Persona 4

Persona 4 (ペルソナ4, Perusona 4) is the fifth game in the Persona series. The game was developed by Atlus for the PlayStation 2.

Plot
The game starts with the protagonist being sent to the rural town of Inaba from the big city since his parents are working abroad. He is living with his uncle Ryotaro Dojima and his younger cousin Nanako Dojima and attends Yasogami High School, where he becomes friends with Chie Satonaka and Yosuke Hanamura. On the first day of the game, the protagonist has a strange dream that teaches him to use his true power, a Persona, specifically his first one Izanagi, in battle. Through Chie, the protagonist and Yosuke come to realize that an urban legend called the Midnight Channel is true; if you stare into a turned off TV at midnight on a rainy day, you can see somebody in there. In what shocks the town, a TV announcer — Mayumi Yamano — is found dead hanging from a telephone pole, as is the woman who discovered her body, Saki Konishi. When the protagonist first watches the Midnight Channel, he finds that he has the power to physically go into the TV, but his TV is too small to support him.

When the protagonist reports this to his friends the next day, all 3 of them decide to then go through one of the large TVs at Junes; all of them make it in and find a strange bear named Teddie; the group flees the channel in fear, but when Yosuke and the protagonist return the next day, they find that there is a pathway to an area resembling Inaba. There, at this realm created by the true feelings of Saki called the Twisted Shopping District, Yosuke's repressed feelings of how he was not really liked by Saki -- who he harbored a deep crush on -- manifest. Yosuke's inability to accept these feelings allow a shadow to become Shadow Yosuke. When the player defeats it with his Izanagi, Yosuke accepts the feelings allowing the Shadow to manifest into Yosuke's Persona, Jiraiya. The player learns that he has a special power named the Wild Card which, unlike all party members in the game, allows him to carry more than one Persona (his maximum number of Personas increase along with his level).

Eventually, the three realize that people who are going to be murdered appear on the Midnight Channel, and they will appear dead on the next foggy day after that appearance. The group must use their Personas to battle against the Shadows that populate this other world. Eventually, Chie's best friend Yukiko Amagi is kidnapped; when the team goes to Yukiko's Castle to begin searching, Chie's emotions over Yukiko manifest and become Shadow Chie on the 6th floor. After defeating her and defeating Shadow Yukiko on the last floor, Yukiko joins the group. The protagonist moves on to save Kanji Tatsumi and Rise Kujikawa from their Shadow manifestations in the channel, the Steamy Bathhouse and Marukyu Striptease respectively, all the while trying — to no avail — to find the real killer. Rise and Kanji accept their shadow selves and join the party with their own Personas after being saved. Teddie will also gain a shadow form after beating Rise, though his Shadow becomes his own Persona as well.

However, the team finds that after Rise's rescue, the foul-mouthed and largely unpopular schoolteacher Kinshiro Morooka — despite never appearing on the Midnight Channel beforehand — was found dead in a manner similar to the first two victims. When the Midnight Channel was next checked, an unknown boy was taking credit for the murders taunting the protagonists. An investigation around town to find the boy's identity reveals him to be a student from another school named Mitsuo Kubo. When he is confronted in his Midnight Channel dungeon, the Void Quest, his shadow form is defeated, and he is pulled out of the TV and handed over to the police as the true killer... But the group suspects that something isn't right with the theory that he is the killer. And as the group tries to piece together any evidence to confirm or disprove the theory that Kubo is the killer, Naoto Shirogane — a highly intelligent junior detective with great deductive reasoning — associates with the group and he comments that their theory is foolish. The police meanwhile seem to be resting assured that the real killer has been caught, in such a way that Naoto finds appalling.

