History Persona4 / TropesAToF

* TheCatfish: The Guardian, a legendary giant fish that inhabits the local river.
** Feed it to the cat during the quest "Cat Needs Food Badly" and you can clear the quest with only four feedings. (Otherwise, it takes ''twenty fish'' to clear the quest.) Hell of a way for the Guardian's career to end... Then again, there's apparently more than one, since it's possible to catch multiple ones in a single fishing session if you have good luck and enough of the right kind of bait.

** Yosuke describes [[VideoGame/Persona3 Chihiro]] as "The most bewitching bespectacled beauty I've ever… beheld!" and even pauses briefly whilst he thinks of a word for "seen" that starts with the letter B.

* DudeNotFunny: [[invoked]]

* FallingChandlierOfDoom: {{Downplayed|Trope}} on the 'falling' part in the battle against Shadow Yukiko. She uses a chandlier which gets lowered from the ceiling with a bird cage embedded into it, and stops a short distance from the ground. Upon defeat, the chandlier collapses.

** Perhaps the most delicate foreshadowing is reserved for [[spoiler:Izanami.]] Honestly, were you paying attention to anything the [[spoiler:gas station attendant]] said throughout the year? [[spoiler:Her MotiveRant at the end is practically distilled from the attendant's script, if you condense it a couple of months.]] Additionally, you can only speak to her on rainy days. Also, she's the only 'minor' character with a Voice Actress..

** Pay close attention to the animatic when the main character first finds out about [[spoiler:the Midnight Channel. The rain on his bedroom window makes three very blurry points of light in the city beyond, representing his, Adachi's, and Namtame's powers given by Izanami.]]

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: PlayedForDrama. [[spoiler:Furious over Nanako's death, the entire team confronts Namatame, then the Midnight Channel appears on a large TV next to them, depicting Shadow Namatame smugly repeating his motives for bringing Nanako to the TV World. This gives the team the motivation [[PayEvilUntoEvil to kill Namatame via the same method he supposedly used on the first two victims]] [[KarmaHoudini since he would get away with this in court]] due to how absurd the Midnight Channel is. The protagonist, however, convinces everyone to calm down since he feels that something feels ''very wrong'' about the "Namatame is the Killer" theory due to the circumstances, so they let him be. They later find out to their horror that Shadow Namatame acting like a SmugSnake was due to the team subconsciously wishing for a reason to kill Namatame.]]

** Anyone who goes inside the world inside the TV will eventually face their Shadow, which is a personification of their darkest thoughts and fears. The Shadow will kill its source when enraged, either by the victim provoking it or when the fog appears in the real world. [[spoiler:The only exceptions are Nanako, who is too young to generate a Shadow, and the main character, who was given the power of Persona by Izanami directly and was already protected from the effects of the TV world.]]

* CantDropTheHero: Doesn't help that the protagonist in the beginning was placed under contract... by a guy in a space limo.

* CaptainObvious: Whoever is serving as MissionControl in battle. Over and over and over...
** Inverted when MissionControl gleefully smirks about an enemy's weakness [[ComicallyMissingThePoint even when you brought along no teammates or Personas capable of exploiting said weakness]].

*** Yukiko and Rise tell Naoto ''exactly'' how they're involved with the murder case. [[spoiler:She doesn't believe it until after her kidnapping.]] It doesn't help that both of them are acting completely drunk at the time.

* CategoryTraitor: Saki Konishi took a part time job to work at Junes, the store chain that was running her parents' shop out of business. Her parents don't really take this well, although her brother is more sympathetic.

* ChekhovsSkill: It's shown that Nanako has a really good memory concerning every time the Junes jingle comes on, which she can recite perfectly. Some time next year, the protagonist asks her [[spoiler:about what happened the day he arrived in Inaba. She gives a surprisingly-accurate recollection of what happened before they brought you home, as she went to the bathroom at the gas station, saw him talk to the creepy attendant and even asked if he was carsick when he felt dizzy after that. This gives the protagonist an idea of who might've started the Midnight Channel rumor.]]

* FourIsDeath: When [[spoiler:Nanako]] is hospitalized, the number on her room is 404. Hell, while it's not commented on in-game, her birthday is, [[VideoGame/Persona3 of all days]], October 4th!

* Creator/FriedrichNietzsche: Much of the game's philosophical core seems to be Nietzschean in nature - ''actually'' Nietzschean, [[NietzscheWannabe not the stuff people try to pin on him]]. (In fact, several of the ''villains'' are prominently [[NietzscheWannabe Nietzsche Wannabes]].) The concept of the "fog of deception around humanity" and the way it is explained seems lifted almost wholesale from Nietzsche's ''On Truth And Lies In A Nonmoral Sense''; the concept of the truth being something that a person must look past themselves to truly grasp (a process that is often painful and requires critical self-reflection) is central to his thesis and is the core message of the game.
** Most likely because the entire series is based on the psychology/philosophy of UsefulNotes/CarlJung, who was greatly inspired by Nietzsche. Everything about the series, from the term "Shadow" to "Persona" to the collective unconscious manifesting as a "[[AdventureFriendlyWorld Realm of Adventure]]" are lifted ''directly'' from Jung.

** If you complete her S-Link and didn't get a bad ending, [[spoiler:Nanako]] will tell you she wants to marry to you before you leave.

