Persona 4: Difference between revisions

[[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).]]]]

''Persona 4'' is an [[Urban Fantasy]] [[Role-Playing Game]] in the popular [[JRPG]] franchise [[Shin Megami Tensei]], made by Atlus.

''Persona 4'' takes place in the same [[The Verse|universe]] as all the other Persona games (according to [[Word of God]] anyways), and begins almost exactly a year after the events of The Answer in ''Persona <nowiki>3:FES</nowiki>''. The game runs off the ''Persona 3'' engine and even on the same console, but with some upgrades to the graphics and different game mechanics. Most of the ''Persona 3'''s main features return, including the popular Social Links and the calendar day system - just as in ''Persona 3'', the game takes place within an entire school year.

One major difference is that instead of the player climbing one long tower for much of the game's combat, the player instead enters the TV World and has access to multiple dungeons that unlock as the story progresses. Plotwise, the setting is rural versus the urban setting of ''Persona 3'', which creates an entirely different feeling and plays against the game's main themes. Notably, some of the sexual overtones present in earlier Persona titles have returned in this one.

''Persona 4'' is considered by many to be one of the best [[JRPG]]s in recent memory, has won universal acclaim and many awards, and deftly followed up on the spur of interest caused by ''[[Persona 3]]'' and cemented the SMT franchise's place in the Western gaming mainstream at last. It has also been called the Playstation 2's last great game, a very bold claim, but this excellent game is definitely a candidate for that.

Also, unlike other ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' games, it is so happy that ''its dominant color motif is {{color|yellow| bright yellow}}.'' Seriously, even comparing it to its immediate predecessor, ''Persona 4'' is quite possibly the most upbeat and positive game about murder ever made.

A Playstation Vita remake, titled ''Persona 4: The Golden'' [http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/08/31/persona_developments/ has been announced] and is to be released on June 14th in Japan, with the US release date set ambiguously for Fall 2012. The remake features a new character named Mary, who, unlike Persona 3 Portable's new female character, is confirmed to NOT be a [[Gender Flip]] AU of the hero. In addition, there are alternate costumes for characters, new enemies and areas to explore, updated Ultimate Personas for the cast, a new gameplay mechanic involving motorbikes both in the real world and in the Midnight Channel, [[Combination Attack|combination attacks]] between characters, and new events that take place during the time skipped in the original<ref>Depending on your choices in the original, the game will jump from December to March with no information on what happened in the skipped months.</ref>, such as a skiing trip in January. And on top of all of that, a completely redone opening animation by Studio Madhouse.

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] 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.]

* [[Aliens in Cardiff]]: More like {{spoiler|gods}} in Yasoinaba.

* [[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.

* [[Anticlimax Boss]]: {{spoiler|Adachi}} is surprisingly simple, considering his importance to the plot; honestly, he actually comes across as noticeably weaker than the [[That One Boss|rather brutal]] {{spoiler|Kunino-sagiri battle that preceded him.}} Justified in that {{spoiler|he's immediately followed by the much more dangerous Ameno-sagiri, but it's still a bit jarring.}}

* [[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.

** Though it's possible to remain in the Midnight Channel for extended periods of time using the items you collect from treasure chest, if you take too long to rescue the Midnight Channel victims, they'll be killed once the fog sets in and you'll get a Game Over.

* [[Arc Words]] / [[Catch Phrase]]:

** Continuing in that vein: "The Search for the Truth"

** Shadows on the map will sometimes look like ''[[Persona 3]]'''s "Maya" series enemies, none of which appear in 4. The introductory cutscene to the game's first real fight makes it pretty clear that the Shadows can start out looking like the Maya enemies before transforming into their freaky battle shapes. That being said, none actually remain as a pathetic masked blob to go into battle.

** Maxing out an S-link will note that you forged a bond that can not be broken. This was important in 3 where bonds that were not maxed would break after time, now it is mostly just congratulatory. Unless it's [[You Lose At Zero Trust|Ai's]] [[Guide Dang It|Social]] [[That One Sidequest|Link.]]

* [[Assimilation Plot]]: {{spoiler|Izanami's ultimate goal was to engulf the real world in fog, turning everyone into Shadows, because she claims that that is [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|what humans desire]]--everyone would all be the same, wandering forever in fog without suffering. Ameno-sagiri also claims this, even while you beat the hell out of him.}}

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: The Fox's healing leaves, which instantly heal your SP in a dungeon (and unlike in most other SMT games, SP recovery items can't be bought from stores normally), but cost a fortune until the higher ranks of the social linking. And by the time you reach these, you'll likely be in the loot-rich final dungeons, but your levels will be high enough that conserving SP won't be an issue anyway. So for the majority of the game, unless you can't afford to have a day passed, you're better off just leaving for the recovery.

