Shout Out / Persona 4

• In the opening intro, Rise does the "Hare Hare Yukai" dance.
• When introducing The Protagonist during class, Mr. Morooka will mention kids using their "my-places".
• Just as Izanagi awakens from The Protagonist, a voiceover says, "Thou art the one... who opens the door". A few years earlier, there was another Eastern RPG that used a similar line of dialogue.
• After blatantly and repeatedly propositioning The Protagonist, Sayoko offers to pour him a cup of "hot coffee", a reference to the infamous, inaccesible mini-game from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
  • As another nod to the Grand Theft Auto games, when it's time to ask Yukiko about her kidnapping, Yosuke rules out the possibility of the culprit wearing bright yellow clothes at the scene of the crime. In Grand Theft Auto (Classic), the Player Character, a career criminal, is denoted with yellow clothing.
• During the guys' beauty pageant, Kanji's outfit is based on the iconic Marilyn Monroe dress from The Seven Year Itch, while Teddie strongly resembles the titular character from the Walt Disney adaptation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The Protagonist's outfit and wooden sword is a shout out to Saya from Blood: The Last Vampire, right down to the hair braids.
• Chie's initial Persona, Tomoe, wears a yellow jumpsuit akin to the one worn by Bruce Lee in Game of Death. In Golden, Chie gets one of her own as an alternate costume.
  • The localization makes these references deliberate: one of Chie's winning quotes is lifted from Enter the Dragon, "Don't think. Feel.", while her idle animation during combat is her bouncing around like Lee, including his signature nose-thumb flick. Golden adds this further with her exclusive "Dragon Hustle" skill, where there's a chance she'll say "Don't miss all this heavenly glory!".
• The entire Void Quest dungeon is a shout out to Dragon Quest and retro Eastern RPGs, in general: the boss uses the Megami Tensei battle screen for several attacks, and some of the text that pops up as players progress through the dungeon is directly taken from Shin Megami Tensei I. A specific reference occurs upon beating the Optional Boss of the Void Quest dungeon, where examining a pile of bones in the boss' lair, the game states "No response. It must be a tile, not an object", alluding to the recurring Dragon Quest line, "No response. Looks like a corpse."
• If players return to the Void Quest dungeon later when the Investigation Team is meant to rescue Nanako, Yosuke will make a comment about "their princess being in another castle".
• The Persona Hell Biker is obviously modeled after Ghost Rider; even its Japanese name, "Hell's Angel", is a reference to the comic book character's epitaphs. Similarly, the Persona Nata Taishi is clearly patterned after Astro Boy, especially its spot-on hairstyle.
• The best weapon for The Protagonist in the game (including Golden) that can be bought at Daidara Metalworks is a longsword called the "Soul Crusher".
  • One of Naoto's weapons is called "Algernon", with its description stating it was created as part of an "experiment to find happiness", no less.
  • Giving the Triumph sword to the Artisan Apprentice in Golden will result in him giving you the Light Sword, which is basically a lightsaber.
• One of the many healing items in Persona 4 is called "Antibiotic Gel", a frequently used surgical tool in the Trauma Center series. Meanwhile, Sidequest #44 (Extracurricular Activities, Part 2) in Golden has players collect "Culurium", which plays an important role in Trauma Center: New Blood.
• There is no way that someone at Atlus wasn't thinking of God Hand with Chie's Follow-Up Attack, "Galactic Punt", as well as the physical skill "God's Hand" that she can learn.
• The Protagonist's friends from the Yasogami High sports clubs, Daisuke and Kou, belong to the soccer and basketball teams, respectively. When considering both their looks and attitude, the two are nods to characters from popular sports-themed Anime - Daisuke resembles Kyosuke Kano of Hungry Heart: Wild Striker and Kou looks like Kaede Rukawa of Slam Dunk.
• At one point, Yosuke comments on something giving him "the jibblies"; at least one Non-Player Character uses that phrase, too.
• During one of the rank ups for the Death Arcana Social Link, Hisano talks about how her husband was diagnosed with a disease that made him forget who she was, and each day she had to remind him, and the day ended with him remembering her, only to forget about her the next day. Her husband's disease led to her wanting to kill him, but she couldn't out of her love.
