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Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 Theories Part I

3/27/2008

DISCLAIMER

The following are conclusions I have reached after spending much too much time with the Persona 4 PV DVD included with this week’s Famitsu magazine. I do not intend for any of this to be taken as absolute fact since no one can either confirm nor deny my predictions. With that said, read on:

The glasses

glasses
Characters attack the Tarot cards of their Persona to summon them

 That’s right, it appears the famed evoker has gone the way of the dodo. You could say the glasses each character wears in battle is the “new” evoker. It is still an inanimate object necessary for battling shadows.The players acquire them sometime after their first experience with Mayonaka TV (夜中). They get them AFTER entering the TV and BEFORE they get any Personae. In between they meet Kuma, which leads me to believe he is where they acquire the glasses.

What the glasses actually do is the topic of some debate. Some people believe that they are needed to summon a persona the same way that the evoker did. I do not believe this to be true, since now, in battle, the characters simply attack a tarot card with their equipped weapon, which summons their persona.Another theory is that the glasses allow the characters to see the shadow, thus enabling them to battle them. The video supports this theory, since a shadow is never visible when a character does not have glasses on.

This still doesn’t seem like enough of a purpose.I believe there is a connection with the TV world and mental instability. This leads me to believe that the glasses may be a tether to reality, which prevents the players from losing their sanity in the TV world.

Shadow selves

Shadow Kanji
Shadow Kuma

 So far I have noticed that each character that has a Persona also has a “Shadow Self.” These are enemies (most likely bosses) which are a strange fusion of the character and their persona. There are scenes in the video in which Yousuke comes across a clone of himself in the TV world. Yousuke shouts “That’s not me…You’re not me!”
The clone replies, “I am me–I am not you anymore.”
He then transforms into Shadow Yousuke, which looks like a combo of his persona, Jiraya, and Yousuke.I would assume that the player then has to battle the Shadow Yousuke.Perhaps it is not until after defeating these “Shadow selves” that the support characters can wield their personae. The main character however seems to be able to instantly control his persona, which is possibly why he may use more than just Izanagi.

Fishing

Fishing

 It looks like you can go fishing… Hell yeah.

Again I do not attempt to pass any of my theories off as truth. I simply offer them to stir up discussion and encourage the exchange of ideas between fans of the series. If anyone agrees or disagrees, feel free to leave a comment.

Related Articles:
All other Kotowari entries on Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 can be found here.

User Roy Tags , , , , Comments 2 comments

2 Comments »

    Meixian

      Hellos=D
      I also noticed why they wear specs when they go into the dungeon.. hahaha.
      You understand japanese?
      I think I missed Persona 2 quite a lot T_T
      Too bad didn’t understand jap so never get to play innocent sin.
      Great fan of Atlus? heeho~!

      03/27/08 @ 12:56 pm

    Roy

      I understand a bit, but I am working on it XD
      Yea, it’s too bad we never got Innocent sin, it is supposedly a really great game. Combines with Eternal Punishment the story makes a lot more sense too. Nice to meet an Atlus fan XD

      03/27/08 @ 9:50 pm

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