YMMV / Persona 4

A-E

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • Chie: "Alright guys, pile on! Are you ready?" And if refused: "We're not gonna do it? Aww..."
  • To say nothing of "Yosuke pounded an enemy!" by Teddie. With emphasis put on "pounded".
  • Yosuke: [to Yu] What, really? I know you were always good with your hands and— uh, never mind...
• Adorkable: Just as much as Marie's amnesia is Played for Drama, the times it's Played for Laughs makes her come across as really endearing, especially when she suffers from culture shock and can't pronounce words like "salad dressing" and "electric outlets" right.
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • Several social links appear to have the message that it's important to branch out and try different things before deciding a path in life. Characters whose paths or futures have been decided for them eventually rebel and yearn to be free, and that's perfectly normal. In some cases (Yukiko and Rise) this leads to the character deciding to return to their set path, but with actual understanding and meaning instead of Because Destiny Says So, and this is also normal and far healthier. Having this happen more than once in the game, however, leads to the alternate meaning of "always conform".
  • However, one could also interpret the aesop as something along the lines of: "It’s okay to be odd, quirky or to have unconvential goals, hobbies or interests as long as you don’t hurt or bother anybody while doing it", "you shouldn’t judge other people if they like something that people like them usually wouldn’t like", or "it’s okay to be weird and unusual as long as you don’t hurt anyone and respect the laws of your community or society". A good example of this is the contrast between the heroes and the killer. The heroes all have interests and quirks that set them apart from what society normally expects from them, and the game doesn’t portray it as a bad thing. It even shows in the Golden Ending that the main characters all successfully accomplished most of their goals and graduated high school, all without abandoning their unusual or quirky traits and interests. The killer, on the other hand, is an example of someone whose unusual interests are unambiguously bad and the game shows that the killer is a threat to society because they have no consideration for other people, and are a very selfish person in general, and don’t care how many people they hurt as long as they can indulge in their own self-interest.
  • Alternatively, various social links involve people going through Character Development where they realize that they don’t have to choose between doing what makes them happy and conforming to the standards of their society and culture, and that it’s possible to find a compromise between the two extremes. In other words, "you can find a balance between conforming with societal and cultural standards, and doing what makes you happy, even if what you like isn’t what’s considered "normal" for the culture and society that you live in". Kanji and Naoto are good examples of that, because they both have qualities and interests that traditionally don’t align with what Japan would normally expect out of their gender (Kanji being into fashion and clothing, while Naoto is into detective/police work), yet at the same time, they still both manage to become heroes and productive members of society without abandoning their respective interests and passions. By the end of the game, they’ve both changed, but they still like what they like. In other words, "you don’t need to stop doing what you love if you want to conform to the laws and norms of your culture, even if what you love is considered weird or quirky by your culture’s standards". Basically, you don’t always have to sacrifice your happiness to succeed in life.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Did Saki really hate Yosuke? As the battles with shadows have shown, they are an exaggeration of the character's true self rather than their true embodiment, such as Kanji being Camp Gay when in reality struggling with people's perception of him, Rise being promiscuous when in reality being stressed about her career and image, and Chie resenting Yukiko when she really was concerned she was abusing her friendship with Yukiko. It's possible that Saki hating Yosuke was just an exaggeration of her frustration with her situation (working for Junes when the department store is taking business from her family's liquor shop) or was present in a mild sense and exaggerated by her shadow, likely also being a source of shame for her. This is supported by the fact that the only time Saki is portrayed as hateful towards Yosuke is her Shadow Self's lingering thoughts, and of course she'd be freaked out by a rambling weirdo saying she'll die and a police officer who is leering at her, so her reactions to them are justified. The one scene she has with Yosuke she legitimately seems worried about him making friends due to being both new in town and the son of the manager of Junes. Since she is being pressured herself about the latter both at home and by strangers, it's just as likely that she actually means what she says about the protagonist looking after Yosuke. Alternatively, it was all an illusion by Yosuke's shadow, representing what Yosuke feared she thought of him. After all, Saki's own Shadow never appears, and she's dead by this point in the story, so its possible that his Shadow projected those emotions outwardly in an attempt to bait him.
  • Adachi.
    • Is he truly The Ditz, or is he smarter than he lets on? It's implied that it's simply laziness and Small Town Boredom that gives him little motivation to work as hard as he should. Then there's the revelation that he was the Killer. Was his appearance as Dojima's bumbling sidekick a mere facade, or was it really part of his personality that he outwardly expressed to mask his darker side? There was also his Establishing Character Moment where he vomits upon seeing Mayumi's corpse, which muddies things even further. Was it all part of the act, or was it out of genuine shock that he had just murdered someone?
    • Is his 'lazy' behavior, lack of interest and general sour attitude him being a Manchild with Small Town Boredom or does Adachi have an undiagnosed mental illness like Major Depressive Disorder (Clinical Depression)? Could his inability to cook food be laziness or Too Unhappy to Be Hungry? The fact that he doesn't even find joy in the murders shows that there may be something seriously wrong with him at the core.
    • Is any of this really how he feels, or what he wants to do, or it's a result of Izanami's manipulation? Did he decide to assault Yamano on his own, or was it due to his Persona's influence?
  • Kanji's actually designed for this. Is he an Armored Closet Gay? Is he just insecure about his hobbies and not wanting to be seen as unmanly, especially after being called homophobic slurs? Is he actually bisexual or heteroflexible given his crush on Naoto before finding about her real gender and still having it afterwards? Is his crush on Naoto an exception, in either direction? While it's quite common and very easy for fans to simply go with him being gay, his Social Link reveals he has and possibly still does have interest in girls, and his only slightly perverted moment in the game is him getting a nosebleed over the girls getting violent against Yu and Yosuke. But ultimately, the developers outright stated that they made it vague on purpose so the player could decide on their own.
  • Kinshiro Morooka. His always portrayed as a borderline Sadist Teacher and a Jerkass who often demeans his students, and has an offscreen Kick the Dog moment where he insulted Saki and Mayumi at the former's funeral. However, after his death, it's revealed that he has a nicer side of him where he legitimately tries to help his students. Is his Sadist Teacher personality a facade, or is it really part of his character? It doesn't help that said Kick the Dog moment was told by an Unreliable Narrator.
  • Is Izanami a judgmental figure legitimately doing what she thinks is best for humanity, or is she a lying, scheming, vindictive villain? Or perhaps her past experience (her husband fleeing from her and sealing the entrance to the Underworld upon seeing her hideous form) has given her a bias view that people would rather live in ignorance and denial than accept the truth.
  • Tanaka selling gas masks and medical kits during the fog. Is he filling a need in a difficult time, or trying to profit off people's panic? Considering his characterization in a previous game, it may also be a bit of both.
  • What was the most relevant reason behind Naoto's dismissal from the police investigation? Was it because as a female and a teenager, the police didn't take her suggestions seriously and resented the implication that they needed her help? Was it because Naoto's sometimes abrasive personality didn't win her many favors with the others? Or was it perhaps because the police, having arrested a juvenile as a suspect in the case, weren't willing to admit that they were wrong?
  • Is the Heaven dungeon born from Nanako, or Namatame? Given the pattern of previous kidnappings, the Investigation Team assumes it's the former, and it's never directly challenged or questioned, but Namatame believes that the TV World is a safe and pleasant place, so it would make sense for him to perceive it as a paradise. Similar to the other kidnapping victims, the latter also has to face an Awful Truth (that the TV World he threw innocent people into is actually a dangerous and inescapable place, rather than the safe haven he thought it was). And, of course, Namatame is the one who becomes the dungeon's boss.
  • Adachi's sudden villainous breakdown when the protagonists call him immature can either be interpreted as him being a hypocrite, or being furious that young teens with their whole lives ahead of themselves could ever understand him.
• Alternate Self Shipping: Shadow-on-human action. There's a pretty huge chunk of Yaoi Fangirls who will slash Yosuke with himself, or Kanji with his Armoured Closet Gay, or Teddie with his nihilism, or even the MC with his shadow, though he never had one. This all applies to the girls too (such as Chie and Dominatrix Bananahead), but it's just more prominent among Yaoi Fangirls. Naoto/Shadow Naoto is one of the more popular Human/Shadow pairings.
• Americans Hate Tingle:
  • Marie is controversial in the American fandom, often compared to Poochie from The Simpsons, due to her tsundere personality and somewhat aggressive inclusion in the remake and spinoffs (to the point that Persona 4: The Golden Animation is largely focused on her). However, perhaps because of her seiyuu's current popularity, she is much more popular in her native Japan, thus fueling the hatedom due to the Content Creator Bias.
  • To a lesser degree, Yosuke, who is more of a Base-Breaking Character within the Western fandom and is overshadowed by Kanji. His tendencies to needle his friends, particularly Kanji, have been interpreted as both sexist and homophobic. He does have a respectable Western fanbase, but many were surprised to see him win an official character poll focusing on Persona 4 Golden characters.
• Angst? What Angst?: Naoto doesn't really seem to care much about having her secret in school blown by her Shadow after being rescued. It probably helps that she doesn't need to change to the girls' uniform, which Naoto is very uncomfortable with, and can stay in her old uniform.
• Annoying Video Game Helper:
  • Much like the previous game, you have Teddie for an announcer during battles, who gives you information about damage taken or status effects. Unfortunately, much like Mission Control in the previous game he. Just. Won't. Shut. Up. It is made slightly better by the fact that Teddie is replaced midway through by Rise, but she also never shuts up and neither she nor Teddie ever tell you anything you couldn't already see on the screen. This also becomes irritating because they never stop talking about the number of enemies, who defeated what enemy and what a cool move the character made. Unfortunately, one of the trophies in Golden requires you to hear 250 of Rise's navigation lines, which is Guide Dang It! for more annoyance. Rise does get more useful if you max out her Social Link when she gets the Weakness Scan ability which causes her to randomly reveal one enemy's weakness or immunity at the start of the battle. Golden takes it even further by giving her new abilities for every rank up to revealing all stats and weaknesses for all enemies, healing the party after a battle, and protecting each character on the team from a fatal attack once per battle.
  • If you go up to your room on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday, the game will remind you if you haven't bought anything from the shopping network. This gets annoying in December when Tanaka begins selling gas masks and medical kits because of the fog that sell out before you can order anything, and you don't even have the option to buy anything.
  • Similar to the above, the game will repeatedly remind you on the days when you can work at a part-time job, even if there are other things you'd rather do on that day.
• Anti-Climax Boss: For all the buildup to who The Killer is, Adachi is a relatively easy boss to defeat. He doesn't have that much health, nor does he have any gimmicks to like Shadow Mitsuo or Kunino-Sagiri did to make him more challenging. Justified for two reasons. One, unlike the protagonists, who have been spending a lot of time in the TV world and fighting shadows, Adachi hasn’t really gone into the TV or used his persona to fight anything up until that point, so he’s not as strong as you are, nor does he have any battle experience like the Investigation Team does. Two, him being somewhat weak makes sense from a meta-perspective, as he's simply a Warm-Up Boss for the much more punishing Ameno-Sagiri.
• Anvilicious: The game hits pretty early and pretty hard with the message that it's better to face your true self than to live in denial, from the murder mystery premise to the way the characters gain their personas.
• Ass Pull:
  • In the original game, Izanami. Literally everything up to that point pointed to Ameno-Sagiri being the ultimate mastermind of the murders, but then, at the last possible moment, a completely new entity appears to take credit for everything, and the only bit of foreshadowing that she got was a minor event at the very beginning of the game that most players likely forgot about, along with Mr. Edogawa's story of Izanami and Izanagi, the player's initial persona, during school trip. Note that Golden avoids this trope via the Hollow Forest, which explains more about the specific links between Izanami, Marie, and Ameno-Sagiri - specifically that they are all aspects of a greater whole.
  • Nanako's resurrection. There's no real explanation other than Schrödinger's Gun for how choosing to not kill Namatame saves her from dying.
  • Teddie's sudden burst of power allowing him to take down Shadow Rise (and that despite the fact that she was scanning them specifically to avoid their attacks) was neither explained, foreshadowed nor mentioned again afterwards.
  • Speaking of Teddie, the revelation of his nature as a Shadow. After the entire game building up to finding out what exactly Teddie is or what's up with him, this comes off as rather lazy and ineffective as anything really mind-blowing. It also doesn't make sense given many things in the story: his own Shadow and Persona, most notably, which definitely jar this outcome a little as it happens midway through the game. More time could have been spent finding out why he knows what humans are despite having never seen one at the beginning of the game, and how he can conjure up television exits.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Yosuke. He's either the most hilarious character in the game, or he crosses the line over his treatment of Kanji, which can come off as homophobic to some, and his chasing after the girls. He's more divisive in the West than his home country, though, where opinion leans more positive.
  • Chie. She has a lot of fans due to being more of a normal girl compared to the other female party members, and for her tomboyishness, but there are others who found her Jerkass behavior annoying. One point of contention for Chie was her tendency to mooch off of Yosuke because he broke a DVD that could have easily been replaced, and then got defensive when she used his money on an expensive suit for Teddie without asking, showing that she can't take what she dishes out. Although a lot of people still like her for her fun personality, the sequels and their tendency to flanderize her has only made her more divisive with time.
