Board 8 > Persona 4 Golden First Playthrough

(+) Yeah! (+)

Wafflum Radzig

kevwaffles posted...

Made me watch the Midnight Channel to see nothing. Then they cut to the shopping district to have "Voice" say nothing. Thanks Persona.

It annoyed me how watching Midnight Channel for 5 seconds took up your entire night

kevwaffles posted...

Club choice time again. The guide recommended Drama because there weren't any choices that relied on attributes, but I looked ahead and that literally happens once in Music. So screw it gonna be a band nerd like I was IRL. (Although I quit by the Hero's age.)

Unfortunate. Drama is so much better story-wise. Music is one of the dullest social links in the game. The game doesn't give you any idea of this just by showing the characters, sadly. Unlike with the sports clubs, the story doesn't involve both of them. It's one or the other. (Which sport you choose changes which guy the story focuses on)

It's also interesting how different Yu (P4's protagonist's canon name) is from Joker here. Yu is doing everything related to school and taking it all seriously, while Joker is labeled a delinquent and kind of becomes one out of that label. Joker didn't have any clubs probably because of that. P3 has clubs, but the social link is the same no matter which club you join, so the differences are cosmetic.

And Yukiko's gag glasses scene is amazing. Never fails to make me smile.

MZero posted...

It annoyed me how watching Midnight Channel for 5 seconds took up your entire night

Especially because its the Midnight Channel. As in, midnight. What about my evening, dammit?

Maybe I'll look up all the club scenes I missed after I finish the game. I doubt I'll go into NG+ anytime soon.

yeah neither one is great but Akane might be my least favorite S. Link in the game

Yeah I couldnt pick band once I saw what she looked like, lol basically a giant 9 year old.

Current Day: 5/16 Evening

• Wandered around since we've had major plot progression and found someone named Namatame who I don't recall being properly introduced but has character art. Strange. Also he seems to be freaking out about something happening and wondering who could have "done it". Timing is definitely suspicious.
• Just realized I was supposed to be selling Materials to Daidara. I assumed I'd get some other option to give them to him. Oops.
• Also ran into Rival school student with character art. Took me a minute to recognize him as the guy who just tried to hit up Yukiko out of nowhere at the beginning of the game. I may have to add him to the list before I even get his name.
• Hung out with Marie and ran into Chie at Junes. "I haven't had the steak here in a while," YOU HAD IT YESTERDAY.
• What do I even say about Morooka at this point? Every word he just said was awful and all he was doing was just reminding us about midterms.
• Timid female student wants an Angel Statue for protection. Clearly she does not watch Dr. Who.
• Someone stole an ATM. I know how this ends. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmIRFl-guK0
• Trip cancelled, ironically right on schedule.
• The whole group hangs out with Nanako at Junes. Consider my heart warmed.
• Nanako picked a grasshopper off of Chie's back that wasn't synced to her animation. Truly a talented child.
• Friendship ended with Yosuke. Mysterious Fox is my new best friend.
• Found Namatame again. Poor guy really sounds like he's about to commit suicide at any moment, but it's all just vague enough that it could be interpreted in a much more sinister way.
• Yukiko slaps Yosuke for wanting to study in private. Harsh but fair.
• Midterms are easy with the power of cheating at life!
• People have brought up biker gangs constantly since the end of the last arc. Completely irrelevant I'm sure.
• I am not surprised to have an S. Link with Adachi. I am surprised it's not in the traditional Major Arcana.
• Next victim will be Kanji Tatsumi it seems. I figured breaking from our assumed killer behavior was inevitable if this is how they're going to be introducing party members.
• We go to his family's shop to learn more. Upon arrival we run into Slender young man who I figured was a woman based on voice and character art before reading the name.
• We find our connection to the first victim via the scarf, but that connection comes more from his mother as it apparently also did in Yukiko's case.
• Kanji apparently getting a rendezvous request from Slender young man, which he seems very conflicted about. Definitely no misunderstandings going on here no siree!
• Oh no he sees us dead-staring at him from across the street. CHEESE IT!

Current Most Likely Suspect: Adachi
Confidence Level: <1%

Suspicion Tier Lists
Never shuts up

• Adachi

Spite

• Morooka

Kamoshida would be proud

• Mr. Yamada

You're gonna go up if we ever formally meet

• Namatame

You're gonna go up if you ever get a name

• Rival school student

Gut Punch

• Dojima

Non-Sus

• Ms. Sofue
• Principal who made announcement
• Mr. Kondo
• Mr. Hosoi
• Old Man Daedara
• Mrs. Nakayama

Club choice

• Daisuke
• Kou
• Ayane

Anti-climactic

• Teddie

Nanako

• Nanako

I'm surprised you haven't met Ms Kashiwagi yet, I thought she showed up sooner.

