First Impressions – Persona 4 Golden
Hey baby, wanna form a social link with me? ;D
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Karacooled (…we never did figure out a catchy tag team name, did we?) is back for nostalgia’s sake! Of course I remember blogging the original P4 anime with OC whenever it aired, so I’m glad to be back. …Even if the anime isn’t exactly bringing new things. |
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Yes! It really does feel like I’m being sent to the past to blog again with Kara! Good times…In fact, it’s so nostalgic that I think we’ve almost said everything we can about the series. But here’s what’s new so you have an idea whether or not you wanna dive into this remake. |
Meeting Marie
Overcooled// The biggest change that comes with the “Golden” addition is Marie. Yu runs into her when he first moves into town, but Marie doesn’t recall the encounter when she meets him again in the Velvet Room. There’s clearly something wrong if she has memory loss about such a recent event. Also, it’s not quite normal to just “stumble” into a room that exists in a dimension no one else can see. Yu will use his womanizing powers to get to the bottom of this mystery, slowly opening up her heart and getting close to her. As always. You gotta love how Yu’s badass, playboy side is emphasized even more now. I can’t wait to see how his interactions with Marie continue as he shows her around the town. Marie is pretty prickly at first, but you can tell by her poetic outbursts that she’s a big softie inside. I usually dislike tsunderes, but Marie is pretty cool. Hopefully we see more of her poems because some of them are very *special.*
Yu Game+
Karakuri// Wow, Yu is pretty badass in this. I’ve read a few opinions on Persona 4 Golden before watching the episode, and a lot of people pointed out that this is kind of like a “New Game+” run through of the story. And really, that’s pretty accurate. Yu’s “stats” seem to be maxed out, since a lot of his interactions with the characters are options you can only choose if Yu’s courage stat and such are at a high enough level in the game. Of course, just starting out the first time, Yu’s stats aren’t nearly high enough, so this episode seems more like a second playthrough in that way, since those stats carry over. Also, in the first anime, I remember talking a lot at the end how they developed Yu from an empty shell of a character to someone with a personality. In a way, Yu’s personality here seems like another carry over. He has the confidence he had at the end of the first anime, and there was way less hesitation this time around in pretty much all of his actions. The TV scene in Junes, he just stuck his hand in there like he knew exactly what to do, unlike the original P4 anime. When he summoned his Persona, he just automatically knew how to fight. Or when he took Marie to that scenic place, he claimed he was new to town, but for some reason knew the best spot to overlook Inaba. It’s as if this is his second time going through the plot. Of course, when it comes to the mystery, he’ll be as cluesless as the rest, probably. But really, he seems to know what he’s doing for everything else.
Final Thoughts
I was hoping the first episode would explain to me why they made this anime, but it really just confirms that this is totally unnecessary. It’s the same story with a few little tweaks and shifts here in there that ultimately don’t affect the main story. If you wanted to, you could go through most of the game without even completing Marie’s social link. However, she is a rather interesting character and hearing HanaKana voice a verbally abusive tsundere is pretty nice. It seems the story will focus on the new aspects of the game and Marie’s story while rushing through the main story at a breakneck pace. It’s weird because if you watch this instead of the original P4 anime, you’d just be confused and left feeling empty because of how quickly it moves. But P4 Golden looks so much prettier. The fights look so much more dynamic and exciting, with a better use of angles and fluid movement. But although P4 Golden looks great, there’s so little new content that P4 Golden is just a waste of time to most who have watched the original anime. What a shame. As a Persona diehard fan I’m going to continue watching to see how they’ve improved the show but I won’t be expecting anything shocking.