  • Teddie. Some find him to be an amusing Plucky Comic Relief character who has a great and funny dynamic with the rest of the team as well as interesting character development. Others can't stand his puns (or ending his sentences with 'kuma' in the Japanese version), his period as the game's Mission Control, perverted antics, and find his blatant attempt to be a marketable mascot character annoying.
  • Ryotaro Dojima. While generally liked as a realistic depiction of a struggling single father, it's often debated whether he's actually good at being one — seeing how he genuinely cares for Nanako and tries his best to provide for her, yet also ends up being extremely negligent towards her due to workaholic tendencies.
• Breather Boss:
  • Shadow Rise doesn't have much HP, and while she's the first boss to use multiple elements, she doesn't have any particularly troubling abilities. It's mainly a lead-in to the fight with Shadow Teddie.
  • Shadow Teddie himself, while possessed of several hard-hitting area spells, has generally simplistic attack patterns and only uses one offensive element, plus his hyped-up Charged Attack gives a two-turn breather to prepare for it and does no damage if blocked. He becomes somewhat more dangerous after he Turns Red and gains a new attack that can automatically knock down a party member, but even then the main threat is his massive HP bar.
  • Shadow Naoto is relatively simple in comparison to the bosses that come before her, being vulnerable to Silence and only getting one turn per round as opposed to the previous boss's two.
  • Considering the build-up to their confrontation and the level you go through to get to them, Adachi, The Heavy of the story, is mostly just a warm-up for the fight afterwards.
  • Marie and Kusumi-no-Okami in the Hollow Forest. The first phase is relatively short and easy, similar to Shadow Rise. If you have a good stock of the "(Element) Breaker" items, the second phase can end relatively quickly (and even more so if the party is equipped with the Repel Joue armors) due to her low Endurance and Cast from Hit Points skill, and equipping a powerful SP recovery stone on your healer should provide you with enough SP to keep healed up.
• Breather Level:
  • The Hermit Social Link's penultimate request is the easiest, as you only need to search around for a lost wallet, and it can be completed within a single day. In comparison, the previous request needed you to have invested some time in the Fishing Minigame, and the final request involves catching the Guardian.
  • Naoki's Social Link is available on all weekdays, it's easy to make him happy with your choices, and there's a damn near lack of holdover visits.
• Broken Base:
  • In general, the comedy scenes in the game are divisive. Some fans of the game like them because they add levity to the plot, allow for more character interaction in the downtime, and are fans of the humor involved. The problems other people have with them is that they can be very mean-spirited at times (The Amagi Inn and Camping Trip scenes for example), they sometimes drag on for 20-40 minutes (particularly with the camping scene and the school festival leading into the Amagi Inn scene), and that they provide a lot of Mood Whiplash (like Yosuke announcing that he needs to pee during the tense scene of when they discover the TV World and Rise's comedic crying when the Protagonist goes home at the end). This also factors into another issue: the girls' treatment towards the boys (particularly, Chie to Yosuke). Are they hilarious, or are they Love Hina-levels of Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male?
  • Claiming Kanji is gay earns a similar reaction from the fandom^note Word of Saint Paul has his original English VA, Troy Baker, go on the record that he portrayed Kanji as gay and believes he is. Kanji's character arc is about gender and societal norms being pushed onto him, and the struggle that comes from fitting in. The game does touch on the idea of Kanji's sexuality while keeping it a bit vague, but it isn't the point of his character, and many fans find that making it the basis of his struggle is shallow and contradictory to his character arc of finding self-acceptance and peace with his personality and hobbies in spite of the stereotypes and assumptions they get, which often include superficial ideas and assumptions about sexuality. If anything, Kanji could be Ambiguously Bi given he maintains his attraction to Naoto among a few other girls, and that despite his own Shadow rather blatantly posing the idea, Kanji's resolution is that his fears aren't about women or men, but being terrified of rejection. Despite all of this, it's still common for people to furiously argue on the subject of his sexuality and claim one thing or another because the game doesn't put label to it.
  • Claiming that Yosuke is conclusively gay or straight will also often generate ire. Some point to the fact that he was originally intended to be a romanceable social link to be a sign that he is gay, others will point to the fact that he shows attraction to Saki Konishi and the female team mates as a sign that he is straight. Some use his insistence that he is not gay as proof that he is straight, while others see it as a case of protesting too much to be straight, and many simply believe that this and said scrapped romance option with Yu would actually only help round out his character by giving reasoning and understanding to one of his most infamous and poorly-written habits that isn't otherwise addressed beyond simply being immature and rather Jerkass behavior. And then many are just frustrated at the absolutely insane notion of being attracted to boys and girls as mutually exclusive concepts, and that the simple prospect he could be bisexual can get overlooked and ignored for the sake of arguing. Regardless, it's still argued whether he's simply capable of being attracted to men at all, or how strongly considered the Dummied Out content should be in regards to canon writing.
  • Naoto's romance route is by far one of the franchise's most polarizing romantic Social Links. Many people love her dynamic with the protagonist, her having one of the more overt Did They or Didn't They? moments, along with finding her Adorkable on the romantic path. Yu/Naoto was so popular in the early days of the fandom that her gender was an Open Secret, and it still maintains a degree of popularity. Others find several of its aspects uncomfortable, feeling the dialogue options that unlock her romance enforce the exact gender roles her arc was criticizing; you need to select "I'm glad you're a girl" instead of "your gender doesn't matter" in an early rank (despite the latter option giving more points), the romance split occurs after a Rescue Romance, and you're encourage to say you prefer her voice higher or, in Japanese, her to use feminine pronouns, in Rank 10. The Ship-to-Ship Combat between the Yu/Naoto and Kanji/Naoto pairs doesn't help, nor does the fact that later spinoffs and re-releases Ship Tease both pairings, or the writing coming across as even more problematic to those with a Trans Audience Interpretation of Naoto.
  • Nanako's death and subsequent resurrection. Was it a powerful moment in the game, or was it tasteless of the writers to stuff a child in the fridge in order to emotionally manipulate the player into picking the Bad Ending? Did Nanako's resurrection make sense, or was it a massive Writer Cop Out? A third camp was just disappointed there wasn't a scenario exploring the ramifications of the Investigation Team killing Namatame but Nanako surviving anyway, thus making their "revenge" pointless.
  • Dave Wittenberg vs Sam Riegel as Teddie. While most agree that they're on pretty even footing for regular Teddie, fans are more divided in their voices for Shadow Teddie. Fans of the original prefer that Wittenberg's voice for Shadow Teddie sounds more naturally menacing, with only a slight reverb added to it, and criticize Riegel's Shadow Teddie for being artificially pitched down to try and achieve a similar effect. Others think that both are effective.
  • The "Hardcore Risette Fan" trophy from Golden. Whilst it has it's detractors who consider it That One Achievement, some consider it a fairly straightforward trophy to achieve if the player doesn't fall into Complacent Gaming Syndrome and rotates party members, or rank Rise's Social Link up too quickly to lock out a number of her lines.
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • Naoto being a girl. None of her English voice actors really try to sound like a boy (although she does affect a slightly deeper voice before The Reveal), but even if that weren't the case, some figured it out just by looking at her as the way the art for her character is done makes her look feminine enough that one would be able to guess she wasn't a boy. Shinjiro in Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth slightly lampshaded this by stating he could tell Naoto's gender just by looking at her.
  • It is very obvious that Mitsuo Kubo was not the killer. By the time he was arrested, the game was halfway finished and it continues to go on making the players aware that something was not right. And any savvy Shin Megami Tensei player who plays around with Fusions will notice Fusion results well above the level that their party should be for this character's boss fight.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • For characters who get annoyed by Yosuke and Teddie's perverted antics, namely the ones that go too far^note  such as Yosuke buying Chie and Yukiko swimsuits on the camping trip and guilt-tripping them into wearing them, seeing them fail hilariously can be fun to watch. Also with Yosuke, his instances of homophobia towards Kanji can make anything bad that happens to him after ^note  examples including the lake incident or Kanji threatening to beat the crap out of him be seen as karmic.
  • A more serious example would be the penultimate confrontation with The Killer. After spending most of the game looking for The Killer, who proceeds to spend their screentime upon being ousted as an insufferably smug dick, it is cathartic to see Adachi go into a full Villainous Breakdown once the Investigation Team calls him out as a pathetic Psychopathic Manchild. Even more satisfying is that you refuse to kill him or leave him to die as he wants, but instead drag him back to answer for his crimes in the world that he hates.
• Cliché Storm: A lot of the Dojima family drama amounts to this, including Deceased Parents Are the Best (the Dojima matriarch being dead and a source of angst for both Ryotaro and Nanako), When You Coming Home, Dad? (Ryotaro being a workaholic who doesn't have time for Nanako and is always breaking promises to spend time with her), and a Third-Act Misunderstanding (the Dojimas being sent a threatening letter, which leads to Ryotaro turning against the Protagonist).
• Common Knowledge:
  • Due to Ryotaro Dojima being such a Base-Breaking Character, it was often claimed that the reason for his Unintentionally Unsympathetic actions is that he was originally planned to be the killer. This has never been confirmed, all we know about the original plans for the killer was that it wasn't Adachi.
  • It's commonly believed that Marie always gives the protagonist a kiss on Valentine's Day and a Love Confession in the epilogue. This only happens in the version of these events that plays if the player romanced her. The scenes lack those elements on her platonic path. This misconception exists because the vast majority of public footage of Golden's epilogue comes from "harem" playthroughs.
  • Nanako's resurrection should the player choose to spare Namatame gets accused of being an Ass Pull by some players. However, the doctor treating Nanako vaguely implied that they were able to resuscitate her.
• Contested Sequel: On account of its Lighter and Softer story and tone, especially coming off the much gloomier Persona 3 (the fact that Persona 4 was heavily Adored by the Network compared to 3 certainly is of no help). Although it does a good job tackling a number of heavy topics, the lower-stakes plot and tone, as well as the stronger emphasis on funny and heartwarming moments, are either a breath of fresh air in a genre that's oversaturated with dark "save the world" plots, or too light for its own good and an unnecessary contrast to the rest of the series. As such, while the game is acclaimed by both Persona fans and RPG fans as one of the greatest RPG titles of all time that is a must-play for any diehard RPG player, there are others who argue that the game's lighter tone can make it feel like a Persona game In Name Only.
• Crack Pairing:
  • The Japanese fandom has a large following for Adachi/aged-up Nanako, however little sense it makes.
  • Rise and Kanji have also turned into a surprisingly popular one as well. Interesting in the fact that, story-wise, the two have crushes on different characters (the Protagonist and Naoto respectively) and that Kanji is explicitly uninterested in her to the point that it irritates her in Golden. They do seem to get along quite well in the game (the game notes it may be because the others in the team are second years whilst the two of them are the only first years in the group until Naoto joins) and people may see them as an alternate Yosuke and Chie pairing without the UST. Oddly enough, this pairing might have been referenced in Persona Q, where Yukiko, at one point, believes that Kanji has a crush on Rise and should confess to her. The player has a dialogue option that supports this pairing.
  • The Japanese fanbase is quite fond of pairing Naoto and Rise together. This is actually because of the voice actor connection. Rise is voiced by Rie Kugimiya and Naoto is voiced by Romi Park: they've had many roles where they worked together, notably Ed (Romi Park) and Al (Rie Kugimiya) Elric from Full Metal Alchemist 2003. Romi Park once stated in a behind the scenes interview for FMA that she wanted Rie Kugimiya to come and cook for her in nothing but an apron. There tends to be a fair bit of teasing subtext between them during interviews together.
  • There is numerous fanart for the protagonist and, guess who, grown-up Nanako. It doesn't help that, if you max her and Dojima's S-Links, you can have her get a Childhood Marriage Promise from him.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Yukiko and Chie giving the boys Mystery Food X that nearly kills them shouldn't be nearly as funny as it is if it weren't for the fact that the girls are just that bad at cooking. Yosuke's reaction is admittedly pretty funny, too; props to Yuri Lowenthal for making his reaction both believable and hilarious.
    Yosuke: WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!
  • This line from Yukiko during the school's camping trip. Chie's response says it all.
    Yukiko: (While Hanako is snoring) ...do you think she'd stop snoring if I covered her nose and mouth?
    Chie: N-nonononono! Yukiko, NO!
  • Yukiko trying Rise's omelette (which actually isn't that bad; just really spicy) only to keel over exactly like Yu and Yosuke did back in the camping trip. Kanji's well-timed Ironic Echo makes this all the more hilarious! Even when Nanako herself tries the omelette she can't help but complement Rise out of courtesy since it's established earlier that Nanako isn't very fond of spicy food.
  • "Senpai, no! Don't leave me!"
