Characters: Persona 4 |
The Characters of Persona 4. Spoilers abound!
The silent protagonist of the game who can be named by the player at the very beginning. His affinity is with the Fool arcana, which gives him the ability to call forth multiple Personae, starting out with Izanagi. He uses long swords, katanas, baseball bats and golf clubs as weapons, has exclusive access to the Velvet Room, and occasionally encounters oracle cards in his mind that give him new Personae and also grants an Arcana Chance. He summons his Persona by crushing the card with his bare hand. The manga gave him the name Souji Seta.
His parents moved a lot from town to town, leading him to change schools constantly. He later moved into Yasoinaba to stay with his uncle Ryotaro Dojima, with his daughter Nanako. In his new school, he befriended several new friends like Yosuke Hanamura and Chie Satonaka, and later learnt about the 'Midnight Channel' and later his unusual ability to insert his body to the TV. This ability leads him into a quest to uncover the truth behind the series of murder cases that has been plaguing Yasoinaba for awhile, as well as him gaining many friends and leaving a fond memory to the otherwise forgettable town. In the game's True Ending, his ultimate Persona is revealed to be Izanagi-no-Okami.
Yosuke is a second-year student at Yasogami High in Inaba. Because his father is the manger of Junes, the local department store, he is usually treated as an unofficial complaints box, much to his chagrin. He is Souji's best friend and is often the butt of his friends' jokes. Although typically a bit of a Deadpan Snarker, he has a soft spot for Saki Konishi, an older girl who is also an employee at Junesa, and her murder acts as part of his initial motivation to join the investigation team. He dual wields various weapons and his Persona is Jiraiya of the Magician Arcanum, which later evolves into Susano-O once the Magician Social Link is complete. His Personas cement his role as the party's Red Mage; Yosuke can use both physical attacks and wind-based offensive magic fairly effectively, and he also has access to support spells that allow him to confuse and debuff enemies, augment party accuracy and evasion rates, and provide minor healing.
During a trip to the Midnight Channel and after witnessing Souji's Persona awakening, Yosuke was faced with the horrible truth: Saki has always hated him. When Yosuke refused to admit this, his Shadow emerges and taunts him that he's only being cheerful as a facade and sees everything, including Saki, as a tool to block out his extreme loneliness. Yosuke angrily retorted and it caused the Shadow to reveal its true form, but was eventually defeated by Souji. Encouraged by Souji and Teddie, Yosuke painfully accepts that he did feel that way, but he resolves to get better, which causes the Shadow to turn into his Persona.
In the Magician S. Link, Yosuke revealed that at first he hated Inaba, but he has grown to love it and despite being hated by Saki, he did genuinely love her. He later reveals that he, like Junpei from Persona 3, is jealous of Souji and used the murder case to play hero and hide his insecurities. Yosuke later asks Souji to punch him to get rid of his jealousy and they end up in a brawl; Yosuke realizes that he can form genuine, close relationships with people regardless of where he is, and resolves to live his life to the fullest. His Persona then evolves into Susano-O.
An upbeat girl with short light-brown hair who usually wears a green athletic jacket decorated with buttons. Her weapon is a pair of greaves. She has an obsession with Kung fu, and even uses them in battle, similar to Lisa Silverman of Persona 2. Her obsession goes so far that she even attacks Yosuke over a Chinese Martial arts film DVD. Most of the time, she is friendly, cheerful, and energetic, but she has a short temper, especially with Yosuke. She, Yukiko and Rise are unskillful cookers, providing normally unpalatable to terribly awful dishes to the main crew several times during the story's progress.
Her Persona is Tomoe Gozen of the Chariot Arcanum, a muscular female figure wearing a yellow outfit reminiscent of Bruce Lee's Game of Death costume, wielding a double bladed naginata. Tomoe intially learns both physical techniques and ice spells, but it is not especially proficient with magic and can only learn mid-level attack spells; Teddie later becomes the party ice specialist. Tomoe evolves into Suzuka Gongen, who is wielding what can only be described as Darth Maul's lightsaber, after completing The Chariot Social Link.
Chie's Shadow takes the form of a long haired, masked dominatrix supported by three pale Chies. The dominatrix has long black hair, similar to Yukiko's. It represents her jealousy of Yukiko's natural gifts and talents, as well as her wish and need of control over Yukiko.
Through the S.Link for the Chariot, Souji and Chie become closer through training together at the Samegawa Floodplain. Souji learns how Chie and Yukiko first became friends; Yukiko found a dog, but her parents would not allow her to keep it, and Chie protected the dog instead. Over time, Souji learns of how Chie enjoys creating groups and titles for herself, in hopes of being feared by juveniles and protecting the weak. Hearing from a police officer that high schoolers have been bullying people in the Central Shopping District, Chie and Souji coincidentally help. They first save Chie's middle school friend, who then calls the police. The second time, Chie makes the hoodlums run off just as they attempt to steal from a little boy. Once this occurs, the Protagonist has the option of beginning an intimate relationship with Chie. Depending on what the player decides, Chie will either go to train with Souji (friendly relationship) or go to his home (romantic relationship) and gives him some matching wristbands. Chie's resolve to help others and protect the team, especially Souji, transmogrifies Tomoe Gozen to Suzuka Gongen. She also resolves to train as a police officer under Dojima's guidance.
Yukiko is the only daughter of the owner of the Amagi Inn, and thus the heir to the generations-old family business. Despite that, she is a terrible cook. She is a smart girl, but is socially quite awkward, with only Chie as her true friend. She fights with a fan, but is most suited for heavy magic fighting. Her Persona is Konohana Sakuya of the Priestess Arcanum, and later evolves into Amaterasu. Yukiko fits the role of both the White Mage and the Black Mage, leaning powerful healing spells (including one that instantly restores the entire party's HP!) as well as destructive fire spells.
When Yukiko was kidnapped and thrown into the TV World, it created a dungeon in the form of an European castle, while her Shadow masqueraded as a princess continually searching for a "prince" to whisk her away. The castle and her Shadow were borne of her repressed feelings regarding her status as the Amagi Inn heir; Yukiko did not want to inherit the inn and felt that she was being pigeonholed. She was unwilling, however, to speak to anyone regarding her feelings and instead privately wished for someone to alleviate her responsibilities. Souji, Yosuke, and Chie manage to defeat her Shadow, and she becomes a member of the investigation team.
In the the earlier stages of the Priestess Social Link, Yukiko still desires to leave Inaba but attempts to pursue her own career so that she won't have to depend on someone else to leave. However, friendly teasing from the inn staff members and pestering from an irresponsible TV crew who want to make a program that will ruin the reputation of the inn make her realize that she had a supportive group of family and friends that she wants to help and defend. She resolves to accept her duty and manage the inn, evolving her Persona. She is also a possible Love Interest for the Protagonist depending on player actions in the S. Link.
A delinquent junior of Yasogami High. His mother runs a textile shop that the Amagi Inn frequents. Despite his brash outlook, Kanji cared a lot for his mother and is skilled at handicraft, which caused people to shun him for having girly hobbies, which leads Kanji to feel a bit more comfortable with men and think that he's gay. He fights with brute force using chairs, tables, plates, etc, and his Persona is Take-Mikazuchi of the Emperor Arcanum, which evolves into Rokuten-Maoh, it deals with heavy physical spells and slightly aboutLightning spells.
When thrown into the TV World, it generates the Steamy Bathhouse dungeon. Kanji's Shadow masquerades as him wearing nothing but a towel and speaking like a Flamboyant Gay, looking for 'love'. The Shadow later taunts Kanji of being scared with women for shunning him due to his hobbies, but Kanji refused him, causing the Shadow to show its true form and was later defeated by Souji. Accepting his flaws, Kanji joins the investigation team and at the same time, starts re-attending school that he has skipped up until now.
In his Social Link, Kanji meets up with a boy who lost his doll and to cheer him up, Kanji makes him a doll, which turns out to be very impressive he liked it so much and orders more. Kanji was later accussed of bullying the said boy, but Souji encourages him to tell him the truth, instead of hiding it. Eventually, Kanji learned to like and take pride of his hobby and opens up his own handicraft class.
A teenage Idol Singer, often appearing in television programs and advertisement as Risette. She suddenly declared that she's quitting showbiz and moved to Yasoinaba to help her grandmother's Tofu shop and enroll in Yasogami high as a freshman. Rise is cheerful and bubbly, but deep down is a good girl. She is mostly out of the frontlines and prefers analyzing the enemies and their weaknesses. Her Persona is Himiko of the Lovers Arcanum and later evolves into Kanzeon.
Her dungeon in the TV World is the Marukyu Striptease, wherein her Shadow masquerades as her in a flashy gold bikini and teases a lot about showing off her 'stuff'. This all stems on Rise's fear that everyone stereotypes her as an airheaded indecent pop star, while in truth she is a good girl. Rise's Shadow possesses analytical skill that surpasses the party enough that they couldn't defeat it, it takes Teddie's Heroic Sacrifice to defeat it. Rise came to terms with her Shadow and it became her Persona, but in the same time Teddie Wangsts enough that his Shadow emerges. Rise takes Teddie's place as the Mission Control and helps the party defeat it, then she joins the investigation team.
In her Social Link, Rise was continuously pestered by her past manager to return to showbiz despite her wish not to return. She revealed that when she was a child she was shy and continuously pestered, until her debut as a star, which she thought would garner more friends, but they end up seeing the 'Risette' persona, not her true self. However, more reminders of past came from a letter from her number one fan expressing sadness over her quitting the job, and the emergence of another rival star that she once trained and is now taking her spotlight, causing fans to badmouth her identity as 'Risette', which inadvertently made her mad. Eventually, Rise realized that Risette is one of her many personalities that she shouldn't discard and resolves to make her return in showbiz by Spring, evolving her Persona. Regardless of your choices, Rise states that she loves Souji, and will show a rather obvious interest in him during the storyline regardless of social link standing.
Teddie (Kuma in Japanese, which means "bear") is a denizen of the TV World, taking the form of a talking bear plush that actually has nothing inside. He provides support at first, then accompanies the party in battle afterwards, equipped with claws, knuckles and other hand implements. His Persona is summoned by being hit by his weapon. Teddie's initial Persona is Kintoki-Douji of the Star Arcanum, which eventually evolves into Kamui. His Persona uses Ice magic, and has some support and healing skills as well.
Teddie first acts as a reluctant guide of sorts, providing the party with special glasses that allow them to see through the mist and summon their Persona. In the JP version, his sentences always end with -kuma, and often addresses the Protagonist as "sensei" out of respect for the latter's abilities (and to avoid useing his name during scenes with voice acting). Kuma also serves as another comic relief in the story arc (making lame jokes like Shuji Ikutsuki does in P3,) supported by Yosuke's nagging curiosity about who (or rather, what) he really is. In the NA version, his speech is laced with un-bear-ably bad puns.
Even if he is from the TV World, Teddie knows little about where he came from and what he is supposed to do with his life.
After saving the party from Rise Kujikawa's Shadow almost at the cost of his life (though it only literally flattened him as a result), his fears of his existence being superficial and "hollow" manifests into a bigger Shadow. It's revealed to everyone near the end of the game that Kuma is really a docile Shadow, preferring to befriend humans instead of killing them, which explains the cute form he manifested. After being saved, Teddie gains a degree of human will along with the Persona Kintoki-Douji, allowing him to participate in fights more actively.
In the real world, he takes the form of a blonde boy (who goes by the name "Kumada", 熊田, a common Japanese surname, but remains Teddie in the NA version), and in a certain school event, convincingly cosplays as Alice. He stays at the Hanamura house and often helps Yosuke with part-time work at Junes, either as a mascot handing out balloons, a cook at the food court, or a grocery stocker when in human form.
Naoto Shirogane is a tomboyish girl whose appearance and mannerisms closely resemble that of Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th. She is known as a famous high school detective, given the glorious title of "Detective Prince" by the media. Naoto is adept in the use of revolvers, and her Persona is summoned by shooting the card. Naoto's Persona is well-rounded with Light, Dark, Almighty and physical skills at her disposal.
