Notes from Inaba

Recently, I finished the Steam version of Persona 4 Golden. We covered the news of the release earlier in June, and since then I’ve been experiencing P4 again on a whole new platform, and recollecting my notes from Inaba. It may seem a bit too far for a fan to move from a home console game to a portable release… and then back to a port that will be played at a desk (laptops are an option, but I’ll probably be playing the game at home.) However – as a place to play electronic entertainment, the PC is pretty much immortal. Whilst I could have found a way to play P4 on a big screen without buying another release, I would have had to find my old PS2 and hoped that it still worked, not to mention the fact that I’d be tolerating the original release which lacks the enhancements of Golden. Meanwhile, the Vita version isn’t going to go anywhere, but if you were late to the party then you still need to track down a discontinued piece of hardware rather than relying on your trusty desktop or laptop. The devil’s advocate in me would say that PC gaming still requires you to track down and keep the right specification, operating system, and – in many cases today – a launcher such as Steam. However, I’d like to think that those things would last for a while once you’ve obtained them.

Notes from Inaba – conversion quality

My notes from Inaba are generally pretty positive – the core gameplay is more or less untouched, but the quality of the port is as good as I could ask for. The visuals look great on a new monitor at high resolution (although things like facial detail on character models are always going to be unvoidably goofy), the game provided a smooth experience from start to finish – the brief pauses that I mentioned in my previous article faded into insignificance pretty quickly; they never impacted active gameplay, after all – and when you plug in a PS4 controller and use a half-decent LCD display, you can retreat to your sofa and forget about any perceived awkwardness of PC gaming. (Well, most of the time – I had one or two moments where everything froze and I had to force an exit, but I can’t say for sure whether that was due to the game or a result of my own background processes that may have been interfering. Also, keep in mind that those one or two moments would be in a 40-50hr experience, so it’s a very rare occurrence.)

Bells and whistles

As far as I could tell, the core gameplay was untouched – there was no rebalancing of enemy properties, or brand new encounters – everything I saw indicated that the people responsible for this release wanted to leave as much of it intact as possible, and just polish certain areas to suit the PC experience… whether that’s via higher resolutions, extra customisation options, or anything else that a Steam user might expect. There’s not a whole lot that I can say about the gameplay that I haven’t said in the past; it has some of the best pacing of any game in the series, the elemental affinity system and social links are as satisfying as ever, the focus on smaller unique dungeons (rather than intermissions from a Tartarus or Mementos) helps to keep things varied, and the characters are charming and likeable. It also has a soundtrack that’s as least as good as Royal‘s, and whilst the investigation sequences in Inaba still feel kind of meaningless, they’re over quickly. Furthermore, it has slightly more relatable narrative compared to other games in the series, with large amounts of dialogue and story revolving around the themes of identity and sense of self. Critics have poked holes in the messaging contained in these moments, but the supposed counterpoint is that games can have characters with flawed ideals. To say more would lead us into spoiler territory, so our notes from Inaba can probably be wrapped up now.

Concluding notes from Inaba

If you’re someone who only held on to their Vita because it was the only place to play Persona 4 Golden, you now have a worthwhile alternative. If the portability is what matters to you, you can keep your Vita or opt for a laptop. If you’re going to invest in the means to play the game – either by improving your current PC, buying a new one or picking up a Vita – let us know what you think of the experience. And no matter what happens, you can be sure of one thing: every day’s great at your Junes.