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Any Shadow with the word "Basalt" in its name. They resist (and later outright nullify) physical attacks, have unpredictable weaknesses, and while they don't have many skills, their regular attack hits like a ton of rocks. Oh, and there's one type of them that resists Almighty. You will, more often than not, drain half your collective SP getting everyone's health back up after fighting a group of Basalts. It's worth noting that the All-Out Attack is of Almighty affinity. Yes, they resist the All-Out Attack. Golden made several varieties take normal damage to both Physical and Almighty to make them a bit less headache-inducing, and many varieties are weak to light, so using e.g. Mahama will clear most if not all of them out instantly.
  • "Machine"-type enemies, regardless of variation, can be pretty nasty. They come in two flavors, and both variants pack a very powerful normal attack that's almost guaranteed to knock out a party member in one go.
    • The Steel Machine in Void Quest and Heartless Machine in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon have very low hit points, barely hitting 100, but they make up for it with an absurd amount of resistance to all forms of damage. You'll find yourself Cherry Tapping them to death if you try to brute-force them. The Steel Machine even has a hidden almighty resistance to let it weather your All-Out Attacks. The one solace is their lack of Light or Dark resistance, so a good Hamaon or Mudoon should take them out quickly. ^Hint Damage items always inflict a fixed amount of damage unless you hit an immunity. Use a Magatama to instantly kill it, or a couple of more common items.
    • The Dominating Machine Degraded Boss in the Secret Laboratory and the Solemn Machine from a later dungeon may take increased damage from everything but usually have absurdly high health to ensure they won't go down in one hit. They also have Light and Dark immunity so you can't one-shot them like the others and are forced to take them out in a straight-up brawl.
    • The Heartless Machine in Golden is no longer behaves like its vanilla counterpart. Instead, it mixes attributes from the above two variations, having immunity to Light and Dark while resisting all other damage sources that aren't its sole Wind weakness. It still has very low HP, but if you're missing any Wind damage source you'll be Cherry Tapping it for a while.
  • The Intrepid Knight in Heaven. Nulls both Hama and Mudo skills, and resists both Almighty and Physical. But at least it has a Lighting Weakness, right? Nope; it takes less damage from electric attacks, and since it resists Almighty, All Out Attacks are pointless. Throw in the fact it's got Power Charge (the boosts its next attack 250%) and the very strong Virus Wave (that hits all party members and may poison them), this guy is a pain in the ass even in a New Game Plus. In Golden, it's even worse, as the Virus Wave is replaced with Blight—basically the same thing, just stronger. Cementing this is that all of its resistances are the ones that can't be broken with a spell.
  • The Noble Seeker in Magatsu Mandala. Previously a pushover, as of Golden it's a nightmare. It has no weaknesses and repels physical attacks, meaning it's impossible to knock it down. Its magic stat is a little bit monstrous, its health and SP have been improved, and it possesses Galgalim Eyes (HP to One, inflicts enervation).
  • The Minotaurs from the same dungeon as the above hit hard, have lots of health, possess powerful skills like Diarahan (single-target full heal) and have a fair number of resistances.
• Designated Hero:
  • The reason why Yosuke is such a Base-Breaking Character. He is perverted to the point of misogyny (right after a girl he had a crush on was murdered and learning that said girl hated him), and his tendency to make fun of Kanji's insecurities make him look like a huge homophobe. However, unlike the former, he never faces karma for the latter.
  • While Yosuke is no saint, Chie's treatment towards him doesn't paint a pretty picture of her either. She'll often assault Yosuke (and the protagonist and Kanji on some occasions) for minimal offenses, even if he apologized beforehand, she mooches off of him, and she charged money to Yosuke's credit card for an expensive suit for Teddie without asking him.
  • The rest of the Investigation Team may not be as bad as Yosuke and Chie in the Jerkass department, but they still have their moments, like Kanji and (potentially) Yu coercing the girls into competing in the beauty pageant, the infamous Amagi Inn scene, and the times they took swipes at Kashiwagi and Hanako for their looks (though the latter case is more forgivable given that Kashiwagi and Hanako aren't exactly pleasant people themselves). Another point against them is their tendency to make short-sighted decisions that end up causing more problems.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • In the anime, Yu is a tad... odd at several points. For example, during their first visit to the TV World, he sees nothing wrong with Yosuke, in the midst of a Potty Emergency, dropping his pants and relieving himself against a wall, and even asks Chie why he would want to stop him from doing so. Of course, most of his antics can simply be chalked up to Rule of Funny.
    • When he and Yosuke are knocked into the water for making perverted comments about the girls, he continues to have a complete lack of facial expressions, while Yosuke is simultaneously laughing and flailing about.
    • He has a rather odd habit of agreeing to random comments made by the other characters, regardless of their seriousness.
      Yukiko: The next time he creeps me out, he's ash!
      Yu: Sounds good.
    • He also has a tendency to not react at all too absurd situations and to be way too into certain antics of the more... eccentric members of the investigation team. Case in point: While the other characters are freaking out about the implied size of Naoto's chest, he and Kanji hang back and have this gem of a conversation:
      Yu: Aren't you even the least bit curious, Kanji?
      Kanji: Huh? About what?
      Yu: Naoto, big melons or not.
      Kanji: Huh? Why are you asking me? I didn't look at her tits, I swear!
      Yu: Okay.
      Kanji: But that chick, she is pretty amazing.
      Yu: Which chick? Oh right, Funbags.
  • Yosuke's almost constantly wearing his headphones, even in school (to the point where a scene in Arena points him out as "the one wearing headphones", implying he is the only one that does this), where most schools wouldn't allow that unless someone has an accommodation. That plus his impulsivity and sensitivity to rejection could easily be read as ADHD.
  • Yosuke also displays traits that could be read as indicators of antisocial personality disorder. His Shadow Self claims that, contrary to what he claimed, he joined the Investigation Team purely to alleviate his boredom rather than to save people, and he brushes off that traumatic encounter more easily than the other victims. This implies low empathy, understimulation, and flat affect, all of which are common behaviors displayed by sociopaths. His frequent Jerkass behavior doesn't help. He does act like a normal highschooler most of the time... but being extremely good at faking a normal appearance is also a common trait of sociopaths.
  • A good portion of Naoto's personality could be read as symptoms of autism, such as her issues with social interaction (especially before she joins the IT, as she says she has a "tin ear for other's feelings") tendency to misread sarcasm and jokes, almost monotone way of speaking (and rarely smiling at that), overly formal language even in casual situations, etc. Furthermore, her Shadow tries to hide a childish side deep down to it manifesting in the form of a robot (it's common for autistic people to feel like one amongst their peers or be called "robotic"), it's not hard to see why many people can read Naoto this way.
• Difficulty Spike:
  • None of the bosses are exactly easy, and most will bring on tears of rage. However, Shadow Teddie stands out as coming right after Shadow Rise (who isn't threatening, but who isn't a Breather Boss either). She'll use your basic Agi on party members. He'll use Bufudyne, on top of having twice the amount of health you can take from Rise and higher stats.
  • Shadow Teddie can be beaten fairly easily, as multiple Personas at that point can absorb Ice, meaning if you block his Nihil Hand, he's not too bad. Shadow Mitsuo on the other hand will take everything you thought you knew about the game and rip it to shreds.
• Don't Shoot the Message: Many of Yosuke's views on gender roles and sexuality don't endear him to Western audiences. Given that he consistently suffers Laser-Guided Karma it's likely that the writers meant for Yosuke's attitude to be a character flaw that he largely overcomes by the end of the game. Unfortunately, players don't really see him grow out of this trait.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Zig-zagged. Even though Adachi is very popular, part of his sizeable fanbase doesn't romanticize him, just finds him a fun character. On the other hand, there are other fans who play it straight; there's actually fanfiction where he reforms, takes the main character's place in his absence, and ends up with Nanako. Some even blame the main characters for not helping him face his inner issues.
• Ending Fatigue: This game gets hit with it a lot of fake-outs. Kubo turns out to only be a Jack The Rip Off. While Namatame was responsible for some of the kidnappings, he wasn't the one that killed Yamano and Saki. Even after Adachi is arrested and you've said your goodbyes to all your friends on your last day in Inaba, the Investigation Team learns about Izanami and has to fight her. It gets even more taxing in Golden, because there’s also Marie’s arc to worry about, if you unlock it.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Mr. Morooka has quite a few fans who find him funny and/or good at teaching. Some even joke that he should have been a party member.
  • The "Spacey Girl" and "Funky Student" NPCs (the latter likely helped by his prominence in the Endurance Run). Someone in Atlus' staff seems to have taken notice, in the Updated Re-release of Soul Hackers, one demon conversation has Acheri admit he's her favorite character.
  • Shadow Yosuke and Shadow Naoto tend towards being the most popular of the Shadows. Particularly notable in that the former is only part of the tutorial and doesn't have a special venue like most of the other Shadows, while the latter is, as mentioned above, a Breather Boss.
  • Kou Ichijo is legendary amongst some fan circles for being an extremely sweet guy with a very relatable personality and some downright awesome interactions between him and Daisuke. And of course, he looooooooooooooooooves them balls.
  • Ayane Matsunaga is also very popular in a few circles for being extremely adorable and shy, alongside a genuine Nice Girl. And similar to Kou Ichijo above, she's also popular in some circles for asking WHO'S GOING TO HELP ME WITH MY SELF-ESTEEM ISSUES?!
  • In terms of Personas themselves, Yosuke's Persona, Jiraiya, tends to get the most love, receiving enough fan art and merchandise to rival Izanagi, the MC's Persona.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • This particular game is notable for spawning even more than games of its franchise usually do, thanks in no small part to leaving certain side-mysteries from the main plot tantalizingly half-answered or unanswered at all (in order to leave plot hooks for the inevitable sequel, in all likelihood). Naoto being a descendant of Raidou Kuzunoha and/or a relative of Persona 3's Protagonist (and the two are not mutually exclusive), the exact nature of Teddie - as he's clearly not just a joe shmoe Shadow who wants to be nice to humans- and the nature of the TV World and how it relates to the Dark Hour and Abyss of Time from Persona 3 or the Metaverse from Persona 5 are especially popular targets for tree-planting.
  • The strange eye symbol that can appear on a party member's status screen. Whilst it was eventually revealed to just be a glitch and had no effect on gameplay, just what it was meant to do before the mechanic was removed from Persona 4 is unclear and has never been explained by anyone, with Atlus being reluctant to even admit to it being a glitch - something they only did in 2013, a full half-decade after the game was released.
• Escapist Character: Yu definitely qualifies as he can romance school and TV idols, is an uncontested leader, a Supreme Chef, a Warrior Therapist and generally comes out as an all-around cool guy for absolutely everyone he meets.
• Evil Is Cool: Adachi, of all people. The reveal that he was the Killer all along actually added to his appeal as a character. His tendency to switch between Laughably Evil and delicious evilness makes him both entertaining yet intimidating in the eyes of the fanbase. Also, he wields the Persona Magatsu-Izanagi which is the Evil Counterpart for the protagonist's Izanagi, with a cool-looking red and black color scheme.

F-J

• Fair for Its Day: Some of the jokes and tone addressed towards Kanji and even his very dungeon can come across as homophobic nowadays, but at the time, the game was rather progressive with its treatment of his sexuality. While it is never stated what it is, the game doesn't really shame him for being confused or curious about it, or even for being willing to explore it, and states that there wouldn't be anything wrong if he wasn't straight; the only one with a problem is the Butt-Monkey character, but the main character can support or flirt with him. The fact that Kanji was also a main character is also pretty unusual, as these kinds of traits and jokes would usually be pushed on someone more secondary.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Yu: Brotag (for his Messiah tendencies), Banchou / "gang leader" (from his Persona's Japanese Delinquents look), Charlie Tunoku (from the Persona 4 Endurance Run), Kenpachi Ramasama (from Two Best Friends Play), Chad Ziodynecock (based on the Chad Thundercock memes and a reference to his nature as The Ace and a Chick Magnet).
  • Naoto: Captain Pistol.
  • King subtype Shadows: Mr. Pringles.
  • Yosuke: Brosuke (from his Bros Before Hoes S Link event), Moesuke (for being Adorkable), Failsuke (for being a Butt-Monkey), Yos(u)gay (for his Ho Yay scenes), etc., Junes (from Japanese fans)
  • Adachi: Cabbage Man, Cabbage Adachi, (from his cabbage dialogue at Junes), Goofydachi (as a Butt-Monkey), Crazydachi (post-Reveal). The latter two are from a defunct LiveJournal community, badbadbathhouse.
  • Yukiko: Amagidyne (from her fire spells^note Agi is the name for the fire elemental spells and "-dyne" is a suffix to the most powerful of the elemental offensive spells ), Drunkiko (from the King's Game scene), Larry (from a series of manga edits).
  • Ryotaro Dojima: Brojima (for always trusting you)
  • Investigation Team: The Inaba Scoobies (from similarities to Scooby-Doo)
  • Teddie: T. Bearson (from his Persona 4: Arena M. Bison outfit).
  • Ameno-Sagiri: The Technodrome.