Naoto lost her parents at a young age and was raised by her grandfather, who was also a detective. Yearning to emulate the cool male sleuths she read in novels as well as accepting the family tradition, she aids her grandfather various times in his own cases, eventually creating a favorable reputation for herself. She was sent to Inaba by the prefecture police, to gain insight for the serial murders happening there.
Naoto is yet another survivor of the TV World, bound by her resentment at being talked down to and treated as a child by the police, as well as her views on the police force being dominated by men. This manifests in a volatile shadow that also creates a high-tech facility reminiscent to that of futuristic military bases from science fiction. Her shadow self is dressed in a dress shirt and tie, while wearing a white lab coat that is too big for her. This shadow can act like a serious scientist one minute and act like a child the next, further referencing her true feelings. Her shadow claims she will perform "body modification" to turn Naoto into an adult male so that she can be respected by her fellow police officers. However, unlike the other victims, she had willingly put herself in danger by volunteering for a TV interview in hopes of using herself as bait; she was convinced that the Investigation Team had not caught the real killer.
Naoto is extremely gender-conscious and is often embarrassed when people learn she is female due to her rather masculine hobbies and practices.
Igor is the mysterious proprietor of The Velvet Room. His noticeable appearance comes from hisTengu/Pinocchio-like long nose. In Megami Ibunroku Persona, Igor has calls himself "a servant of Philemon". He is always found in The Velvet Room between consciousness and unconsciousness. His function is twofold. First, he makes cryptic comments that vaguely steer the player in the right direction. Second, he fuses the Personas the player collects in the dungeons to create stronger Personas.
He has an assistant named Margaret in this game, who keeps a record of all the Personas the player has acquired.
The protagonist's uncle, whom he stays with in Inaba for the year. He is the detective who is assigned to the murder investigation. He is able to make some progress on the case, but without understanding the supernatural element to the case his progress is limited. He initially suspects the protagonist to be the murderer, but cannot bring himself to arrest his nephew. The long hours he spends at his job frequently keep him from taking care of his daughter Nanako. He is the direct superior to Tohru Adachi and the person that the Protagonist must connect with to evolve the Hierophant Social Link.
In his Social Link, Dojima gets a lead on the hit-and-run case that led to the death of his wife, making him stay out even later, to Nanako's distress. Eventually he admits that he has been avoiding his daughter because she reminds him of his late wife, but vows to get over it and spend more time with her daughter. When the lead does not pan out, he decides to let it go.
Dojima's daughter and the Protagonist's cousin, though she soon sees the Protagonist as an older brother. Because of her father's workaholic tendencies, she has taken it upon herself to run the household while going to school, despite being six years old. She is frequently disappointed when her father does not come home, but the Protagonist's friends eventually become a surrogate family for her. Socializing with Nanako is the key to the development of the Justice Social Link.
She is kidnapped near the end of the game by Namatame and thrown into the TV world. She is rescued by the party, but is injured and taken to the hospital. If the player makes the wrong choices, the Downer Ending occurs and she dies. Otherwise she survives.
In her S. Link, Nanako asks the Protagonist questions about the afterlife and her late mother. The Protagonist also helps her come to terms with her father's job.
Igor's new assistant in Persona 4 and Elizabeth's and Theodore's older sister. She's the Empress S.Link, with it playing out similar to Elizabeth's role in the third game, tasking the protagonist to create certain persona through fusion. Upon completion of her S.Link you can challenge her to a fight.
Two students at Yasogami High that are the unofficial leaders of basketball and soccer teams, respectively. They share the Strength S.Link, but the core of it depends on which sports club you joined.
The team manager of whatever sports club you decided to join. She's the Moon S-Link.
A Yasogami High student and the unnoficial leader of the Drama Club. Either she or Ayane could be your Sun S-Link.
A first-year Yasogmi student that helps manage the band. Either she or Yumi could be your Sun S-Link.
A first-year Yasogami student who is the younger brother of the second murder victim, Saki Konishi. He's the Hanged Man S-Link.
A fox who inhabits the old shrine at the central shopping district. It's in charge of the Hermit S-Link.
A nurse the protagonist meets while on his part-time job at the hospital. She's the Devil S-Link.
An elderly widow who calls herself "death". If her self-proclaimed title didn't give her away, she's the Death S-Link.
A young boy the protagonist could tutor as a part-time job. He's the Tower S.Link.
A mother by marriage that has her son frequent the day care that the protagonist could work at. She is the Temperance S-Link.
The protagonist's first home-room teacher at the beginning of the game. Is eventually murdered by Mitsuo Kubo.
Girl that goes to the same school as the protagonists.
The protagonist's second home-room teacher after his first one gets murdered during the course of the story.
A girl that goes to Gekkoukan High School from Persona 3.
A student from a rivaling school in Yasoinaba. Eventually turns out to be Kinshiro Morooka's killer. After he's dealt with, it's stated that he was tossed to an asylum.
A secretary in the local city council, Namatame's affair with a news reporter, Mayumi Yamano, is a hot topic amongst the people of Inaba upon the Protagonist's arrival to the city.
Namatame was one of the three people granted the power to enter the TV by Izanami, representing Despair in her experiment. After witnessing the deaths of Mayumi and Saki on the Midnight Channel, Namatame concludes that anyone who appears on the station will die and makes it his life's mission to "save" them by throwing them into the TV. Unfortunately, he fails to recognize that the TV world is potentially lethal on its own.
After kidnapping Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, Naoto, and Nanako, he eventually becomes the investigation team's chief murder suspect. He is confronted and defeated inside a manifestation of Heaven created by his views of himself as a messianic figure. He also plays a pivotal role in determing the outcome of the case; should the player take the easy way out and blame him for all of the murders, they will be "rewarded" with the game's Bad Ending. If he is spared and the Protagonist manages to convince the rest of the team that something still seems off about the case, the game will move the player closer to the Normal and True Endings.
In this case, Namatame, still recovering from his experience in the TV, will aid the investigation team by offering his perspective on the game's events thus far.
A bumbling dectective, he was transfered to Inaba due to an unknown incident (presumably one of his many screw-ups.) One of the main authorities on the murder cases along with Dojima, he has a habit of divulging critical information to the Investigation Team, making him a useful ally.
It turns out that not only is this all just an act, but he's the one behind the murders. After causing the first two murders, he manipulated Namatame into carrying on in his stead. Bored with the tiny town of Inaba, he viewed the murders as his own personal form of entertainment. While he claims to be much more mature then the Investigation Team, it's clear that the whole thing is him throwing a tantrum over the crap he's had to deal with. After he's exposed, he is chased into the TV World, (where he reveals Persona powers not unlike Souji's) and possessed by Ameno-Sagiri. Afterwards, he is arrested and sent to jail for his crimes. Despite this, he mails a letter to the Investigation Team, claiming he'll follow society's rules and giving them a clue to the Truth of the Midnight Channel.
While he is the true mastermind behind the murders, he was secretly manipulated by Izanami, who wanted to determine what humanity truly wanted based on his, Souji's, and Namatame's actions. Adachi represents Emptiness in Izanami's experiment. Because his actions are the most prolific, he unintentionally sentences humanity to an Assimilation Plot, though his attitude before your battle with him suggests that he would approve of Izanami's course of action.
A goddess from traditional Japanese folklore. You initially hear her name during a class lecture midway through the game. The wife of the god Izanagi, she died in childbirth. Saddened by her death, Izanagi attempted to visit the underworld, Yomotsu Hirasaka, in order to persuade her to return to the world with him. However, once there, Izanagi noticed that Izanami's body had degraded. Enraged, she sent various creatures that chased Izanagi out of the underworld. Once he reached the exit, Izanagi sealed the entrance with a boulder. Izanami said she would curse a thousand people to die every day unless she was freed, but Izanagi responded that he would give life to 1,500.
While Izanami herself doesn't specify how much of the legend is true, she is the mastermind behind all the events in Inaba. In an attempt to fulfill the desires of humanity, she creates the world inside the TV and grants three Unwitting Pawns, the Protagonist, Namatame, and Adachi, the power to enter. Her plan is to then create a new world for humanity that matches the quality of the pawn whose actions are the most prolific. Because Adachi, who represents Emptiness, has the greatest effect, Izanami deems that humanity wants to live in self-deception and plans to slowly turn all of humanity into Shadows.
In the True Ending, after Adachi and Ameno-Sagiri are defeated, the Protagonist may surmise that something about the case still seems unresolved, and traces the events in Inaba back to Izanami, who has been watching the events in Inaba unfold as the local gas station's attendant. She reveals that Ameno-Sagiri was merely an alter-ego that she created long ago, and she still plans on continuing her plan even without Adachi's help.
After the Investigation Team chases her through Yomotsu Hirasaka, Izanami nearly manages to kill them. However, the power of the Protagonist's Social Links revives him, and he destroys her in a single attack with the help of Izanagi.
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The Investigation Team
Main Character (AKA Souji Seta)
Voiced by Daisuke Namikawa (Japanese) and Johnny Yong Bosch (English)
The silent protagonist of the game who can be named by the player at the very beginning. His affinity is with the Fool arcana, which gives him the ability to call forth multiple Personae, starting out with Izanagi. He uses long swords, katanas, baseball bats and golf clubs as weapons, has exclusive access to the Velvet Room, and occasionally encounters oracle cards in his mind that give him new Personae and also grants an Arcana Chance. He summons his Persona by crushing the card with his bare hand. The manga gave him the name Souji Seta.
His parents moved a lot from town to town, leading him to change schools constantly. He later moved into Yasoinaba to stay with his uncle Ryotaro Dojima, with his daughter Nanako. In his new school, he befriended several new friends like Yosuke Hanamura and Chie Satonaka, and later learnt about the 'Midnight Channel' and later his unusual ability to insert his body to the TV. This ability leads him into a quest to uncover the truth behind the series of murder cases that has been plaguing Yasoinaba for awhile, as well as him gaining many friends and leaving a fond memory to the otherwise forgettable town. In the game's True Ending, his ultimate Persona is revealed to be Izanagi-no-Okami.
- Badass: And how! His first lines to the class can be "You calling me a loser?" to his Jerkass teacher. He also summons personae not by attacking his card, but crushing it with his bare hands. He can also score with almost every girl he meets, unravels the mystery behind the murders in the Normal Ending, and, for God's sake, in the True Ending, he not only defeats a god, but also summons a spell that banishes all deceit and falsehoods from the hearts of man If that's not badass, then what is?
- How about the fact that he's probably the first MegaTen MC to get, in his Normal and True ending, a perfectly happy ending? Moreso by the fact that thanks to him, the deaths in Inaba were kept to a minimum. In the game's Normal and True Endings, only three die: one before he even returned from school his first day, another one just before he discovered his powers and a last one done by a random psycho that he had no preliminary warning of. All of these are non-playable, minor characters... which, by this saga's tradition of killing party members out of the blue, is a huge difference. It takes a very special kind of Badass to make that possible.
- Badass Long Coat: Both his starter Persona, Izanagi, and his ultimate Persona, Izanagi-no-Ookami have one.
- Big Brother Instinct
- Big Brother Mentor: The Protagonist adopts this role with several of his Social Link contacts, notably Kanji, Shu, and Naoki.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: You're given the option to throw Namatame in the television in retribution for Nanako's death. Things will only get worse though.
- Big Eater
- Bishonen
- But Now I Must Go
- Celibate Hero - Really Gets Around: The Protagonist can be either one or anything in between.
- Chick Magnet
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: If you perform the Social Links, it is almost impossible to stop Souji Seta from helping others.
- Covert Pervert: Some of his text options are pretty perverted.
- Curtains Match The Window
- Earn Your Happy Ending
- Eleventh Hour Super Power
- The Power Of Friendship: Initiates it.
- Extreme Omnivore: You have the option of eating anything you find in the fridge, regardless of how inedible it is (at one point you can even eat a pot of grass.)
- He does get sick a few times, though.
- Fan Nickname: Souji Seta, taken from the Manga Adaptation, as well as Brotag (frequently used on a... certain unscrupulous imageboard) and Banchou ("gang leader") in Japan.
