Persona 4 Golden: How to Turn Off Auto Battle

Persona 4 Golden is coming to all major platforms like never before, and long-standing fans are pleased to see newcomers given access to this excellent series. It’s iconic and approachable, but that doesn’t stop it from confusing new players. While the game gives you plenty of space to figure it out for yourself, one mechanic that might annoy players looking for greater autonomy is Auto Battle or Auto Combat in Persona 4 Golden. Thankfully, there’s a way to remove it, so you can choose your moves for every character.

Persona 4 Golden: How to Turn Off Auto Battle for Your Party

At any point in a dungeon, hit ‘X/’Square’/’Y’ to open a dialogue where you can select ‘Change Battle Tactics’ and change individual characters to ‘Direct Commands.’ Alternatively, when in battle and it’s the main character’s turn, select ‘Tactics’ then select each character, being sure to pick ‘Direct Commands’ if you wish to turn off Auto Battle. Each party member you recruit is set by default to ‘Act Freely’ which, while efficient in making battles flow quicker, is often not the preferred course of action. It’s especially important for players wishing to plan out battles, particularly against bosses, or to conserve SP.

Alternately, the advantages of Auto Battle or Auto Combat are that you control your player character (Yu Narakami) while letting the other players act with their own autonomy. This allows players who may be enjoying the game on lower difficulties to simply enjoy the story while letting the reactive AI control their allies and keep battles from dragging on.

But as you bring up the difficulty, you’ll find there are glaring oversights these AI will make, such as only using offensive magic to target weaknesses, poor healing target priority, and neglect of helpful buff/debuff moves.

Persona 4 Golden releases worldwide for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on January 19, 2023, as well as already being released on PlayStation Vita and PC.