Persona 4 Golden has long held my interest from afar. While I was but a slip of a lad, I focussed squarely (boom-boom) on the Final Fantasy series for my JRPG fix, and man, did I have a heavy addiction. As that series dwindled to the mess it is now, my interest in the genre waned as well. Partially due to the stagnation of itself, and partially due to my becoming a parent, the time for JRPGs had passed in my life.

And yet, I wondered if there would ever be a time where that all-consuming, no-other-game-exists, 30+ hour behemoth would ever take over again. I thought that game would be Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, but after 12 hours, I realised that what I really wanted from that game was to play as the impeccably-voiced Drippy, not the whiny kid.

With the recent sale, I took the plunge on Persona 4 Golden. This blog will detail my experiences and reactions to the game, and is nothing more than an experiment for me to see how dedicated to blogging about one thing I can become.

I recently did the same and since I had already played through the PS2 version around the time of the endurance run, I put it on very easy. As promised it was very easy.
By the end of the third dungeon all my main characters were level 99, and I had 4.5 million yen ( I did all the bonus dungeons too)

I really enjoyed all the new scenes and videos they've added to the game. I hope you enjoy it too!

(I also stopped playing Ni No Kuni after 12 hours)

I still need to finish the game, I got stuck in the Rise dungeon! :(

It's a pretty good game, but I hope you plan on spending more than 30 hours in it. It took Jeff and Vinny a hundred hours to do it.

I've played through it several times and I've never done it under a hundred hours. I play at a pretty casual pace though, as far as not rushing things, but even moving at a brisker pace you're looking at 60+ at least.

I finished golden in just under 100, and that was on easy with out dieing and knowing where to go, having watched the ER. Also the TrueEnding+

I bought it on sale for $30 back in April during a PSN Persona sale. I instantly fell in love with it and played for like 17 hours straight. Seriously, didn't sleep that night and just played through the day while charging my Vita at the same time. It was ridiculous. That current save has 44 hours in it but I haven't played since April because I got stuck in the dungeon with the kid from the other school that the group thinks killed the people. It's on normal difficulty and that shits tough in later floors of the dungeons and some of the bosses are ridiculous. I want to restart and play on easy or very easy but I don't know. It bothers me knowing I'll be throwing my save out and beating the game in way shorter amount of time. I might try to beat that boss I'm stuck at after I beat Zero Escape but if I have no luck, I'll just restart it.

@awesomeusername: As with many JRPGs, in Persona 4, grinding cures all ills as far as combat goes. Just go back to the bottom floor of the dungeon you're on and work your way all the way back up it. By the time you get back up to the top floors, you should be overlevelled enough to make it through the rest of it. It'll be a lot faster than starting over.

That's what I did for most of the dungeons but man, that boss is a pain in the ass and I hate, hate, HATE grinding.

Grinding is actually rarely the answer in that game, unless you've been avoiding way too many encounters. I've never played it on anything below hard and I don't think I ever had to outright grind.

90% of the time the key between victory and defeat is your strategy and your hero's Persona. Often if you're getting your ass kicked a new Persona will do wonders. Black Frost is pretty much made for that dungeon.

I fought most monsters I came across except in the later floors of the dungeon I'm in currently because they whoop my ass. I also never go into the t.v. world unless I'm told to so I spend most of the time in the game hanging out everyday. My highest leveled character is Rise at 45 (who doesn't even fight!) and next is my character at 44. Everyone else is 41, 38, 40, 41 and 42. I read I need my party at 45+ for this boss to be easier and that's just so much grinding that I don't want to do. I make new, stronger Persona's when I can and right now, I have the Persona's I want. I haven't come across a Black Frost fusion. I have King Frost though, but he's level 28. I'll look up how to get him though so thanks for that advice.

Black Frost is a special fusion, so it's pretty easy to make, as long as you've made the other parts of the fusion already.

People tend to recommend hanging out with people all the time and going to the dungeon as little as possible because they're looking at it from basically a min/max angle and basically completing all S. Links in one run, which is really not necessary to complete the game and forcing it I think kind of ruins the freedom the game gives you to do what you want. If you feel like going to the dungeon will help (or you just want to do some dungeon crawling) then you should. (Although try to avoid going more than like 3-4 times in a month.)

Party member levels are only really important to the extent that they have access to useful skills. I don't remember (or even know in the case of Golden) what skills party members have around that level, but I had a habit of using everyone my first time through, which left my characters fairly underleveled, but it didn't seem to hurt me much.

Greatest JRPG of all time, in my eyes. Astonishingly good game. Hope you have as much fun with it as I did.

I should probably get back to this game. Kanji ain't gonna save himself.

First update. Well, I reckon I've put about 6-7 hours in so far and I'm definitely in. Still being a little cautious, as that's how I felt about Ni no Kuni, but I think this will sustain me for quite some time.

Difficult to say what I find appealing about it, though. The combat is pretty straightforward for the genre, and I started by controlling everyone, but eventually just let them do what they want, and it all seems to be working out, although the 'support' instruction isn't as utilised as I'd hoped - I'm still healing people myself a bit more than I'd like. The voice acting and characterisation, as well as a sense of place, are all amazing, and are enriching the experience more than I would have thought. I guess I'm comparing them to traditional FF characters; Persona's cast are like Shakepeare compared to that series.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed with the whole Persona system, not really sure what I'm doing and I feel the game doesn't do a great job of explaining it. I can see a time in the future where I'm screwed because I don't have the correct persona and don't have the cards to make it.

I'll soldier on. Fun so far!

@yodasdarkside: I've been there (Played P4 earlier this year).

As to "What to do", your goal is to cover any and all enemy weaknesses while having as few of your own as possible (so... being able to cast Bufu and make it mean something for example). Early game, this isn't too bad, but mid to late game it really comes into play. What you want to do is get new personas using Shuffle Time. Then, you can go back to the Velvet Room (either in TV World or Shopping district), and load them into the compendium (or just fuse them). Try to keep a couple open slots at all times, and you'll be set.

Each persona has stats that set you main character's stats, while having their own spells, and weaknesses. If an enemy exploits the weakness, you have a bad time. Tip: AVOID Light/Dark weakness as much as possible....that one got me a couple times. You can make bigger ones by fusing personas. A couple good ones to have in game will be Black Frost (you'll see why) and Trumpeter (he comes in late game).

Then, fuse, fuse, fuse! The fusions open up the stronger Personas that you're going to want, and there was only one point where I needed to go back to get a specific persona (but that was so I could be a massive dick to the final boss). There's a few sites out there that list fusions, so you'll more than likely be good to go.

Hope this helps!

Pixeljunk Monsters Ultimate HD has taken over my life. Again.