- To explain the last one: his persona Izanagi has an uncanny resemblance to a stereotypical Banchou due to its Badass Longcoat (see here
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- To explain the last one: his persona Izanagi has an uncanny resemblance to a stereotypical Banchou due to its Badass Longcoat (see here
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu: And he didn't break an arm!
- The Glasses Come Off: This is HOW he Punches out Cthulhu.
- Fanon: Being a Heroic Mime, his personality is ultimately determined by the player, but some personality traits have become reoccuringly in fanfiction include;
- Badass Bookworm
- Deadpan Snarker: His dialogue options tend to head towards Only Sane Man most of the time, but sometimes head towards this.
- Nice Guy
- Only Sane Man: Literal non-example, he's the only member of the party whose persona does not stem from having resolved his own mental issues (he hasn't got any).
- If you pay attention, most of his dialogue choices tend to edge towards this as well.
- The Sociopath: All of his social links can be seen as him just superficially interacting with people to gain greater personal power.
- First Kiss: Margaret steals his in a moment of Genre Blindness to romance.
- Unless you romance anyone else beforehand.
- The Fool: His initial arcana.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Does this to Yosuke in the Manga when he meets his Shadow.
- Also, in the Normal/True Ending path, he shouts down the entire team to calm down.
- Guile Hero: Saves almost everyone around him with words and simple emotional guidance.
- Hatedom: Part of◊ Twilight's, apparently.
- Could be due to translation bias.
- Still a Crowning Moment Of Funny, though.
- Could be due to translation bias.
- The Hero
- Heroes Prefer Swords
- Or bats, or golf clubs, but mostly swords
- Ho Yay: Primarily with Yosuke; the player determines how much the character exhibits with Dialogue Trees. Perhaps the Most Triumphant Example is the option to give Yosuke a Cooldown Hug around the waist during his S. Link. Depending on choices during the Culture Festival Breather Episode, the Protagonist can also show an interest in cross-dressing and has the option of willingly taking a seat on the girl's side of the table during the Group Date Cafe so that he can flirt with Yosuke or Kanji.
- There are also a number of (presumably) Celibate Hero options such as stating a lack of interest in the Miss Yasogami beauty pageant and telling Yosuke that you have no romantic interest in either Chie or Yukiko. Picking such options usually leads one of the party members to make a not-so-subtle crack about the Protagonist's sexuality.
- Jerkass: Most of the dialogue trees in the game have at least one "asshole" option. However, the game discourages you from choosing these, as by doing so, it causes your friends to lose their trust in you, resulting in broken S.Links which leads to depowering your character's Persona growth potential.
- Launcher Of A Thousand Ships
- Memetic Sex God: No, really. Probably doesn't hurt that he can canonically end the game with six girlfriends and inspire a Precocious Crush in his cousin as well as a 27 year old sexy nurse
- The Messiah: He helps almost everyone he meets overcome their deep-seated psychological issues, helps convince his friends spare the man who almost caused his cousin to die, and saves the world thanks to a literal application of the Power Of Friendship.
- Neutral Good
- New Transfer Student: Is this a new "must" for Persona protagonists or what?
- It's an easy way to have a character who's in high school but doesn't have any existing friends or acquaintances (thus avoiding the potential problems of preexisting social links).
- The manga goes farther and implies that he basically changes schools every year almost.
- It's an easy way to have a character who's in high school but doesn't have any existing friends or acquaintances (thus avoiding the potential problems of preexisting social links).
- The Nick Namer: Inverted, much like Phrase Catcher to Catch Phrase. Most of the important characters have a different nickname for him, to avoid calling him bywhatever name you gave him.
- Parental Abandonment
- Plot Induced Stupidity: Lampshaded, amongst other things, in Hiimdaisy's epic Parody comic.
- Promotion To Parent: His relationship with Nanako for the most part.
- Sempai: In contrast to Minato, he's older than most of the other characters and gets called this.
- Stealth Pun / Shout Out : Must be what artists of the manga were thinking when they named the Protagonist after Seta Soujiro. That or just coincidence.
- Silent Protagonist
- Stupid Sexy Flanders
- Superpower Lottery: Let's face it, he's the only character who has access to almost every Persona, and is the only character who is able to punch out Cthulhu because of his ability to upgrade his own and everyone elses' Persona via the power of Friendship. Even in comparison to his predecessor's Superpower Lotteries, he won it BIG time, and that's saying something.
- Talking To Himself: Johnny Yong Bosch voices both him and Adachi. And you can let the both of them duke it out after The Reveal!
- Team Mom/Meido: Think about it. The guy's a good cook, is seen taking care of children in one of his jobs while wearing an apron, and tutoring another kid in another job. Another job has him cleaning, while the other three are housework, and this is without mentioning how good of an influence he was in his younger cousin/little sister's raising. Face it, the guy's your ideal househusband! And a badass one considering what he does, read the Cthulhu entry above! How many heroes do you got like that?
- Team Chef: Among the Investigation Team members, he is the only one who can put together a good meal as an individual, though this is largely contingent on the player's own cooking skill.
- Touched By Vorlons: Part of the reason his Superpower Lottery payoff was so large is due to having his powers granted to him via a Japanese goddess!
- Unwitting Pawn: One of the three people to whom Izanami granted the power to enter the TV. He represents Hope.
- Spanner In The Works: Heavily subverted by the fact that he refuses to accept her gambit and eventually uses the power that she gave him to destroy her.
- Warrior Therapist
- What The Hell Hero: Delivered to the Investigation Team in the Normal/True route, when the rest are contemplating killing Namatame.
- He actually gets visibly angry, the only time he does so during the ENTIRE game.
- White Haired Pretty Boy: Well, grey-haired. Curtains Match The Window
Yosuke Hanamura
Voiced by Showtaro Morikubo (Japanese) and Yuri Lowenthal (English)
Yosuke is a second-year student at Yasogami High in Inaba. Because his father is the manger of Junes, the local department store, he is usually treated as an unofficial complaints box, much to his chagrin. He is Souji's best friend and is often the butt of his friends' jokes. Although typically a bit of a Deadpan Snarker, he has a soft spot for Saki Konishi, an older girl who is also an employee at Junesa, and her murder acts as part of his initial motivation to join the investigation team. He dual wields various weapons and his Persona is Jiraiya of the Magician Arcanum, which later evolves into Susano-O once the Magician Social Link is complete. His Personas cement his role as the party's Red Mage; Yosuke can use both physical attacks and wind-based offensive magic fairly effectively, and he also has access to support spells that allow him to confuse and debuff enemies, augment party accuracy and evasion rates, and provide minor healing.
During a trip to the Midnight Channel and after witnessing Souji's Persona awakening, Yosuke was faced with the horrible truth: Saki has always hated him. When Yosuke refused to admit this, his Shadow emerges and taunts him that he's only being cheerful as a facade and sees everything, including Saki, as a tool to block out his extreme loneliness. Yosuke angrily retorted and it caused the Shadow to reveal its true form, but was eventually defeated by Souji. Encouraged by Souji and Teddie, Yosuke painfully accepts that he did feel that way, but he resolves to get better, which causes the Shadow to turn into his Persona.
In the Magician S. Link, Yosuke revealed that at first he hated Inaba, but he has grown to love it and despite being hated by Saki, he did genuinely love her. He later reveals that he, like Junpei from Persona 3, is jealous of Souji and used the murder case to play hero and hide his insecurities. Yosuke later asks Souji to punch him to get rid of his jealousy and they end up in a brawl; Yosuke realizes that he can form genuine, close relationships with people regardless of where he is, and resolves to live his life to the fullest. His Persona then evolves into Susano-O.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Although he crushes on Saki, she secretly hates him.
- Subverted: As his shadow and the S.Link exhibit, he was aware on some level that she didn't like him, though he thoroughly believed she was a good person at heart.
- Anti Hero: Generally Type II on the Sliding Scale.
- Mr. Vice Guy: His vices primarily being Small Town Boredom and difficulty considering the ramifications of his words and actions, which often leads to Moral Dissonance and his being on the receiving end of Laser-Guided Karma.
- Base Breaker: Read the Jerkass Woobie entry.
- Berserk Button: Disrespecting Saki or the Protagonist.
- Blow You Away
- Bishounen
- Bromantic Foil: To the Protagonist.
- Butt Monkey
- Deadpan Snarker
- Determinator
- Dual Wielding: Whether it's knives, kunai, or wrenches, he will always have one in each hand.
- Everythings Better With Spinning: His Follow-Up Attack.
- Fan Nickname: Brosuke
- Groin Attack: "Critical Hit to the Nads"
- Taken a step further in the manga, in which his persona is the one receiving the attack during the Chie arc. He feels the pain too...
- Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today
- Honor Before Reason
- Hormone-Addled Teenager
- Ho Yay: Between him and Souji, played for laughs; a running joke among the Persona 4 fandom is as follows: "People fight over whether Kanji is gay, with Yosuke, they argue about how much."
- Fans seem to be divided roughly equally whether Yosuke's Ho Yay is symptomatic of a very close case of Heterosexual Life Partners with the Protagonist, If It's You, It's OK, or full-blown Transparent Closet.
- Many of the moments, including the boss battle against Shadow Kanji, the camping trip, and Stage 5 of his S. Link, are heavily lampshaded in the third part ofPeachifruit's famous comic.
- Jerkass Woobie: Sometimes his 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 Pagaent against their will.
- Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: Aside from the above incidents, he's actually not such a bad guy.
- The Lancer
- The Mario: His persona has good buffs, physical skills, wind attacks and an odd healing ability. Towards the end of the game, he begins trending toward Lightning Bruiser, especially with good equipment.
- Memetic Mutation: Many people solely refer to him as Brosuke.
- Neutral Good
- The Not Love Interest
- Number Two
- Potty Emergency: He has one when he first discovers the TV World with Souji and Chie.
- That Came Out Wrong: Has a knack for spouting out innuendo.
- Shut Up Hannibal: Responds to Adachi's Hannibal Lecture by saying "You're nothing but a worthless criminal."
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Chie.
Chie Satonaka
Voiced by Yui Horie (Japanese) and Danielle Judovits (English)
An upbeat girl with short light-brown hair who usually wears a green athletic jacket decorated with buttons. Her weapon is a pair of greaves. She has an obsession with Kung fu, and even uses them in battle, similar to Lisa Silverman of Persona 2. Her obsession goes so far that she even attacks Yosuke over a Chinese Martial arts film DVD. Most of the time, she is friendly, cheerful, and energetic, but she has a short temper, especially with Yosuke. She, Yukiko and Rise are unskillful cookers, providing normally unpalatable to terribly awful dishes to the main crew several times during the story's progress.
Her Persona is Tomoe Gozen of the Chariot Arcanum, a muscular female figure wearing a yellow outfit reminiscent of Bruce Lee's Game of Death costume, wielding a double bladed naginata. Tomoe intially learns both physical techniques and ice spells, but it is not especially proficient with magic and can only learn mid-level attack spells; Teddie later becomes the party ice specialist. Tomoe evolves into Suzuka Gongen, who is wielding what can only be described as Darth Maul's lightsaber, after completing The Chariot Social Link.
Chie's Shadow takes the form of a long haired, masked dominatrix supported by three pale Chies. The dominatrix has long black hair, similar to Yukiko's. It represents her jealousy of Yukiko's natural gifts and talents, as well as her wish and need of control over Yukiko.
Through the S.Link for the Chariot, Souji and Chie become closer through training together at the Samegawa Floodplain. Souji learns how Chie and Yukiko first became friends; Yukiko found a dog, but her parents would not allow her to keep it, and Chie protected the dog instead. Over time, Souji learns of how Chie enjoys creating groups and titles for herself, in hopes of being feared by juveniles and protecting the weak. Hearing from a police officer that high schoolers have been bullying people in the Central Shopping District, Chie and Souji coincidentally help. They first save Chie's middle school friend, who then calls the police. The second time, Chie makes the hoodlums run off just as they attempt to steal from a little boy. Once this occurs, the Protagonist has the option of beginning an intimate relationship with Chie. Depending on what the player decides, Chie will either go to train with Souji (friendly relationship) or go to his home (romantic relationship) and gives him some matching wristbands. Chie's resolve to help others and protect the team, especially Souji, transmogrifies Tomoe Gozen to Suzuka Gongen. She also resolves to train as a police officer under Dojima's guidance.
