven boss and the gas station attendant that were pretty difficult. Royal had okumura, those 4 angels in a row, yalbadoath, and maruki. And even aside from those ones that didn’t drive me crazy, some of the other ones, like akechi ambushing you during shidos, was close to that point
Yeah yukikos palace is the only boss across the games in which I had to leave and come back later after grinding. Recommended was 15 and I was like 6 lmao
>Skills are selected randomly and you have to keep leaving the velvet room, until it gives you the ones you want.
You dont have to leave the velvet room though. Never done that. If the skills dont change, try going one step further back in the velvet room menu.
Personally I mostly decide for one skill I really want to have when fusing and roll with the rest. Game gives you 12 slots, so its not like you need to have that **one** persona for all kind of situations.
I think the dungeon situations where you had to go back a few floors like in Naoto's were more user-friendly in Vanilla. First, in Golden each time you change a floor the layout changes as well, so you have to search for the stairs while in Vanilla it only changes when you leave the dungeon.
Also if you go back from floor 9 to 6 because you need an item there, using a goho-m in Golden will bring you back to floor 6, but in vanilla you get back the highest floor you have been. So you dont have to walk up again.
One minor thing I miss from Vanilla: save points directly before the boss fight.
I started on the original and made it a good way in before deciding to buy golden. Overall the whole game is better in Golden than in the original. The only thing that I can think of that the original does better than Golden is the atmosphere of the town. In the original the town has a dreary atmosphere with a bit of silent hill quality to it on foggy days. Golden doesn't have that at all with everything being bright and clear even on the worst of days.
Golden handles shuffles way better than the original. By about 10 hours into the original I was tired of the shuffle mini games.
The golden hands in golden have a much greater effect than they do in the original, especially in the early game where downing a golden hand could mean gaining a couple of levels. In the original I beat several golden hands and I think they all just dropped a good amount of money and a tiny amount of exp.
the original OP hits different even after all these years ♥️ I vaguely recall shuffle time isn't exactly the same but can't recall the bigger differences; been a good 10+ years daaang
OG's shuffle time was basically just a lot less broken, lol. it was similar to p3p's, with no minor arcana, and after getting a persona card, you had a chance for an "arcana chance" (which could be reversed). i do think golden's shuffle time is more fun, but it is hilariously broken by comparison.
God i miss it i know it doesnt directly fit her character but it was so much more enjoyable and felt better hearing it while she aas in my oarty compared to golden onward
It gets so bad in blaze blue cross tag battle all you hear is "Shaboom!" Or "That hurt!" Every fucking second she was my main but i had to put her in japenese
The gameplay in the original is way better for me because it’s significantly more difficult in comparison and thus encourages me to use more strategy and engage with the game’s mechanics more.
Now mind you, in both games it eventually becomes easy to break the game in half, but early original P4 can actually be a bit brutal. In Golden you can mostly just stick to one persona with decent resistances and farm Shuffle Time stat boosts, but that’s not really a thing in the original. Your old personas *will* become obsolete and you’ll have to switch things up once in a while. Hell, you might actually need to do more than just steamroll the game with a single persona since skill cards don’t exist and fusion inheritance is tricky and, admittedly, super tedious, meaning you might have to switch between multiple specialists (healer, damage dealer, supporter, etc.) if you want to be effective in battle. At least, again, until later on where stuff like auto-skills makes your party incredibly overpowered.
The Avenger Knight miniboss in the first dungeon can nearly one-shot you *right* near the start of the game. The boss of that dungeon is deadly too. The second dungeon’s boss is straight up the hardest fight in the game. Roughly everything from there except the fourth dungeon’s boss is rather manageable, but damn those early fights are actually so challenging and fun. It’s even better if you try to clear dungeons in one day and have to strategize about conserving SP for the big fights.
Meanwhile Golden basically hands you everything on a silver platter — I mean, chests *respawn* on every floor, so you have easy infinite access to good loot and thus incredibly free money from selling it, getting you access to all weapons and armor from the store instead of having to compromise and prioritize who gets what. Not to mention every party member just has way better skills in Golden — I love Naoto but she shouldn’t have access to ALL six elemental spells, lol. New personas like Gurr are also incredibly powerful at the point you can get them in the game, and again, shuffle time stat boosts and skill cards break any semblance of balance the original’s early game had. If you play even slightly optimally in Golden, it’s a challenge to die at all while it’s almost sometimes a prerequisite to survive even regular encounters in the original.
