* ActingForTwo:
** Creator/JohnnyYongBosch voices the Protagonist[=/=]Yu Narukami and Tohru Adachi.
** The cast also play their character's respective Shadows.
** Creator/RomiPark voices both Naoto Shirogane and [[spoiler:Izanami]] in Japanese.
** Creator/KarenStrassman plays both Nanako Dojima and [[spoiler:Izanami]].
** Creator/WendeeLee plays both Chihiro Fushimi and Sayoko Uehara.
** Creator/MaryElizabethMcGlynn plays both Noriko Kashiwagi and Hisano Kuroda.
** Creator/SamRiegel plays both Shu Nakajima and Teddie in the ''Golden'' re-release.
* AdoredByTheNetwork: Even moreso than ''VideoGame/Persona3'', it's quite obvious that Atlus ''adores 4'', with the two games receiving a plethora of spinoff media.
* BreakthroughHit: For the ''Persona'' series, up to (and including) ''4'', the western releases all carried the ''Shin Megami Tensei'' name. The [[MorePopularSpinOff success of]] ''Persona 4'' prompted ATLUS USA to drop the ''SMT'' branding with ''Golden'' & ''Arena'', with the next main installment simply called ''VideoGame/Persona5''.
* ColbertBump: ''Golden'' getting released on Steam and debuting at number 1 on the Steam sale charts has, much like when a beloved series arrives on Netflix, provided a way for people curious to play the game without having to [[CrackIsCheaper shill out for]] two long outdated consoles (one of which suffered low sales and is therefore difficult to find used).
* ContentLeak: The 64-bit update for ''Golden'' was leaked early months before its release date. It covers only graphical and performance fixes as well as changes to file structure, however, and does not contain the new features such as the Album.
* {{Defictionalization}}: There is a fanmade recipe [[https://web.archive.org/web/20120213011251/http://www.gourmetgaming.co.uk/post/17289036615/request-persona-4-aiya-rainy-day-special-mega for the Aiya Rainy Day Special Mega Beef Bowl]]. Comes with a vegetarian option.
* DevelopmentGag:
** When mentioning that the police are looking for witnesses to the serial murders, Yosuke jokes about the killer wearing 'bright yellow clothes' at the crime scene. One of the original designs for the killer, as shown in concept artwork, had them wearing a bright yellow raincoat.
** Without hacking, it is hard to see the details of Adachi's police badge, but it uses the portrait of his concept art design.
* DummiedOut:
** The entire ''VideoGame/Persona3'' battle archive is left in the [=PS2=] version in order to pad out its size on-disc, thus making loading faster on the console. This also includes that game's intro movie and entire soundtrack.
*** Almost similarly, traces of ''Persona 3 Portable'' are also left in ''Persona 4 Golden'', which further supports that the latter was built from the former.
** Files suggest that the part time job the gas station attendant offers in the game's opening, which a nameless male student in the shopping district later says was filled, was meant to actually be a job the player could take.
** A paragraph kindly asking players [[DoNotSpoilThisEnding not to spoil the game's story]] has been found in the game's files. It would have played right before starting a new game.
** Unused text strings suggest that there would have been consequences for dating multiple girls, and that all of the girls' Social Links could break or reverse, possibly as a result of this. In ''Golden'', the girls will passive-aggressively call the protagonist out on cheating on Valentine's Day if he has been, but nothing ever comes of it.
** Dungeon Dialogue also implied that all of the Social Links, not just Naoto's and Ai's, were susceptible to reversing and even breaking, just like in ''Persona 3.''
** Some unused dialogue that can be dug out of the game's files ''heavily'' suggest Yosuke was originally intended as a GayOption romance. Some of this still lingers in the game itself - besides the HoYay between him and Yu at times, Yosuke is the only male Social Link in the game that can have minor route changes depending on choices (most notably giving him a CooldownHug at one point if the right dialogue options were taken earlier in the Link), while all of the girls that can be romanced have this as standard.
** In ''Golden'', files in the Social Link folder [[spoiler:contain a portrait of Izanami, in her gas station disguise]].
** Every dungeon has dialogue for if you talk to your party members in front of it while you've already finished the current rescue or other mission. This dialogue for the last two dungeons goes unused, as it's impossible to actually access either of them under that condition.
