Persona 4 Golden

Setting and characters

Persona 4 takes place in the fictional rural Japanese town of Inaba (稲羽市, Inaba-shi), which lies among floodplains and has its own high school and shopping districts. Unexplained murders have taken place in the small town, where bodies are found dangling from television antennas with their cause of death being unknown. At the same time, a rumor has begun to spread that watching a switched-off television set on rainy midnights will reveal a person's soulmate. The game also follows the main characters into the TV World, a fog-shrouded realm filled with monsters called Shadows, which can only be accessed through TV sets.

The protagonist is a high school student, named Yu Narukami in later media, who has recently moved from the city to attend school at Inaba. At school, he quickly becomes friends with Yosuke Hanamura, the somewhat-clumsy son of the manager of the local Junes Department Store; Chie Satonaka, an energetic girl with a strong interest in martial arts; and Yukiko Amagi, a calm and refined girl who helps out at her family's inn. A few days into the game, the protagonist, Yosuke, and Chie follow the "Midnight Channel" rumor, which leads them to discover the TV World and meet Teddie, a friendly creature that appears as a hollow bear costume.

Using Personas, the students form an Investigation Team to investigate the connection between the TV world and the murders, and possibly capture the culprit. As the game progresses, the group gains new members, including: Kanji Tatsumi, a male delinquent who has a talent for feminine hobbies; Rise Kujikawa, a former teen idol trying to find her identity who moves to Inaba as a transfer student; and Naoto Shirogane, a young female detective investigating the case with the local police who wears masculine clothing and presents herself as male due to fear of rejection.

Story

On April 11, 2011, Yu Narukami arrives in Inaba to live with the Dojimas, consisting of his uncle Ryotaro Dojima and his cousin Nanako, for one year, as his parents are working abroad. Just after his arrival, a TV announcer, Mayumi Yamano, is found dead, her body hanging from an antenna; Saki Konishi, the high school student who had discovered the body, is later found dead herself, hanged upside-down from a telephone pole. After Yu and his friends accidentally enter the TV world, they encounter Teddie, who helps them travel freely between the TV and real worlds.

They awaken their Persona abilities, realizing that the murders stem from attacks by Shadows, beings native to the TV world created from repressed emotions, and are able to rescue several would-be victims. Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, and Teddie one by one come to accept the parts of their psyches they rejected, which manifest as giant Shadows in the TV world, allowing them to wield Personas whilst each joins the group in turn. Mitsuo Kubo, a student from another high school who disappears following the death of Kinshiro Morooka, Yu's foul-mouthed homeroom teacher, claims credit for the murders; it is eventually learned that Kubo only killed Morooka and played no part in the other murders, having murdered Morooka simply to gain credit for the other murders.

Naoto Shirogane, a nationally renowned "Detective Prince" investigating the case, is also rescued and gains a Persona, and joins the group who learn that "he" is actually a girl who assumed a male identity to avoid the police's sexism.

Events come to a head when Ryotaro Dojima realizes Yu is involved in the case after seeing Yu reading a threatening letter from the killer. Nanako is kidnapped during Yu's interrogation, leading Ryotaro to engage in a vehicular pursuit with the culprit. The chase ends as they both crash; the kidnapper escapes with Nanako through a television set in his truck, and the gravely-injured Ryotaro entrusts her rescue to the group. The group tracks them down within the TV world; the culprit, Taro Namatame, becomes possessed by the nearby Shadows and transforms into Kunino-Sagiri which attacks them but is defeated, and both he and Nanako are taken to the Inaba hospital.

During Nanako's stay at the hospital, the fog that appears when the Midnight Channel occurs persists in the real world beyond the deadline, causing increasing panic among Inaba's inhabitants. When Nanako appears to die, the group furiously confronts Namatame, and a pseudo-Shadow Namatame appears on the Midnight Channel to goad the devastated and emotionally vulnerable group into throwing him in; as Yu, the player must help the others realize that Namatame is not the killer by pointing out the unanswered questions and lack of a proper motive.

Upon being questioned by the Investigation Team, Namatame explains that his kidnappings were an attempt to protect those who appeared on the Midnight Channel from the killer, not realizing that the TV world was dangerous and that trapping them within was how the murder victims were killed; he also denies sending Yu any warning letters. Upon looking over all of the evidence they have gathered, the Investigation Team determines that the real killer, and the writer of the threat letters, is none other than Ryotaro's partner, Tohru Adachi, who inadvertently confirms their suspicions when confronted and flees into the TV world.

It is possible to fail to deduce the real killer's identity; doing so or killing Namatame by throwing him into the TV both result in bad endings, in which the recurring fog permanently sets in, leading to humanity's demise. Killing Namatame also results in Nanako remaining dead; otherwise, she will be resuscitated and revived.

