Board 8 > Anagram Plays Persona 4 (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

The Nanako hospital stuff is probably my favorite story segment in the series. Even though you know she's probably gonna be fine simply because P4 isn't that dark, the entire thing just feels...heavy.
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KamikazePotato posted...

The Nanako hospital stuff is probably my favorite story segment in the series. Even though you know she's probably gonna be fine simply because P4 isn't that dark, the entire thing just feels...heavy.

I was very surprised when she "died," I was wondering how they'd undo it or if I'd done something wrong.

xp1337 posted...

If you agree with team "throw him in" you well... throw him in. Nanako stays dead. Teddie stays missing. Worst end (in Vanilla.)

If you agree with team "don't throw him in" or don't convince the group there are still unanswered questions they leave Namatame in the room. Nanako revives. Teddie still missing. Bad end.

Both skip from that day all the way to March with a short dialogue with Dojima and a TV Report before ending.

I remember P5 has two ways to get a bad end, does P3? I don't remember any.
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Can't you agree to kill Ryoji and wipe your memories?
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Sceptilesolar posted...

Can't you agree to kill Ryoji and wipe your memories?

You can.
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Sceptilesolar posted...

Can't you agree to kill Ryoji and wipe your memories?

Oh yeah, ha. I've never done any of the bad endings, I guess.
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- Igor summons me that night and makes me listen to one sentence per rank 10 social link. I'm sorry, Shu. Not only did I fail to finish your social link, I actually stopped almost at the end when you uttered the line "Come back some time."
- The next day, Yosuke's like 'yo bro Teddie's gone.'
- Am I... Am I insane for having always thought the Junes food court was indoors? Because now there's fog. As evidence, I offer the fact that there aren't umbrellas to protect against the sun during summer.
- "Sane or insane... sounds like a play I saw before." Is that the game's third Hamlet reference?
- Eventually, we figure out that there's someone involved besides Namatame, and that that guy killed Saki and the announcer.
- Naoto is like "I have a plan to access Namatame." We go to the hospital, and her plan is... telling the cop that she's on the list of people approved to speak to him because she actually is. I mean, it turns out to be more complicated than that, but I was expecting them to scale the building or sneak in using a laundry cart or something.
- Namatame: "I returned to my parents' home, as if to run away from the scandal." Or, maybe exactly to run away from the scandal.
- Is that a VHS player in 2008?! ... I guess it's the house of old people, so I'll let it slide.
- Namatame tells us a million things, including that he thought the announcer gave him the power to enter the TV and save people, that he has no idea what determines who gets onto the Midnight Channel, and that he thought the TV World was nicer than that. Most importantly, he confirms that someone else really is behind this.
- Now that I think about it, with Mr. Morooka removed from the equation, all of the victims are female, yeah.
- "I never doubted what I saw on TV. I didn't think for myself at all." This blunt metaphor brought to you by Atlas.
- Arghhh more walking around town to talk to people.
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The Junes food court is pretty clearly outdoors.
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Anagram posted...

- Now that I think about it, with Mr. Morooka removed from the equation, all of the victims are female, yeah.

Kanji?

Unless victim only = person who died

Reg posted...

Anagram posted...

- Now that I think about it, with Mr. Morooka removed from the equation, all of the victims are female, yeah.

Kanji?

Unless victim only = person who died

Guess I'm a derp! Kanji was even on-screen when I wrote that.

Leonhart4 posted...

The Junes food court is pretty clearly outdoors.

