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E3 2012: Persona 4 Golden (impressions)

by: Matt -
More On: Persona 4 Golden E3 2012
An RPG can be a tough game to get to know out on the E3 show floor. There's so much stuff to learn about a game and in such a short time. Knowing a lot about Persona 4 in the first place set me up perfectly to check out Persona 4 Golden, the PS Vita port of the 2008 RPG that I utterly adored. My incredibly short time with the game showed me all that I needed to see to know that I'd be picking up this game on day one, and that the purchase of a PS Vita is completely justified. 

Some of the new features I was shown included a sort of compendium of the Persona franchise and even had some special items that fans of series composer, Shoji Meguro, are going to absolutely love. I think I might have embarassed myself in front of Aram Jabbari, the PR and Sales Manager of Atlus, with the amount of squealing like a kid at Christmas I was doing, but it was such a cool extra that I didn't care.

People familiar with Persona 4's battle system will find that nothing has really changed in Golden. There has just been the addition of vehicles to get around Inaba, and a new winter trip scenario. There is also a mysterious new female character, who's name has yet to be revealed. Some social links have been tweaked around a bit, and if Persona 3 Portable was anything to go by, there might also be some changes to responses, both to characters and some of those questions at school.

The game looks utterly fantastic on the PS Vita screen, bright and sharp visuals that really pop on the screen. Screen shots will really not do this game any justice, but I'm including some anyway. Just know that the game needs to be seen on a Vita screen to be truly appreciated. Hopefully the wait for the Fall release of Persona 4 Golden won't be too long so everyone out there can see what I mean.