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[[File:persona_4_3425.jpg|frame|Clockwise from the bottom-left: [[The Smart Guy|Teddie]], [[Mission Control|Rise]], [[The Big Guy|Chie, Kanji]], [[Mon|Izanagi (the protagonist's Persona)]], [[Sixth Ranger|Naoto]], [[The Lancer|Yosuke]], [[The Chick|Yukiko]] and [[The Hero|the protagonist (Souji or Yu)]].]]
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''a cord that connects past and future.''|'''Igor, [[Powers That Be|Master of the Velvet Room]]'''}}
'''''Persona 4''''' is an [[Urban Fantasy]] [[Role-Playing Game]] in the popular [[JRPG]] franchise ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'', made by Atlus.
[[The Hero]] is an [[Ordinary High School Student]] (script name is not given, but he's called Souji Seta in the manga and Yu Narukami in the anime and fighting game), who will be living in the rural town of Inaba for a year with his uncle Ryotaro Dojima and his cousin Nanako. Not too long after he arrives, impossible murders begin to occur: people suddenly disappear, only for their bodies to be found hanging on telephone poles. Following an urban legend about a television channel that will show your soulmate at midnight on rainy days, the cast discover a mysterious otherworld on the other side of the television screen enveloped in a perpetual, oppressive fog.
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The game has an anime adaptation, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|titled]] ''[[Persona 4: The Animation]]''. Tropes belonging exclusively to the anime should be posted there.
A Playstation Vita remake, titled ''Persona 4: The Golden'' [
Atlus is also working with Arc System Works to develop ''[[Persona 4 Arena]]'', a ''[[BlazBlue]]''-style fighting game set two months after the conclusion of the first game.
The late 2011 fanfare didn't stop there. Atlus revealed more two projects for the series: one is a [[Light Novel]] starring Naoto Shirogane as the protagonist called ''Persona X Detective: Naoto''. [http://bokasaurus.tumblr.com/post/14112076178/digifreaks-persona-x-detective-naoto-from The story of the novel]{{Dead link}} takes place 1 year after the events of the game when Naoto is a senior in high school. However, it will not take place in Inaba, but in a different town and a different school altogether. The other is a [[Spin-Off]] manga starring Yosuke, entitled ''Persona 4: The Magician'' running independently on ''Persona Magazine''. In December, one more project was announced: a Japanese-only ''Persona 4'' live stage production titled ''VisuaLive: Persona 4'', which ran from March 15 through March 20 of 2012.
And if all of that wasn't enough to quench your thirsts, ''[[Persona 4: The Animation]]'' is now getting a [[Big Damn Movie]]; [http://www.siliconera.com/2012/05/27/persona-4-the-animation-getting-new-movie-edition/ summarizing the events of the series while adding new scenes along with the true ending].
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* [[Aliens in Cardiff]]: More like {{spoiler|gods}} in Yasoinaba.
* [[All in a Row]]: Averted. The party members visibly follow you around in the TV world, but at a distance in a sort of loose formation.
* [[All Myths Are True]]: A justified case of this trope: the world inside the TV is formed from the thoughts of all living humans, so it naturally follows that any myth that humanity had created would be true within that world.▼
* [[Alliteration]]: Yosuke describes [[Persona 3|Chihiro]] as "The most bewitching bespectacled beauty I've ever beheld." and even pauses briefly whilst he thinks of a word for "seen" that starts with the letter B.
▲* [[All Myths Are True]]: A justified case of this trope: the world inside the TV is formed from the thoughts of all living humans, so it naturally follows that any myth that humanity had created would be true within that world.
* [[Amazing Technicolor Battlefield]]: The battle against {{spoiler|Ameno-Sagiri, God of Fog}}, initially looks like this, but upon closer inspection, the battle takes place in the skies above Inaba.
* [[Anti-Frustration Features]]: If your main character is targeted by an attack that would kill him (and thus [[We Cannot Go on Without You|lose you the game]]), one of the other characters will jump in and take the hit for him so long as their social link is at least level 1.
* [[Anti-Grinding]]: The stronger you get, the less XP you get from fights.
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* [[Batman Gambit]]: Partially deconstructed. {{spoiler|Naoto's works, but Kanji is ''furious'' at her for taking that sort of risk and is not shy about letting her know. Some other members of the team are definitely impressed though, especially given the amount of detail she's able to remember from her own kidnapping}}.
* [[Battle Theme Music]]: You'll hum to the [[Preexisting Encounters|Pre-existing encounters]]. You'll ''rock out'' to the boss battles.
* [[Beary Cute]]: Teddie is a bear-like creature that resembles a living mascot that the Investigation Team first meets in the Midnight Channel. {{spoiler|It is later revealed that he was once a Shadow but developed his cute and cuddly form so that humans could like him more.}}
* [[Beat Them At Their Own Game]]: A funny example: after Yosuke {{spoiler|signs the girls up against their will for a beauty pageant, they respond by signing the protagonist, Yosuke and Kanji up for the ''crossdressing'' pageant. Then it happens again when Yosuke enters Teddie in the contest as a last minute entry, and after [[Attractive Bent Gender|he wins]] a position as a judge of the beauty pageant the girls are in, he declares there be a swimsuit portion, much to the girls' chagrin}}.
* [[Beauty, Brains, and Brawn]]: Rise/Yukiko, {{spoiler|Naoto}} and Chie respectively.
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* [[But Now I Must Go]]: {{spoiler|At the end of the game, the protagonist leaves Inaba to return home}} (see [[Parental Abandonment]] example below).
* [[But Thou Must!]]: Somewhat improved from the previous game, but still there.
* [[But Wait!
* [[Call Back]]/[[Continuity Nod]]:
** The class trip, which is basically a long list of locations from and references to ''[[Persona 3]]'', some of them very obvious (Hi, Chihiro!) some of them not so obvious (they even reuse the ''background music'' for most locations, and the song playing in the nightclub should sound very familiar to anyone who watched the opening movie for ''FES'').
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* [[Cassandra Truth]]:
** In two instances in the game, the main characters tell someone the unbridled truth about their powers and the world inside the TV, only for the person to assume they're lying to cover up their ''true'' purpose.
*** Yukiko and Rise tell Naoto ''exactly'' how they're involved with the murder case. {{spoiler|She doesn't believe it until after her kidnapping
*** If you tell {{spoiler|Dojima how you're involved, flat-out
** A humorous example:
* [[Cast From HP]]: The Persona physical attacks work like this.
* [[Cast Full of Gay|Cast Full Of]] [[Ambiguously Gay]] and/or [[Bi the Way]]: Everyone on the Investigation
* [[The Catfish]]: [[Guide Dang It|Good luck catching that Guardian]] to max out the Hermit Social Link! To clarify: you need to fish on very specific days, have the correct fishing equipment Key Item in your possession, and have to avoid catching unwanted fish by using a certain technique that is mentioned all of once in the game. The saving grace is the vibration function; specific fish make specific bites on your line, and once you know the Guardian's style, it's MUCH easier to fish for.▼
** Feed it to the cat during the quest "Cat Needs Food Badly" and you can clear the quest with only four feedings. (Otherwise, it takes ''twenty fish'' to clear the quest.) Hell of a way for the Guardian's career to end... then again, there's apparently more than one.▼
* [[Chalk Outline]]: The floor of the [[Hub Level]] is littered with outlines of dead bodies.
* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]:
**
**
**
**
* [[Chekhov's Lecture]]:
** The mythology lecture on the school trip. Fairly obvious, as it gives the background of the protagonist's first Persona.
** One day a lecture brings up [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]. Unless you already beat the current dungeon on the first day possible, the next boss has an attack called Nihil Hand.
** {{spoiler|Adachi's statements to Nanako about how smart he is take on a whole new light later on}}...
** You are asked to describe what the meaning of ressentiment is.{{spoiler|Guess what the theme of Adachi's [[Motive Rant]] is
* [[Chick Magnet]]: Like in ''Persona 3'', female Social Links have a tendency to fall for the main character
* [[Childhood Marriage Promise]]: If you complete her
** In one of the Devil
* [[Christmas Cake]]: Noriko Kashiwagi, who is instantly pegged as being at least 40 during her introduction. Also Sayoko.
* [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]]: The TV world is
* [[Clark Kenting]]: Played straight with Rise when she first shows up in town. Everyone who comes to the tofu shop looking for her seems to assume she's an old woman
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: The spacy girl in the shopping district. Apparently, [[Ensemble Darkhorse|she's somewhat popular with the fanbase
* [[Color Motif]]: In contrast to the previous game, this game's color motif is ''bright'' yellow. Fitting, since it's the most upbeat
* [[Combination Attack]]: Characters are apparently able to do these in ''The Golden''.
* [[Combined Energy Attack]]:
* [[Continuing Is Painful]]: As can be expected of a game that is so dialogue-heavy, most bosses have a lot of unskippable cutscenes before them that can wear down a player for a very hard boss if they don't feel like leveling up their characters. The crowning example, however, is the conversation that leads you [[Multiple Endings|either to the Bad or Good Ending
* [[Continuity Snarl]]: Not in the game, but in the anime. Kanji defeats his own shadow without having a
** Well, in the game, he ''does'' manage to knock his Shadow right on his ass with a punch to the face. Maybe Kanji's just that badass.
* [[Cooldown Hug]]: The Protagonist has the option to give Yosuke one of these during the Magician
* [[Copy and Paste Environments]]: Returning from ''[[Persona 3]]'', but somewhat improved due to the occasional gimmick, non-randomized floor.
* [[Creepy Monotone]]: In contrast to [[Large Ham|all the other Shadows]],
** While not as much as the former
* [[Critical Annoyance]]: Much like the previous game, you have Teddie for an announcer during the battle who gives you information about damage taken or status effects. Unfortunately, much like [[Mission Control]] the previous game, he. [[
* [[Critical Hit]]: The animations that show it are quite satisfying to see. Also grants extra turns. Unlike in some other games, this doesn't have to be entirely random. There are spells that influence the probability of getting one.
* [[Cross Counter]]: You and [[Fan Nickname|Brosuke]] get into one of these at the end of his Social Link Max.
* [[Crossdresser]]: You and your buddies get entered into a crossdressing beauty pageant by the girls for signing them up for the regular beauty pageant. [[Hilarity Ensues
* [[Curtains Match the Window]]: It's rather interesting to note that just about ''every'' character (Major and Minor) has this trope in effect.
* [[Deconstruction]]: Pretty much every team member's [[Shadow Archetype|Shadow]] does this for that character's given [[Archetypal Character|archetype]]. The team member's social links meanwhile go about the business of [[Reconstruction|reconstructing]] them.