* FaceNodAction: Done twice by Chie and Yukiko when deciding to give the boys the curry [[LethalChef they]] [[OvenLogic made]] and pushing them off a cliff into a pool of water.

* FunnyAfro: The MC at the Culture Festival, and a nameless third-year who gives you riddles.

** {{Utopia}}: What Inaba becomes for many, later on in the Golden Epilogue. Yukiko, Yosuke, Naoto, and Yu all gain a newfound love for the town, [[spoiler:Namatame recovers from his high-publicity affair and arrest as a murder-suspect and runs for Mayor, with a ''good chance'' of winning.]] The local businesses work together with Junes to have a Locally-Produced Goods section in the store, bringing more business to the town, the local TeenIdol drops by regularly to keep locals from being bored out of their minds. Crime was already virtually-unheard-of, but now there's a super-sleuth KidDetective making it home. [[spoiler:The fog that's [[RegularlyScheduledEvil returned on and off every few decades]] will no longer flood the town, and the local weather girl ''[[PhysicalGod actually controls the weather!]]'']]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: At one point in the game, Yosuke and Chie tail Kanji and Naoto, and hide themselves behind a tree. Yosuke is standing above Chie, who is on all-fours. Lampshaded (along with a lot of other stuff) in [[http://hiimdaisy.livejournal.com/26484.html#cutid1 hiimdaisy's legendary comic.]]

* DynamicEntry: If you have Kanji in your party [[spoiler:during the fight with Izanami-no-Okami, when she starts using "Thousand Curses" he'll jump in and kick the protagonist in the head to shove him out of the way.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: The game emphasizes that the player pursues the truth and to avoid easy answers. Follow this concept, and the player can avoid the Bad Ending. Keep following this concept and understand that there is always truth to seek, even when everything seems to be wrapped up, and the player can unlock the True Ending, [[spoiler:wherein the goddess Izanami is defeated and the fog is finally lifted for good.]]

* FinalDungeonPreview: When you rest on the first day of arriving in Inaba, you awaken in a strange area. Upon moving forward and reaching a door, you are entered into a fight which ends in a few turns and you wake up for school. This is never brought up again until you reach the true ending, where it is revealed to be [[spoiler:Yomotsu Hirasaka]], the final dungeon of the game.

* BrokenAesop:
** One of the most common criticisms that gets brought up towards the game is how it often times breaks it's own aesop about how you should always reach towards the truth and justice even if said truth and justice is hard to take in, instead opting for the idea that the truth and justice doesn't always matter so long as happiness is the end result. One example is the personal conflicts in a lot of the social links, which are often resolved by side-stepping the desire to resolve them in the first place, as well as [[spoiler:the true culprit's points in relation to his beliefs and opinions essentially being summed up as them not mattering, despite coming from a place of truth.]]
** Yosuke's character arc became this in hindsight after the spinoffs. One of the biggest points of his story arc is that it is ok to be normal and that seeking out trouble isn't the way to make your life better. Because Atlus treats spinoffs as canon to the Persona timeline, Yosuke has fought to save the world four times (one he doesn't remember) and [[VideoGame/BlazBlueCrossTagBattle recently he's even jumped to other universes to face off against other kinds of supernatural danger]].

* DyingTown: Inaba shows shades of this throughout the game, with several smaller businesses shutting down due to the chain store Junes opening up. Several teenagers, including Yosuke and Yukiko, tend to think negatively of Inaba due to SmallTownBoredom. However, the [[spoiler:GoldenEnding implies Inaba is starting to recover, with Junes working together with the smaller businesses to help them stay in active]].

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Morooka]] doesn't do or say a single solitary pleasant or likeable thing throughout the entire game, but it doesn't justify murder, and the characters say as much while discussing his death.

* AbortedArc: Sayoko's social link begins strongly emphasizing her sexuality, having her hit on the player, talk about doctors she'd seduced at previous hospitals, and even [[spoiler:having the wife of a doctor she'd slept with track her down to cuss her out.]] However, by the middle of the link, her sexual past gets entirely dropped in favor of [[spoiler:her guilt over a former patient dying]]. The rest of her link deals with her [[spoiler:overworking herself due to guilt and grief, with no further mention of sexuality or infidelity]]. Granted, though, the interlude does have some significance, as after the incident with the doctor's wife, she expresses some of her cynicism and disillusionment with her job.
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal:

** In RealLife, serial killers tend to be people the victims know. [[spoiler:In this case, it was none other than Tohru Adachi, Dojima's partner]].
** During the WhamEpisode near the end of the game, the player has to make choices that determine what ending to get. [[spoiler:If the player punishes Nanako's kidnapper out of vengeance? You get a BadEnding and Nanako dies, while the real truth behind the case is still out there]]. It can potentially get worse in ''Golden'', where [[spoiler:Adachi, the murder, is one of your social links. Make the wrong decisions, and not only does Adachi become a KarmaHoudini, but he ''mocks the player over it even when leaving Inaba''. This is known as the Accomplice Ending]].