Having identified Adachi as the true culprit, the party chases and locates him within the TV world. Adachi explains that his actions were out of both boredom and the belief that humanity is better off believing what it wants, revealing that he tricked Namatame into throwing people into the TV world and observed the Investigation Teams subsequent rescues for his own amusement, and that he additionally threw Mitsuo into the TV world himself in order to ensure the "game" did not end prematurely; his claims are dismissed by the party as the rantings of a madman.

After fighting Adachi, he is controlled by Ameno-sagiri, who reveals that the fog is harmful to people and will eventually cause humanity to fall into a permanent state of ignorance and transform into Shadows. Upon his defeat, he agrees to lift the fog, congratulating the party on their resolve. Defeated, the wounded Adachi agrees to assume responsibility for his actions and is arrested.

The game moves forward to the day before Yu must travel home. If the player returns to the Dojima residence, the game ends with the "normal" ending, in which the party sends Yu off as he departs Inaba. Alternatively, should the player decline doing so and instead visit the party's usual reunion spot, the characters reunite and decide to investigate the unexplained origins of the Midnight Channel to end the case for good, setting the route for the original game's "true" ending. Yu confronts a gas station attendant encountered at the start of the game, who reveals herself to be Izanami-no-Okami, the "conductor" behind the game's events.

The cause of the recurring fog is established as an attempt to create a world of illusion by merging the TV world with the human world, all for the "sake" of humanity. The group tracks Izanami down within the TV world and battle her, but is at first unable to win; the defeated Yu is given strength by the bonds he has forged with those around him, and with this power awakens a new Persona—Izanagi-no-Okami—which he uses to defeat Izanami. In doing so, the fog in each world is lifted, and the TV world is restored to its original form.

The party sends Yu off the following day, and the game concludes with a post-credits scene depicting the group resolving to remain friends forever, as Yu examines a group photo of himself and the rest of the Team.

Persona 4 Golden

Persona 4 Golden adds two new Social Links to the game; Adachi and Golden exclusive character Marie, a mysterious girl who becomes an assistant in the Velvet Room and wishes to uncover her lost memories. If the player advances Adachi's Social Link to a certain level, they are given the choice to withhold his identity as the killer from the rest of the Investigation Team, thus leaving the mystery unsolved and resulting in the "accomplice" ending. On Yu's final day in Inaba, he may choose to visit Adachi and destroy a crucial piece of evidence related to the case.

Adachi then blackmails Yu, threatening to have him arrested for destroying evidence if he does not answer his calls. The game's ending then plays out the same as the normal ending, but after the credits, Yu passes by Adachi at a level crossing. He clutches his phone in his hand as a smirk forms on Adachi's face.

After the Investigation Team defeats Ameno-sagiri, Marie disappears from the Velvet Room; if Marie's social link has been maxed out, Margaret promises to find her for Yu. The Investigation Team decide to take a skiing trip together, during which time they stumble upon a cabin with a TV inside. The TV turns out to be a portal to the Hollow Forest, where Marie has fled to. With the Hollow Forest on the verge of collapsing, the Investigation Team rushes to save her; if they fail to do so, Marie disappears from their memories.

If they succeed, they find Marie, who reveals that she is Kusumi-no-Okami, created to act as a spy for Ameno-sagiri in order to learn what humanity wished for; with Ameno-sagiri defeated, the fog has now been absorbed into her body. Marie's plan is to kill herself so that the fog will not spread over the world again, but the Investigation Team refuses to allow her to die, defeating her and freeing her from the fog's control.

If the Investigation Team both rescued Marie and defeated Izanami-no-Okami, the player obtains the "Golden" ending, in which Marie realizes that she is actually Izanami-no-Mikoto, the true form of the goddess Izanami, who originally wished to both protect humanity and grant its wishes, but as people changed and stopped wishing for truth, her wishes splintered into her and Izanami-no-Okami. With Kunino-sagiri, Ameno-sagiri, and Izanami-no-Okami fused with her, she becomes whole again and disappears from the Velvet Room for good. After the events of the original game's true ending, the Golden ending skips to an epilogue set in late August, five months after Yu's departure, as he returns to Inaba for the summer.

He reunites with his friends, who have all changed since the last time they all met. During a surprise party with his friends, Ryotaro, and Nanako, Yu discovers, among others, that Namatame is running for mayor in order to atone for his previous actions, that Adachi has become a model prisoner, and that Marie has a new identity as a popular TV anchor presenting the weather, which she seemingly is able to control. At Nanako's suggestion, everyone gives Yu a formal but joyful welcome "home"; as they chastise Kanji for saying something different from what everyone else says, Yu smiles brightly. The game ends showing a brand new group picture of Yu and his friends, including Marie, all smiling together.