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

The rain has ceased by the evening. Nanako is more friendly than usual when we come home today.



There's a ! bubble above her head. This is the symbol of an available social link. It just means that we can hang out with her.

But before that, let's check the weather for next week.



Looks pretty gloomy, but otherwise dry! Now, let's talk to Nanako.




... I feel like I'm forgetting something.



... Ummm.

Oh no D: I completely forgot to get a Justice persona. By the time I realized this however, I already saved the game during the evening, so there was loading a save to get it. Ah well. Next time! Someone reminds me to get the right Persona!

In any case. Usually at low ranks, we get a rank up at pretty much every rank. At the higher ranks, or in certain social links, however, the rate of ranking up is slower. As the game goes on, you'll see more and more instances when we spend time with someone but don't get a rank up like this.

Mistake made, lesson learned, and the day is over...



Midterm week starts tomorrow, and Pockets's knowledge is still at level 2, whatever that level is called. Looks like today is the last day to study...



One day until midterms! What should Pockets do?

Afternoon:

- Accept Chie's invitation and hang out with her. This is just a regular rank up event, not a unique event.

- Hang out with Yousuke

- Study!

- Make envelopes

- Eat some arbitrary things

- Fish?

Evening:

- Hang out with Dojima

- Study

- Make envelopes

- Fish?

One more day to go!

hang out with Chie and then cram

It's about time we started hanging with Chie!

Also, study afterward.

Study, study!

Did you know that knowledge makes you more popular? It's a secret to everybody!

Is that what I'm doing wrong? D:

No, no, not at all! I'm just riffing on how the game wants to let you know that at every opportunity. Carry on!

P3P went out of its way to let me know that too... Does your actual knowledge level influence your midterm scores?

in P3 it just seemed to be whether or not I remembered all the questions and answers I'd been asked previously,.

Midterm (or finals) weeks consist of a few days of direct multiple choice questions about stuff you reviewed in class, which you can easily remember or at the very least look up in a FAQ. But the last day also includes some sort of essay questions that you have no control over. THOSE are influenced by your Academics (P3) or Knowledge (P4.) And even if "Your hand won't stop moving!" while answering, you only get to the top of the class if you have a good Knowledge stat.

Studying is boring. Chie and Dojima are awesome.

All right, all right. Let's cram for the midterm then.

Chie and Study.

Studying increases midterm scores which means popularity which means intimacy.

Pockets agrees to hang out with Chie.



The place turns out to be the Samegawa River.



Chie: Y'know, for training! I need to hone my kicking skills, or I won't be able to use them in battle. I tried practicing at home… But my mom and dad yelled me for putting a hole in the shoji.

For the less Japanese readers: a shoji is a Japanese sliding door. Why would Chie kick doors, though? =/



Chie: You think so, too!?
> Chie looks really happy.
Chie: Soooo… Let's train together!



Chie bounces on from one foot to the other energetically.

Chie: Yesss! Thanks, Pockets-kun!
> Chie looks really happy.
Chie: That thing… Y'know, from that time? I mean the Shadow that came out of me. I feel pathetic knowing that's another "me." Makes me feel like I gotta work harder! Allllright, let's do it! Between you and me, we'll be unstoppable!
> This marks the beginning of your training with Chie.
> You feel your relationship with Chie has grown a bit deeper…



Chie: Let's start today with frog leaps! C'mon, you try some!



Training at the river bank is not just a theme in Chie's social link, it's the theme. Chie talks about a lot of things when she and Pockets train together. She especially talks about Yukiko and their friendship a lot.

At home, Nanako greets us happily again.



Dojima is here, too. We can socialize with him, but since midterms are tomorrow and Pockets is a good student who never studies except for cramming everything just the week before the exams, he opts to study instead.



Awww, we still haven't gotten a Knowledge rank up. Ah well, we did what we could.

The next day comes, marking the start of midterm week. The weather is ominous (cloudy) all week to reflect the mood of the student.



Chie catches up with Pockets on the way to school.



Chie: Exams are finally starting today… Real life's harsh…



I don't really want to say any of these things! But I guess I'll go with that one.

Chie: Can't you tell? Do I look like I'm ready? …But, even once exams are over, we're not done with the case. All this depressing stuff's just gonna keep going on and on and on…

Alright ready? Ready? Because it's midterm time!



