Persona 4 - Day 2

April 15th

Oh that can't be good...

The day starts off with some one hanging dead, upside down, from a telephone pole. At a school assembly it turns out that it was Yosuke's crush Saki (names a bit of a pun since their parents run a liquor store) who was killed. It doesn't take long for Yosuke to make the connection that people seen on the Midnight Channel end up dead and that Teddie's space in the TV is some how connected.

So Yosuke comes up with a plan to go into the TV with Tokka (armed with a golf club and a wrench) while Chie holds a rope life line so they can get back out. This doesn't go according to plan since the rope is cut shortly after the two enter and Chie is left in the Junes electronics department freaking out. On the other side of the TV Teddie is furious at the two intruders and thinks they are the ones throwing people into his realm, frustrated with the allegations Yosuke pulls off Teddie's head to see who's in the costume...

It turns out that nothing is inside and Teddie is just a living costume (well that answers that questions). In order to convince Teddie that they are not the culprits (and so they can be let out later) Tokka and Yosuke promise that they will find out who keeps throwing people into the space. In return Teddie gives them both pairs of glasses that can cut through the yellow fog and lessen the effects of the space. Also he brings them to a new space that recently created, a reproduction of the shopping district in town, with Saki's liquor store at the center, and they find a vortex in the doorway.

Suddenly from the doorway two shadows emerge, looking at first like the masked shadows from P3, and approach menacingly to the group. Tokka then hears the Persona Creed in his head and find a persona card in his hand.

So Tokka uses the card to summon...

A BADASS FREAKIN' PERSONA!

The two shadows resolve themselves into weird ball tongue monsters, and the first actual fight of the game starts. Fortunately (or rather by game design) these shadows are weak to Tokka's persona's electric spells, and they both go down pretty quickly.

Inside the liquor store the trio hears several voice berating Saki, and then Saki herself saying how she doesn't like Yosuke at all and was only using him to get to Junes' manager. This then leads to a shadow Yosuke appearing and voicing how much he hates the town and how he's such a “pain in the ass” (says this a lot).

Yosuke denies that the shadow is anything like him and that he doesn't think those things at all. It turns out that this is just the reaction the shadow wanted since the rejection powers him up to become a huge, and rather silly looking, monster resembling a superhero riding a frog. Tokka then defeats the monster, while learning a painful lesson in blocking, and Yosuke faces his shadow again. This time though he accepts that part of him does feel that some times, and this acceptance unlocks a persona card for him (looking like the superhero without the frog).

On the way out the group begins to determine that some one must be throwing people into the space and then they end up being killed by a monster shaped from their negative side when the fog clears, the upside of this is that they have until the fog comes in the real world to save whoever is trapped. When they get back to the real world they find that they completely forgot that Chie has been waiting with the broken rope and freaking out all this time. On the way home Tokka runs into Yukiko who is on an errand and now is basically running their family inn after her mother had a breakdown.

Back at home I finally have the option to check Tokka's stats and personas in the option menu, much of it is like in P3 but now there are 5 social stat to build instead of just 3. Also since the murders are connected to the fog that comes after it rains I check the weather forecast, which shows that most of the week will be sunny/cloudy.

Because it's raining again tonight Tokka checks the Midnight Channel again and this time only a lone still figure appears...

It's Sodako! I mean Samara! I mean Eun-Suh! I mean.. JUST RUN!

Actually it appears to be Yukiko, in the same kimono that she was wearing when Tokka saw her earlier that day. After going to sleep Tokka is brought to the Velvet Room in his dreams and basically told again that things are going like they said they would at the start.

April 16th

On the way to school Tokka run into Yosuke and they talk about how they have to stop what's going on. From the conversation Tokka's social link for the magician is formed, so any time I make a persona of that class I'll get a boost.

