Tips for Surviving Persona 4 The Golden

[Dragoon]

Every time I hear about this game I curse the fact that it is only out for the Vita. I simply can't justify buying a Vita for one game however. Guess I am stuck with the OG PS2 version

At least Chie doesn't sound awful in my version

I never played Persona 4 on PS2, and to be honest, i think Chie's voice in P4G is freaking perfect.

They changed the voice actors? That's... odd... I loved the original VAs.

Yeah the old VA didn't want to come back so they brought in a new one, Erin Fitzgerald, who does the part just as well if not better. She's still Chie and that's all I need

 

[Dragoon]

First playthrough: Spend a lot of time focusing on maxing all five of your social stats and get as many Personae registered in the Compendium as possible.

Second playthrough: Focus on maxing social links, you should raise one link per day (if available), if it's raining, do an activity that will help you with links (seeing the fox, riding the motorcycle, etc.) Remember some links have deadlines (Jester, Aeon, Empress).

Wait... Jester? I know that Aeon is this new girl (forgot her name), but what is Jester social link?

Jester is a new social link for Adachi, it can lead to a new bad ending.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Here is my tip!

Fuse Yoshitune (Tower) and make sure he has Power Charge and level him up until he has Hassou Tobi! Hassou Tobi+Power Charge=Insane Damage.

I am almost finished, I am glad for the extra time so I can finish off my social links (Especially the fox, his ones take a while)

Here's my tip!

Get Metatron, have him inherit Null Physical, Null Wind, and Null Dark, then level him up to 89.

Congratulations! You are now invulnerable to EVERY ATTACK IN THE GAME. Except Almighty attacks, but how many enemies use that aside from bosses? And even then, most of them don't anyway.

 

[Mister K]

Jester is a new social link for Adachi, it can lead to a new bad ending.

Well I'll be taken by the collectors if it is not another reason to by this game.

Here's my tip!

Get Metatron, have him inherit Null Physical, Null Wind, and Null Dark, then level him up to 89.

Congratulations! You are now invulnerable to EVERY ATTACK IN THE GAME. Except Almighty attacks, but how many enemies use that aside from bosses? And even then, most of them don't anyway.

Or you could fight Death for multiple times during new game+ and get a ring, that nullifies all damage, exept for almighty, plus the best armor and weapons for the team.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Or you could fight Death for multiple times during new game+ and get a ring, that nullifies all damage, exept for almighty, plus the best armor and weapons for the team.

The Omnipotent Orb has a 1% chance of dropping. Invulnerable Metatron is a much more reliable option, seeing as you don't keep items between playthroughs anyway.

 

[crimson sickle2]

My best advice for playing a persona is game is try to finds what each character will expect from you, those are the best responses. As an example, joke with the Magician/bro arcana, in P4's case Yousuke. Some of the voice options don't make sense at all and this is the only way I found any success.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Better yet, make Helel and have Victory Cry and Morning Star learned and watch as you barely put any effort into fights!

With Rise's new abilites, you won't die easily anyway (she saves you from death if her social link is high enough)

Ha! Have you tried Naoto's rank 3 Persona skill? Blocks absolutely EVERYTHING! Yes, including Almighty!

Or I could be remembering that wrong...

 

[Azurian]

So from all these posts I should try Persona 4 even though I have never played a Persona game before?

 

[vxicepickxv]

So from all these posts I should try Persona 4 even though I have never played a Persona game before?

Yes, it is a fantastic starting point, Persona 1+2 are never mentioned and while there is are heavy references to 3 (visiting locations there) It is nothing major (you don't need to play 3 at all to get the plot, it is a new adventure)

By all means, play Persona 4!

I find the pretty subtle nods to Persona that they put in Persona 3 to be both interesting and amusing.


While there is a very slight interaction between Persona 3 and Persona 4, you don't actually have to play Persona 3 to enjoy Persona 4.

It's not like when Vincent(from Catherine) shows up in Persona 3 Portable.

 

[Warachia]

I always found trying to clear dungeons on the first day that you are able too a fun challenge... then generally giving the screen a blank look as I realise I've failed for the tenth time trying to beat the annoying sub-boss. In other words generally try to get as far as you can in a dungeon on your first expedition into one. Although be warned, unless you have a certain item you need to use the little floating blue spectral butterfly checkpoints to get out of dodge, I mean, dungeons.

Little pro-tip, when you are going after the killer, DO NOT DO THE DUNGEON ON THE FIRST DAY. I'm not sure if this is still the same for Golden (I haven't finished playing through it yet) but when you finally finished that dungeon on the PS2, the game instantly jumps you to the ending, regardless of how many days were left and how many links you needed to max.