Answer: 8AM



Pockets always feels that he's had the correct answer when he's chosen the correct one. If we chose an incorrect answer, he would feel "not very good" about his answer. I'm not sure why he can't just go back and change it. If I had a supernatural answer correctness sensing ability like Pockets does, my GPA would have been much higher!



Answer: Before Christ. The game is clearly trying to trick you with the "Beyond Christ" option. Tricky, game, tricky.

So, apparently during the exam period, you have no life. In P4, it's literal! Exam days fly by, and literally all you do is answering test questions.

Second day of midterm...



Answer: 6. 6 is equal to the sum of its factors (1,2 and 3)



Answer: It's Mileeennnium. Wait, mil--? mill? Let me look it up... (it's "Millennium", though)

Day three...



Answer: Rene Descartes

Hey, this wasn't one of the pop-quiz questions! Do you expect me to read every explanation every teacher's ever given?



Answer: Mt. Olympus

Aaaand the next day is the last day! What should Pockets do to celebrate the end of this no-life week?

- Hang out with Yousuke, or

- Hang out with Chie, or

- Go to basketball practice to hang out with Kou and get some Diligence, or

- Go to drama practice to hang out with Yumi and get some Expression, or

- Study, or

- Fish?

And in the evening, too!

- Hang out with Dojima, or

- Study, or

- Make envelope, or

- Fish?

The options are plenty! Pick your favorite ones!

Basketball and Dojima.

Drama and Dojima.

Study and study.

What's the cap on your social stats?

It's boring but you should probably be cramming for the tests


(finals are coming up for me in P3P, though you don't appear to be able to study with people in P3P)

One of the ways that P4 / P4G is more forgiving than P3 is that it has more options for doing things that are helpful on multiple fronts at the same time - like being able to study with someone and raise your Knowledge and help the S. Link, or do a Job to get paid and raise an attribute (and with some of them, also do an S. Link), or unique events with multiple S. Links, or the P4G addition of the pub, which allows you to raise Diligence and another attribute and get paid.

And of course Aiya's rainy-day Super Mega Beef Bowl Challenge!

They all have different names, but the max is 5.

How many increases does it take to rank up?

Chie and Dojima.

Hopefully on the final day of exams "our pens won't stop moving." That's the day your knowledge stat is tested...

Once we're done basketball and Dojima.

Chie and Dojima. The sooner Chie's kicking shadows into low earth orbit, the better.

Hang out with Chieeee

Let's spend all day cramming.

It's the last day of midterms!



Unlike the previous days, how well or badly we do on the last day is based on the Knowledge stat. Different messages are displayed depending on the same stat. Usually if Pockets's pen "can't stop flowing" on the last day, he'll be at the top of the class. If he feels confident about his answers, like this time, he'll be one of the tops (providing that we didn't botch the other questions).

If I recall correctly, we need Knowledge rank 3 to be the top in the first exam.

After the exam is over, Pockets gets a life again!



Yousuke: Whewwww! What a load off! I bet every student feels like this after exams are over!
Chie: Hey, quiet down! So, what did you write for number seven? The one about what "that" referred to in the sentence.
Yukiko: Um… I put "her sorrowful expression."
Chie: Oh crap, then I got it wrong! I put, "the rice cakes on top of the table."
Yukiko: Rice cakes…? Wait, was that what the story was about…?
Chie: Alright, I'm giving up on composition. I'm gonna bet it all on geography!



Chie: Oh, seriously!? I chose the wrong one…
Yukiko: Oh, I put that one too.
Yousuke: Whoa, you too!? Then it's probably the right answer… *sigh * Boy, I can't wait for our grades to be posted out in the hall where everyone can see 'em. Geez…



Student's Friend: They're probably just doing more stuff about that hanging corpse case.
Knowledgeable Student: No, it's not that. You know the highway nearby? They're gonna cover those biker gangs that hang around there. A friend of mine goes to the biker meetings sometimes. I heard it from him.
Student's Friend: Dude, what're you doing hanging out with a guy in a biker gang? Well, anyways… Whaddya think about tomorrow's group blind date? We were gonna meet outside, but… It's gonna rain soon, right? Won't it be better to play it safe tomorrow too?



Chie: Oh yeah… They raise a ruckus from time to time. I guess your place is too far away to hear 'em.
Yousuke: We live right by the road. The noise can drive you insane.
Chie: I hear some guys at this school are part of it, too.
Yousuke: Yeah, I know there are some rumors about a first-year student here who's a total hellraiser. One of the guys working at Junes said the dude's been a legend ever since middle school. Although... Was he in a biker gang…?



