For a while now, Persona 4 Golden has been in the back of my mind as one of the most special pieces of fiction for me. So this review is a poor attempt to verbalize what this game means to me.

In the middle of 2022, I was at one of the lowest points of my life. Through my own admission, I had lost the people around me. My days felt empty, my future looked bleak and I struggled to get out of bed, let alone take care of myself. In an attempt to make my life a bit better, I purchased a new PC, to delve into new games that I previously wouldn't be able to play. To at least get out of bed.

Luckily, my best friend stuck with me through these tough times. He introduced me to Persona 4 Golden, a series I had previously been aware of and been mildly interested in through Persona 5, but never got the push to quite get into it. Ironically, I could've easily played Persona 4 Golden on my older PC, but nonetheless it felt like the mark of a new beginning.

I would love to say that starting the game and playing it was a magical experience, but it was a struggle at first. But it was a reason to talk to my best friend, it was a way for me to keep going so I managed to keep going. Through the daily struggle to keep up, I got to know the characters slowly, but surely. I started to pick a favorite, get invested in their character arcs, try to figure out the mystery of the town and most importantly, feel a bit better every time I saw that friend group that had started to mean so much to me.

Of course, the characters of a video game cannot replace any real friends or any real interaction, but the bonds that were being forged in front of my eyes were enough to fill that temporary emptiness in my heart. The perseverance of these kids, to have the courage to keep moving forward when it all seems so bleak, gave me hope in my darker hours. To be able to share that with the only person close to me at the time was a special time and allowed me to keep the hope that life would get better.

And it did. Because of Persona 4 Golden and my best friend Goh, I was able to persevere myself and keep faith in the future. To me, they saved me.

I usually like to close off a review with a quote that meant something to me in the story that I experienced, but here I would just like to thank Persona 4 Golden and Goh to be there for me and I'm grateful to anyone who took the time out of their day to read what this game means to me.

Number 15: BurgerTime foot burger. The last thing you'd want in your BurgerTime burger is someone's foot fungus. But as it turns out, that might be what you get. A DataEaster uploaded a game anonymously to the site showcasing him running along a burger. With the statement: "This is the burger you eat at BurgerTime." Admittedly, it was a giant burger.

But that's even worse.

The post went live at 1991 on the Game Boy, and a mere 20 minutes later, the BurgerTime in question was alerted to the rogue employee. At least, I hope he's rogue. How did it happen? Well, the BT employee hadn't removed the Exif data from the uploaded photo, which suggested the culprit was somewhere in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. This was at 11:47. Three minutes later at 11:50, the BurgerTime branch address was posted with wishes of happy unemployment. 5 minutes later, the news station was contacted by another DataEaster. And three minutes later, at 11:58, a link was posted: BT's "Tell us about us" online forum. The foot photo, otherwise known as exhibit A, was attached. Nintendo Scene Magazine contacted the BT in question the next day. When questioned, the breakfast shift manager said "Oh, I know who that is. He's getting fired." Mystery solved, by DataEast. Now we can all go back to playing our Game Boy games in peace.