Let's Play Persona 4: Everyday's Great at your Junes!

Somehow that seems a lot more appropriate than if there had been a technical punishment. Also I couldn't resist and watched all the Valentine dates scene, and most of them were kind of like Christmas. It's pretty obvious what you did with Rise, which is totally not what you did with Yukiko, and Chie is ambiguous, and Ai is as annoying as ever. I was surprised about Naoto, though! And I wonder what's in Marie's chocolate D:

I felt like the worst guy alive for that. I'm NEVER doing a harem route in Golden again.

I was lucky. Fanboymaster, who I borrowed the game and Vita from, beat it first and was able to warn me.

Going monogamous actually makes the Valentines day thing a lot nicer, because if there's just one girl, the scene beforehand kind of changes. For instance, in my game Yukiko wished Chie good luck before the whole giving chocolate thing.

I liked how The Golden worked the romance angle into the plot a bit more. I gives me hope for future titles, because one of my biggest gripes with Persona is how the S-Links often seem divorced from the plot. So in the Golden's new scenes they really worked that stuff in, and it's pretty cool.

The next day starts as it pours in Inaba and Pockets comes across Yukiko at the school gate.

Yukiko: It's raining… It's not going to last past nightfall, though. Every time it rained while I was "over there," you must have been…
…Oh, I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be gloomy.



Yukiko: I-I see. That must be tough. But, at least it looks like we're going to have clear skies all week. It'd be nice if it could stay peaceful like this, but the mystery hasn't been solved yet. Perhaps we should visit "over there" once in a while so we can become stronger.

Yukiko's using "over there" with quotes like that kind of creeps me out for some reasons.

But it's still nowhere as creepy as Mr. Morooka.



Mr. Morooka: Your duty is to study! You don't have time to fool around, alright!? Especially the girls! Those skirts are too damn short! Are you that desperate for attention, or what? You girls are giving the school a bad reputation! Try being modest for a change! And for the guys, remember, the "greatest virtue" is attainable by those who suppress their worthless desires! I don't think Descartes was entirely right, but I'm sure the idea of "virtue' is completely lost on you dumbasses!



Mr. Morooka: If you don't want to be shamed, study hard! It's that simple!



Sometimes I just can't figure out whether King Moron supports or opposes to intimacy!

Mr. Morooka: On top of that, my reputation goes up. It's a win-win situation, people! Like I said, study hard!



Oh, the kind of Knowledge Pockets gains at school...

Mr. Morooka's speech seems to have an impact on Pockets's school friends in the end. There's no basketball practice because Kou wants to study. There's no drama practice because Yumi wants to study. You get the idea.

Before Pockets also studies, let's make a quick trip around town. First is to sell the materials we picked up in the TV and get Pockets something new.



Then to get more sodas, because it's Monday.



Then to the river bank, because rain is the best weather to take a walk along the river.



Old Man: When I was younger, I used to spend more time haulin' fish in than I did sittin' with my hook in the water, but now…



Old Man: Ho ho! I'll lend you some of my fishin' gear, then. Let me tell you, fishin' is hard work. What you need is Diligence. You can still fish without Diligence, o'course, but you'll get pretty darn tired of it quick.
…Oh, well. Here's a Fishing Set. I'll give you ten of these here Baits, too.
Fishin' in the day is fun, but night fishin'… That's just stylish.

Persona 4's done many things right, but in my opinion fishing is not one of them. It's kind of a boring game, really. The more diligence we have, the more times we can try before Pockets gets impatient and goes home. To fish, we stare at the screen and then press the right button a lot at the right time. The weather and the time of the day also makes a difference in what kind of fish we're likely to get.

Fortunately, going through the entire game without doing any fishing is possible. Unfortunately, doing so means that we'll leave at least one mini quest undone and one social link un-maxed.

Pockets goes back to school after that. Yukiko stands on the first floor in front of the bullet board, where we can typically find her.