** ''Golden'' muddies the waters a little, as while [[spoiler:Izanami]] of the TV world really is [[spoiler:the goddess of Japan]], Marie makes it clear that [[spoiler:she, Ameno-sagiri and Kunino-sagiri, are manifestations of humanity's collective unconscious wish.]] You only get this tidbit if you maximize her Social Link and save her before earning the True Ending. (And of course, [[spoiler:given what ''all'' gods are in the wider setting, this might ultimately be the difference between two related species of apples.]]
* AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield: The battle against [[spoiler:Ameno-sagiri, God of Fog,]] takes place in a trippy location full of moving black and red lines in the skies above [[MirrorWorld Magatsu Inaba]].

** Nearly every boss theme is an imposing hard rock song: the fast-paced metal track "I'll Face Myself (-Battle-)" for the Shadow Selves and optional bosses, the droning, dreary, glitchy "A New World Fool" against [[spoiler:Kunino-sagiri and the Killer]], the triumphant "The Almighty" when fighting [[spoiler:Ameno-sagiri]], and "The Fog" for [[spoiler:the first phase against the true final boss, Izanami]].

* BatmanGambit: Partially deconstructed. [[spoiler:Naoto's]] works, but [[spoiler: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 details she's able to remember [[spoiler:from her own kidnapping]].
* BattleThemeMusic: You'll hum to the [[PreExistingEncounters Pre-existing encounters.]] You'll ''rock out'' to the boss battles.

** 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.

** While not really a big "no", Yosuke and Kanji both have these when [[spoiler:Nanako appears to die.]] Yosuke screams "DAMN IT!!" twice and Kanji lets out a painful anguish cry and punches the wall as hard as he can.

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

** [[spoiler:Adachi]] is a more straightforward example. More obvious in ''Golden'' when you see [[spoiler:how his Social Link centers around him badmouthing an old lady who mistook him for her son]].

[[folder: Tropes C & D]]

[[folder: Tropes E & F]]

* EarnYourBadEnding: There is a new Bad Ending in ''Golden'', and the player has to make the effort to actually see it. The player first has to [[spoiler:not throw Namatame into the TV]], then later on, choose to [[spoiler:defend Adachi and cover up his tracks, knowing full well that he is the murderer. Your Social Link with him must be high enough to do this.]]. This gives you the absolute worst ending, [[spoiler:also known as the Accomplice Ending. The player betrays the player character's friends and everything they've worked on for almost a year. All the while, the Jester Social Link becomes maxed]].
* EarnYourHappyEnding: The game emphasizes that the player pursues the truth and to avoid easy answers. Follow this concept, and the player can avoid the Bad Ending. Keep following this concept and understand that there is always truth to seek, even when everything seems to be wrapped up, and the player can unlock the True Ending, [[spoiler:wherein the goddess Izanami is defeated and the fog is finally lifted for good]].

* EasterEgg: If you load up ''Golden'''s TV Listings at [[RealTime midnight]], [[spoiler:you can watch Teddie's version of the Midnight Channel. You can't put your hand through the Vita, but you can [[PaintingTheMedium tap the screen to tickle him.]]]]

* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Naoto's dungeon

* EleventhHourSuperpower: The protagonist's "ultimate" Persona, which is attained through the strength of the Social Links formed up until that point [[spoiler:and used to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu defeat Izanami]]]].

* EntertaininglyWrong: Some of the theories the team comes up with are rationally arrived at based on the data they have, they just happen to also be wrong. The killer [[spoiler:isn't targeting women]] or [[spoiler:people who had some indirect connection to Mayumi Yamano]], the Midnight Channel [[spoiler:isn't the result of the killer announcing the next target]] and the killer [[spoiler:isn't even directly responsible for most of the disappearances]]!

* EveryonesBabySister: Nanako Dojima. She instantly becomes [[TrueCompanions his nakama's]] little cousin as well, and they all become very protective of her. [[spoiler:When she's almost killed near the end of the game, the entire team basically goes on RoaringRampageOfRevenge mode]].

** Averted with some of the Shadows - both mooks and regular bosses. Shadow Naoto particularly comes to mind with Brave Blade

* ExtendedGameplay: Congratulations! You've solved the murders and now you get to enjoy the PlayableEpilogue during the last day of the game. [[spoiler:It's a "PlayableEpilogue" because it's the only chance you get to unlock the True Ending route and solve the game's last dangling plot threads]].

** In early November, Nanako opens the door for the deliveryman to answer a question. [[spoiler:Said deliveryman takes advantage of Nanako's trust and kidnaps her]].

** The focus of Marie's social link is her trying to discover her past. The only clue she has to go on is an old bamboo comb. As noted by Kanji's mother in Rank 7, the Japanese word for comb contains the words [[spoiler:"ku" and "shi" which separately mean pain and death]] and according to superstition combs have the ability to separate people. Rather nicely sets up Marie's status as [[spoiler:a LiteralSplitPersonality of Izanami, the GreaterScopeVillain.]]

** Another InUniverse example tips the group off that all is not what it appears with [[spoiler:Namatame supposedly being the serial killer.]] The warning letters you received earlier tell you not to "rescue" any more victims or "someone close will be put in and killed." The group notes that [[spoiler:Namatame, who believed he was saving people,]] would not have used words like "rescue" and "kill."

[[/folder]]

* BossInMookClothing: So very, very much.

** The class trip, which is basically a long list of locations from and references to ''VideoGame/Persona3'', some of them very obvious (hi, Chihiro and Edogawa!) 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...)
** During the Answer in ''Persona 3 FES'', you see that the police label [[spoiler:Ken's mom's death by Shinjiro's Persona going out of control]] a drunk driving accident [[spoiler:because the Kirijo group were quick to cover up the fact that two of their best SEES personnel had just accidentally killed a civilian]]. Now, alcohol doesn't get served at the club you're attending because of this event.