I guess I am insane, then.
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- I like the unstated point that people move on from one sensational incident on TV to the next so quickly that people barely remember Saki and the announcer dying.
- Eventually, we determine that the killer has a connection to the announcer and Saki, is able to observe us, can move around town without and go near Dojima's house without suspicion, and knows about the TV World. Although I like how the narration just says "most likely knows about the TV World." Dude, the warning letter talks about the TV World!
- I like this part where I can suggest a suspect and have every person in the game. I especially like how it includes characters who don't even have portraits. Imagine if the villain was like the teacher with a puppet... Oh my god, I only just now realized that's a South Park reference, Jesus Christ I'm an idiot.
- Anyway, it's obvious that the only possible suspects are Dojima and Adachi, and it's obviously Adachi. I know that I knew this from the start, but I remain confident I'd have figured it out immediately anyway.
- We learn Adachi is transporting Namatame soon, so we head out to see what happens. We go to the hospital, see that Dojima is suspicious about if Namatame is the killer, and ask Adachi about the warning letter in front of him. Eventually Adachi slips up and says "We already know Namatame's the one who put them in!" Naoto confronts him with more evidence of a slip-up that I hate to admit I didn't notice at the time, and he runs off.
- "Where could he have gone?" Kanji asks, standing three feet away from the TV he himself wanted to throw Namatame into.
- I'll be honest, I kind of expected the others to say "We have to follow Adachi using the hospital TV right away." I'll be shocked if we never use a non-Junes TV to enter the world, it's just so obviously a good source of drama for us to have to leap into the unknown, I expected it to happen earlier.
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If I'd chosen joke options like "Yosuke is the killer," how do the characters react?
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- Greg goes to the Velvet Room in his dreams again, but Igor and Margaret are gone. In their place is Teddie. He explains that when he thought he couldn't do anything, he woke up in the fog.
- Teddie goes on to say that he's just a shadow that woke to human emotions. Knowing that humans and shadows are different entities, he made himself forget what he really was, and took a friendlier form so humans would like him. So... Teddie's Shadow was... the shadow of a shadow? Alright, which horribly outdated meme is more appropriate, 'we have to go deeper' or 'yo dawg?'
- He says he'll soon turn back into a normal shadow, and bids farewell.
- The next day when we go into the TV, everyone is like "Too bad we couldn't find Teddie." I guess... I guess Greg didn't tell them? Rise is like "the fog in the TV World feels evil now, also Adachi is here, but Teddie's not. If only Teddie was here."
- Meanwhile, Teddie reappears in Nanako's hospital room. She wakes up, and Teddie goes to meet up with the others. Naoto is like "eh, you have an ego and can control personas now anyway, who cares if you're a shadow?"
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- The next day, Teddie sniffs around and tells us that Adachi is in the room with all of the creepy posters from a million years ago.
- We go there and meet him. Through a flashback, we learn that he got upset with the announcer because she had an affair when he wanted to bone her despite her not even knowing him, constantly insulting her with misogynistic comments. Okay, well, at least I know why he's a meme on 4chan now.
- He pushes her into the TV and accidentally learns he can throw people into it. I always like how in Persona games everyone just immediately accepts the existence of magic. Adachi takes one second to just accept that he saw her fall into the TV and figure out what happened.
- Later, he does the same to Saki because she rejects him, and he figures it's because she had the hots for Namatame as well. Oh god, this is the most 4chan character ever.
- He complains about how he got stuck in a small town instead of being the best of the best. By chance, he was the one who took Namatame's warning, so he gave him the idea of 'saving' people. He also fills in some of the questions about the story so far, but not the two I actually want answered: what determines who appears on the Midnight Channel and what determines who can enter the TV World.
- Adachi admits his motive for all of this: nothing. He was just bored. He tells us that the fog is leaking out into the real world anyway and will soon engulf it, and Teddie confirms that this will destroy Inaba and turn people into shadows, end of the world-type stuff.
- Finally, Rise realizes this isn't the real Adachi, but he's not a normal shadow. He disappears and gives us a portal to enter.

I have to say, I really like Adachi. I was neutral about him before, but his crazy misogyny and motiveless evil really works. In particular, doing all of this because he just wanted to have some fun and excitement really fits with the fog motif, the small town setting makes more sense, and everything really comes together because of this twist. It reminds me of P3 as well, where Nox (or Nyx? Don't remember) gets called because people are just so bored and want something to change and happen.
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Are people still reading?
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I've been busy at work and comment yet! Still reading!
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Anagram posted...

