Persona 4 theme by DarKaoZ
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| Persona 4 | |
|---|---|
 Original cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Atlus |
| Publisher(s) |
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| Director(s) | Katsura Hashino |
| Designer(s) |
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| Programmer(s) | Yujiro Kosaka |
| Artist(s) | Shigenori Soejima |
| Writer(s) |
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| Composer(s) | Shoji Meguro |
| Series | Persona |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing, social simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Persona 4,[a] released outside Japan as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, is a 2008 role-playing video game by Atlus. It is chronologically the fifth installment in the Persona series, itself a part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise, and was released for the PlayStation 2 in Japan in July 2008, North America in December 2008, and in Europe and Australia in March 2009 as one of the final major exclusives for the system. It was re-released as a PlayStation 2 Classic for the PlayStation 3 in April 2014. Persona 4 takes place in a fictional Japanese countryside and is indirectly related to earlier Persona games. The player-named protagonist is a high-school student who moved into the countryside from the city for a year. During his year-long stay, he becomes involved in investigating mysterious murders with a group of friends while harnessing the power to summon physical manifestations of their psyches known as a Persona.
The plot of Persona 4 was inspired by the work of mystery novelists owing to its murder mystery premise. The rural setting was based on a town on the outskirts of Mount Fuji and intended as a "'nowhere' place" and is the central setting to have players sympathize with the daily life of the characters. The developers added many in-game events to prevent the game from becoming stale. During localization, numerous alterations to Japanese cultural references were made to preserve the effect as much as possible. The release of Persona 4 in Japan was accompanied by merchandise such as character costumes and accessories. The game's music was primarily composed by Shoji Meguro, with vocals performed by Shihoko Hirata. The North American and European releases came with a soundtrack CD with selected music from the game.
Persona 4 received critical acclaim and is considered one of the best video games ever made, with praise given towards its gameplay, story, emotional depth, characters, and music. An enhanced version of the game, Persona 4 Golden, was released for PlayStation Vita in 2012 and Windows in 2020, selling 2.5 million copies worldwide; ports for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S were released in January 2023. Various other manga and light novel adaptations and spin-offs have been produced. An anime adaptation by AIC ASTA, Persona 4: The Animation, began airing in Japan in October 2011, with an anime of Persona 4 Golden airing in July 2014. The game also spawned two fighting game sequels, Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, as well as a rhythm game, Persona 4: Dancing All Night. Party members from Persona 4 are prominently featured as playable characters in Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth (2014) and Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth (2018).
Gameplay[edit]
Persona 4 blends traditional RPG gameplay with simulation elements.[1] The player controls the game's protagonist, a teenage boy who is named by the player, who comes to the town of Inaba for a year.[2] Gameplay is divided between the real world of Inaba, where the protagonist carries out his daily life, and the mysterious "TV World", where various dungeons filled with monsters known as Shadows await. With the exception of scripted events, such as plot progression or special events, players can choose to spend their day how they like, be it participating in various real world activities, such as joining school clubs, taking part-time jobs, or reading books, or exploring the TV World's dungeons to gain experience and items.[2][3] Days are broken up into various times of day, the most frequently recurring being "After School/Daytime" and "Evening", with most activities causing time to move on. Certain activities are limited depending on the time of day, days of the week, and the weather, with most evening activities unavailable if the player visits the TV World that day. Furthermore, some activities and dialogue choices may be limited by the protagonist's five attributes; Understanding, Diligence, Courage, Knowledge, and Expression, which can be increased by performing certain activities that build them.[1][4] Whilst the player is free to choose how to spend their time, if they fail to rescue someone who is trapped in the TV World by the time fog appears in town, which takes place after several days of consecutive rain, that person will get killed by the shadows and the game will end, forcing the player to return to a week prior.[1] As the game progresses, the protagonist forms friendships with other characters known as "Social Links", which are each represented by one of the Major Arcana. As these bonds strengthen, the Social Links increase in Rank, which grant bonuses when creating new Personas in the Velvet Room. Additionally, strengthening Social Links with the main party members grant them additional abilities, such as the ability to perform a follow-up attack or an additional ability for their Persona.[1]