** [[Butt Monkey]]: Shadow Yosuke
** [[Tomboy]]: Shadow Chie
** [[Yamato Nadeshiko]]: Shadow Yukiko
** [[Delinquents]]: Shadow Kanji
** [[Team Pet]]: Shadow Teddie
** [[Idol Singer]]: Shadow Rise
** [[Kid Detective|Boy Detective]]: Shadow Naoto
* [[Defeat Means Friendship]]: In some cases, defeating ''[[Enemy Without|yourself]]'' means befriending ''yourself''.
* [[Deliberate Values Dissonance]]: Many of Yosuke's views on gender roles and sexuality don't endear him to western audiences (
* [[Demonic Invaders]]: The Shadows.
* [[Department of Redundancy Department]]: Shortly after Kanji is kidnapped, Chie gives us this line:
{{quote|''First we save Kanji, then we crush the killer! Finally, we crush the killer and send him to hell!! Got it!?''}}
* [[Dialogue Tree]]: But of course!
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: The [[True Ending]], where you use the [[Power of Friendship]] to defeat {{spoiler|Izanami, Shinto mother goddess turned deity of death. ''Yes, you win a fight against Japan's co-creator and vengeful embodiment of death
**
* [[Dirty Old Man]]: Morooka/King Moron is implied to be a [[Covert Pervert]] example through his [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|exaggerated disgust at the perversity of his students]] and a dialogue segment where a fellow student tells you that he caught the teacher looking at a pinup book of Rise.
* [[Disc One Final Boss]]:
** {{spoiler|Namatame. Not only is he found in the [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] (if you don't get the [[Good Ending]], at least), but he has semi-unique boss music too (reused for Adachi). Oh, and you get an animated cutscene during his [[One-Winged Angel]] transformation right before you fight him
** Also
* [[Disc One Final Dungeon]]: Once early in the game (though it isn't quite revealed until some time later), then ''twice in a row'' near the end (but it's a subversion if you fall for the [[Red Herring|Red Herrings]]).
* [[Disc One Nuke]]: Fusing Kaiwan on a Skill Change Fusion Forecast day can net you Victory Cry as early as level 24. For reference, Victory Cry fully restores your HP and SP after every battle, and is normally only available by
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]:
** At one point in the game, Yosuke and Chie tail Kanji and Naoto, and hide themselves behind a tree. Yosuke is standing above Chie, who is on all-fours. Lampshaded (along with a lot of other stuff) in [https://web.archive.org/web/20111110084643/http://hiimdaisy.livejournal.com/26484.html#cutid1 hiimdaisy's legendary comic
* [[Double Entendre]]:
** Yosuke's well-intentioned "Maybe I should ask Yukiko for some private lessons", when the possibility of him studying with Yukiko is brought up. Cue bitch-slapping from Yukiko.
** Also said by Yosuke, "You do seem to be good with your hands" to the main character, when the group talks about a cooking contest. Yosuke himself notices and backpedals.
* [[Downer Ending]]: The game's worst ending.
* [[Dreaming of Things to Come]]: The dream you have at the beginning of the game {{spoiler|takes place in Yomotsu Hirasaka, and the person you fight is Izanami
* [[Dynamic Entry]]: If you have Kanji in your party {{spoiler|during the fight with Izanami-no-Okami, when she starts using "Thousand Curses", he'll jump in and kick the protagonist in the head to shove him out of the way
* [[Dysfunction Junction]]:
* [[Ear Worm]]: In-universe example: the Tanaka's shopping jingle is said to be irritatingly catchy. The Junes' jingle is also extremely popular to sing among grade school children, apparently, with Nanako reporting that she's the best in her class at it.
* [[Early Bird Boss]]: Shadow Yukiko, her Shadow is also a literal bird.▼
* [[Early-Bird Cameo]]: Rise appears in a commercial in the games opening cutscene.
▲* [[Early Bird Boss]]: Shadow Yukiko, her Shadow is also a literal bird.
* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: The game makes a ''big deal'' about not being distracted with easy answers and that one has to search for the truth. If you follow this concept through, you will avoid the [[Bad Ending]]. In addition, if you realize the game isn't over ''during the ending sequence'', you'll get the [[True Ending]],
* [[Education Mama]]: Shu Nakajima, the Tower
* [[Elaborate Underground Base]]: Naoto's dungeon.
* [[Eldritch Location]]: The TV
* [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower]]: The Protagonist's "ultimate" Persona, which is attained through the strength of the Social Links formed up until that point {{spoiler|and used to [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|defeat Izanami]]}}.
* [[Enemy Scan]]: One of [[Mission Control|Rise's]] abilities. Teddie doesn't do an actual scan
* [[Enemy Without]]: People's "shadows" (until they're defeated, at which point they become a sort of [[Defeat Means Friendship|Ally Without]]).
* [[Epic Fail]]: Human Teddie coming in and getting all the girls as his dates during the shrine festival, leaving the boys all alone, is appropriately described by Yosuke as this. Also a bit of an [[Ascended Meme]].
* [[Everybody Do the Endless Loop]]: Within a dozen or so seconds of the
* [[Everything's Better with Penguins]]: During the school campout, Kanji berates Yosuke for eating his animal crackers, during which the following exchange takes place:
{{quote|'''Kanji:''' Dammit, I was so pumped about finding the penguin today...
'''Yosuke:''' Penguin?
'''Kanji:''' The secret animal cracker! You were eating them and didn't know that!?
* [[Everything's Better with Spinning]]:
** Yosuke's follow up attack, where he'll spin with both weapons in hand.
** Teddie's follow up attack might also count.
** Averted with some of the Shadows
* [[Everything's Worse with Bears]]: Shadow Teddie.
* [[Evil Counterpart]]:
** Anyone who goes inside the world inside the TV will eventually face their Shadow, which is a personification of their darkest thoughts and fears. The Shadow will kill its source when enraged, either by the victim provoking it or when the fog appears in the real world.
** {{spoiler|Magatsu Izanagi, Adachi's persona
** {{spoiler|Adachi could count to the protagonist due to the fact that their English VA is the same
* [[Evil Debt Collector]]: The 2nd book of the Timid Teacher series deals with one.
* [[Expressive Mask]]: Teddie's mouth changes expressions, but doesn't move; the animated cutscenes show the lack of mouth movement isn't just a graphical quirk.
* [[Expy]]:
** The protagonist looks like, has a similar role to, and can often rather ''act'' like [[Digital Devil Saga|another certain silent protagonist in the same franchise]]. Given that ''
** More of the random classmates from ''Persona 3'' reappear, most obviously, the gossiping girl with the bag and her friend, and the green haired guy with an assault conviction.
** Naoto physically resembles Kuzonoha Raidou from ''[[Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the
** Junes is pretty much the local Wal-Mart.
* [[Extended Gameplay]]: Congratulations! You've solved the murders and now you get to enjoy the [[Playable Epilogue]] during the last day of the game. {{spoiler|It's a "[[Playable Epilogue]]" because it's the only chance you get to unlock the [[True Ending]] route and solve the game's last dangling plot threads}}.
* [[Extremity Extremist]]: Chie only fights with her feet, no arms are used. Even when summoning a Persona or defending.
* [[Eyes of Gold]]: Everyone's Shadows.
* [[Fake High]]: Rise and Yukiko get completely smashed at the dance club during the class trip... only for Naoto to reveal that the club doesn't even ''sell'' alcohol, being forbidden to do so due to a rise in drunk driving incidents the previous year.
* [[Fan Disservice]]:
** The Shadow versions of Rise, and Kanji exemplify this.
** Shadow Chie, a whip bearing dominatrix [[Schoolgirl Lesbians|sitting on a stack of school girls]] is no better.
** Hanako in the beauty pageant.
** Crossdressing Kanji anyone? Crossdressing Yosuke could count as well, depending on who you talk to.
**
* [[Fantasy Gun Control]]: Subverted. Most of the characters don't use guns, but that's because they're civilian teenagers in a country with tight gun control laws, so they aren't trained to use them regardless. Naoto, however, has a license to carry, being a detective and all, and uses various kinds of pistols in combat. Thing is, as both a minor and ''private'' investigator (not a police detective), it would be incredibly unlikely for Naoto to be able to get a gun in real-life Japan.
* [[Fast Forward Mechanic]]: There are time periods (i.e Evening, Afternoon) that can be skipped to.
* [[Father, I Want to Marry My Brother]]: See [[Childhood Marriage Promise]] above.
* [[Feminine Women Can Cook]]: Inverted
* [[Fetch Quest]]: Most sidequests fall under this category. They usually demand X number of some item found from specific enemies. It's needed to complete Fox's Social Link.
* [[Flanderization]]: Happens in-universe with the characters' Shadows, which reduce them to a single (and completely overblown) defining trait.
** ''Golden'' plays up a lot of the Investigation Team's quirks. Yosuke is more of a [[Butt Monkey|Butt-Monkey]], Chie's steak obsession is increased, and Yukiko and Kanji are more of [[The Ditz]] and [[Book Dumb]] respectively. Also, the frequency of Teddie's more unsettling, perverted tendencies is blown through the roof.
* [[Foil]]:
* [[Foreshadowing]]:
** The first time you see {{spoiler|Adachi, Dojima asks him how long he's going to act like a rookie. Key word: [[Obfuscating Stupidity|Act]]
** Perhaps the most delicate foreshadowing is reserved for {{spoiler|Izanami
* [[Four Is Death]]: When
* [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]: One of
* [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]: Much of the game's philosophical core seems to be Nietzschean in nature
* [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]:
** Even if you max Dojima's
** When you max out any of your party members, they never treat you differently than if you had remained rank 1 with them. If you reverse any of their
**
** If you wait long enough to start the Hanged Man Social Link, you still get the unnamed student worrying that Morooka will suspend him
* {{spoiler|[[The Dog Was the Mastermind|The Gas Station Attendant Was The Mastermind]]}}: {{spoiler|The genesis of all the events that occurred over the year was... That person working at the gas station who shook your hand on your first day in town? Justified in that Izanami really ''didn't'' do anything other than shake your hand and watch for the majority of the year, so there was little to no reason to suspect her
* [[Gender Bender]]:
* [[Genius Ditz]]: Yukiko consistently aces school exams, and yet manages to [[Running Gag|get the wrong end of the stick on more than one occasion]]
* [[Genre Busting]]: It's an RPG [[Urban Fantasy]] about saving the world and the true self and romance and horror and psychology and resolutions and with dating sim mechanics.
