I swear, every new bit of news about Persona 4 Revival dims the light of my world just a little. I’m being a little melodramatic here of course, but Atlus has just revealed the new battle theme song for Persona 4 Revival, which I’m not feeling too hot about. It’s not bad per se, and it features a new vocalist in the form of Shiori Sasaki, who does sound very similar to Shihoko Hirata, who sang a lot of the original tracks in Persona 4 and Golden.
You can check out the new Persona 4 Revival battle theme here, titled Prime Time Golden Hour Show.
I imagine the battle music will work similarly to how Persona 4 Golden handled its new themes — you get Reach Out to the Truth when you enter a battle normally, and you get Time to Make History when you enter a battle with advantage. I don’t know how Atlus will incorporate all three themes into Revival, though. Maybe you get one of them if you enter a battle with enemy advantage?
I also wonder if Atlus will introduce a new opening song for Persona 4 Revival too. Notably, the original game opened with the iconic Pursuing My True Self, while Golden opened with Shadow World, which I vastly preferred. Golden didn’t add all that many new tracks, but I did love all of the new additions and thought they rounded out the entire Persona 4 soundtrack nicely.
In all honesty, Prime Time Golden Hour Show doesn’t really hit with me because it seems to elevate the parts of Persona 4 that really don’t need any further elevation. Persona 4 has already been billed as the happiest game ever about a murder mystery, especially with Golden moving away from the slightly moodier tones of the original. This new battle theme seems to be continuing in that direction, to an extent that feels almost a bridge too far from what I’d like to see in a Persona 4 remake.
Of course, I was already in the “why do we need this?” camp when Revival first got announced, as I consider Golden to be a near-perfect game that still holds up very well even today. That, coupled with the fact that the English cast has been overhauled and now the addition of a new battle theme with a new singer, has only served to sour me on the game. I’m still keeping an open mind, and I’ll admit that I do enjoy what we’ve seen of Chie’s new English VA so far, but suffice to say that my expectations are going to be kept low going into this one.
Persona 4 Revival is set to be released for PC and consoles on Feb. 18, 2027.