Yukiko: School seems really fun... I was looking around... It's thanks to you all. Thank you for saving me.
> Yukiko has a fresh smile on her face...
> But she seems to be somewhat uncomfortable.
> It seems you need some sort of opportunity to become closer...

No pain, no gain it looks like! Let's just go talk to Yousuke.



Yousuke: I hate when they post the test results, and you get so embarrassed because your name happens to be on the bottom... Everyone respects the people who make it to the top of the list, though.



Since no one else wants to hang out anyway, we may as well!

In the evening, Pockets watches TV with Nanako, like he does almost every day.



Announcer: The vehicle, which was abandoned at the scene, had been reported stolen by a local contractor.
Since the culprit was able to act quickly before the security guards arrived on the scene, the police have…



Speaking of Nanako's dad, the phone suddenly rings...



Nanako: ……
Yeah… Yeah.
……
…Okay.
……
…Alright.



Poor Nanako immediately runs away into her room.





Dojima: And about that time off on the 4th and 5th… One of the younger guys got sick…



Dojima: Sorry to spring this on you all of a sudden… Um… How's Nanako holding up? Would you mind comforting her for me? …Thanks.
All right then, see you.

Dojima hangs up, and Pockets is left alone in the living room. Since we just got a fishing rod recently, he can go fishing...



But today isn't really the day to fish. (No day is actually the day to fish). Pockets checks the fridge...





> ...
> ......
> .........
> It tastes... really good!



> However...
> You don't feel well...
> ......
> You decide to go to bed early today...

So... Pockets eats a perfectly good pickle in a plastic bag of unknown-origin, and it tastes good, but then he doesn't feel well? I don't get it >.<

In any case, voting for tomorrow:

Afternoon: Not available!

Evening:

- Study (increase knowledge), or

- Make envelopes (increase diligence and money), or

- Fish

You didn't comfort Nanako...

Make dem envelopes tomorrow.

We should go fishing at least once.

Then we don't need to try it ever again.

Study! Gotta pass that test.

Popularity leads to intimacy, guys!

Yeah, Pockets just never considered doing that for some reason Poor Nanako!

Golden Week has started! We get many days off this week. What should we do?



Downstairs, Nanako is already awake and watching TV, as usual. Suddenly the door bell rings. Is it just me or doorbells are kind of out of place here? When I was in a place like Inaba, most people just knocked.



... It's Chie!



Chie: Oh, cool, you're home. Hey, if you're free today, wanna go somewhere? Yukiko's coming, too. How 'bout you, Nanako-chan? Wanna come?
Nanako: U-Um…



Whoaa, the TV comment is kind of mean =/

Nanako: Huh? I-I can come?
Chie: Yeah. Heh… of course you can!
> You decided to take Nanako out along with Chie and the others.

It looks like Pockets's friends are making sure that he has something to do during this Golden Week. This is also the first time we see Nanako outside the house since the first couple days of the game.



If you look at the bottom right of the first image, you'll see the cow and giraffe posters. The things on/around the food court fence actually changes throughout the year! At some point there will be a panda there, for example. The game never mentions it and it's hard to see it because the dialogs block that part of the screen most of that time, so I'm kind of proud of noticing it I'd guess that right now they have a poster of a cow because of Junes's new steak.

Chie: Where else is there to go?
Nanako: I love Junes!
Yousuke: N-Nanako-chan…!

But Nanako is still sad about Dojima's broken promise.



Nanako: We were going to make boxed lunches…
Yukiko: Wow! You can make boxed lunches, Nanako-chan?

Nanako shakes her head.

Chie: Oh, so you're the family cook? Pretty impressive, "big bro"!



Yousuke: Whoa, you can cook? Well, you do seem to be great with your hands-Um, never mind.
Chie: I-I'm a pretty good cook too, you know… Probably. If you'd asked, I would've whipped up some boxed lunches as easy as pie. Yeah…
Yousuke: Uhh, lemme think about-No.
Chie: What makes you think I can't cook!? Let's have a cook-off and see for ourselves!
Yousuke: My, my, doth the lady protest too much? And hey, I never said I cooked. But I have this weird feeling… Like I'd win anyway…
Yukiko: Ahaha, I can understand that.
Chie: What the-Yukiko!?
Yousuke: Here, Nanako-chan can be our judge. I bet we'll make something that ranks up there with your mom's cooking, Nanako-chan!