Are people still reading?

jeez sorry i was doing other stuff

Anagram posted...

- Namatame tells us a million things, including that he thought the announcer gave him the power to enter the TV and save people, that he has no idea what determines who gets onto the Midnight Channel, and that he thought the TV World was nicer than that. Most importantly, he confirms that someone else really is behind this.

This scene is really awkward in Golden because Namatame has some extra lines but they recast him and rather than have the new guy do all his lines, you just watch him switch voices back and forth in this scene and it's really jarring lol.

Anagram posted...

If I'd chosen joke options like "Yosuke is the killer," how do the characters react?

Another Bad End. I forget if the game gives you 2-3 chances before Bad Ending you or if you only have the one shot.

Also, in Golden you can get the new worst ending here. *Golden Exclusive Ending Spoilers*: If you have Adachi's Link as high as it can be at this point (Rank 6 IIRC) when you ID him as the culprit the game gives you a montage of Adachi Scene Stills and gives you the option to protect him by refusing to mention his name to the others. If you do this, time skips ahead to March again, but this time to the police station with Adachi. You confront him about it and have the ability to burn the note he sent to Dojima's house in front of him, destroying the only physical evidence that links him to it. He busts out some psychotic laughter, says that what you did was a crime by destroying evidence, gives you his number and says he'll be checking in on you.

Anagram posted...

- I like this part where I can suggest a suspect and have every person in the game.

iirc isn't morooka a person you can name lol?

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Schedule Warning

The calendar around here works a bit differently so if you want to maximize your time you may want to read this: Completing Adachi's Dungeon advances time automatically to Christmas. You can go in and explore it just fine, but once you start the boss sequence once you win time jumps up a bit. Your deadline is 12/24. That's the last day you can enter. If you reach Christmas it's game over just like if you missed any of the other deadlines. However, there's a Christmas Eve event with a max romance link (or the Investigation Team guys) you'll miss if you wait that long. If you want to get that, you need to clear Adachi's Dungeon by 12/22 or earlier.

tl;dr: If you want the most possible days to spend on S-Links or whatever and still get the Christmas Eve event. Finish Adachi's Dungeon on 12/22. Doing so earlier literally just wastes days because you timeskip past them.
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Didn't read those spoilers, but I will post-game.
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(I would recommend reading them. It just gives you a specific day to shoot for finishing the dungeon or else you'll miss out on free days.)
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Anagram posted...

- I have to admit, coming back to the empty house with no one there to greet me was actually startling.

Yeah, this is actually one of the better understated moments of the game. You don't realize how much you've gotten used to that "Welcome home!" from Nanako every day until it's gone.
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Also checking the fridge and getting the contents remain unchanged or whatever message every day
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MrSmartGuy posted...

(I would recommend reading them. It just gives you a specific day to shoot for finishing the dungeon or else you'll miss out on free days.)

Alright, read the spoiler. I went into the dungeon on the first available day and I'm still in it, but I haven't finished yet.
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Anagram posted...

I have to say, I really like Adachi. I was neutral about him before, but his crazy misogyny and motiveless evil really works. In particular, doing all of this because he just wanted to have some fun and excitement really fits with the fog motif, the small town setting makes more sense, and everything really comes together because of this twist. It reminds me of P3 as well, where Nox (or Nyx? Don't remember) gets called because people are just so bored and want something to change and happen.

