The Persona series of JRPGs are hugely popular and beloved games that are now available on all systems for the first time. The series typically sees high school students discovering a secret alternate world and fighting through shadow creatures pulled from human consciousness to save the world from destruction, while still making sure to study for their exams.
While there’s a lot of debate on which game is the best in the series, it’s clear that each one offers something better than the others. Persona 4 Golden follows a murder mystery in a small Japanese town involving a strange midnight TV broadcast. It is often considered the best by many, and there are several good reasons why.
5 Town Soundtracks
Picking the best Persona soundtrack is like picking a favorite child. The entire series can be placed among some of the greatest soundtracks in gaming, although often in different ways. Persona 3 has the catchiest battle theme with "Mass Destruction," while Persona 5’s soundtrack often uses its jazz influences to do some interesting things with its score.
Persona 4 excels in its town themes. A brilliant blend of catchy and relaxing, the music that players hear while wandering around Inaba is perfect music to wander around a sleepy Japanese town, making the best use of the game’s limited time. On one hand, the music perfectly replicates the kind of pop sound one would expect Japanese teens to be listening to on their walk home from school. On the other hand, there’s a strange nostalgic feeling to these soundtracks that reflects the town’s older structures. It all combines brilliantly to create a unique vibe for the game.
4 Personal Stories
Persona 3 had a dark, moody story with grand implications on existence, and Persona 5 was full of critiques on societal issues. Meanwhile, Persona 4’s story is often a lot more intimate, in a way that works heavily to its benefit. Among the game’s wider murder mystery, party members all have their own stories, all touching on issues that teenagers are likely to be struggling with. These issues also become cornerstones for most of the game’s boss fights, which represent those suppressed aspects of each character.
From issues surrounding gender identity and sexuality to anxieties surrounding parental expectations, each party member has their own struggles that can be examined as the game goes on. These issues are generally treated with great care, to the point where they’ve had a real impact on players. Troy Baker, the English language voice actor for Kanji, a boy struggling with his sexuality, has stated that to this day people thank him for his portrayal of the character as the story helped them with their own struggles. Compared to Persona 5 and particularly how it handles the story of Ann, it’s a huge contrast.
3 Social Links
Beyond the party themselves, Persona 4 also has some of the strongest Social Links of the whole series. Social Links are effectively side quests where the player can befriend people in their lives and help them with their issues. There are some great stories here, and completing these Social Link quests can also bestow benefits in battle.
In Persona 4, these quests feel a lot more natural than in other titles. The player can befriend people in their social clubs, help the brother of an early murder victim deal with his grief, and bond with the protagonist’s cousin as she’s often left alone at home due to her father being a police detective. They all help to ground the player in the game’s world in meaningful ways.
2 Bright Tone
For anyone not interested in a dark tone, Persona 4 is the best in the series due to it being lighter than other games in the series. Persona 3 is an incredibly dark game that sees trauma and death woven heavily into the narrative. And while Persona 5 has plenty of light-hearted moments, these are balanced consistently with tales of abusive teachers and corrupt politicians.
Persona 4 instead focuses on a relaxed small-town feeling, as represented in its Social Links and music, but also in how much lower the stakes feel. The party’s interactions are generally more relaxed, and each completed dungeon presents the crew as heroes who are saving others from grim fates, something other titles tend to subvert in some way.
1 A Challenging Mystery
Persona 4 is presented as a murder mystery and does an excellent job of playing out like one. All the Persona games are presented as an investigation involving the shadow worlds, but Persona 4 does the best job of making the player feel like an investigator. In Persona 3, much of the investigating is handled by senior members of the Investigation Team, while in Persona 5, sometimes the clues are too obvious, or the party solves it quietly in the story and reveals its own conclusion during a big twist.
In Persona 4, the identity of the true killer is hinted at throughout the game, in ways that the player may miss at first. However, in the game’s climax, the player is asked to piece these clues together and identify the suspect, and only if they get it correct can they get the True Ending. It encourages the player to act like a detective, examining interactions and even subtle meta clues. When they discover the truth, it has a meaningful impact on the player’s enjoyment of the story. It’s a brilliant conclusion to an already excellent game.