And I Won't Have Changed.

[rionaleonhart]

More Persona 4 Golden!

Yosuke blushes while we're giving him a piggyback ride! (You bet I looked up which option gets you Yosuke when you're playing the King's Game.)

I realise this game has strong themes of accepting who you are, but it's still slightly disconcerting that it has so many 'this character decides to make a change in their life to make themselves happier! ...and then decides not to make that change after all, happy end' plotlines. Sometimes making a change can actually be good, Persona 4! It doesn't necessarily mean you're rejecting the person you are!

Yosuke described the two of us as 'a well-oiled machine' and then said, 'That costume's a good fit for you,' winking. I still can't believe this game includes such blatant flirting and yet Yosuke is not one of the eight goddamn romance options.

Very cute that Yosuke asks Nanako, 'Is your brother home?' (I mean, I realise he probably does this because the player names the protagonist; it's not like they could have voiced him asking whether Toya is home. But it's still cute.)

'You received Passion Candy from Kanji.' Did I, now? (He later gave me a Sincerity Cookie.)



I thought at Naoto's first appearance that he was crossdressing; I hadn't realised he was trans. I do not have great confidence in Persona's ability to handle this.

Did the game just deceive me by making me think Nanako would be kidnapped next and then having her fall ill instead? We can't go into the television to fight against illness! What do we do?

Everyone joins together to try to help us and save Nanako! Friendship!

I mean, Teddie can get lost. But EVERYONE ELSE'S FRIENDSHIP IS GREAT.

Nanako knows not to open the door to strangers when she's home alone, but she let the kidnapper in. It is definitely Adachi. (Unless it's one of my pals, which is a possibility I refuse to entertain unless it's FUCKING TEDDIE.)

Dojima??

Holy shit, Dojima, are you okay???

Was it actually not Adachi? I remain suspicious. He's at the scene of the crash; if he got there before us, he could have planted the television and diary.

The fox is angry today, and usually I'd reload my save and wait for a day when he's happier before going into the television, but like hell I'm not rescuing Nanako on the first possible day.

I'm extremely concerned about Nanako!!

I really like how much all my friends care about her. (Except Teddie, whom I forbid from even thinking about her.)

I still don't trust Adachi. Maybe he somehow decides who shows up on the Midnight Channel, essentially using Namatame's delusions to carry out his murders.

I don't want to leave Adachi alone with an unconscious Dojima in the hospital! Keep an eye on him, Toya!

I've just realised Naoto's grandfather has probably set up this weird sinister riddle scavenger hunt to entertain Naoto, and that is extremely cute.

There's nobody home! I'm tending to the garden all by myself! This is very sad. Every time I got back after school, I had a routine of saving and talking to Nanako (and Dojima, if he was there) before going out for the evening.

Aww, the shopkeepers comment on how pale and serious you look if you talk to them. It's a nice detail to show how much Toya is worrying about Nanako.

I'm definitely headcanoning Naoto as a trans guy, whatever the story's intention.

Oh, no, choosing to leave in Yumi's rank ten scene was really painful! (Yumi says she loves you and then turns around and asks you to just leave the room if you don't reciprocate, so she doesn't have to see you go. I really wanted to choose the 'hug her' option, but I didn't want to romance her, so I had to walk out without a word!)

I know I was talking about how lonely Dojima's place was without anyone else there, but having Teddie there WOULD NOT BE AN IMPROVEMENT.

wait no

no, this is a totally unacceptable turn of events

you cannot kill Nanako, I won't allow it

I'm going to write fanfiction where Yosuke shoves Namatame into the television and then has to deal with the trauma and guilt of having killed someone. Let's make this boy cry.

Nanako's alive and Teddie's disappeared! Truly a miracle.

'Why do I even exist?' Only worthwhile line you've ever said, Teddie.

Aww, Yumi sent a message to say she's there if I want to talk about Nanako! That's very sweet.

Everyone's very worried about Teddie's disappearance and I cannot relate.



Apparently you have to choose six dialogue options correctly in a row or you miss out on a substantial part of the game and don't get the real ending. Moreover, there is literally no indication that there are multiple endings or that that sequence of questions determines the ending you get. You could easily get the false ending, save your clear data and even start a New Game Plus with no idea there was more game you missed. Atlus, that's - that's not good game design.

Comments

[pict]

Unfortunately, Naoto's storyline is not meant to be a trans storyline. It's largely about sexism in the police department / professional Japan (although we never actually see Naoto enduring any sexism, only condescension due to her age). A lot of it is just fumbled in the writing. For example, the implication that Naoto isn't her birthname - it actually is, by word of god. It isn't clarified in game, but in an art book.

It's a shame because a lot of the earlier concepts of Naoto were quite interesting and then it kind of fizzles out to "oh sexism", such as the hints of genuine gender dysphoria that linger through-out. It's all kind of swept away in the ending, sequel games, and the further materials where Naoto is the protagonist. For example! Did you know it only takes a year to grow your hair that long? No, nor me.