I'm not exactly sure if this article is necessary though, Persona 4 Golden is easy, like, really easy, all you have to do to beat the game is keep picking the stat and skill increase cards and you can practically breeze through the entire game, I'm nearing the end game and I've never even switched out Izanagi, because I never had to, by the time I got persona's that were decent (which is pretty early) Izanagi already had more stats then they did, currently he's got almost double the stats of the next best persona I can equip, and I haven't even been grinding, you beat a dungeon once, then again to beat the optional boss, and as long as you pick those increase cards, the game is over.
I'm a little surprised you didn't talk about the cards in your tips, like the one that instantly gives you a level up, or the one that upgrades an okay skill to a great skill, use it enough and that tiny slash turns into God's hand.

One thing I am curious about, why do you call it "The Golden"? This is the only place I've seen where it's called that, normally it's just "Golden".

 

[Warachia]

So from all these posts I should try Persona 4 even though I have never played a Persona game before?

Yes, Persona 4 is a standalone game, it has very little connection only one of the previous games, (in that 2 characters make cameos) and that's about it.

 

[Cybylt]

Something else about New Game+ this time around it'll let you change each aspect of the difficulty, letting you alter enemy strength, player strength, exp and money gain and whether or not you can restart from the floor start or outright retry a battle if you lose.

Maxing out exp gain is nice since it'll let you actually get to use Izanagi no Okami before the final dungeon without having to go to easy or very easy and keeping up enemy damage output.

Overall, portability really works in favor of the SMT games, just do a couple fights here and there throughout the day no more having to sit down in front of the tv and hope you find a save point before you have to head out. And as much as I'd love to see more in development I can't help but also want Nocturne and DDS to see Vita entries as well for that reason.

Another thing, max out teammate social links before the end of december. Doing so will unlock third tier persona for them that have additional resistances and a new move. Chie and Yukiko's in particular are pretty ridiculous since Chie's gains a party-wide Heat Riser while Yukiko gets what's basically a multi-target Ragnarok.

Then, for fans of her but found her somewhat useless in the original, Naoto now learns all single target dyne spells, Heat Riser, Megidola and Mind Charge if you max out her link and take her out on a few bike rides. Combine that with the chakra ring and you have a dungeon crawling monster.

 

[Susan Arendt]

So here's a question that I actually don't know the answer to: What do you think is better, leveling a few Social Links up all the way, or doing a little bit on all (or most) of them?

You certainly have time to max out at least a few, but you can't get them all (well, you likely can, but that would rather force you to play a very specific way).

It may be as much a matter of taste as anything, but was wondering what you guys thought.

 

[nezroy]

So here's a question that I actually don't know the answer to: What do you think is better, leveling a few Social Links up all the way, or doing a little bit on all (or most) of them?

The only social links you really "must" max from a gameplay perspective would be the active party members you are using (including your party support member) and the Aeon s.link. So a total of 5 that you should max out no matter what for gameplay reasons.

In contrast, the s.link impact on fusing persona is not game breaking -- all it does is save you a few levels grind with that persona -- so having a few ranks in every s.link is not a huge benefit. Whether you choose to spread out among all the s.links or focus on maxing fewer mostly boils down to whether you want to see a bit of every side story or all of a few of them (and whether you plan to do a second play through or not). Almost every s.link comes with a story arc so not maxing one out tends to leave you hanging from the story-telling perspective.

And yes, it is possible to do a max s.link in a single play through (and you even get a trophy for it), but it's much easier to do as part of a second play through since your personal stats (courage, etc.) carry over.

 

[Cybylt]

I think given the option between the two I'd choose to max out specific ones over having decent levels in everything.

I tend to clear a dungeon in one day of the in-game calendar(barring Yukiko's which is a minimum of two days) and rarely hold onto any one persona for more than a few levels, and never really long enough to level them up to make up for the difference a higher social link rank would give so it's nice to have those extra levels on them.

Now if only Hassou-tobi were inheritable or in a skill card, I'd love to fuse it down to Izanagi and be able to keep him for a whole run.

Ideally looking at a ridiculously pumped up version of his skill set.

Thunder Reign/Ziodyne
Absorb Wind
Spell Master
Hassou Tobi
Power Charge
Arms Master
Heat Riser/Debilitate
Victory Cry

 

[Korten12]

So here's a question that I actually don't know the answer to: What do you think is better, leveling a few Social Links up all the way, or doing a little bit on all (or most) of them?

You certainly have time to max out at least a few, but you can't get them all (well, you likely can, but that would rather force you to play a very specific way).

It may be as much a matter of taste as anything, but was wondering what you guys thought.

I will say, no matter who you max. Always max Rise in Golden. The bonuses you get from her social link is crucial and really useful.

But for the most part... Max who you are going to use for your main party, and then begin to branch out and do everyone else's social links.

 

[Susan Arendt]

One thing I am curious about, why do you call it "The Golden"? This is the only place I've seen where it's called that, normally it's just "Golden".

It's both, technically, depending on which screen you look at in the game. Most people say "Golden," and I really should, too, but I'm perverse and stubborn.