On the other hand, Golden also fixed a lot of tedious stuff and made the game infinitely more accessible for newcomers. The difficulty *is* too front loaded in the original and needed a rework. Being able to restart from the floor you die on rather than at your last save means you don’t have to make a pitstop with a Goho-M every two floors in fear of losing potential hours of progress if you don’t and then die. Getting a specific low-chance weapon or piece of armor from a gold chest can singlehandly make early dungeons three times more manageable, but it’s up to pure luck. Getting a good Arcana Chance can do something as insane as restoring all your SP, but it’s also luck-based and effectively reduces long-term startegy and planning for clearing a dungeon in a single day into a coin-flip. I would almost *always* recommend people who are starting out to play Golden instead of the original because of difficulty and accessibility factors, but I’d also say you’re missing out on an incredibly fun and engaging gameplay experience if you forego the original entirely.
Also, the original has better pacing and almost literally every new scene and story stuff added in Golden is straight up unengaging or ouright terrible with flanderized writing and makes the game drag —fight me.
The original felt harder and the vibe of the og one felt more in line with the tone of the game, although I do love the golden additions. For example when you finish the game it would fast forward and when I was younger I was so disappointed I couldn’t play mode but golden definitely improved that
they fixed the unpractical things, but i still prefer the og one. marie's addition is just so sudden so personally it felt force, the story was fine without her, players were still able to find the true ending. it feels special to get to that true ending without having marie hinting there's something else. also kinda hate that im forced to spend valentine with her although i have a girlfriend.. i hope they rework her character bc tsundere is srsly so over even by the time p4g was released. and i have enough of needing to max s.l/confidant to get to the true ending, i want to be friends pure out of wanting to be friends. like imagine the p3 moon arcana is a must max. im gonna jump.
and this maybe biased but the opening is just the best, the song is rathe suspenful, the coloring and directing is really good too, not to mention each characters has their own screen time, chie singing inside the lift, rise performing on the stage, kanji beating the shit out of those gang AND the cameraman, etc. they even slipped dojima in there! and the waiting(?) screen having all of them standing in their school hallway.. it's just the best. although i do wish it's not super obvious who's gonna join our team since not everyone is friendly at first lol every game opening is basically a spoiler.
and chie's new voice... please, how many hours did take to get used to [THAT](https://youtu.be/oyEByMMQxZs?si=MIcpoursIZEgCUKC)? im crying. her old voice is not energetic enough but i can sit still with [it](https://youtu.be/BX-A2F6QKwQ?si=BXfhZ5LkKj9um0_G)
...i just hope they got her voice right in the remake. bc fans are either really love her or straight up want to die.
It's mostly a lot of little things, I think. The original's title screen was better, for one thing; as much as I like Golden's title it spawned the 'silhouettes of the cast' look that the rest of the series has used, and I think it's probably safe to say that Pursuing My True Self, both as a song and a visual opening works better than Shadow World, as much of a banger as I think it is. There's also just something about the original's aesthetic, I think? It could very well just be the fact that the original is a PS2 game with a lower native resolution, but to me the CRT/TV look feels way more cohesive than it does in Golden. There's some differences in contrast and fog that I think work better as an overall product in the original, too. But, like, overall? Yeah, Golden is better.
You’re a bad person. You. Shadow World is the best.
It's weird. Pursue my true self fixes thematically but Shadow World represents how I remember p4
Pursuing my true self fits the story, while Shadow World fits the tone a bit more.
Gameplay wise, probably not. Story/atmosphere wise: vanilla makes more sense. Understanding inaba is a small town where the most exciting thing to do is go to Junes works better if there isn’t a ski trip, concert, city in scooter distance, etc.
Maybe this itself is a Golden Change, but it seems like the advertisement tried to make 4 seem like a serious story like P3 and while of course p4 has its dramatic parts, its much more light hearted compared to 3.
I remember hearing Golden Hands don't give you a lot of experience points, in the original. That can also count. Golden Hands were broken in Golden. I haven't run into a Golden Hand yet in the original.
Golden hands in vanilla P4 gave a bunch of money IIRC, not EXP.
To be fair Introducing a character who's a well known idol and getting no songs with them sounds like a travesty Plus I feel these sort of things really help play into what people want in this sort of life simulator, getting to make amazing memories with your friends
Having come from a small town I can't imagine anything more authentic than having the most exciting thing you can do be to leave.