Golden, the P4 Anime, and Arena Ultimax all expand on Adachi's character in some fun ways. What's also fun is that Adachi and the P4 Protagonist share the same voice actor in the game, which doesn't matter much when all the protagonist speaks are Persona names, but gets silly in the anime when Johnny Yong Bosch is accusing Johnny Yong Bosch of murder.
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- One of the things I love about Persona is all of the crazy supernatural stuff getting juxtaposed with completely normal reality. After all of that, we go back to school and the test results are posted.
- As I go around town, there are people just hanging out by themselves, clutching their heads. It's similar to the people in P3 who just lose touch with reality and stare off into the distance.
- We go into Adachi's dungeon. I really like how it's gross and urban and looks like a crime scene, and I love how the doors are police tape.
- On of the floors, Adachi is all "reach the end without fighting any shadows." I succeed, he promises to fight me, and instead makes me fight a random miniboss. That's okay, I expected nothing. This guy just summons more of himself. I immediately know to kill them all at the same time, so I slowly whittle down their health in preparation for an area attack... then one kills himself against Chie's counter. Dick.
- Ugh, don't you hate it when you fight a boss, one guy dies, and you beat the boss before you can revive him, so he doesn't get any of the experience?
- Finished the big 'I have high counter lol' boss, Rise said to go back to near the beginning of the dungeon to continue on from a door that should now be open. At least I can just warp back to the beginning, unlike SOMEONE'S dungeon.
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Adachi's dungeon theme is great.
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- Got to what I assume is the room before the final boss. As per MSG's suggestion, I'll stop here and do social link stuff until 12/22.
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- Ai, I demand to know how you got to the other side of the fence in your social link. There is clearly no way you could have done that, those fences are obviously there only to prevent students from reaching the edge of the roof.
- Like in P3, NPCs casually talk about how the world will end soon and how they're excited.
- Shu social link beated.
- Other students are like "the TV tells us what to do!" Very subtle.
- 12/22, I'm ready to rumble.
- Social links I didn't finish: Naoto (rank 7), Naoki (rank 1), Eri (rank 6), Ai (rank 9). Did better than P3, but not as well as P5.
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Oh, just in case I/anyone else isn't here to say this when you're closer, I'd recommend saving the clear data in a separate slot when it asks. Dunno if that's standard practice for you like it is for me.
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xp1337 posted...

Oh, just in case I/anyone else isn't here to say this when you're closer, I'd recommend saving the clear data in a separate slot when it asks. Dunno if that's standard practice for you like it is for me.

I doubt Ill replay the game, but Ill keep that in mind.
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Well, P5 gives you an absurd amount of time to finish all the Confidants compared to the other two. You pretty much have to follow a guide to max out everything in a single run in P4 (and you absolutely do in P3).
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LeonhartFour posted...

Well, P5 gives you an absurd amount of time to finish all the Confidants compared to the other two. You pretty much have to follow a guide to max out everything in a single run in P4 (and you absolutely do in P3).

Yeah this. 5 I just needed a guide on what answers to give, and it was easy. 3 and 4 are much harder.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Well, P5 gives you an absurd amount of time to finish all the Confidants compared to the other two. You pretty much have to follow a guide to max out everything in a single run in P4 (and you absolutely do in P3).