** While the group are telling ghost stories to one another, Yosuke mentions one he heard from his friend's sister; about a girl who had bullied another girl relentlessly, only for her to disappear. The bully then ran out at night apparently hearing the girl's voice calling to her, and ended up unconscious outside of the school. Clearly, his cousin knows one of the girls that used to bully [[VideoGame/Persona3 Fuuka]]. Naoto's comments of reading a police report similar to Yosuke's story further solidifies the connection.

** In the [[UsefulNotes/Playstation2 vanilla version]] of the game, if you accept Yumi's invitation to hang out with her in Okina City on July 3rd, she will mention a new coffee flavor called "Pheromone Coffee." This is the same Charm-increasing coffee they sold at Chagall Cafe in Paulownia Mall from ''VideoGame/Persona3''. In the ''[[UpdatedRerelease Golden]]'', the cafe itself becomes a location the protagonist can regularly visit in Okina City.

* CheckPointStarvation: Several instances towards the end of the game. In a combat sense, you have to do at least a floor of a dungeon, then fight [[spoiler:Adachi, and then Ameno-Sagiri]] with no chance to go back and change Personas and save. This is somewhat problematic for ''Golden'', which is, after all, a portable game.

** If you're close to the True Ending, an unexpected key player is going to be [[spoiler:''the gas station attendant''.]]

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Kanji is pretty much this. One moment happens during the epilogue's ski trip, shortly before [[spoiler:starting to save Marie, if you met the requirements to be able to do so.]] if you choose to go with any female character, the MC and your guest will notice something odd happening with the TV, and make a commotion that sounds awkwardly like the two are making out. The characters will say similar, if slightly different things depending on who you pick, this example is if you pick [[spoiler:Naoto]] ([[spoiler:Naoto]]: "Hey, don't go too deep!". (Rest of the party walks in.) ''Rise'' "...They're still dressed." ''Kanji'': "Why would they take their clothes off in this freezing weather? And dude, why're you guys so flustered? What's up with you guys?" ''Chie'': "Are you really asking that, Kanji-kun?")

* CoolDownHug: The Protagonist has the option to give Yosuke one of these during the Magician S-Link, assuming certain dialog options were previously chosen.
* CoolHelmet: Chie's personas, Tomoe and Suzuka Gongen, are two legendary Japanese warrior women who wear a standard street bike helmet and an off-road bike helmet, respectively... and make it work.

* CrapsaccharineWorld: If you ignore the whole serial killer thing, Inaba seems like an okay place to live, right? ''Wrong''. The police force is [[PoliceAreUseless woefully undermanned and way out of their grasp with something like a high-profile murder case]].The recent arrival of Junes has forced many of the town's independent businesses (which are established to have been around for ''generations'') out of business, and has caused much of the town to turn on each other as some accept the change Junes is bringing while others cling to their ancestral businesses. This is made especially clear during [[spoiler:Saki's posthumous rant, which reveals that Junes completely destroyed her life, turning her from a sweet, bubbly girl (according to Yosuke) into a bitter, self-loathing nihilist who wished that everything would just ''end''.]]

* CriticalHitClass: [[KickChick Chie Satonaka]] is geared towards this, especially in ''[[UpdatedRerelease Golden]]''. There, she has Black Spot and later Rainy Death, two physical attacks with very high critical rate. She also got a passive that increases chance for critical, as well as a buff that also increases critical chance. This is probably to compensate for her lower damage compared to fellow physical attacker [[TheBigGuy Kanji]].

** You and your buddies get entered into a crossdressing beauty pageant by the girls for signing them up for the regular beauty pageant. HilarityEnsues.[[note]]You even unlock the crossdressing clothes as costumes afterwards.[[/note]]

* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: It's rather interesting to note that just about ''every'' character (Major and Minor) has this trope in effect. There are only '''3''' characters who don't follow this trope: Margaret (White hair, yellow eyes), [[spoiler:Teddie's human form (Blond hair, blue eyes) and Izanami's human form (whitish-grey hair and ''[[RedEyesTakeWarning RED EYES]]''), all of whom are otherworldly beings of some sort. Hmmm.]]
** [[spoiler:And then there's the interesting case of Marie. In Golden she has black hair, grey eyes but in everything else (Golden Animation, Arena Ultimax, Q) she has black hair, green eyes. She stops following this trope after people who played Golden when it came out find out what she really is.]]

* DebateAndSwitch: [[spoiler:Adachi's entire core motivation stems from the fact that he believes the world is unfair towards those who actually work hard, and that people who are successful in their lives are primarily those that are born into that success somehow. This is one of the main themes that gets brought up later in the game, particularly during a particular scene in which the Investigation Team confront Adachi. He specifically brings this up, stating that human beings are born into their lives, and those without a ticket to success have no choice but to accept it, and not complain, no matter how unfair it is. These points are never tackled directly, and are never given any legitimate counterargument. Instead they are side-stepped by the Investigation Team in a "your opinions don't matter" fashion. This is [[BrokenBase something that divides a lot of players]], especially given the game's center Aesop of "reaching out to the truth" no matter how difficult or hard to swallow that truth is, particularly leading to a large portion of Adachi Sympathizers.]]
* {{Deconstruction}}: Pretty much every team member's [[ShadowArchetype Shadow]] does this for that character's given [[ArchetypalCharacter archetype]]. The team member's social links meanwhile go about the business of [[{{Reconstruction}} reconstructing]] them.