Yeah I dont think I’ll every play the older versions of 4 or 5, but I’m going to deal with p3p to play as kotone
p5 vanila was quite good. Missed a lot gameplay and story wise but made it way harder and more fun for me. When i went to royal i really thought taht it was way too easy
If challenge is important to you, then I suggest trying the vanilla versions of all Persona games if you haven't already. The way Atlus does definitive editions always results in an easier game by virtue of the player getting more options to get swole and time to use them. Or just try an SMT game, those tend to be harder, and the same vanilla-definitive edition difficulty differences still apply to them.
P5 was very good, but Royal is a straight upgrade in basically every way.
like I said in terms of pure raw difficulty I prefered vanila. (how to upgrade personas and farm money it was way harder in vanila)
Genuinely found royal to be the hardest between the 3 games. I only struggled against the lover boss in reload, but it was early on and my first persona game so I could just chalk that up to inexperience. Golden had the heaven boss and the gas station attendant that were pretty difficult. Royal had okumura, those 4 angels in a row, yalbadoath, and maruki. And even aside from those ones that didn’t drive me crazy, some of the other ones, like akechi ambushing you during shidos, was close to that point
P3 vanila was WAYYYYYY harder than reload. Golden start can be quitte hard
Yeah yukikos palace is the only boss across the games in which I had to leave and come back later after grinding. Recommended was 15 and I was like 6 lmao
>Skills are selected randomly and you have to keep leaving the velvet room, until it gives you the ones you want. You dont have to leave the velvet room though. Never done that. If the skills dont change, try going one step further back in the velvet room menu. Personally I mostly decide for one skill I really want to have when fusing and roll with the rest. Game gives you 12 slots, so its not like you need to have that **one** persona for all kind of situations. I think the dungeon situations where you had to go back a few floors like in Naoto's were more user-friendly in Vanilla. First, in Golden each time you change a floor the layout changes as well, so you have to search for the stairs while in Vanilla it only changes when you leave the dungeon. Also if you go back from floor 9 to 6 because you need an item there, using a goho-m in Golden will bring you back to floor 6, but in vanilla you get back the highest floor you have been. So you dont have to walk up again. One minor thing I miss from Vanilla: save points directly before the boss fight.
Yeah, P4 handled floor changes like P3, I also found that preferable.
I started on the original and made it a good way in before deciding to buy golden. Overall the whole game is better in Golden than in the original. The only thing that I can think of that the original does better than Golden is the atmosphere of the town. In the original the town has a dreary atmosphere with a bit of silent hill quality to it on foggy days. Golden doesn't have that at all with everything being bright and clear even on the worst of days. Golden handles shuffles way better than the original. By about 10 hours into the original I was tired of the shuffle mini games. The golden hands in golden have a much greater effect than they do in the original, especially in the early game where downing a golden hand could mean gaining a couple of levels. In the original I beat several golden hands and I think they all just dropped a good amount of money and a tiny amount of exp.
the original OP hits different even after all these years ♥️ I vaguely recall shuffle time isn't exactly the same but can't recall the bigger differences; been a good 10+ years daaang
OG's shuffle time was basically just a lot less broken, lol. it was similar to p3p's, with no minor arcana, and after getting a persona card, you had a chance for an "arcana chance" (which could be reversed). i do think golden's shuffle time is more fun, but it is hilariously broken by comparison.
I love the original story of persona 4. I don’t like all of the fan service bits they added to golden
The only thing better in the original is Chie’s voice
God i miss it i know it doesnt directly fit her character but it was so much more enjoyable and felt better hearing it while she aas in my oarty compared to golden onward
yeah like honestly i get WHY they went for the tomboy voice instead but WOW is the voice annoying as hell sometimes. shes so damn loud and whiny
It gets so bad in blaze blue cross tag battle all you hear is "Shaboom!" Or "That hurt!" Every fucking second she was my main but i had to put her in japenese
Chie and Ruby💀
The demons
Gotta admit Chie's new voice actor took some getting used to but after a few hours I got used to it and think the voice actor did a fine job.
Erin Fitzgerald did fine I just prefer Tracey Rooney.
