Persona 4 Golden may be about 10 years old, but it's far from irrelevant. It belongs to Atlus' broad movement of reviving old Persona titles for the modern era, which will seriously pick up steam in the coming years. Persona 4 Golden and its predecessor Persona 3 Portable are coming to major gaming platforms sometime in the near future, presumably after Persona 5 Royal releases for more platforms in October. This comes after Persona 4 Golden had a very successful return to form through its release on Steam. The Investigation Team's search for the truth is now well-known to Persona fans new and old, so there's a new appetite for stories that focus on them.
That's why Atlus should strongly consider making a P4G spinoff in the same vein as Persona 5 Strikers, the hack-and-slash action RPG developed in collaboration with Omega Force of Dynasty Warriors fame. The explosive Persona 5 Strikers was a very different game from the original turn-based RPG, but Persona has never been afraid of surprising spinoffs, and the game was a huge hit. Persona 4 Golden's characters deserve another day in the sun, and using them to turn Strikers into a new spinoff series would be a great way for Atlus to buy time for Persona 6.
Persona 5 Strikers is Successful and Malleable
Persona 5 Strikers was a clear success. The game received strong reviews, and it has sold over 1.5 million copies, which is a big deal considering that Persona as a franchise has only sold about 15 million units worldwide. Adoration towards Persona 5's Phantom Thieves certainly has something to do with that, but Persona 5 Strikers' concept and gameplay formula are compelling in their own right. Due to that success, Atlus would be wise to carry the Strikers brand into the future, making more spinoffs of its kind.
While making a direct sequel to Persona 5 Strikers would be one potential route, it might be more exciting to apply Strikers' ideas to a different Persona generation, since that can generate fresher dungeon designs, plotlines, character interactions, and so on. Persona 4 Golden, which sold very well on Steam, is the ideal generation to approach. Aside from the Persona 5 games, the P4 series is freshest in the minds of fans between the P4G Steam port and the recent Persona 4 Arena Ultimax revival. An action-packed Midnight Channel mystery in Inaba starring slightly older versions of the Investigation Team members could offer a great new take on Persona 5 Strikers.
Persona 4 Golden's Cast Deserves Another Adventure
Persona 4 Strikers would be a great idea thanks in large part to the game's protagonists and the crime-solving adventure they went on. Certain Investigation Team members may be strikingly similar to the newer Phantom Thieves, but they're still all unique characters. Persona 4 Golden offered a lot of invaluable moments for these characters, ranging from Yukiko's uncertainty about taking over the family business to Kanji learning to subvert his own concept of masculinity. Much like how Persona 5 Strikers focused on the Phantom Thieves passing on the life lessons they've learned, Persona 4 Strikers could use these experience to drive arcs pairing protagonists with new antagonists.
The murder-solving focus of Persona 4 would also be a great focus for another Strikers game. The Phantom Thieves have solved plenty of crimes, especially in Strikers, but the Investigation Team's year-long struggle to get to the bottom of a streak of murders in the Japanese countryside remains an entirely different experience. Persona 4 Strikers would give Atlus an opportunity to weave another complicated crime that the Investigation Team solves over the course of a reunion, possibly leaning more into supernatural culprits than Persona 5 Strikers did.
Persona 4 Strikers Could Release Ahead of Persona 6
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Perhaps the best reason for Persona 4 Strikers to happen is the presumably distant release of Persona 6. Atlus confirmed relatively recently that Persona 6 is in the works, and it hasn't given any sign that further information is around the corner. Considering just how many Persona projects Atlus has had on its plate in the last few years, Persona 6 is probably still pretty early in development, meaning fans need something to tide them over between now and then.
Persona 4 Strikers would be a great new game to fill that void. Atlus would presumably collaborate with Omega Force again to develop such a game, meaning it wouldn't have to do all the work itself, so it could still focus on Persona 6. While fans want to see Persona 6, they'd also prefer not to go several years without any new Persona content; after all, the ports are exciting, but they're more valuable for new fans brought in by Persona 5. They aren't an entirely new experience that the community can share. A short but rich game like Persona 4 Strikers could fit nicely into the years between now and P6.
Persona in the Near Future
Persona 4 Golden's age hardly keeps it from getting a new game in the modern age of Persona. Atlus has a history of revisiting previous generations of the franchise many years after they've aged out. For instance, Persona 3's cast has a constant presence in the IP, getting a dancing game in 2018 and regularly cropping up in spinoffs like Persona 4 Arena and the Persona Q series. If the SEES can be such a Persona mainstay, then so can the Investigation Team, especially after Persona 4 Golden led the charge for bringing Persona games to non-PlayStation platforms.
A Strikers-flavored Persona 4 spinoff would be the perfect combination of something old and something new. New Persona followers and fans who played Persona 4 on debut could both enjoy this game, and the classic characters could stand to benefit from a fresh style of gameplay. While Atlus certainly hasn't confirmed any plans to make more Strikers games, it wouldn't be surprising to see games like Persona 4 Strikers crop up in the future as a way of appealing to new and old fans at the same time. Atlus' fanbase has expanded significantly, and in the coming years, it'll need to find ways to cater to all sides of it in order to keep everyone engaged.
Persona 4 Golden is available now on PC and PS Vita. PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S versions are planned for 2023.