Personas[edit]
The main focus of the game revolves around Personas, avatars projected from one's inner self that resemble mythological figures and represent the façades worn by individuals to face life's hardships. Each Persona possesses its own skills, as well as strengths and weaknesses to certain attributes. As Personas gain experience from battle and level up, that Persona can learn new skills, which include offensive or support abilities used in battle, or passive skills that grant the character benefits. Each Persona can carry up to eight skills at a time, with older skills needing to be forgotten in order to learn new ones. Whilst each of the main party members have their own unique Persona, which transforms into a stronger form after maxing out their Social Link, the protagonist has the "Wild Card" ability to wield multiple Personas, which he can switch between during battle to access different movesets. The player can earn new Personas from Shuffle Time, with the protagonist able to carry more Personas as he levels up.[1] Outside of the dungeons, the player can visit the Velvet Room, where players can create new Personas, or summon previously acquired Personas for a fee. New Personas are created by fusing two or more monsters to create a new one, which receives some of the skills passed down from its material monsters. The level of Personas that can be created are limited by the protagonist's current level. If the player has built up a Social Link relating to a particular Arcana, then a Persona relating to that Arcana will receive a bonus upon creation.[1][2]
Combat[edit]
Inside the TV World, the player assembles a party, consisting of the protagonist and up to three other characters, to explore randomly generated dungeons, each tailored around a victim who had been kidnapped. On each floor of a dungeon, the player may find roaming Shadows, as well as treasure chests containing items and equipment. Players progress through the dungeon by finding the stairs somewhere on each floor to progress to the next, eventually reaching the final floor where a boss enemy awaits.[1] The player enters battle upon coming into contact with a Shadow. The player can gain an advantage by attacking the Shadow from behind, whilst being attacked from behind themselves will give the enemy an advantage. Similar to the Press Turn system used in other Shin Megami Tensei games, battles are turn-based with characters fighting enemies using their equipped weapons, items, or the special skills of their Personas. Aside from the protagonist, who is controlled directly, the other characters can either be given direct commands or be assigned 'Tactics' which alter their battle AI. If the protagonist loses all of his HP, the game ends, returning players to the title screen.[1]
Offensive abilities carry several attributes, including Physical, Fire, Ice, Wind, Electricity, Light, Dark and Almighty. As well as various enemies carrying different attributes, player characters may also have strengths or weaknesses against certain attacks depending on their Persona or equipment. By exploiting an enemy's weakness or performing a critical attack, the player can knock them over, granting the attacking character an additional move, whilst the enemy may also be granted an additional move if they target a player character's weakness. If the player knocks all of the enemies down, they may be granted the opportunity to perform an "All-Out Attack", in which all the players rush the downed enemies to inflict heavy damage.[1] Following a battle, players gain experience points, money, and items from their battle. Sometimes after a battle, the player may participate in a mini-game known as "Shuffle: Time" and "Arcana Chance", which can grant player new Personas or various bonuses respectively.[1]
Plot[edit]
Setting and characters[edit]
Persona 4 takes place in the fictional, rural Japanese town of Inaba (稲羽市, Inaba-shi), which lies among floodplains and has its own high school and shopping districts. Unexplained murders have taken place in the small town, where bodies are found dangling from television antennas and their cause of death being unknown.[5] At the same time, rumor has begun to spread that watching a switched-off television set on rainy midnights will reveal a person's soulmate.[6] The game also follows the main characters into the TV World, a fog-shrouded realm filled with monsters called Shadows, which can only be accessed through TV sets.[7]