- Accidental Innuendo: "Alright guys, pile on! Are you ready?"
- And if refused: "We're not gonna do it? Aww..."
- An Ice Persona: Though she is a physical fighter, so she only learns up to mid-level skills. Teddie fills in this role more completely once he joins the party.
- Armed Legs
- Awesome Yet Practical: Her Follow-Up Attack, Galactic Punt, will instantly kill one enemy Shadow and create a Twinkle In The Sky effect.
- Big Eater
Yosuke: The Meat Lover's Combo... Just like it says in the name, you really have to love meat to order it.
Kanji: Oh, you talking about that thing at the food court? I wanna try it, but it's always sold out...
Yosuke: Don't tell me, did Chie—D-Don't answer that. I'm not sure I want to know for sure that a friend of mine has the appetite of a starved wolf...
- Book Dumb: Zigzagged. Chie generally fails most exam subjects, but Yukiko states that Chie gets very good scores on those that she doesn't fail.
- She's also fairly attentive and tends to support conversations about the investigation pretty well.
- Bruce Lee Clone: Since she loves kung-fu movies, she's learned how to emulate her martial arts idol's fighting style during combat, complete with lines likes "Don't Think, Feel".
- Cute Bruiser
- Extremity Extremist: Everything she does in battle she does with her feet, even guarding.
- Danielle Judovits: Her English VA.
- Expy: Not in looks, but in attitude: Chie shares a lot of characteristics with Lisa Silverman, the most obvious of which being enamored with kung-fu movies and Bruce Leein particular.
- Glass Cannon: Cast From HP Physical spells alongside mediocre defense growth. However, she hits like a truck once God's Hand comes along.
- He Is Not My Boyfriend: Happens several times with Yosuke.
- Hot Amazon: If chosen as the Love Interest.
- Kick Chick
- Lawful Good: She decides to become a police officer by the end.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Early in the game decides to run off after Yukiko. This does not end well.
- Les Yay: With Yukiko.
- Magikarp Power: She stops gaining useful physicals and ice spells by the time you get Kanji and Teddie, at least for mid-game. She does get pretty powerful when leveled high enough though, gaining Power Charge, Agneyastra, and God's Hand.
- The Big Guy: Serves as this for the Five Man Band; comedic, of course, in that she's the third-shortest character on the team (beaten only by Rise and Naoto, who are a year younger than her).
- Kanji is a closer example after he joins the team.
- The Resenter: Shadow Chie
- Trademark Favorite Food: Steak.
- Tomboy: Including the common traits:
- Action Girl
- Lethal Chef: Worst of the lot by a mile.
- I dunno. It's heavily implied that Rise might actually be worse.
- Shorttank
- Tomboy And Girly Girl: The girly girl being Yukiko.
- Tsundere: She has moments of this. Yosuke is usually on the receiving end of the "Tsuntsun".
- Twinkle In The Sky: Chie will Galactic Punt your ass into the Milky Way! (Milky Way!)
- Skirt Over Bike Shorts
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Yosuke
Yukiko Amagi
Voiced by Ami Koshimizu (Japanese) and Amanda Winn Lee (English)
Yukiko is the only daughter of the owner of the Amagi Inn, and thus the heir to the generations-old family business. Despite that, she is a terrible cook. She is a smart girl, but is socially quite awkward, with only Chie as her true friend. She fights with a fan, but is most suited for heavy magic fighting. Her Persona is Konohana Sakuya of the Priestess Arcanum, and later evolves into Amaterasu. Yukiko fits the role of both the White Mage and the Black Mage, leaning powerful healing spells (including one that instantly restores the entire party's HP!) as well as destructive fire spells.
When Yukiko was kidnapped and thrown into the TV World, it created a dungeon in the form of an European castle, while her Shadow masqueraded as a princess continually searching for a "prince" to whisk her away. The castle and her Shadow were borne of her repressed feelings regarding her status as the Amagi Inn heir; Yukiko did not want to inherit the inn and felt that she was being pigeonholed. She was unwilling, however, to speak to anyone regarding her feelings and instead privately wished for someone to alleviate her responsibilities. Souji, Yosuke, and Chie manage to defeat her Shadow, and she becomes a member of the investigation team.
In the the earlier stages of the Priestess Social Link, Yukiko still desires to leave Inaba but attempts to pursue her own career so that she won't have to depend on someone else to leave. However, friendly teasing from the inn staff members and pestering from an irresponsible TV crew who want to make a program that will ruin the reputation of the inn make her realize that she had a supportive group of family and friends that she wants to help and defend. She resolves to accept her duty and manage the inn, evolving her Persona. She is also a possible Love Interest for the Protagonist depending on player actions in the S. Link.
- Armor Piercing Slap
- Beware The Nice Ones: Occasionally suggests beating Teddy or Yosuke up for being perverts.
- Completely Missing The Point: Tends to take gross exaggerations and accidental Double Entendre's at face value.
- Everythings Better With Princesses: ...Unless they're the malevolent manifestion of your repressed emotions.
- Fan Nickname: Amagidyne and 'Drunkiko', due to the Kings Game scene.
- Genius Ditz
- Hime Cut: Which fits her Yamato Nadeshiko personality.
- The Hyena: Her laughing fits can last for several minutes.
- Chie even calls her this once.
- The Ingenue: Sometimes.
- Lady In Red
- Lady Of War: Don't mistake her cloying niceness for the Western feminism definition of "weakness": Push her, and she will push back hard.
- Les Yay: With Chie, her "Prince".
- Lethal Chef: Not always lethal, as she manages to make "flavorless" food later on. The stuff she gives to Souji, however... well, you need a high Courage stat to actually eat it, let's leave it at that.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Before meeting Chie.
- Meet Cute: Techically their second meeting, but the Protagonist runs into her when she's wearing a Kimono.
- Subverted if the player decides not to romance her.
- Neutral Good
- Never Live It Down: Shadow Yukiko wanting to "Score with a Hot Stud." Teddie brings it up sporadically throughout the game.
- The Ojou
- Parasol Of Prettiness: only with the pink yukata
- Paper Fan Of Doom
- Playing With Fire
- Precision F Strike: Yukiko rarely swears, so if she tells you to shut the hell up as she does to those reporters in her Social Link, you know she's angry. Shadow Yukiko's speech is practically a Cluster F Bomb by her standards.
- Saying Too Much: During the King's Game scene, in a moment of drunken silliness she accidentally spills the beans about the Shadow World and the Personas to Naoto. Then again, she didn't believe it.
- Shut Up Hannibal: Calls out Adachi on his poorly contrived Freudian Excuse for his actions.
- Staff Chick: She's arguably the best healer in the game (only surpassed by the main character if the player choses to do so), the most gentle player character, uses ablunt weapon that can make her casting more powerful and is a potential love interest, natch. The only way she steps outside this trope is her repertoire of hard-hitting fire magic.
- Tall Dark And Bishoujo
- Hard-hitting is an Under Statement. She's borderline Glass Cannon
- Tomboy And Girly Girl: The girly girl besides Chie's Tomboyishness.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Played with. She certainly fits the archetype, but Values Dissonance is strongly averted when we see her Shadow, who shows exactly what the opposite of this trope can be. Not to mention she develops a bit of an Action Mom side towards the inn during her Social Link, as an unfortunate group of Paparazzidiscover in her Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
Kanji Tatsumi
Voiced by Tomokazu Seki (Japanese) and Troy Baker (English)
A delinquent junior of Yasogami High. His mother runs a textile shop that the Amagi Inn frequents. Despite his brash outlook, Kanji cared a lot for his mother and is skilled at handicraft, which caused people to shun him for having girly hobbies, which leads Kanji to feel a bit more comfortable with men and think that he's gay. He fights with brute force using chairs, tables, plates, etc, and his Persona is Take-Mikazuchi of the Emperor Arcanum, which evolves into Rokuten-Maoh, it deals with heavy physical spells and slightly aboutLightning spells.
When thrown into the TV World, it generates the Steamy Bathhouse dungeon. Kanji's Shadow masquerades as him wearing nothing but a towel and speaking like a Flamboyant Gay, looking for 'love'. The Shadow later taunts Kanji of being scared with women for shunning him due to his hobbies, but Kanji refused him, causing the Shadow to show its true form and was later defeated by Souji. Accepting his flaws, Kanji joins the investigation team and at the same time, starts re-attending school that he has skipped up until now.
In his Social Link, Kanji meets up with a boy who lost his doll and to cheer him up, Kanji makes him a doll, which turns out to be very impressive he liked it so much and orders more. Kanji was later accussed of bullying the said boy, but Souji encourages him to tell him the truth, instead of hiding it. Eventually, Kanji learned to like and take pride of his hobby and opens up his own handicraft class.
- All Of The Other Reindeer
- Ambiguously Gay: Again, left ambiguous. It zigzags during school trips, and then of course there's what happens with Teddie.
- Hard Gay: Shadow Kanji's minions.
- Flamboyant Gay: Shadow Kanji
- Single Target Sexuality: Kanji is more or less Naotosexual. It's implied that his confusion arose due to Sweet On Polly Oliver.
- Then again, some of us don't buy that. *
- Awesome But Impractical: Despite his badassitude , Kanji only learns single-target physical skills (while Chie gets several multi-target ones along with Power Charge) that eat up his HP like a starved wolf and his only multi-target moves are from the Zio line, which wouldn't be too bad if his Magic stat and SP pool weren't utterly pathetic. He's an absolute monster against bosses, though.
- Kanji plays in a similar, yet much more strict manner than Junpei would. He's only supposed to use his SP to pick a lightning weakness or support with Matarukaja so he can rip an enemy apart with cruel attack/vile assault. It's also not completely impossible to find accessories that either half the hp cost or give about 10-30% more SP. He's actually very good to have during a dungeon grind as well.
- Badass: He fights off an entire biker gang with a shield. Why'd he do this? Because they were keeping his mom awake at night.
- Berserk Button: Implying that he's gay. Or insulting Naoto.
- Big Eater
- The Big Guy
- Billy Elliot Plot
- Book Dumb: But very good at arts and crafts and beating the shit out of people.
- Cannot Spit It Out
- Chaotic Neutral —> Chaotic Good
- Coat Cape
- Crazy Awesome: And how! His first weapon is a CHAIR. Enough said.
- Delinquents: Just LOOK at him.
- Face Of A Thug: Still, don't judge him solely on his looks.
- Disappeared Dad
- Dynamic Entry: Kanji's way of saving the protagonist from danger is
DropFalcon Kicking him out of the way. - Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas
- Everything Is Better With Penguins: The secret Animal Cracker!
- Glass Cannon/Mighty Glacier: Depending on playstyle; Kanji has higher HP and Endurance than Chie, but he'll still burn through HP quickly if his physical skills are used frequently. If you have him stick to basic physical attacks, he'll do less damage but will be very difficult to take down.
- Heel Face Turn
- Hot Blooded
- Huge Guy Tiny Girl: In his association with Naoto.
- Improbable Weapon User
- Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: Less emphasis on jerk, mostly stems from his temper.
- Jerkass Facade: His S.Link focuses on dropping this.
- Memetic Badass
- Real Men Wear Pink: Deconstructed and not just by his Shadow either.
- Shock And Awe
- Shrinking Violet: Around Naoto anyway.
- The Woobie
- Word Of Gay: Subverted; the creators have said Kanji's sexuality is deliberately left ambiguous to accommodate the Rule Of Funny.
- According to his English VA, however, his sexuality was never questioned at all by the people in the production department.
- However it's arguable if the dubbers had the authority to declare something like that canon.
- According to his English VA, however, his sexuality was never questioned at all
- Younger Than He Looks: Looks like the oldest of the group but he's actually 15. And to boot, he's even younger than Rise and Naoto, who are in the same grade as him.
Rise Kujikawa
Voiced by Rie Kugimiya (Japanese) and Laura Bailey (English)
A teenage Idol Singer, often appearing in television programs and advertisement as Risette. She suddenly declared that she's quitting showbiz and moved to Yasoinaba to help her grandmother's Tofu shop and enroll in Yasogami high as a freshman. Rise is cheerful and bubbly, but deep down is a good girl. She is mostly out of the frontlines and prefers analyzing the enemies and their weaknesses. Her Persona is Himiko of the Lovers Arcanum and later evolves into Kanzeon.