** The hero has his own dungeon navigation icon for when something needs to be addressed in the dungeon (like finding a chest or stairs). Since the hero never speaks outside dialogue options and VoiceGrunting, this is obviously not used.
** Specific to ''Golden'', voicelines from party members upon finding stairs are missing in English, made obvious by the BGM fading out temporarily similar to other dungeon discovery comments and the Japanese version actually having them. Supposedly, the localization did not manage to record voicelines for this scenario.
** [[spoiler:Magatsu-Izanagi]] has data suggesting him as an obtainable Fool Arcana Persona in the vanilla version, however it is unfinished. It took until ''Golden'' for this to no longer be the case, albeit under a different Arcana.
** Aside from the above, there are also several blank dummy Personas with placeholder data. If hacked in, they are usable in fusion as Fool cards.
** All the Maya-type Shadows (absent in this game) are this, though they are all set to level 1 with no affinity resistance and weakness. Other DummiedOut Shadows include four additional Basalts and one test Shadow meant to be for testing rare encounters. All of these (not counting the test one) even have their own material drops, but will not unlock any new equipment if sold (and all the Maya materials have no sale value).
** There are also several DummiedOut accessories. Some have effects that affect Hit or Evasion rates and some raise damage of a particular element. The "weapon" Bare Hands would make a comeback in this game, supposedly exclusive to Teddie.
** ''Golden'' actually has six time of day phases, but one called "Forenoon" is never used.
** ''Golden'' has a somewhat functional code that allows the player to boot into ''VideoGame/Persona3''. It immediately places the player in the Velvet Room and the only Persona he has is a level 1 Orpheus.
** ''Golden'' has an unused Junes job which would be a night time kind, unused beach and ski resort events, and the unused ability to watch [=DVDs=] rented from Okina City. The latter idea would be brought over to ''VideoGame/Persona5'', but unlike in that game where it was used to raise social stats, this ability was used to obtain skill cards, which is now instead done through Chagall Cafe at the same city.
** Though the voice actor interviews are NoExportForYou outside Japan, the models remain in the files for ''Golden'' regardless of region.
** The multiplatform port/update for ''Golden'' has a dummied entry for [[SuspendSave Quick Save]] on the Controller configuration, which can be made visible through GameMod, though still non-functional without further tweaking. This implies that there were plans to allow the player to Quick Save with a single button press instead of having to open and go through the menus.
* ExecutiveMeddling: As mentioned [[https://www.tumblr.com/nenilein/745280519515832320/yeahhh-pretty-much-lol-i-was-in-the-middle-of?source=share here]], the localization team had a total of six months tops to translate ''the entire game'' for the west, with Teddie suffering the most due to the long list of mandates attached to him.
* KillerApp: ''[[UpdatedRerelease Golden]]'' became this, significantly boosting sales of the lagging [[Platform/PlayStationVita Vita]]. It got to the point that many considered it the only reason to own one until ''Golden'' was released on Steam in 2020.
* LifeImitatesArt: [[http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/03/09/one-of-japan-39-s-weirdest-game-stories-becomes-reality-sort-of.aspx This report]] about a man who was found dead, with no signs of trauma, hanging upside down from a telephone pole.
* MarketBasedTitle: ''Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4'' outside of Japan, for the initial release (See BreakthroughHit above).
* NewWorkRecycledGraphics: Along with using the same engine [[VideoGame/Persona3 as the previous title]], Dojima noticeably shares the same model as Akihiko, particularly with both characters holding their coats over their shoulders. This comes to a head with [[spoiler:the protagonists outright going to [[NostalgiaLevel Tatsumi Port Island]] as part of a school trip, with many familiar locations revisited briefly.]]
* NoBudget: Creator/{{Atlus}} was going through severe financial trouble during development and this shows quite a bit if one digs through the data, as the game was essentially built on top of ''VideoGame/Persona3'' in a way that is more or less akin to a fanmade hack, with much of the data assets remaining buried in the code in a way that was most likely not test data. This is a testament that, despite the lack of money, the game was still financially and critically successful, which likely influenced Sega keeping Atlus as a subsidiary instead of liquidating Atlus' assets after buying them out after they declared bankruptcy a few months post-release.
