Murder On The Midnight Channel

You could easily argue Per‑ sona would not be the RPG mainstay it is today if not for Persona 4 Golden, the PlayStation Vita enhanced port of the original sleepy town murder drama Persona 4, which first launched on PlayStation 2 in 2008; which is to say, you could easily argue Persona would not be the RPG mainstay it is today without Persona 4. After charting a new course for the series with Persona 5, developer Atlus has attempted to reshape its past with a new P5-inspired sheen. It worked for 2024’s Persona 3 Reload (P3R), which was a flashy remake of the 2006 PS2 game, and now, the Tokyo-based studio aims to do the same with its Persona 4 remake, dubbed Persona 4 Revival.

Unlike Persona 3’s coastal (but manmade) Tatsumi Port Island, and Person 5’s Tokyo, Persona 4 brings players to the relatively quiet rural village of Inaba, where the marquee attraction is a department store (with an earworm of a jingle, too). That is, until dead bodies are found, specifically on the mornings after rainy nights. A one-off tragic murder becomes a trail of corpses indicating a serial killer is on the loose, and protagonist Yu Narukami, his new friends, and his mysterious Persona powers become part of the mystery. And so the table is set for Persona 4, and thus its upcoming 2027 remake, Persona 4 Revival.

I went hands-on with P4R during Gamescom 2026 (don’t miss the previews section of this issue to read about many of the other exciting games we played during the annual event), and though the demo was fine – it’s a modern remake of a great game that I think will also be great – my discussion with the team behind it is what has me thrilled for more in February.