The protagonist is a high school student, named Yu Narukami in later media, who has recently moved from the city to attend school at Inaba. At school, he quickly becomes friends with Yosuke Hanamura, the somewhat-clumsy son of the manager of the local Junes Department Store; Chie Satonaka, an energetic girl with a strong interest in martial arts; and Yukiko Amagi, a calm and refined girl who helps out at her family's inn.[1] A few days into the game, the protagonist, Yosuke, and Chie follow the "Midnight Channel" rumor, which leads them to discover the TV World and meet Teddie, a friendly creature that appears as a hollow bear costume.[8] Using Personas, the students form an Investigation Team to investigate the connection between the TV world and the murders, and possibly capture the culprit.[9] As the game progresses, the group gains new members, including: Kanji Tatsumi, a male delinquent who has a talent for feminine hobbies;[10] Rise Kujikawa, a former teen idol trying to find her identity who moves to Inaba as a transfer student;[11] and Naoto Shirogane, a young female detective investigating the case with the local police who wears masculine clothing and presents herself as male due to fear of rejection.[12]
Story[edit]
On April 11, 2011, Yu Narukami arrives in Inaba to live with the Dojimas, consisting of his uncle Ryotaro and his cousin Nanako, for one year, as his parents are working abroad.[13] Just after his arrival, a TV announcer is found dead, her body hanging from an antenna; Saki Konishi, the high school student who had discovered the body, is later found dead herself, hanged upside-down from a telephone pole.[14] After Yu and his friends accidentally enter the TV world, they encounter Teddie, who helps them travel freely between the TV and real worlds.[15] They awaken their Persona abilities, realizing that the murders stem from attacks by Shadows, beings native to the TV world created from repressed emotions, and are able to rescue several would-be victims. Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, and Teddie one by one come to accept the parts of their psyches they rejected, which manifest as giant Shadows in the TV world, allowing them to wield Personas whilst each joins the group in turn. Mitsuo Kubo, a student from another high school who disappears following the death of Kinshiro Morooka, Yu's foul-mouthed homeroom teacher, claims credit for the murders; it is eventually learned that Kubo only killed Morooka and played no part in the other murders, having murdered Morooka simply to gain credit for the other murders.[16] Naoto Shirogane, a nationally renowned "Detective Prince" investigating the case, is also rescued and gains a Persona, and joins the group who learn that "he" is actually a girl who assumed a male identity to avoid the police's sexism.[12]
Events come to a head when Ryotaro Dojima realizes Yu is involved in the case after seeing Yu reading a threatening letter from the killer.[17] Nanako is kidnapped during Yu's interrogation, leading Ryotaro to engage in a vehicular pursuit with the culprit. The chase ends as they both crash; the kidnapper escapes with Nanako through a television set in his truck, and the gravely-injured Ryotaro entrusts her rescue to the group. The group tracks them down within the TV world; the culprit, Taro Namatame, becomes Kunino-Sagiri which attacks them but is defeated, and both he and Nanako are taken to the Inaba hospital. During Nanako's stay at the hospital, the fog that appears when the Midnight Channel occurs persists in the real world beyond the deadline, causing increasing panic among Inaba's inhabitants. When Nanako appears to die, the group furiously confronts Namatame, and a pseudo-Shadow Namatame appears on the Midnight Channel to goad the devastated and emotionally vulnerable group into throwing him in; as Yu, the player must help the others realize that Namatame is not the killer by pointing out the lack of a proper motive.
Upon being questioned by the Investigation Team, Namatame explains that his kidnappings were an attempt to protect those who appeared on the Midnight Channel from the killer, not realizing that the TV world was dangerous and that trapping them within was how the murder victims were killed; he also denies sending Yu any letters. Upon looking over all of the evidence they have gathered, the Investigation Team determines that the real killer, and the writer of the threat letters, is none other than Ryotaro's assistant, Tohru Adachi, who inadvertently confirms their suspicions when confronted and flees into the TV world.[18][19] It is possible to fail to deduce the real killer's identity; doing so or killing Namatame by throwing him into the TV both result in bad endings, in which the recurring fog permanently sets in, leading to humanity's demise.[20] Killing Namatame also results in Nanako remaining dead; otherwise, she will be miraculously revived by Teddie, who undergoes a journey of self-discovery during which he realizes, and later accepts, that he is a Shadow.
