This Year in RPGs: November

Persona 4 Golden (released 11/20/2012)

Although a port of a PS2 game, P4G provides a solid RPG experience on the Vita. For a system in dire need of software, Persona 4 Golden is a welcome sight.

One thing I failed to highlight in my last blog post about Persona 4 Golden is the humor present in the series. It's a dialogue heavy series, and some of that dialogue is quite funny. Again, because the game is centered around Japan, (or rather a fictitious Japanese countryside) some of that humor may be lost on us culturally, but most of the time localization efforts manage to convey the joke.

Graphically, Persona 4 Golden is rather pretty to behold. Persona 4 arrived on the PS2 at the end of the cosole's life, and the developer seemed to squeeze every last drop of processing power in making the game. Now on Vita, with a new shiny coat of paint, Persona 4 Golden wouldn't look out of place on the PS3 or Xbox 360.

It seems like just yesterday I was recommending picking up Persona 4 Golden to everyone that has a Vita, so I won't spend too much more time going on about it, but allow me to just reiterate: If you have a Vita and like RPGs, buy it.

New Releases 11/20

Persona 4 Golden was released this week (now last week, damn procrastination) on the PS Vita by Atlus. The Persona series has historically been hailed as a high point for JRPGs and this edition of Persona 4 is no exception. The game currently holds a 95/100 on Metacritic and its release resulted in a large surge of Vitas being sold in Japan, as well as a nice bump in units sold here.

No witticisms today.

The Shin Megami Tensei series (which includes the Persona games) has been around for years, but its popularity was predominately in Japan. Although Persona 2 Eternal Punishment was released here on the PS1, (the only game I've played in the series, which I'm sad to say I have not finished as I acquired a PS2 around the time I was playing it, leaving it on the back burner until I finished Kingdom Hearts, and then whatever I played after that, and whatever came after that...suffice it to say I never made it back ), but it wasn't until the PS2 game Persona 3 that the franchise experienced critical acclaim from the west. The sequel to Persona 3 was Persona 4 (notice a trend here?) and was also released on the PS2. Persona 4 Golden is an updated version of that game for the PS Vita, but just because it's an old game doesn't mean it's not worth picking up, especially if you own a Vita.

None here either.

The SMT series is unique in that instead of taking place on some distant fantasy world, it takes place in Japan, more specifically in Japanese schools. This results in a large number of cultural references which no doubt fly over most of the western worlds' collective heads, but that's okay because ultimately it doesn't matter. The game is good enough that the things that get lost in translation aren't all that important. The gameplay is compelling enough to keep going (must...gain...one...more...level).

Samesies.

Persona 4 Golden is available exclusively on the PS Vita and retails for $49.99, but like I said, it's a port of a PS2 game, so you could always play that if you're hankering for some Persona.