At school Chie also thinks that the person on the Midnight Channel was Yukiko, on top of that Yukiko isn't at school or answering her cell or e-mails. Fortunately, after a quick call to the Inn it's revealed that she was just too busy there because of a sudden large influx of guests, but that raises the question of who was it they saw on the TV.

After school the group contacts Teddie through the TV and he tells them that no one has been brought to his space yet (adding the first in probably several bear puns), so the Midnight channel vision gets even more confusing. Meanwhile, the local police are just as baffled with their murder investigation.

Turns out all the leads of the celebrity love triangle have gone nowhere (all had alibis and no motive), and there isn't even any indication even of how the people died, or what connects them. Only thing they have to go on is that the murder is most likely till in the town. Back at home Tokka turns on the Midnight channel and gets a rather big surprise...

Yukiko appears clearly on screen dressed like a princess and talks like she is on her own TV reality program. She says that on the program she planning on “scoring with a hot stud” and is decked toped bottom to top (with the appropriate closeups) with lacy underthings and the runs off into a castle with a shadow void doorway.

Yukiko's personality is nothing like her TV appearance, the signal came in clear as a bell, and it was like the whole thing was staged. This is all around weird, as that Yukiko's shadow? Right away Yosuke calls and they decide to meet with Chie at the the Junes food-court to talk about what they saw.

April 17th

Since there's no school today Tokka meets Yosuke at the Junes food-court. Yosuke managed to find at home some replica swords that they could use in the shadow realm. He gets a little carried away waving large blades around and gets him and Tokka arrested... >_<

Dojima manages to get them out of any serious trouble but not before confiscating their weapons. While at the police station they find out from Dojima's partner that Yukiko is now missing and may possibly be a suspect in the killings. On the way out they bump into Chie who also know that Yukiko is missing and she is determined to go into the shadow realm this time to save her. Chie also happens to know a little metal works shop in town that makes authentic armor and weapons.

The weapon shop may not be as impressive as the one in P1, but it's still quite something considering it's in modern times. After buying a couple new weapons Tokka left the store and suddenly found a door to the Velvet Room that only he could see. Inside Igor repeated that social links will boost his personas and Margaret said that she will store all created personas in a book.

Once outside Tokka can now freely roam about the shopping district, even thought it's just 1 block this is a big improvement over P3 which had just static areas to explore. One of the people you can talk to is some housewife breaking the 4th wall by praising the square button...

Back in the shadow realm the group fills Teddie in on what happened (although he's a bit fuzz on the details) and he agrees that some one new is in the realm and there is a new location. Before even getting her own pair of glasses Chie pulls a Leroy Jenkins and runs off into the castle, so Tokka and Yosuke have to go and save her. The dungeon is sort of like the ones in P3 but the view is much closer so you more feel like you are in the room and not floating above it. The dungeon was also mostly filled with the ball tongue things so they didn't prove to be much trouble.

After a couple of fight I finally managed to get my first chance at another persona card. The way it's set up this time though is that the cards spin about in a 3d star pattern with there backs facing you and you get the one in the center of the screen when you press the X button. This makes it much harder to get the one one want but at least I didn't get the X (I was trying for the pixie).

On the second floor Tokka and Yosuke find Chie listing to the voice of Yukiko saying how worthless she is and that Chie is the only one that gives her life meaning, then a shadow Chie shows up and says that Chie is just using Yukiko. Chie of course rejects the shadow which allows it to become one of the most bizarre monsters i have seen in quite a while. It's sort of like a KKK dominatrix sitting atop a tower made of school girls... O_o

Tokka and Yosuke defeat the shadow Chie (which was alto easier than Yosuke's shadow), then Che accepts that she also has a dark side and gains a really silly looking persona. Drained from the ordeal Chie grudgingly accepts that the group has to rest before going deeper into the dungeon since they have till the next rainstorm to save Yukiko. On the way out Chie gets a pair of glasses to and the 4 of them promise to Yukiko, building the social link for the Fool.

I have to cut back on the entries i make, this one took longer to write than the time i spent playing...