Since there will be newcomers to Persona 4 with the advent of Golden being released on Steam, here are some facts and tips about the game that newcomers might want to know before playing:
First up, the characters ( or rather, the investigation team) can straight up horrible at times, especially Yosuke and Chie. Yes, they do get better as the game goes along and Kanji is Actually Precious, but they can be really unlikable at times. You really have to invest in their social links to get the best out of them imo (you can even hug Yosuke if you take the correct choices!)
As an aside, there’s some really cringy scenes that have not aged well like the camp river scene where the Chie and Yukiko kick the boys into the river (Yosuke deserves it, but Kanji had a concussion and I am nothing but respectful to women) or most imfamously the Amagi inn scene. Golden adds a painful scene of the boys (even Kanji...) trying to pick up girls, only to fail and for Hanako to accidentally break (well, maybe it was intentional, who knows~) Yosuke’s new scooter.
Secondly, everyone’s shadow isn’t a pure representation of their true character. This means you shouldn’t take what they say at face value, especially Kanji’s and Naoto’s. While there is some truth to what they say, a lot of it is exaggeration (looking at you Shadow Kanji).
Teddie is actually a really good character who goes through an arc that makes sense for him. Yes, he’s a perverted bear who won’t stop making bear puns, but he’s also lonely and doesn’t know who he is or why he exists. He doesn’t betray you, he doesn’t leave you, he almost kisses you- wait what was that last one? Yeah, it happens in Golden, then you get interrupted. Teddie just...loves you.
Something that wasn’t in Persona 3 (well, unless you play P3P then yeah, I guess you could say that it’s there) and didn’t come back for Persona 5 is that there are two cases of branching social links: the Sun which you need to choose whether you want to Music or Drama and the Strength in which you either go Soccer or Basketball. While you still get the other person in the Strength link (Daisuke will always appear with Kou if you pick basketball and same with Kou with soccer), the Sun link choices do not interact at all.
Don’t try to do all the social links at once, you will fail (unless you have a guide). Do the links for the investigation team (except for Naoto who needs maxed out Knowledge and Expression? I think it’s Expression) and Marie, but then just pick and choose which ones to do. I’ll always recommend Nanako and Uncle Dojima because they do lock out after a certain date and probably Adachi’s. The Hermit as well because it’ll lessen the money you need to restore the party in the TV world.
You’re probably not going to max out every stat in a single playthrough (unless you’re looking at a guide) so these are the important ones: Knowledge, Understanding and Expression. Courage is hard to level up early and Diligence is kinda a dump stat I think? It allows you to get the Devil and Death social links and Origami job but that’s it. Also it allows to fish more.
Persona 4 has a fusion forecast! This is really helpful for when you want to make strong personas and get different skills on personas that wouldn’t naturally learn them. You don’t have to use it and simply just fuse whenever, but it’s there. You might actually be surprised to see extra stats or more exp if you haven’t been paying attention to the forecast.
There are scooters! New to Golden, they can increase courage, you can get new skills for your teammates, you can go to new places like Okina and the beach. Here is a list of skills the team can learn (Kanji being a healer...crazy). Naoto is probably the one you want to take out due to her kit being...not good (if you came from Persona 5, there aren’t any Curse or Bless skills and Hama and Mudo skills are useless in Boss fights) and Megidoleon is an SP drain. Yukiko would probably be next due to learning Marakunda and Mind Charge which makes her a crazy fire nuke. Teddie also has Dekunda which is really good too.
You get new skills from social links now, but they can be hit and miss. Yukiko for example has Amrita (clears all debuffs except for Down and of course, Death) and Divine Grace (increases healing by 50%), but she also gets Mudo...which, again, is useless in boss fights where you’re probably gonna want someone like Yukiko.
Gardening! Also new to Golden, you can plant vegetables which have different effects, from restoring SP to unlocking chests for you. It can also increase your bond with Uncle Dojima and Nanako if you harvest the fruits of our labour on a day either or both of them are home. It doesn’t take up anytime so there’s really no reason not to.
Don’t cheat on your girlfriend. They won’t beat you up, but there’s no guarantee that I won’t. I can’t tell you not to do so since there isn’t a risk of any limbs involved unlike in Persona 5, but like, don’t be a douchebag?
If you played Persona 3, you know how to recruit personas. If you haven’t, then it’s a little different. Like P3, there is a roulette, but unlike P3, you can choose which card you want instead of picking randomly. The cards are still chosen at random and there are ones that do negative effects, but with the side effect of being able to choose more cards.
The best girl is Naoto, obviously.
Kanji is best boy, obviously.
That’s all I have for now I think. I didn’t talk too much about Naoto because I do not want to start up that war. All I’ll say is that you shouldn’t assume a book by it’s cover and leave it at that.
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