REVIEW – A teenage boy moves to a quiet rural town just as a series of gruesome murders begins to unfold. While trying to adjust to his new high school, he befriends a group of local students and, together, they discover a bizarre alternate reality accessed through television screens. Persona 4 is a highly unique JRPG that blends school life with deep turn-based combat, a gripping mystery, and an avalanche of dialogue. This article has been updated in light of the game’s addition to Game Pass.

Although Persona 4 Golden launched on PS Vita in 2012 and hit PC in 2020, it’s actually an enhanced port of the original Persona 4, which debuted on the PlayStation 2 in 2008. The Persona series is a genre-bending RPG saga that mixes traditional role-playing mechanics with simulation and adventure elements. What sets Persona 4 apart is its strange and captivating story, which evokes the eerie charm of Twin Peaks—right down to its fog-covered towns and cryptic TV broadcasts.

Since your custom-named protagonist is a high school student, the gameplay is heavily structured around the academic calendar. You’ll attend classes, take exams, hang out with friends, and gradually form a team to investigate the ongoing murders. Victims appear on the supernatural “Midnight Channel” during foggy nights, and are then found dead the next day. It’s an unsettling mystery that gets more intriguing the deeper you go.

So Many Words, So Little Action

Persona 4 doesn’t just resemble an anime—it practically is one. Expect an enormous amount of dialogue, cinematic cutscenes, and scripted sequences that can stretch for hours before real gameplay kicks in. That’s not ideal for a handheld title, especially when you just want to sneak in a quick session on your commute. It can feel like you’re pressing the circle button more than actually playing—but if you’re patient, there’s gold at the end of the tunnel.

Kids Who Can Throw Down

Once you’ve mashed your way through hours of exposition, the turn-based combat finally kicks in—and thankfully, it’s worth the wait. Battles unfold in classic JRPG fashion: you can use regular attacks, elemental skills, and items. You can micromanage each party member or assign them AI behavior via the Tactics menu.

Each skill type is tied to an elemental affinity—like Physical, Wind, or Almighty—and exploiting enemy weaknesses is the key to victory. Knock all enemies down and you’ll trigger an “All-Out Attack,” where your team rushes in for a cinematic beatdown. Winning fights earns you experience, loot, and the chance to collect new Personas to add to your spiritual arsenal.

What’s Your Persona?

Now let’s talk about the name itself: a Persona is a summonable being that fights by your side. Every character has their own Persona, but your protagonist can collect multiple ones. These companions level up, learn new abilities, and evolve. Even better, you can fuse two or three Personas inside a surreal limo to create new, more powerful hybrids. Yes, there’s a limo. Inside the mind. Don’t ask—just enjoy.

The Owls Are Not What They Seem

To wrap things up with one last Twin Peaks nod: Persona 4 Golden is a slow-burn experience, but one that’s absolutely worth the wait. If you’re willing to power through its sluggish opening and embrace its heavy dialogue load, you’ll find one of the most distinctive JRPGs out there. The 96% rating on Gamerankings may be a bit generous, but this is still one of the best titles on the Vita—if you’ve got the patience for it.

-Gergely Herpai “BadSector”-