* [[Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!]]: Once their Social Links get high enough, your party members can actually do this to each other to "cure" certain status effects.
* [[Ghibli Hills]]:
* [[Giant Mook]]: The miniboss Shadows are essentially "upgraded" versions of the normal enemy Shadows.
* [[The Glasses Come Off]]:
* [[Goggles Do Something Unusual]]: The glasses Teddie makes can see through the fog inside the TV {{spoiler|and in Inaba}}.
* [[Going Through the Motions]]: Even though the game uses 3D models, a lot of the gestures wind up like this.
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** Mitsuo and his fish eyes.
** Morooka would probably fit the trope as well. That guy is in serious need of a dentist.
* [[Good Morning, Crono]]: More like "good evening" in this case. Every time you return home after a long day at school, Nanako will greet you in adorable, borderline [[Tastes Like Diabetes]] fashion.
* [[Gratuitous English]]: In the Japanese version.
{{quote|LOAD GAME: Former game data is read.
NEW GAME: Game is begun newly.
CONFIG: Various setup is performed.
** The soundtrack is predominantly in English. You'd be forgiven for not knowing that.
* [[Groin Attack]]:
** "Critical hit to the nads" indeed. This is usually Chie's preferred method of teaching Yosuke a lesson.
** {{spoiler|In the ''Persona 4'' [[Manga]], Chie's Shadow does this to Jiraiya, Yosuke's Persona, complete with both getting [[Blank White Eyes]]. Congrats, we now have a [[Running Gag]]
** {{spoiler|Once you hit a certain rank in Chie and Yukiko's
* [[Guide Dang It]]: While it's quite possible to realize the [[True Ending]] exists given
** The special fusions like Alice are hard to obtain unless you played the previous
** You cannot fight the most powerful Secret Boss in the game if you don't finish the Empress
* [[Guilt Based Gaming]]:
** Just go ahead and ''try'' not to save the victims in time and see what happens. ''Especially''
** Used to a much more comical effect when you eat Nanako's pudding in the fridge, even though the game technically rewards you for it
* [[Hair Color Dissonance]]: A decent amount of fanart has Naoto's hair as black because of this.
* [[Hannibal Lecture]]:
** The raison d'etre of the [[Shadow Archetype|Shadow Archetypes]]. Their existence is entirely based around deconstructing and showcasing the darker sides of their owners' personality. Unusually, the way to finally defeat them involves admitting that they're right, and not trying to deny them.
** The [[Big Bad]] also tries to give you one at the end of his dungeon. [[Shut UP, Hannibal|Naoto, Yukiko
* [[Hard Gay]]: Kanji's Shadow boss has a pair of these flanking it, as well as a embedding itself in a torso based on this, and surrounded by [[Bara|roses]]. The various Gigas enemies may count, especially the ones that resemble Hulk Hogan in rainbow tights.
* [[Hard Work Hardly Works]]: Averted when it comes to increasing your character's non-combat statistics. Before exams, you'll need to have studied quite regularly to get the most out of it.
* [[He Knows About Timed Hits]]: Lampshaded, it is implied that people think an [[NPC]] who mentions the square button is strange.▼
* [[Headphones Equal Isolation]]: Yosuke, although he wears them around his neck to show that he's not totally cut off from the world.
* [[Heads I Win, Tails You Lose]]: Lose to Shadow Rise, and it's [[Game Over]], but once you get its HP down to a certain amount, it does an [[Enemy Scan]] on your party and goes to a [[Cutscene]] where it blasts the crap out of you. Just when it's looking dire for the group, {{spoiler|Teddie rushes in and saves the day, and Rise does the usual thing}}. So everyone turns around to leave... But [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle|not so fast]]! {{spoiler|Teddie decides to take that moment to pay attention to your own ability to tell two different people two different things about life, and ''his'' Shadow manifests
* [[The Heartless]]: The Shadows.
* [[Heel Face Turn]]:
** After a character's [[Evil Counterpart]] is defeated, it becomes a Persona.
** Kanji himself, as he tries to reform his thuggish delinquent ways after joining the heroes.
{{quote|I'm gonna tear this place apart so fast you won't have time to file for the insurance! Wait... I mean... I'm gonna tear it apart and rebuild it twice as good! I-I'm gonna RENOVATE your ass!}}
**
▲* [[He Knows About Timed Hits]]: Lampshaded, it is implied that people think an [[NPC]] who mentions the square button is strange.
* [[Hello, Insert Name Here]]: The Protagonist is officially nameless, and has to be provided with one by you. During voiced cutscenes, other characters [[Only Known by Their Nickname|refer to him as "Senpai" (mentor), or sometimes "Leader"]]. The manga calls him Souji Seta while the anime and fighting game call him Yu Narukami.
* [[Heroic Second Wind]]: The
* [[Hidden Depths]]: Your party members if you follow their social links, particularly Kanji.
* [[High School]]: The game's main setting.
* [[Holding Hands]]: Probably unintentional, but the
* [[Honorifics]]
** [[Sempai-Kohai]]
* [[Hope Spot]]: {{spoiler|The [[True Final Boss]]. You're in the last leg of the fight, Izanami is at her last sliver of health, and an epic [[Theme Music Power-Up]] is playing in the background. Then Izanami goes "oh fuck this" and starts spamming an unavoidable [[One-Hit Kill]] attack.}}▼
* [[Hopeless Boss Fight]]: A dream sequence near the beginning of the game has you fighting someone (presumed to be the [[Big Bad]]); it lasts all of six turns before you wake up, the last three not even letting you hit the boss.
** Also occurs against
▲* [[Hope Spot]]: {{spoiler|The [[True Final Boss]]. You're in the last leg of the fight, Izanami is at her last sliver of health, and an epic [[Theme Music Power-Up]] is playing in the background. Then Izanami goes "oh fuck this" and starts spamming an unavoidable [[One-Hit Kill]] attack
* [[Hospital Hottie]]: [[Hello, Nurse!|Hello]], Sayoko!
* [[Hot-Blooded]]: If Kanji ever bled, it would eat through metal. '''''"BRING IT ON!"'''''▼
* [[Hot for Student]]: Ms. Kashiwagi's self-confidence is so completely down the toilet that this actually comes up at one point.
* [[Hot Shounen Mom|Hot Shounen Stepmother]]: Eri Minami.
▲* [[Hot-Blooded]]: If Kanji ever bled, it would eat through metal. '''''"BRING IT ON!"'''''
* [[How to Become a Love Interest]]: Just like ''Persona 3'', the majority of the love interests in this game tend to follow this formula:
** Chie: [[First Girl Wins]]
** Yukiko: [[Yamato Nadeshiko]].
** Rise: [[Heroes Want Redheads]].
** Ayane: [[Shrinking Violet]].
** Yumi: [[Damsel in Distress]].
** Ai: [[Tsundere]].
** Margaret:
**
**
* [[HP to One]]: The Death Arcana Chance does this to the party along with fully restoring the party's SP. The reversed card does the exact opposite. Either one teleports you out of the dungeon and resets the floors.
* [[Humanity on Trial]]: As revealed in
* [[Hyperactive Metabolism]]: Played straight, but with minimal effectiveness: food items do restore HP, but the restoration is so little (i.e. 25 HP from a Steak Croquette) that you're better off using medicinal items for that purpose.
** Played straight with the rare Tater Longs item, which restores all of a character's HP. However, it still can't be eaten during combat.
* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: After {{spoiler|Morooka is murdered}}, it is revealed through gossiping classmates that {{spoiler|despite complaining about how his students are apparently obsessed with getting laid, he ''still'' takes the time to [[Dirty Old Man|buy Rise's pinup books
* [[I Always Wanted to Say That]]: Adachi says something like this after arresting a stalker of Rise's.
* [[I Never Said It Was Poison]]: This trope, both inverted and played straight, is what ends up revealing {{spoiler|Adachi}}. The characters have no evidence at all when they first confront {{spoiler|him; he's just the only person they can think of who interacted with both of the initial victims, could have left the warning notes at the Dojima house, and would not have been noticed as suspicious regarding either of these. Once they start asking questions about his behavior, however, inconsistencies start popping up, first when he plays dumb and claims not to know or remember things he ''should'' know about, such as the threatening letter that got the player character into trouble with Dojima - and then when Dojima starts tearing into him over that, Adachi gets angry enough that he inadvertently describes the victims being "put in [to the TV]," a phrase that only the Investigation Team and the killer would have any reason to use}}.▼
* [[Idiot Ball]]: Dojima and [[Plot Induced Stupidity|the protagonist]] pass it back and forth a few times in one scene, which directly leads to {{spoiler|Nanako getting kidnapped}}.
* [[Improbable Age]]: Nanako is ''six years old''. Yes, the girl who's home alone more often than not, AND does all the laundry, AND does all the grocery shopping. [[Parental Abandonment]] really does wonders for one's independance.
* [[Improbable Weapon User]]: Most of the weapons in the game are fairly realistic: the Protagonist favors "two-handed weapons", which are usually swords (although early in the game can be slightly more esoteric things like [[Golf Clubbing|golf clubs]] or [[Batter Up|baseball bats]]); Yosuke [[Dual-Wielding|dual-wields]] [[Knife Nut|knives]]; Chie using [[Armed Legs|"shoes and shinguards"]] may seem odd at first but given that she's an accomplished martial artist it makes sense; Teddie uses [[Wolverine Claws|claws]] built into his suit; Naoto favors pistols. Yukiko and Kanji, however...
** Yukiko uses ''[[Paper Fan of Doom|hand-fans]]'', of the traditional [[wikipedia:Hand fan|hiogi]] type, exclusively as her weapons; most of these aren't even of the "iron fan" variety (one early one you can get for her is basically made out of ''peacock feathers''<ref> And you will likely keep this one as it adds 50 SP for your main healer, a wonderful deal.</ref>), and yet they have as much base damage as any other weapon type. Only her fairly abysmal strength score prevents Yukiko from hitting as hard as melee heavies like Kanji or Chie
** Speaking of Kanji, his weapon of choice is a "[[Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me|shield]]", or a large, wide, blunt weapon. This is already fairly unusual (using a shield as a weapon isn't totally unheard of, but using it as a ''primary'' weapon is), but early on... metal shields aren't available. This means that Kanji will use whatever large and flat objects he can lay hold of as a weapon... including ''folding chairs'' and ''desks at his school''. This gets particularly hilarious in light of the fact that, technically, the heroes are supposed to be using their school uniforms to conceal the weapons and armor that would otherwise get them arrested... so how is Kanji concealing a ''desk''?