** Shadow Yukiko, YamatoNadeshiko, [[spoiler:secretly despises being expected to take over the family business, and wishes someone, ''anyone'', would take her away from her responsibility.]]

** On 4/19 the protagonist will receive a phone call from Margaret advising him to pace his battles and form new Social Links despite his urgency to try and save Yukiko as soon as possible. However, if the player rescues her at the earliest opportunity on 4/18 -- which is technically possible but hard to do due to the lack of options to recover SP on a first playthrough -- Margaret's dialogue will be slightly different as it won't be necessary to reassure him of that.

* DistractedByTheSexy: In the Golden, one of the outfits you can get and equip (for the guys only) are [[{{Fanservice}} bath towels]]. If you equip it on the protagonist and talk to [[MissionControl Rise]], [[PleasePutSomeClothesOn she gets VERY distracted]].
* DoNotSpoilThisEnding: A rather friendly message to this effect was [[DummiedOut planned to be displayed but not visible]] in either the original or The Golden.

* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: All of the scenes where Chie assaults Yosuke or the Amagi Inn scene would definitely not fly if the genders were reversed. Also, Yukiko slaps Yosuke and Kanji out of being offended in different scenes of the story. Like Chie and the other girls, she is never called out on it.

* DynamicEntry: If you have Kanji in your party [[spoiler:during the fight with Izanami-no-Okami, when she starts using "Thousand Curses" he'll jump in and kick the protagonist in the head to shove him out of the way.]] This lead to an amusing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRveFm44Qec YouTube video]] in which it becomes a Falcon Kick, based off of a theory that Kanji is Captain Falcon.
** In ''Golden,'' if your S. Links with your party members are high enough, they will perform follow-up attacks from off-screen.

* EldritchLocation: The TV World, which manifests new areas based on the minds of anyone who enters. The shadows on the floor also have ''fluctuating color patterns.'' [[spoiler:Somewhat subverted in the True Ending.]]
* EleventhHourSuperpower: The Protagonist's "ultimate" Persona, which is attained through the strength of the Social Links formed up until that point [[spoiler:and used to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu defeat Izanami]]]].

** Yosuke and Teddie attempting to surprise Yu on his second return trip to Inaba in the Golden Epilogue. The others then show up to berate them while welcoming Yu back at the same time.
* EverybodyDoTheEndlessLoop: Within a dozen or so seconds of the [=P4G=] opening.

** The villain counts as one to the protagonist, and the final boss to [[spoiler:the protagonist's persona.]]

** Done by Yu and Yukiko when joining Chie and Teddie in the water in the BeachEpisode in ''Golden''.

* {{Fanboy}}: Mild example in Yosuke, who is rather enthusiastic about meeting Rise when she first arrives in Inaba. Depending on your dialogue choices, Yu can be one too. This isn't really mentioned anymore after the initial meeting, though, and the tables quickly get turned when Rise becomes Yu's {{Fangirl}} after you save her from the Midnight Channel.

** Crossdressing Kanji anyone?
** In Golden there's the Shiroku store owner's taste in evening wear.

* FeminineWomenCanCook: Inverted; while the feminine Rise and Yukiko and the slightly tomboyish Chie are horrible chefs, the male protagonist and Naoto are actually good chefs.
* FetchQuest: Most sidequests fall under this category. They usually demand X number of some item found from specific enemies. It's needed to complete Fox's Social Link.

** Chie is the most traditional sense as she is the first girl who the Protagonist forms a social link with.

** In ''Golden'', Marie is the first person the Protagonist meets upon arriving in Inaba.

** Kanji being the youngest on the investigation team, and easily excited, does a fist pump as his victory pose.
** In the updated rerelease "Golden", The Main Character will do a fist pump as his victory pose when he's wearing the red ranger costume.

* FluffyCloudHeaven: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Heaven]], the area of the Midnight Channel that was created by [[spoiler:Nanako's desire to be with her dead mother, who she believes went to Heaven and Namatame's delusions about the Midnight Channel being a safe haven for his victims.]] The party even describes it as being like "a storybook version of heaven."

* {{Foil}}: If you get the TrueEnding, you'll find out that the protagonist is this to [[spoiler:Adachi,]] and both of them are this to [[spoiler:Namatame]]. The relationship between the first two is even hammered home by the fact that [[spoiler:Adachi's persona is just a variation of Izanagi]].
* FoodPorn: The Protagonist can cook meals that, when cooked properly, can be shared with a character for boosts to their Social Link status. Share it with a girl and not only do you get the boost, [[LuminescentBlush you get to watch her face glow.]]

** The protagonist gets dizzy when shaking hands with the attendant, accompanied by a slightly noticeable flash and sound effect. However, the dizziness of your other party members are not accompanied by these effects. Also, If the player is using a controller with a rumble feature (vibration feature) [[spoiler:then the user will feel a tiny, almost unnoticeable, vibration as the attendant shakes your hand indicating the power going to you.]]