If it's a teacher it's always possible that I missed that she was new and forgot to note her.

She's unforgettable, but she doesn't show up until later.

Current Day: 5/19 After School

• The "professional" surveillance talk was amusing, I'll admit.
• Time to split into teams. I pick Yukiko because I feel like the game will make me go with her anyway.
• Where did you get those drinks, Yukiko? I thought I already emptied out the vending machines for the week.
• Obviously when given dialogue choices with a girl I'm gonna pick the one about protecting her. It's what Japan wants me to do. Of course I lack Courage to be that much of a goober.
• Okay I'm actually surprised Yukiko is Priestess and not Lovers. That makes me worried people are going to even more infatuated with the next female party member.
• "Yeah... We definitely stand out." Yosuke says while standing legs apart over a crouched Chie.
• They get almost immediately discovered and then say everything wrong they possibly can. Bravo.
• So much running away from this guy.
• I was expecting another personality shift in the Midnight Channel of course. Kanji's, however, was amazing. WAIT A MINUTE IS HE LOVERS?! (Don't answer.)
• Ms. Sofue wants me to find her a Suspicious Pole. Stop thinking like that. It's just for her dousing rod. Wait...
• We apparently decide we need to find out more about Kanji because Teddie can't do the only thing besides making glasses I actually need him to do by finding him. And somehow this will help with that.
• We determine we need to find Slender young man and we determine he'll be at Junes the next day.
• The guide leads me to call Nanako my little sister. Like I needed to be told that!
• Top 10 in the class. I assume that means all 2nd years otherwise that doesn't seem as impressive as they're making it out to be.
• Kanji has a complex of some sort and reacts to being called an "odd person". It's clear what they're going for even without the Midnight Channel scene but this writing is not their best, to say the least.

Okay, so my S. Link guide just straight up told me that Slender young man is named Nanako despite the game not giving that information yet. It's also done stuff like telling me very far away S. Link deadlines and naming endings that seems very unnecessary. But even if I found a new guide it'd probably be different and therefore problematic to switch to, so I don't want to unless absolutely necessary. Could someone be a saint and look up to see if it straight up spoils the killer or anything else major before it should? Link is in the OP.

No tier list update. A lot to be mentioned but nothing that really changed anything with this.

kevwaffles posted...

Could someone be a saint and look up to see if it straight up spoils the killer or anything else major before it should? Link is in the OP.

it spoils the killer on the day it's revealed in-game

kevwaffles posted...

Time to split into teams. I pick Yukiko because I feel like the game will make me go with her anyway.

Yeah, if you pick Yosuke or Chie someone complains about the teams and forces you to go with Yukiko.

Tbh if its your first playthrough, Id recommend skipping the guide and just using the lessons its taught you from now on lol

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

Tbh if its your first playthrough, Id recommend skipping the guide and just using the lessons its taught you from now on lol

Eh people always say that, but if you want to max all social links (which you're very unlikely to do without a guide) replaying an 80+ hour game is a big ask

Honestly, you can max out all the links without a day to day guide. Golden is fairly generous with your allotted time as long as you don't miss deadlines (not quite as generous as P5 but still).

I'd just look up a guide that tells me the right answers for their events more than anything, but I get it if you're not willing to risk it.

Leonhart4 posted...

Honestly, you can max out all the links without a day to day guide. Golden is fairly generous with your allotted time as long as you don't miss deadlines (not quite as generous as P5 but still).

I'd just look up a guide that tells me the right answers for their events more than anything, but I get it if you're not willing to risk it.

yeah this is what I did

So excited for Kanji. Best boy.

kevwaffles posted...

Wandered around since we've had major plot progression and found someone named Namatame who I don't recall being properly introduced but has character art

He was the councilor that Mayumi Yamano was banging. Plenty of negative press covfefe about the guy.

I'm dungeon crawling right now so I'll decide what to do about that later. I might just drop it once stats stop being a concern for choices.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

He was the councilor that Mayumi Yamano was banging. Plenty of negative press covfefe about the guy.

Oooooh. Wait, doesn't everyone involved in that live in Tokyo? Did I miss an explanation for why he's here too?

kevwaffles posted...

Wait, doesn't everyone involved in that live in Tokyo? Did I miss an explanation for why he's here too?

I'm pretty sure it explained this at some point already, but he got fired after the affair went public, so he moved to Inaba, where his family runs a business.

kevwaffles posted...