  • Suzuka Gongen: Darth Maul
  • Mudoon Curry for Mystery Food X.
  • Poochie for Marie.
  • Thanks to Hiimdaisy, Jiraiya is "Disco Ninja Frog", and Shadow Chie is "Dominatrix Bananahead".
• Fan-Preferred Couple: At least on AO3, pairing the protagonist with Yosuke is considerably more popular than any of his actual romance options. It helps that Yosuke actually was meant to be a romance option before the route got cut fairly late in development.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: Yosuke Hanamura was going to be a Gay Option, a decision that was reversed far enough into development that dialogue for it, dubbed in English, remains in the game's data. Fans aware of this believe this would heavily have elevated much of the subtext of the bond between him and the player character, as well as heavily recontextualized his downright terrified homophobic outbursts into someone terrified to embrace this part of himself and projecting that onto others, tying into the game's primary themes of finding the truths in one's life. For that matter, it's something that the series' second installment had already had precedent for allowing!
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Due to the Shadows being so overly dramatic to purposely misrepresent the person's concerns/fears, it's common to see people mistake the Shadows' point as being the truth, even though the game makes it clear otherwise this is not true. This gets worse with Values Dissonance because of it being through a Japanese cultural lens (and thus Westerners would miss the context). Both Naoto and Kanji are the most common ones to have this issue, given their Shadows respectively showcase trans and gay imagery despite both being a fundamental commentary on workplace sexism and toxic masculinity instead.
• Fanon: Shared with the rest of the franchise.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The Amagi Inn scene, whether it be because it was a pointless comedy scene, because the girls Took a Level in Jerkass, because of it basically being a torture porn scene for the guys, or taking what many consider to be one of the most annoying anime clichés, but somehow making it even worse by having the girls refuse to own up to their mistake, many consider it the worst scene in the game.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Izanami used to be Izanagi's wife, so naturally, some fans have taken the concept of the whole mess in Inaba being a really ugly spat between two divine exes and just ran with it.
• Fountain of Memes: Adachi. He has a lot of odd expressions and memorable lines especially once he's revealed as the killer that fandom have latched onto.
• Game-Breaker: See here.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: This holds true in relation to Persona 3. Persona 3 was a little better received in Japan and is generally considered the better of the two games, and got far more spinoff merch due to the incredible demand; Persona 4, meanwhile, still got a decent reception but not a great one and not much secondary merch. The opposite holds true in America and Europe, though; while Persona 3 did basically bring real mainstream attention onto the franchise, Persona 4 was reviewed much higher and is generally considered to be a whisper away from total perfection and quickly became the best-selling SMT title in the West ever (which actually had the effect of making Persona 4 the best-selling SMT game ever due to worldwide sales). This may actually be spilling back to its homeland as well, with several spinoff merch and sequels that are about equal with Persona 3. And hey, Atlus sure didn't call the crossover fighting game Persona 3 Arena.
• Glurge: Most of Nanako's character revolves around her being The Woobie, to the point where her death is the driving point for the decision the player must make for either the good or bad endings.
• Goddamned Boss:
  • Contrarian King, the Superboss in Shadow Yukiko's dungeon. He has insanely high Attack power for his level and his Rampage attack can kill the entire party in one hit if you go back and attempt to defeat him immediately after clearing the dungeon the first time, even if defensive buffs are in play (oddly enough, it's several times stronger than his other moves). However, he becomes rather easy if you grind through another dungeon or two and then return, have a Persona with Null Physical on a New Game+, or simply get lucky and never see him use it.
  • Shadow Teddie, given his massive amount of health. His attacks are easy to recognize if you know his tells, so it's more of an endurance contest.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • In the Vita version of Golden, the quest "Harvest Two Types of Corn" has a bug that will let you obtain 99 of Makarakorn or Tetrakorn. Since these items works just like Tetrakarn and Makarakarn, skills normally balanced by their high SP usage, having so many free usages of them is quite the Game-Breaker. This is commonly exploited by speedrunners to win battles quickly. The PC version fixed it, however.
  • In the multiplatform port of Golden, changing language mid-gameplay may cause broken game behavior. The infamous one causes the protagonist to hold a weapon during the dream sequence when he should not have it yet until the scripted battle there. This in turn breaks his animations, causing him to T-pose when he is supposed to be running.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The scene where Chie charges Teddie's wardrobe to Yosuke without his permission becomes this in Golden — in the original release Yosuke complains that he's trying to buy a motorcycle, but in Golden he's recently done so at this point in the story and complains that he's broke and doesn't have the money for it, with Chie's reaction being a non-plussed "Well, then it's not like going into debt is going to be problem!" Keep in mind that when Golden was released, there was a global recession taking place due to this sort of spending.
  • Yumi's New Year's date has her making a small prayer at the shrine. During it, she thanks God for bringing the two of you together and makes it known that she's glad that you're alive. Considering what closely preceded this and the events of the True Ending, it can be seen as a bit of foreshadowing, especially considering what the series as a whole has a knack for doing to its protagonists.
  • In a throwaway comedy scene during the summer, Teddie and Yosuke help with Nanako's homework by providing proverbs. Teddie's is "Cogito ergo sum" or "I think, therefore I am". Once you learn his backstory and witness his entire character arc, this is considerably less funny.
  • In Ai's Social Link, after hearing that the guy she likes isn't interested in her, she threatens to throw herself off the school roof, but you talk her down. In Persona 5, Shiho, after being sexually assaulted by Kamoshida, attempts suicide in the same manner, surviving but being injured and going into a coma.
  • Also from Ai's Social Link, the part where she rejects a suitor for not being good-looking enough and expresses her belief that looks are all that matters. Initially, it comes off as a Kick the Dog moment that makes Ai seem shallow, but later on, you learn that she also feels that way about herself, believing so strongly that looks are her only redeeming quality that she becomes suicidal when she's rejected, and this revelation says volumes about Ai's self-esteem (or lack thereof).
  • Mr. Yamada casually makes slips of the tongue implying that Yukiko, one of his students, is cute, something that passes without comment. In Persona 5, Mr. Kamoshida lusts after Ann, retaliating against her friend Shiho by sexually assaulting her when Ann spurns his advances- his attraction to her isn't portrayed as being acceptable in the least, and he comes off as one of the most despicable characters in the game.
  • Marie, Igor's Golden-only assistant together with Margaret, is revealed to be a pawn of Persona 4's Greater-Scope Villain. Apparently, Atlus decided to do it again in Persona 5, although this time it's the Greater-Scope Villain of that game himself who places himself in the Velvet Room, impersonating Igor no less.
  • Those packages you likely bought off Tanaka's Amazing Commodities? Every delivery of them seems to have made Nanako more acquainted with Namatame...
  • On certain days Mitsuo can be found standing across the street from Tatsumi Textiles. Talk to him, and he'll suspect Morooka of being the murderer. If you know what happens later in the game, this is either amusing or disturbing.
  • Near the beginning, Chie is somewhat relieved to hear that the only reason the player character transferred over was because of his parents' work, having been worried that it was something more serious.^note Possibly a nod to the protagonist's backstory in 3 - his parents died in a car crash. In Persona 5, it's indicated that the protagonist transferred to his new school as a result of getting on probation for assaulting a molester, which would definitely qualify as significantly more serious.
  • Morooka states that "This town is miles away from your big city of perverts and assholes, in more ways than one" when berating Yu on the first day of school. Come Persona 5, which is set in Yu's hometown of Tokyo, and through Suguru Kamoshida and Masayoshi Shido (among others), we learn that Morooka may have had a point.
  • As an Idol Singer, Rise often deals with harassment from obnoxious fans. Laura Bailey, Rise's English voice actress, also faced considerable harassment from fans and haters due to the controversy surrounding The Last of Us Part II and Abby, her character in that game.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: The moment where Nanako Dojima is brought back to life after dying should you make the right decision of sparing Namatame becomes this thanks in light to the news where a young boy is miraculously revived shortly after being declared dead!
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Has its own page.
• Ho Yay: Has its own page.
• Hollywood Homely:
  • Ms. Kashiwagi is widely derided among the students as ugly, when she looks like this◊ (though more likely they're talking about her desperate attempts to "regain her youth").
  • Rise, when she's working at her family's tofu stand. Presumably it's meant to show how different she is from her idol persona, but characters genuinely believe she's an old lady just from the fact that she's wearing a kerchief on her head.
• Hype Backlash: On account of how it exploded in popularity when it was released and the massive slew of spin-off games that followed, it was inevitable that people would come to feel this way. After the release of Persona 5 and the passing of time allowing for a more objective opinion to develop this has gradually died down.
• It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: Owing to Atlus building up a franchise around Persona 4. Taken up to eleven with the 2013 Persona event, which announced a grand total of four Persona games, three of them P4 related. This event pretty much shattered the Shin Megami Tensei fandom due to Atlus' focus on P4; for comparison, three non spin-off games were released since 2000 while Persona had five, counting remakes. For all intents and purposes, P4 has become Atlus' equivalent of Final Fantasy VII.
• It Was His Sled:
  • Naoto's gender. It was actually supposed to be a surprise, but between all the fanart pairing a feminized version of herself with the Protagonist or Kanji and her American VA's poor job of disguising her gender it couldn't be helped. The secret was much better concealed in Japan, giving Romi Park's long history of voicing young male characters. The spinoffs not concealing this at all don't help matters, either, so at this juncture it's basically not even worth tagging as a spoiler.
  • Teddie's human form also isn't treated as a spoiler these days, and like Naoto spinoffs make no attempt to hide it.
  • The murderer's identity has become one of these, mainly due to it being very difficult to discuss the character without revealing this, and the character appearing as a DLC playable fighter in Persona 4: Arena Ultimax with a moveset that makes no attempt to hide their psychotic nature. It doesn't help that the murderer ended up becoming a fairly popular meme both within and outside the fandom.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Sometimes Yosuke's status as Butt-Monkey goes too far, especially when it comes to Saki, but then he also does things like mock Kanji's sexuality and sign the girls up for a Beauty Pageant against their will. There's many times when he doesn't deserve what happens to him, but also many others when he does.
  • Mitsuo Kubo. Though on the surface he seems to be an irredeemable, sociopathic murderer, one ought to stop for a moment and consider the kind of isolation he must have gone through to make him that desperate for attention that he would kill a person who we're given reason to believe had expelled him for a minor infraction and take credit for two other murders just to prove that he exists. Voices in his dungeon such as "Sadness increases by 5" and a long scream of "I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING" don't help matters either. Though his actions aren't justified, those who can see past their hatred might still wish things could have turned out better for him, or at least that he had thought twice.
  • Saki Konishi, considering how her family endlessly berates her for her decision to work in Junes, as the opening of the store is ruining her family's liquor store business. She's also the subject of gossip from her classmates and friends, and her friendship with Yosuke ended up complicating her life even further. Sure she comes across as a cold-hearted girl in reality (although this is debatable, as seen under Alternative Character Interpretation), but she certainly didn't deserve to die.

K-O

• Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • The protagonist. No, really. Probably doesn't hurt that he can canonically end the game with six girlfriends (seven in Golden) and inspire crushes in his cousin, a 27 year old nurse, and — if you know where to look for the dialogue — Hanako.
  • Kanji's ambiguous sexuality and chemistry with everyone on the team has resulted in fans shipping him with everybody. Naoto's still the most popular ship for him, though.
  • Naoto herself is also one of these.
• Love to Hate:
  • The Killer, AKA Tohru Adachi. Despite his monstrous personality, fans found him too likable and a treat to watch, given his genuinely funny and memorable quotes and his tendency to troll the Investigation Team at every turn.
  • Mr. Morooka/King Moron is a Sadist Teacher who frequently chews out the protagonist and the gang for the smallest of slights. Yet he's an Ensemble Dark Horse due to how over-the-top said attitude is that gives many of the game's most hilarious moments.
• Low-Tier Letdown:
  • Naoto in the original version only learns Light and Dark spells and Almighty spells, which, even with her Mind Charge spell, makes it impractical to use for a boss fight. This is fixed in Golden as she now comes with elemental skills, leaving her just enough to phase out the Useless Useful Spell her arsenal is filled with.
  • Yosuke falls here in Golden due to the changes made to all the characters. Unlike most characters, Yosuke received very few changes from the original game besides some minor buffing and debuffing skills, which, given the buffs made to Teddie and Kanji, prevent Yosuke from catching up at the end game.
• Memetic Badass:
  • By virtue of being an Escapist Character who can be The Ace in just about everything, Yu himself is considered to be this. Fans have nicknamed him the "Chad" Narukami for a reason.
  • Kanji. Not unreasonable, given that in canon he managed to take down an entire biker gang while he was just fifteen.
  • The Fox is jokingly interpreted as one. They will get all your yens.
• Memetic Molester:
  • Igor has a very creepy expression that looks like he's going to molest you. Doesn't help that he summons you from your dreams.