** Honorable mention also goes out to Teddie's ''initial Persona''. [[wikipedia:Kintoki|Kintoki-douji]] is traditionally depicted as using a tomahawk. Wellllll... Teddie's Persona has one too, [[wikipedia:BGM-109 Tomahawk|but we don't mean the hand-held hatchet variety, either
* [[Improvised Weapon]]: Except for Naoto, everyone's starting weapon is this (Kanji's entire fighting style revolves around this). Some of the later weapons are this as well (such as a titanium golf club for the protagonist).
* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: Not even Yukiko finds Teddie's bear puns funny, and she's the type to go into a laughing fit over any joke.
▲* [[I Never Said It Was Poison]]: This trope, both inverted and played straight, is what ends up revealing {{spoiler|Adachi}}. The characters have no evidence at all when they first confront {{spoiler|him; he's just the only person they can think of who interacted with both of the initial victims, could have left the warning notes at the Dojima house, and would not have been noticed as suspicious regarding either of these. Once they start asking questions about his behavior, however, inconsistencies start popping up, first when he plays dumb and claims not to know or remember things he ''should'' know about, such as the threatening letter that got the player character into trouble with Dojima
* [[Inexplicable Treasure Chests]]: And how!
* [[Infallible Babble]]: [[Zig Zagged]]: it's rumoured that the Midnight Channel appears at midnight when it's raining (which is usually true), and shows you your "soulmate" (which isn't
* [[Infant Immortality]]: Played straight in all except the worst possible variation of the bad ending.
* [[Inn Security]]: [[Averted]] for the most part: you sleep in your own house (''most'' of the time) and a fairly trustworthy fox provides healing services in the dungeon proper (for an outrageous price, which becomes less outrageous as you build your link with him).
* [[Instant Runes]]: Light ("Hama") and Darkness ("Mudo") skills utilize this.
* [[Interface Spoiler]]:
**
**
**
* [[Intoxication Ensues]]: During the school trip
* [[Invocation]]: The protagonists will sometimes call the names of their Personas before Evoking them complete with an [[Eyedscreen]] [[Super Move Portrait Attack|cut-in]]: when this happens, you know you hit the weakness of or landed a critical hit on at least one enemy.
* [[It Makes Sense in Context]]: ''Reach Out to the Truth''.
* [[It Was a Dark and Stormy Night]]: The Midnight Channel only comes on these. So do the murders. {{spoiler|And the gas station attendant only shows up in the rain.}} Hmm...▼
* [[It's a Wonderful Failure]]: Can get some fairly interesting ones by not saving victims before the fog rolls in. Not catching the killer leads to a particularly disturbing one, where Naoto calls you to warn Shadows are invading the real world, only to stop mid sentence and start screaming.
** All of the [[Bad
* [[It's Personal]]: Oh boy, ''where'' do we start? The best example is
** Yosuke makes a big deal about his beloved Saki-senpai and why she had to die whenever the murders come up.
▲* [[It Was a Dark and Stormy Night]]: The Midnight Channel only comes on these. So do the murders.
* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]:▼
** Kanji.▼
** As is Shu. Initially, he seems like a proto-[[Insufferable Genius]], but after working with him, he soon shows a much more compassionate and trusting side.▼
** Ai Ebihara. Hate her for being a [[Tsundere]] that's ''astoundingly'' heavy on the "Tsun". Then [[The Woobie|max her S-Link beyond level six]] and [[You Bastard|hate yourself]].▼
* [[Jerkass]]:
** Morooka. King Moron ''indeed''.
** Yosuke dips into this category occasionally throughout the game, especially during {{spoiler|the confrontation with Namatame}}, but for the most part, he can more accurately described as a [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]. Really, it comes with being a teenager. A good example is his reaction to just how bad the curry is on the school camping trip, which leads to him being a bit of a [[Base Breaker]].
** {{spoiler|Adachi. That is all
** Maybe subverted with the
** Chie in the anime due to [[Flanderization]]. They basically took away her good qualities and made her into a blackmailing short tempered [[Jerkass]] who abuses Yosuke over every little thing, yet happily accepts Yu's [[Covert Pervert]] moments.
▲* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]:
* [[Johnny Yong Bosch]]: It's from Japan, it has at least one male character between 15 and 30 years old, he's required by physics to be involved. (Adachi and the Protagonist)▼
▲** Kanji.
* [[Just a Kid]]: {{spoiler|Naoto's Shadow berates her}} with a rant to this effect. Also, {{spoiler|Adachi tells the protagonists}} that "Students should stay home and study."▼
▲** As is Shu. Initially, he seems like a proto-[[Insufferable Genius]], but after working with him, he soon shows a much more compassionate and trusting side.
* [[Just for Pun]]: An item named 'Goho-M' will instantly transport your party from the dungeon back to the entrance area. At first glance, it appears to just be another strangely named item in the game with some roots still stuck in the original Japanese (see Woolseyism on the YMMV tab), however, it can also be read as 'go ho-M', or 'Go Home'.▼
▲** Ai Ebihara. Hate her for being a [[Tsundere]] that's ''astoundingly'' heavy on the "Tsun". Then [[The Woobie|max her
▲* [[Johnny Yong Bosch]]: It's from Japan, it has at least one male character between 15 and 30 years old, he's required by physics to be involved
▲* [[Just a Kid]]:
▲* [[Just for Pun]]: An item named 'Goho-M' will instantly transport your party from the dungeon back to the entrance area. At first glance, it appears to just be another strangely named item in the game with some roots still stuck in the original Japanese (see Woolseyism on the YMMV tab)
* [[Karma Houdini]]:
**
** A more light hearted example, ''the girls'' during the [[Breather Episode]].
** {{spoiler|Your party}} is a subversion if you chose to {{spoiler|throw Namatame into the TV, what with the whole ''[[Instrumentality]]'' thing and all}}.
** The mother of the bratty kid in
** The driver of the hit-and-run that killed Nanako's mother, given that it was likely a tourist who's long since left Inaba and there were no witnesses, it seems unlikely he or she will ever get caught.
* [[Keep It Foreign]]: In the Japanese version. One of your available reactions to {{spoiler|Teddie's human form after the girls dressed him up}} is 'brilliant', said in English. In the English version it's 'Ces't Magnifique'.
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* [[Large Ham]]:
** MC, the [[Funny Afro|pink-afro wearing]] announcer of the culture festival.
** The Shadow Selves, especially Yukiko and Naoto. One teacher even asks the class if they know where the term "ham" originated from
*** Except Shadow Teddie. This does not reduce his creepy factor in the slightest.
* [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]]: There's a bit during Rise's Social Link where her ex-manager says something about how "the cult of personality" controls one's life and schedule. [[Lampshade Hanging|No kidding...]]
** The first non-voice acted line in the game (outside of battle) is Morooka shouting, "Be quiet, you idiots!".
* [[Left Hanging]]: [[Epileptic Trees]] aside, the Good and True endings to the game seem to do this ''quite deliberately'' for a couple plot points, which is what ''leads'' to so many shaking branches in the first place.
** The True ending isn't that bad about it.
** It is implied that the world has always existed. {{spoiler|Considering it lies in people's hearts, it probably is true
▲* [[
* [[Lestrade]]: Adachi is responsible for much of your knowledge about the police investigation of the case {{spoiler|and he's the guy who did it, using this information to mislead you}}. Ryoutarou Dojima is in a position this would be expected from, but is not an example.▼
▲** Feed it to the cat during the quest "Cat Needs Food Badly", and you can clear the quest with only four feedings
* [[Let Us Never Speak of This Again]]: After the disastrous school camping trip comes up in a conversation, Kanji says something along the lines of "I thought we agreed never to talk about that."▼
▲* [[Lestrade]]: Adachi is responsible for much of your knowledge about the police investigation of the case, {{spoiler|and he's the guy who did it, using this information to mislead you}}. Ryoutarou Dojima is in a position this would be expected from, but is not an example.
* [[Lethal Chef]]:
** Chie, Rise
** Yet another lethal chef can be found outside the Dojima residence on some days, and will give you her creations (bait).
* [[Let's Play]]:
** Watch in wonder at the [http://www.giantbomb.com/endurance-run-persona-4-part-01/17-219/ people of] [[Giant Bomb]] in [[Hello, Insert Name Here|Charlie Tunoku's]] journey to the truth (and the [[Epic Fail|various ways they manage to screw up]]).
** For a more traditional Screenshot [[Let's Play]], there's [http://lparchive.org/Persona-4/ The Road to Yomi is Paved with Good Intentions], by [[Something Awful]] Member Feinne. Very similar in style to [[My Life Is a Goddamn Mess]].
** For those with a [[Nico Nico Douga|Nico Nico]] account, There's にきろちゃん's<ref>Nikiro-chan</ref> [
▲* [[Let Us Never Speak of This Again]]: After the disastrous school camping trip comes up in a conversation, Kanji says something along the lines of "I thought we agreed never to talk about that."
* [[Level Up At Intimacy 5]]: The Social Link system returns
* [[Lighter and Softer]]: Compared to the rest of the
* [[Limit Break]]: The supporting characters' follow-up attacks:
** Yosuke, Yukiko
** Kanji and Naoto multi-target 1-3 enemies to critical hit.
** Chie just [[A Twinkle in the Sky|kicks them]] [[One-Hit Kill|out of the battle]], which works on any non-boss enemy.
* [[Limited Wardrobe]]: Subverted in town, where PCs wear a variety of seasonal clothing, but played straight in battle. The latter is [[Hand Wave|supposedly explained]] by the need to conceal their equipment under their school uniforms.
* [[Locked Out of the Loop]]: Naoto. Deconstructed in that
** Dojima as well, though he has his suspicions.
* [[Lonely Rich Kid]]: Yukiko was this until she became friends with Chie. Naoto also has elements of this, but gets better after joining the investigation squad, especially if you complete the Fortune
* [[Loners Are Freaks]]: Mitsuo Kubo, a somewhat [[Gonk|Gonkish]] loner {{spoiler|who wanted attention ends up becoming a [[Red Herring|copycat killer]]
* [[Lost in Translation]]: The Personas used to fuse {{spoiler|Izanagi-No-Okami}} are fairly random and unrelated, but the first kana of each from each one top to bottom reads "create {{spoiler|Izanagi-no-Okami}}"
* [[Love Hotels]]: Ms. Kashiwagi rents rooms at one (the one from the [[Persona 3|Hierophant and Lovers battles no less]]) for the class trip. Deliberately, as far as we can tell.
