During Summer Game Fest this year, we got our first extended look at Persona 4 Revival. The two-minute trailer for the Persona 4 remake may have been short, but it managed to show off a lot of the game's new features in that time. As a massive fan of not just this game, but the entire Persona series, I was happy to see the changes Atlus has made to previous versions of the game. Although I will miss the original voice cast, it seems like Persona 4 Revival will likely be the definitive version of the game.
The most recent version of the game, Persona 4 Golden, was released back in 2012. In the 14 years since then, Atlus has made a lot of improvements in their RPGs that Persona 4 Revival seems to be benefiting from. While the older versions of the game are by no means unplayable — I still vehemently recommend Golden to any RPG fan I know — it is nice to see these innovations making their way into the remake.
Honestly, as much as I love Persona 4 Golden, there are certain dated elements of the game that make it a bit frustrating to play through. I think this is compounded because I, like many players, jumped onto the series in Persona 5 and worked my way backwards. This makes the older games' flaws all too apparent. It's a testament to how great of a game Persona 4 is that, despite these flaws, it's still my favorite of the series. That said, I'm very much looking forward to the remake for several reasons.
As much as I love Persona 4 Golden, some of its dated mechanics make it hard to replay. For one, it lacks a lot of the combat innovations that newer Persona games use to streamline encounters. Additions like Baton Pass, for instance, are sorely missed in Persona 4 Golden, especially when not having access to them means allowing an enemy to recover from being knocked out before you can set up an All-Out Attack.
Aside from combat, there are other features Persona 4 Golden lacks that are a big improvement in the newer games of the series. As minor of a factor as it may seem, the ability to automatically cycle through dialogue is a huge plus that was added in Persona 5. While the game lets you fast-forward dialogue if you want, I rarely want to skip cutscenes in a Persona game, so I prefer to have an option where I see all the lines but don't have to press a button between all of them.
Additionally, Persona 4 Golden's UI leaves something to be desired after having played later games in the series. This is true both inside and out of combat. Luckily, it seems like Persona 4 Revival is addressing most of these issues.
We got some quick flashes of combat from the Persona 4 Revival trailer, but like any good super fan, I paused each frame to take a look at the new combat UI and added features in the new game. With one of my biggest gripes about Persona 4 Golden's combat being the lack of Baton Pass, I was very pleased to see that the feature made it into the remake. However, the updates to combat don't stop there.
Persona 4 Revival includes new moves for each character that are called Series Finales. These appear to be similar to Persona 3 Reload's Theurgy attacks, in that they are powerful finishers unique to each character. While it isn't entirely clear how to set up a Series Finale, there are some hints presented by the trailer.
In a quick shot, we see Yukiko starting her turn with "Four More" prompt, and there is a "Prime Time" indicator on the side of the screen which shows four stars next to it. This could mean that Series Finale attacks are set up by having all four of your party members perform a move that grants them a "One More" attack.
It also seems possible that Persona 4 Revival may be taking some cues from Metaphor: ReFantazio. We can see in the trailer that the protagonist is able to parry an enemy attack outside of combat to set up an advantage in the encounter. This is a nice change, as it was somewhat nebulous when you would get an advantage in combat in the original game. It's unclear if there will be more in-depth mechanics for fighting enemies in real time, like in Metaphor, so we'll have to wait to see more gameplay.
Although mostly aesthetic, there also seems to have been an update made to All-Out Attacks. In the trailer, we see one that ends with the protagonist getting a special animation at the end of the All-Out Attack. This could mean that each character has a unique animation, based on which one triggered the initial attack. These are some exciting changes, but Persona 4 Revival seems to be expanding its updates beyond just combat.
It's clear from the Persona 4 Revival trailer that the game is revamping more than just its combat mechanics. One of my previous gripes with Persona 4 Golden, the lack of auto dialogue advancement, has been addressed. The remake has the option to advance dialogue automatically, meaning players will no longer need to click a button each time they want to advance the current scene.
In-engine cutscenes have also been completely revamped. Not only are the 3D character models completely updated for a new visual style, but the camera angles within these cutscenes are much more dynamic. This creates less of a drastic separation between the anime-style cutscenes and the ones done in the game's typical medium.
An obsessive frame-by-frame pausing of the Persona 4 Revival trailer will also reveal a "Join/Leave Party" option available in the pause menu. This seems to be a way to quickly swap out party members, instead of having to return to the beginning of a dungeon to do so. This will make it much easier to swap out characters, and make it less likely that you will simply stagnate with one party composition for the sake of convenience.
Overall, Persona 4 Revival looks like it will be the definitive version of the game. Although at some point I would have said I didn't need a remake to enjoy the original, I am glad that a new version of the game is coming out, complete with all the technical upgrades that Atlus has made since its original release. While I will never stop loving Persona 4 Golden, I'm glad to have a version of the game that eliminates some of the dated and frustrating elements present in it.
