The
Protagonist of
Persona 4 is a student moving to
Yasoinaba. I like him a bunch better than Arisato Minato from P3. Souji's so cool and the calmest among the Investigation Team member. Following the tradition of
Shin Megami Tensei series, he is a silent protagonist, where his name and personality is decided and portrayed by the player's in-game actions and decisions. Similar to
Tatsuya Suou of
Persona 2 dualogy, he wields two-handed swords as his primary weapon, however, he doesn't use alternative weapons, in contrast to the
Protagonist of
Persona 3.
The Protagonist first appears in the Velvet Room, which is shown in first person point of view. In there he encounters Igor and his assistant, Margaret. Igor offers the Protagonist to read his fortune, and asks Protagonist to tell him his name, giving players the chance to name him. Igor remarks that a mystery awaits the Protagonist, and it is his fate to discover it. Igor would then introduce Margaret, and bid farewell to the Protagonist. The Protagonist later awakens from his subconscious, and reminiscences his old school prior leaving.
Reaching to Yasoinaba, the Protagonist meets up with his uncle Ryotaro Dojima, who introduces his daughter, Nanako Dojima to the Protagonist. Later, in their journey, Dojima stops by the gas station to refill his car's gas, and the Protagonist is welcomed by an attendant of the gas station, who offers him a job in the Gas Station. Before they drive off, the attendant gives the Protagonist a handshake.
Later, after the Protagonist falls asleep, he awakens in a fog-ridden area. In there, he hears a voice, telling him if he wishes to seek the truth, he should follow it. The Protagonist eventually encounters a human presence, but the heavy fog makes it impossible to see the other person. The voice claims to be intrigued by the Protagonist, and decides to lend him his power for the time being. The next day, the Protagonist enrolls into Yasogami High School and befriends Chie Satonaka and Yukiko Amagi. The Protagonist befriends Yosuke Hanamura the next morning after he helps him to get up from his bicycle accident.
Yosuke later invites the Protagonist to Yasoinaba's delicacy store as a sign of gratitude. However, he changes his plans when Chie overhears his invitation, and takes both the Protagonist and Chie to Junes' food court instead, which, it turns out, is owned by Yosuke's family. Chie later tells the Protagonist and Yosuke about the urban legend of the Midnight Channel, and asks them to try it out. The Protagonist also meets Saki Konishi, a senior of Yosuke working as a part time. Later in the night, the Protagonist tries to gain access to the Midnight Channel and sees a blurred image of a female student in his TV. Intrigued, the Protagonist touches the screen of his TV, and discovers that he can place his hand inside the TV set. Much to his horror, the TV pulls him in, but he gets stuck because the TV screen was too small for his size. He manages to pull himself out, and accidentally knocks himself on the head.
The next morning, the Protagonist, Yosuke and Chie express the bemusement of their discovery, and mention seeing on the TV the same female student. The Protagonist tells Yosuke and Chie about how he was sucked in the TV, and the two assume it was a weird dream. Chie later tells them her family plans to buy a wide-screen TV, and asks Yosuke what he would recommend among the cheap sets that Junes carry. The trio go to the electronics department of Junes, and go over the TV sets on display. The Protagonist tries to re-enter the TV, this time, using a wide-screen TV large enough to insert his body in. Seeing the Protagonist stuck midway inside the TV, Yosuke and Chie try to hide him. Yosuke spies on a number of people approaching, panicking, he and Chie accidentally push themselves in the TV, and the three fall on the other side of the TV, the Midnight Channel.
Inside the Midnight Channel, the trio was shocked to see their surroundings, and becomes panic. The trio anxiously tries to return via searching the entrance they fell earlier, but failing to do so, they decided to check around the area. Eventually, they would encounter a Bear, who urges them to leave this place. The trio confesses their inability of doing so, and losing his patience, the bear summons three TVs, and promptly pushes them into the TVs, forcefully ejecting the trio out of the Midnight Channel.