I remember someone in my P5 topic (maybe you!) warning me that P5 was much more forgiving about the confidants than the other games, yeah. I can imagine finishing P5's on my own, I can't imagine it for these games.
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- I just realized the road signs in Adachi's evil version of Inaba have pictures of shadows on them.
- We reach the end of the dungeon and meet Adachi. Naoto is like "I'm gonna list all of your crimes so far" and then she actually does for some reason?
- Adachi counters this pointless move by pointlessly reconfirming that he did all of this for basically no reason, and everyone is still kind of stunned by his motive.
- He talks about how reality is boring if you aren't born with talent, and how he felt boxed in by it. I really like this, by the way. This is such a strong character. More on that later.
- Adachi summons his evil blue aura and yellow eyes and a spooky shadow over his face, but I have to say the funniest part of this character portrait is his frown. I must have missed this before, it's so funny.
https://66.media.tumblr.com/18721266bbc6d0aa32a10581281f578f/tumblr_mg4wgd4inC1qdm0y0o1_1280.jpg
- Everyone explains why he's dumb, and he says "Okay I'm gonna summon a bunch of dark energy or whatever that makes it look like I'll transform into a monster, but actually when the battle starts it's just me standing with a normal gun."
- Whoever said earlier that the protagonist and Adachi have the same VA, I never heard it before, but hearing Adachi rant and then Greg yell "persona!" when I used a spell in quick succession made it really obvious.
- Adachi proves to have a persona of his own, which is interesting, but uh... I mean, didn't he say he'd never entered the TV World because he knew it was dangerous? Did I totally misunderstand something?
- Eventually we burn down Adachi's HP. He helpfully gives us 3000 yen after the battle.
- Something else possesses Adachi, turns him into a black shadow, and tells us that he'll descend upon the world after all humans have become shadows and fog has engulfed the world and ensure eternal peace, because that's what humans anyway.
- He introduces himself as Ameno-sagiri, the ruler of the fog and the one awakened by man's desires. So Nyx was called by man's desires, Yaldabaoth was created by man's desires, and this guy was awakened by man's desires. Do I have that all correct?
- He explains that he's the one who gave people the power to enter the TV World, choosing the ones who'd be useful to him, and that the people on the Midnight Channel were those in peoples' minds because they were on TV.
- We also learn that the Midnight Channel version of Namatame we saw in the hospital wasn't real, it was just us thinking "man we hate this dick." That's an interesting twist, okay.
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- Finally he summons his greatest power: an anime cutscene. Using it, he assumes his final form: a Tron Death Star with a giant eyeball. Even his voice is vaguely Darth Vader-y. Someone in the background starts playing a guitar and keyboard, and we begin. I'll say this, he certainly has a more interesting design than Nyx or Yaldabaoth.
- Whenever I fight a final boss, I always think back to that early 2000s webcomic Adventurers!, where the final boss laughs and says something like "I have a bunch of seemingly-unfair-but-actually-not-that-bad final boss attacks!"
- Favorite moment of the battle: when Ameno-sagiri just used regular attacks on Yukiko twice in a row as his whole turn, each one dealing like 60 damage.
- MVP of both battles was Chie, power charging and attacking to deal more than half of the party's damage by herself. Of note: she defeated the wannabe gid final boss with an attack called God's Hand.
- After he's beaten, Ameno-sagiri is like "okay fine I GUESS I'll lift the fog and you can go home, but I'll just come back if people want me to."
- He also farts out Adachi, and we all go back to the real world and have him arrested. The next day, we go out and see the world is back to normal. There's even a little boy named Makoto. Another easy P5 joke I'm not going to make.
- Everyone does the 'end of an 80s movie' thing where they put their hands on top of each other in a circle, then screw it up. I like that.
- Rise and Greg have a date on Christmas Eve and the game wraps up nicely.
- In March, Dojima tells me to go talk to all of my rank 10 social links in town, which I do.
- The next day, everyone says their goodbyes, Naoto is like "the TV World still exists even though the Dark Hour and the Metaverse are destroyed at the ends of their games, weird huh?" All of my non-party member rank 10 high school social links show up to say goodbye, then are mysteriously absent when the anime cutscene starts. They're probably hanging out with Yuffie and Vincent.
- Greg sits on the train out of Inaba and someone starts singing an anime end credits song. The end.

