Persona 4 Unashamedly Trying To Appeal To Losers

I don't think anyone has written about this before, so I shall do so. Every gamer gets some kind of immersion or deeper involvement and connection with some of the games they play. Maybe they can relate to a character or a situation, maybe they love the environment the game is set in and so on.

What I found so striking with Persona 4 is that it was clear from the first 20 minutes of playing that the developers were trying to reach out to a certain demography and play on their emotions in order to get them involved in the game. Around 18 hours into the game I have discovered that there really is nothing special about it. It has a compelling narrative, no doubt but the gameplay is rather sub-par and limited in every aspect aside from a rather deep social and levelling up system. So why do people praise this game to the ends of the earth?

I shall tell you.

The game begins and you are a young boy who is moving to a new school in a town away from his parents. The way this is done already sounded alarms in my brain. IT is not like in Bully, where you play a mischevious kid who got expelled... instead, your parents have moved country on a business thing or something, and you, a skinny (weak-looking) pretty boy with a feminine fringe and delicate face, have to adjust to being in a new environment and have to experience the fears of beginning in a new school and meeting new people while your relation looks after you.

On your first day the teacher is rude to you and you can choose to be rude back or be a good boy.
You do a lot of eavesdropping on your first few days.
And you befriend stereotypical losers (a timid boy and a butch, unattractive girl).
As the game progresses...things mix up a bit. You become friends with a girl who is considered "the most popular in school".
And you can join a sports team.
And you enter an alternate reality where you discover there is a part of you called a "persona" which you can get to fight for you.

If it wasn't clear to me earlier, it was clear to me by this point. The developers are reaching out to losers, the kind that suffer bullying. Think about it. The people who are scared of standing up to their oppressors (in this case, a teacher), the people that either have no friends or have a few also loserish friends, that are socially awkward, that are weak, that are unconfident, that try to stay out of trouble, that are un-athletic, etc.

It is so clear. The developers start off by playing off loser's expectations, basing itself on their daily lives....their discomfort around people and social awkwardness that prevents them from approaching anyone. Then they are handed the typical outsider friends. But then as it goes along, they are given an opportunity to befriend a popular girl to make them feel like you are less of a loser but still justifies the people they predominantly hang around with. It implies you CAN be friends with the cool kids if you want to, but gives you mostly people that would be more "on your level".
Not to mention there is a distinct lack of hostility from any characters in school. It is like unconditional acceptance of your pussy-ass....until you join a sports team, and naturally...everyone on the team doubts you and surprise surprise, IS HOSTILE to you. It is not that they are hostile towards you because you look like a pussy faggot. Nope. It is because of "jealousy" and "butthurtedness" that you are a city boy. Basically....a cop-out, trying to tell losers that the people who bully them are basically doing it out of envy, rather than because they get normal primal satisfaction from putting a person in their place.

And so you are left behind at the end of the match to put away the equipment and goal posts (which fucking school makes you take down the goal posts?). This is just to tease the losers a bit and make them continue playing as they know that they can overcome this and find acceptance, because ultimately it is just a game. And so they push forth and play the sports in game (which they cannot do in reality) and eventually (inevitably) find a way to impress the team and most of all...the captain.

Thing is... even the football captain seems to be a bit of a loser himself. It heavily points to the possibility that he is a homo- even though girls all throw themselves at his feet, he ignores them time and time again. That is the thing. This game unashamedly tries to make the claim that everyone has a sensitive side and has their own personal shame. Of course it does. It is targeted at people that still wet the bed, wipe their boogers on their leg and dribble when they get excited.

Numerous people will go missing from the game and it becomes your responsibility to find them and save them from what has taken them. You will do so by entering an alternate reality and defeating "their shadow" (which is a part of themselves that they have repressed). These can be their envy at others, their anger or their shame. One of the character's repressed characteristics is that he is not masculine and is actually feminine. This is effectively a loser's mentality towards a "cool kid". Losers try to downplay anyone that is superior to them out of jealousy of their popularity and anger about the wedgie they received. They do this by creating scenarios in their head that these people are actually secretly homosexual, insecure or have a rough family life. When in reality some kids just get a kick out of it. Plain and simple.

Nonetheless, when a character confronts this side of them, they are then given a Persona. This will basically do 90% of the fighting for your character in the game. They can be absolutely fabulous looking things; knights, angels, fantastical soldier thingies...basically what any loser wishes he was. Any loser wishes he was stronger so he could fight off the bullies, or wishes he had friends to take his side. Well this game tells you that you can have friends if you wanted, and you have a side of you that is strong, you just don't know it!

Sure, it could be a noble cause, reaching out to these poor kids. But at the end of the day it just feels very forced and I can see right through the artifice. It also makes it very clear to me why so many people like the Persona games-and it says a lot about their personality (I should have known something was up, when I claimed Persona is shit and got very upset bitchy insecure comments from some weaboo fags). I mean, Persona is not a BAD game by any means but it is ultimately average for the most part. The only reason it gets such praise is because it knows its primary demography well, and plays into their misfortunes to create a world where they feel they can fix all the issues in their own life.

If you need proof.
http://www.reddit.com/r/vita/comments/1yuyi1/does_p4g_make_anyone_else_feel_lonely_spoilers/

Thank you for taking the time to read.

Pro-tip: If you want people to read what you write, use fewer words.

Naoto is best girl

The first girl I've ever kissed was last year, who was a girl that bullied me from 11-14. Almost had sex but being the player that I am I bitched it and instead went on g7 chat to talk Spidey with Rambo.

Sir Angelus the Revenant wrote:

Pro-tip: If you want people to read what you write, use fewer words.

And people give ME shit or not reading

Orion wrote:

The first girl I've ever kissed was last year, who was a girl that bullied me from 11-14. Almost had sex but being the player that I am I bitched it and instead went on g7 chat to talk Spidey with Rambo.

Good. She was probably a druggy anyway.

Too long, didn't read.

Stop being dickhead spammers or I will raise your warning bars.

Cool doctor nefarious avatar teckno

Orion wrote:

Cool doctor nefarious avatar teckno

Banned for 1 day.

I wished my high school life was like Persona 4. I want to reach out to the truth and build my social links with my friends.

^ It';s shit like this

Also Persona is such a man's game

I'll never get to play PSP and eat bocky with 4 Japanese high school girls.

some faggot on reddit wrote:

Well I'd probably trade my high school friends that I still know for my persona 4 friends.

some other faggot wrote:

I seriously thought I was the only one. I can't play it because of how depressed I get.

some other faggot wrote:

Even when I was high school age I didn't have as many friends as the protagonist does. Now that I'm not in school and I've spent so many hours playing this game - its message of "friends are important!" isn't doing me much good.
The only person who's said they loved me in the past real life month is Chie... ;___;

I mean literally
http://www.reddit.com/r/vita/comments/1yuyi1/does_p4g_make_anyone_else_feel_lonely_spoilers/

In all seriousness the game's not all that bad.

It's just the absolutely painfully repetitive dungeons and its unwillingness to immerse you in the environments. Well... and the fact that the characters are all kinda boring.

Japanese high-school girls <3333