** Early in May (exclusive to Golden), a thunderstorm happens while the Investigation team is together discussing. The team's next member is Kanji, whose Persona is the japanese thunderstorm god.

** Golden muddies the waters a little, as while [[spoiler:Izanami]] of the TV world really is [[spoiler:the goddess of Japan]], Marie makes it clear that [[spoiler:she, Ameno Sagiri and Kunino Sagiri, are manifestations of humanity's collective unconscious wish.]] You only get this tidbit if you maximize her Social Link and save her before earning the True Ending. (And of course, [[spoiler:given what ''all'' gods are in the wider setting, this might ultimately be the difference between two related species of apples.]]
* AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield: The battle against [[spoiler:Ameno-Sagiri, God of Fog,]] takes place in a trippy location full of moving black and red lines in the skies above [[MirrorWorld Magatsu Inaba]].

** More or less extends into the social links as well, which all revolve around finding a truth to your life- accepting yourself, others, and dealing with your identity.

** [[VideoGameRemake The Golden]] adds multiple others as well:

*** When Fusing personas to create new ones, the player can choose manually which skills are passed on from the fusion, rather than needing to "reshuffle"[[note]]unselect and then reselect the component personas[[/note]] in order to re-decide what skills are randomly passed on. This makes Margaret's Social Link ''much'' easier to complete.
*** Rather than needing to try and "catch" persona cards during Shuffle Time, which requires a combination of perception, memory and reflexes, all of the useful cards are immediately displayed for the player and the player can then manually select which one they choose. As part of this, Shuffle Time also lost the Blank Cards (nothing, but chance of getting an Arcana Card in either the upright or reverse position) and X-cards (lose all items, experience and cash received from the fight) and regained the Minor Arcana Cards[[note]]EXP-boosting Wand, health & {{mana}}-restoring Cup, Skill Card-granting Sword and money-boosting Coin[[/note]] from ''VideoGame/Persona3''.
*** In a NewGamePlus on Golden, you can select ''anytime'' what the difficulty is going to be like. As in going to Settings and manually change how much or little you get EXP, money, how badly you take damage, etc.

*** If you manage to get at least the Normal ending in ''Golden'', where the Playstation version normally skips to the ending in next March you instead get to play through every day between taking down the killer and the final day spent in Inaba, giving you significantly more time to max out social links, get the persona compendium, and just generally giving a larger grace period for OneHundredPercentCompletion.

** Weirdly, averted with ''The Golden''; there are no longer save points/escape points to be found outside of the boss's chambers in the dungeons, making Goho-Ms much more necessary if the party isn't prepared for the final battle of a given dungeon.
* AntiGrinding: The stronger you get, the less EXP you get from fights. Your characters don't get "tired" like in ''P3'', but eventually you'll simply run out of SP and run out of ways to recover outside of simply leaving the TV World[[note]]Unlike ''P3'', returning to the starting area does not recover your party's HP and SP[[/note]] (Although with [[UpdatedRerelease The Golden]], by the time you get to [[spoiler:Nanako's dungeon]] you can easily grind endlessly, assuming you've maxed Rise's S. Link and gotten her to Level 62, which gives you HP and SP recovery, respectively, at the end of every battle) Alternatively, there's a rare Persona ability called "Victory Cry" which gives the player (Just the player) a complete restoration of HP and SP [[spoiler:(The only exception is Marie's dungeon which your HP and SP are halved after every battle).]] There's also the Fox, who will restore your SP for money. If you max out the Hermit link, the Fox will charge only 25% of what it did in the beginning. The money you gain from battle by then covers the cost of the SP you expend.

** While not technically spoken by any character, the game itself reminds you (through song, no less!) to ''reach out to the Truth'' in about 90% of the game's battles, though less so in [[UpdatedRerelease Golden]] because "Reach Out To The Truth" is reserved for when the player gets Advantage.

** Maxing out a S-link will note that you forged a bond that cannot 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 [[YouLoseAtZeroTrust Ai's Social Link]].
** [[spoiler:The final boss theme]] includes {{Triumphant Reprise}}s of "I'll Face Myself" and "Reach Out to the Truth". With ''Golden'' replacing "Reach Out to the Truth" with "Time to Make History" as the new main battle theme (though "Truth" still plays when there's a Player Advantage, these are somewhat uncommon), the reprise loses a bit of its impact in the rerelease.

** Yosuke getting stuck in the trash can, a minor scene in both the game and anime. The opening to Persona 4 Golden shows Yosuke dancing with a trashcan over his head.

** 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 him in later games, you'll have to level yourself up and amass all the Personas to make him.

** In ''Golden'', you get the option to give the people in your group [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9p02wq04j1rois19o1_500.png FBI]] [[http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9p02wq04j1rois19o2_500.png suits]], but they remain just as badass as ever.
** Oddly, Izanagi-no-Okami. Apparently, in Japan even being the Original God doesn't get you out of wearing a tie to work.

* BatmanGambit: Partially deconstructed. [[spoiler:Naoto's]] works, but [[spoiler: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 [[spoiler:from her own kidnapping]].