I'll post my overall thoughts next, but spoilers: they're positive.
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Positive Things
- Of the three Persona games I've played, P4 is easily the best at working the themes of the game into every aspect of it. People yearning for false images, the concept of TV, the veneer of a small town, the way normal people incorrectly perceive all of the main characters, the overarching use of fog, illusions, ennui, the use of the mystery genre and a bunch of detectives trying to solve a mystery, your perception of yourself versus the inner feelings you force down... All of it is perfectly executed. It's easiest to compare this to P3: I really liked the premise of P3, of a bunch of teenagers trying to stop the world but having absolutely no idea what they're doing and ultimately fighting a weird monster god unconsciously summoned by humans out of boredom, but the execution of that is awkward and involves way too much "What do we do now?" P4 has just enough of that to be interesting and keep a similar theme of kids being in over their heads, but not enough to get repetitive.
- Adachi is a fantastic villain. He's way, way stronger as a human villain than Ikutsuki and Shido. He has actual sort-of-relatable feelings despite not really even having a motive, which is masterful. Not much else I can say, I think they really nailed it with him.
- The idea of having your inner feelings take physical form and confront you and having to accept them back into yourself in order to grow as a person is absolutely genius. That's one of the cleverest ideas I've ever seen in any video game, I was so impressed when I realized that's where the plot was going. It's a little disappointing that Greg didn't get one, but I understand why you obviously can't do that with a silent protagonist.
- Greg, Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, and Rise all have really good chemistry, Rise a little less so but still so.
- I liked the small town setting.
- The dungeon themes and designs are inventive and cool. I was actually disappointed when the characters stopped having the fake TV title cards appear above their heads, but I understand that it wouldn't have fit for Mitsuo and on. Too bad they're still P3-style randomly generated, though. P5 was correct to cut that.
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Not as Positive Things
- The one major aspect of the game that doesn't fit the themes is the characters' personas. P3's Greek heroes sooooort of fit in an ironic way, as in kids who have no idea what they're doing have personas of great gods and heroes, and P5's cast obviously all have thieves and stuff. If there's a connection between Shinto mythology and fog, mystery, illusion, and ennui, I don't see it.
- I feel like Kanji and Naoto are disconnected from the rest of the heroes as far as actually being friends goes. Kanji always seemed peripheral to the heroes' friendship, and Naoto feels like she exists only to do detective stuff and occasionally be the butt of a joke about embarrassing girl stuff. Part of that is due to Naoto joining late in the game, but Kanji doesn't have that excuse. To be fair to P4, this is a problem in the other games as well (Komomaru and Ken are so unimportant that they don't even show up in P3's ending, and Haru joins so late in P5 that she barely interacts with the rest of the party), and it's not any more severe here than elsewhere.
- Adachi is so disconnected from Greg, knowing him only through Dojima, that his eventual reveal as the villain carries basically no emotional weight. I know he becomes a social link in P4G and I assume that gives him a deeper relationship with the heroes, but as it is, when everyone figures out who's behind things, their reaction isn't "Oh no, our good friend Adachi has betrayed us, how awful!", it's "Oh, Adachi is the villain, we should've known."
- Kanji... I'm not even going to talk about it, honestly. I know it was acceptable in 2008, so I'll just accept it, but the game really banks on gay jokes not just being hilarious, but being so funny that the same two jokes can be told over and over and over again. Same with the fat girl being fat. Like I'm willing to meet you halfway on a fat joke, but there needs to be more to the joke than her just being fat.
- Teddie is annoying. I'm going to just leave it at that.
- The wacky teachers are less interesting and memorable than the wacky teachers of the other games.
- I felt like the events were generally weaker than P3's and P5's? Like the school trip left zero impression on me, whereas P5's trip to Hawaii was one of the most memorable moments in the game.
- Not being able to go out at night is weird. In P5, I always felt like I had something useful to do with my time. Not so much in P4, where either rain or non-job nights often felt like wasted days.

Overall Rankings
I should say that these rankings depend a lot on what you like in a story. P3 obviously goes for a more grounded tone than the other games, while P5 leans more into the wacky nature of things. I'm not going to rank anything related to gameplay except the final bosses, it's obviously unfair to do that.
- Human Villains: 4 > 5 > 3
- Party Members: 5 > 4 > 3
- Story Concept: 4 >= 3 > 5
- Story Execution: 4 > 5 > 3
- Final Boss: 3 > 4 > 5
- Social Links/Confidants: 5 > 4 > 3
- Dungeons: 5 > 4 > 3
I feel bad for ragging on 3 so much, it's still a good game. I think I would give an overall ranking of 5 > 4 > 3, but 5 > 4 is not by a lot. I could easily see my opinion about that changing if I'd played P4G... but then again, P5R is coming out soon, and who knows how that changes things? The point is that I understand why so many people say P4 is the best in the series, and I agree that it's very good. I'm sad there's no more Persona for me to play, I would absolutely move onto P6 if I could.