Her dungeon in the TV World is the Marukyu Striptease, wherein her Shadow masquerades as her in a flashy gold bikini and teases a lot about showing off her 'stuff'. This all stems on Rise's fear that everyone stereotypes her as an airheaded indecent pop star, while in truth she is a good girl. Rise's Shadow possesses analytical skill that surpasses the party enough that they couldn't defeat it, it takes Teddie's Heroic Sacrifice to defeat it. Rise came to terms with her Shadow and it became her Persona, but in the same time Teddie Wangsts enough that his Shadow emerges. Rise takes Teddie's place as the Mission Control and helps the party defeat it, then she joins the investigation team.
In her Social Link, Rise was continuously pestered by her past manager to return to showbiz despite her wish not to return. She revealed that when she was a child she was shy and continuously pestered, until her debut as a star, which she thought would garner more friends, but they end up seeing the 'Risette' persona, not her true self. However, more reminders of past came from a letter from her number one fan expressing sadness over her quitting the job, and the emergence of another rival star that she once trained and is now taking her spotlight, causing fans to badmouth her identity as 'Risette', which inadvertently made her mad. Eventually, Rise realized that Risette is one of her many personalities that she shouldn't discard and resolves to make her return in showbiz by Spring, evolving her Persona. Regardless of your choices, Rise states that she loves Souji, and will show a rather obvious interest in him during the storyline regardless of social link standing.
- All Of The Other Reindeer
- Attention Whore: Her Shadow. Fan Disservice indeed. Ugh.
- Rise herself actually would much rather just stay away from the public spotlight.
- The Chick: Far and away the most chickified of the main cast.
- Cry Cute
- The Ditz: With voicework to match, in both languages.
- Actually averts this trope. She is quite intelligent (insights into human nature, good at reading groups and people) and more down-to-earth than one might expect. She acts "bubbly" to keep people's spirits up, and to have fun.
- Early Bird Cameo: Appears at the beginning of the game in a commercial.
- Expy: Of Nena Trinity.
- Fan Girl: Of the Protagonist.
- Fridge Brilliance: Her Shadow form scans your party. Later on, Rise becomes your Mission Control and can scan enemies' attacks and, if you build up her S-Link, their locations in dungeons.
- Genki Girl: Has her moments.
- Girlish Pigtails
- Heads I Win Tails You Lose: Shadow Rise
- Heroes Want Redheads: If chosen as the Love Interest.
- Idol Singer
- I Just Want To Be Normal: Subverted: She eventually decides to go back to being Risette anyways
- Ink Suit Actress: YMMV, but Rise's name and appearance are too similar to Rie Kugimiya to just be a coincidence. Rise's design may also be an Actor Allusion with the high-grade Zettai Ryouiki common with the Tsundere characters Kugimiya is usually associated with.
- Lethal Chef: Not as awful as the others, her food is just REALLY spicy.
- Mission Control
- Ms Fanservice: Played straight and deconstructed. While she's more confident in her body than the other girls and has no problem entering the School Beauty Pagaent, she also fears that those around her only like her for her "Risette" persona.
- Fan Disservice: Her shadow, on the other hand, is way too eager to expose herself to the world. While still in normal form, it's just Rise in a two-piece swimsuit. During the boss battle, however, the moans and gestures get a bit disturbing.
- Neutral Good
- Playing Against Type: One person commented that Rise is not only "not a Tsundere," but she's an anti-Tsundere, possessing absolutely none of the traits of a Tsundere.
- Sensor Character
- Shipper On Deck: Rise seems to be intentionally angling for the team to split into couples, actively encouraging Yosuke/Chie, Kanji/Naoto, and, um... Protagonist/Herself.
- Stepford Smiler: Type A/B hybrid. Progressing through her social link reveals much of her pop-idol persona was constructed as an attempt to make friends after being bullied when she was younger. Although she says that she feels hollow like a classical Type B, she does indeed have a personality, but simply doesn't realize that her different "constructed" demeanors are actually all authentic facets of it.
- Zettai Ryouiki: Almost rank S, missing the Tsundere aspect. The supreme irony in this? She's voiced by the Goddess of Tsunderes.
Teddie/Kuma
Voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi (Japanese) and Dave Wittenberg (English)
Teddie (Kuma in Japanese, which means "bear") is a denizen of the TV World, taking the form of a talking bear plush that actually has nothing inside. He provides support at first, then accompanies the party in battle afterwards, equipped with claws, knuckles and other hand implements. His Persona is summoned by being hit by his weapon. Teddie's initial Persona is Kintoki-Douji of the Star Arcanum, which eventually evolves into Kamui. His Persona uses Ice magic, and has some support and healing skills as well.
Teddie first acts as a reluctant guide of sorts, providing the party with special glasses that allow them to see through the mist and summon their Persona. In the JP version, his sentences always end with -kuma, and often addresses the Protagonist as "sensei" out of respect for the latter's abilities (and to avoid useing his name during scenes with voice acting). Kuma also serves as another comic relief in the story arc (making lame jokes like Shuji Ikutsuki does in P3,) supported by Yosuke's nagging curiosity about who (or rather, what) he really is. In the NA version, his speech is laced with un-bear-ably bad puns.
Even if he is from the TV World, Teddie knows little about where he came from and what he is supposed to do with his life.
After saving the party from Rise Kujikawa's Shadow almost at the cost of his life (though it only literally flattened him as a result), his fears of his existence being superficial and "hollow" manifests into a bigger Shadow. It's revealed to everyone near the end of the game that Kuma is really a docile Shadow, preferring to befriend humans instead of killing them, which explains the cute form he manifested. After being saved, Teddie gains a degree of human will along with the Persona Kintoki-Douji, allowing him to participate in fights more actively.
In the real world, he takes the form of a blonde boy (who goes by the name "Kumada", 熊田, a common Japanese surname, but remains Teddie in the NA version), and in a certain school event, convincingly cosplays as Alice. He stays at the Hanamura house and often helps Yosuke with part-time work at Junes, either as a mascot handing out balloons, a cook at the food court, or a grocery stocker when in human form.
- An Ice Persona
- Attractive Bent Gender: The only guy of the bunch who can actually pull off the crossdressing pageant. One of the judges openly admits 'I'd hit that.'
- Bear-serk Button: He got pretty angry when Mitsuo called him a freak.
- Beyond The Impossible: Apparently even a shadow can have a shadow of its own. Not surprisingly, such a creature is borne of near-complete existential despair and insists everything is pointless.
- Big Eater
- Bishonen: With lots an' lots of Bishie Sparkle.
- Combat Medic: Has access to a wide variety of magic, including the Bufu line of attack magic and several healing spells that allow him to recover HP and remove negative status effects. His SP pool isn't as large as Yukiko's, but he has higher Strength and is a slightly more effective physical attacker.
- Dark Is Not Evil
- Epileptic Trees: Good gravy, notable in that Teddie probably has probably caused the growth of more shaking trees than the entire casts of other games in the franchise, as even the reveals about him only really serve to open even more questions than answers about him, in a franchise known for thinking everything through. There's a fair amount of suspicion that this has been done deliberately to encourage people to buy a possible upcoming Persona 5. There's even some theories out there that say that Teddie is
Nanako'sjust about every Persona 4 character's (and even a fairly believable one that he is the shadow of a Persona 3 character) shadow and even up to being this setting's equivalent of Louis Cypher. - Handsome Lech: The "handsome" part only applying to his human form.
- Hair Of Gold: His human form.
- Heroic Resolve: When he returns to the hospital room where Nanako is resting, he realizes that despite his nature, there must still be something he can do. Then his Persona evolves and he runs to meet with the team again.
- High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Most of the other Shadows you fight are uncomfortable at best and emotionally disturbing at worst. Shadow Teddie, on the other hand, isfucking terrifying.
- Ho Yay: Near the end of the game, Teddie will offer to take off his suit for the Protagonist and Yosuke, a suggestion quickly declined by Yosuke.
- Humanoid Abomination: He is a Shadow, but he can become a human in the real world.
- Large Ham
- Lovable Sex Maniac
- Mascot
- Most Annoying Sound: The squeaking he does when he walks. His voice could arguably qualify.
- It's enough that some players refuse to use him on dungeon crawls for specifically that reason.
- Nietzsche Wannabe: Shadow Teddie.
- Power Fist / Wolverine Claws: Uses claws and spiked gloves as his preferred weapon.
- Pungeon Master: And how.
- "BEAR-sona!"
- Parodied here, slightly more than halfway down the page.
- Stepford Smiler: Initially a Type B, but he is forced to confront this issue and gets better by the end of the game.
- Sadistic Choice: His moveset actually inflicts one on the player. He learns moves that allow him to be the team healer, the ice mage, and the support specialist. An uncommon, but not too unheard of complaint is that he's got too many good moves to choose from.
- Screw Destiny: See Heroic Resolve.
- Team Pet: As much as there's one.
- Ted Baxter
- The Nose Knows
- True Neutral —> Neutral Good
- Tomato In The Mirror: Turns out, he's actually a Shadow!
- Un-bear-ably Lame Pun: More than a few of his puns elicit this kind of reaction from the cast.
- Wholesome Cross Dresser: To the point that Even The Guys Want Him.
- Although most of them are just really freaked out that he does it that well.
Naoto Shirogane
Voiced by Romi Park (Japanese) and Susan Dalian (English)
Naoto Shirogane is a tomboyish girl whose appearance and mannerisms closely resemble that of Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th. She is known as a famous high school detective, given the glorious title of "Detective Prince" by the media. Naoto is adept in the use of revolvers, and her Persona is summoned by shooting the card. Naoto's Persona is well-rounded with Light, Dark, Almighty and physical skills at her disposal.
Naoto lost her parents at a young age and was raised by her grandfather, who was also a detective. Yearning to emulate the cool male sleuths she read in novels as well as accepting the family tradition, she aids her grandfather various times in his own cases, eventually creating a favorable reputation for herself. She was sent to Inaba by the prefecture police, to gain insight for the serial murders happening there.
Naoto is yet another survivor of the TV World, bound by her resentment at being talked down to and treated as a child by the police, as well as her views on the police force being dominated by men. This manifests in a volatile shadow that also creates a high-tech facility reminiscent to that of futuristic military bases from science fiction. Her shadow self is dressed in a dress shirt and tie, while wearing a white lab coat that is too big for her. This shadow can act like a serious scientist one minute and act like a child the next, further referencing her true feelings. Her shadow claims she will perform "body modification" to turn Naoto into an adult male so that she can be respected by her fellow police officers. However, unlike the other victims, she had willingly put herself in danger by volunteering for a TV interview in hopes of using herself as bait; she was convinced that the Investigation Team had not caught the real killer.
Naoto is extremely gender-conscious and is often embarrassed when people learn she is female due to her rather masculine hobbies and practices.
- Adorkable
- All Of The Other Reindeer
- Awesome But Impractical: Her Persona learns mostly Hama/Mudo skills (instant death spells that have a low chance of success and are all-but-useless against Shadows that do not have a weakness to them) and Almighty spells (that cannot be resisted but are woefully inefficent, dealing lower damage at a far higher MP cost).
- Arguable, her instant death spells have a rather high chance of success; much higher than the MC even with the same skill set for some reason.
- The fact that she learns both the -on versions of those spells and the boost skills for them makes them pretty effective even against shadows that don't have those weaknesses.
- Gameplay wise, she's the inverse of Kanji: Fantastic while dungeon crawling, next to worthless in boss battles.
- She does get some powerful physical attacks, so not entirely worthless.
- Boobs Of Steel: Not that you'll see them, unless she's your Christmas Eve date.
- Born Detective
- Casting A Shadow / Light The Way: Has access to both Mudo and Hama spells.
- Chaste Hero / Celibate Hero: Completely oblivious to Kanji's crush but otherwise writes off advances from other classmates.
- Subvertable in the fact that she's romancible by the Protagonist.
