Persona 4 Revivalwas officially announced last month, though this was more like a confirmation of life than a proper reveal. Despite there being very little info unveiled about thisPersona 4remake yet, the success ofAtlus' most recent remake projects, likeRAIDOU Remastered: Mystery of the Soulless ArmyandPersona 3 Reload,serve as reasons for optimism.
Indeed, Atlus has been knocking its remakes out of the park, keeping them just as faithful to their originals as necessary, while implementing a number of smart, modern touches. In the case ofPersona 3 Reload, this manifested in an expert recreation of the originalPersona 3’s atmosphere, tone, and heart-wrenching narrative, for instance. In the case ofPersona 4 Revival, there are a handful of similarly crucial aspects for Atlus and P-Studio to get right, and the game’s charming world might just be chief among them. Inaba is often cited as one of the best, most vibrant settings of any Megaten game, and whilePersona 4 Revivalwill surely strive to faithfully recreate the sleepy small town, it shouldn’t be afraid to get a bit more ambitious.
More Than Any Other Persona Setting, Inaba Makes Sense as a Seamless Open-World
Persona 4 Isn’t a ‘True’ Open-World
Just like otherPersonagames,Persona 4’s Inabacan only be called an open-world setting in the loosest sense of the term. Yes, players can technically go where they please, but the compartmentalized nature of the game’s map makes Inaba feel more like a series of hub or activity areas, akin to something like theMass Effecttrilogy’s approach to world design. There’s no sense of immersive freedom while exploring, as each area feels disconnected from each other rather than just part of a frictionless whole.
In otherPersonagames, this sort of level design makes sense. For example,Persona 5is set in Tokyo, with disparate locations often being separated by subway trips, and the archipelago-style map design fits the nature of the urban setting.Persona 4, on the other hand, is meant to take place in an intimate, tight-knit, cozy town, but the level design clashes with this premise. The opportunity to fully experience Inaba as a complete, continuous game world would buttress the setting’s essential traits, while also making for a more compelling and immersive gameplay experience.
Persona 4 Revival Could Shake Up the Persona Formula with an Open-World
Implementing more traditional open-world design tendencies would have knock-on benefits for the rest ofPersona 4 Revivalas well. Much like how theYakuzagames manage to cram a bevy of content into the small, denseneighborhood of Kamurocho, so too couldPersona 4 Revivalmake Inaba feel like more of a living, plausible environment. There could be secrets to uncover in every nook and cranny, dark alleys to venture down, and even charismatic NPCs to assist. IfPersona 4 Revival’s version of Inaba were more like one cohesive space, and less like a series of disconnected, purpose-built rooms, then the potential for exploration and engaging side content could shoot through the roof.
Persona 3 Reloadfelt likePersona 3with the resources and modern design tendencies ofPersona 5;Persona 4 Revivalcould be something greater. It could take a bigger swing at polishing and remixing the key ingredients ofthePersonaformula, rather than just playing it safe and sticking to what works. With the intentionally small-scale, quaint setting ofPersona 4seeming tailor-made for the condensed open-world format, and with thePersonafranchise skewing toward urban environments rather than rural ones, this might be Atlus' only chance to experiment with such world design for a while.
