penthepoet
Bio
video games as a weirdly spiritual experience that change me as a being are some Good Shit
video games as a weirdly spiritual experience that change me as a being are some Good Shit
Badges
Well Written
Gained 10+ likes on a single review
Donor
Liked 50+ reviews / lists
Gone Gold
Received 5+ likes on a review while featured on the front page
Shreked
Found the secret ogre page
Liked
Gained 10+ total review likes
Noticed
Gained 3+ followers
Favorite Games
089
Total Games Played
000
Played in 2024
004
Games Backloggd
Recently Played See More
Recently Reviewed See More
This review contains spoilers
I have a complicated history with Persona 4. On one hand, it singlehandedly changed the course of my life and set me down a path in my own life that I do not think I regret in the least. On the other hand, I have had to contend quite a bit with my nostalgia goggles for this game fading a little and with really beginning to understand that this game isn't the masterpiece I thought it was. Is it for you? That's up to you to decide.
Persona 4 Golden's biggest strength is its atmosphere - the backwater town of Yaso-Inaba, for how little there is to do in it, captures a very particular sort of feeling that can't really be done justice. It's the sort of hazy joy that comes with thinking of good times in your high school years, the lazy, halcyon "summer years" of yours that slowly begin to taper off into the realization of what you have to do and the responsibilities one has to take on as an adult.
My favorite part of this game really does have to be the Dojima family (Adachi included). Ryotaro and Nanako Dojima's Social Links hit more than a little harder than I expected it to as a AFAB person with a father mainly absent for work reasons. Tohru Adachi's Social Link is one of the best additions Golden makes, giving fun amounts of foreshadowing and context to a character who historically didn't receive much in the original Persona 4. He is, as always, a fantastic fucking villain with a lot of complexity - even more so, the older you get and the more you experience the world. The Accomplice Ending still remains one of my favorite Bad Endings in any RPG to date. Everything surrounding these three remains as good as it ever was in my mind's eye, even despite everything that's happened surrounding them in my life.
However...
that doesn't fix the fact that this game has a lot, and I do mean a lot, of issues. The rest of the Social Links (aside from those like Marie) aren't really too great. I can see what they were going for with the main party, but it was infamously bungled by the way the developers just did not think about how they were deploying their themes in their plot. The queerphobia in this game just ages worse and worse with every year, the gameplay is clunky and doesn't really grow on me, some of the impacts don't hit as hard as they used to.
But then again, why would they? I'm a very different person than the weird teenager who picked up Persona 4 Golden in 2019-2020. This was a game for that me, who needed it the most. I'm 21 now, I have an apartment, I'm entering my senior year in college.
The Persona 4 Golden in my head was never the Persona 4 Golden that actually existed. It lies, instead, in the past - in my past self's hands, a past forever stuck in that hazy summer year. It lies, somewhat still, with me in the quiet present, in an autumn year of my life that paradoxically seems both colder and warmer.
Persona 4 Golden's biggest strength is its atmosphere - the backwater town of Yaso-Inaba, for how little there is to do in it, captures a very particular sort of feeling that can't really be done justice. It's the sort of hazy joy that comes with thinking of good times in your high school years, the lazy, halcyon "summer years" of yours that slowly begin to taper off into the realization of what you have to do and the responsibilities one has to take on as an adult.
My favorite part of this game really does have to be the Dojima family (Adachi included). Ryotaro and Nanako Dojima's Social Links hit more than a little harder than I expected it to as a AFAB person with a father mainly absent for work reasons. Tohru Adachi's Social Link is one of the best additions Golden makes, giving fun amounts of foreshadowing and context to a character who historically didn't receive much in the original Persona 4. He is, as always, a fantastic fucking villain with a lot of complexity - even more so, the older you get and the more you experience the world. The Accomplice Ending still remains one of my favorite Bad Endings in any RPG to date. Everything surrounding these three remains as good as it ever was in my mind's eye, even despite everything that's happened surrounding them in my life.