** Also Izanagi-No-Okami. If you decide to go through the True Ending to get him, you're in for a shock: He's a level 91 Persona, and he can't be registered into the Compendium. If you want to have in in later games, you'll have to level yourself up and amass all the Personas to make him.

* [[Bait and Switch Boss]]: When fighting {{spoiler|Shadow Rise}}, {{spoiler|Teddie}} steps in and defeats the boss for you -- shortly before {{spoiler|Shadow Teddie}} appears, and you have to fight him instead.

* [[Base Breaker]]: Oddly enough, this very game itself along with [[Persona 3]] split the Persona fandom in two, to fans of the 'original' two and the new slightly less grimdark Persona 3 and Persona 4 games.

* [[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.

* [[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.}}

** Morooka, Kashiwagi, Hanako, and Mitsuo are all characterized as rotten people in general, are basically the only people in the entire game who aren't considered attractive {{spoiler|and don't come around to be better people}}. {{spoiler|Adachi is a subversion, but that's the point; the player is supposed to trust him}}. To clarify, Kashiwagi isn't necessarily ugly, just arrogant and comes off as desperate.

** There is also an aversion; Igor's huge bloodshot eyes and long hooked give his appearance an unpleasant imp-like quality. Though cryptic, he's a stand-up guy and a staunch ally. Just to clarify just how rare this is, in the ''entire'' [[Mega Ten]] series, he is the only supernatural creature who: Is not working for you through bribery or coercion, is not [[wikipedia:Persona|part of your mind]], nor trying to torture or manipulate you for his own ends, is not a playable character, and is actually helping you for essentially free. Just because he's a nice guy who happens to have a weird nose and a hot chick standing around all the time. Not to mention he always has pretty sound advice when dealing with responsibility or fusing your Personas.

** {{spoiler|Izanami, being a goddess, probably ''used'' to be quite pretty before she died and was cast down into the underworld to rot. Accordingly, she's more of a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] than an actual villain; she genuinely believes that her plans are what mankind really wants.}}

* [[Become a Real Boy]]: {{spoiler|Teddie realizes that he is a Shadow himself, born of the desire to appeal to people, which is why he appears as a cute mascot bear. Once he was granted a Persona, the party tells him late in the game that he has developed the ego necessary to control it. Which is why he was able to manifest in the "real world" in a human form. Slightly subverted in that he was motivated to do so in order to "score" with the female members of your party.}}

** Hurting Nanako. Once Nanako is {{spoiler|kidnapped, the entire party drops the jokes, and even suggesting to go to a different dungeon will result in glares.}} And when Nanako is thought to be {{spoiler|dead... well, you better just hope you're not alone with Yosuke and Kanji in a room with a TV.}} The entire cast will have no mercy, and if you didn't get the good ending, then {{spoiler|Namatame is killed by Yosuke and the gang pushing him into the TV.}} Don't fuck with Nanako.

** Kanji does one when Nanako tries the Christmas cake made by the girls before they could {{spoiler|after she just got out of the hospital}}. Turns out, there was nothing to worry about.

** While not really a big "no", Yosuke and Kanji both have these when {{spoiler|Nanako appears to die. Yosuke screams "DAMN IT!!" and Kanji lets out a painful anguish cry and punches the wall as hard as he can. It's quite powerful to watch if you don't know she comes back alive.}}

** It could be a [[Mythology Gag]] that's a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Persona 2|Lisa Silverman]], who spouts lots of Catonese expressions - Aiya being one of her favourites.

* [[Bishie Sparkle]]: {{spoiler|Human Teddie has this effect upon becoming a human, and, of course, abuses it with the girls.}}

* [[Bishonen]]: Most of the principal male cast to a certain extent, but especially {{spoiler|''Teddie''. Includes sparkle and drooling girls.}}

* [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]]: Subverted with Saki Konishi. The twisted Shopping District area in the TV world makes her come off this way... for about five minutes, until Yosuke's Shadow turns up, after which is becomes clear that while the echoes heard in the area were Saki's real feelings, they don't provide the full picture of her personality. Yosuke never once holds it against her, and though he accepts that she disliked him, he doesn't hesitate to describe her to others as a good person. It's something of a theme of all of the Shadow self confrontations that everyone has an ugly side to them, but that it doesn't define everything about them.

* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: {{spoiler|Izanami and her aspect, Ameno-Sagiri, are [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] divine beings and would fall somewhere between [[Lawful Neutral]] and [[Lawful Evil]] if they were judged by human standards and followed the same set of moral norms as humanity. That being said, Izanami doesn't fully understand human motivations, and thus it isn't entirely fair to pinpoint her location on a traditional morality axis.}}

* [[Bokukko]]: {{spoiler|Naoto}} uses boku to refer to herself in the Japanese version. The one scene that explicitly deals with this is [[Pronoun Trouble|changed to being about the pitch of voice]] in the English localization.

* [[Bonus Boss]]: Each dungeon has a [[Bonus Boss]] which is available upon returning to it. In addition, {{spoiler|Izanami, Japanese goddess of Death and Rebirth}} is available in the game if you unlock the True Ending, as well as {{spoiler|Margaret}} on your second playthrough (only if you unlocked the True Ending on the previous playthrough). In a [[New Game+]], the Grim Reaper from ''[[Persona 3]]'' also shows up as a [[Chest Monster]] in each dungeon.

* [[Bragging Rights Reward]]: Beating the Grim Reaper earns you an [[Infinity+1 Sword|Infinity Plus One Weapon]]. Getting the True Ending also lets you fuse the Protagonist's ultimate Persona the next time through - except that it's [[Awesome but Impractical|a twelve-Persona fusion and it can't be registered in the Persona Compendium]]. Granted, it can learn all the highest elemental skills and their respective boosts, and its stats are insanely high, even for its level. Taking the time to level grind to use said persona can make beating {{spoiler|Margaret}} and The Reaper extremely easy. Still a bragging rights reward nonetheless, as both the weapons and Persona cannot be transferred over to a [[New Game+]], and you don't even keep your levels, so you have to grind to 91 all over again to get the Persona.

** The bragging rights part especially sink in considering that both the ultimate Persona and the [[Infinity+1 Sword|Infinity Plus One Weapons]] are anything but. The protagonist can fuse a persona that can make him invulnerable to any attack or use the strongest attacks in the game, neither of which he can do with which {{spoiler|Izanagi no Ookami}}, and while the Reaper weapons do have the strongest attack power in the game, this is largely irrelevant - the damage you deal with skills is completely based upon the Strength or Magic Stats of your weapon. A weapon that boosts attributes or gives you nice perks are generally superior to the Reaper Weapons, [[Your Mileage May Vary|although one could argue Kanji's and the Protagonist's are still fairly useful]].

** During your summer break, once {{spoiler|you catch Mitsuo,}} there's over a whole month of time where everything seems fine and nothing at all happens until the plot picks up again once you've gone back to school.

** The only thing of note that happens during October are exams and the Culture Festival, and the month before sees you rescuing {{spoiler|Naoto, your last party member,}} and November brings {{spoiler|[[Wham! Episode|Nanako getting kidnapped]]}}.

* [[But Now I Must Go]]: {{spoiler|At the end of the game, the protagonist leaves Inaba to return home}} (see [[Parental Abandonment]] example below).

* [[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...).

** Running around, you can tell that the game is -ripe- with these. The history teacher mentioned in [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]] who wears ancient Egyptian headware complains about her brother, who apparently dresses up in samurai gear - said teacher is actually the history teacher from the school in ''Persona 3''.

** Rise will mention she had a secret show at the nightclub 2 years ago, but the power went out, most likely due to the Hermit Full Moon boss. Shinjiro in 3 even mentioned a show that got cancelled back then.

** There's also the Sunday morning shopping channel show - anyone who's played ''[[Persona 3]]'' will [[Ear Worm|hear the callback]] before they see it.

** In Kanji's social link, there is a reference to a pink alligator from a storybook. Akinari, one of the social links from ''Persona 3'', wrote a story about a pink alligator.

** You'd only recognize this example if you played ''Persona 3'' and made a habit of turning on the TV in the dorm room, but when Nanako does her report on the platypus and asks you which gender is venomous, it's supposed to remind you of a TV program on the platypus from 3.

* [[Canon Name]]: While the Protagonist has no default name in the original release, Persona 4 Arena, which is a canon continuation of the storyline, states his name is Yu Narukami, as does the anime adaptation.

* [[Cash Cow Franchise]]: Over the years, Atlus has really taken to building a franchise around Person 4, quite similar to what [[Square Enix]] did with [[Final Fantasy VII]]. To date, the series has or will produce; A Manga Adaptation, an Anime Adaptation, an [[Updated Rerelease]], A Fighting Game Sequel, [[Serial Escalation|A Broadway Production]], and more recently a manga and light novel spinoff [[Breakout Character|with Yosuke and Naoto as the main characters respectively.]]

** And this is all on top of ''Persona'''s general cash-cow status for Atlus!