Having identified Adachi as the true culprit, the party chases and locates him within the TV world. Adachi explains that his actions were out of both boredom and the belief that humanity is better off believing what it wants, revealing that he tricked Namatame into throwing people into the TV world and observed the Investigation Teams subsequent rescues for his own amusement, and that he additionally threw Mitsuo into the TV world himself in order to ensure the "game" did not end prematurely; his claims are dismissed by the party as the rantings of a madman.[21] After fighting Adachi, he is controlled by Ameno-sagiri, who reveals that the fog is harmful to people and will eventually cause humanity to fall into a permanent state of ignorance and transform into Shadows.[22] Upon his defeat, he agrees to lift the fog, congratulating the party on their resolve.[23] Defeated, the wounded Adachi agrees to assume responsibility for his actions and is arrested.[24]
The game moves forward to the day before Yu must travel home. If the player returns to the Dojima residence, the game ends with the "normal" ending, in which the party sends Yu off as he departs Inaba. Alternatively, should the player decline doing so and instead visit the party's usual reunion spot, the characters reunite and decide to investigate the unexplained origins of the Midnight Channel to end the case for good, setting the route for the original game's "true" ending. Yu confronts a gas station attendant encountered at the start of the game, who reveals herself to be Izanami-no-Okami, the "conductor" behind the game's events. The cause of the recurring fog is established as an attempt to create a world of illusion by merging the TV world with the human world, all for the "sake" of humanity.[25][26] The group tracks Izanami down within the TV world and battle her, but is at first unable to win; the defeated Yu is given strength by the bonds he has forged with those around him, and with this power awakens a new Persona—Izanagi-no-Okami—which he uses to defeat Izanami.[27] In doing so, the fog in each world is lifted, and the TV world is restored to its original form. The party sends Yu off the following day, and the game concludes with a post-credits scene depicting the group resolving to remain friends forever, as Yu examines a group photo of himself and the rest of the Team.[28]
Persona 4 Golden[edit]
Persona 4 Golden adds two new Social Links to the game; Adachi and Marie, a mysterious girl who becomes an assistant in the Velvet Room and wishes to uncover her lost memories. If the player advances Adachi's Social Link to a certain level, they are given the choice to withhold his identity as the killer from the rest of the Investigation Team, thus leaving the mystery unsolved and resulting in the "accomplice" ending. On Yu's final day in Inaba, he may choose to visit Adachi and destroy a crucial piece of evidence related to the case. Adachi then blackmails Yu, threatening to have him arrested for destroying evidence if he does not answer his calls. The game's ending then plays out the same as the normal ending, but after the credits, Yu passes by Adachi at a level crossing. He clutches his phone in his hand as a smirk forms on Adachi's face.
After the Investigation Team defeats Ameno-sagiri, Marie disappears from the Velvet Room; if Marie's social link has been maxed out, Margaret promises to find her for Yu. The Investigation Team decide to take a skiing trip together, during which time they stumble upon a cabin with a TV inside. The TV turns out to be a portal to the Hollow Forest, where Marie has fled to. With the Hollow Forest on the verge of collapsing, the Investigation Team rushes to save her; if they fail to do so, Marie disappears from their memories. If they succeed, they find Marie, who reveals that she is Kusumi-no-Okami, created to act as a spy for Ameno-sagiri in order to learn what humanity wished for; with Ameno-sagiri defeated, the fog has now been absorbed into her body. Marie's plan is to kill herself so that the fog will not spread over the world again, but the Investigation Team refuses to allow her to die, defeating her and freeing her from the fog's control.[29]
If the Investigation Team both rescued Marie and defeated Izanami-no-Okami, the player obtains the "Golden" ending,[Note 1] in which Marie realizes that she is actually Izanami-no-Mikoto, the true form of the goddess Izanami, who originally wished to both protect humanity and grant its wishes, but as people changed and stopped wishing for truth, her wishes splintered into her and Izanami-no-Okami. With Kunino-sagiri, Ameno-sagiri, and Izanami-no-Okami fused with her, she becomes whole again and disappears from the Velvet Room for good. After the events of the original game's true ending, the Golden ending skips to an epilogue set in late August, five months after Yu's departure, as he returns to Inaba for the summer.[Note 2] He reunites with his friends, who have all changed since the last time they all met. During a surprise party with his friends, Ryotaro, and Nanako, Yu discovers, among others, that Namatame is running for mayor in order to atone for his previous actions, that Adachi has become a model prisoner, and that Marie has a new identity as a popular TV anchor presenting the weather, which she seemingly is able to control. At Nanako's suggestion, everyone gives Yu a formal but joyful welcome "home"; as they chastise Kanji for saying something different than everyone else, Yu smiles brightly. The game ends showing a brand new group picture of Yu and his friends, including Marie, all smiling together.[30]
