History Persona4 / TropesGToN

** The Persona Alice is created by fusing Belial and Nebiros. This is a reference to the original ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTensei'', in which the demons Belial and Nebiros summoned Alice for their own designs. Similarly, Ardha is fused via Shiva and Parvati, a reference to ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'' [[spoiler:which featured Serph and Sera merging into Seraph and gaining Ardha as the single being's Atma form. This itself being a mythological reference to Shiva and Parvati fusing into the god Ardhanarishvara.]]

* MurderTheHypotenuse: The girl in front of the library at Yasogami High School eventually tries to do this after spending the entire game pining for her senpai, but whom she has a falling out with when she starts spending time with another girl late in the game. Luckily, all the girl does is [[PokeThePoodle open the window so the allegedly poisonous fog can seep in, hoping the other rival girl will take a deeeeep breath]].

* MurderTheHypotenuse: The girl in front of the library at Yasogami High School eventually tries to do this after spending the entire game pining for her senpai, but whom she has a falling out with when he starts spending time with another girl late in the game. Luckily, all the girl does is [[PokeThePoodle opening the window so the allegedly poisonous fog can seep in, hoping the other rival girl will take a deeeeep breath]].

* HateSink: Kinshiro "King Moron" Morooka, the resident SadistTeacher, is one of these InUniverse, as every student hates him for his {{Jerkass}} attitude and foul temper.

** And, in ''Golden'', heart-rending conversations on Valentine's Day with every girlfriend among the Investigation Team you DON'T spend it with. Fully voiced.

** All of the girls act this way if you date more than one of them. If you have more than one girlfriend on Valentine's Day...

** New to ''Golden'', if you turn down any of your girlfriends, all of them (save Marie) will call you out for it come Valentine's Day, even if the player was in a monogamous relationship.

** In ''Golden'', the game will guilt trip the player if [[spoiler:they turn down any of their girlfriends when Valentine's Day rolls around, even if they're in a monogamous relationship]].

** And, in ''Golden'', heart-rending conversations on Valentine's Day with every girlfriend you DON'T spend it with except Marie. Fully voiced.

* HotInHumanForm: Teddie [[spoiler: gains a human body [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext after working out a lot]]]]. The characters are flabbergasted and the girls [[StupidSexyFlanders a little uncomfortable]]. He's still [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Teddie]], though, so [[CasanovaWannabe few women give him the time of day]].

** Romancing anyone is never referred to by anyone besides the girls themselves in private events. This gets especially harsh in the True Ending if you've decided to romance Rise, who will burst into tears when you leave with Kanji telling her to stop crying. It's implied that [[SecretRelationship you and they are keeping the relationship secret]], given that talking with your girlfriend in a dungeon will have the other person nearby note that she's acting strangely around you, but never figure out why (for example, Chie thinks Yukiko made a mistake around you, while Kanji's offended at Naoto's seeming rudeness toward you, as her [[SenpaiKohai senpai]]).

** New to ''Golden'', if you romance more than one girl, all of them (save Marie) will call you out for it come Valentine's Day.

** In ''Golden'', the game will guilt trip the player if [[spoiler:they've been cheating when Valentine's Day rolls around]].

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: In the original game, [[spoiler:Izanami is this. The game sets up Ameno-Sagiri as the BigBad, only for Izanami to show up right afterwards at the last minute during the True Ending path to serve as the game's actual FinalBoss with little foreshadowing.]] ''Golden'' fixes this, adding some additional foreshadowing towards [[spoiler:Izanami's existance and role as the mastermind.]]

* IgnoranceIsBliss: Deconstructed. The [[spoiler:{{Big Bad}}'s ]] motivation for wanting to turn the entire human race into Shadows bascially comes down to "If humans are happier by hiding from truth and living blissfully in ignorance, their true desire must be to live as mindless drones whom are ignorant even of their own existence".

* ImprobableAge: Nanako is ''seven years old''. Yes, the girl who's home alone more often than not, AND does all the laundry, AND does all the grocery shopping. ParentalAbandonment really does wonders for one's independance.

* ItAmusedMe: Basically [[spoiler: Adachi's]] sole reason for killing both Mayumi Yamano and Saki Konishi, tricking [[spoiler: Nametame into taking over his murder attempts]], and generally setting the entire plot of the game in motion while he sat on the sidelines watching like a spectator at a football game.