* [[Luminescent Blush]]
* [[Magic Skirt]]: Subverted
* [[Male Gaze]]: When Shadow Rise first appears on the Midnight Channel, the camera focuses on her chest and thighs, with the game commenting that you can't even see her face. Could also apply to Shadow Yukiko's intro. This point gets driven home later, when you learn that in the absence of a victim, {{spoiler|the Midnight Channel simply shows whatever the public consciousness is thinking of, with the clarity tailored to each viewer. Not only is her figure apparently of immense interest to the folks of Inaba, but they're even exaggerated. At first, Rise doesn't think it's her because her breasts really aren't that big
* [[Man Behind the Man]]:
* [[Market-Based Title]]: ''Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4'' outside of Japan, for the initial release.
* [[Masochist's Meal]]:
** Mystery Food X and pretty much anything the girls cook {{spoiler|until the end of the game
** The Protagonist can also eat Nanako's science project, [[I Ate What?|which is a pot of grass
** There is a bag of wasabi in the fridge. ...
* [[Mega Corp]]: The Junes Department Store.
** Subverted. Not only is it just an ordinary department store, Yosuke is the son of the manager. In fact, it is actually DOWNRIGHT HELPFUL at times. Its TV section serves as the gateway into the TV world while the food court is their meeting place. It also provides a place for Teddie to work in since he would stand out in the bear costume.
** Played straight in the opinion of many Inaba citizens, especially those whose family stores are closed by Junes' presence. The vast majority of the shopping district is boarded up closed shops that presumably went out of business thanks to Junes.
* [[Meganekko]]: The cast visits Gekkoukan High School, on Port Island, where they are greeted by Chihiro from ''Persona 3''. She's had two years in which to shed her [[Moe Moe|moe traits]] in exchange for [[Nerds Are Sexy|being almost as hot as Tina Fey]]. Also, technically, all your female party members since they wear attractive glasses inside the TV.
** The [[Fighting Game]] spin-off/sequel ''the Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena'' gives you the option to put glasses on everyone.
* [[Megaton Punch]]: Chie's follow-up attack. Of course, it's more like a Megaton Kick, but the enemy [[A Twinkle in the Sky|goes flying]] either way.
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* [[Mirror Boss]]:
** Since the Shadows are based off of the protagonists' innermost feelings, they tend to have similar fighting styles to them.
** {{spoiler|Adachi fights by summoning a Persona, just like the main characters
** {{spoiler|The [[Bonus Boss]]}} is also an example, having even more similarity to the players method of fighting, including the protagonist's Wild Card.
* [[Missing Mom]]: Nanako's mother died in an accident.
* [[Modesty Shorts]]: Chie wears bike shorts under her skirt
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: This is easily one of the most cheerful games centered around murder.
**
** [[Lighter and Softer]]: ''Persona 4'' is ''extremely'' optimistic and upbeat for a ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' game. It even {{spoiler|has ''two'' happy endings. The Normal Ending is quite cheerful itself; it is only detracted if one bothers themselves with [[Fridge Logic
** [[Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism]]: For a game centered around murder, this game takes the scale and slams it hard against the idealism end.
* [[Moon Logic Puzzle]]: The hints about the [[Good Ending]] are only (relatively) easy to pick up if you're [[Genre Savvy]], or have it spoiled for you. The [[True Ending]]... yeah, have fun with that.
* [[Multiple Endings]]: The are a few [[Bad
* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]:
* [[My Name Is Inigo Montoya]]:
* [[Mythology Gag]]:
** The Persona Alice is created by fusing Belial and Nebiros. This is a reference to the original ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'', in which the demons Belial and Nebiros summoned Alice for their own designs. Similarly, Ardha is fused via Shiva and Parvati, a reference to ''[[Digital Devil Saga]]''
** [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/c/c9/YukikoP4.jpg Yukiko] seems to resemble the old, SNES-
** There are references, both subtle and not-so-subtle, to several
*** Agni is Heat's Demon Form in ''[[Digital Devil Saga]]''.
*** Two students talking about how turning into a demon {{spoiler|which happens if you fail to complete the current dungeon in time}} might be cool can be taken as a ''[[Shin Megami Tensei
** The protagonist has a ''Persona 3'' calendar on the wall in his room.
** The appearance of Magatsu {{spoiler|Izanagi}} looks like the berserk starving demons of ''[[Digital Devil Saga]]''.
*** It also seems to be a reference to the enemy used "Reverse" Personas featured in ''[[Persona 2]]''.
** Right before Naoto's dungeon, the
** Minato's Persona from ''Persona 3'' was Orpheus, Seta's Persona in ''Persona 4'' is Izanagi. These two share a similar story: they both went to the underworld to rescue their lover from the clutches of death, but had to leave them behind. Orpheus screwed up and lost his lover, but Izanagi actually ''left'' Izanami in the underworld after he realized she was all rotted from spending too much time in the [[Death World]]. "Learning when to let go" is a big part of "Facing the Truth", which is ''Persona 4''
** In the instruction manual of the American version, the protagonist is named [[Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army|Raidou Kuzunoha
** Another nod to ''[[Digital Devil Saga]]'', one of the drinks you can get from a vending machine is ''Cielo Mist''.
** One of Teddie's weapons is the "[[Persona 3|Strega]] Claw
** In ''Golden'', one of the costumes you can equip is the Gekkoukan High School uniform. Your party members not only imitate the end-battle poses of SEES, but even their end-battle quotes.
** A new event in ''Golden'' involves the protagonist, Yosuke
* [[New Age Retro Hippie]]: {{spoiler|Kunino-sagiri}} wears a shirt with a heart and the peace sign on it, and is supported in the air by a gigantic peace sign wrapped around its head. Doesn't help that he looks a thousand bloody years old.
* [[New Game+]]: Allows you to carry over the Persona Compendium, your characteristics
* [[Next Sunday A.D.]]: The game was released in 2008 (or 2009 if you're European) and takes place in 2011-12.
* [[Nice Hat]]: Naoto is rarely ever seen without a blue policeman/cabbie hat. Fans have theorized that it
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]:
** Generally speaking, Shadows want to be accepted by their owners. At the same time, it's part of their nature to expose their owners' faults for all to see, which leads to their owners violently rejecting them and their going berserk, ultimately killing the person in question if left unchecked.
* [[Nintendo Hard]]: A hallmark of the series. ''Persona 3'' was difficult, moreso in the updated re-release, but complaints about some easier parts of it lead the developers to jack the difficulty of ''Persona 4'' [[Up to Eleven|up to]] '''[[Up to Eleven|12]]'''. Of course, they also gave you a bunch of tools to make it easier, too. Party members are now directly controllable, the [[Nonstandard Game Over]] condition is much more forgiving than ''Persona 3'''s (if you weren't ready for a Full Moon Shadow, you were roadblocked if you saved over your file - if you fail the rescue, you can flash back a week and try again).
* [[No Pronunciation Guide]]: Averted, unlike ''Persona 3'', social link characters will have a handy voice over when they first say their name.▼
* [[Nominal Importance]]: At the climax of the story, the game will ask you directly who the killer is and then provide you with a list of every single named person in the game to choose from. The killer is on that list somewhere.
** Subverted heavily in the {{spoiler|true}} ending, where it's revealed that
* [[Nonstandard Game Over]]: If you fail to rescue someone, there'll be an event where one of your party members calls you, telling you that said person is [[Killed Off for Real|now dead]] {{spoiler|(except for the last deadline: Naoto calls, warning you that [[Oh Crap|Shadows are appearing in the real world]]
▲* [[No Pronunciation Guide]]: Averted
* [[Nosebleed]]: Kanji gets one of these during the swimsuit scene.
* [[Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here]]: Inaba before the main character arrives. Town residents will bemoan their boring lives. Some even get excited that horrible things are happening
* [[Not What It Looks Like]] - A meta-example - One FAQ for ''Persona 4'' laid the games conversation choices out with only the lead in question. The last question for Yukiko's girlfirend social link, the point where they're in an intimate relationship, was given solely as "So.....the couch, or the futon?". Play through it, and they're just sitting.▼
▲* [[Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here]]: Inaba before the main character arrives. Town residents will bemoan their boring lives. Some even get excited that horrible things are happening, because at least it's ''something'' worth talking about.
▲* [[Not What It Looks Like]]
▲** {{spoiler|Yosuke's [[Call to Adventure]] is this.}}
* [[Older Than They Look]]: Ayane Matsunaga, one of the two options for the Sun
* [[Ominous Fog]]: When the fog comes, someone's going to show up dead, unless you intervene. {{spoiler|And even then, it's a crapshoot. Later becomes permanent, with your characters realizing it's the fog from the TV world
* [[One Steve Limit]]: Averted with a character and a ''place'' -- Kanji Tatsumi and Tatsumi Port Island (the location of ''[[Persona 3]]'', which is visited during the game).▼
** In Japanese they're spelled with different characters, but their readings are the same, so they appear the same in the English version.▼
* [[One-Hit Kill]]: Hama and Mudo series. Of course, they are capable of missing like many others in RPGs. However, if an enemy is ''weak'' to light or darkness, Hama and Mudo will almost always hit it.
** And note that your protagonist can have such a weakness, creating a [[We Cannot Go on Without You|risk of instant game over
▲* [[One Steve Limit]]: Averted with a character and a ''place''
* [[One-Winged Angel]]: {{spoiler|Adachi}} and {{spoiler|Namatame}} both do this. {{spoiler|Izanami also does this when you reveal her true form--a skeletal, maggot and filth-ridden corpse, just like in the legend that Edogawa told you during the class trip.}}▼
▲** In Japanese, they're spelled with different characters, but their readings are the same, so they appear the same in the English version.
* [[Optional Sexual Encounter]]: At the end of the Christmas date, your girlfriend decides to spend the night and the screen fades to black. Followed by suggestive text. You could also make an argument that maxing any of the social links with a girl you've chosen to date leads to this. She asks to come to your bedroom, the two of you exchange words, and then it fades to black with the words 'You spent a long time with '''Insert Girl Here''''. The thing is, most of these conversations end with your arms wrapped around the girl in question while you're sitting alone together in your bedroom, so one is forced to wonder what you spent such a long time doing...▼
▲* [[One-Winged Angel]]:
▲* [[Optional Sexual Encounter]]: At the end of the Christmas date, your girlfriend decides to spend the night and the screen fades to black. Followed by suggestive text. You could also make an argument that maxing any of the
* [[Painting the Fourth Wall]]/[[No Fourth Wall]]:
**
** A more straight version is Yosuke muttering that he's insulted that he thinks of game characters this way. More likely, however, that he's saying it's insulting that
** Or on a return visit to that dungeon, adding Yosuke to your team results in him saying "Yosuke joined your party! ...
** Adachi at one point says
* [[Panthera Awesome]]: One of the
* [[Panty Shot]]: Ishtar, the last
* [[Parasol of Prettiness]]: Yukiko in the intro.
