Ever since its release on PC this year, fans have wondered at the potential of modding for Persona 4 Golden and if certain content could be restored. Among the most requested mods for the JRPG classic was to restore the cut Yosuke Hanamura romance. Dialogue for this path can be found in the game files and the existing relationship between the player character, Yu Narukami, and Yosuke has been interpreted as being homoerotic.
A mod that restores the cut Yosuke romance to Persona 4 Golden is now complete and available for download. Worked on by modder MadMax1960, the mod was announced back in June of this year and edits Ranks 6-10 of the existing Social Link to now accommodate the cut dialogue.
MadMax1960 has added four different versions of the mod: one that activates at Rank 10, one that is only an S-Link, one that is a Rank 10 and removes the campfire scene, and one that is the full version of the mod will all content changes. There will also be post-release support to add more content and to further support the mod.
For all of its generally progressive views and themes regarding self-discovery and freedom among youth, the Persona series has been oddly behind on LGBTQ representation with no same-sex romance options available in the series. In Persona 5, the player can encounter two openly gay men who are portrayed in a stereotypical manner. While Atlus did tone down certain aspects of this stereotyping in the Western release of Persona 5 Royal following fan complaints, the dialogue remains intact in the Japanese edition of the game. Fans have noted the considerable amount of homoeroticism present in the series, particularly in Persona 5 with regards to Joker's relationships with Yusuke and Goro.
Persona 4 Golden was released on PC earlier this year to critical and commercial success. The game sold more than 500,000 copies a month after its release, with Sega now considering porting more titles to the PC and other platforms to emulate its success. The PC port of the 2012 PS Vita original continues to receive post-launch support from Atlus and fans alike and even remains a popular pop culture reference to invoke on Twitter, following the Kanto region in Japan being covered in fog.
More Persona content will be coming out next year with the Western release of Persona 5 Strikers, a Dynasty Warriors-like hack-and-slash RPG. The game, which is a spin-off of Persona 5, sees the Phantom Thieves in a new adventure six months after the events of the original game.
Persona 4 Golden is available for PC and PS Vita.
Source: GameBanana