I'm dungeon crawling right now so I'll decide what to do about that later. I might just drop it once stats stop being a concern for choices.

If you want the date of the reveal (to stop using it there), it's December 5th. No idea whether or not it spoils anything else important before that, though

Current Day: Evening 5/31

• Mysterious fox will now go into the other world and be our vendor. I approve.
• Oh, not so much a vendor as just a healer.
• Holy hell he charges a lot for healing!
• Wait, we're hearing the audience of the Midnight Channel react? We're explicitly not here at midnight. Were we just referring to the fake audience that exists to watch this fake show? If we're concluding actual people are watching then nothing really seemed to indicate that for Yukiko.
• Invigorate 2 and revisiting weak enemies to the damn rescue! I still like you Fox but I'm not giving you all my money to heal.
• I also cleared out the Castle again and luck my way into beating the super boss after a few attempts.
• I ignored all warnings and stumbled into the Reaper while wandering around. Went about as well as you'd expect.
• "Girls are so mean to me for being gay but not guys" is an interesting conclusion, even at a subconscious level.
• Kanji's boss form is aesthetically the weakest by far. Bit disappointed.
• Yosuke's reaction is a bit strong but he is a teenager being propositioned for a homosexual polygamist relationship so I won't hold it against him. He also doesn't seem as shaken up once things are said and done.
• I was really worried that Kanji's toughness would just go out the window completely as overcompensation when he accepted himself. So I was pretty glad when he punched his shadow and then told him to get up because he knows he can take a punch.
• Go rest for a really long time since we rescued you so fast, Kanji! Because that's how that works!
• In the inevitable post-mission dinner that Dojima is actually here for he continues to note how we're spotted buzzing around every incident. Because of course we are.
• I turn in all the sidequests for drops from enemies. Including the girl who wanted that Angel Statue. Don't blink, dumb ass.
• Gardening with Nanako! She makes an adorable sign. D'aww.
• In order to get closer to Eri, the step mom of the daycare kid, I have to tell her I hate kids. I mean I get it based on the circumstances, but telling that to a parent of a kid you are taking care of seems like a profoundly bad idea, even if they're struggling being a parent.
• I ran into Namatame into town. Only now does he start talking clearly about having had an affair like he knows I remember who he is now. Jerk.
• Adachi apparently buys a lot of cabbage? Clearly sus.
• Some old lady fusses over Adachi not because she confuses him with her son but because they share the same first name. Wut?
• The soccer team gets introduced to Ai and everyone not important is instantly in love with her. Most of them get over it when she immediately says she won't actually do anything for us and she's just here because she missed too much class.
• Daisuke is apparently aggravated girls don't talk to him but will just come up and ask him out. First off, I've seen first hand that they try. Second, cry me a damn river.

The Fox's prices go down as your S. Link level with it goes up

Also Emi's S. Link is weird for me because I'm usually pretty good at intuiting at least a decent answer but I feel like I always guess wrong with that one