Development[edit]
According to the game director Katsura Hashino, while "ideas [had been] thrown around earlier", development on Persona 4 in Japan did not begin until after the release of Persona 3.[31] The development team consisted of the team from Persona 3 and new hires which included fans of Persona 3.[32] Atlus intended to improve both the gameplay and story elements of Persona 3 for the new game, to ensure it was not seen as a "retread" of its predecessor. Hashino said that "to accomplish that, we tried to give the players of Persona 4 a definite goal and a sense of purpose that would keep motivating them as they played through the game. The murder mystery plot was our way of doing that."[31] The plot of Persona 4 was "greatly inspired", according to Hashino, by mystery novelists such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Seishi Yokomizo.[33] Persona 4 was officially unveiled in the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu in March 2008. An article in the issue detailed the game's murder mystery premise, rural setting, and new weather forecast system. The game's North American release date was announced at the 2008 Anime Expo in Los Angeles, California.[34] Atlus would not make an add-on disc or epilogue for Persona 4, as had been done with the Persona 3 FES.[35] Persona 4 allowed players full control of characters in battle. This was due to negative comments from players about most of the player team in Persona 3 being controlled by the game's AI.[36] The amount of data the team ended up incorporating around school life, character relationships and spoken character dialogue was so large that there were fears it would not fit onto a single disc.[37] The anime cutscenes were produced by Studio Hibari.[38]
The design of Inaba is based on a town on the outskirts of Mount Fuji.[33] Its rural design was a source of conflict between Persona 4's developers, as "each staff member had their own image of a rural town", according to director Katsura Hashino. The entire staff went "location hunting" to determine Inaba's design.[32] Inaba does not represent "a country town that has tourist attractions", but rather a non-notable, "'nowhere' place". Hashino described the town as being "for better or for worse... a run-of-the-mill town".[33] Unlike other role-playing games, which may have large worlds for the player to explore, Persona 4 mostly takes place in Inaba. This reduced development costs, and enabled Atlus "to expand other portions of the game" in return. A central setting also allows players to "sympathize with the daily life that passes in the game". To prevent the setting from becoming stale, the development team established a set number of in-game events to be created to "keep the game exciting".[31] The choice of Japanese mythical figures for the characters' Personas as opposed to the Graeco-Roman deities used in earlier games was directly inspired by the new setting.[36] The appearances of Personas were based on the characters' personalities. The design team had a good deal of creative freedom while creating Personas, because although Japanese deities have well-defined character traits, their appearances are traditionally unspecified. The Shadows were created by Hashino without much outside consultation, although he had help from female staff for female Shadow selves.[37]
Despite living in the countryside, Persona 4 characters were designed to look and sound "normal" and like "modern high-schoolers", according to lead localization editor Nich Maragos. Initially, he wrote the game's cast as being "more rural than was really called for". "The characters aren't really hicks... They just happen to live in a place that's not a major metropolitan area."[39] While interviewing members of Persona 4's development team, 1UP.com editor Andrew Fitch noted that the characters from the city — Yosuke and the protagonist — have "more stylish" hair than the other characters. Art director Shigenori Soejima used hair styles to differentiate between characters from the city versus the country. "With Yosuke in particular, I gave him accessories, such as headphones and a bicycle, to make it more obvious that he was from the city."[33]
Localization[edit]