    "Helllllllllllllllo. PERSONA PERSONA PERSONA SOCIAL LINKS SOCIAL LINKS SOCIAL LINKS"
  • Adachi also qualifies. "Bitches and whores", indeed.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Everyday's great at your Junes!"^ExplanationAlmost all the scenes of Nanako watching TV have this line.
  • Critical Hit to the Nads!^ExplanationYosuke perfectly describes his pain after Chie kicks him in anger for breaking her DVD.
  • All-out attacks. Enough parodies of it exist that Danbooru has a tag for it that spans 4 pages. (WARNING: NFSW)
  • Bitches and whores.^ExplanationOriginated from a doujin edit. Has become an Ascended Meme in the anime with Adachi actually saying the line.
  • "I'm Jack Frost, HO!"^ExplanationThe Verbal Tic of Jack Frost and his cousins. This meme also sees use within the whole Shin Megami Tensei fanbase in general.
  • "RISE END, CONFIRMED", "YOSUKE END, CONFIRMED!", etc.
    • "______ is Best Girl!"^ExplanationMost discussions about preference for favorite romance option in the game will result in this comment coming up. Naturally, Yosuke isn't immune from this.
    • "Chie is Best Girl" in particular got a massive following Golden's release. To the point where even Atlus USA and even Nintendo of America started referencing it.
  • Nanako is the killer.^{Explanation (SPOILERS)}The main goal of Persona 4 is finding out who the killer is, so logically any spoilers about the murderer will ruin the plot twist and suspense of the game. For this reason, some fan decided to come up with fake ones to confuse others and ultimately protect them from unwanted spoilers, with this sprite of Nanako edited to have Adachi's face after he's outed as the murderer◊ being the most effective one.
  • Kou looooves them balls.^ExplanationKou says this while complaining about having to put the basketballs away after practice.
  • Man, you just killed my vibe. That's wiggity wack, yo.^ExplanationThe Funky student on the third floor of Yasogami will say this at one point in the game. In an odd case, this one caught on long after Persona 4's peak in popularity, during Persona 5's peak no less.
  • Virtually any line that comes from Hiimdaisy's Persona 4 comic has been turned into a meme, usually by sheer force of Youtube commenters posting them anywhere they're even remotely relevant (and a lot of places they're not):
    • Shut up, Adachi.^ExplanationAdachi keeps running his mouth about the police investigations.
    • ALL YO YENS, YIP YIP YAP^ExplanationThe fox's SP-healing services are very expensive, but are nearly necessary for completing a dungeon within 1 day.
    • YOU SAYIN' I LIKE DUDES?!^ExplanationKanji's Armored Closet Gay response while in confusion over his sexuality.
    • I HAVE TO PEE!!!!^ExplanationYosuke expressing his fear in an eloquent manner in the Midnight Channel.
    • TRIAL OF THE DRAGON!!!!!!!!^ExplanationEarly on, Yosuke accidentally breaks Chie's DVD of her favorite movie. Not only does it lead up to the Groin Attack as described above, she reminds him of his blunder to extort a favor from him.
    • I'M GOING BEARZERK!!!!!^ExplanationTeddie's English dialogue is full of puns.
  • Thanks to all the Female Gaze Yosuke got during the anime, his often well-drawn/animated butt has become an in joke with fans.
  • Aspects of the game like the dialog box and the weather indicator are splicted to videos like this.
  • Shadow: OFF^ExplanationThe PC version adds a range of graphical options, including the option to turn shadows off. Cue tons of jokes about how doing this makes the game laughably easy or lets you beat it in seconds. Naturally the same joke is brought up again for Persona 3 Portable since the port comes with the same option too.
• Memetic Troll: Yukiko Amagi. Usually a Ditzy Genius Yamato Nadeshiko, the time she has Kanji get gag glasses not once but twice, the Mysterious Food X incident, interrupting your hangout with Ai and take all the relationship points just because she could, and the event at the Amagi Inn where she messed up the schedules of the boys by accident and makes their stay at her inn just hilariously unpleasant has made people think she's a rather sneaky lovable Troll.
• Mis-blamed: Yukiko is often blamed for the Amagi Inn incident because she forgot the time, but it was Rise who suggested to just keep it a secret.
• Moe:
  • Rise, Nanako, and Ayane.
  • Depending your preferences, many of the other girls can qualify as moe, especially during their respective social links and even more so during their Christmas date events. It doesn't even have to be a girl: Yosuke's been referred to as moe by several people, and for good reason, too. Teddie (especially when cross-dressing in human form) is also a qualifier.
• Moral Event Horizon: See here.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • Nanako: "Welcome home, Big Bro!" Once it's gone, you will miss it.
  • The music that plays when you max out a social link.
  • The Reflect/Counter sound switches to this trope if you're the one doing the reflecting. It's more gratifying if you reflected a Charged Attack, the reflected damage was lethal to the attacker, or both.
  • Just like 3, the sound cue that plays along with a Eyed Screen cut-in when a team member lands a critical hit or strikes a weakness. As of Golden, after January you can hear it as often as you like.
• Narm:
  • Towards the beginning of the game, it seems that the history teacher lacks the tact to take off her silly Egyptian headdress to deliver an announcement that one of the students has been found murdered.
  • In the original PS2 release, your party members unlock the ability to take a mortal hit for you at just level 1 of their Social Links. Golden changed it so that this ability unlocks at level 9 instead. This was mocked by hiimdaisy's parody comic of the game.
    "You became friends with Yosuke. YOSUKE WILL NOW DIE FOR YOU!!!"
  • In Golden, the choice to trigger the new accomplice ending comes after a flashback to the good times you've had with Adachi in order to make the idea of betraying your teammates more appealing. Except that Adachi doesn't get that many scenes, even with his new Social Link, so the game is pretty much trying to get you to team up with the killer by reminding you that you went grocery shopping with him and invited him for dinner a few times. Somehow, the choice ends up not being as difficult as the developers intended it to be, so players who head down that path are probably just doing it to get 100% Completion.
  • In the hallway on December 3rd, right after Nanako seemingly dies, Kanji punches a wall and screams in frustration. But due to the timing of the character animation and the dialogue, he punches the wall first, so it looks more like he's screaming from the pain of punching the wall. Worse, Kanji stays in his wall-punching pose until his next line of dialogue, and a couple of other characters have lines before him. It's probably to prevent him from distracting from other characters' dialogue, but if you keep your eye on him holding that pose for several seconds it goes from "evocative" to "incredibly awkward" very quickly.
  • Ameno-Sagiri speaks with a voice so heavily pitched-down and distorted that it sounds less like an Eldritch Abomination and more like someone playing around with Microsoft Sam.
  • While not nearly as bad as Fuuka's English voice in Persona 3, many take issue with the Japanese voices for Rise and Teddie due to them being on the... shrill side.
  • Speaking of Rise, her Shadow's first appearance on the Midnight Channel could be a contender. While many shadow selves are meant to have one or two humorous qualities, this is a very serious moment, where the shadow self zigzags between talking in a low, successfully seductive tone, and... a shrill, exaggerated "Yaaaay!" that will have you burst out laughing.
  • During a scripted portion of the final battle, your party members push you out of the way and sacrifice themselves to Izanami's attack. It's all very dramatic, except that you being pushed is accompanied by a rather cartoonish and comical "Punch!" sound effect. It's even better if one of the party members is Kanji, whose method of "pushing" you is literally jumping through the air and dropkicking you with both feet.
  • In Golden, going to the Velvet Room will occasionally have a scene where one of Marie's wangsty, melodramatic poems is read. This is Played for Laughs. However, those same bad poems are later played for drama in Marie's dungeon, the Hollow Forest, where they get read intermittently.
  • Shadow Teddie's voice. While all the other Shadows had voices that fit their design, Shadow Teddie talks in a Hannibal Lecter-esque voice. When it's coming from a cartoon bear, it makes the player think of the Satanic teddy bear from Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series.
  • The Killer's motive. He was motivated by his bad luck, with the rejection from Yamano being the final straw. However, with what the viewer is told and how little they're shown, the Killer comes off as Wangsty. It's hard to take the game's Big Bad seriously when his motive is the premise for every Dan Vs. episode. This isn't helped by his rather inconsistent characterization. One moment, he's acting like a sociopath that killed people For the Evulz, and then he anti-climatically turns himself over rather quickly.
  • Margaret's battle posture looks absolutely ridiculous given that she's basically floating about with a bunch of cards around her on top of doing a very silly pose. This also carries into Persona Q.
  • Speaking of, Margaret's speech during a certain event at the end of the end of the game in Golden is completely undermined by the fact that some of her lines were redubbed by other actresses due to scheduling issues, which wouldn't be so bad if said actresses made absolutely no effort to hide their different voices. The result is that she flails widely between different pitches, inflections and tones, sometimes in the middle of a sentence. Margaret's speech about strength of character and going Beyond the Impossible just isn't as effective when she alternately sounds like herself, Aigis and Elizabeth all at once.
  • Returning fans are left scratching their heads at the multiplatform port's additional dialogue boxes that describe sound effects of a given dialogueless scene. It seems to be an attempt of accessibility feature for Golden (and Persona 3 Portable as well), but the way the descriptions are awkwardly written and the fact there is no setting to enable/disable this make the players confused instead.
• Narm Charm:
  • For some, Adachi's goofy facial expressions once he's revealed to be The Killer only serve to accentuate him as an intimidating and unnerving villain.
  • The Killer's motive can come off as this depending on the perspective. The revelation of the sheer pettiness and lack of complexity behind their motive simply because they were Not Good with Rejection and later on For the Evulz, can come off as both frightening and entertaining.
• Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize: At the time the original English dub was released in 2008 Johnny Yong Bosch was one of if not the most famous member of the cast. Even though he also plays the protagonist they are a Silent Protagonist with few lines and none that pertain to the story. It seemed unusual at first that most of Bosch's lines were as a seemingly-goofy side character with no social link. It turns out this character is The Killer.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • The reaction you'll get besides horror at Berserk Shadow Rise.
  • The random fridge events, which involve, among other things, white miso that used to be red and an entire mushroom growing out of one of the food items. And yes, the game gives you the option to eat these mysteries, while providing Courage for doing so (at the cost of using up all your time in the evening).
  • Whatever the hell Yukiko and Chie cooked up for the summer trip that's so bad that neither Yu nor Yosuke can identify it as something edible.
• Never Live It Down:
  • The guys crossdressing. Take a wild guess as to how much fanart there is of it. In Golden, their "crossdressing" outfits are all selectable costumes the party can wear while dungeon diving, and Rise has a number of (mostly complementary) comments she can make about them. There has gotten to the point where the male cast of Persona 3 and Persona 5 got their own crossdressing outfits in certain spin-off games in which that is something that may have never happened if it weren't for this.
  • And then we have the One-Scene Wonder with Adachi eating cabbages because he's on a budget. Fans can't stop making fun of this, exaggerating by declaring cabbage to be his Trademark Favorite Food and making them an actual pairing. However, Adachi actually doesn't like cabbage, and only eats it because he can't afford much else.
  • The Amagi Inn scene, in which the girls throw washtubs at the guys to force them out of the hot spring, only to realize after the fact that they'd gone in at the wrong time. With how some reacted to that scene and their behavior during the camping trip, you'd think the girls do nothing but make the boys' lives a living hell.
  • Dojima is, for the most part, a fairly good detective for a case in which the standard rules don't apply, quite trusting of the protagonists despite his concerns about Yu getting involved in the investigation, and tries to raise Nanako well in spite of his issues and his workload. Sadly, all this tends to be overshadowed by his actions on November 5th, where he ends up completely dropping the ball purely so the plot can move forward and completely refusing to believe you about the Midnight Channel even if you've maxed out his Social Link; this leads to some fans treating him like a total chump even though his biggest "crime" was making a mistake in the heat of the moment, dire consequences notwitstanding. In turn, the protagonist also gets some flack for not just sticking his hand in the TV at their home or the one that is in the cell the two are currently in during that scene.
  • Naoto initially comes off as an Insufferable Genius, and some people find it hard to forgive her for that. While Naoto does sometimes exhibit those qualities (calling the investigation a "game" for the main characters), it's implied that some of the police who dislike her are influenced by how 1) she's a lot younger than they are, 2) she's a girl, and 3) they don't want to admit that the young suspect that they arrested isn't actually the culprit for the first two murders.
  • Naoto and Kanji's Shadows touch upon rigid gender roles and stereotypes, as well as conflicting natures — i.e., how Naoto's shadow is a Mad Scientist who also acts childish, while Kanji's is talking about how he has "Girly" hobbies and is flanked by masculine caricatures. Hearing the fandom however would make you think the entirety of Kanji's character is "He's gay" while Naoto's is "She's trans".
  • Yosuke in particular gets this a lot:
    • The guy making the incredibly boneheaded move to bring real weapons to a public café and wave them around like an imbecile, despite the fact there have been two murders and a kidnapping recently and a larger than usual police presence in the area. Even his staunchest fans see this as pretty big screw up.