** You defeat the the True Final Boss [[spoiler:by essentially throwing her own HopelessBossFight back at her. After you get her second form's health to zero, Izanami-no-Okami becomes invulnerable and starts spamming your party with a one-hit-KO attack called Thousand Curses. After succumbing to her attack and hearing [[RousingSpeech rousing speeches]] from all your maxed social links, you return with your persona's second form, Izanagi-no-Okami. After Thousand Curses misses, Izanami repeatedly hits you with 999-damage attacks, but this time ''you're the one that's invulnerable''. You then one-up her Thousand Curses with your own one-hit-KO attack called Myriad Truths.]]

* BelatedHappyEnding: While the original game concluded with the protagonist [[spoiler:[[ButNowIMustGo leaving Inaba, possibly forever, with the reassurance that neither he nor the friends he made would ever forget their happy times together]]]], subsequent releases, from ''Arena'' to ''The Golden'' have all-but reversed that initial conclusion by [[spoiler:allowing Yu to repeatedly visit Inaba and generally keep in touch with everyone, confirming his lifelong friendship with the whole cast]].

** An individual's shadow goes into berserk mode with a "You're ''not'' me!".

* BewareTheSillyOnes: Some of the shadow selves can be quite goofy in their behavior, but they are FAR from harmless.

* BigBallOfViolence: The All-Out Attack. If you kill all the enemies in the process, you're rewarded with a skull mushroom cloud. In ''The Golden'', once Rise joins the party and decides to randomly join in on the All-Out Attack, the skull mushroom cloud is colored pink and designed to look like her. You get this regardless of whether or not you kill the enemies.

* BlindWithoutEm: The fog inside the TV is nearly impossible to see through (though the Protagonist ''can'' see slightly better than the rest of them), so the main characters have to wear special glasses made by Teddie [[DefogOfWar to see through it]].

** In a NewGamePlus (or first playthrough in Golden), the Grim Reaper from ''VideoGame/Persona3'' also shows up as a ChestMonster in each dungeon.
** [[spoiler:Kusumi-No-Ookami]] in ''Golden'' is an odd example in that she isn't necessary to finish the game, but once you gain access to her dungeon, you have to beat her.
* BookEnds: When Yu first arrives at Yasoinaba train station, he is alone and turned off by how boring his new home seems. When he leaves by the end of the game, he is surrounded by friends and sad to be going.

** The final Persona Yu summoned is the upgraded form of his first Persona.
** The setting of a dream sequence the Protagonist has on his first night turns out to also be the final dungeon.
** The place where the party confront the killer is also the first area the Protagonist and his friends explored during their first visit to the TV world.

** Getting the True Ending lets you fuse the Protagonist's ultimate Persona the next time through - except that it's [[AwesomeButImpractical 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 NewGamePlus, and you don't even keep your levels, so you have to grind to 91 all over again to get the Persona.
*** In Golden, [[spoiler:Izanagi-No-Ookami]], while still unstoreable and cost-prohibitive (therefore still falling into this trope) becomes a fair bit more useful. The most important change is his ability to actually Inherit skills (and being able to choose which ones get inherited this time around.) This lets him actually fill specific roles for the end-game bosses instead of simply being a [[MasterOfNone trash-mob killer]]. He's also the only method of getting the Victory Cry skill card without relying on luck, which is obscenely useful for the BonusDungeon.

** January [[spoiler:,except for one day in particular]] (Playable only in ''Golden'', the original ends its free-roaming on December 24th) also has no major events in it, mostly being a chance to finish your Social Links and earn the 3rd-Tier Personas.

** During one instance, Yosuke makes fun of Chie for being afraid of lightning. Afterwhich, she then says that if lightning should strike someone let it be him. Fast forward to [[spoiler:after you save Marie]] where she strikes Yosuke and the other guys with Ziodyne at the hot springs. Comically, [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration Yosuke's elemental weakness is lightning]].

** At the beginning of Marie's Social Link in Golden, while eating steak skewers together, you can choose one of three answers to give for what the name is short for, causing her to coin her own nickname for them based on your answer. In the second-to-last event, Marie mentions the name that she gave them, and this is actually significant, given that it's proof that she's starting to make her own memories.

** One of the most common criticisms that gets brought up towards the game is how it often times breaks it's own aesop about how you should always reach towards the truth and justice even if said truth and justice is hard to take in, instead opting for the idea that the truth and justice doesn't always matter so long as happiness is the end result. One example is the personal conflicts in a lot of the social links, which are often resolved by side-stepping the desire to resolve them in the first place, as well as the [[spoiler:the true culprit's points in relation to his beliefs and opinions essentially being summed up as them not mattering, despite coming from a place of truth.]]

* TheBurlesqueOfVenus: In ''Persona 4: Golden'', Kanji poses as Venus with seaweed provided by Yosuke when he loses his swimsuit at the beach. The girls were not amused.

** In Golden, played straight with [[spoiler:Marie]] if you maximize her S. Link.

** PlayedForLaughs near the end of the game in ''The Golden''. Nanako makes a chocolate "creation" for you on Valentine's Day that consists of bell peppers, fermented squid, and coffee, amongst other things. Nanako looks at you expectantly, and the game states "You have NO options!", without even giving you a choice prompt.

** The class trip, which is basically a long list of locations from and references to ''VideoGame/Persona3'', some of them very obvious (Hi, Chihiro and Edogawa!) 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...)

** Also Teddie saying "Faster than expected," while standing in the exact same spot Takaya was when he said that line.

** 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 canceled back then. It comes back full circle in ''Persona Q'', where Shinjiro outright identifies Rise as the performer that night.