There’s really… nothing new to see here. The characters were all hastily introduced and the storyline was rushed, but there wasn’t anything radically new, minus Marie. I guess there were some differences in minor plot points too (like when Teddy appeared or Shadows attacked), but that was probably to hurry things along. On the more positive side of things, the people in charge of this seem pretty aware that the original Persona 4 anime practically JUST aired and most people probably aren’t interested in watching the same thing again. They’re rushing things along that we’ve already seen and since this is only 12 or so episodes, will probably skip over a lot of the social link things that kind of dragged on in the last anime. Or actually, even if they do decide to include social links, the first anime only showed bits and pieces of the character interaction. They could probably do something totally new this time around and still be faithful to the game. Also, the fight scene was pretty cool. Really, the old director for Persona 4 has a kind of terrible habit for sticking a bit TOO close to the original game in anime adaptations, so it’s interesting to see what a new person is doing.
Let’s not forget our old favourites just because there’s a new girl on the block!
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
“Welcome to the Velvet Room”. Whoa, déjà vu. I’m sure we’ve been here before, right? 😉 About almost 3 years ago (Fall 2011). I always knew if this show was getting blogged, you two would be at the helm. Looking at this opening episode, it’s like starting a new game but the players still have the elevated stats from a previous one. Yu suddenly mastering Izanagi is a perfect example.
I can say my skepticism on this remake has died down a little. Marie may be an interesting enough character for me to revisit Persona 4. A tsundere indeed. At least she isn’t over the top with those tendencies.
Yeah, it’s definitely rushed, explains the 12 episode limit and there are some changes. Other than the obvious change in the series that is Marie, there is Yu having a full personality whereas in the previous version, he was pretty much a blank canvas. It’s the start and the guy’s already in playboy mode. The next is the family factor. The original has Yu and Ryoutarou as uncle and nephew but in Golden, it’s as though they’re unrelated.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Yep! Although I don’t think either of us have any plans to blog this regularly since there’s not much else to say. It looks great, but the amount of new content is so, so little. And if they’re going to just rush through the main story then..well..that’s even less to write about.
As Kara noted as well, Yu is already a total pimp right from the get-go. It’s kind of amazing.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Yep. Nope. I definitely don’t have any plans to blog this either.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
It would be unnecessary since you two have already blogged Persona 4 and this is basically a rushed version of the series with a few detours.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I think it’s a good name and doubt using the other parts of your names would’ve been as good.
@Karakuri: Advanced congratulations for getting close to 3000 comments. You’re close to reaching “Meta Team and Megane-chan”.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Ahaha thanks. Though, uh, it will probably take me a while to get to 3000. I’m reeeeeeally close to post 300 too! I wanted to put out an otoge post for it, but the way things are progressing, it might go to SAO. OTL
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Less than 30 comments to go? I doubt it’ll take very long to get there.
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
At least it’s better than Psycho-Pass, they just added a bunch of improvements and CGs on certain scenes but the story and the interactions are pretty much the same =.=
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Well, it reinforces the fact that it’s optional for those who’ve already seen the series from the initial airing but those who want to join the bandwagon for season 2 will have to watch to get the full work up on the story.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Yeah, I don’t even bother with remakes like those. It’s the same thing =A=
POWUH: 700-799 and Parkouring Fanboy with 776 comments
I’m wondering if they’re going to focus just on the new content for Golden, with the assumption that everyone knows the main story already. Obviously Marie is a big part of it so far, and they even changed the initial entrance into the TV so that they were following someone who looked like Marie around before finding that stalker room, rather than just stumbling on the room while looking around/for a bathroom for Yosuke. They also even managed to fit in Marie’s terrible poetry, which were found dropped in the Velvet Room in the game. I wonder if we’ll see the scooters, social link with Adachi, and the extra vacation event be the main things covered in these 12 episodes.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
They were already showing Kanji and scooters next week so I’m assuming that they’re focusing on the new stuff. It’s all skewed to revolve around Marie right now (such as following her before going to the stalker room) so I think the rest will be like that. But then again, that’s kind of weird since they’d essentially be ignoring an entire murder mystery that constitutes the main story.
Ahhh I forgot about Adachi’s social link. I really hope they put that in.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yay persona4 is back! I have missed these characters even though I have never played the games, but maybe one day?