Makoto >= Kawakami > Aigis > Shadow Sae > Sae > Rise > Chie > Haru > Yukari > Futaba > Naoto > Toriumi > Mitsuru > Tae > Hifumi > Yukiko > Ann > Ai > Chihiro > Fuuka > Yumi > Chihaya > Yuko > Ohya
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Also, this is very minor, but I would've liked to see more of Margaret. Elizabeth gets her dates and the twins are involved in P5's actual story, but Margaret gets almost nothing.
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Just been lurking, but I have to say it's really interesting hearing your perspective on Kanji. Played this game when I was a teenager, and a lot of the kind of ridicule Kanji went through was the kind of stuff I felt when struggling with my sexuality at the time. Maybe that made me interpret it as less "played for laughs" and more "this is the kind of teasing that happens in 2008", and made me appreciate when he went from flying off the handle at any mention of it to trying to calm himself down constantly. I dunno, he never felt like "the joke character" to me compared to Teddie, at least.

Still, I find all the thoughts interesting and glad you enjoyed the game!
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....... Well, should we tell him? We should, right?
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I mean, I guess that's obvious. Whatever, I'll just say it.

You didn't actually get the true ending. I went through the game exactly like you did my first time through. I first try'd the dialogue to get the team to not throw Namatame into the TV, name-dropped Adachi at the beef-bowl place, beat him and Ameno-sagiri, hopped on the train, and yeeted on out of Inaba. It was an ending I enjoyed, and then didn't go back for NG+. I was content.

Maybe two years later or so, when b8 was discussing spoilers about the game, someone said something about a scene I'd never gotten when I played, so I did some research and realized that's only the "decent" ending and that there was more you could do and I freaked out. I had lost my copy of P4 and had to buy a new one off Pun's ebay. Turns out I also lost my PS2 memory card, so I had to start over from scratch. Still worth it.

Anyway, enough of my backstory, if you wanna go back and get the true ending, you need to go back to March when you're saying goodbye to everyone. After you've done so and the game says "hey you ready to go back home now?" you need to say no and head to the Junes food court. It'll take over from there.
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Anagram posted...

- Adachi is so disconnected from Greg, knowing him only through Dojima, that his eventual reveal as the villain carries basically no emotional weight.

Well, to be fair, it does lose some impact when you go into it already knowing it's him. Like, I didn't figure it out until literally the game made you pick who the culprit was and realized it literally couldn't be anyone else.

Anagram posted...

- He introduces himself as Ameno-sagiri, the ruler of the fog and the one awakened by man's desires. So Nyx was called by man's desires, Yaldabaoth was created by man's desires, and this guy was awakened by man's desires. Do I have that all correct?

Yeah, Persona generally has this "Humanity kinda sucks" theme going on.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Like, I didn't figure it out until literally the game made you pick who the culprit was and realized it literally couldn't be anyone else.

Same

I actually never got the "true" ending, I've been meaning to repair my ps2 but haven't gotten around to it.
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I never had the Culprit spoiled and knew immediately who it was

I have a friend who got the worst ending in P4 and thought it was the real ending and stopped playing

He did not reach out to the truth
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KamikazePotato posted...

I have a friend who got the worst ending in P4 and thought it was the real ending and stopped playing

He did not reach out to the truth

HOW
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MrSmartGuy posted...

I mean, I guess that's obvious. Whatever, I'll just say it.

You didn't actually get the true ending. I went through the game exactly like you did my first time through. I first try'd the dialogue to get the team to not throw Namatame into the TV, name-dropped Adachi at the beef-bowl place, beat him and Ameno-sagiri, hopped on the train, and yeeted on out of Inaba. It was an ending I enjoyed, and then didn't go back for NG+. I was content.