* TheOriginalDarrin:
** Creator/TroyBaker was replaced by Creator/MatthewMercer in the second half of ''The Animation'', due to Creator/TroyBaker getting married and taking a temporary leave for a honeymoon. Baker did return however for ''Golden''.
** Similarly, Creator/AnnaGraves was replaced by Creator/MaryElizabethMcGlynn in ''The Animation'', but Graves returned for ''Golden'' as well.
** Zack Hanks was Taro Namatame in the games, but Matthew Mercer took over in the anime version.
* OrphanedReference: In the early scene where Yosuke, Chie and the player are discussing their first trip to the Midnight Channel at school, Yosuke mentions a line by Teddie which was actually cut for brevity from the final game.
-->'''Teddie (Cut):''' You have to go home before the fog clears, or else the Shadows will run wild.
-->'''Yosuke (Used):''' Plus, remember what that bear thing said? How that place was dangerous, and we should leave before the fog clears...?
* TheOtherDarrin: In ''[[UpdatedRerelease Golden]]'', Chie is voiced by Creator/ErinFitzgerald in place of Tracy Rooney, and Teddie is voiced by Creator/SamRiegel instead of Creator/DaveWittenberg, reflecting the change made in the anime adaptation.
* TheOtherMarty: In ''Golden'', Margaret has voice lines that are provided by her original actor, Michelle Ann Dunphy, that are also mixed in with re-recorded ones that are widely assumed to be done by Creator/KarenStrassman.
* PlayingAgainstType:
** Creator/JohnnyYongBosch, used to playing the role of TheHero (which he does in this game, seeing as how he's pulling double duty), playing the lovably incompetent detective, Tohru Adachi. [[spoiler: Later, it turns out he's playing even ''further'' against type when it's revealed that Adachi is actually an AxCrazy SerialKiller, complete with an EvilLaugh when summoning his Persona.]]
** Creator/RieKugimiya in the Japanese voice track is well-known for playing {{Tsundere}}s like [[Literature/ShakuganNoShana Shana]] and her various clones. Here she plays Rise, who has both pigtails and ZettaiRyouiki but isn't tsundere in the least.
* RealLifeRelative: In ''Golden'', Creator/SamRiegel and Creator/EdenRiegel, who voice Teddie and Marie respectively, are brother and sister in real life.
* ReferencedBy: One of the splash texts that can show up on the title screen of ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' is "switches and ores", a reference to the "bitches and whores" meme. The meme itself came from an edit of an adult parody comic.
* StarMakingRole:
** Kanji is more or less ''the'' role that put Creator/TroyBaker on the road to voice-work super-stardom and roles like Joel in ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs''. While he did return for the role at first (being in love with it), he eventually had to bow out due to becoming very high in demand and busy with motion capture work and music to the point where he cannot find time to continue many of his roles in anime and [=JRPGs=].
** Similarly, while Creator/ErinFitzgerald wasn't ''unknown'' before becoming [[TheOtherDarrin the second Chie]], it was her take on Chie in ''Golden'' and the animations that put her solidly on the radar of English voice-over fans.
* SwanSong: Is generally considered to be the last big [=PS2=] game, being released a little less than two years after the [=PS3=].
* UncreditedRole: The entire cast of the English dub are uncredited. As a result of this, Naoto's original English voice actress was unknown for almost a decade after the game's release. Eventually in 2018, Creator/AnnaGraves [[https://twitter.com/gravyvoice/status/1038439203564974080 confirmed on Twitter]] that she was her voice actress.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Rise's original design had her being a playable party member like the others and her being a chain-wielding [[{{Tsundere}} ice queen]] [[JapaneseDelinquents sukeban]]. Since Kanji already filled the delinquent void, the concept was scrapped, and her original design instead ended up going to NPC Ai Eibihara when Rise was redesigned as an IdolSinger loosely inspired by her voice actress. Rise's original concepts would [[RefittedForSequel eventually be partially reused]] for ''Persona 5'''s Ann.
