Changes from the PS2 release

This is a sub-page of Persona 4 Golden.

To do:
Everything.

Gameplay Differences#

A TV listings feature was added to Golden, it can be unlocked after completing the first dungeon and having Yukiko fully recover, playing the game will progressively unlock more and more content on it, such as a cutscene viewer, music player, an art gallery, Persona trailers, and 6 records from the 2008 and 2009 concerts.
- The concert and trailer channels were removed from the modern re-releases of the game, but can be reinstated with mods.

Leveling up Investigation Team member's social links in Golden can let the party member learn social link exclusive skills to aid the party, such as Naoto learning Heat Riser and Yosuke learning Diarama.
The ability for party members to block a lethal blow to the protagonist is innately learned after forming their social link, in Golden, this was changed to having it be learned at rank 9.
The player can leave the Dojima residence at night if Ryotaro Dojima is absent, going outside at night is impossible in the original game.
Social links for Tohru Adachi and Marie are added in Golden, both effect the ending of the game in minor and major ways.
The player unlocks a scooter during the summer, which can be used to pass time and later unlock Okina city and the beach.
Okina city is no longer locked to purely social link events.
A beach trip was added in.
January and February are fully playable in Golden with a new overworld track and a new snowy appearance to Inaba, in the PS2 original, the game will skip from 12/25 all the way to 3/20.
A ski trip was added.
An epilogue that takes place in summer 2012 can be accessed if the player achieves the best ending in the game.

The Reaper can only be encountered via New Game Plus in the original.
An additional dungeon can be unlocked if the player maxes Marie and agrees to let Margaret search for her after wishing her a happy new year.

Shuffle Time in the original PS2 release only had 3 types of cards, blank, penalty, and persona cards.
- Arcana Chance can occur sometimes after selecting a persona card in the PS2 release, its effect can change between positive or negative based on how the arcana card lands after being spun. The arcana card spinning to have a different effect is entirely removed in Golden.
In Golden, Shuffle Time was heavily altered, removing blank and penalty cards entirely, the only cards that can be encountered now are persona cards and arcana cards, several of which being altered from how they behaved on the PS2. All arcana cards were either reworked entirely or were noticeably modified from their PS2 counterparts, for example the judgement card would either restore the party's full SP, or half it depending or how it lands on the PS2, but in Golden, the card has no effect at all on the player or their card deck.
Aeon was added as an arcana card you can encounter, it has no effect other than giving the player 4 more turns to pick cards.
An arcana sweep can now occur if the player manages to collect all the cards in a single Shuffle Time, which will give them benefits for the next shuffle time, such as making it occur more, giving the player more free turns to pick cards, and decreasing the chances of encountering negative cards and persona cards which you already own.

Lighting and fog were changed in Golden, likely due to the game engine changing (the original uses RenderWare, while Golden uses an in-house engine).
All character portraits appear more desaturated in the PS2 version, they appear more saturated in all games after Golden.
Dojima's portrait in the Social Link menu has a cigarette in his mouth, which was removed in Golden. Notably, his character model still depicts him with the cigarette despite this change.

PS2	Golden

Chie Satonaka and Teddie both have different English actors in the PS2 original, being played by Tracey Rooney and Dave Wittenberg respectively, while Erin Fitzgerald and Sam Riegel voice act them in Golden.

The PS2 release has an alternative opening which shows gameplay. This can be seen by either idling on the title screen, or being booted back to it either by closing the game or dying in battle. The game will shuffle between the two while idling.