** The only SP-restoring items you can purchase are cans of soda, which restore a measily 5 SP each, and are in limited supply. If you don't [[DiscOneNuke finagle your way to getting Victory Cry early]], your best bet for SP restoration is probably getting a Persona with the Spirit Drain skill.

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: A council secretary has an affair with a local TV announcer leads to [[spoiler:a LoonyFan who's a member of the police force attempts what's heavily implied to be rape discovers by accident that he has superpowers that allows him to access a different world through TV screens after untintentionally sending her to it. After she dies as a result, a murder case starts up. This leads to two more deaths, one of which was a [[JackTheRipoff copycat kill]], five cases of kidnapping, the hospilitisation of a detective and his daughter, which ultimately was a plot by the proverbial Mother of Japan.]]

** In ''The Animation'', Adachi suggests that the only reason the Investigation Team went after him in the first place was because they wanted some excitement in their boring lives, which doesn't make them all that different from criminals who get their kicks from murdering people. They, of course, don't even entertain the idea that it's remotely true.
** Soji claims this of Adachi in the manga, citing how they have basically the same Persona, and should be able to understand each other.

* NotWhatItLooksLike - A meta-example - One FAQ for ''Persona 4'' laid the games conversation choices out with only the lead in question. The last question for Yukiko's girlfriend Social Link, the point where they're in an intimate relationship, was given solely as "So.....the couch, or the futon?". Play through it, and they're just sitting.

** In ''Golden'', the TV Classroom lectures given by [[VideoGame/Persona3 Mr. Edogawa]] describe the collective unconscious as "surpassing time and place" and "transcending space and time" in English. In Japanese, it is described as "時と場所を越えつながる" which can be translated as "connected across time and place" or "connected beyond time and place". But, as Edogawa is describing Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious (which claims the collective unconscious develops on a timescale similar to human evolution), as well as how the franchise generally uses 超越 ("transcendence", to transcend in verb form) instead of 越 (across, beyond, over, pass, depending on context) whenever describing something beyond the flow of time, for this instance it is more likely the collective unconscious is meant to be "connected across time and place", persisting through passage of time rather than existing outside of it.

* LostInTranslation:
** Teddie's saying that he wants to "score" with one of the girls, a term he learned from Shadow Yukiko. In English, "score" as used in a sexual context is gender-neutral; however, the word he uses in Japanese, "gyakunan" specifically refers to a woman hitting on a man, meaning he doesn't fully understand what it means. As a result, he comes across much more like a creep in the English version, when he was meant to sound more naive in the Japanese.
** The final boss has a seeming example. It hearkens back to the original [[spoiler:myth of Izanami and Izanagi, where Izanami swore to curse 1000 mortals each day, and Izanagi swore in turn to give life to 1500 mortals each day.]] In game, this manifests as [[spoiler:Izanami's attack]] Thousand Curses and [[spoiler:Izanagi-no-Okami's counter]] Myriad Truths, which was 10,000 Truths in the original Japanese. However, myriad has a little used alternate definition in English, a specific reference to 10,000 as in the original Greek.
** The Personas used to fuse [[spoiler:Izanagi-no-Okami]] in NewGamePlus are fairly random and unrelated but the first kana of each from each one top to bottom reads " [[spoiler:Izanagi-no-Okami tsukure[[note]]meaning "Create Izanagi-No-Ookami"[[/note]]]]". This only ''barely'' works in English -- the first one or two letters of most spell "[[spoiler:Isanagi-no-Ookami]]" phonetically identical to the created Persona, but the last few don't look like they say anything at all.
** In ''Golden'', the TV Classroom lectures given by [[VideoGame/Persona3 Mr. Edogawa]] describe the collective unconscious as "surpassing time and place" and "transcending space and time" in English. In Japanese, it is described as "時と場所を越えつながる" which can be translated as "connected across time and place" or "connected beyond time and place". But, as Edogawa is describing Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious (which claims the collective unconscious develops on a timescale similar to human evolution), as well as how the franchise generally uses 超越 ("transcendence", to transcend in verb form) instead of 越 (across, beyond, over, pass, depending on context) whenever describing something beyond the flow of time, for this instance it is more likely the collective unconscious is meant to be "connected across time and place", persisting through passage of time rather than existing outside of it.

** The Personas used to fuse [[spoiler:Izanagi-no-Okami]] are fairly random and unrelated but the first kana of each from each one top to bottom reads " [[spoiler:Izanagi-no-Okami tsukure[[note]]meaning "Create Izanagi-No-Ookami"[[/note]]]]". This only ''barely'' works in English -- the first one or two letters of most spell "[[spoiler:Isanagi-no-Ookami]]" phonetically identical to the created Persona, but the last few don't look like they say anything at all.

