A remake ofPersona 4has been rumored for a long time now, similar toPersona 3 Reload, which released in February last year. The rumors began when a website domain was registered, seemingly tied to aP4remake. Thedomain was recently updated, adding more fuel to the remake rumors, and would follow a pattern established byP3 Reload, which saw a domain update and then an announcement at the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase.
Recently, the original voice actor forP4party member Yosuke, Yuri Lowenthal, confirmed on Bluesky thathe will not be returning as Yosuke, despite wanting to be a part of the alleged remake project. The post has since been taken down, which may have been an accidental confirmation of the project.P3 Reloadgave a lot of quality-of-life updates to the original game, like the baton pass system fromPersona 5. If theP4remake turns out to be real,I think Atlus should turn to its recent hitMetaphor: Refantazioto fix a common complaintwith the original game.
Metaphor: ReFantazio Makes Social Links Better
They’re Less Time-Restrictive And Better Paced
TheSocial Link system is a huge partof thePersonaseries and arguably the most important element. Through Social Link stories and bonds, party members gain access to new skills, become romanceable in some cases, cheapen the cost of fusing certain Personas, and more. However, the Social Links were often difficult to max on a first playthrough, leaving a lot of fans frustrated, and that didn’t change inP3 Reload, which still hadcomplex social links.Metaphor: Refantazioused essentially the same social link system, but it fixed the long-running issues.
Persona 3 Reloadintroduced a new social link with Aigis, but it is not available until near the end of the game, making it actually more difficult to max all the social bonds inP3 Reloadthan in the original game.
The way theFollower Bonds system inMetaphorworks is virtually identical to the Social Link system of thePersonagames, just less restrictive. InMetaphor, you obtain points towards the next Bond level regardless of whether you answer questions from each person with what they want to hear, preventing the player from stalling on upgrading their Bonds.Metaphoralso does a much better job, in my opinion, ofbalancing the amount of time between dungeon crawling and the Bond stories, leaving plenty of time at the end to do virtually everything in one playthrough.
P3 Reloadfeatures quite a fewnew additions to the updated game, but unfortunately,the original Social Link system is left intact, for better or worse. You can prevent yourself from consistently raising Social Link levels by answering questions incorrectly, or not doing certain things by a certain date. Hopefully, the allegedP4remake takes it further, with how well-regardedMetaphorwas, and makes its Social Link system more in line withMetaphor’s.
Persona 4 Remake Doesn’t Need To Be Tedious
There’s Room For Improvement
If theP4remake is real, it will release quite a bit afterMetaphor, sothis would be the perfect opportunity to correct some of the smaller issueswithP4.P3 Reloadis arguably the best way to experienceP3now, especially with theexpansion pass andEpisode AigisDLC, but it isn’t perfect.Metaphorfelt like a culmination of everything Atlus had worked on for decades and seemingly perfected a lot of its systems while also introducing new ones.
All three of the modernPersonagames are quite lengthy, clocking in at over 80 hours for a full playthrough of the games for most players.Metaphoris actually a bit shorter than that, andjust about everything can be done in one 60-hour playthrough, which makes it more appealing to Atlus newcomers. With that game trimming some fat, it would be nice to see some of the originalP4elements streamlined for a smoother experience, like the controversial andconvoluted way to get the true ending.
P4is an outstanding gameand my second favorite of the franchise behindP5. Many ofP5’s gameplay elements and visual design choices were applied toP3 Reload, so I’m assuming the same will probably happen to this supposedP4remake. However, it would be nice for the Social Link system to followMetaphor’s path and get an overhaul, at least when it comes to how precise players have to be to max all the Links. Hopefully, we’ll get confirmation on aPersona 4remake soon, and hopefully, maxing the Social Links is less of a chore.