    • His Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today? moments, which are actually few and far between, have gotten flanderized by the fandom to the point where he is the character with the Transparent Closet. His close relationship with the protagonist plays a part in it too, as does the Dummied Out dialog that suggests he may have been intended to be a Gay Option at one point.
    • As the years go on and newer players with changing standards get into the game, they tend to find Yosuke's somewhat homophobic treatment of Kanji less and less acceptable. It's not hard to see players who found him unsalvagable as a character following the Camping Trip in particular, and it's not uncommon to see fans of Yosuke freely admit that he went too far.
• Nightmare Retardant:
  • Adachi proves that confronting a brutal killer becomes notably less frightening when he's wearing a smile, both his model and portrait, that just screams "heavily intoxicated". He can switch between chilling and hilarious within the space of a minute, so he's prone to getting this reaction. Golden probably brings in the biggest example with this face.◊
  • Ameno-Sagiri, lord of fog and master of oblivion. Aka the giant disco eyeball smoke machine.
  • Shadow Teddie. Sure, he may sound menacing thanks to Wittenburg's performance, but you can't help but bust out laughing when he could easily be compared to Hannibal Lecter in a bear suit.
• Older Than They Think: When Golden released on Steam in June 2020, a lot of people thought it was the first Persona game on PC, and the first mainline Persona game to not be on a PlayStation console. However, the first Persona had a PC port released, though due to that game being obscure compared to later Persona games, and the PC port being Japan-only, most people can be forgiven for not realizing it existed.
• One True Threesome: Yu/Kanji/Naoto.
• One-Scene Wonder: Chihiro Fushimi, whom you encounter during the school trip to Gekkoukan High.

P-T

• Padding: A common complaint about the story is that it would often come to a screeching halt for high school shenanigans that don't add to the story, but are mandatory to sit through in order to progress it. The most notable examples include the camping trip, the school festival, and the Amagi Inn scene. In a game where time is of the essence, these scenes cut into days that could be used for level grinding or building Social Links.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • So you're saying a secret hell populated by demons that actively try to carry out gruesome deaths hides behind that television screen?
  • There's a serial killer on the loose. And in a small town like Inaba, the killer could be anyone, even the guy whom you invite over to your house for dinner!
  • As if walking through heavy fog wasn't creepy enough, this game comes along to drive home the idea that monsters are lurking in it and their world is merging with ours.
• Player Punch:
  • Nanako's kidnapping, and her subsequent dungeon. Not to mention her apparent death. And the utter silence when you come home after that, without Nanako's cheerful "Welcome Home, Big Bro!" to greet you. Even worse, take revenge on her behalf... and get a one-way path to the bad ending, where she permanently dies.
  • There is also Valentine's Day in Golden. If you maxed out at the lover's route with all the ladies, now you have to reject all of the girls save for one. As you dash the other girls' romantic hopes, they will sullenly attempt to mask their disappointment. What hammers it home is Naoto saying to herself "You'll only get hurt" when she gets rejected.
• Polished Port:
  • Golden on the PS Vita is this to the original PS2 version. Not only were the visuals updated to widescreen and to a slightly higher resolution than the PS2 version, but a myriad of improvements were made to further refine the gameplay from the original version. What's even better is that unlike Persona 3, no compromises to the visual presentation had to be made for the transition from the PS2 to the PS Vita. If anything, the visuals have been upgraded, as stated before.
  • The PC version of Golden further improves the graphics from the Vita version thanks to the ability to select from a variety of resolutions and texture filtering options. It also supports up to 60 frames per second, which is a pleasant surprise from a port of an older game made by Japanese studio without much experience porting to the PC. There are some other improvements as well, such as dual audio support and the ability to customize the difficulty from the start, which in the Vita version was restricted to New Game Plus. A later patch made the port even more polished, fixing issues like stuttering cutscenes and random crashes. The 2023 Multi-Platform release added further refinements (which were also brought to the PC version via an update) such as the ability to rewatch social link events in your bedroom. It also performs very well, running at 60 FPS even on the Nintendo Switch.
• Questionable Casting:
  • The casting of Tracey Rooney, a screen actor who never did VA work before (or since) as Chie Satonaka. While her take has its fans, many fans found her deeper, calmer take to be a poor fit for Chie's energetic, tomboyish characterization and prefer Erin Fitzgerald's take for sounding higher-pitched and more energetic.
  • Two of the reasons why the game is considered an example of Superlative Dubbing are Rise and Teddie's Japanese voices. Some felt Rie Kugimiya's voice for Rise was too high pitched, which made her sound child-like and annoying when she acted as Mission Control. For Teddie, some felt Kappei Yamaguchi's voice was too screechy for the character.
• Salvaged Gameplay Mechanic: Mechanics, rather, as the gameplay is miles better than its predecessor. The most notable improvement is the ability to control your party members directly (thus no longer needing to deal with Artificial Stupidity). Many of these changes actually debuted in Persona 3 Portable, and went on to become series mainstays in Persona 4.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The are several times in the game when, in order to track the latest person that's been thrown into the TV World, you will need to go around town asking random NPCs for information about that person. The specific people you need to ask (and the order in which you need to talk to them) are a major case of Guide Dang It!, and the information you uncover is typically stuff you already know, or will learn about in more detail later on, making these sections feel tedious and pointless. To make matters worse, the people you need to talk to aren't available on every day, and you can't hang out with party members during that time, resulting in a potential waste of several time slots while you wait for the right person to show up.
  • Rainy days. Most social links can't be done on rainy days, dungeons have extra (annoying) enemies, but on the upside you can get (mostly worthless items) from a capsule machine, and try Aiya's Beef Bowl challenge, which gives you points in multiple stats. However, if you're on a New Game Plus, those upsides are completely worthless, making you simply waste an afternoon. Golden adds some viable alternatives with movies for leveling up your party members (and maybe some social link points) and a cafe to get skill cards, though this comes with having to wait for bikes to get unlocked first (although you can do the bike rides on rainy days).
  • The capsule machine itself, not only because the items you can get of it are of negligible value, but doing so will send you to evening afterwards. While the game tries to justify it in that the machine is faulty and that you need to get the shop staff's attention, it still doesn't make much sense that it takes many in-game hours just to get one prize out of it.
  • Unlike in Persona 3, where you can do social and stat-raising activities and your part-time job during the day and then go to Tartarus at night, you do your dungeon crawling in this game in the afternoon, and if you choose to do it, you cannot do your part-time job or go fishing afterwards as the game states that you're too tired for them. Note that in this game, several part-time jobs are also Social Link activities, two of which can only be done at night. On top of that, most other Social Links are only doable in the afternoon, so you have to decide between dungeons or social every day, unlike in P3 where you can do both in the same day. For what it's worth, the game removes the "condition" mechanic from 3, so it balances out a little.
  • Once you've maxed out a stat, there is no point in raising it any further. This doesn't stop mandatory stat-raising events or notifications that such-and-such stat has increased, which are a pain to click through.
  • Chasing a Hand Shadow to the end of a corridor that has a treasure chest. Since the button for swinging your weapon is the same for opening chests, hitting the Hand in the back for a pre-emptive strike without opening the chest instead is impossible. And it feels like any time this situation happens, you are going to get "A Shadow jumped out of the chest!" which also causes the Hand to de-spawn if you survive the battle.
  • Party members now use up Homunculus items when hit by Hama/Mudo skills, which prevent them from being instantly killed at the cost of using up a Homunculus. This wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that you still get a game over if the protagonist falls in battle. Meaning if your easily-revivable party members use up all the Homunculus items and the protagonist gets hit by a stray Hama/Mudo skill with no resistances immediately equipped, then too bad for you.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Hooooo boy. Yu has camps for all four of his female allies, with the bigger contenders being Yukiko and Naoto, in addition to a large division of shippers pairing him with Yosuke. Naoto is the most controversial for a slew of reasons that can be found all over this page, further compounded by the fact that Kanji canonically has a crush on her, naturally leading to Kanji/Naoto going up against Yu/Naoto. Yu/Rise also has their fair share of shippers. As for Chie, she and Yu are part of the trio who founded the Investigation Team, although as with Yu/Naoto, Yu/Chie has issues with Yosuke/Chie and Yu/Yosuke. And with Golden adding Marie, and with Marie being favored by Atlus in general in the story (she's now DLC for the sequel to Persona 4: Arena and is bumped up to Deuteragonist for Persona 4: The Golden Animation) and, through rumors, many believing she's pushed as a Love Interest (a very common misconception is that she'll always kiss Yu and love him, even if you don't pursue her romantically), a whole new can of worms has opened up. It's not helped that Marie is extremely divisive in the West. Granted, the anime and spin-offs don't make any of the pairings canon, and are implied only through small bits of dialogue, but even the small moments of Ship Tease Yu has with the girls do not help matters.
• Shocking Moments: Superboss Margaret seems to dedicate her boss fight to seeing how badly they can screw the player over in the most over-the-top manner possible, per Shin Megami Tensei tradition.
• Special Effect Failure: Any time the protagonist watches the Midnight Channel and sees something, the camera zooms in on the TV with the screen in the centre. While it looks fine on a smaller resolution and a smaller screen like the PlayStation 2 and Vita have, the modern rereleases with their much higher resolutions make it obvious that the TV and everything surrounding it is actually a low-resolution, pre-rendered overlay while the content of the TV is rendered in real-time.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • A group of young adults and a nonhuman solve a supernatural mystery, and the Big Bad is a human. This is basically the best Scooby-Doo game ever made.
  • Its narrative similarities, Fighting Spirits, small town setting and the fact that the Big Bad has the same power as the heroes makes it the best Diamond is Unbreakable game out there.
  • A psychological story about having to directly face one's inner demons while needing to deal with a fog that never lifts and attracts monsters to the town it infests makes this a rather lighthearted retelling of Silent Hill 2.
• "Stop Having Fun" Guy: The revelation of a Very Easy mode in Golden pissed off a lot of players who believe that Atlus games have to be absolutely Nintendo Hard and led to experienced players frothing at the mouth at the idea of players who wish to play the easy modes. Never mind that Very Easy and Easy are completely optional, or that the same game included a Very Hard mode for their masochistic pleasure. Similar complaints were leveled at the way fusion inheritance is handled in Golden: the player can now select what skills carry over from Persona to Persona to get the fused Personas the player wants. To the hardcore crowd, it took the "fun" out of unpredictable results and dealing with what the RNG spits out.
• Superlative Dubbing:
  • Especially with the benefit of hindsight, Persona 4 was one of the games that elevated game dubbing to the next level and began to put the "sub vs. dub" debate to rest. While there are still a few shaky performances from secondary characters (who the actors just don't have time to dig into) and Tracey Rooney's original performance of Chie was infamously uneven (and even then still had fans), the main cast all turn in exceptional performances that boosted their careers - Yuri Lowenthal, Johnny Yong Bosch (which also helped prove he had range), Dave Wittenberg, Amanda Winn-Lee, and Laura Bailey all saw a boost in their careers after their killer performances. And most notably, Troy Baker's Kanji was so incredible that the fame from this performance propelled him to the heights of stardom and led to him becoming one of the most famous voice actors in the world. The game overall marks a major point at which dubbing was taken much more seriously, and also set a significantly higher bar for other works to reach.
  • If anything, cast changes in later versions and adaptations have proven controversial because of this - while Erin Fitzgerald's Chie is more consistent than Rooney's, some fans feel Rooney's Chie felt more like a real person compared to Fitzgerald's exaggerated, borderline cartoonish take. And the less said of the debate between Wittenberg's Teddie and Sam Riegel's, the better, perhaps (however, it is agreed that the difference between them isn't substantial or bad). And while Matthew Mercer has done his best to fill in for Baker after Baker became so well known and busy, they're still massive shoes to fill. Also, Ashly Burch's performance for Rise in Persona 4: Dancing All Night was criticized for having Rise's lines come across as a Dull Surprise and poorly delivered, and many fans considered Laura Bailey's performance significantly superior.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: From a gameplay standpoint, pretty much everything from Persona 3 has been greatly improved and refined and several new features have been added as well. The story is more divisive with the fanbase, however.
• Tainted by the Preview: For the multiplatform port of Golden, at least for PlayStation owners, they find themselves screwed over by Microsoft favoritism as news came out that only the Xbox Series X port is next gen enhanced, allowing 4K resolution and 120 FPS, supposedly leaving the PS4/5 ports on par with the weaker Nintendo Switch version. Considering how Persona mainline games were mostly PlayStation-exclusive back then, the cry from these particular console owners is more obvious.
• That One Attack:
  • Last Resort for the dice-type Shadows. The good news is that it not only kills the user, but also harms its allies. The bad news is that it does incredibly high damage to the entire party, and will likely be a Total Party Kill on higher difficulties. Some dice-types will only use it when at low health, but others won't give you any such warning.
  • Contrarian King's Rampage, which for some reason is many times stronger than the typical Rampage, and the King's other attacks. Brought Tarunda and Resist Physical? Your MC might survive a single hit of Rampage, though that says nothing for the rest of your party. But if it lands two or three hits you will die regardless of buffs and resistance. Nothing short of Null Physical can truly protect you, but the only way you will have that at this point in the game is either getting really lucky in Shuffle Time or being on a New Game+.