* MagicSkirt: Subverted - Chie wears [[ModestyShorts black bike shorts]] when in combat. It's not always easy to tell with a lot of the taller boots, but they're easy to see when she wears sneakers. Avert with Yukiko as well. Her Fan Assault follow up attack reveals that she wears black short shorts.
* MagikarpPower: Every time a Persona levels up, it gains three stat points which are randomly allocated. If you get lucky with grinding up a low-level Persona, there's a chance that those stat points on level up get focused onto the Persona's most important stats instead of any DumpStat. This means that low-level Personas have the potential to gain stats that are better specialized than others with a higher base level.

* IncrediblyLamePun:
** Not even Yukiko finds Teddie's bear puns funny, and she's the type to go into a laughing fit over any joke.
** Rise makes several of these when analyzing enemy weaknesses. For example: "It's weak against wind, this'll be a breeze!", or "The enemy's weak to fire! That's ''hot''.".
** Margaret is prone to these when she asks you to fuse a certain Persona for her.

** ZigZagged: it's rumoured that the Midnight Channel appears at midnight when it's raining (which is usually true), and shows you your "soulmate" (which isn't - it shows who the next person to end up in the TV is/will be) [[spoiler:or rather, what everyone in town is thinking of.]].

** Just like in ''Persona 3'', [[spoiler:October 4th]] is a ''really bad day'' for everyone in the playable cast.

** [[AttackReflector Tetrakarn and Makarakarn]] have been reduced from covering the entire party to only protecting a single target, reducing its utility greatly. Fortunately this restriction does apply to enemies as well.

* NominalImportance: At the climax of the story, the game will ask you directly who the killer is and then provide you with a list of every single named person in the game to choose from. The killer is on that list somewhere.

* NonStandardSkillLearning: Several of [[MissionControl Rise's]] skills are obtained through [[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 Social Link]] instead of leveling up.
** In ''Golden'', every party member gets a unique skill that is obtained through talking to them on a certain date after maxing their Social Links.
** All the party members have Social Link skills. ''Golden'' also adds "Bike Ride" skills, which allow the party members to learn new skills late in the game by going on a trip to a spa with the protagonist.

* NoPronunciationGuide: Averted, unlike ''Persona 3'', Social Link characters will have a handy voice-over when they first say their name.

** Romancing anyone is never referred to by anyone besides the girls themselves in private events. This gets especially harsh in the True Ending if you've decided to romance Rise, who will burst into tears when you leave with Kanji telling her to stop crying. It's implied that [[SecretRelationship you and they are keeping the relationship secret]], given that talking with your girlfriend in a dungeon will have the other person nearby note that she's acting strangely around you, but never figure out why (for example, Chie thinks Yukiko made a mistake around you, while Kanji's offended at Naoto's seeming rudeness toward you, as her [[SempaiKohai senpai]]).

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

** Adachi says this after getting to say "We'll hear your excuses at the station" to a stalker of Rise's.

** Though it's possibly an example of {{Foreshadowing}} (it can be hard at times to distinguish that trope from this one at times), the intro video has a series of introductory vignettes for each member of the investigation team grouped by gender; first the three boys, then the three girls [[spoiler:the last of which is Naoto, which the first hint of many about her true gender]].

** Adachi says something like this after arresting a stalker of Rise's.
** Margaret gets one after being able to welcome you while Igor is away.

* HumansAreBastards: The general worldview of the Killer. [[spoiler: Also believed by [[GreaterScopeVillain Izanami]] who believes that humans desire to become shadows and live in blissful ignorance. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] HARD in the true ending where the world inside humanity’s heart is a lovely paradise.]]
* HumansAreGood: [[spoiler: The true ending shows that the Midnight Channel, which reflects human cognition, unobscured by the fog is a gorgeous paradise showing that, despite [[HumansAreFlawed our flaws]] humans are mostly good and wish for peace.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Choose to throw Namatame into the TV as revenge for Nanako? Congratulations, ''you just killed her.'' Oh, and Izanami gets to destroy the world unopposed.]]

** Subverted heavily in the [[spoiler:true]] ending, where it's revealed that [[spoiler:The BigBad is in fact the nameless, portraitless gas station attendant you met at the beginning of the game, and who's shown up every rainy day to watch the events unfold. As soon as you PullTheThread enough to expose her, she gains a portrait, and then finally a name.]]