Persona 4 Revival's Second Broadcast Introduces New Social Link Aika Nakamura
ATLUS's second Persona 4 Revival broadcast added new social link Aika Nakamura, debuted a reworked vocal arrangement, and confirmed its 2027 cast.
ATLUS used the second episode of its Persona 4 Revival Broadcast on September 19 to widen the remake's cast well beyond the Investigation Team members already confirmed, adding a brand-new social link, a fresh way to dig into Inaba's history, and a reworked vocal arrangement of one of the series' best-known songs. The half-hour stream, built around the game's upcoming official site, is the clearest sign yet that this remake is reaching past a straight visual upgrade of the 2008 original.
A Character Pulled Out of the Anime
The broadcast's headline reveal was Aika Nakamura, voiced by Judy Alice Lee. Aika previously existed only as a background presence in the Persona 4 animated adaptation rather than as a playable-adjacent character in either version of the game. In Revival, she works delivery shifts for her family's restaurant, Aiya, in Inaba's Central Shopping District, and ATLUS confirmed she will be a full social link: a character the protagonist builds a relationship with over repeated conversations, whether that's catching her at school or flagging her down on an evening delivery run.
Location Episodes Turn Inaba's Past Into a Mechanic
Aika also anchors a new structure ATLUS calls Location Episodes. Traveling with her to specific spots around Yasoinaba lets the protagonist collect photographs tied to the supporting cast's history in the town, and handing those photos back unlocks short scenes about how characters such as Nanako and Ryotaro Dojima spent their time in Inaba before the murder investigation that frames the story begins. It's a page pulled from ATLUS's own recent playbook: Persona 3 Reload added a similar wave of extra scenes and party interactions that weren't in the original release, and Location Episodes looks like Revival's version of that same instinct to deepen a cast players already know well.
The Rest of the Cast Locks Into Place
Episode 2 also confirmed English voice casting for several returning characters who sit around the edges of the main mystery rather than in the Investigation Team itself:
- Johnny Yong Bosch returns as Tohru Adachi, the only actor from the original English dub confirmed to reprise a role in Revival
- Ray Chase voices Ryotaro Dojima, the protagonist's uncle and the detective leading the murder case
- Courtney Shaw voices Nanako Dojima, Ryotaro's daughter
- Judy Alice Lee voices the newly introduced Aika Nakamura
That rounds out a cast ATLUS has been revealing in waves since the remake's announcement, alongside the previously confirmed Investigation Team lineup of Nazeeh Tarsha, Paul Castro Jr., Anne Yatco, Brianna Knickerbocker, Ari Thrash and Abby Trott.
Modernizing Dialogue Without Rewriting the Story
The broadcast's character-focused reveals fit a pattern ATLUS has been describing since the remake's development was first detailed earlier this year. General Producer Kazuhisa Wada has said the team is revising select lines rather than rewriting characters wholesale, aiming for dialogue that reads naturally to a contemporary audience without altering anyone's core personality or role in the story. Wada singled out Yosuke Hanamura as an example, noting that some of his remarks toward other characters and outsiders in the original 2008 release read as needlessly harsh by today's standards, even though his place in the plot and his Social Link arc remain untouched. Major story beats and existing Social Links, including those for Kanji Tatsumi and Naoto Shirogane, are staying fundamentally as players remember them; Aika Nakamura and the Location Episodes system are additions layered on top rather than replacements for anything that was already there.
A Sky Full of Stars, Rearranged
Composer Ryota Kozuka closed out the broadcast with a new vocal arrangement of "A Sky Full of Stars -Revival-," performed by vocalist Shiori Sasaki. The track is one of the Persona 4 soundtrack's most recognizable pieces, and pairing a new recording of it with the Location Episodes reveal underlines how much of this broadcast was about giving longtime fans fresh reasons to spend time with characters and music they already love, rather than simply restating the original's plot beats in higher resolution.
“Some of Yosuke's remarks toward other characters and outsiders felt unnecessarily insensitive by modern standards.”Kazuhisa Wada, General Producer, Persona Team, ATLUS
When Persona 4 Revival Actually Arrives
Persona 4 Revival is scheduled for February 18, 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam and the Microsoft Store, with a Nintendo Switch 2 version following on May 20, 2027. ATLUS has also confirmed the game will be available through Xbox Game Pass from day one. With the core Investigation Team, Aika Nakamura and the surrounding Dojima family now all accounted for, the remaining gap before launch looks set to be filled with deeper looks at combat and the Location Episodes system ATLUS only briefly previewed this time around.
Official links
Mira leads previews at Gamers6. She has spent fifteen years playing co-op shooters badly and writing about them well, and she still keeps a spreadsheet of every weapon reload animation worth the frame count.