  • Whenever Shadow Mitsuo throws a bomb, as it inflicts Exhaustion on hit.
  • Shadow Mitsuo also has the combo of Evil Smile (which inflicts Fear on everyone) and Ghastly Wail, which kills everyone with Fear. If he puts Fear on everyone, or Yu and nobody cures him in time, he's essentially already won.
  • Kunino-Sagiri's Control, which he uses to Control all your party member except the MC for 2 turns, turning the fight into an unfair 1 vs 4 scenario. The MC must somehow tank 4 high level attacks during that phase. This is even worse if you bring Naoto into the fight as you're on the risk of being Instant-killed or taking Almighty spell to the face.
  • Izanami-no-Okami has Summons to Yomi, which instantly kills any party member with any kind of status effect. She also has several status effect-inflicting spells. And she gets two attacks in a row. If she puts a status on the main character and then uses Summons to Yomi, you're basically screwed with no way to prevent it. The World End and Summons to Yomi combo she uses later in the fight telegraphed by Mind Charge, but it's still deadly to those who aren't prepared.
• That One Achievement: "Hardcore Risette Fan" which requires you to listen to 250 of Rise's navigation lines in one playthrough. The comments are randomized, and only the lines where Rise's text box pops up in battle count towards the achievement - so whilst Rise's out-of-battle warnings about party member's health don't count, her mandatory dialogue in boss battles does. On top of that, if you engage in too much Level Grinding with Rise's Social Link before entering the Void Quest dungeon, all of the lines relating to ambushes or how many enemies are present won't play as Rise will instead inform the player about enemy weaknesses and resistances instead.
• That One Boss:
  • It wouldn't be an Atlus game without them. The first one of many is Shadow Yukiko, having a lot of HP compared to the previous boss Shadow Chie. Her Burn to Ashes attack deals high damage, even while guarding. When she reaches half health, she'll summon a Charming Prince that will inflict your party members with status effects and leave your party members open to Shadow Yukiko's Shivering Rondo, which is nearly guaranteed to kill a Fearful target in one hit. In the original Persona 4, she didn't even have a weakness - her servant was weak to ice. It's easier in Persona 4 Golden where she has a weakness to Ice and her servant is weak to Elec, but the Charming Prince can still Silence Chie with Makajam. And did we mention Shadow Yukiko has more than twice her original health now?
  • As detailed in That One Attack above, Contrarian King is one for the optional bosses. He can be fought just after Shadow Yukiko, but his Rampage comes out completely randomly with zero warning and can easily one-shot anyone around that level. Fighting him without a Null Physical Persona is a matter of pure RNG as even with Physical resistance, the player character can survive two hits at most. Even heavily overleveled parties will have trouble with him.
  • Shadow Mitsuo is even worse, being able to give himself a free 1400 HP every few turns, dealing high damage, inflicting Exhaustion, and having the dreaded Evil Smile (inflicts fear on all enemies) + Stagnant Air (increases ailment susceptibility) + Ghastly Wail (instantly kills ALL fearful enemies).
  • Shadow Kanji is pretty hard too. He starts off with two assistants, one with healing and buffing spells and one that deals high damage. The assistants have a decent amount of health, and no weaknesses in the original Persona 4 (and if you're playing on Golden, they'll put up Wall spells to prevent their new weaknesses from being hit). Shadow Kanji himself deals high damage, continuously poisons male party members and enrages females, and has a massive amount of health - and no weaknesses, Golden or no.
• That One Sidequest:
  • Naoto's Social Link (Fortune) can fall under this, especially on first playthrough. It opens up at late October, meaning there's only so much time to complete before the late November cutoff. Adding more frustration elements into the mix is the fact that her Social Link doesn't open up automatically and the steps to starting it require both max Knowledge and Courage. This is significantly easier to achieve in Golden due to the extra month at the end game but even so, you have to prioritize her social link over everyone else's due the tight schedule.
  • Margaret's Social Link (The Empress) requires you to fuse Personas with specific abilities. Prepare to sink a lot of spending money into the Compendium, looking up the correct Arcana combinations, rerolling the fusion menu until the resulting Persona inherits the right moves, etc. Not helping matters is that some requests need you to pass along a skill that has a low inheritance priority (e.g. Matador with Mahama). However, on subsequent playthroughs, this Social Link can be maxed out extremely quickly if you record the Personas with the prerequisite skills in your Compendium. Golden also eliminates some frustration by letting you manually select inherited skills.
  • Ai (The Moon) is the easiest Social Link character to piss off. One wrong move, and you can have a Reversed or even Broken Social Link. There is also the fact that as long as you don't ruin the Social Link, you can end up dating her only to break up with her or vice versa. This can cause problems either way; you could end up with her breaking up with you if you actually wanted her for a girlfriend, or you can end up with her sticking with you even when you were interested in someone else, which is fairly annoying if you don't want to be cheating.
  • Believe it or not, Nanako can fall under this. Her social link progresses from Rank 6 to Rank 7 after three holdover visits (ahead of everyone else in the game), and that's with a Justice Persona equipped. The amount of effort needed to get this kid to talk is astounding, since you need a maxed out Expression stat to progress the link at the midway point. What's worse is you have to complete the Link before she gets kidnapped, or it's lost.
  • Similar to Nanako, Dojima's Social Link often requires holdover visits, even when you make all the right choices and have a Hierophant persona. You also have to complete the link before Nanako's kidnapping, since Dojima's hospitalized for the rest of 2011 after crashing his car while trying to save her. Fortunately, in Golden, maintaining the garden when the whole family is in the house earns you progress points for both Nanako and Dojima, letting you shake off two holdovers in one night.
  • The Hermit social link involves many quests that take several days to finish, and some of them require you to spend time; turning in each completed request for the rank-up also uses a time slot. The last quest requires you to fish up the two rarest fish in the game, which requires bait that's fairly rare and doesn't become available until you get to the point at which you have to fish them up. It's also more time-consuming in Golden since you not only have to fish up both the River and Sea Guardians, but you also need to spend time riding your bike enough times to unlock Shichiri Beach, and the insects that serve as Guardian bait can't be caught until you've heard of them from the old man. The only solace is that the Hermit is one of the few Social Links available during rainy days.
  • The Temperance social link. While it's available relatively early on and the Understanding requirements are relatively low, it's quite slow to advance. You don't even establish the link until your second day on the job, most of the rank-ups require holdover visits (partly because in some of the events, none of the questions give points), and there's no way for you to spend time with Eri at night.
  • Similar to Temperance, Naoki's Social Link (Hanged Man) doesn't start right off and requires three holdover visits before the first rank. This can be a pain in the early game when you would rather spend that time ranking up your other Social Links. Thankfully, once you've started it, the Social Link progresses quickly, and is available on almost all weekdays.
  • The Tower social link is very difficult to start, as you require maxed Understanding to get it going. There aren't a lot of ways to raise that stat — paper crane folding needs some Diligence to start, and the daycare job above has low availability — so it's likely you're not going to commence it until you're in the endgame, although it greatly makes up for it by being a well-paying nighttime activity.
  • Adachi's Social Link in Golden is extremely irregular and the game doesn't bother to tell you that. First of all, he can be encountered only on specific days of specific months, and only if no one is in the Midnight Channel. Rank 1, 2 and 6 are available only during the day, Rank 3, 4 and 5 only during the night. And if you don't get to Rank 6 before November 1st, the Social Link won't progress. The remaining Ranks are story events if you follow the True ending, BUT! There is one Guide Dang It! moment that comes when you have to decide to confront Adachi: Choose to go alone or else the Link will be locked again.
  • Unlocking the Superboss. As is typical of the series, it requires a New Game Plus, but even then, you need to defeat every optional dungeon miniboss, complete the Empress Social Link (see above) and fulfil a Guide Dang It! within a Guide Dang It!: during the path to the True Ending, enter the Velvet Room again after getting the Orb of Sight from Igor, but before talking to the gas station attendant. Who is literally a few feet away from the Velvet Room and your obvious next step in the story. Having to play to this point means you're essentially doing two full playthroughs of a 100+ hour game just to access one fight, for nothing more than a Bragging Rights Reward. Persona 5 makes its Superboss available much earlier into New Game Plus, as if to compensate for this.
  • As far as the requests go, "Find Me Something To Wear" is an enormous pain. You have to track down and kill at least eight Power Tower enemies in the Secret Base in order to get the Power Stones they drop, but Power Towers are the rarest enemy in that dungeon so finding that many is likely to take hours even though they tend to spawn in groups of two to three. What's worse, if you're also working on the request "Find Fine Coal", their item drop changes to Fine Coal until you complete that request, which means that you've got to go searching for them on two separate days.
• That One Level:
  • Hello, Void Quest. It seems straightforward enough at first, but its 7th floor randomly changes your direction at every intersection, made a lot worse if there are shadows nearby ready to trigger Pre-existing Encounters with Enemy Advantage while you're getting your bearings back. Plus, that's also the floor where you have to find a very easy-to-miss^*(unless you unlocked Rise's Treasure Radar first) key item required to proceed to the boss chamber.
  • The Hollow Forest. The idea of limiting players and upping the difficulty might have been a great idea, and Shin Megami Tensei fans were looking forward to the idea (the level was designed by the Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey staff, after all). However, in effect, the level is just tedious. Limiting players' SP just makes battles annoying and frustrating, and enemy levels are so low that even without using SP the fights aren't difficult, just annoying. Same with taking players' items. Taking away players' hard earned items, both expendable and equippable is just irritating, turning items that are usually Boring, but Practical into precious rares (just leaving the dungeon to go to the Velvet Room requires the uncommon Sacred Branch). Throw in Marie's poems every time you go to a new floor, a visually repetitive design, and the fact players are stuck with default costumes (even though this is the first dungeon since several costume options are given to the players) and you have a dungeon that's just a pain. The boss is also something of a letdown, being very easy and giving the feeling you just crawled through an obnoxiously designed dungeon for a fight that is not even a challenge.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • There are fans that have complained about the clearer environments in Golden compared to the limited hardware-imposed fog of the original, stating that the brighter environment lessens the overall atmosphere of the game.
  • A minor one, but observant fans complain about how the change to the font for numbers in the multiplatform update for Golden causes it to lose its sharp stylistic value in favor of generic roundness.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • You'd think Naoki, somebody whose sister was one of the murder victims, would have more importance to the plot than just a Social Link, especially since Yosuke had a crush on his sister.
  • Izanami in the original PS2 version. She had little build-up, coming off as a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere. She seemed to only exist to give the game a final boss. Golden worked to fix this issue specifically because of the complaints.
  • After Mr. Morooka's death, the player learns from NPCs that he was a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. However, those are easily missed, and if the player did see them, it's an Informed Attribute at best. He would have made for a good Social Link (either mandatory, or with a lack of holdover periods like with Aigis in Persona 3) that would have allowed the player to see his Hidden Depths first-hand and make his death more impactful.
  • Mitsuo Kubo, the copycat killer. Despite having an entire dungeon dedicated to his character, it and the entire arc involving him are essentially filler with nothing of note occurring beyond Mr. Morooka's death and Mitsuo himself being Put on a Bus immediately afterwards. Some fans actually wanted to see what would have happened if he accepted his shadow and gained a Persona, such as potentially redeeming himself and joining the Investigation Team (akin to Akechi from Persona 5).
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The Investigation Team never has to confront the fact that not everyone is a good person deep down, despite both Mitsuo and Adachi having their true selves be negative. The latter in particular, since while he does reform in a later game, he wants nothing more than to murder people for the simple reason of being bored. Having to confront that someone being themself instead of hiding it will result in people dying is never brought up.
  • Some felt Nanako coming back to life was a bit of a Writer Cop Out. If she stayed dead, it would have given more gravity to the scenes when the Investigation Team confronted Namatame and Adachi, and it'd drop the harsh, but realistic message that even heroes aren't perfect.
• Trans Audience Interpretation: Naoto's dungeon and character development features imagery associated with gender reassignment surgery. While this was all a metaphor for career-related gender roles that were mainly a source of Values Dissonance and didn't translate cross-culturally, as well as The Reveal that Naoto is a girl, there are many fans and editorials that argue that Naoto is a trans man.

U-Z

• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Dojima in the early game. While it doesn't demonize him, his and Nanako's Social Links, plus some scenes throughout the game, tend to paint his tendency to focus on his work more than Nanako rather negatively as he sometimes has to cancel trips and break promises. The problem is, putting aside his partially intentional neglect due to the difficulties of trying to help Nanako when he isn't sure if he can, he is still a police officer and is charged with investigating a Serial Murder case that, unbeknownst to him, has supernatural elements muddling the issue and making it much harder to properly deal with. During Golden Week, he misses his planned outing with the protagonist and Nanako because he had to cover for one of his colleagues. Even if he’s guilty of intentionally putting his work over Nanako, that doesn’t change the fact that his job is very important and, as the only one in the Dojima household with a full-time paying job^note  Yu's only got part-time jobs and he can't exactly give him the money he gets from the TV world without having having to explain where it came from, he can’t risk anything that could get him fired like skipping a day just because of a family outing, which would be much worse for him and Nanako in the long run.