* [[Parental Abandonment]]:
** The Protagonist is forced to move to Inaba for the next year because his parents went to work overseas. The manga takes this ''even further'' by implying he's being moving to all different places ''his entire life''. Goes into [[Parental Neglect]], when you think about it. He's there for an entire year, and he ''never'' contacts his parents, and they never contact him.
** Then there's Nanako, who does all the housework and practically lives by herself because of her father's habit of constantly being called into work, and her mother's habit of being dead. And to rub it in, {{spoiler|he ends up severely injured and doesn't make it in time to see Nanako die
* [[Playable Epilogue]]: The normal ending. {{spoiler|Getting the true ending subverts this as it requires you to realize that the last day is only presented as a playable epilogue and that the game isn't over yet}}.
* [[Plucky Comic Relief]]: Officially, it's Teddie. In practice, ''everyone'' fills this role at one point or another.
* [[Police Are Useless]]: But not incompetent. Dojima catches all the major plot turns: your involvement, the way the victims are selected,
** Part of that was in-universe [[Executive Meddling]]
* [[Potty Emergency]]: When the party first explores the TV
* [[Power Floats]]:
* [[The Power of Friendship]]: The Social Link system: the main character can form relationships called Social Links with significant people. Each one is associated with [[Tarot Motifs|one of the Major Arcana]] and will power up Persona of the matching Tarot class when fused in the Velvet Room. Some of the tarots have more than one person associated with them, and you have to pick one over the other. In addition, each party member has an
* [[Power Trio]]:
** [[Three Amigos]]: The main character, Chie
** [[Freudian Trio]]: Late in the game,
* [[Preexisting Encounters]]: Returning from ''[[Persona 3]]'' intact (because it's the same engine).
* [[Prolonged Prologue]]: The game takes a good three hours to establish the plot and the characters.<ref> And during that time, you can only skip about a minute of cutscenes and can't move until even
* [[Properly Paranoid]]: Mr. Morooka assumes all of his students are horny bastards whose sole motivation is to get it on with members of the opposite sex. In the case of the main character, you are free to live down to his expectations. Yosuke isn't that far off either, and neither is at least one male student NPC.
* [[Psychological Torment Zone]]: The TV world.
Line 517:
* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Every Arch-Shadow gives one of these, overlaps with a [[Hannibal Lecture]].
* [[Red Herring]]:
** It wouldn't be a proper murder mystery without 'em.
** The biggest one is probably the mysterious figure in the fog that the game cuts to everytime a death is prevented making vague remarks how things aren't going to plan. Of the two "culprits" in the game, the stuff the person says relates to neither of their motives meaning it's either someone totally unrelated to the murder plot or a third party that the game never goes into.
** The Junes department store is not particularly popular for running smaller stores out of business, and their theme seems to be brainwashing Nanako, but it's harmless.
* [[Relationship Upgrade]]: Unlike ''Persona 3'', you can choose to do this with any, [[Your Cheating Heart|or all]], [[Celibate Hero|or none]], of the potential [[Love Interests]]. Some require more work into making this than others.
* [[Relationship Values]]: Cultivating your Social Links allows you to make better Personas.
* [[Remonstrating with a Gun]]: Yosuke does a variant of this early in the game. After offering the main character a choice between a long sword and a dagger, Yosuke gets it into his head that he should use both, and tries a few moves. A cop sees him, and moves in to arrest Yosuke. Yosuke tries to explain himself, while still flailing about with his weapons. He and the main character end up being arrested.
* [[Retraux]]: Void Quest, in all its self-referential, ''Dragon Warrior I'' splendor. Repeatedly [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]], and Yosuke [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|breaks the fourth wall]] if you take him into the big boss fight.
* [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]]: [[Your Mileage May Vary|For some]], Teddie is the definition of this! Just READ the trope page, it's like it's describing him on purpose.
* [[Romantic Two-Girl Friendship]]: Chie and Yukiko could count, given the whole "Chie is my prince" scenario and their (perceived) dependence on each other.
* [[Room Full of Crazy]]: When the characters first enter the TV world, they run into one. Near the end of the game, it's revealed that
* [[Running Gag]]:
** Most notably Yosuke [[Butt Monkey|getting owned]] every three cutscenes.
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** The protagonist has '[[Only Sane Man|Calm down]].' show up more than anything else in his [[Dialogue Tree|dialogue trees]]. 'Calm the hell down!' is a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].
* [[Sacrificial Lamb]]: Saki Konishi, whom Yosuke has a crush on; she ends up becoming the second murder victim, which makes it [[It's Personal|quite personal]] for him.
* [[Sadist Teacher]]: Kinshiro "King Moron" Morooka, the brutally conservative [[Jerkass]] who is convinced that kids are all horny troublemakers and that the New Kid (you) is nothing but trouble as someone from the city. He also goes so far as to state that the deaths of the first two victims were their own fault. In front of a class of teenagers who probably knew one of the victims. Why exactly did it take so long for
* [[Sarashi]]: You can make an argument for Chie when she trains. But this trope is awarded to
* [[Sarcastic Clapping]]:
* [[Say My Name]]: {{spoiler|NANAKOOOOOO
* [[Scary Shiny Glasses]]: The Protagonist does this when he first summons his Persona
* [[School Idol]]: Yukiko appears to be one, and Naoto even makes the local news as the "Detective Prince". Rise as well, although it helps that she's also [[Idol Singer|the other kind of idol
* [[School Uniforms Are the New Black]]: An attempted [[Justification]] is made by Chie suggesting they hide their weapons under them so they are not arrested. Whether this works for you depends on [[Fridge Logic|how hard you think about it]].
** Especially unconvincing since not a single main character wears the uniform properly, biggest culprits being Yukiko wearing a red jacket over her uniform and, ironically, Chie herself, with a huge green jacket over any top she may be wearing
** It's not that hard of a stretch because most of the team wield weapons that ''could'' be easily hidden under their clothes (small knives/wrenches, fans, guns
* [[Schrödinger's Gun]]: All the little differences between the game's [[Multiple Endings]], but perhaps the most prominent of which is
* [[Scripted Battle]]: The end of the battles with {{spoiler|Shadow Rise}} and {{spoiler|Izanami-no-Okami}}.
* [[Sexophone]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sjupBpazbQ "Muscle Blues
* [[Shadow Archetype]]: One of the more impressive things about this game is that the Shadows [[Shown Their Work|follow the Jungian model
* [[She Is Not My Girlfriend]]: Happens a couple of times to Yosuke and Chie. A bit subverted in that it is entirely possible for the Protagonist to ''make the assertion true''... unless Chie is all for [[Tenchi Solution|polygamy]], anyway.
* [[Shielded Core Boss]]: Shadow Mitsuo of the
** Though once you destroy the shell, Shadow Mitsuo is knocked down, allowing you to issue an All-Out Attack.
* [[Shipper on Deck]]:
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** The Protagonist himself is given the option to ship Kanji/Naoto.
* [[Shoot the Medic First]]: Frequently a viable strategy, especially against the bosses who come with minions. On the flip side, if all four of your party members can heal...
**
** Works for the enemies too. All of your party members' evolved Personas gain an elemental immunity and lose an elemental weakness, except for Yukiko and Teddie, who only gain the immunity. Their particularity is that they're the only ones who learn the Dia (single healing) and Media (party healing) family of spells, revive spells and status removal spells. Which means that they're the only ones who can get the Downed status through elemental attacks, when later bosses tend to [[Artificial Brilliance|exploit weaknesses when they discover them
* [[Shorttank]]: Chie definitely fits the archetype.
* [[Shout-Out]]:
** After blatantly and repeatedly propositioning the player character, Sayoko offers to pour him a cup of [[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas|hot coffee
** The entire Void Quest dungeon is a shout out to ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' and retro [[JRPG]]S in general. The boss uses the very first ''[[Megami Tensei]]'' battle screen for several attacks, and some of the text that pops up as you progress through the dungeon is directly taken from the first ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' game.
*** One specific shout out occurs when you beat the bonus boss of said dungoen, a pile of bones in the boss lair, when examined "No response. It must be a tile, not an object" alluding to the recurring ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' line "No response. Looks like a corpse."
*** If you return to the Void Quest dungeon later when you are meant to rescue {{spoiler|Nanako}}, Yosuke will make a comment about [[Super Mario Bros.|their princess being in another castle
** Let's not forget the Persona [[Ghost Rider|Hell Biker]]. Its Japanese name is Hell's Angel, which makes it a double [[Shout-Out]].
** Also in the US version, one of Chie's winning quotes is taken from [[Bruce Lee]]'s ''Enter The Dragon'': "Don't think. Feel." Given her love of martial arts films, this is an example in universe. Not to mention that her Persona
** One of Naoto's weapons is called [[Flowers for Algernon|Algernon
** One of the game's healing items is [[Trauma Center|Antibiotic Gel]].
** There was no way that someone at Atlus wasn't thinking ''[[God Hand]]'' with Chie's Galactic Punt follow on technique and her God's Hand move.
** Your friends from the sports teams, Daisuke and Kou, belong to the soccer team and the basketball team, respectively. Both in looks and attitude, they are shout outs to popular sports anime: Daisuke resembles Kyosuke Kano of ''Hungry Heart: Wild Striker'', and Kou resembles Kaede Rukawa of ''[[Slam Dunk]]''.
*** While maybe unintentional, the duo's names are similar to Ken Ichijouji and Daisuke Motomiya from ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'', who also two soccer-playing friends. Ken and Kou even slightly resemble each other.
** At one point, Yosuke comments on something giving him [[Homestar Runner|the jibblies
** Even if Yosuke saying 'it's like he's holding a gun to our heads' wasn't an intentional reference to ''Persona 3'', it could be seen as one. Especially considering it happened at about the same point in the story as, in ''Persona 3'', Junpei said 'nobody believes rumors anyway'.
** Even if it wasn't intentional, ''[[Silent Hill]]'' tends to come to mind when it starts snowing {{spoiler|after the fog begins to persist}}.