I don't really know why Yousuke protests to Chie's cooking so much. It's not like he ever tasted it!



Chie: Hey, Yosuke…
Yousuke: I-I see… Um… Sorry, I didn't know…

Living with Dojima and Nanako, it's obvious to us that Nanako doesn't have a mom. Pockets's been a sensitive person and never mentioned it (despite his low Understanding), but Pockets's friends don't really know.



Nanako: And I'm having a lot of fun today! I love Junes!
Yousuke: Y-Yeah? That's good.
Chie: We'll play with you anytime you want, Nanako-chan!
Yukiko: Yeah, we should hang out more often.
Yousuke: C'mon, Nanako-chan. Let's go get a soda!

Yousuke and Nanako leave the table to get that soda.



Chie: Yeah. She makes me feel like I'm the little kid here. That's it, I'm gonna go get something for Nanako-chan too!

And the two girls leave together. Pockets finds himself alone at the round table.



But not for long.



> Nanako gives you a carefree smile…
> You feel a faint bond forming between you and Nanako…



We're finally getting our first evening social link, Justice! Nanako's social link is like the opposite of Ayane, not that we get to see Ayane's social link. The social link is kind of sad, but it ends with a happy ending --- according to my interpretation, anyway.

Also note that Pockets don't just have a social link with anyone as soon as he knows them. There must be a little bit connection and bonding. Nanako's a shy girl, and Pockets hasn't gotten to know her much until now, so her social link took a almost a month to establish. Yousuke, on the other hand, is friendly and approachable, and was a city boy like Pockets, so their social link started pretty much immediately.

Kind of like in real life! You can "know" someone for a long time, without actually knowing them.



Takoyaki is tasty. Very tasty. I haven't had breakfast and thinking about takoyaki is making me hungry =/ Here's a picture of those takoyakis. They're deep friend balls of octopi coated with a rich mayonaise sauce and squid flakes.

The day's outing seems to have cheered Nanako up. She's in a good mood in the evening.



With his time before bed, Pockets contemplates what to do. Somehow he has this urge to make envelopes, fish, and study at the same time. At the last minute, studying wins.



The game insists on telling us about the extrinsic benefits of a good exam scores in red, highlighted text at every opportunity.

Vote for tomorrow!

Day:

Pockets will receive a call from Yousuke, who asks if he and Nanako chan wants to hang out with him and "someone else."

- Accept Yousuke's invitation and hangs out with Nanako, Yousuke and "someone else" (a unique event!), or

- Hang out with Chie: we can easy find her around town

Evening:

- Study?

- Make envelopes?

- Fish?

The choices look rather familiar!

Hang out with Yousuke and the mystery person, then study.

How do you say Yousuke? "YOU-sa-kay"?

"Someone else" and study, please.

Yes, let's go with the Unique event.

I'm going to keep voting for fishing until we get to see it.

I don't actually remember how the game in English pronounces it, for some reason =/ I guess I'll check when I get back home.

But in Japanese it's Yoh-oh-soo-ke (ke with e like in Chie). The Yoh-oh is a long "o", and the "u" is glossed over so it sounds like Yooske.

School in Japan is nothing like school in the USA. I always did well on exams and it never did anything to help my popularity!

If anything it actively hurt it...

Unique Event and Study every night until the tests are over.

Yeah, always go for the unique events (even though I like Chie), so Yosuke and...mystery person.

Then study. Let's try and get another knowledge rank up before the test. I actually forget what the requirement for acing the first test is...

It's because you don't have silver hair, obviously.

Anyway, I vote for unique event and fishing!

Yup.

Also this fine LP is making me appreciate again all the hard work that Nich & Friends at Atlus put into the localization

and it's making me want to fire up P4G

My hair was probably pretty close to silver in HS. 4 hours of swimming a day in the sun will do that!

