this is a review for golden but ill probably also be talking about the ps2 original cus thats the platform i played as a kid

i have such a love/hate relationship with persona 4.
persona 4 is quite possibly one of the most mean-spirited games ive ever played. this game perfectly embodies the conservative liberalism of (especially) late 2000s japan, with a lot of hollow gesturing at acceptance and finding your true self but in reality obsesses over people and is constantly judging them for their decisions. in persona 4 there is no bigger crime than thinking that life could be more than this, that this cant be all that there is. yukiko wanting to leave behind her dead-end family job at the inn is framed as selfish and its good of her to sacrifice her own happiness for the good of her dead-end dying town. naoto, no matter how people spin it (and they do), is written as being extremely dysphoric. s/he is highly uncomfortable with her/his breasts (which the game makes a VERY CLEAR POINT IN EMPHASIZING on a 15 year old's body), s/he highly considered a sex change, s/he wears a binder through the whole game, and her/his romance route encourages you to directly overstep her/his boundaries and force the way you want her/him to dress on her/him (which, for the romance route to start, is highly feminine). naoto being so uncomfortable with her/his body and gender is shown directly as a sign of weakness, naoto needs to Accept Her True Self, which doesnt mean reflecting on the way s/he feels about her/himself, it means blindly accepting that the way youre born is the only way you should stay and changing from that norm is just really uncomfortable for everyone else and you should really be thinking about the way they feel.
with all of that whinging aside, i cant help but love this game. persona 4 directly impacted my life and i think for the better. as my first persona game, this game made me fall in love with rpgs, understand what rpgs can be. the characters were unlike anything ive ever seen, they were nuanced and seriously felt like real people. the game was difficult but rewarding, the style was incredibly smooth and it made me engage with it on its own level. its not that much of a stretch to say persona 4 taught me what video games could be and im eternally thankful for it in that sense but in another sense whenever i play it now i just get frustrated that its not what i saw in it when i was a child anymore. still, occassionally, when im wandering around those foggy inaba streets, going to the metalworking shop and buying new gear or going to aiya to try the beef bowl again (i got a courage upgrade since last time!), i can catch glimpses of the old magic. this is, for better or worse, a very special game.

also the new character in golden sucks and i hate her