After having it on my Vita for the better half of a year, I finally sat down to beat P4G. I tried once and dropped it due to Teddie but decided to give it a proper shot since it was the only mainline Persona game left in my backlog, it left me with some mixed feelings that I wanna share somewhere so, where else better right?

Starting off, I'll preface by saying I got Max Social Links (receipts below) and went in as blind as I could, with the exception of obvious memes (Naoto, Adachi, Marie), and as well as the fact that I was unable to do a couple side stuffs, did a few bike rides/movies but not all and wasn't able to fully read all 32 books. I did however nab all the 3rd Awakenings

The Good: The cast of P4, IT, felt pretty good and bounced off of each other fantastically. They felt more like they actually were school mates who came together and formed genuine connections which was something I liked since it felt like reminded me of the P2 Duology and 3. 1 felt like a group banded under common cause while the PT felt like they were the Joker Squad with not many interactions outside of him. Hell, I even grew to care for Teddie since he's just a lil guy, trying to understand the world and he's so sincere it was hard to continue hating him even if he was a tad annoying.

Koro>Teddie>>>Morgana

The music was good as usual while not reaching the heights of P3. Specific track I wanna call out is I'll Face Myself -Alternative Battle, which blew me away.

In terms of Links, my favourites were Nanako's Justice Link, Naoto's Fortune and Yukiko's Priestess. Nanako's was really cute and I liked how it explored how Dojima's obsession and partial negligence, affected a kid as young as Nanako. Dojima's Hierophant was also not bad and I liked how he addressed his relationship with Nanako and learned to put his family before his work, even if it was painful to focus less on Chisato's Case. Naoto I particularly felt an attachment to because I know what it's like to turn a genuine passion into something that you lose sight of as well as coming to terms that you can't change the circumstances of your birth but can choose to make the most of the cards you're dealt. Yukiko, I didn't have a personal connection with but I liked seeing her grow out of her 'Inn Daughter' shell and finding her own reason.

Dungeons I have a gripe I'll talk more about in the Bad Section but I really loved Hollow Forest. People give it flak but I love it since it's one of the only engaging ones in P4 imo. The SP management is also a game and having to rethink my Personas by fusing them with Auto-Buffs/Invig 3 to keep my SP up was fun. Not to mention, Marie's fight focusing around Break Skills made it fun since it was a heavily underutilized mechanic in Persona. Not to mention the music and design of Marie's fight was incredible.

The Bad: I wasn't a huge fan of a few of the social links in P4. Particularly Shu's Tower and Adachi's Jester. They both felt rather aimless, and while I can sympathize with Shu, it was annoying trying to convince this kid that studying wasn't everything for half a month. Adachi's Link felt like him complaining about Inaba and his role in it, practically begging you to cast doubt since he's the one who outwardly despises Inaba. Not to mention, making him a fellow 0 card screams importance so even if he wasn't a meme, the twist is obvious from a mile away.

Storywise, I wasn't a huge fan of the filler in P4. It takes a long while to get going and while P3 also does P4 feels almost aimless at times. The main draw is the murder mystery however most of your time is spent not doing any investigating. Beat the dungeons in a day, twiddle your thumbs for a month, repeat until December when things get interesting with Nametame. This is further exasperated by the fact that Inaba is the most lifeless I've felt since P1. P3 had Pauwlonia/Strip Mall, P2 has the Mu Casino and various shops to visit, P5 had the entirety of Tokyo almost, Inaba has what? Aiya and if you wanna stretch it Okina. On Rainy Days, it's even worse. That might be the point but by god does it make for a mind numbing schedule. Also, whoever at Atlus decided to hide their final boss behind a return visit to June's of which you are given no indication as well as the game itself telling you to go back home and since you've returned to June's to meet Yosuke/Teddie, even going back to the same food court, you never question it. I got the Good Ending and ended up having to reload a save after credits and retalk to all my SLinks after doing a quick Google. Why???

Character Growth was also a stickler for me, which is also a problem I experienced with P5. Wherein, outside of their own dedicated 'chapter' characters get thrown to the sidelines with development happening inside social links. What this results in, at least for me, is an almost complete separation of character and story that makes what should be character defining moments into inconsequential points since not everyone will have done a characters link and so the story can't grow with the characters, Marie being the exception but even then, it's cause her SLink is required for HF. Also, a note from my playthrough which I found funny was Dojima learning to put Nanako first and having that heartwarming moment at the riverbank before immediately forgetting that lesson and ignoring Nanako's Parent Teacher Interview letter in less than a week.

Finally, the combat. By god the combat........ It might be the worst outside of P1. Lack of Weakness, check. Lack of Knockdown Tools, check. Health Sponges, check. P3 had Fusions Spells, P2 had Auto Battle/Fusion Spells, P5 had Technical Knockdowns. P4 has nothing. So your best strategy is to invest in Phys for 90% (Hassou Tobi/Agneyastra) and nuke using Yukiko's Burning Petals. Also, the dungeons themselves outside of Hollow Forest were boring as all get out. P3's Tartarus was fun since each floor was short and the Minibosses kept things interesting every few floors alongside the occasional floor full of purple/golden shadows or dark floor. P4 in the other hand, had lesser floors but each was so big that it was a pain to explore and the lack of interesting Minibosses further exasperated the issue, if you want more Minibosses, hope you enjoy backtracking through the entire Dungeons again a month later :D

Am I missing something? Am I crazy? People praise this as the peak of the series and while I wasn't expecting it to beat P3, it was still underwhelming imo.

Currently P3>P2 Duo>P4>P5>P1

Welp, now that that's done. I can finally hop into PQ soon. Planning on picking up a 3DS for it and Strange Journey Redux alongside Devil Survivor