- Closet Key: Subverted for Kanji.
- Crutch Character: An odd example. Naoto's unique skill set lets her tear through a great many common enemies like a buzzsaw, including many that only she and the Protagonist can effectively fight at all. The catch being that most of those same abilities are either severely inefficient or outright useless against bosses.
- Dark Is Not Evil
- Determinator
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Always in the top three, only Adachi comes close to beating her popularity outside of the protagonist.
- Epileptic Saplings: Not nearly as bad as Teddie, but she's spawned a few of her own. The idea that she's not just an Expy of Raidou or the Persona 3 Protagonist but is in fact related to either character (or both) is the most prominent. The latter is not helped at all by the brief revelation that her parents died in an auto accident when she was "little"; checking the dates does in fact allow for the P3 Protagonist and her to be related.
- And if Raidou the XIV had a child when he was about forty or so, and that child did the same, the grandchild would be Naoto's age. So if Raidou did, and lived into his nineties (and he would have too given that there are 14 Raidou's in 1200 years an he inherits the title at 17.), then he could be the detective grandfather Naoto refers to. And we know there's a "Kuzonoha Detective Agency" in Persona 2, which by Word Of God is in the same universe as this one... Chie's (dub created) note about how her family is like the Kuzonohas and how her shadow has Kyouji Kuzunoha's outfit don't hurt (help?) matters either.
- Even The Girls Want Her: To the point where Naoto won the beauty pageant because of the female vote and Chie, Yukiko, and Rise compliment her smooth skin.
- Fan Preferred Couple: By far the most popular het pairing with the Protagonist (at least in Japan, although the English fandom does have a following).
- Gender Bender: Her Shadow attempts to do a, er, "body altering operation" on the real Naoto.
- Guile Hero: She intentionally gets herself kidnapped in hopes of figuring out who the kidnapper was while at the same time completely expecting the "Investigation Team" to come rescue her.
- The Gunslinger: Like Takaya before her, Naoto uses revolvers because her arcana is the Wheel of Fortune.
- Holy Hand Grenade
- Inadequate Inheritor: Subverted. Naoto believes she's this. However her grandfather seems to be quite proud of her and is concerned that she believes this.
- It Was His Sled: Naoto's Gender. It was actually suppose to be a surprise, but between all the fanart pairing herself with the Protagonist and American VA's poor job of disguising her gender it couldn't be helped.
- To be fair, it is MUCH easier in Japan to have a female voice to sound like a male's. Shinji Ikari is very convincingly voiced by a female in the Japanese dub, for instance. In English, though, it's far less common, unless the character is a very young child.
- To be even fairer, her VA didn't do THAT bad of a job, the effect of hearing Naoto start speaking in her normal tone is fairly unsettling at first.
- To be fair, it is MUCH easier in Japan to have a female voice to sound like a male's. Shinji Ikari is very convincingly voiced by a female in the Japanese dub, for instance. In English, though, it's far less common, unless the character is a very young child.
- Kid Detective
- Kuudere
- Launcher Of A Thousand Ships
- Lawful Neutral but leaning towards Lawful Good
- Mood Swinger: Shadow Naoto, who alternates between a Mad Scientist and a Fragile Flower.
- Mr Exposition: Her main role in the story is to piece together the clues and discuss it with the team.
- Nice Hat: It looks like Raidoh's, leading to Epileptic Trees about her relatives.
- Raised By Grandparents
- Samus Is A Girl
- Shut Up Hannibal
- Shrinking Violet: Covertly; only when she is being romanced by the Protagonist or otherwise needs to justify being a girl to everyone else.
- Shy Blue Haired Girl
- Also when she enters the Beauty Contest. She's so Moe that she wins the contest despite never showing up for the swimsuit portion.
- Shy Blue Haired Girl
- The Smart Guy: Once she joins the Investigation, it actually begins to make some progress on discovering who the culprit is and other unanswered questions.
- Shorter Means Smarter: She's the smallest playable character and is the brains of the team.
- Suppressed Mammaries: Mentioned once. They're implied to be of a bigger size than one would think.
- Your Mileage May Vary, as it can be taken that the perverted Rise could have been shocked to see that Naoto really wasn't stacked.Rise: "Naoto, your skin is so soft! And no unnecessary body fat!"Naoto: "Where are you touching?!"
- Considering that her normal appearance has no chest to speak of and her 'hot springs' appearance has noticeable curves, it's hard to imagine it's not the first option, though.
- Her Christmas Eve "date" event actually Jossed the second option-she (briefly) wears a
Sexy Schoolwomantypical class outfit, and it's quite clear that she has Boobs Of Steel.- Which can also be called with YMMV, as the art style also gave Nanako the same "curviness", and Naoto's All-Out Attack sprite has practically a straight-line.
- Interesting to note that some of the extra artworks in Soejima's (the character designer) artbook that she has a much more feminine appearance as seen that her lips and eyelashes are drawn more prominently. It's quite clear she no longer, uh, keeps them under wraps too.
- Your Mileage May Vary, as it can be taken that the perverted Rise could have been shocked to see that Naoto really wasn't stacked.
- Tomboy: Of several types.
- Bokukko: Well, only in the Japanese version. It's even part of a conversation during her Social Link events.
- To clarify: when you max her S-Link, she asks you whether it's okay for you if she keeps referring to herself as boku(in the American version of the game, she asks whether it's okay for her to keep using a low pitched voice). If you say that you would like her to stop(or to use her natural, more feminine voice), she would actually come to the Christmas date in a schoolgirl uniform!
- Bifauxnen
- Tomboyish Name: Even called out by her Shadow.
- One Of The Boys: She pretty much grew like a boy, never caring for doll and dresses, but more for action figures and boyish stuff.
- This is reflected in her dungeon, which is designed like the lair of a tokusatsu villain.
- Bokukko: Well, only in the Japanese version. It's even part of a conversation during her Social Link events.
- Transfer Student Uniforms: Sort of. After transferring to Yasogami, she is always wearing that school's uniform... but it's the boy's uniform, even after her real gender is made public knowledge.
- UnFunny
- The Woobie
- Yin Yang Bomb: Her Persona both high Hama and Mudo skills, which is unique among the characters except for the customisable ones, but even with those it's pretty hard.
S-Links and Major NP Cs
Igor
Voiced by Isamu Tanonaka (Japanese) and Dan Woren (English)
Igor is the mysterious proprietor of The Velvet Room. His noticeable appearance comes from hisTengu/Pinocchio-like long nose. In Megami Ibunroku Persona, Igor has calls himself "a servant of Philemon". He is always found in The Velvet Room between consciousness and unconsciousness. His function is twofold. First, he makes cryptic comments that vaguely steer the player in the right direction. Second, he fuses the Personas the player collects in the dungeons to create stronger Personas.
He has an assistant named Margaret in this game, who keeps a record of all the Personas the player has acquired.
- All There In The Manual: The source of his powers and his origins are not revealed in-game and will not be obvious to those who haven't played the previous Persona games.
- The Boo Radley: He certainly looks evil, but he's really a nice guy (though he could be a bit more forthcoming with information).
- Catchphrase: "Welcome to the Velvet Room."
- Cheshire Cat Grin: Permanently etched onto his face.
- Cool Car: In this game, the Velvet Room takes the appearence of a pimped out blue stretch limo with a television and mini-bar.
- Dark Is Not Evil: He's one of the good guys. Really.
- Gag Nose: Dear God, LOOK AT THAT THING.
- The Igor: In Name Only. He is more of a Spirit Advisor who helps with one function.
- Memetic Molester: Has a very creepy expression that looks like he's going to molest you. Doesn't help that he summons you from your dreams.
- The Mentor: In his own, purposefully obtuse way.
- Sink Or Swim Mentor, with elements of the Trickster Mentor.
- Powers That Be: Whatever Igor is exactly, he's almost certainly one of these.
- Spirit Advisor: Only the main character can see the door leading into the Velvet Room.
General Social Links
- Character Development: The entire driving force of the gameplay is to make choices that would influence the greatest amount of this.
- Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: Most of the final S-Link cutscenes.
- Dysfunction Junction: S-Links are back, complete with a host of tarot-based neuroses.
- Guide Dang It: Though the correct Dialogue Tree response is very obvious in some cases, many more will be a hassle.
- Ho Yay: See Yosuke, above, and Kou Ichijo/Daisuke Nagase, below.
- Level Up At Intimacy 5
- Power Of Friendship: Aside from increasing your persona potential, they also encourage you to beat the final boss!
- Slice Of Life: Social Link plots are somewhat like this, considering the game is half RPG and half dating sim.
- Tarot Motifs: Each S-Link is represented by one of the major tarot arcana
- The Woobie: Damn near everyone has something to be depressed about.
Ryotaro Dojima
Voiced by Unshou Ishizuka (Japanese) and J.B. Blanc (English)
The protagonist's uncle, whom he stays with in Inaba for the year. He is the detective who is assigned to the murder investigation. He is able to make some progress on the case, but without understanding the supernatural element to the case his progress is limited. He initially suspects the protagonist to be the murderer, but cannot bring himself to arrest his nephew. The long hours he spends at his job frequently keep him from taking care of his daughter Nanako. He is the direct superior to Tohru Adachi and the person that the Protagonist must connect with to evolve the Hierophant Social Link.
In his Social Link, Dojima gets a lead on the hit-and-run case that led to the death of his wife, making him stay out even later, to Nanako's distress. Eventually he admits that he has been avoiding his daughter because she reminds him of his late wife, but vows to get over it and spend more time with her daughter. When the lead does not pan out, he decides to let it go.
- Adult Fear: Towards the end of the game, Dojima's daughter is kidnapped by someone he didn't even consider suspecting. That's a nightmare for any parent, especially a widowed workaholic, but it gets even worse. Nanako dies anyway, with Dojima bursting in literally seconds after she flat-lines, calling for him with her last breath.
- Badass Normal: Despite working more or less alone with only half of the clues, he manages to stay relatively close with the Investigation team on solving the murders. After Nanako's kidnapping he actually manages to discover that Namatame isn't the culprit either
- Coat Over The Shoulder
- Da Chief: He frequently yells at Adachi for the rookie detective's bumbling.
- Hot Detective Dad
- Lawful Neutral: With Lawful Good leanings at endgame.
- Married To The Job: Deconstructed; the vast amount of time that Dojima spends at work is because he wants to catch his wife's killer and because he feels that he doesn't know how to raise Nanako properly. This is shown to have repercussions in his personal life. Good thing the Protagonist is a Warrior Therapist...
- Parental Abandonment: Goes hand and hand with the above trope.
- Perma Stubble
- Police Are Useless: When they don't have all the info.
- Subverted somewhat: He does manage to corner Namatame as he is kidnapping Nanako and almost catches him.
- Revenge Before Reason: Subverted in the Good Ending. After having time to calm down, he pieces together the clues himself and realizes Namatame couldn't have been the true killer. He even gets angry at Adachi for sending him off to another hospital before he got a chance to interrogate Namatame personally.
Nanako Dojima
Voiced by Akemi Kanda (Japanese) and Karen Strassman (English)
Dojima's daughter and the Protagonist's cousin, though she soon sees the Protagonist as an older brother. Because of her father's workaholic tendencies, she has taken it upon herself to run the household while going to school, despite being six years old. She is frequently disappointed when her father does not come home, but the Protagonist's friends eventually become a surrogate family for her. Socializing with Nanako is the key to the development of the Justice Social Link.
She is kidnapped near the end of the game by Namatame and thrown into the TV world. She is rescued by the party, but is injured and taken to the hospital. If the player makes the wrong choices, the Downer Ending occurs and she dies. Otherwise she survives.
In her S. Link, Nanako asks the Protagonist questions about the afterlife and her late mother. The Protagonist also helps her come to terms with her father's job.
- Catchphrase: "Everyday's great at your Junes!"
- Cheerful Child: Averted somewhat, sadly. She has her happy moments, but much of the time her sad, lonely side is more prominent. You will work like Hell to fix that.
- The Cutie: So mind-bogglingly cute.
- Dandere
- I Got Better: In the good ending.