Woo, you're the second one

And yeah, the localization in P4 is top-notched. One bad thing about the text LP is that you can't hear the excellent quality English voice acting. (And the music is excellent, too, but that another matters entirely)

Did I make an update today? I think I updated today =/ But somehow I completely forgot about this until I almost finished writing this up. Oh well, bonus update!

(But I may be busier tomorrow so it works out well anyway)



It's another Golden Week day!



Yousuke calls us in the morning.

Yousuke: This might be kind of weird to ask after we hung out yesterday, but do you wanna hang out again today?



Yousuke: Sweet! Oh, hey, why don't you bring Nanako-chan with you? Let's all hang out together.
> You made plans to go out.

A little bit later, at Junes...



The "someone else" turns out to be Kou and Daisuke. The four of you are hanging out together, just like Kou and Daisuke said you should!

Yousuke: The first thing out of her mouth when I asked where she wanted to go was "Junes!"
Kou: Who could blame her? This place has everything… It's like a storehouse of magic. I can see why she likes it. Anyways, isn't she cute? I have a younger sister too. I wish she was cute like Nanako-chan.



Shy little Nanako hides behind Pockets.



Daisuke: Don't worry, you're not cute.



Kou: That's going kinda far…!



Daisuke: Heheh, don't flatter me like that.
Yousuke: I don't think he is…
Nanako: B-Big bro… That TV is huge…



Bingo!

Yousuke: C-C'mon… Like that could happen.
> It promises to be an entertaining day.
> You feel your relationship with Yousuke is going to become closer soon...
> You feel your relationship with Kou and Daisuke is going to become closer soon...

Nanako's good mood continues to the evening.



Pockets again studies this evening. Gotta ace that test!



Woo, double increase!

The next day...





Vote for your favorite new place to go to! And vote for what to do in the evening, too. The evening choices look suspiciously similar to yesterday.

There's a right answer, mechanically, to the daytime choice -- but you don't know what it is Don't worry much about it though, it's not significant by any stretch of imagination, so just choose where you wanna see.

Yasoinaba station!

Uh...the station, not that it matters much.

Also, study, I suppose again. Still haven't leveled up again yet.

Could you post some links to the music?

Grocery Department and study.

We can get groceries to help us study.

She's done some on some of the updates, but I'll just post a list and some context.

Intro Theme

Main Menu Theme

Wandering Town Music (Cloudy)

Wandering Town Music (Sunny)

General Happy Music for Story Sequences

General Happy/S-Link Music (AKA the song you will hear no less than 50% of your game)

General School/Test Music

Talking to People at Lunch and Test Scores Theme

Dojima House Theme

Shopping Music

Sad/Contemplative Music for S-Links and Story

Extra Sad Music for S-Links and Story

Creepy Stuff Happening Music

Panic/Action Things Happening

Important Story Moments of Sadness or Contemplation (Such as accepting a shadow)

Velvet Room Theme (Pretty Iconic at This Point)

S-Link Established Theme (Same as P3, basically)

S-Link Completed Theme (Same as P3, basically)

Junes Theme

TV Hub Area

First Dungeon (Yukiko's Castle)

Basic Battle Music

Victory/Shuffle Time Music

Boss Battle Music

(And since we won't be hearing them, some Golden Music: )

Bonus: Intro Theme (This Game Is About Murder!)

Bonus: Battle Music if Player Doesn't Have Advantage (Golden Only)

Bonus: Romance Theme

Bonus: Wandering Town Music (Nighttime)

Bonus: Wandering Town Music (Snow)

Bonus: Golden Bonus Dungeon

Bonus: Golden Bonus Boss Music

So yeah, that's all the basic/relevant stuff so far. More stuff comes in later (like the next dungeon themes and stuff). But that stuff can be posted as those parts come up.

No lie, two of the songs from P4 made it into the playlist of music we had playing in the background of our (very informal) wedding reception.