This is a game I've had a lot of conflicted feelings on, ever since my playthrough of it over two years ago. Not helping matters is how its become basically inseparable from the heated debate over how it handled LGBT issues, which has resulted in the speaking over and harassment of trans people. But you know, I get it. Not the speaking over and harassing trans people part, please go fuck yourself if you do that, but I get Persona 4's appeal. It's a game about coming terms with truths about yourself that you don't feel like accepting and if you play it as the teenage demographic it's aimed towards, that's a powerful message. So I'm going to be extremely charitable and separate Persona 4 from its politics to see it for what it is: a mechanically dull/pathetically easy RPG with boring procedurally generated dungeon design and a poorly paced story that's as repetitive as those dungeons

Reviewed on Jan 11, 2024


4 Comments


3 months ago

wow, you've said what I was thinking for a while. I wanted to love this game like I did in 2021 but for some reason something was missing...then it hit me, the obnoxious homophobic and transphobic remarks that young me didn't really catch nor knew how bad they were and also that this game is incredibly fucking boring in the dungeon sections and the battle system is so fucking boring and repetitive (This is a SMT game btw, a franchise famous for having really fun turn based combat) and the most boring ass dungeon themes too (Nanako's dungeon is the only one exempt from this imo).


but I wanna ask, what do you think of the Dojima family? (no not talking about Yakuza lmao) for me, they're definitely one of the best aspects from this game and think the relationship between the two and the player is really sweet and well written. The Heaven dungeon arc was definitely the best part of the game and it isn't even close for me. I'm curious to hear your thoughts (also my god I wish kanji was handled better, he's still my top 5 favorite character in the franchise for sure though)

3 months ago

@G0dot The Dojima family dynamic is easily the best part of Persona 4 and I see myself in Yu's situation with them because I have a sibling who's of a similar age difference to Nanako

3 months ago

@BigGnome aww that's really cute. also do you plan on playing Persona 5 Royal sometime? it has flaws for sure but in my opinion it's easily the best and most polished game in the Neo-Persona trilogy

3 months ago

@G0dot Probably not because of how much of a time commitment it is