However...
that doesn't fix the fact that this game has a lot, and I do mean a lot, of issues. The rest of the Social Links (aside from those like Marie) aren't really too great. I can see what they were going for with the main party, but it was infamously bungled by the way the developers just did not think about how they were deploying their themes in their plot. The queerphobia in this game just ages worse and worse with every year, the gameplay is clunky and doesn't really grow on me, some of the impacts don't hit as hard as they used to.
But then again, why would they? I'm a very different person than the weird teenager who picked up Persona 4 Golden in 2019-2020. This was a game for that me, who needed it the most. I'm 21 now, I have an apartment, I'm entering my senior year in college.
The Persona 4 Golden in my head was never the Persona 4 Golden that actually existed. It lies, instead, in the past - in my past self's hands, a past forever stuck in that hazy summer year. It lies, somewhat still, with me in the quiet present, in an autumn year of my life that paradoxically seems both colder and warmer.
"We loved so many, and yet hated so much...
We hurt others and were hurt ourselves....
Yet for a certainty back then, we ran like the wind...
While our laughter echoed under cerulean skies."
Chrono Cross is.
Chrono Cross is a lot of things.
It is a view of an aquatic world teeming with overwhelming life that makes the touches of death within it hurt that much harder.
It is a window into all the little lives, all the tiny miracles, that make up the cast and crew of Chrono Cross. From Serge's and Kid's story, to Nikki's journey, to even the story of a young poet in Serge's village, I witnessed all sorts of stories from all walks of life that hit with immense and profound poignancy.
It is a masterclass in sincerity, balancing equal parts fun and melancholy in a way that did not in the least feel unearned. When this story hits you, it HITS you. This game had me bawling in a good way more times than I could count.
There are AAA games out today that could not even come close to matching the quality of character writing, worldbuilding and plot writing that this game has.
The gameplay's quality of life additions made it really fun to play through, as well. I can only think of one or two times where I wasn't having fun, and even then I managed to get out of them relatively quickly.
I highly recommend playing with the old graphics, using a ReShade CRT filter. It really does make the game's visuals shine - this game is, without a doubt, gorgeous, and there were several moments in it that just took my breath away with that little visual touch. It's one of the few things I'm most grateful I took the time to do in setting up my game.
There is nothing more I can say about this game that would do it justice other than to entreat you to play it yourself. Perhaps, under cerulean skies, you too will see the same beauty that this game had to offer for me.
We hurt others and were hurt ourselves....
Yet for a certainty back then, we ran like the wind...
While our laughter echoed under cerulean skies."
Chrono Cross is.
Chrono Cross is a lot of things.
It is a view of an aquatic world teeming with overwhelming life that makes the touches of death within it hurt that much harder.
It is a window into all the little lives, all the tiny miracles, that make up the cast and crew of Chrono Cross. From Serge's and Kid's story, to Nikki's journey, to even the story of a young poet in Serge's village, I witnessed all sorts of stories from all walks of life that hit with immense and profound poignancy.
It is a masterclass in sincerity, balancing equal parts fun and melancholy in a way that did not in the least feel unearned. When this story hits you, it HITS you. This game had me bawling in a good way more times than I could count.
There are AAA games out today that could not even come close to matching the quality of character writing, worldbuilding and plot writing that this game has.
The gameplay's quality of life additions made it really fun to play through, as well. I can only think of one or two times where I wasn't having fun, and even then I managed to get out of them relatively quickly.
I highly recommend playing with the old graphics, using a ReShade CRT filter. It really does make the game's visuals shine - this game is, without a doubt, gorgeous, and there were several moments in it that just took my breath away with that little visual touch. It's one of the few things I'm most grateful I took the time to do in setting up my game.
There is nothing more I can say about this game that would do it justice other than to entreat you to play it yourself. Perhaps, under cerulean skies, you too will see the same beauty that this game had to offer for me.
A quiet, horrifying nightmare of a game that looms in your vision.