• Posted November 19th, 2012 at 01:26 EDT by Kyle Prahl
• 3 Comments

(continued from previous page) ...the real challenge is finding something to hold against this gem of a game. Persona 4's PS2-era graphics hold up remarkably well (thanks in no small part to the resolution boost on 2D artwork and PS Vita's vivid OLED display), but visual curmudgeons will notice a small amount of aliasing during some 3D events and cutscenes. A certain bear's mid-battle cheers can become grating in their frequency, and while I'm told the original version had an option to turn these off, the same option seems to be missing in Golden. There's really not much else. Some might be off-put by the initial difficulty curve, but if you're the kind of person to hold a little bit of grinding against an RPG, maybe the genre just isn't for you.

Persona 4 Golden is a triumph on PlayStation Vita. Hundreds of hours of portable goodness is carried by console-quality presentation, a gripping narrative, and compelling gameplay. It's fair to say that the themes and style of Persona 4 are somewhat niche, but any Vita owner who passes on this masterpiece will be doing themselves a tragic disservice. It might not break new ground in the genre, and it might not push one million systems, but everything that glitters is in Golden.