The next day, during an assembly from the school reveals that Saki Konishi, passed away by a violent accident. Devastated, Yosuke swore to investigate the Midnight Channel, as the female student they've encountered earlier in the Midnight Channel is Saki Konishi. Yosuke requests the Protagonist to help him, as he is the only one who is able to enter the TV. Eventually the Protagonist and Yosuke would enter the Midnight Channel one more time, leaving the Chie behind. Inside the Midnight Channel, the Protagonist and Yosuke once again encounters the bear, who introduces himself as Teddie. Infuriated by their presence, Teddie angrily asks them whether are they responsible of "throwing people" inside the Midnight Channel. Upon learning that the Protagonist and Yosuke aren't responsible, Teddie promises to help, and gives them a pair of glasses, allowing them to see the fog ridden Midnight Channel clearly.
During their investigation, the Protagonist and Yosuke are ambushed by Shadows, causing the Protagonist to hear a voice telling him it is time to awaken his true self, receiving a tarot card. Crushing the card, the Protagonist awakens his initial Persona, Izanagi, and dispatch the Shadows. Bewildered by the Protagonist' ability, Teddie is intrigued by the Protagonist and comes to respect him, much to Yosuke's dismay.
The Protagonist and Yosuke would later end up in Saki Konishi's family liquor store. In there, they hear an inner voice of Saki expressing her hatred towards Yosuke. Surprised and devastated, another 'Yosuke' makes his entrance, and mocks Yosuke. Under Yosuke's continuous declination of the other Yosuke's taunts, the other 'Yosuke' transforms into a Shadow and attacks them. The Protagonist later defeats the Shadow. Yosuke then accepts that the Shadow is who he is, and receives his initial Persona, Jiraiya. The Protagonist and Yosuke would later leave the Midnight Channel and was angrily scolded by a worried Chie in the real world.
Late in that night, the Protagonist tries to tune in the Midnight Channel once again, and encounters a blurry image of young woman in kimono. Yosuke concludes the images as Yukiko Amagi, as the image shown is wearing the same kimono as Yukiko wore during a TV interview, to further complicate manner, Yukiko hasn't been showing up to the school, and Chie became worried. Yukiko later reveals to be busy catering the Inn through the phone, and thus have to skip school. However, still worried, Yosuke suggests the Protagonist to tune in the Midnight Channel tonight as well.
During that night, the Protagonist encounters a weird show called "Princess Yukiko's search for Prince Charming" in the Midnight Channel, where Yukiko dresses up as a princess in a journey of scoring herself a "hot stud", or prince charming. As Yukiko's behavior in the TV was rather bizarre and out of what she would normally do, Yosuke called the Protagonist, and suggests them to meet up in the Junes Food Court the next morning.
The Protagonist, along with Yosuke and Chie eventually sets out to rescue Yukiko, and along their way Chie faces herself, and receives her own Persona. The Protagonist, Yosuke and Chie later founded the Investigation Team, a team dedicated to investigate the origins of the Midnight Channel and the bizarre murder cases.
Through the Investigation Teams' activity within the Midnight Channel, however, they all expresses the same question upon the Protagonist' latent talent of invoking Personae without having to face his other self. As the story progress, the Protagonist would receive an anonymous threat letter telling him to stop his activities of saving people. Though the Investigation Team was worried, they've decided to continue watching the Midnight Channel, ignoring the letter's threat. The Protagonist eventually receives the threat after the Investigation Team continuously ignoring the threat, this time, the letter directly threatens the Protagonist that if he does not stop his actions, someone close to him will die.
The letter was later discovered by Ryotaro Dojima, and upon thinking about the Protagonist' possible connection with the recent chain of events, the Protagonist was detained in the Police station. Ryotaro eventually coerces the Protagonist to spend a a night in the police station. During Midnight, the Protagonist is shocked to see Nanako's silhouette in the Midnight Channel, who is revealed to be kidnapped. The Investigation Team eventually found out Nanako's kidnapper and the one sending the threat letters basing on bits of information salvaged by Ryotaro Dojima. The Investigation Team finds out the true murderer is actually Taro Namatame, the lover of the Mayumi Yamano, the first victim.
