Persona 4 Revival Preview: More of What You Love

With the release of Persona 3 Reload back in 2024, Atlus is back with another remake, this time of Persona 4 Golden, called Persona 4 Revival. I'm one of those who thinks that the game doesn't necessarily need a remake, but I won't say no to revisiting one of my favorite games of all time.

I played about an hour of Persona 4 Revival, and it's pretty much the same as I remember of Golden, along with a shiny coat of paint and some interesting new battle mechanics.

My demo started with our best buddy Yosuke Hanamura confronting his Shadow, his other self. And it was the first time I got to hear the new English dub voices. Paul Castro Jr. does a good job of capturing Yosuke's dorky yet confident tone, but also the depths of desperation when arguing with his Shadow.

A big surprise for me was Teddie's new voice. Instead of Sam Riegal's over-the-top and cartoonish approach in Golden, Teddie in Revival sounds remarkably more human. This change will take time for me to get used to, but I'm definitely curious to see how Teddie's new voice fits within the larger context of Revival.

I then headed straight into the tutorial fight against Shadow Yosuke. Revival cranks up the TV aesthetic, with the move selection screen being an old TV dial instead of a channel roster as the original Persona 4 had. When you win a fight, the character who dealt the final blow smiles at the screen, then shifts the camera like in a reality TV show to the results screen. I really like this burst of personality that started with Persona 5, then carried over to Persona 3 Reload, and now to Persona 4 Revival.

As a quick refresher on the battle system, basically, you hit enemies with their elemental weaknesses to down them and trigger a “1 More,” which grants your team an extra turn. Once all enemies are downed, you can activate an “All Out Attack,” which deals massive damage, oftentimes completely clearing the battlefield. This core has remained relatively unchanged, and I'm glad since it's such an engaging combat system.

However, there are a few new changes. Persona 5 introduced the Baton Pass, meaning that you can pass off your extra “1 More” turn to another teammate to take advantage of additional elemental weaknesses. This wasn't in the original Golden, and has fortunately made its way to Revival, giving battles a bit more depth.

The brand new “Prime Time” mechanic involves filling up a gauge as the fight goes on. Once activated, you gain consecutive actions with all skill and SP costs removed, along with attacks piercing through enemy resistances, and free Baton Passes to any teammate. By forgoing your turns, you can unleash a new devastating attack called “Series Finale,” which seems to be this game's equivalent to ultimate moves like Reload's Theurgys.

While I do think Prime Time makes Revival's standard enemy encounters feel a bit trivial, I'm sure I'll appreciate them more when I play on greater difficulties. Overall though, I do like these new gameplay additions that add more cinematic flair and options.

There's also a new parrying mechanic introduced in the dungeon-crawling portions. If an enemy chases you and attacks to initiate a battle, you can parry it and flip the situation, putting them at a disadvantage instead. If I'm being quite honest, I wholeheartedly welcome this feature. I recall enemies in Golden spotting me and then hunting me down when I didn't want to battle. With this new parrying mechanic, I can stun them and either choose to engage or simply run away.

My last part of the demo was simply just exploring the small town of Inaba, where I seemingly spotted a new song for Revival. In actuality, it's a remix of Golden's “A Sky Full of Stars” that plays during nighttime, except this new version has sung lyrics! Along with the new battle theme “Prime Time,” I can't wait to see what other new original songs that Revival's soundtrack has.

And I'm excited to see more of Persona 4 Revival when it launches on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S on February 18, 2027.