Maybe two years later or so, when b8 was discussing spoilers about the game, someone said something about a scene I'd never gotten when I played, so I did some research and realized that's only the "decent" ending and that there was more you could do and I freaked out. I had lost my copy of P4 and had to buy a new one off Pun's ebay. Turns out I also lost my PS2 memory card, so I had to start over from scratch. Still worth it.

Anyway, enough of my backstory, if you wanna go back and get the true ending, you need to go back to March when you're saying goodbye to everyone. After you've done so and the game says "hey you ready to go back home now?" you need to say no and head to the Junes food court. It'll take over from there.

Blarg

Okay, well, I'll continue on, but that makes that whole spiel of mine somewhat premature, huh? Luckily I still have a save from after I had already beaten the final boss.

LeonhartFour posted...

Well, to be fair, it does lose some impact when you go into it already knowing it's him. Like, I didn't figure it out until literally the game made you pick who the culprit was and realized it literally couldn't be anyone else.

You're right, but I'm 100% confident I'd have known immediately anyway. Adachi just set off every possible red flag.

Yeah, Persona generally has this "Humanity kinda sucks" theme going on.

I noticed!
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Reading the spiel while knowing you still had the True End left was pretty fun, actually

profDEADPOOL posted...

KamikazePotato posted...

I have a friend who got the worst ending in P4 and thought it was the real ending and stopped playing

He did not reach out to the truth

HOW

He's a...unique fellow overall.
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Anagram posted...

Blarg

Okay, well, I'll continue on, but that makes that whole spiel of mine somewhat premature, huh? Luckily I still have a save from after I had already beaten the final boss.

hahahaha

This was the real reason I advised you to save the clear data in a separate slot. I had a feeling this would happen and didn't know how many save files you had and didn't want to risk the worst-case scenario of you only having one save file (or only one anywhere close to the end) and then saving over it with the Clear Data only to learn from us that "whoops you only got Normal End not True End lol"

I went back and forth on saying anything because I didn't want you suspicious that my saying this out of nowhere meant there was something up.
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- Greg decides not to go home after bidding farewell to everyone. Instead he goes to Junes, where everyone spontaneously meets up with him.
- Everyone realizes that all of this started from the Midnight Channel rumors, and talks about how there are still unaswered questions. Naoto and Chie notice a flaw in what Ameno-sagiri said: Namatame, Adachi, and Greg could all enter the TVs persona-less, which meant they had the power for some other reason.
- Greg realizes he has an unopened letter from Adachi in jail. It says "Dear Greg, someone told me about the Midnight Channel before I heard the rumors, but obviously Namatame and I both gained our power after coming to Inaba, weird huh?"
- Everyone realizes there's an unknown connection, and Yosuke realizes the TV World, the Midnight Channel, and the ability to enter TVs are all separate things connected by something unknown, so the person Adachi mentioned is behind everything.
- We decide to investigate. Nanako says "WHEN WE FIRST CAME TO TOWN YOU TALKED TO A WEIRD GAS STATION ATTENDANT REMEMBER HOW YOU GOT SICK AFTER MEETING HIM HUH THOSE WERE GOOD TIMES."
- Greg goes to Igor, who gives him the Orb of Plot Continuing.
- Greg goes back to the gas station and pesters the attendant with questions until he admits to being something supernatural. Has anyone who ever said "I guess it's the foolish nature of being mortal" ever turned out to be friendly? He turns into Izanami and tells Greg that Ameno-sagiri was just an aspect she birthed. She says "I set all of this in motion, but didn't expect you to track me down. Okay, let's fight but only after you have time to go to the store and save."
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FYI, you can leave the TV world as many times as you want for this dungeon to go to the store.
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Also, I'm a little disappointed I didn't legitimately get the true ending without help, but such is life.
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