** Speaking of
*** The voice actor of Hisano Kuroda, the old woman from the Death Arcana, is voiced by [[Mary Elizabeth
*** {{spoiler|[[The Mist|...not to mention another story that has to do with a mysterious fog that may or may not have monsters lurking in it
** The
*** In that same contest, Kanji dresses up as [[Marilyn Monroe]] in ''The Seven Year Itch''.
** When preparing for the omlette cooking, Yosuke begs the
** ''Witch Detective'', [[Guide Dang It|a hard to obtain]] book, is an obvious reference to ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]''.
** ''The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena'' has recently confirmed Teddie as a playable character... wearing [[Street Fighter|M. Bison's]] signature hat and cape. Thus the fan nickname.
** Also in the fighting game, [[Actor Allusion]] included, one of Kanji's grab super had Take-Mikazuchi corner the opponent in a [[Face Palm of Doom]], as if executing the famous '''[[G Gundam|SHINING FINGER]]'''
** In episode 5 of the anime, listen closely to Yu's ringtone when Ai calls him
* [[Show Within a Show]]: ''[[Persona 2|Phoenix Ranger Featherman R]]'' returns [[Persona 2|yet]] [[Persona 3|again]]! You will often find Nanako watching it downstairs --[[Continuity Nod|when else?]]-- on Sundays. Yuuta also becomes a fan during the Temperance
** Witch Detective Loveline, one of the books you can get in the game, becomes a show in ''Persona 4: The Animation'' and is Nanako's favorite.
* [[Shut UP, Hannibal]]:
** "''You're not me!''" [[One-Winged Angel|It never ends well]].
** "'Favored by the world' my ass, I'm gonna say it flat out. '''You're just a worthless criminal!'''" - Yosuke
*** Also in the same scene:
*** Chie: "Nobody wants anything like that! It's just you, dumbass!"
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*** Rise: "That's complete BS!"
*** Naoto: "Your twisted logic is like that of an immature, egotistic brat!"
* [[Single-Issue Psychology]]: While the game doesn't fall ''totally'' into this trap (as the
** It also helps that they're not necessarily accepting their dark side; just accepting that it exists. None of them really come to terms with it until you complete their
* [[Skinship Grope]]:
* [[Slice of Life]]: The game takes a page from this genre and defaults to this for [[Character Development]] during the breather scenes.
* [[Small Town Boredom]]: {{spoiler|Part of the reason Adachi causes the murders}}. It is also part of the
* [[Specs of Awesome]]: Every character with a Persona.
* [[Spit Take]]: The reaction to Mystery Food X from both you and Yosuke.
* [[Strip Club]]: Rise's dungeon is modeled after a strip club, and features many female-shaped monsters who move suggestively and [[Orgasmic Combat|moan when attacked]], as well as moving silhouettes of pole dancers on the walls. Despite no actual nudity being shown, this dungeon avoids being a [[Bikini Bar]] due to the super-sketchy decoration of the place and the complete sleaziness of its final boss Shadow Rise, who constantly talks in sexual innuendo and very often promises to take off the minimal golden bikini she wears - the only reason she doesn't is because Rise rejects her just in time, prompting her Shadow self's monstrous transformation.
* [[The Spock]]: Naoto acts like this in order to be taken more seriously by adults.
* [[Stealth Pun]]: Rise: "It's weak against wind, this'll be a breeze!"
* [[Stop Helping Me!]]: [[Mission Control]], in spades. Mostly due to the incredible amount of [[Captain Obvious]].
{{quote|"There are four enemies."|Teddie
* [[Story to Gameplay Ratio]]: The sheer amount of dialogue in the game (1.5 times the amount in ''[[Persona 3]]'') is just ''staggering''. Even the translators were shocked when they realized just how much they had to translate, with ''less time to do so than for Persona 3''. Reaching the first "free" day can take a good 4 hours just to get past the introduction.
* [[Summon Magic]]: The "Evoking" of one's Persona in battle.
* [[Surprisingly Good English]]:
** The song lyrics were always in English (except the ending theme), and barring speed are pronounced very well. Understanding it, however...
* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]:
* [[Sweet on Polly Oliver]]:
* [[Take That]]: An easily missed side quest will net you a special book that you can read to increase your Diligence and Expression. It is described as "[[Twilight (novel)|a ploddingly-written romantic comedy about a girl who moves to a new town. Vampires are involved]]." The game then describes it as painful to read, hence the increase in Diligence. [http://media.photobucket.com/image/persona%204/buuminwonderland/Persona%203%20y%204/Persona_4___Twilight_by_UltimaWeapo.jpg?o=358 Here's a screenshot of the event
* [[Take That Player]]: An interesting and low-key one. In the Moon Social Link, at Rank 6, you are given the "No turning back" warning, which usually implies that you can become a lover of someone. However, since Ai is [[In Love with Love]], the relationship will be simple play-dates, and she will break up with you at Rank 9. This seems to be a good shot at all of the gamers who just look at the romantic subplot as just a way to collect a harem.
* [[Taking the Bullet]]: Characters that you have a Social Link with will take any single-target attack that would kill you in your place once per battle. Most players actually recommend making sure everyone on your team has at least a Level 1
{{quote|''[http://hiimdaisy.livejournal.com/26044.html You became friends with Yosuke. Yosuke will now DIE FOR YOU.]''}}
* [[Tarot Motifs]]: Each Persona and each Shadow in the game is associated with a particular Arcana. Additionally, the game's protagonist can develop Social Links with other characters; each of these characters is also associated with a particular Arcana
** Shadows tend to be associated with the reversed or negative aspects of the Arcana, as opposed to the positive ones
* [[Tastes Like Diabetes]]: An in-universe example in one Kanji's Social Links. He says the dolls he made are "so cute, they'll give you diabetes! The fatal kind!".
* [[Team Pet]]: Teddie fills this role somewhat, but {{spoiler|becomes human}}. The
* [[That One Case]]: The Hierophant social link (and to a lesser degree, the Justice
* [[Theme Music Power-Up]]: During the final battle with {{spoiler|Izanami-no-Okami}}, the music starts out sounding hopeless. After a few minutes, a piece of the recurring theme "I'll Face Myself" plays, and shortly afterwards, the song builds into an amazing instrumental of the main battle theme
▲* [[That One Case]]: The Hierophant social link (and to a lesser degree, the Justice social link, where it is mentioned in passing) reveal that Ryoutarou Dojima's [[That One Case]] is {{spoiler|the hit and run that killed his wife}}.
▲* [[Theme Music Power-Up]]: During the final battle with {{spoiler|Izanami-no-Okami}}, the music starts out sounding hopeless. After a few minutes, a piece of the recurring theme "I'll Face Myself" plays, and shortly afterwards the song builds into an amazing instrumental of the main battle theme, "Reach Out to the Truth."
* [[There Are No Therapists]]: Inaba ''seriously'' needs a psychiatrist because it's gotten to the point where people are being killed by the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of their repressed feelings. But [[It's Up to You|at least they have you]]....
* [[This Loser Is You]]: Mitsuo could be construed as a [[Take That]] to players, being a creepy and ugly guy who hides behind video games. Also, giant floating baby.
* [[Those Two Guys]]: Daisuke and Kou, who are grouped together as the "Fellow Athletes" Social Link.
* [[Three Amigos]]: The main character, Chie
* [[Timed Mission]]: When someone appears on the Midnight Channel, you must save the person before a specific deadline. Fail to do so, and the person dies, giving you a [[Nonstandard Game Over]]. Although the game will give you the option to flash back one week and try again.
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: See [[Violence Is the Only Option]] below. You know, when a bunch of people charge in during your confrontation with your other self and actively tell you not to say it... [[Lampshaded]] by Kanji near the end of the game.
* [[Too Much Information]]: said by Chie when Yosuke mentions Junes sells disposable diapers that they could use for their stakeout.▼
* [[Took a Level in Badass]]: All of your allies do this if you max out their Social Links. They get a new Persona with improved resistances. But both of your main mage types, Yukiko and Teddie, keep their weaknesses, admittedly while gaining immunity to their favored element and a resistance to another element, while everyone else loses the weakness and gains immunity.
▲* [[Too Much Information]]:
* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]:
** Return to the title screen via menu command from the game proper, and you'll see, among other things, Kanji, Teddie (and his shadow form, complete with a "Shadow Teddie" textbox!) and Naoto as party members.
** Even more obvious, back of the box has Kanji, and Naoto in your party, Teddie in the real world, and Rise in a level up scene.
* [[Train Station Goodbye]]:
* [[Translation Convention]]: Any release that isn't in Japanese.
* [[Trapped in TV Land]]: Technically.
* [[Troll]]: The Shadow Selves. Their whole game is to feed off their victim's denial by pissing them off.
* [[True Companions]]: It's a ''Persona'' game. ''Of course'', this is going to be a major theme.
* [[A Twinkle in the Sky]]: Chie's follow up attack triggers this after kicking her enemies into the sky.
* [[The Unfavorite]]: The basketball version of the Strength
* [[Unmoving Pattern]]: Can be seen briefly in the cut scene where everyone falls into the TV the first time.
* [[Unwitting Pawn]]: {{spoiler|Taro Namatame, who was tricked by Adachi into thinking he was saving people by throwing them into the TV. Adachi, Namatame and the lead character are manipulated by Izanami, pesky woman. Of course, the
* [[Updated Rerelease]]: ''Persona 4: The Golden'' for the Playstation Vita is this, but due to the Vita's superior hardware (compared to its predecessor), it will feature updated graphics and will retain the 3D models for the overworld (as opposed to the ''Persona 3'' remake). It will also add more dialogue to the game and adds a new female character (that will ''not'' be the a female protagoist, again unlike ''
* [[Uptown Girl]]: The protagonist (middle class) with Yukiko ([[Ojou]]) or Ai ([[Nouveau Riche]]) are possible pairings.
* [[Urban Fantasy]]: Even though it's taking place in the countryside....
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* [[Useless Useful Spell]]: Ailments work against many enemies, but ailment skills have a fairly low hit percentage unless you use "Stagnant Air" first, or have a Boost skill like "Ailment Boost". Hama and Mudo skills are a guaranteed kill against enemies that are weak against Light or Darkness, respectively. (But you know what's always immune to both? Bosses.) And if you can get the Spirit Drain skill, and make sure to fuse it into as many Personas as you can, dungeon crawling becomes a lot easier. And don't forget that there are bosses that cannot be criticaled or knocked down.
** With that said, a lot of random encounters are actually tough enough to warrant needing Hama and Mudo, and sometimes even ailments. Good luck trying to kill a Glorious Hand without an instant-kill spell.
