Persona 4
Persona 4 is a role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus for Sony's PlayStation 2, and chronologically the fifth installment in the "Persona" series, itself a part of the larger "Megami Tensei" franchise. The game was released in Japan in July 2008, North America in December 2008, and Europe in March 2009. "Persona 4" takes place in a fictional Japanese countryside and is indirectly related to earlier "Persona" games. The player-named protagonist is a high-school student who moved into the countryside from the city for a year. During his year-long stay, he becomes involved in investigating mysterious murders while harnessing the power of summoning Persona. The game features a weather forecast system with events happening on foggy days to replace the moon phase system implemented in the previous games.
Yu Narukami
In the initial "Persona 4" game, the main player-controlled character is known simply as the "Protagonist" or "Hero", whose name is decided by the player. The name "Yu Narukami" was first given to the character in the 2011 anime adaptation, "", and has since been used in official games where the character is unable to be named by the player, beginning with "Persona 4 Arena". Prior to this, he was given the name of Sōji Seta in the game's manga adaptation. In an interview, game director Katsura Hashino drew attention to the way in which the Protagonist remains silent and emotionless throughout the game. This leaves the player to interpret the Protagonist's emotional reactions subjectively at any particular point. Hashino elaborated on this particular character trait becoming an obstacle for "Persona 4: The Animation"s director Seiji Kishi, since the character would undoubtedly have to speak and show some level of emotion. In the same interview, Kishi admitted the difficulty of transitioning the silent Protagonist into the anime without destroying what Hashino had already established.