With two versions of the game having released – the initial one in 2008 for and the remastered Golden edition in 2012 – Persona 4 has made quite the impression on fans of the Shin Megami Tensei series. You jump into the shoes of Yu Narukami, following him and his friends into a horrifying alternate reality inside the television, trying to stop a serial killer from terrorizing the quiet town of Inaba.
Each time you identify someone on the Midnight Channel on TV, typically someone you've met recently whose story includes time in the television, Yu and team must enter and conquer a dungeon unique to that character. Defeating their shadow will either add a new person to your team, turn a suspect over to the police, or even defeat a Japanese deity hell-bent on altering the real world.
Opinion on the matter of which dungeon was the best is incredibly subjective among fans, even this long after the game's launch. With the game's rerelease for the Switch, here’s a look at how we'd rank the dungeons in Persona 4 Golden.
9 Marie's Hollow Forest
The Hollow Forest was the bonus dungeon included in Golden, requiring you to max out Marie’s confidant before the events of the main game finish in order to save her. However, the dungeon itself was more of a challenge than anything before it – you lost all of your items upon entering, and not only that, but each party member's SP would half after each battle.
But, if you wanted to save Inaba, you had to confront Kusumi-no-Okami. Marie’s mission is to absorb the fog consuming Inaba, which would kill her in the process, but defeating her Shadow and then Kusumi-no-Okami in the Hollow Forest frees her of this fate, saving both her life and Inaba on the whole.
8 The Secret Laboratory
Naoto Shirogane was an intriguing character – she’s an established detective from a successful lineage who arrives in Inaba to investigate the killing spree. However, she presents herself as a boy in an attempt to beat the discriminatory practices against females in a male-dominated field.
She opts to become bait for the killer and is thrown into the Midnight Channel, introducing a dungeon of her own that the Investigation Team must overcome. It takes the form of a secret laboratory, representing her internal struggles of concealment, but the dungeon itself is a little bland in comparison to the others. An additional beef we had with it was, why the hell did the doors here open so… freaking… slowly?
7 Marukyu Striptease
Idol culture is a much bigger deal in Eastern countries than it is in the West, and Rise Kujikawa was evidence of this in Persona 4. This mega-famous icon is tired of how inauthentic the spotlight feels, and returns to Inaba for a quiet couple years to attend high school and help her grandmother run the tofu shop. Unfortunately, she’s way too famous by the time she arrives during the murder spree, and is thrown into the Midnight Channel anyway.
Given her struggle thinking she’s just a figure for public consumption, her dungeon takes the form of a strip club. As a level in a game, the dungeon is fine, but it relies too heavily on the sex appeal and not as much on standout gameplay. Rise baits you with heavy innuendo as you go, and when you finally find her, her Shadow will pole dance for you. It’s an alright dungeon, but the perversion just felt too much.
6 The Steamy Bathhouse
It can be hard to do the trope of the secretly-soft tough guy well, but Persona 4 more than succeeded with Kanji Tatsumi. Around Inaba, he’s known for being a tough-as-nails biker, never afraid to get into a fight. In reality, though, it's just a hard-shell exterior protecting the true Kanji, who is an avid craftsman, chef, and mama’s boy.
Because of this inner conflict and fear of feminization, Kanji’s dungeon is a bathhouse all about love between men. It sees the Investigation Team trawling through steamy levels in search of the outcast, whose Shadow claims he hates women because they'll gossip and make fun of him. Defeating the Shadow adds Kanji to your party, though he remains somewhat insecure about his interests until finally accepting them the end of the game.
5 Yukiko's Castle
The demure, elegant Yukiko Amagi seems to have her life pretty well figured out before the events of the game: she's set to inherit her family’s rather profitable inn. However, after a reporter comes to hide at the Amagi Inn after a scandal and turns up missing, the family’s reputation is tarnished and Yukiko anguishes over it, beginning to feel chained to her hotelier fate.
Given that she’s rich, her dungeon is an elaborate castle of which she's the princess, with several Renaissance-style enemies littered throughout (like knights, kings, and mages, to name a few). With the help of her friends, Yukiko is freed of her torment, and chooses to inherit the inn after all, but now of her own free will.
4 Void Quest
Mitsuo Kubo has never accomplished anything, and after a lifetime of social awkwardness, bullying, and romantic rejection, lashes out at the world. And when Yu’s homeroom teacher is found murdered in the same fashion as previous victims, Mitsuo confesses to the killing - and the previous ones as well.
Despite your team having doubts he’s the serial killer, they enter his dungeon: a fun, colorful 8-bit pixel world known as Void Quest, in reference to how empty Mitsuo feels inside. The music is appropriately vintage, and it feels almost like a game within a game. You learn that Mitsuo really did kill your homeroom teacher, but only so that he could claim to be the serial killer, for no reason other than wanting attention.
3 Heaven
Although she’s technically your cousin, adorable, mature little Nanako ends up feeling more like your sister as you spend more time with her. Hell, she even starts calling you “Big Bro.” So when she’s abducted and tossed into the Midnight Channel, too, it stings.
And what hurts worse is that Nanako’s dungeon is literally Heaven, where she believes her deceased mother to be. Your team points out that the atmosphere is much more idyllic, with colorful scenery and peaceful music, which only adds to how off-putting the dungeon is, especially considering you’re in a race against the clock to find her. Saving our pseudo-sister from a confused kidnapper has never felt more ethereal.
2 Yomotsu Hirasaka
Accessible only in the True Ending of the game, Yomotsu Hirasaka is created by a gas station attendant who reveals herself to be Izanami in disguise. And she’s recreated the border of the underworld from Japanese mythology for you as a dungeon so that you can come find, fight, and finally defeat her.
Yomotsu Hirasaka is unlike the other dungeons in that you cannot leave once you've entered, so come prepared. The dungeon itself is reminiscent of a Shinto shrine, and leads to one last, epic battle against the real being pulling the strings on everything so far. The fight is tough, but Izanami will praise you for discovering the truth as she lays dying. Upon her death, the fog is finally lifted from over Inaba.
1 Magatsu Inaba/Magatsu Mandala
Assuming you resisted the urge to kill Namatame, you're up in the same Desolate Bedroom you found the first time you went into the Midnight Channel. The team reassesses their situation and realizes that Adachi is the true killer, and when you corner and confront him, he escapes into the Midnight Channel. Pursuing him brings you to his dungeon – Magatsu Inaba.
This dungeon feels so appropriately hellish. While Inaba itself is picturesque and serene, Magatsu Inaba is maze-like, red-tinged, and ominous. Magatsu Mandala is a trap Adachi lays for you, but when you finally get through it and back to Magatsu Inaba to confront him, the two-part boss battle absolutely delivers everything epic that the game had building to that point.