  • Dojima cancelling the Golden Week trip can loop back around into being unsympathetic when it's implied through dialogue that the co-worker he's covering for is faking being ill so he can take Golden Week off; Dojima complains about how his co-worker has been ill the whole week and how unusual that is, but otherwise doesn't pursue that. If that's the case, then Dojima's essentially cancelled his own plans so his co-worker can go on unscheduled leave, with Dojima being so used to doing things like this that he doesn't question it too much; it could even be that co-workers, knowing Dojima's such a workaholic, feel that they can pull stunts like this, knowing that Dojima will cover the workload.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Chie often acts like an unrepentant Jerkass to Yosuke (and on some occasions, the Protagonist) regardless of whether he deserves it or not, but the game always seems to want you to side with her. She assaults Yosuke for minor infractions (like for breaking her DVD that he promised he'd pay her back for beforehand). She often extorts him as a way to pay her off for her DVD, even though what she gets off of him paid her back many times over. She even uses Yosuke's money without permission to buy Teddie an expensive outfit and got defensive when Yosuke rightfully called her out on it. Despite her behavior, she always gets away with it because the scenes are intended to be Played for Laughs, which is why she's such a Base-Breaking Character.
  • On the opposite end, Yosuke is meant to serve as the Bromantic Foil/Plucky Comic Relief that is a staple in anime and Japanese media. The nature of his jokes, from his constant paranoia due to Kanji's ambiguous Homosexuality, to the casual sexism he has a tendency to display to his female friends, can make much of his jokes come off as rather mean-spirited. While Yosuke is often intentionally made the butt of the demeaning jokes to balance the scale, the frequency of this happening throughout the story is what led to him being such a divisive character.
  • Taro Namatame is meant to be viewed as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who's simply trying to save people from the Killer, but going about it all wrong. The problem is, not only are his methods hard to stomach, as he would rather take matters into his own hands and throw people into the TV World in the same method as the Killer instead of trying to seek out anybody who has knowledge of the Midnight Channel, but he's also directly responsible for Nanako's death, even if it was involuntary and it's possible for her to get better, making him just as guilty of manslaughter as the true Killer. Despite his wrongdoings, the Investigation Team are rather quick to let Namatame off the hook once they're done questioning him, with only Yosuke showing the proper amount of anger to be had with him. It also doesn't help that, prior to the events of the story, Namatame's Establishing Character Moment has him cheating on his wife with Mayumi Yamano, which comes across as an attempt to make Namatame a Sympathetic Adulterer.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Mr. Morooka is disliked by his students in-game due to his sour attitude and outward hostility towards them, but is liked by the fans for the reasons given under Ensemble Dark Horse as well as his being the source of many Funny Moments.
• Values Dissonance:
  • After Mr. Morooka is killed, some students at school will mention how he was looking forward to Rise's attendance and even bought a calendar of her. This is supposed to show us that he had Hidden Depths beyond his harsh and abusive exterior, but to Western audiences who may not be all that adapted to how the Idol Singer industry works and the culture behind it, and maybe even if they are, this just comes off as creepy. In any case, though, it does make him come off as a bit of a hypocrite, particularly in that he's trying to keep it secret.
    • Shadow Rise and Rise's midnight channel unnerving viewers is the Intended Audience Reaction - after all Rise (and others) are just as horrified. However, Rise casually mentioning that her measurements (including her bust size) were public information for awhile may come off as Troubling Unchildlike Behavior considering that Rise is at most sixteen years old.
  • Japan's strict views on gender roles tend to crop up in this game, most notably with Naoto (who is female, but presents as male because despite her dreams of being a detective, the Japanese police force is male-dominated and she feels that no one would take her seriously as a detective if she were female) and Chie (a tomboyish girl who is insecure about not being feminine enough; the English localization tones this down somewhat, since in the Japanese version there's a lot more emphasis on how she wants to be told she's "girly" and "docile", which would likely rub a lot of Western players the wrong way).
  • Naoto, it should be noted, does run into this especially hard, thanks to her Shadow. The intended thrust of her plotline is that tying "gender identity" to her wider sense of self-worth as a detective and person is pointless no matter how you slice it; as she herself says, she can be a woman, and a detective, and there's no true inherent conflict there, and society is wrong to think otherwise. That's all progressive and positive no matter where you are... but to American audiences who are familiar with modern discourse about trans issues Naoto can, thanks to the tack her Shadow takes, come across as a closeted trans-male. The answer is supposed to be that she's ultimately uncomfortable with how she's regarded as a woman, but the presentation can make it very difficult to see that, especially at first. Not to mention that, in the United States (and many Western countries) where women serve in the police force without issue even from most conservative circles, they're likely to look at the "I can be a woman and a detective" message and think "Well duh" (while, even in the game's 2009 release timeframe, this was still a point of contention in Japan to a degree that might surprise non-natives). This has only gotten worse with time, since the recent rise in public awareness of transgender men has resulted in the claim by several groups that they only transition in order to escape systematic and internalized misogyny/homophobia and gender roles, which Naoto's story would seem to reinforce in an unfamiliar audience. Sad part is, this is probably far more relevant than most people realize given Western police forces still deal with female workplace sexism even in The New '20s today, so if anything, "women can be police officers too" is arguably something a lot of people need to hear, and that an equal number of people used to relative gender freedoms take for granted.
  • Dojima has earned some ire from the American fanbase for often leaving 7-year-old Nanako home alone, even while a serial killer is on the loose and after their household receives a threatening letter. It's not illegal and not even particularly uncommon for young children to be left home alone in Japan; while the game does portray Dojima as a less than stellar parent (more for distancing himself from Nanako than for not being home), this aspect was likely not intended to come off as harshly as it did. It's also pointed out that Nanako knows not to open the door for strangers, which provides an important clue as to her kidnapper's identity.
  • Some of Kou's angst in his version of the Strength Social Link carries Japanese values toward being adopted, particularly when he concludes, after receiving a forged letter saying that his birth parents are dead while believing that his adoptive family intended to replace him with his 2-year-old sister (even though she can't carry on the family name) that he has no one.^note As the Persona 5 page elaborates on more fully, orphans and adoptive children have traditionally been in an awkward social position in Japanese society, and especially at the time of the game's release, koseki family registration was still the law of the land and Kou could be disinherited and basically abandoned at the stroke of a pen, something he's become old enough to realize. On the other hand, Kou eventually realizes that the Ichijos are his real family, and his parents, best friend and the player all criticize/make fun of him for thinking otherwise.
  • The fact that the game released not on the PlayStation 3 but the PlayStation 2. Japan's not as quick to "move on" from previous-gen systems as the rest of the world is; so something that didn't start development late in the system's life, a yearly sports game, or a licensed game isn't that weird.
  • The results of Popularity Polls taken by Far Eastern audiences can seem confusing to Western audiences. In the West, the boisterous yet sensitive Kanji is one of the most popular party members, while Yosuke is more divisive. In Japan, it's the opposite, where Yosuke's loyalty to his family and business is seen as far more endearing, while his casual sexism and homophobia is not seen as a problem. The Far East typically looks down on those considered too loud, energetic, or disruptive, things that describes Kanji to a T. We would eventually see this dissonance crop up yet again with Ryuji Sakamoto in Persona 5.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • The Fox, who's consistently referred to with gender neutral dialogue (although the narration uses male pronouns when you talk to it in dungeons). They have children at the end of the game, and the Official Design Works confirms it's female.
  • The gas station attendant. In the original Japanese they had a distinctly male voice, but their English equivalent is a lot more ambiguous. The fact that they're revealed to be the female Izanami can also lead some fans to confusion.
• Vindicated by History: While the game never released to poor reception and became an almost instant Cult Classic (Faster than Persona 3 did at least), it still was overlooked by some simply because it was a PlayStation 2 game released in 2008-2009 depending on where you lived in the world. By then, a lot of players simply weren't expecting anything new on the PlayStation 2 other than cheap licensed cash-ins. The Animated Adaptation and Persona 4 Golden allowed it to ascend past its Cult Classic status.
• The Woobie:
  • While most of Yosuke's "moments" are funny, there are a few moments where the laughter just has to stop (pretty much anything involving Saki after the second murder, especially since after she's killed you find out she hated Yosuke all along even though he fell in love with her.)
  • Namatame's pretty damned pitiful as well. Getting the love of his life murdered by a madman, getting caught up in said madman's plot as a pawn, being wrongly framed for the murders he was trying to stop... nothing seems to go right for him. You can add to his suffering by throwing him into a TV, but you'll be punished for it with the bad ending.
  • 2011 was a really bad year for Naoto. She has no friends in Inaba, the police only tolerate her when they need her, and the Investigation Team may as well have neon signs advertising that they are somehow connected with multiple murders. Oh yes, her age, gender and isolation issues are as bad as Kanji's. You feel glad when she finds people who will like her for who she is.
  • Kanji is another one; he acts like he does because he wants to be accepted and because people made fun of his hobby (later, job).
  • Dojima is yet another one. He's gone through more in the past six years than most could handle in their lifetime. Having his wife killed in a hit-and-run, which caused him to become so devoted to his job that he barely interacted with his only daughter to the point that she's practically able to take care of herself at only 6 years of age (and he admits it's due to fear of their relationship breaking down and him losing the only family he has left if you go for his S-Link), seeing her kidnapped right before his eyes, and watching her slowly die (though thankfully only temporarily) can be pretty rough on a person. And to top it all off, he finds out that the person who had orchestrated the kidnapping was his own partner, whom he trusted and had been good friends with. And through it all, he remains completely strong and stone-faced. Almost.
  • And of course Nanako, whose sadness and loneliness whenever she's left to take care of herself by her dad is utterly heartbreaking. Her happiest moments came from a commercial jingle before you came to live at her house. It's no wonder that she latches onto you as a brother instantly. Her Woobie powers are so great that a group of teenagers are repeatedly willing to hang out with a 6 year old kid just to cheer her up.
  • Nearly all of the Social Links have endured a lot of pain. The only ones who don't suffer from some sort of claim to Woobie-ism are Margaret and Adachi. From Ai, who creates the image of a social dominator to conceal the fact that she's suicidally depressed due to the bullying she went through in her past, to Hisano the self-loathing widow, they should all be really glad that the MC is a Warrior Therapist.
  • The surviving members of the Konishi family deserve a mention. Naoki was hit hard by his sister's passing, to the point at which he'd rather pretend that he doesn't feel anything than face the full brunt of it. His problem isn't helped by how his parents aren't taking it any better, since according to him, they don't talk about her, but cry themselves to sleep over her. To make matters worse, his family business is going through some hard times after Junes' arrival, and he's painfully aware that many of their customers only come out of pity.
• Woolseyism:
  • Teddie's verbal tic was changed from adding the word "-kuma" to words in his sentences to making bad puns, many involving the word "bear" in some way. This arguably counts for his name, too, since the connotations of a cutesy bear calling itself "Kuma" ("Bear" in Japanese) don't translate well into English. Although even in Japanese, Teddie also made bear puns (just less often than the English version). This even goes so far as that when fan-subs of The Animation were being made before the dub was released, fans would insert bear puns into Teddie's dialogue rather than retain his use of "-kuma".
  • The "Mayonaka TV" was changed to "The Midnight Channel".
  • The Gratuitous English Junes jingle "Everyday Younglife Junes" got changed to "Every day's great at your Junes!"
  • The item that instantly transports you out of a dungeon was originally called "Kaereiru", from the Japanese "kaeru", meaning "return." Stateside, it's called "Goho-M." This also counts as a Stealth Pun that most people don't get until they say "Goho-M" out loud. Go on. Try it.
  • The Take That! to Twilight was most likely a creation of the translator.
  • The final scene for the Fortune social link was originally about Naoto asking if she should use male pronouns. The intent was to essentially choose whether she presents as a tomboy or a girly girl. In English, an equivalent choice of pronoun would come across more as attempting to resolve an Ambiguous Gender Identity (and would be trickier to implement due to differences between languages, since changing pronouns in English would change how others speak, instead of just how Naoto speaks), so it was changed to asking about the pitch of her voice.
  • The mention of Naoto's family being like Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th is the result of the translators lacking any other option to translate Chie's reference to a Japanese book series about a family of Legacy Character detectives. Does not stop the line from fueling insane levels of Epileptic Trees.
  • Shadow Kanji in the Japanese version speaks with more stereotypical gay "quirks". In the American version he sounds more Camp Gay, which is the North American stereotype for homosexuality.
  • Golden's new Lust arcana (from Crowley's Thoth deck) was renamed "Hunger" to avoid any confusing implications that Adachi was lusting after the protagonist. It's supposed to represent "lust for life" rather than just carnal desire (never mind that it has the Mother Harlot of Babylon for its illustration.)

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