Atlus is the king of rereleases, remasters, and remakes, and that trend continues with its newly announced remake ofPersona 4, Persona 4 Revival. Just like its previous project, Persona 3 Reload, Persona 4 Revival will be a full remake of the original game, but with some as-yet-unannounced changes.
Persona 3 Reload is great, but it failed in several aspects, like not including the female main character and making The Answer into a separate DLC. If Atlus wants to improve for Persona 4 Revival, here are some things it should do.
7Include All Golden Content
Until the release of Persona 4 Revival, Persona 4 Golden is the definitive version of the game. It’s available on modern consoles, has added content, and is much easier to get hold of than the original. At the very least, Persona 4 Revival needs to include every bit of content that was available in Golden, and not as separate DLC.
That means the extra month, ski trip, garden, Marie, and everything else need to be included by default. This seems like an obvious thing, but going based on Atlus' track record, it’s sadly not at all guaranteed.
6Voice Act All Social Links
Just like Persona 3 Reload, Persona 4 Revival definitely needs to have all of its Social Links be fully voice acted. The full voice acting in P3R adds so much to the characters, and is one of the best reasons for playing it over one of the older versions of the game.
P4R should follow suit and make this change. It’s sad that some of Golden’s voice actors, like Yuri Lowenthal (Yosuke) and Amanda Win Lee (Yukiko) won’t be returning for this remake, but at least that means new voice actors will be able to record all new lines for every Social Link.
5Update The Fog And Lighting
The original Persona 4 on the PS2 is miles ahead of Golden in terms of its lighting and fog effects. Something about the PS2’s hardware let it have some of the most immersive and atmospheric fog, which is a core aspect of Persona 4. Sadly, the Golden version of the game greatly simplified these lighting effects, and it lost some of its personality in the process.
Hopefully, with modern technology, Atlus is able to bring back these effects for Revival. Persona 4 is all about the vibes and atmosphere, and its fog, lighting, and weather effects set it apart from other games in the series.
4Revamp The Dungeons
Persona 4’s story, characters, and setting are some of the best, but its dungeons are a little lacking. The grid-based corridors of the original and Golden versions of the game are sometimes boring and uninspired to adventure through, and they can feel very repetitive.
One of the best changes Atlus could make for Persona 4 Revival is to completely revamp the game’s dungeons, making them play similar to Persona 5’s Palaces. These have fun little puzzles, exploration, and optional loot to discover, and we hope Persona 4 Revival does the same.
3Add New Special Attacks
Persona 3 Reload introduced the Theurgy system, which allowed party members to charge up and unleash ultimate attacks that changed the flow of battle. While these were sometimes a bit too strong, the animations and attacks themselves were a great addition to the game, and one we hope Atlus adds into Revival.
Persona 5 Royal has Showtime Attacks and Reload has Theurgy, so it’s only fair that Persona 4 gets its version of ultimate attacks. Golden does have the follow-up attacks, but these are limited to only a few character combinations. Fully expanding this system with pairs for every party member combination sounds too good to be true, but we’ll see.
2Change The Requirements For The True Ending
Persona 4 Golden’s requirements for the true ending are complicated, to say the least. Not only do you have to figure out who the killer is on your own, you also need to answer a series of questions in order, as well as other requirements like maxing out certain Social Links.
Because of this, it’s very easy to miss the true ending, or even to arrive at a bad ending, completely by accident. In Persona 4 Revival, we hope these requirements are a bit more lenient to lessen frustration at getting the bad ending, even when it seems like you’re doing things right.
1Add Yosuke’s Deleted Romance Option
For a series all about tackling social issues, Persona has been pretty light on dealing with some topics directly, and Persona 4 is one of the biggest offenders. While fans have called for gay romance options like Ryuji in Persona 5 for some time, it’s interesting that Persona 4 originally had a romance option with Yosuke, but it was ultimately removed from the game.
It’s a shame, since Yosuke’s homophobia is one of the worst parts of the original game. However, a romance option with Yosuke could shine his homophobic scenes in a different light; rather than being scared of gay people, Yosuke could be scared to admit that part of himself. Revealing this to the main character in a romantic Social Link would give his character much-needed depth.
While we’re on the topic, there are several scenes in the original that are definitely products of their time, similar to the beach scene in Persona 3. Hopefully, these are changed to better reflect our modern world’s stances on important issues, which is what Persona is all about.