The theory that Kubo is the killer is disproven when Naoto appears on the channel himself; when the group goes out to his dungeon, the Secret Laboratory, to save him, they find that in reality, Naoto is actually a girl who took on a male identity to avoid the sexism of the police department. After her dark self is defeated she also joins the group, whose excellent detective skills prove to be a highly valuable asset for the rest of the game. But on October 20th, the protagonist receives a letter addressed to him — the sender's name and address are nowhere to be found on the letter which literally only reads: "dont rescue anymore" with no capitalization or punctuation.

The climax of the game starts on November 5th, when another letter is addressed to the protagonist; it reads "if you dont stop this time someone close will be put in and killed" again lacking any capitalization, punctuation or grammar. Unfortunately, Dojima sees the letter and sends the protagonist to the police station, his suspicions about him being involved in the case (what with his behavior) now affirmed true. Nanako is then reported kidnapped; the group, using Naoto's deductive logic, find that the culprit should be a small-time suspect in the first murder; Taro Namatame. When Dojima gives chase to Namatame, a crash occurs seriously injuring Dojima while Namatame and Nanako disappear, though the group assumes that the large TV found in his truck is an indicant that he escaped to the TV world.

As Dojima rests in the hospital, the group comes to the conclusion that Namatame must be the real killer. He and Nanako are traced down in Heaven (a Midnight Channel dungeon). After going through Heaven and defeating the Shadow that attacks them when they confront Namatame (Kunino-sagiri) rest in the hospital to recover, Nanako seems to suffer particularly hard (likely due to her young age).

Unfortunately, after both Nanako and Namatame are taken out of the channel, fog — the same type of fog that populates the Midnight Channel — is found running through the world. The team goes through a stressful period as they wait for Nanako to recover, and Namatame is in too unstable a mental condition to talk. Dojima and Nanako are periodically visited in the hospital by the group.

December 3rd is the final turning point in the game. On this day, Nanako appears to succumb to her wounds and appears to die. Furious, Dojima attempts to walk into Namatame's ward and kill him, but is stopped by guards. As the guard drags him away, the group enters Namatame's room and they find that he is mentally unstable Unfortunately, as Dojima's assistant Adachi (who has appeared multiple times in the story) tells them, there is almost no evidence that the police can use to convict, or even further detain Adachi (and of course there is no chance a judge or a jury will believe the story about the Midnight Channel). The group contemplates murdering Namatame to bring true justice, and what happens next all depends on the player's choice of words in the text chain:


 * If the player approves the contemplation, Namatame is thrown into the television, and Nanako will be confirmed dead. The protagonist will return home, and the mystery will go unsolved (just not to the group's knowledge) with the party never realizing that the man they killed was not the true culprit, meaning that not only was an innocent man killed but also the true killer was left free. (This ending is generally not considered canon.)


 * If Namatame is spared, but the player cannot convince the group that they need to dig deeper into the case, OR if the player does do so but cannot guess the killer's identity 2 days later, then Nanako will come to alive. The game ends, and the mystery will go unsolved (again, not to the group's knowledge). Namatame is seen pleading guilty to the kidnapping charges but not guilty to the murder charges on TV.

There is also another ending and another epilogue in Persona 4: Golden.
 * If Namatame is spared, and the Investigation Team correctly guesses someone else as the real killer, Nanako will come to, and the game continues along with the chasing and confrontation of the real killer. After his defeat, depending on whether the player chooses to "return home" or see all of his maxed social links on the last day, the player will then see either the True or Normal Ending.