[rionaleonhart]

Naoto's storyline is really disconcerting; there's Naoto talking about how being seen as female would have been a disadvantage in the police department, but then, as you say, there are those hints of gender dysphoria. There's a Danganronpa character where you're told 'he was just dressing as a girl for convenience's sake' and I accepted that because there was never any hint that he wanted to be female or thought of himself as female - in fact, he actively seemed to want to start presenting as male again - but in Naoto's case it's really difficult not to go for the trans interpretation.

[(Anonymous)]

I find your reaction to Teddie hilarious because while I've seen plenty of people hate him, they also really hate Yosuke - never seen anyone hate one and love the other!

I played the original Persona 4, and while Teddie definitely had his side-eye moments, I didn't mind him that much (similar to Yosuke). Part of that may have been the voice acting. Teddie is recast for Golden, as you already know a few people are (Chie, for example) - they do a decent job trying to sound similar to the old actor, but the original one had some great line reads that just didn't translate across, I found. (In games with voice acting, good voice acting can really influence how I feel about characters.)

Apparently you have to choose six dialogue options correctly in a row or you miss out on a substantial part of the game and don't get the real ending. Moreover, there is literally no indication that there are multiple endings or that that sequence of questions determines the ending you get. You could easily get the false ending, save your clear data and even start a New Game Plus with no idea there was more game you missed. Atlus, that's - that's not good game design.

Persona tradition! You'll be glad to know that the Persona 3 version of this is much clearer and isn't a slew of a lot of choices in a row.

-timydamonkey

[rionaleonhart]

I find your reaction to Teddie hilarious because while I've seen plenty of people hate him, they also really hate Yosuke - never seen anyone hate one and love the other!

I do occasionally feel a bit of a hypocrite when the game goes 'look, Yosuke and Teddie are being creepy!' and I go 'ugh, Teddie's the worst, anyway I still love Yosuke', but I have accepted my hypocrisy.

(In games with voice acting, good voice acting can really influence how I feel about characters.)

This is the case for me as well; Megumi Ogata's voice for Naegi played a huge part in making him my favourite character in the original Danganronpa.

[lassarina]

The bad ending is indeed awful game design, yep. I had heard of that and looked up a guide and I dislike that I had to do that because I should be able to figure that out on my own! Please, Atlus!

I was really frustrated by a lot of the "maybe I"ll change--never mind" plots, too. Especially by the way it seemed to fit the girls, in particular, into little socially prescribed boxes. I was not a fan of that.

[rionaleonhart]

A friend warned me about the bad ending, which is fortunate, because otherwise I'd have been left sitting there going '????? I thought there was meant to be... more game?'

Especially by the way it seemed to fit the girls, in particular, into little socially prescribed boxes.

That does stand out. Yukiko should be able to leave the town if she wants to! It's okay if Rise wants to quit showbiz!

[lassarina]

IT'S OKAY IF THEY WANT TO NOT BE WHO THEY WERE TOLD TO BE

but no

[samuraiter]

Naoto is one of my favorite characters in the game, but, as for the portrayal of her gender identity issues, I suspect it might have been a big leap for 2008, but seems out of place by the standards of today.

And that possible Bad Ending sequence in P4 is one reason I sweated buckets through the interrogation sequence in P5.

[rionaleonhart]

Naoto's pretty great, yes, even if there are aspects of the story that ring a bit oddly! But, as you say, it was 2008. I've played one game made in 2007 that really took me by surprise with its sympathetic exploration of gender identity issues, but I realise I can't really expect that from most games of the time.

Naoto's storyline is a bit confusing, but 'this character comes across as trans but is not in fact intended to be trans' isn't dire (whereas Kanji's storyline, although I love him, ends up being a vehicle for a load of homophobic jokes, which is pretty bad!).

I'm glad Persona 5 is a bit more forgiving of people playing without a walkthrough!

[seeingpenguins]

I totally watched in silent horror as a friend on twitter was livetweeting their unspoilt Persona 4 experience years ago, and how they got the ending and had started new game+ and it became very obvious that they had got the bad ending and it was just like oh no do I tell them, or--.........

I'd played P3 without really knowing anything about it and enjoyed it very much, but going into P4 I knew that there was this incredibly obtuse sequence where you could miss True End otherwise and even knowing about it and having multiple guides open during that sequence felt very stressful...! Like, even with guides, knowing the correct answers to pick, it still doesn't feel obvious at all. ???how are people meant to do this without guides???

[rionaleonhart]

Oh noooooo! I hope your friend managed to get to the rest of the game eventually.

It's really not intuitive! If you say 'I can't do it' instead of 'Calm the hell down' when you're debating whether to do a murder, you don't get the true ending???