The Investigation Team eventually succeeds in saving Nanako, but Nanako's health began deteriorate critically after her exposure to the Midnight Channel. Unfortunately, Nanako ultimately dies in December 3rd, with the Protagonist being the only one able to listen to her last words. The Investigation Team eventually manages to sneak in Namatame's ward. Grief ridden and devastated, the Investigation Team tries to kill Namatame by pushing him trough the his hospital room's TV. Depending on the Protagonist' decisions of dealing with Namatame, Nanako may die or awaken once again.
The Normal Ending:In the Normal Ending, the Protagonist manages to calm down the Investigation Team, and points out his doubts about Namatame being the murderer. The Investigation Team eventually found out the murderer of
Mayumi Yamano and
Saki Konishi is actually
Tohru Adachi, who was also the one sending them the threat letters. Cornering him, the Investigation Team manages to defeat Tohru Adachi. However, after Adachi's defeat, it reveals that in actuality, Adachi was only playing a small role of the whole plan: He was controlled by a being named
Ameno-sagiri, who plans turn to reality into a Shadow-ridden world. The Investigation Team eventually manages to defeat Ameno-sagiri, and proving humans' potential towards Ameno-sagiri, Ameno-sagiri promises to lift up the fog that has been infesting Yasoinaba, but exclaims that as long as humanity wishes for the fog to return, he will awaken once again. The Normal Ending ends with the Protagonist bidding a heartful farewell to his friends, and leaves Yasoinaba.
The True Ending:The True Ending takes up following the events of Ameno-sagiri's defeat. Similar to the Normal Ending, the Protagonist decides to visit his friends one last time. Prior leaving the Dojima Residence, Nanako gives to Protagonist a letter. After bidding farewell to his friends, should the Protagonist decides to regroup the Investigation Team one last time in Junes unlocks the True Ending. In there, the Investigation Team became intrigued of Ameno-sagiri's last words of bestowing the others the power to venture into the Midnight Channel. However, since Adachi and Namatame did not face themselves, the Investigation Team eventually deducts that their powers came from the same source as the Protagonist.
The Protagonist later opens the letter received from Nanako earlier. It turns out that Adachi was the one who wrote to the Protagonist. In the letter, Adachi informs that Protagonist even his game is over, there's still something he couldn't shake it off, and it's up to the Protagonist to solve it.
The Investigation Team eventually realizes that Ameno-sagiri said that those who've awakened their powers are supposed to play their roles to override the world with shadows as well, meaning that there's actually a conductor behind monitoring their actions within the bizarre murders and the Midnight Channel, and the conductor is the one giving the Protagonist, Adachi, and Namatame their Personae. Igor would later then tells the Protagonist that he is going to grasp a truth even their powers cannot predict, and he will play a role in assisting the Protagonist. Igor then gives the Protagonist the Orb of Sight, which erases lies and reveals the truth, playing an important part of the final boss fight.
Trivia:
- In contrast to the previous Protagonist, this Protagonist is actually older than some of the main characters and is referred to as Senpai, instead of You or Him, by Kanji, Rise, and Naoto. He's also called Aibo (partner) by Yosuke, Onii-Chan (or Big Bro in the English version) by Nanako, and Sensei by Teddie.
- In doujin fan works, The Protagonist is often given the joke name "Banchou" (Gang Leader) in reference to Izanagi's appearance, which is akin to that of a gakuran-clad youth gang leader's prevalent image in post-war Japan.
- When the Protagonist is forced to cross-dress for the "Miss" Yasogami High Beauty Pageant during the school festival, his appearance has great resemblance to the character Saya from Blood: The Last Vampire, complete with a wooden sword.