Characters

 * See also: List of Persona 4 Characters

As in most Persona games, a majority of the characters are high school students, this time from Yasogami High School. The main characters include:
 * The protagonist: The silent protagonist of the game. He recently moved to live in Inaba with his uncle and cousin after his parents had to work overseas.
 * Yosuke Hanamura: A clumsy, awkward second-year boy who is often used as comic relief through physical comedy. His dad is the manager of Junes, a department store.
 * Chie Satonaka: An upbeat girl with a short temper and an obsession with martial arts and food. She was born and raised in Inaba and is a second-year with Yosuke, Yukiko, and the protagonist.
 * Yukiko Amagi: A wealthy, elegant, introverted girl who is the heiress of the famous Amagi Inn. She is always busy training herself for the business. Like Chie, she is a second-year.
 * Kanji Tatsumi: A juvenile delinquent with piercings and a tough look. However, his mother runs a textile shop in their home, making him very skilled at tailoring. A first-year.
 * Rise Kujikawa: A former idol in Japan, she quits her job to have a normal life in the countryside and enrolls at Yasogami High as a first-year. She acts as support in battle after taking over for Teddie.
 * Naoto Shirogane: A young, serious detective who is dubbed as the "Detective Prince." After becoming involved in the murder cases, Naoto enrolls at Yasogami High as a first-year.
 * Teddie: A strange bear mascot who resides within Mayonaka TV. He serves as outside support in battle, but later becomes a party member during battle.

Gameplay
The Moon Phase System, which has been in a vast majority of Megami Tensei games, has been replaced with a Weather Forecast system. The game features a more retro style compared to Persona 3.

Persona 4's game play and style stay similar to Persona 3's. Persona 4 has kept the social links and the dungeon crawling gameplay and it appears to be run on the same engine as its predecessor. Features such as Community (Social Link in English localization,) One More and All-out Attack from Persona 3 return. The glasses, given by Teddie, play an important role in the game, and allow the party to see through the heavy mist inside Mayonaka TV and decrease stamina loss. The pistol-like Evokers of Persona 3 are replaced by tarot cards, which the main characters shatter in order to summon their respective Personas. The battles also have some similarities, such as the one more system, all out attack, and the AI controlled support characters. However, characters can be set to take commands from the player, deviating from Persona 3's system.

However, several major changes have been made. The player now has 5 stats in contrast to P3's 3 and lacks the health status, enabling players to explore dungeons continuously. Only now, the constraint is SP. HP and SP will not be restored when the player goes back to the dungeon entrance, but the player can choose to restore SP by talking to the fox (who will join the group after some time into the game), although it will cost a significant amount of money.

Battle-wise, P4 is more forgiving. This is partly due to a new tactic in battle enabling the player to directly control the actions of the other party members. This time the player can continually exploit an enemy's weakness, as they will stay down instead of getting up after the second consecutive exploitation of their weakness. Multi-target spells give a bonus turn as long as the player hits at least one enemy's weakness (However, the same works for the player party). Battles now occur after school instead of at midnight like in P3. This gives the player less time in which to do social activities. Post battle card shuffles have been revamped with the addition of arcana chance (which can bring you good or bad status depending on the Arcana and the way the card lands).

Social Links now have a greater effect on battle. For example, for level 1, the player's allies occasionally protect the protagonist from a deathblow (If the HP of the protagonist becomes zero, the game will be over.) For level 3, if the protagonist or his allies successfully knock the shadow down, the allies will occasionally offer to have a follow-up attack which has a 100% chance to knock down and can paralyze another shadow or shadows (or in the case of Chie, instantly defeat). For level 5, if the Social Link character knocks down a foe, they will help an ally who is Down or Dizzy. For level 7, if the Social Link character knocks down a foe, they can cure one ally of Rage, Fear, or Confusion. All allies whom had their corresponding Social Link at level 9 will be able to survive an attack that should have killed them with 1 HP once per battle. For the maximum level, the persona of the corresponding ally will be evolved into another persona. The biggest change is the status of the persona. Some Personas may lose their weakness and become immune to certain kind of magic attacks, or allow them to resist a completely different element.

Trivia

 * In the True Ending of the game, Yosuke asks the protagonist whether he has plans in May, hinting at the release of Persona 4 Arena which starts in May, more specifically during Golden Week, two months after the True Ending of Persona 4.
 * In the Persona 4 disc the player can find the BGM (Background Music) from Persona 3 FES.
 * In the protagonist's room, the player can find a calendar with promotional artwork for Persona 3.