** Mamudoon and Mahamaon combined with their respective boost skills are [[Awesome Yet Practical]]. Enjoy killing anywhere from one to [[Total Party Kill|everybody]] in enemy parties with a single spell, provided they don't have any resistance. It may be useless against bosses, but dungeon crawling suddenly gets a lot easier. However, have fun trying to keep your SP up.
* [[Vendor Trash]]: You get paid in Yen at the end of each fight with the Shadows, but the Shadows also drop stuff that you can sell to the blacksmith. Not only will he pay you, but you need to sell him this stuff in order to expand his inventory.
* [[Video Game Caring Potential]]: Raise your hand if you rescued
** Caring ''too much
* [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]:
** {{spoiler|Doing it nets you the worst ending, with all its creepy implications
** On the other hand, dating every teenage girl with a name in Inaba carries no penalty whatsoever. Well, almost every one with a name. You (thankfully) miss out on Hanako.
* [[Video Game Lives]]: Easy Mode gives you 10 chances just in case you want to be covered by the kid gloves.
** Of course, [[Demonic Spider|Contrarian King]] and
* [[Violation of Common Sense]]: Ever wanted to eat grass, something that shouldn't be moving, or yogurt that was milk last week? You can, and you'll be braver for it!
{{quote|"You opened the fridge. There is a bag of wasabi. ...
** [http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs41/f/2009/005/7/8/EAT_ME__by_zetsumei_kusabana.png It can't be food?!]
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdtJYmDAZPI Fanon took this idea and ran with it. Just check the comments section.]
** Occasionally, when you go to the bathroom at school, you can get Rancid Gravy. It recovers SP like any other food item, but casts Silence on the one who eats it.
* [[Violence Is the Only Option]]: Whenever you meet an important character and their Shadow, that person ''will'' deny the Shadow being a part of them, and the Shadow ''will'' try and [[Kill'Em All|kill everyone in sight]]. The party's attempts to [[Defied Trope|defy]] this don't work either; after they've kicked some ass though, the character faces up to themselves.
** [[Lampshaded]] when Kanji interrupts the traditional "No! Don't deny it!" thing that your party does and says something to the effect of "Why bother talking? We're gonna end up fighting it anyway."
{{quote|'''Shadow Naoto:''' So, you think you can kick my ass?!}}
* [[Visual Pun]]:
** [[wikipedia:Kintoki|Kintoki-Douji]] carries a [[wikipedia:BGM-109 Tomahawk|Tomahawk]].
** Then there's series favorite [https://web.archive.org/web/20120518015849/http://www.popanime.net/megami/wiki/index.php?title=Mara Mara]. Bonus points for those who realize that [[Double Entendre|Mara]] is also part of the [[Freud Was Right|Tower Arcana]]. Although [[Gag Penis|Mara]] doesn't need to compensate for anything.
* [[Voice of the Legion]]: Everyone's Shadow clones.
* [[Vomiting Cop]]: This is how Adachi is introduced. (
* [["Wake-Up Call" Boss]]: Shadow Yukiko is a very early-game boss, and has a wicked habit of tripping players up. No weakness, and summons a very annoying minion who will heal the boss if it's not dizzied or killed off. The boss itself, once it's down to low health, [[Turns Red]] and begins to spam an attack-all fire spell that is quite painful, topping it off on the fact that one of your party members is weak to fire if she doesn't guard, and she can't be removed from the battle team (but has the element the minion is weak against).
* [[Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World]]: The game's main premise in a nutshell.
* [[Warmup Boss]]: Shadow Yosuke. If you were paying attention during the tutorial and listen to what Teddie says, you'll do fine. If not, he'll probably kill you. Because you were dumb.
* [[Washtub Throw]]:
* [[Weapon of Choice]]: Although they don't state it outright like in ''Persona 3'', the heroes of ''[[Persona 4]]'' use weapons that reflect their personality. [[The Hero]] uses broadswords, Kung-Fu loving [[Action Girl]] Chie has leg greaves, [[Yamato Nadeshiko]] Yukiko uses [[Paper Fan of Doom|fans]], delinquent Kanji just hits monsters with a heavy blunt object, be it a shield or a school desk, Teddie the 'bear' has claws, and Naoto has a gun due to being a detective. Yosuke's dual knives are the only odd man out, but then again knowing him he might be [[Dual-Wielding]] just for [[Rule of Cool]].▼
* [[We Cannot Go on Without You]]: If the Protagonist kicks the bucket, the game is over. However, depending on your relationship is with the other party members, an ally will actually jump in front of you and take the damage from attacks if you're close to dying. Doesn't work for attacks that hit everyone, and only works for a given character once per battle. Justified in that {{spoiler|The protagonist represents Hope in Izanami's "test", with the other two participants representing Despair and Emptiness. If he is defeated, like the other two, he is removed from the game in some fashion, and then Ameno-Sagiri and Izanami are free to carry out their plan of flooding Inaba - and then the world - with fog and [[Instrumentality|transforming everyone into mindless Shadows,]] as Emptiness/Adachi wants.}}▼
▲* [[Weapon of Choice]]: Although they don't state it outright like in 3, the heroes of ''[[Persona 4]]'' use weapons that reflect their personality. [[The Hero]] uses broadswords, Kung-Fu loving [[Action Girl]] Chie has leg greaves, [[Yamato Nadeshiko]] Yukiko uses [[Paper Fan of Doom|fans]], delinquent Kanji just hits monsters with a heavy blunt object, be it a shield or a school desk, Teddie the 'bear' has claws, and Naoto has a gun due to being a detective. Yosuke's dual knives are the only odd man out, but then again knowing him he might be [[Dual-Wielding]] just for [[Rule of Cool]].
** Actually, one gets the feeling that the characters just sort of grabbed whatever they thought they could use. It's also implied that no one in the party (possibly save for Naoto and the protagonist) has had any weapon/fighting training and are either self taught, or learning as they go along.
▲* [[We Cannot Go on Without You]]: If the Protagonist kicks the bucket, the game is over. However, depending on your relationship is with the other party members, an ally will actually jump in front of you and take the damage from attacks if you're close to dying. Doesn't work for attacks that hit everyone, and only works for a given character once per battle. Justified in that
* [[Westminster Chimes]]: Played at the end of every school day.
* [[Wham! Episode]]: The events on December 3rd basically cover this, although the rainy days after saving Rise are just as big, if not nearly as emotional.
* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]:
** [[The Dragon]], and the Shadow possessing psycho [[For the Evulz]] {{spoiler|Adachi}} is {{spoiler|a disco eyeball. A DISCO EYEBALL
**
* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: You can call out most of the party (particularly Yosuke) for attempting to {{spoiler|kill Namatame}} in the paths for the Normal/[[True Ending|True Endings]].
** Worth noting that choosing this option involves a [[Precision F-Strike]] and the protagonist SHOUTING while getting visibly angry (using the "anger" animation that the other characters use) for the only time during the entire game.
* [[What the Hell, Player?]]/[[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]: In the first scene of the Strength
** You can [[You Lose At Zero Trust|reverse]]
* [[When You Coming Home, Dad?]]: Nanako asks Dojima the titular question over the phone more than once.
* [[Where It All Began]]:
** Sort of. For the normal ending, the entrance to {{spoiler|Adachi's dungeon, Magatsu Inaba}}, is in the same [[Room Full of Crazy]] area where the protagonist and his friends first head to in the Midnight Channel.
** {{spoiler|Izanami's dungeon is where the protagonist experienced his short, easily forgotten dream sequence at the very beginning of the game
** The above examples are [[Lampshaded]] by ''both'' Igor and {{spoiler|Izanami herself}}.
** {{spoiler|Your last moment in the Real-World where you have some amount of control is at the Junes Food Court, dubbed the official Secret Headquarters of the Investigation Team
* [[White and Grey Morality]]: Even the villains are at best, very mentally unstable and need help, but - {{spoiler|excluding Adachi}} - ultimately doing what they think is best. This is especially odd considering the usual ''Megaten'' game out-Grimdarks just about everything. {{spoiler|Even Adachi apologizes later
* [[A World Half Full]]: The note of the true ending.
* [[World of Silence]]: This is the kind of world {{spoiler|Izanami thinks the apathetic humans want
* [[Yamato Nadeshiko]]: Yukiko's character is a good example the concept; physically and in terms of dress, she's practically the Japanese female ideal (and is in fact the only character in the game to willingly wear traditional Japanese dress on multiple occasions), and her polite, quiet baseline personality is the type that most Japanese men would find attractive. While her Social Link chronicles of her attempts to forge her own
* [[Yet Another Stupid Death]]: "Oh Crap, I messed up the set up for this battle, now the enemy gets a free turn, Oh crap, the enemy's knocked everyone down with their whatever move, the enemy is using the highest elemental spell that the protag is weak against, Oh SHI-!" In other words, the norm for a ''[[Mega Ten]]'' game.
* [[You Are Not Alone]]: In the [[True Ending]], {{spoiler|the Protagonist is [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower|empowered by his
* [[You Can't Thwart Stage One]]: You can't stop people from being kidnapped. You can't stop their Shadows from getting pissed. You can't figure out how the culprit kidnaps people for basically the whole game (so you can't actually catch them). {{spoiler|You can't stop the first phase of [[Instrumentality]] from taking place. You can't make reversing it permanent just by getting Ameno-Sagiri to lift the fog
** By the confrontation with Shadow Naoto, Kanji straight-out tells the rest of the party not to even ''try'' to keep Naoto from rejecting her Shadow self
* [[You Fail Biology Forever]]: Nanako, male platypuses don't have poisonous claws. Their venom is delivered through [[Insistent Terminology|spurs]] located just above the heels of their hind legs
* [[You Keep Using That Word]]: Teddie keeps talking about "scoring" with the female party members. It's not clear that he's actually sure what that means, or whether he keeps saying it because [[For the Lulz|it gets such hilarious reactions from the other characters]].
* [[You Look Familiar]]: Quite a few random people's models are reused either from ''Persona 3'' or within other
* [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle]]: Turns out {{spoiler|Mitsuo ''wasn't'' the [[Big Bad]]
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Atlus]]
[[Category:Eastern RPG]]
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[[Category:Horror Video Games]]
[[Category:Dating Sim]]
[[Category:Video Game Long Runners]]
[[Category:The New Tens]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Persona 4]]
[[Category:Video Game]]
[[Category:Shin Megami Tensei]]
[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]
[[Category:Video Games of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Japanese Video Games]]
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