** Kanji was originally going to be a middle-aged man with a pompadour or long curls instead of having his hair short and dyed blonde. Naoto would've been straight-up male instead of a female cross-dresser. Also, a colored sketch of her female version showed her in a white shirt, but without her coat. Early Chie designs alternated between variations of Lisa Silverman from ''VideoGame/Persona2'' and Chihiro Fushimi from ''VideoGame/Persona3'', complete with long straight hair down her shoulders. Conversely, Yukiko would've been the one with short hair, akin to Aigis from ''VideoGame/Persona3''. Alternatively, she would have kept her final look, but her red cardigan would have been a pullover sweater with a more complex design. One early version of Teddie had him in a much creepier bear costume that was a patchwork of colors based on the classic television [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMPTE_color_bars SMPTE color bar test pattern]]. All of these original designs can be found in the Visual Data art book.
** Margaret didn't exist initially, Elizabeth from ''VideoGame/Persona3'' was intended to return as the Velvet Room assistant. They decided to make a new assistant so as not to de-value ''Persona 3'''s stand-alone storyline.
** Other candidates for the killer were either Yukiko or Yosuke, but their motivations (for the sake of self-pleasure) were considered too weak and cliche. Not only that, but had they gone with that, it would have created a huge plot hole during their respective Shadow encounters since you'd figure committing murder would be a much bigger skeleton in the closet than personal insecurity or the desire to be free from family tradition, not to mention that only Persona users can enter the TV or push people inside (if you try to select either one as the culprit, the narrator will inform you that they didn't awaken to their Personas until after the first two murders). However, Atlus would revisit this idea in ''VideoGame/Persona5'' [[spoiler:with Akechi being the traitor to the Phantom Thieves and one of the game's main villains]]. The final one in mind was Dojima himself, with there even being extra dialogue tying him to evidence gathered in the investigation near the end of the game, but the writers felt it would be too dark to have Dojima being the killer, and decided against it.
** ''Golden'' was originally planned to be a [[Platform/PlayStationPortable PSP]] title, which would've led to features needing to be cut. Thankfully the [[Platform/PlayStationVita Vita]] came along.
** The Killer originally wore a yellow raincoat. This would be RefittedForSequel in ''VideoGame/Persona4ArenaUltimax.''
** Originally, Teddie's human form was supposed to be a girl, with his gender changing depending on whether he was in or out of the TV world. However, when the decision was made to make Naoto a girl (originally, she was supposed to be an effeminate boy), the team decided that two gender-based surprises in one story was a bit too much, and scrapped the idea. This was likely referenced in the final game where Teddie landslides a crossdressing pageant as he was the only entrant who could reasonably pass as a girl.
* WordOfGod:
** In the second episode of the Persona Stalker Club, Atlus confirms that Yosuke enjoys listening to Western and Japanese music, including those from soundtrack albums.
** The fifth episode, basically an Adachi special, confirms that although Adachi carries a lighter on his person for whenever Dojima needs it, Adachi himself doesn't smoke.
** The twenty-third episode mentions that Adachi is very familiar with the Moonlight Bridge since he used to drive there when he was working in the city prior to his transfer to Yasoinaba.
* WordOfSaintPaul:
** Creator/TroyBaker stated during a convention that after asking the English Voice Director for motivation, that he voiced Kanji as if he was indeed gay. [[WordOfGay Baker has gone on record that he does believe Kanji is gay]].
** Creator/ErinFitzgerald later admitted to doing the same thing with Chie in ''Golden'', portraying her as 'madly in love' with Yukiko after reading the script. While Chie can be one of Yu's love interests, her [[HomoeroticSubtext relationship with Yukiko]] does make her AmbiguouslyBi.
* YouSoundFamiliar: Due to having a similar voice cast as the previous game that draws upon the same pool of actors, this game shares a lot of its cast with ''VideoGame/Persona3''
** Yosuke Hanamura is voiced by Creator/YuriLowenthal, who voiced the protagonist, Pharos, and Ryoji in ''3''.
** Nanako Dojima and [[spoiler:Izanami]] are voiced by Creator/KarenStrassman, who previously voiced Aigis and Natsuki Moriyama in ''3''.
** Hermit Social Link, Naoki Konishi, is voiced by Creator/DerekStephenPrince, who previously portrayed Takaya Sakaki and Takeharu Kirijo in ''3''.
** Creator/ValerieArem voices the Temperance Social Link character, Eri Minami, and was previously the voice of Isako Toriumi.
----