• The plot of Persona 4 involves a mysterious fog that may or may not have monsters lurking in it. Sound familiar? Even a few students at Yasogami High bring up how similar the situation is to a book that they read.
• When preparing for the omelette cooking competition, Yosuke begs The Protagonist, "Help us, (name)! You're our only hope!" For an additional Star Wars reference, Chie's second and third Personas (the latter being Golden-exclusive) trade in the dual-bladed naginata that Tomoe has for what's clearly a double-bladed lightsaber.
  • When buying the ingredients for the cook-off at Junes, Kanji quips that they look like they're about to enter the "Ultimate Frying Championship".
• "Witch Detective", a hard-to-obtain book, is described as "A ploddingly-written Romantic Comedy about a girl on her first day of school in a new town. Vampires are involved", making this an obvious reference to the Twilight novels. As a Take That! to its divisive reception, upon reading the book, dialogue for the game states "...The content of this book was almost physically painful for you to read."
• In Golden, when The Protagonist, Yosuke, and Kanji have a contest in Okina City to see who can get a girl's number, one of them they receive will be an angry boyfriend who threatens to "rip off your head and spit down your neck".
• Exclusively in Golden, if players choose to have The Protagonist go bug harvesting in the first two weeks of January, Teddie will join in and say, "It's dangerous to go alone. Take me!"
• The Secret Laboratory dungeon is an explicit reference to locales from Tokusatsu, which the Investigation Team Lampshades: even the bird-shaped logo hung all over the dungeon bears a strong resemblance to the Shocker symbol. Meanwhile, the dungeon boss for the Secret Laboratory has a body that's divided into two halves down the middle, with one half being more obviously mechanical, complete with a clear half that reveals its mechanical brain, not unlike the eponymous character from Kikaider.
• The King's Game event at the Tatsumi Port Island nightclub is chalk full of references:
  • When Teddie draws the red stick in the first round, he exclaims "I, the King, command thee to smooch the King without delay!" Becomes Hilarious in Hindsight when Johnny Yong Bosch, who voices The Protagonist of this game's English dub, would voice the protagonist of that series for its English dub, too.
  • Yukiko declares herself the "queen" after the first two rounds of King's Game and gives Naoto orders. In doing so, she proclaims, "Ah! Naoto-kun! I choose you!". Another Pokémon nod appears during the ski trip in Golden, where a dialogue choice for The Protagonist is, "I'll catch you all!"
  • As Naoto begins talking about the Shirogane family and how they've been lending their powers to the police from time-to-time, Chie suddenly relates them to a person from a movie she watched before - "Kuzonoha". In the Japanese version, the reference she uses is "Kindaichi".
    • Screenshots seen in the PlayStation 2 manual for the original Persona 4 release have The Protagonist's name explicitly set as "Raidou Kuzunoha".
• Naoto and Kanji's follow-up Combination Attack after an All-Out Attack is called "Beauty and the Beast".
• By the bus stop in the Shopping District, there's a Non-Player Character who, when spoken to, will greet The Protagonist with, "Hey! Listen!"
• One optional discussion with Chie about mid-terms has her ask "What are midterms good for?" One of the responses is "Absolutely nothing!", to which she'll follow that up with, "Say it again!", referencing the opening lyrics to Edwin Starr's famous song, "War".
• In Golden, Naoto talks about one of the detective novels she read as a child, describing its protagonist as "frequently [making] impulsive decisions when pursuing his suspects". While the name of the book is never said, she mentions the name of the protagonist - "Sam". The Japanese version, however, makes the reference explicit as she says the protagonist's full name, "Sam Spade".
• After the mid-term exams, Chie asks Yukiko what she chose for the question which asks what "that" refers to in the sentence. They both have different answers and neither of them really seem sure if it's correct. This is likely a nod to the famous Meat Loaf song, "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" since it's long been debated what "that" is referring to.
• When the Investigation Team is discussing Namatame's motives and whether the character is crazy or not, Rise states "Sane or insane...Sounds like a play I saw before", she's essentially describing Hamlet.
• Much of the game can be interpreted as a giant love letter to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, more specifically, to Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable.
