Released in 2012 as an enhanced port of the original, JRPG Persona 4 Golden is my favourite game of all time and, still, to this day, the only title that’s ever convinced me to buy a whole new console (the PlayStation VITA) just to play it. Yet, it’s absolutely not without its problems, especially when it comes to explorations of gender and sexuality, as many have been rightfully arguing online.
With the announcement of the upcoming remake, Persona 4 Revival, however, the developers behind the game, P-Studio, have a golden opportunity to set things right and aim higher than they did two years ago with Persona 3 Reload. Disappointingly, everything that’s come out about Persona 4 Revival recently indicates that said opportunity will be squandered come release in February of next year.
This being said, the 30-minute Persona 4 Revival that I played during gamescom 2026 showed me that a lot of the things that I do love about Persona 4 — the aesthetic, the combat, the music and more — will not only be retained in Revival, but lovingly refreshed. The demo itself was structured into two parts, with the first revolving around the story and featuring the first Persona awakening scene, whereas the second was more combat-focused and took part in the game’s very first dungeon.
I’ll keep details light on the story section, with the intention of not giving up any of the mystery behind this nearly 20-year-old game, but, from the get-go, I was impressed by the visuals on show in Persona 4 Revival. It’s clear that a lot of attention went into the character portraits and models and animated cutscenes, with the latter definitely rivalling and perhaps even outshining the anime adaptation in terms of style and graphical fidelity.
On the other hand, I was less impressed with the all-new English voice cast, who did not really do it for me just yet. I’m sure this also has to do with me being familiar with the old voices for so long, but only time will tell if they’ll end up growing on me or not.
Moving on to the dungeon section, the most noticeable change in terms of the exploration is the addition of a visual aid indicating the fastest route forward. Now, I’m sure this will be welcomed by series newcomers and/or by those who play these games on story mode or want to follow the critical path exclusively, but, my hope is that, for the rest of us, there is an option to toggle it off.
After all, for me, so much of the appeal of Persona 4’s labyrinthian floors comes from not knowing where to go and what comes next. Also new is the possibility of guarding against Shadow attacks when in the dungeon overworld, effectively making triggering an encounter, regardless of player or Shadow advantage, far less clunky.
Otherwise, like Persona 3 Reload before it, Persona 4 Revival makes use of a lot of combat mechanics first introduced in Persona 5, mechanics such as Baton Pass, which allows a character to pass their turn to another and All-Out Attacks, which deal significant damage to enemies once all of them have had their respective weakness exploited.
“…from the get-go, I was impressed by the visuals on show in Persona 4 Revival.”
This being said, unique to Persona 4 Revival is Prime Time: a special combat phase which can be initiated once the battle gauge has been filled by performing Baton Passes or standard and Persona attacks. Once initiated, Prime Time allows party members to perform multiple consecutive actions without ending the turn or spending any resources, making it a very strong mechanic indeed. What’s more, when in Prime Time, the party can employ a Series Finale: a finisher-like move which can put an end to an entire group of Shadows on the fly.
All in all, more complexity when taking turns can be a good thing, but only if the combat scenarios in Revival actually require the player to take full advantage of it. What I found in Reload, and really hope it doesn’t happen with this remake, is that no Shadow, boss or otherwise, stood a chance against a flurry of Baton Passes and All-Out Attacks, not even on harder difficulties, since the original games weren’t designed with these mechanics in the first place.
Regardless, when my time with the demo was up, I left the Persona 4 Revival station feeling just whelmed. Don’t get me wrong, for all intents and purposes, it seems like Persona 4 Revival is going to be a competent remake, but I really wanted it to be the definitive version of the game I discovered and fell in love with so many years ago. One way or another, I’ll know for sure when Persona 4 Revival releases in February.
