Persona 4 Golden

Persona 4 Golden

Developers
	Atlus
	P-Studio
Windows	Preapp Partners
Publishers
	Sega
Release dates
Windows	June 13, 2020
Reception
Metacritic	87
OpenCritic	87
IGDB	94
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Turn-based
Genres	JRPG
Art styles	Anime
Themes	Detective/mystery, Japan, Supernatural
Series	Persona

Persona
Subseries of Megami Tensei
Megami Ibunroku Persona	1999
Persona 4 Golden	2020
Persona 5 Strikers	2021
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax	2022
Persona 5 Royal	2022
Persona 3 Portable	2023
Persona 5 Tactica	2023
Persona 3 Reload	2024

Persona 4 Golden is the PC port of the detective/mystery JRPG game of the same name for PlayStation Vita from 2012, itself a remaster of the original Persona 4 released in 2008 for Playstation 2. While the PlayStation Vita version expanded upon the original PlayStation 2 title with new features, story elements, characters, spoken lines, anime cutscenes, and more, the PC version adds the ability to choose between English and Japanese voice acting, and focuses on improving the technical state of the game and features enhanced graphics, upscaled cinematics, and support for an uncapped variable framerate. The development of the PC port was led by Atlus with assistance from Preapp Partners.

The game was released on Steam on June 13, 2020 following a surprise announcement on the PC Gaming Show the same day. In a port analysis posted on IGN and written by guest writer and modder Peter "Durante" Thoman of PH3 Games, he described the version as "a fantastic way to play [the] game, with solid graphics options, arbitrary resolution and framerate support, relatively fast loading times, and good support for remappable keyboard controls," and went on to mention that "even the minor online aspects of the 'Golden' version were faithfully ported."

A major update to the Steam version was released on January 19, 2023, featuring technical and quality of life improvements, to bring it to parity with the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and the Microsoft Store versions, released on the same day. The existence of an update was previously leaked on November 1, 2022 when a development branch on Steam was inadvertently not password protected, giving players an impression of what to expect.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
		Digital Deluxe Edition also available.
Humble Store		Digital Deluxe Edition also available.
Microsoft Store		Included with Xbox Game Pass for PC. Xbox Play Anywhere
Steam		Digital Deluxe Edition also available

All versions require Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM.

Version differences

Digital Deluxe Edition includes an 18 page artbook in PDF format and soundtrack containing 9 tracks in 160kbps MP3 format.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Microsoft Store	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\SEGAofAmericaInc.D0cb6b3aet_s751p9cej88mt\SystemAppData\wgs\<user-id>\
Steam	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Sega\P4G\P4G.ini
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1113000/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Microsoft Store	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\SEGAofAmericaInc.D0cb6b3aet_s751p9cej88mt\SystemAppData\wgs\<user-id>\
Steam	<Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\1113000\remote\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1113000/pfx/

It is possible to unofficially transfer save game data from the Vita version of the game to the Steam version. See using PlayStation Vita save files.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

Display options

Graphics options

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Aspect ratios narrower than 16:9 are letterboxed.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Pillarboxed. See the related WSGF thread or use the related patcher.[citation needed]
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Off, Low and High settings available.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Post-process AA with an On/Off toggle; SSAA through "Rendering Scale" up to 200%. Adjusting the render scale will also change the resolution of HUD elements.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Motion blur is tied to frame rate; its effect is reduced as FPS increases. 30, 60, 90 or 120 FPS caps. The ability to have an uncapped frame rate was removed in the January 2023 update.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Left click works as secondary action button, right as secondary cancel, these cannot be rebound. Does not respect Windows primary mouse button setting. Valid key bindings are heavily restricted, generally to the alphanumerical and modifier keys.
Mouse acceleration		Windows cursor used, only usable in menus.
Mouse sensitivity		Camera angle is fixed.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity		Referred to as "Camera Speed".
Controller Y-axis inversion		Referred to as "Inverted Camera".

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers		DualSense also supported. Both need Stem Input activated.
DualShock button prompts		DualSense button prompts also supported.
Light bar support
Connection modes	V1, V2, Wired, Bluetooth, Wireless adapter

Generic/other controllers		Specific controllers only.
Button prompts		Switch Pro Controller has face buttons reversed to match the controller's button layout.

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback		The game is based on the PlayStation Vita version which didn't feature any haptic feedback, only the original PlayStation 2 version has haptic feedback support.
Simultaneous controller+KB/M		Controller inputs and prompts prioritized.

Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Hook input (legacy mode)
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts		Steam controller prompts used for all controllers enabled in Steam's controller settings. See here for instructions on how to disable Steam input (or to exclude the game) to get controller specific prompts.
Cursor detection

• 

  Keyboard options

• 

  Gamepad options

• 

  Game options

Audio

Audio options

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Sliders for BGM, SE, and Voice. Can be set in intervals of 1, from 0-10.
Surround sound
Subtitles		FMV cutscenes only. Referred to as "Anime Subtitles" in Game Options. Toggleable on/off.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese				Added to the Steam version with the release of the multi-platform remaster version on January 19, 2023.
Traditional Chinese
French				Added to the Steam version with the release of the multi-platform remaster version on January 19, 2023.
German				Added to the Steam version with the release of the multi-platform remaster version on January 19, 2023.
Italian				Added to the Steam version with the release of the multi-platform remaster version on January 19, 2023.
Japanese
Korean
Spanish				Added to the Steam version with the release of the multi-platform remaster version on January 19, 2023.
Latin American Spanish				Neutral Latin-American Spanish Unofficial Translation. Download here.

Issues fixed

SetupError

Game won't start, saying "Setup Error – System does not meet the Minimum Requirements"^{[citation needed]}

Delete or Rename "d3d11.dll" Go to the game directory Delete or rename d3d11.dll or other directx's related .dll

Use DPI compatibility setting for the game executable
Navigate into <path-to-game> and open properties of P4G.exe. Open the Compatibility tab, press Change high DPI settings. Check Overwrite high DPI scale settings and select Application from the dropdown. Accept changes by closing open windows with OK.

Run the game in windowed mode and restart
Navigate to Settings > Display and set Screen Mode to Windowed. Exit the game The next time the game starts, higher resolutions should be available under Settings > Display > Screen Mode. After changing to the desired resolution, Screen Mode can be set to borderless or fullscreen without further issues.

Change Windows DPI to 100%
Open Windows Settings app → System → Display Under Scale and layout, change percentage to 100%

Game doesn't launch, immediately closes

RTSS (RivaTunerStatisticsServer) can be the cause of this problem. It is recommended to close RTSS and launch the game again.^{[citation needed]}

Very low fps on decent specs PC, automatically skipped cutscenes

NVIDIA Control Panel automatically chooses the integrated graphics setting for this game if you have multiple GPUs.^{[citation needed]}

Change which GPU the game uses in NVIDIA Control Panel
Right-click on the Desktop and select NVIDIA Control Panel Navigate to Program Settings in Manage 3D Settings. Press Add and select the location of Persona 4 Golden executable (it is found in the game installation folder). From the dropdown menu under the application select High-performance NVIDIA processor. Press Apply.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11, 12	Steam version uses D3D11. Microsoft Store version uses D3D12.

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows			Updated from 32-bit to 64-bit on January 19, 2023.

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	CRI ADX 2
Cutscenes	CRI Movie 2

Using PlayStation Vita save files

Error game displays when loading Vita version save file for the first time.

As the game save data is identical with Vita version of the game, it is possible to copy games save file and use it with PC version of the game with very little work.

This requires a modded Vita in order to decrypt and transfer the save game data to PC!

Transfer save file from Vita to Steam

Start the game and create new save files on same slots that are going to be copied from the PlayStation Vita later. On Vita, open Vitashell, navigate to UX0:user/00/savedata/ Go over folder with games ID (US: PCSE00120, EU: PCSB00245, JP: PCSG00563), hit triangle button and select option open decrypted. Press select to open FTP server or USB transfer and copy the files from the previous path to the computer. Navigate into save game data folder and transfer the copied files from Vita into the folder, overwriting the previously made new save files. Generate MD5 hash of dataXXXX.bin, then open corresponding dataXXXX.binslot in hex editor. Replace the address from 0x18 to 0x27 with generated MD5 hash. (Example, source.) Open the game and load up the save game file. The information on the save file will be the same as initially saved on PC and there will be a warning window after trying to load the game save file (see image on right). Click OK on warning and Vita game save file should be loaded. Save the game to fix the information of the game save slot. Notes Fixing the binslot checksum also allows PC save data that has been edited with tools designed for PS Vita save data to work (no Vita required). If there are issues with generating the MD5 and hex editing files, see this Python program for a command-line utility to automatically apply the necessary changes to binslot files.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	8.1	10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 AMD Phenom II X2 550	Intel Core i5-650 AMD Phenom II X4 940
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	14 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 ATI Radeon HD 5770 DirectX 11 compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 AMD Radeon HD 6870

A 64-bit operating system is required.

Runs on Windows 7 despite minimum Operating System requirements