A Persona 4 Golden Modder Is Bringing Light to the World By Letting You Date Yosuke

When Persona 4 hit the PC on June 14, the mod scene didn't waste any time getting to work. One mod that's currently in the works will allow players to date the main character's best friend, Yosuke, when it's finished.

The mod's only about 10% completed, but it's already garnering a lot of discussion and good cheer. Persona 4 may be one of the best RPGs of all time, but it's not exactly LBGTQ+-positive. You can't date members of the same sex in Persona 4 Golden, plus some of the characters—Yosuke especially—are fonts of gay "jokes" and gay panic. It really brings down an otherwise top-tier RPG experience.

Hopefully, the Yosuke Romance mod by "MadMax1960" will help alleviate those issues, if not delete them entirely. The mod already shows some promise: The available footage shows only a few lines of dialogue (and some vocal repetition, which MadMax1960 says has already been cleaned up), and they seem to fit Yosuke's character.

Something Editor-in-Chief Kat Bailey and I have discussed more than once on the Axe of the Blood God podcast is how Persona 4 Golden's lack of a same-sex dating option is disappointing, as is Yosuke's homophobia being played for laughs. This mod might kill two Teddies with one stone. Yosuke's seeming disgust of gay people (or people he perceives as gay) could be him trying to cope with bottled-up feelings for his male friends, albeit badly. A story arc about him coming to terms with who he really is would be far preferable to him acting like a six-year-old in the presence of cooties every time Kanji enters the scene.

Speaking of Kanji: I hope a mod is in the works that lets him date the main character, too. They could go on long walks, knit together, share one folding chair as they brain Shadows…it'd be so romantic.