** In Kanji's social link, there is a reference to a pink alligator from a storybook. Akinari, one of the social links from ''VideoGame/Persona3'', wrote a story about a pink alligator. Nanako is also seen reading Akinari's book in one scene.

** Naoto mentions that while researching the terms "Persona" and "Shadow" she came across an "unofficial project document" with information about both. This almost certainly came from the Kirijo Group's scientific research.

** While the group are telling ghost stories to one another, Yosuke mentions one he heard from his friend's sister; about a girl who had bullied another girl relentlessly, only for her to disappear. The bully then ran out at night apparently hearing the girl's voice calling to her, and ended up unconscious outside of the school. Clearly his cousin knows one of the girls that used to bully [[VideoGame/Persona3 Fuuka]]. Naoto's comments of reading a police report similar to Yosuke's story further solidifies the connection.

** If you talk to your party members at Junes before going into the dungeon for December, you can choose to talk about [[spoiler:Adachi]] or about [[spoiler:the fact that Teddie is a Shadow]]. If you choose the latter, Teddie eventually says that he knows that somewhere out there, there must be [[spoiler:another Shadow that took on human form]] who hides a ladykilling personality beneath dashing good looks. The party dismisses this as an offhand comment, but anyone who's played ''VideoGame/Persona3'' will be reminded of [[spoiler:Ryoji, who fits everything in Teddie's description]].
** Possible one here. Yosuke (the P4 social link of the Magician) asks Yukiko for some 'private lessons' to help him study. She assumes he was being lewd and slaps him. Rewind back to Persona 3 when Kenji (the Magician social link in P3) talks about getting private lessons from his tutor/love interest.

* CanonForeigner: Not quite a character, but in the anime, when the characters are hit with Enervation, they ''literally'' turn into old people. This is taken into Golden, when the characters fail to summon their Persona, they will do a pretty funny old person imitation (though their models stay the same).

* CapcomSequelStagnation: TV Show, remake, rerelease on [=PS3=], Dancing all Night, Persona Q... Atlus will have fully milked out the P3/P4's series before ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' releases.

** Inverted when MissionControl gleefully smirks about an enemy's weakness [[ComicallyMissingThePoint even when you brought along no teammates or personas capable of exploiting said weakness]].

** When Yu first tells Yosuke and Chie about his television trying to eat him early on in the game, they don't believe it.

** Feed it to the cat during the quest "Cat Needs Food Badly" and you can clear the quest with only four feedings. (Otherwise, it takes ''twenty fish'' to clear the quest.) Hell of a way for the Guardian's career to end... then again, there's apparently more than one, since it's possible to catch multiple ones in a single fishing session if you have good luck and enough of the right kind of bait.
** ''The Golden'' introduces its marine cousin, the Sea Guardian. It's bigger than the MC and sells for a whopping 10.000 Yen. If you're good enough, catching and selling those is the second-most lucrative activity you can do, next to extensive grinding.

** The primary theme of the game is the general idea of "truth", which manifests itself in various ways. The Investigation Team wishes to find the truth behind the murders in Inaba, and there are several points where they have to see through falsehoods to find the real Killer. The party's Shadows show the truths about a person they don't want to admit to themselves - only after accepting the truth does the Shadow calm down. In contrast, convenient lies are repeatedly frowned upon: the fog serves as a visual metaphor for humanity's lies, clouding the truth so people can live in blissful ignorance.

* CharacterShilling: Characters often go on about how good Yu is at everything he does.
* CheckPointStarvation: Several instances towards the end of the game. In a combat sense, you have to do at least a floor of a dungeon, then fight [[spoiler:Adachi, and then Ameno-sagiri]] with no chance to go back and change personas and save. This is somewhat problematic for Golden, which is, after all, a portable game.

** [[spoiler:Namatame]] and [[spoiler:Mitsuo]] both appear around Inaba and in neglible cutscenes well before becoming major players in the plot. There's [[spoiler:Taro Namatame]], who was first seen being mentioned on the news and can be seen around town. He isn't seen again until [[spoiler:he kidnaps Nanako]]. He even [[spoiler:makes an appearance at Junes]] at your team's concert. [[spoiler:Mitsuo]] is first seen asking out Yukiko on the protagonist's first day of school, and then isn't seen again until after [[spoiler:he kills Morooka]].

** If your first time playing P4 is with the UpdatedRerelease on the Vita, Golden, there's an added portion where you have time to explore the city for a bit, during which you can see (at the time unnamed) future Social Links and important characters - most notably [[spoiler:Naoki and Saki before the latter's murder]].

** One day a lecture brings up Creator/FriedrichNietzsche. Unless you already beat the current dungeon on the first day possible, the next boss has an attack called Nihil Hand.

* ClarkKenting: Played straight with Rise when she first shows up in town. Everyone who comes to the tofu shop looking for her seems to assume she's an old woman, despite the fact she's just wearing a scarf on her head and an apron. It probably helps that everyone expects her to act like the "Risette" persona (Pun not intended) that had been marketed to the masses, and she's rather low-key at that point precisely ''because'' she didn't want to be Risette anymore.

* TheBurlesqueOfVenus: In ''Persona 4: Golden'', Kanji posed as Venus with seaweed provided by Yosuke when he lost his swimsuit in the beach. The girls were not amused.