Persona 4 Revival is sticking pretty closely to the original game because producer Kazuhisha Wada believes the classic has only gotten more relevant in the 18 years since one of the best RPGs first came out.
Speaking to the official Xbox Podcast, series producer Kazuhisha Wada tried to clarify comments he previously made about wanting Persona to feel a little bit like poison. He says he “wasn’t referring to shock value or provocative content” with those comments – he simply wanted to leave folks with lingering questions that “encourages players to reflect on themselves,” which is something the original Persona 4 has been doing for almost two decades.
To Wada, Persona 4’s central themes “resonate even more strongly today” than they did in 2008. In typical Persona fashion, the game follows a group of high schoolers as they try to solve a deadly supernatural mystery, all while battling the deeper parts of their psyche that they’ve shoved into the crevices of their minds.
The game asks questions like “how do we confront the parts of ourselves we’d rather not see?” and “can we look beyond public perception and rumors to discover the truth in our true selves?” Questions that also hit a little harder in today’s social media-obsessed world.
“We live in an age where information is everywhere,” Wada explains. “It’s easy to form judgments based only on appearances or what we just see. Because of that, I feel these themes have become even more meaningful over time.” While the original game forced its point with TV screens as a motif, I can easily imagine phones serving the same purpose nowadays.
But, the developers at Atlus didn’t want to change or sensationalize the classic game’s story. According to Wada, the goal was preservation, only this time with a new coat of paint and a deeper “sense of immersion.”
“If, as a result, the poison that has always been part of Persona 4 leaves an even more natural and lasting impression on players, then I would be very happy,” he concludes.