Current Day: 6/15 Evening

• Apparently showing up to soccer practice like four times was enough to become the best player on the team.
• I've only done the band hangouts like 3 times but so far they are the same thing every time.
• This time after watching nothing on the Midnight Channel we sort of see the killer's silhouette in the fog. It looks like it could be Adachi but sprites aren't that different looking and who even knows if they're playing fair with that.
• All the killer says is "Again". This implies that they really didn't know Kanji's corpse would not show up, but it seemed to be fairly common knowledge in the small town when both Yukiko and Kanji showed back up. I may just be overthinking this one.
• Kanji is suddenly much more formal with us because we are a year older than him, in accordance with Japanese law.
• Kanji also thinks someone showed up to his house before he was taken. He's apparently not sure. Which means it definitely happened.
• Kanji's first contribution to the investigation is that he stole a random piece of paper from a random suspicious kid. Uhh, thanks?
• The paper does finally lead us to the conclusion that every victim has been broadcast on mass media. We're not great at this.
• So people are indeed seeing the victims on the Midnight Channel but I guess not the people who go in after them? Maybe only shadows show up for some reason.
• We formally introduce Kanji to Teddie. Kanji gets not one but two pairs of goofy glasses, throwing the second one into the abyss.
• Yukiko slaps Kanji for asking her what it was like to come out.
• Morooka calls me a bum for not being in the Student Health Association. A group with maybe 6 members. Whatever.
• I meet Naoki, Sayumi's brother. He says he hates me. Unjustified but understandable. Honestly you shouldn't even be back yet.
• We keep hearing about a suspicious individual. I don't know if this is the same person Kanji took the note from, but if it is I guess it's Naoki? If it's not than it could be hat person, maybe. Almost impossible it's actually the killer. At the very least they'll end up not looking like the killer once they elaborate.
• Yosuke has the "brilliant" plan of getting scooters so girls have to press their boobs against your back. Might be the most teenager thing I've ever heard in my life.
• Kanji immediately points out that you're not allowed to ride double unless it's actually a motorcycle. I'm not sure if that's even something you can do yet. We're still going through with this plan anyway. Kanji repeatedly and hilariously kills the vibe.
• Dojima reacts poorly to this idea at first due to PTSD of losing his wife. Poor guy. Seems to come around quick.
• We instantly get our scooter licenses. I don't know what driver tests are like in Japan but they make it seem pretty easy.
• Dojima has already fixed up his scooter for me. What a bro-uncle.
• Naoki doesn't hate his sister's killer. Can't say I'd feel the same.
• I ask out Ai from before, because the game gives me the option. She says yes if I'll ditch afternoon classes. I get the feeling that she'd give any guy the time of day based on that criteria.
• Chie tries to fight 3 guys shaking down her not so friendly friend at once by herself. I step in but they run off before the cops show up. I appreciate the enthusiasm but it's really weird that she initially doesn't even want me to help.
• I have a very sobering talk with Nanako about her mother and life and death and her father's life priorities. Good thing I'm like the wisest teenager on the planet.
• Even when he's about to give his daughter medicine Dojima leaves his house at the drop of a hat for work. I seriously don't know what he did before I got here.
• Naoki seems to be okay with people talking behind his back. Or more accurately he probably doesn't give enough of a shit about anything to care about it.
• Despite it raining this day it conveniently clears up long enough to practice instruments outside. Even the game points that one out.
• I do a magic trick for Nanako that she completely sees through but is amused anyway. That's nice.
• Oh I guess Yosuke and I are still going to the city to pick up chicks by having scooters. I'm sure this is a great plan.
• Morooka quizzes on on the difference between "morals" and "morale". This just leaves me wondering what the heck this translated from because he isn't the English teacher.
• "You remember when those women were killed? It's shit like that that brings down people's morale! And their morals!" This is somehow one of the least stupid things Morooka has said.
• Yosuke and I ride our scooters to Okina Station. Kanji manages to keep up with us on a bike, like he said he could. Okay this dude's kinda great.
• Kanji heads off to a craft store. Somehow our pick up strategy of stand by our scooters gets us nowhere.
• We're now in a pickup contest. Sigh.
• Okay was not expecting an Animal Farm reference of all things.
• The office lady was terrifying.
• Okay forget the women here I'm just gonna talk to this cat.
• I do end up getting a number. I call it and the guy on the other end apparently already knows about me and threatens to kill me. Still a better outcome that the larger lady breaking Yosuke's scooter.

Kanji is great

GET BENT

kevwaffles posted...

We instantly get our scooter licenses. I don't know what driver tests are like in Japan but they make it seem pretty easy.

It's pretty hard to get a license for driving a car, but getting a scooter license is just a written test

kevwaffles posted...

Morooka quizzes on on the difference between "morals" and "morale". This just leaves me wondering what the heck this translated from because he isn't the English teacher.
"You remember when those women were killed? It's shit like that that brings down people's morale! And their morals!" This is somehow one of the least stupid things Morooka has said.

He asks what the Japanese character for human is based on (the answer is a person standing). Then he says that people have to be independent (standing on their own) and that the women were killed because they relied on other people or something

I have played more but I haven't been inspired to do write ups lately. Got through Rise's dungeon.

Morooka is officially off the suspect list.

Unless he's trying to cover his own tracks...!

kevwaffles posted...

Morooka is officially off the suspect list.

Does this mean you got to what I think you got to?

BlueCrystalTear posted...

Does this mean you got to what I think you got to?

Yes, Morooka is dead. Also Teddie is a bishie now.

kevwaffles posted...

I have played more but I haven't been inspired to do write ups lately. Got through Rise's dungeon.

Aw, too bad. I like your writeups.

skullbone posted...

Yeah I started with P5 and had a hard time getting into P4G. I gave up after like 30-40 hours.

Same here, but I forced myself to finish P4G.

The gameplay is a massive step down and the plot is a pretty big step down too (P5 was darker and more engaging for the most part), but P4G has a slightly better supporting cast.

31Veteran posted...

Aw, too bad. I like your writeups.

Thanks. I'll try organize my thoughts on at least the important stuff tomorrow. It just won't necessarily be as chronological as it has been.

