Persona 4: The Golden (PSVita)

As my second foray into the world of Shin Megami Tensei and specifically the Persona series, I was excited.  Persona 3 left me wanting a little bit more and that is just what I got.  This is a great game and encompasses everything that I want from an RPG.  The battle system is solid, the story is absolutely wonderful, and the characters are all memorable in their own way.

Let's start off with the gameplay, this game is cross between a life-simulator and an RPG.  You can venture into the various dungeons with your friends or just try to live a normal life as a high school student in Japan.  Well as normal as you can get with the fact that you are the only people that can solve a murder mystery where people are dying from unknown ways and you somehow can go inside the TV.  The combat is solid and venturing through the dungeons is never dull.  Sure there can be some grinding when you are looking for a certain item or when you need to level up a Persona to get a skill you need but it is always fun.

The story in this game is my key appeal.  Everything is fleshed out and you never feel like something is just glossed over or forgotten.  Each part of the main story involves the aforementioned murder mystery but there is more to the game than just that. Through the social link system, you learn more about your party members, family, and people in the game world.  Not only are most of these interesting but they give you in game perks from new Persona's to party member skills.  You can do as much or as little as you want.  I never felt forced to do a social link.

I consider this game a must own if you own a Vita.  Even if you don't like the anime style or even want to listen to all the high school angst, the game is just too good not to suggest to anybody with any interest in RPGs.  The battle system is solid to the point of hindering no part of the game experience.  Even the story will keep you guessing as several times I was second guessing what was going to happen.  It is very rare that I care about characters in a game but this game made me care about all of them. I don't care if you played this on the PS2, buy this game on a Vita and enjoy it.  The added content is well worth it.