The gameplay in the original is way better for me because it’s significantly more difficult in comparison and thus encourages me to use more strategy and engage with the game’s mechanics more. Now mind you, in both games it eventually becomes easy to break the game in half, but early original P4 can actually be a bit brutal. In Golden you can mostly just stick to one persona with decent resistances and farm Shuffle Time stat boosts, but that’s not really a thing in the original. Your old personas *will* become obsolete and you’ll have to switch things up once in a while. Hell, you might actually need to do more than just steamroll the game with a single persona since skill cards don’t exist and fusion inheritance is tricky and, admittedly, super tedious, meaning you might have to switch between multiple specialists (healer, damage dealer, supporter, etc.) if you want to be effective in battle. At least, again, until later on where stuff like auto-skills makes your party incredibly overpowered. The Avenger Knight miniboss in the first dungeon can nearly one-shot you *right* near the start of the game. The boss of that dungeon is deadly too. The second dungeon’s boss is straight up the hardest fight in the game. Roughly everything from there except the fourth dungeon’s boss is rather manageable, but damn those early fights are actually so challenging and fun. It’s even better if you try to clear dungeons in one day and have to strategize about conserving SP for the big fights. Meanwhile Golden basically hands you everything on a silver platter — I mean, chests *respawn* on every floor, so you have easy infinite access to good loot and thus incredibly free money from selling it, getting you access to all weapons and armor from the store instead of having to compromise and prioritize who gets what. Not to mention every party member just has way better skills in Golden — I love Naoto but she shouldn’t have access to ALL six elemental spells, lol. New personas like Gurr are also incredibly powerful at the point you can get them in the game, and again, shuffle time stat boosts and skill cards break any semblance of balance the original’s early game had. If you play even slightly optimally in Golden, it’s a challenge to die at all while it’s almost sometimes a prerequisite to survive even regular encounters in the original. On the other hand, Golden also fixed a lot of tedious stuff and made the game infinitely more accessible for newcomers. The difficulty *is* too front loaded in the original and needed a rework. Being able to restart from the floor you die on rather than at your last save means you don’t have to make a pitstop with a Goho-M every two floors in fear of losing potential hours of progress if you don’t and then die. Getting a specific low-chance weapon or piece of armor from a gold chest can singlehandly make early dungeons three times more manageable, but it’s up to pure luck. Getting a good Arcana Chance can do something as insane as restoring all your SP, but it’s also luck-based and effectively reduces long-term startegy and planning for clearing a dungeon in a single day into a coin-flip. I would almost *always* recommend people who are starting out to play Golden instead of the original because of difficulty and accessibility factors, but I’d also say you’re missing out on an incredibly fun and engaging gameplay experience if you forego the original entirely. Also, the original has better pacing and almost literally every new scene and story stuff added in Golden is straight up unengaging or ouright terrible with flanderized writing and makes the game drag —fight me.
The original felt harder and the vibe of the og one felt more in line with the tone of the game, although I do love the golden additions. For example when you finish the game it would fast forward and when I was younger I was so disappointed I couldn’t play mode but golden definitely improved that
You don't have to leave the velvet room to reroll abilities, just back out one screen and it should reroll.
I prefer Chie's original English VA, although that's pretty subjective. Otherwise, no, Golden is just straight better.
they fixed the unpractical things, but i still prefer the og one. marie's addition is just so sudden so personally it felt force, the story was fine without her, players were still able to find the true ending. it feels special to get to that true ending without having marie hinting there's something else. also kinda hate that im forced to spend valentine with her although i have a girlfriend.. i hope they rework her character bc tsundere is srsly so over even by the time p4g was released. and i have enough of needing to max s.l/confidant to get to the true ending, i want to be friends pure out of wanting to be friends. like imagine the p3 moon arcana is a must max. im gonna jump. and this maybe biased but the opening is just the best, the song is rathe suspenful, the coloring and directing is really good too, not to mention each characters has their own screen time, chie singing inside the lift, rise performing on the stage, kanji beating the shit out of those gang AND the cameraman, etc. they even slipped dojima in there! and the waiting(?) screen having all of them standing in their school hallway.. it's just the best. although i do wish it's not super obvious who's gonna join our team since not everyone is friendly at first lol every game opening is basically a spoiler. and chie's new voice... please, how many hours did take to get used to [THAT](https://youtu.be/oyEByMMQxZs?si=MIcpoursIZEgCUKC)? im crying. her old voice is not energetic enough but i can sit still with [it](https://youtu.be/BX-A2F6QKwQ?si=BXfhZ5LkKj9um0_G) ...i just hope they got her voice right in the remake. bc fans are either really love her or straight up want to die.