Also I'm not following that same S Link guide now. One of the bigger guides has spoiler tags all over the place so I'm using that for reference, but since I'm way off schedule of that I'm kinda winging it now. I know the general idea is for Nanako and Dojima to be done before November and Marie for extra content, but I'm sure I'll get them all done.

Theres two other hard to do ones

1 Adachi because he has a weird schedule and a similar time limit
2 if you get far enough on the hospital one you get one with an old woman who shows up mostly just on weekends

Neither of these are a spoiler but they are both social links I'd work on fast because they have limits; just hid them in case you didn't want to know

This is to get as much juicy story as possible

kevwaffles posted...

Yes, Morooka is dead. Also Teddie is a bishie now.

I was awaiting your reaction to that twist. The former one, anyway.

May I ask why you suspected King Moron so much? I personally thought he was just an idiot who didn't have a motive to kill.

It was mostly only initially, and mostly because I was purposefully trying to pick out a suspect as soon as possible.

I figured he was actually too obvious once he started saying crass shit about the people who died.

I did not expect him to die in particular. I did expect another death at some point, and I figured it would be on "schedule" with someone we saved.

That said I'll admit I never really came up with any reason to put anyone besides Adachi above him, either. Too many people on the list just don't strike me as important enough to matter.

I'll start looking more closely at teammates a bit now, but so far I haven't found any sort of opportunity for the ones that have been around a while, and getting rescued from the TV is kind of a clear in itself.

If it turns out to similar to P5 though I'm gonna be mad.

Felt like crap yesterday and just wanted to play today, so no detailed write ups yet, sorry.

However, about to fight Ritsuo, the high schooler the police have been after and the guy who hit on Yukiko early on that kept showing up. Figure I should note some things before this goes down for the sake of keeping things fair given that I expect some fairly major developments here.

Even if I didn't know these games don't end this soon, they're laying it on so thick that it can't be as simple as him being the culprit. However, his thoughts are way too specific to completely ignore. I'm still thinking the killer has some capacity of screwing with people's heads given the ease of capturing victims and their convenient gaps in memory when it happens. Of course if that's all it is this is way more extreme than those cases.

I still think he's the "suspicious kid" Kanji grabbed the random piece of paper from, and that Kanji hasn't realized it was him yet. He would have recognized Naoto and no one else really makes sense. So at the very least it is likely Ritsuo was following the case pretty closely up until now. I considered the possibility of an accomplice but I'm not sure that really tracks.

His thoughts indicating confrontations with victims/targets really only pointed to the first one (and very vaguely as "announcer") and then Morooka by name, but none of the others if I'm recalling all of the floor messages correctly. Therefore at this point I'm guessing he's either a copycat killing just Morooka or he witnessed Morooka being killed. Either way can help explain his mental state basically collapsing.

Also, the game hasn't really specified what got the police got on his trail so easily. But if the culprit is a cop it might explain a few things.

This was like the best opportunity the game has given me for theory crafting so far, so I figured I should get my thoughts out there now.

Neat! Thanks for the thoughts. You're really going over this, that's cool. :)

I'm almost to the Cultural Festival.

Thanks, I hate it.

The killer is Nametame! By which I mean the killer is definitely not Nametame.

That said he does seem to be the one actually throwing people in including Nanako now so I will still beat him half to death given the choice.

Wow you've been making some progress

Heaven so good

I know the topic is marked but it's bigtime spoiler territory. Just in case someone playing this expected to have a clearer picture of when I got here I'm gonna mark this post only entirely. Early December spoilers.

Ok so yeah it's Adachi. Didn't need a second try on that one.

Even though I had him pegged pretty early on, I don't feel like I did that through all that much deduction. It really was that it just never made all that much sense to be anyone else. There weren't enough important characters. I did realize a some of the stuff they point out about him afterward, namely that he could drop off the warning letters without rousing suspicion and instantly "accepting" Namatame as the culprit from the diary pretty quickly. But I was so focused on him that there was basically no way I wouldn't notice.

I also figured he threw Kubo in the TV and I'm kinda baffled why the team never came to that conclusion themselves.

I didn't figure out in advance of interrogating Namatame that Adachi himself threw in the first two victims, but it makes sense. Also makes Namatame less of a moron. I had started to think Adachi was killing people more personally after they had been thrown in but that was way off. Instead Adachi just sort of fell ass backwards into playing puppet master for most of the story and the MO was always accurate.

I am glad that the story actually did something real with the 2 blatantly obvious suspicious people of Kubo and Namatame.

Oh well time to go kick his ass and then probably punch God because Persona.