As with Persona 3, the localization of Persona 4 was handled by Yu Namba and Nich Maragos of Atlus USA. In addition, there were four translators and two further editors. The Social Links were divided equally between the translators and editors.[40] During localization of the game, character's names were altered for the international audience for familiarity, including Kuma being renamed Teddie. A similar change was done for Rise Kujikawa's stage name, "Risechie" (りせちー, Risechī) in Japan, to "Risette". Nanba also explained the change from "Community" to "Social Link", regarding the gameplay mechanic, as "community" has a different meaning in English, whereas Igor in his speeches often refers to "society" and "bonds". Names were also altered for pun and other linguistic effect including dungeon items' names, such as the "Kae Rail" becoming the "Goho-M", as the item's use of returning the player to the entrance was taken to be "go home". Some Japanese cultural references that would not transfer were also removed, such as references to Kosuke Kindaichi. There were also some issues regarding the translation of the names of Yukiko, Kanji and Rise's dungeons, as the English names were made to fit the original Japanese graphics, and the "Void Quest" dungeon's graphics were specifically made to harken back to the Famicom. He also remarked on how popular the interpretations of Kanji's Shadow were in the west, and how it did not change how the character was seen by the other audience.[41] A different change was that the main characters in the English dub referred to others members of the cast on a first-name basis, while the Japanese version differed in this regard. For the dub, the editors sometimes switched between first-name and last-name referral for dramatic effect.[42]
Atlus's senior project manager Masaru Nanba commented it was decided that "Shin Megami Tensei" was to be kept in the title of Persona 3 and Persona 4, as it was believed that they were part of the same series as Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne; however, the "Shin Megami Tensei" title was omitted from both Persona 4 Golden and Persona 4 Arena, as it would have been much too long. Similarly, Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena and Persona 4: The Golden were shortened to the previously stated titles.[41] As with Persona 3, the honorifics used in the Japanese voice track were retained in the English dub, despite proving contentious among series fans. This was done as part of an intended trend to remain faithful to the original source material. The pronunciations of honorifics, along with the sounds of names, were a point that was carefully considered by the localization team and it took a while for the English cast to get used to them. A member of the English dub that also appeared in Persona 3 was Yuri Lowenthal. Though he had dubbed characters in Persona 3, Namba wanted him to have a larger part. His role as Yosuke ended up featuring 1000 more lines of dialogue than the other major characters. Important roles for the localization team were Teddie and Rise, as they would be the party's supports. Another element in the English script was that the use of swear words was increased over Persona 3: the first draft featured very strong language which was cut as it did not seem suited. The character Kanji was given a lot of swearing in his dialogue, due to his volatile nature. The use of swearing was carefully considered depending on the emotional situation.[40][43]
Music[edit]
The game's original score was primarily composed, arranged, and produced by Shoji Meguro. The soundtrack features songs with vocals by Shihoko Hirata, whom Meguro felt was able to meet the range of emotion needed for the soundtrack, with the lyrics being written by Reiko Tanaka.[44] Meguro was given a rough outline of the game's plot and worked on the music in the same manner and simultaneously with the development of the story and spoken dialog, starting with the overall shape of the songs and eventually working on the finer details.[44] According to Meguro, the songs "Pursuing My True Self" and "Reach Out to the Truth" were composed to reflect the inner conflicts of the game's main characters; the former song, used as the opening theme, helped to set an understanding of the characters' conflicts, while the latter, used in battle sequences, emphasized the "strength of these characters to work through their internal struggles."[44] The "Aria of the Soul" theme used in the Velvet Room, a concept common to all the Persona games, remained relatively unchanged, with Meguro believing "the shape of the song had been well-defined" from previous games.[44] Composers Atsushi Kitajoh and Ryota Kozuka also contributed music for the game. Kitajoh, who had previously written music for Atlus with Growlanser VI and Trauma Center: New Blood, contributed four themes to Persona 4, while Kozuka wrote the "Theme of Junes".[45]
Persona 4's two-disc soundtrack was released in Japan by Aniplex on July 23, 2008. The soundtrack was also released in North America.[46] The side A of the soundtrack is the bonus disc packaged with each game, while side B of the soundtrack was part of Amazon.com's exclusive Persona 4 Social Link Expansion Pack.[47] Similarly to Persona 3, a "Reincarnation" album, titled Never More, was released in Japan on October 26, 2011, featuring full length cuts of the game's vocal tracks and extended mixes of some of the instrumental tracks.[48] Never More made it to the top of both the Oricon Weekly Album Charts[49] and Billboard's Japan Top Albums chart[50] for the week of its release, selling nearly 27,000 copies.[51]
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