Chie: Uh, it's not what you think, Yukiko…

Free time again, finally! After a whole week of exams, there are a lot of things we need to pick up. For example, we need to buy more sodas. Better stock up now for the all-nighters before the next exams.



Or the get a new part-time job.



Like the making envelopes job, the Translator job can be done at the coffee table in Pockets's room, mostly in the evening.

The next very important thing is in the Velvet Room.



Auto-Tarukaja means that as long as the Persona with this skill is the wielded Persona at the start of a battle, Pockets will be under the effect of Tarukaja for the first 3 rounds, as if Tarukaja had been used on him the previous turn. This is incredibly handy, as most random shadow battles don't last even 3 rounds.

To fuse Ara Mitama, we first summon Yomotsu-Shikome, then fuse it with Sylph to get a Hierophant Persona, Anzu.





Then we fuse Anzu with Obariyon to get Ara Mitama! It's an angry red raindrop. I tried a few times, and this is the best skill set I got.





And we get that Auto-Tarukaja, of course! Ara Mitama is of the Chariot Arcana, which is also handy since we're about to hang out with Chie (sorry Teaspoon, by the time you posted that I already played this day!).

We also summon Angel, so we have her handy to socialize with Nanako.

That's all we need to do at the shopping district. Oh, and there was a book that came out on 5/7, but we missed it because we were busy hanging with Chie. Fortunately, it raises Expression, which we can make do with being a Translator.

Back to Yasogami High. Pockets runs into the love-letter girl on the second floor.



> It's the girl that mistakenly put a love letter inside your shoebox.



Pockets's decided that being honest is the best course of action.

Love note sender: H-H-How could you!? You jerk! I didn't even have the courage to sign it, and yet a totally random person now knows my secret!... Argh! What's the point of trying to be secretive any more!? I've already embarrassed myself this much, I might as well go confess! How do you like that!?
> The female student ran off...
> Maybe you should ask her about how the confession went...

Man, high school romance is weird.

Turning the other way, Pockets looks down the hallway and sees how many people want to hang out with him.



Too bad for them!

In episode 2 of Pockets Playing Matchmaking, Pockets again sees the girl that his classmate likes on the roof.





What person only answers one question a day? Anyway, that's not even the main reason we're on the roof.



Since we have Ara Mitama, a Chariot persona, we'll get more points hanging out with Chie.



The place, again, is the Samegawa river bank. Chie and Pockets come here for training.



> Chie is enthusiastic today as well.

As Chie and Pockets are about to start, Nanako comes by.



Nanako: What are you doing?
Chie: Hm? Training, of course!
Nanako: Training... Who are you fighting with, Chie?
Chie: Hmmm.... Myself... I guess...?... Heheh, just kidding!

Nanako is nice and supportive about pretty much everything.



Chie: Y-You think...? Hahaha...

Suddenly...



For Chie, this is bad news.



Chie: Huh!? N-No way! W-Where!?
Nanako: It just landed on your back.

Chie is really freaked out now.



> Nanako took the grasshopper off Chie's back.

Nanako's just too cool!

Nanako: ... You don't like grasshoppers?
Chie: I'm no good with anything with thin, jointed legs! Or anything creepy or squirmy! Ack, now I can't get 'em off my mind! I can't stand those things!



I have to agree here.

Chie: ... You're like Yukiko.



Whoaaa! We barely know Chie! Help me out, I'm not good with girls! How does Pockets feel about Chie? Which one should I choose?

Vote for your favorite answer!

(mini-vote, I'll probably play the rest of today a few hours later)

aw so cute!

Gotta go with my most likely response in real life. "It's hilarious."

I...have no idea these Persona games are so awfully dedicated in simulating Japanese high school life. Fascinating.

Just to screw with 'em, I always choose the wrong answer here in the post-test review. Which means Yukiko always gets it wrong, too, and Chie and Yosuke have a 50% chance of getting it right

Hmm...

That's what I'd go for, too. I feel like saying "it's cute/feminine" would be kind of insulting to women in general --I mean, we just saw the cute nine year-old girl pluck the bug off Chie's back without batting an eye!

Too bad Chie's too insecure to realize this

(And yet she has no issues with the VW Beetle-sized, well, Beetles in the dungeons!)

It's *snrk* very feminine.