  • The story is the fourth installment in a series where each succeeding title is only tangentially related to the last one by similar themes and the occasional returning character. This time, the plot takes on a smaller scale than before - a murder-mystery as opposed to a more Cosmic Horror-themed plot. The initial crime is unsolvable by the police because they lack the knowledge of how the killer commits the murder and would never believe the truth if told. It also takes place in a small town and features many threats that hit closer to home than the previous installments, especially the idea of someone disappearing, presumably dead, and their loved ones never being able to find out what truly happened. There is a major emphasis on character development outside of the main plot, which features heavy themes of searching for the truth and finding justice.
  • Characters are put through a trial by the villain in which they either die or gain the ability to manifest a physical representation of their subconscious, with bonus points for having the requirement to survive being based on the character's mental fortitude. Like JoJo's requiring incredible drive and/or fighting spirit, Persona 4 requires its characters to have the strength to face the part of themselves they hate the most.
  • The murder victims being strung up on telephone poles seems to be a reference to Keicho Nijimura's death in Part 4.
  • Naoto is a young prodigy who is relatively anti-social and kickstarts the final parts of the investigation because of her tenacity and investigative skills, not so dissimilar to Rohan Kishibe.
  • Kanji is a punk/delinquent who could easily outclass almost anyone in a fair fight, but he secretly has a softer side. He isn't the brightest member of the Investigation Team, but he's reliable, and has one parent who he loves more than anyone else. Finally, his character arc ends when he learns to stop relying on others to tell him what to think and to think for himself. Sounds awfully close to what Okuyasu Nijimura went through in Part 4.
  • Nanako is younger than the main cast, but ends up becoming an honorary member of the group. After she is put in danger by the villain and dies (temporarily), her death causes the characters to investigate the case with renewed resolve, much like Shigechi.
  • Saki Konishi is a young girl who is murdered because the killer was attracted to her physically, but didn't particularly care about her personality. Her voice is heard even after her death, which motivates the Investigation Team, especially Yosuke, to solve these murders. Saki effectively plays a similar role to Reimi Sugimoto.
  • The killer's identity and motives: Adachi kills his victims because while they are physically attractive, he discovers their personalities are ugly to him. His ultimate goal, though, is for a life without pain. The rest of the (attempted) killings are for the sake of his own pleasure. Adachi believes himself to be impossible to catch, but when put under pressure by his imminent discovery, he panics. He attempts to hide his crimes by hiding behind another face (both in the case of hiding behind a rookie detective screw up and in attempting to pin his crimes on Namatame). All of this is incredibly similar to Yoshikage Kira.
  • The Protagonist is a strong, but quiet man who comes to town for a simple reason. He ends up getting pulled into the murder investigation by simply showing up at the right time and because his friends need his help. He has an incredibly powerful ability when it comes to Personas, even compared to everyone else, and is instrumental in defeating the villain when no one else can, but is arguably the least interesting character because of his Vanilla Protagonist traits. Jotaro Kujo, much?
  • Finally, there's Teddie: at first, he's a weak character who initially acts as support for the main cast. He isn't someone who should normally be able to have a Persona, but he manages to gain one. He undergoes three physical transformations that give him new power - first to protect his loved ones in an emergency (Shadow Rise and Shadow Teddie), once when he becomes determined to become self-reliant (post-Shadow Teddie, the power to leave the TV World and appear human in the real world), and finally when he saves someone he cares about and becomes strong enough to face his problems head on and stand alongside them (when Nanako tells him his voice was what pulled her back from the brink - his Ultimate Persona. All of that sounds a lot like Koichi Hirose.
  • Around the final week of summer holidays, Yosuke calls in, asking for extra hands to help out with work at Junes. The player's choices are:
    Agree to help
    But refuse
  • Of course, this is far from the first time a Persona game was inspired by JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: the series has been stated to have been inspired by Part 3: Stardust Crusaders for the concept of Stands. Evokers from Persona 3 are a reference to an early scene in Part 3 in which Jotaro demonstrates his stand, which he believed to be an evil spirit, by attempting to shoot himself in the head and his Stand, Star Platinum, catching the bullet before it could reach his head. Many parallels can also be drawn to Persona 5 and Part 5: Vento Aureo (the most obvious being they both star fabulously dressed criminals). Persona 4 just happens to be the one in which it's easiest to see this inspiration.