- Girlish Pigtails
- Lawful Good: Being the centric character for the Justice Social Link is a bit of a dead giveaway, but she's also got a highly-developed sense of responsibility for being only six years old.
- Moe
- Most Wonderful Sound: "Welcome home, Big Bro!" Once it's gone, you will miss it.
- Precocious Crush: She develops one for the Protagonist over the course of the game.
- Childhood Marriage Promise: If her Social Link is maxed out, she decides that she wants to marry the Main Character when she grows up. Depending on whether or not her father's Social Link is also maxed, he'll either support or be opposed to the idea.
- Stepford Smiler
- Tagalong Kid/Team Pet: Doesn't do anything, but the entire party cares deeply about her.
- She gives the MC special accessories if he scores highest in his class on exams.
- Token Loli: Ewww...
- Video Game Caring Potential: All of the Social Links have this, but Nanako takes the cake. In fact, considering what happens to her and what you can do to the one responsible, the game makers almost certainly did it on purpose.
- The Woobie: Even more so than the other S-Links.
Margaret
Voiced by Sayaka Ohara (Japanese) and Michelle Ann Dunphy (English)
Igor's new assistant in Persona 4 and Elizabeth's and Theodore's older sister. She's the Empress S.Link, with it playing out similar to Elizabeth's role in the third game, tasking the protagonist to create certain persona through fusion. Upon completion of her S.Link you can challenge her to a fight.
- Bonus Boss
- Kuudere
- Power Floats: She does this during the Bonus Boss fight.
- Ship Tease: Margaret will kiss the Protagonist at the end of the game if he completed her S.Link.
- Tall Blonde And Bishoujo
- That One S-Link: Her S-Link 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, praying that the resulting Persona inherits the right moves, etc.
Kou Ichijo & Daisuke Nagase
Two students at Yasogami High that are the unofficial leaders of basketball and soccer teams, respectively. They share the Strength S.Link, but the core of it depends on which sports club you joined.
- He Man Woman Hater: Daisuke at the start of his S-Link.
- Hetero Sexual Life Partners
- Ho Yay: Every so often.
- Limited Wardrobe: Daisuke wears his Gym uniform even during school and on his days off.
- Memetic Mutation: Kou looooooooves them balls.
- Parental Abandonment: Kou
- Stepford Smiler: Kou
- Those Two Guys: Their S-Link is even called Fellow Athletes.
Ai Ebihara
Voiced by Julie Ann Taylor (English)
The team manager of whatever sports club you decided to join. She's the Moon S-Link.
- All Love Is Unrequited: She falls in love with either Daisuke or Kou, but then she finds out that they like "nice girls" and Chie, respectively.
- Defrosting Ice Queen
- Freudian Excuse: Ai's harsh personality is due to being picked on as a child for being fat.
- Gonk: She used to be this. It's amazing what constant dieting can do!
- Heroic BSOD: She gets one when she finds out either Kou or Daisuke aren't romantically interested in her.
- Jerk With A Heart Of Gold / Tsundere: Hate her for being a Tsundere that's astoundingly heavy on the "tsun". Then get her S-Link beyond level six and then hate yourself.
- The Libby
- That One Social Link: Easiest Social Link character to piss off. One wrong move, and you can have a Reversed or even Broken S-Link...
- Tsundere
Yumi Ozawa
Voiced by Melissa Fahn (English)
A Yasogami High student and the unnoficial leader of the Drama Club. Either she or Ayane could be your Sun S-Link.
- Disappeared Dad: Her father left Yumi and her mother for another woman, but came back when he was dying of illness.
- Foil: To Ayane.
- Meaningful Name: This is brought up in her S-Link, where her dying father said it meant "to bear fruit".
Ayane Matsunaga
Voiced by Michelle Ann Dunphy (English)
A first-year Yasogmi student that helps manage the band. Either she or Yumi could be your Sun S-Link.
- Determinator: Eventually becomes this.
- Expy: Of pre-time-skip Hinata
- Foil: To Yumi.
- Moe Moe
- Older Than They Look: NPCs frequently mistake her for a middle-schooler.
- Shrinking Violet: But the point of her S-Link is helping her grow out of this.
Naoki Konishi
Voiced by Derek Stephen Prince (English)
A first-year Yasogami student who is the younger brother of the second murder victim, Saki Konishi. He's the Hanged Man S-Link.
- Dead Big Sister
- Freudian Excuse
- Jerkass: Character Development brings him out of this.
- Unable To Cry: Very troubled by his inability to mourn for his sister.
- The Woobie: Oh, God. After his Character Development out of being a Jerkass as his Social Link develops...if you don't want to hug him, you HAVE NO SOUL.
The Fox
A fox who inhabits the old shrine at the central shopping district. It's in charge of the Hermit S-Link.
- Retired Badass: Seems to be this, with the scars on its head.
- Team Pet: Less so than Teddie, but more than Nanako, in that it actually does something for your team (restoring SP for a price).
- Viewer Gender Confusion: The Fox is actually a female. It has kids at the end of the game.
Sayoko Uehara
Voiced by Wendee Lee (English)
A nurse the protagonist meets while on his part-time job at the hospital. She's the Devil S-Link.
- Christmas Cake: She's older than the protagonist by 10 years.
- Desperately Looking For A Purpose In Life
- Hello Nurse
- Hospital Hottie
- May December Romance: The ending to her S.Link sees her transferring to another Hospital, but she refers to the Protagonist as being her "Boyfriend."
- Before that she dated a married doctor older than her. It didn't end well.
- Night Nurse: Although she's modestly dressed, she does have the attitude; she makes her introduction by hitting on the protagonist, and then keeps it up until her S-Link level hits 4.
- Really Gets Around -> Character Development -> Workaholic
- The Tease: At the start of her S.Link.
Hisano Kuroda
Voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (English)
An elderly widow who calls herself "death". If her self-proclaimed title didn't give her away, she's the Death S-Link.
- Adult Fear: Her S-Link touches pretty close on how awful it is to watch your spouse die before you, as well as the pain of old age and having a loved one suffer from memory loss.
- Easy Amnesia: Harshly subverted in her backstory, where her aging husband contracts dementia and forgets he ever loved her.
- Its All Junk: When the protagonist recovers the letters she wrote to her husband, Hisano attempts to burn them.
- I Wished You Were Dead: When her husband became ill and began forgetting who he was, Hisano wished he would die so neither of them would have to suffer anymore. She considered his death a Mercy Kill since the husband she'd known was already 'dead'.
- Not Using The Zed Word: Oh come on Atlus. It's pretty obvious her husband was dying of Alzheimer's, not some "disease"!
- The Woobie: Hoo boy...
Shu Nakajima
A young boy the protagonist could tutor as a part-time job. He's the Tower S.Link.
- The B Grade: Fear of this is what eventually drives Shu to cheat on a test.
- Cram School: Previously attended this, but quit because it wasn't rigorous enough.
- Education Mama/My Beloved Smother: Revealed to be the main reason behind his initial Jerkassery; she continually pressures him to study regardless of his feelings so that he can get into a competitive university.
- Insufferable Genius: Initially.
- Jerk With A Heart Of Gold
Eri Minami
A mother by marriage that has her son frequent the day care that the protagonist could work at. She is the Temperance S-Link.
Minor NP Cs
Kinshiro Morooka
Voiced by Osamu Ryutani (Japansese) and Kirk Thornton (English)
The protagonist's first home-room teacher at the beginning of the game. Is eventually murdered by Mitsuo Kubo.
- Alas Poor Scrappy: In-universe example: After his death, Yosuke expresses pity for him.
- Dirty Old Man: While he hypocritically rails against teenagers for such things, he's stated to be a Rise fan.
- Gonk: Just... look at those teeth! The guy looks like Steve Buscemi.
- Jerk Ass: That nickname is well-warranted.
- Kirk Thornton
- Only Known By Their Nickname: Rarely is he ever called anything other than King Moron (or Morokin in the Japanese version) by the heroes.
- Properly Paranoid: Possibly. Morooka accuses the Protagonist of being a Casanova since he's a city kid. Depending on how the Social Links are approached, he might be right.
- Sadist Teacher
Hanako Ohtani
Voiced by Jessica Straus (English)
Girl that goes to the same school as the protagonists.
- Fan Disservice: Beauty pageant. That is all.
- Fat Bastard
- Gonk
- Jerk Ass
- Les Yay / No Yay: A bit with Kashiwagi.
Noriko Kashiwagi
Voiced by Sayaka Ohara (Japanese) and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (English)
The protagonist's second home-room teacher after his first one gets murdered during the course of the story.
- Anything That Moves
- Buxom Is Better: Averted entirely. Though she has a noticeably large chest, no one seems to take note of that fact, let alone find her attractive because of it.
- The Cameo: Makes one during "Operation Babe Hunt" in Persona 3. As you would expect, Hilarity Ensues.
- Christmas Cake: An exaggerated version; Kashiwagi is not only "on the wrong side of 40" according to one of the Protagonist's classmates, but continually hits on her male students, and enters a beauty pageant against girls less than half her age. And she thinks that she'll win.
- Hot For Student: Deconstructed while played for laughs. While this leads to a hilarious scene after the beauty pageant, her Christmas Cake status has left her so bitter and so desperate for attention from the opposite sex that she's willing to settle for anything she can get.
- Les Yay / No Yay: A bit with Hanako.
- Hypocrite/Green Eyed Monster: She calls Rise "inexperienced jailbait" despite the fact that she's probably worse than Shadow Rise in terms of personality.
- Jerk Ass
- Replacement Scrappy: The class considers her this compared to her predecessor (which is impressive, considering the latter was a supreme Jerk Ass).
- Sensei-chan: Seems to think she's this.
- Ted Baxter: Is earnestly shocked when she loses the Beauty pageant. It's also the reason she's a Christmas Cake.
- Unknown Rival: Considers herself a rival to Rise as the idol of the school.
Chihiro Fushimi
Voiced by Ai Maeda (Japanese) and Wendee Lee (English)
A girl that goes to Gekkoukan High School from Persona 3.
- The Cameo: Makes one during a field trip.
- Dude Magnet: Both Yosuke and Kanji quickly become attracted to her.
- Hotter And Sexier AND Older And Wiser: And with a new character portrait to give some emphasis.
- Meganekko
- Shes All Grown Up
- Shrinking Violet: Averted as her development in her Social Link in Persona 3 is canon.
- Student Council President
Antagonists (MAJOR SPOILERS)
Mitsuo Kubo
Voiced by Kyle Hebert (English)
A student from a rivaling school in Yasoinaba. Eventually turns out to be Kinshiro Morooka's killer. After he's dealt with, it's stated that he was tossed to an asylum.
- Ax Crazy: He even gets thrown into the loony bin at the end.
- Be Yourself: Subverted. He refuses to accept his Shadow since it'd mean accepting that he's dead inside and that he's an absolutely worthless human being.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Claims to be the person responsible for killing Mayumi Yamano, Saki Konishi and Kinshiro Morooka; however, he only killed Morooka.
- Black Eyes Of Evil: Or as Kanji puts it, "looking at those fish eyes really pisses you off!"
- Chaotic Evil
- Chekhovs Gunman
- Complete Monster
- Disc One Final Boss
- Empty Shell: I... have nothing... I am nothing... And you... are me...
- Foreshadowing: In his dungeon, notice how the game text says that he "defeated" Yamano and Konishi, but "killed" Morooka. That's a large hint at the fact that he isn'tthe real killer.
- For The Evulz: He only killed Morooka and claimed responsibility for the murders to garner attention.
- From Nobody To Nightmare: Subverted. While he did kill Morooka, he ultimately never becomes any more dangerous than the next kid. His Shadow, on the other hand...
- Gonk: Those fuckin' eyes and his facial expression make him look like a deranged Gerber Baby.
- Loners Are Freaks: Was already a creep before the events of the story.
- Obviously Evil
- Psychopathic Manchild: Type B.
- Stalker With A Crush: Appears early on acting this way towards Yukiko, though nothing really comes of it.
Taro Namatame
Voiced by Koji Haramaki (Japanese) and J. B. Blanc (English)
A secretary in the local city council, Namatame's affair with a news reporter, Mayumi Yamano, is a hot topic amongst the people of Inaba upon the Protagonist's arrival to the city.
Namatame was one of the three people granted the power to enter the TV by Izanami, representing Despair in her experiment. After witnessing the deaths of Mayumi and Saki on the Midnight Channel, Namatame concludes that anyone who appears on the station will die and makes it his life's mission to "save" them by throwing them into the TV. Unfortunately, he fails to recognize that the TV world is potentially lethal on its own.
After kidnapping Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, Naoto, and Nanako, he eventually becomes the investigation team's chief murder suspect. He is confronted and defeated inside a manifestation of Heaven created by his views of himself as a messianic figure. He also plays a pivotal role in determing the outcome of the case; should the player take the easy way out and blame him for all of the murders, they will be "rewarded" with the game's Bad Ending. If he is spared and the Protagonist manages to convince the rest of the team that something still seems off about the case, the game will move the player closer to the Normal and True Endings.
In this case, Namatame, still recovering from his experience in the TV, will aid the investigation team by offering his perspective on the game's events thus far.
- A God Am I: Develops a messiah complex at some point when he is saving people; this is his most major flaw that Kunino-sagiri, his Shadow, expresses. He eventually realizes his mistakes.
- The Atoner: Subverted, then played straight. Promises to "save" people in memory of his dead lover without realizing the ramifications of his actions, and then helps the investigation team once they reveal the truth of his actions to him.
- Anti Villain: Namatame blurs the line between this and a very tragic Type I Anti Hero.
- Drowning My Sorrows: His initial coping mechanism to the leaking of his affair with Mayumi.
- The Messiah: Subverted. Although he was granted the power to enter the TV and genuinely cares about people, his actions cause more harm than good, and he never develops the Persona powers that his counterparts, the Protagonist and Adachi, do. Izanami implies this is because he fails to grasp the truth behind the TV world on his own.
- My God What Have I Done: After he realizes that his actions could have potentially killed more people.
- Neutral Good: He does have peoples' wellbeing at heart, but he never realizes that the 'safe haven' he throws people into will eventually kill them on its own.
- Obliviously Evil: Subverted oh so very hard.
- Tragic Hero
- Unwitting Pawn: His original idea to throw people into the TV came from Adachi, who would continue to sit back and enjoy the suffering that Namatame was obliviously causing. Along with the Protagonist and Adachi, he is one of Izanami's three "game pieces" (Despair) so that she can determine what humanity desires most.
- The Woobie: Nothing goes right for the poor guy. Trapped in an unhappy marriage, he begins an affair with a newspaper reporter, but the tryst goes public, he's ousted from his job, and Mayumi is murdered. His genuine want to protect others from her fate is then used against him by Adachi. In the Bad Ending, the Investigation Team adds to his suffering by blaming him for crimes that he didn't commit and throws him back into the TV world.
Tohru Adachi
Voiced by Mitsuaki Madono (Japanese) and Johnny Yong Bosch (English)
A bumbling dectective, he was transfered to Inaba due to an unknown incident (presumably one of his many screw-ups.) One of the main authorities on the murder cases along with Dojima, he has a habit of divulging critical information to the Investigation Team, making him a useful ally.
It turns out that not only is this all just an act, but he's the one behind the murders. After causing the first two murders, he manipulated Namatame into carrying on in his stead. Bored with the tiny town of Inaba, he viewed the murders as his own personal form of entertainment. While he claims to be much more mature then the Investigation Team, it's clear that the whole thing is him throwing a tantrum over the crap he's had to deal with. After he's exposed, he is chased into the TV World, (where he reveals Persona powers not unlike Souji's) and possessed by Ameno-Sagiri. Afterwards, he is arrested and sent to jail for his crimes. Despite this, he mails a letter to the Investigation Team, claiming he'll follow society's rules and giving them a clue to the Truth of the Midnight Channel.
While he is the true mastermind behind the murders, he was secretly manipulated by Izanami, who wanted to determine what humanity truly wanted based on his, Souji's, and Namatame's actions. Adachi represents Emptiness in Izanami's experiment. Because his actions are the most prolific, he unintentionally sentences humanity to an Assimilation Plot, though his attitude before your battle with him suggests that he would approve of Izanami's course of action.
- The Atoner: Adopts this role, to some degree, in the True Ending. He might have been lying, though.
- Attempted Rape: To Mayumi and Saki, though the game never reveals if he was successful or not.
- Asshole in Sheep's Clothing.
- Ax Crazy
- Be Yourself: The evil version of this trope.
- Butt Monkey
- Captain Ersatz: Looks and acts like Matsuda from Death Note.
- Complete Monster
- Detective Mole
- The Ditz
- Draco In Leather Pants: While a majority of his fans are there for his Jerk Ass tendencies, it's far too easy to find 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!
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Adachi is actually very popular on certain websites because he punishes women that have "wronged" him and for being nothing but gold diggers who got exactly what they deserved. Then paired with Bitches and Whores, some fans see Adachi as a misogyny symbol.
- Evil Counterpart: While his persona is an Evil Twin of the Protagonist's, his motives make him a mirror to Yosuke.
- Evilly Affable: He's an insane, Ax Crazy murderer. That said, he's pretty funny.
- For The Evulz: Had a hell of a time with all the shit he's stirred up.
- Freudian Excuse: He is really, really sick of being the Butt Monkey.
- Hannibal Lecture: While making your through Adachi's dungeon, he insists that you did all this, pursuing the true killer, because you were bored with your lives and wanted excitement. He asks how is that any different from him killing Ms. Yamano and Saki because he too was bored.
- Hypocrite
- Kick The Dog: "I was just trying to punish the stupid bitch a little for betraying me."
- Lestrade: Justified in this case, since he was behind the whole scheme, he was always a step ahead of the Investigation Team. Therefore, it was imperative for him to play dumb as to not arouse suspicion.
- Living With The Villain: Your biggest hint to finding the killer is the fact that he'd be welcome to your home any time.
- Manipulative Bastard: He first manipulated Namatame into attempting to commit the murders, then tries to manipulate the group into pursuing Namatame instead of himself.
- Memetic Molester
- Memetic Mutation: Bitches and Whores.
- Nietzsche Wannabe: Delves into a rant about the pointlessness of life and how much easier it would be if everyone were to become Shadows. Needless to say, the protagonists don't buy it.
- Neutral Evil: With occasional Chaotic Evil tendencies.
- Noodle Incident: What got him transferred to Inaba. While he claims it was a small slip-up that got blown out of proportion, his crimes in this game inply it was much more serious.
- Obfuscating Stupidity
- Player Punch: Remember the warning notes? He arranged for his co-worker's seven-year-old daughter to be thrown into the Midnight Channel and killed. Just so you wouldn't interrupt his show.
- Playing Against Type: Johnny Yong Bosch, who normally plays idealistic heroes like Vash the Stampede and Ichigo Kurosaki, plays an Ax Crazy Complete Monster.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Outright called immature by Naoto.
- Saying Too Much: "Namatame was the one who threw them in!"
- Small Town Boredom: Being "stuck in the boonies", as he called it.
- Smug Snake: Overly confident in his plans? Check. Outwardly arrogant and mocking of the heroes? Check. Aspiring for greater power when in reality it turns out he's merely being used by an even greater enemy? Oooohh, check.
- Stalker With A Crush: Towards Mayumi and Saki.
- Probably just Mayumi. He went after Saki because he thought Namatame was her sugar daddy and Namatame was the one who "stole" Mayumi from him.
- Stay In The Kitchen: Considers any woman who doesn't outright give themselves to him willingly either a bitch or a whore.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Subverted. He doesn't like cabbage that much; he eats it a lot because he's on a budget.
- Trick Boss: You defeat him, then Ameno-Sagiri possesses him and takes over.
- Troll: Adachi taunts your party as you progress through his dungeon.
- "Ahaha! I told you all to come, and you actually came!? Don't you guys have anything better to do? What a bunch of losers... 'Let's find the culprit ourselves!' 'Let's meet up today at the special headquarters today!' Am I right, or am I right? Man, it's embarrassing. How old are you guys? Ahahahahahahaha! Oh crap, my stomach's hurting... C'mon... You're all students, right? Shouldn't you be studying instead of wasting your time with this? Study hard, get into a good college, work at a respectable company, marry a cute girl... Why are you guys so desperate when it comes to something so useless? Won't you regret it once you're adults?"
- Unwitting Pawn: To Izanami; he represents Emptiness in her game.
- Villainous Breakdown: When confronted at the end by the team.
- Vomiting Cop: His first appearance.
Izanami
Voiced by Karen Strassman (English)
A goddess from traditional Japanese folklore. You initially hear her name during a class lecture midway through the game. The wife of the god Izanagi, she died in childbirth. Saddened by her death, Izanagi attempted to visit the underworld, Yomotsu Hirasaka, in order to persuade her to return to the world with him. However, once there, Izanagi noticed that Izanami's body had degraded. Enraged, she sent various creatures that chased Izanagi out of the underworld. Once he reached the exit, Izanagi sealed the entrance with a boulder. Izanami said she would curse a thousand people to die every day unless she was freed, but Izanagi responded that he would give life to 1,500.
While Izanami herself doesn't specify how much of the legend is true, she is the mastermind behind all the events in Inaba. In an attempt to fulfill the desires of humanity, she creates the world inside the TV and grants three Unwitting Pawns, the Protagonist, Namatame, and Adachi, the power to enter. Her plan is to then create a new world for humanity that matches the quality of the pawn whose actions are the most prolific. Because Adachi, who represents Emptiness, has the greatest effect, Izanami deems that humanity wants to live in self-deception and plans to slowly turn all of humanity into Shadows.
In the True Ending, after Adachi and Ameno-Sagiri are defeated, the Protagonist may surmise that something about the case still seems unresolved, and traces the events in Inaba back to Izanami, who has been watching the events in Inaba unfold as the local gas station's attendant. She reveals that Ameno-Sagiri was merely an alter-ego that she created long ago, and she still plans on continuing her plan even without Adachi's help.
After the Investigation Team chases her through Yomotsu Hirasaka, Izanami nearly manages to kill them. However, the power of the Protagonist's Social Links revives him, and he destroys her in a single attack with the help of Izanagi.
- Big Bad
- Bifauxnen: See Doppelganger.
- Character Portrait: It's worth noting that even though she's the third character you meet and appears on rainy days throughout the entire game, she doesn't get a portrait until after you've figured out she's the one responsible for everything that happened in The True Ending route.
- Chekhovs Gunman: In her human form. The game is actually very subtle about it (see Character Portrait above).
- Mythology Gag: Persona 4 is the first game since the original Megami Tensei Famicom duology (in which she was reincarnated) that Izanami appears a key participant in the plot of a Shin Megami Tensei game.
- Damage Sponge Boss
- Doppelganger: Looks disturbingly like the Protagonist in official concept art.
- Epileptic Trees: Because of this and the Protagonist's ability to punch her out without ramifications, some fans theorize that the Protagonist is the literal reincarnation or avatar of Izanagi.
- Eldritch Abomination: Her degraded appearance in the land of the dead was so legendarily hideous that this is the best description for it. Her One Winged Angel form isn't quite so hideous that it'd drive you insane from looking at it, but not something you want to stare at for too long, either
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: She is incapable of understanding why the investigation team resists her plan. Subverted, however, in that she isn't technically "evil".
- Full Body Disguise: Twice; not only is her gas station attendant form fake, but so is the goddess form that she initially presents to the Protagonist.
- God Couple: With Izanagi.
- Graceful Loser: "Children of man... Well done...!"
- Hoist By Her Own Petard: She did give the Protagonist his power, after all.
- Knight Templar
- Lawful Blue
- Magnificent Bitch
- The Man Behind The Man: Technically, the goddess behind the three men and minor god.
- Master Of Illusion: A relatively rare Big Bad example.
- Nominal Importance: Cleverly subverted. She doesn't get a name or a portrait until after The Reveal.
- One Winged Angel
- Red Eyes Take Warning
- Shape Shifter
- True Final Boss
- The Unfettered
- Well Intentioned Extremist
- Worthy Opponent: Believes the investigation team to be such if they defeat her.
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