Persona 4: Dojima was NOT the original killer- and other rumors
Intro: (You Can Skip This)
If thereās one thing I, a fandom nerd with an unhealthy lust for trivia, absolutely HATE, itās wild claims with no sources. It was the entire inspiration for my previous Ico post. You might even say I find it... un-BEAR-able.
Living in the information age as we are now, rumors and ridiculous claims are pretty easily debunked for new releases, and discouraged by how easy it is for legions of fans to gang up on you for saying stupid shit and call you mean names until you cry. We have access to so many creatorās blogs, interviews, Youtube channels, and more. Heck, voice actors regularly take requests on Twitter. Misconceptions tend to be pretty easy to clear up these days.
But what about older games, back when this was not always the case? When we rarely heard from studios or developers outside of the occasional short article on a (now long-dead) gaming site? What misconceptions and mysteries continue to run amuck, possibly to never be solved?
Iām glad you asked- irritation has spurned me to collect and research several, from one of my favorite video games of all time: Persona 4. There are quite a few strange ideas Iāve heard over the years, but the biggest one Iām going to tackle is a pretty popular one: The supposed original identity of the killer.
***Spoilers galore***- this game originally came out in 2008.
Dojima was originally supposed to be the killer.
False- Or at least, impossible to confirm.
Youāve probably heard this one. Itās all over boards, itās all over TV Tropes, and itās all over Reddit. Hereās the thing: This has never been officially stated, anywhere, by anyone. Some people say that this information is given in the notes of the Japanese art book, but this is not true. The text only says that Dojimaās design was tweaked because he looked more like a criminal than someone who chases criminals.Ā
(To be fair, he does look pretty suspicious here)
There is also absolutely no source that mentions anything about this supposed change being made because staff or beta testers complained, or found it too dark or unsettling. I suspect this oft-quoted flavor text is simply the a reflection of the fansā own opinion on the matter.
Adachi was originally a red herring, and the true killer was someone else.
I cannot find any sources to concretely support this idea. The only possibility Iām unable to rule out is his entry in the Japanese art book- some say this is where this information is given, but I canāt find a translation for it.
Update: tumblr user @misedejemā had the images I could not find! Thank you so much!
It does in fact appear in the art book- and a more recent translation of the English one, in fact.
There is concept art of the original killer [who was not Adachi] in a yellow raincoat.
There is concept art of Adachi wearing a yellow raincoat. There is no concept art of some other ambiguous character or killer in a yellow raincoat.
(Adachi also dons this same raincoat/jacket in his pre-battle sequence in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, so it had in fact even made an in-game appearance)
Yukiko and Yosuke were considered candidates to be the killer (with their motives being āfor pleasureā).
Having scoured every wiki, interview article, fanpage, and art book scan (if a translation was available) I could find, there was absolutely no mention of this anywhere. Nada, zero, zip, and zilch. Which even I thought was odd, as surely this rumor has to have originated SOMEWHERE. Which brings us to my next, and biggest, entry, the rumor that spawned all the big rumors and presumably this one as well:
An old interview confirms that the identity of the killer was changed very late in the gameās development.
Thatās right- this rumor, which seems to be quite widely accepted even among those who are skeptical of all the rest- is simply not true. It originates from an old Gamasutra interview, which states, quote:
āAlso, one of the villain characters changed in the middle of development; since the character design was done before the story change, the design did not reflect the fact that he was a villain.ā
(For my fellow dyslexics out there: I had to read this sentence over a dozen times before I was sure I understood it- āOne of the characters who was NOT a villain became a villain- since we designed him before we decided he was a villain, heās not evil-looking.ā)
It does not say āthe killerā, nor does it even say āthe main villainā. It says āone of the villain charactersā. (Weāll not be too pedantic about the fact that it says āmiddle of developmentā rather than āvery late in developmentā, although it is something to take note of)
Does this mean it CANNOT possibly be in reference to the main villain aka Adachi? Of course not. However, the widely circulated rumor that it was a concrete statement is, as you can see, false.
That does of course beg the question of who it could be in reference to- Mitsuo is obviously designed to be disturbing looking, so the statement ādid not reflect the fact that he was a villainā doesnāt apply. And thatās a problem- because aside from Mitsuo and Adachi, there arenāt any other real defined āvillainsā in the story. It would be a stretch to say that the Persona 4 Team could have maybe been referencing Nametame, using the term āvillainā loosely to be coy, but that honestly doesnāt make a whole lot of sense. So, does that in fact mean it must have been Adachi, as weāve assumed? Possibly, but we canāt prove it. Take note that it also doesnāt say āthe identity of the killer changed from one character to anotherā. Technically, itās possible that the team wasnāt 100% decided on the true identity of the killer, especially if they were in the middle of development- and could have simply CHOSEN Adachi rather than swapped him with someone else who was originally in the spot.Ā
If we could get a translation of Adachiās page in the Japanese art book, as mentioned above, and it did in fact say he was a red herring, now THAT would be something, and lend way more credence to the āit was supposed to be Dojimaā theory. Sadly, until then, all we have is speculation.
See above edit- the rumor about him being a red herring is in fact, true. Wowie!
So why did his rumor get so wildly out of hand, and where does that leave us?
To answer the first question: Fan boards. But more than that, I suspect this rumor gained so much traction because itās really, really interesting to think about, and because you can see it making sense. Dojima and Adachi could both be potentially suspicious for many of the same reasons- they both work with the police department, so would have every ability to move around beneath suspicion, going to the crime scenes and questioning victims. Dojima is rarely home, so what he could be doing in his off-time is anyoneās guess. It would fit, right? Heck, even some text in the final game seems to agree. If you choose Dojima from the list of options as to who the killer could be, you get this text:
(The person who seems to be the most likely culprit isā¦
ā¦ If Dojima is the killer, he must have been careful to hide his ability to enter the TV world.
Based on that assumption, it seems possible that it could be him.
After all, as your uncle and the owner of the house where you stayed, he could easily have observed your actions.
Obviously, he had easy access to his own house, and heād be more familiar than anyone else with the area.
ā¦ However, your uncle wants to solve this case even at the cost of his life.
His only daughter Nanako was kidnapped by Nametame.
When you consider all the facts, thereās very little to support Dojima as the killerā¦
For the sake of the suffering detective and his daughter Nanako, you must find the real suspect.)
And can you even imagine the betrayal, the drama, of learning this character you grew close to, lived with, shared blood with, was a cold-hearted killer? That right there is an enticing twist, baby! Fanfic fuel for days. Itās not hard to imagine that it would spread far and fast, without people bothering to fact-check it. And who, besides me, wants to comb the internet looking for old interviews on semi-defunct sites?
Was the main villain originally someone other than Adachi? Possibly. Was it Dojima? Though it may seem fitting, there has never been any official word or evidence to suggest this. Is it really fun to this about if this scenario was true? Yes.
Itās also annoying that, while updating this post with various other pieces of information which makes these ideas ALL THE JUICIER, we technically still have no official word on anything, which makes the conclusion technically the same, only now all the more frustrating...
Fun fact: While I was stuck in fan-board hell (I ABHOR fan-boards and discussions in all their vapid, argumentative and misspelled glory) I found MANY posts by people who insisted that Nanako must have been the killer/that they really thought she was the killer when they first played. Upon some further incredulous searching I turned up some info that this was simply a long-running joke in the Persona 4 community- immediately followed by a deluge of replies about how all the more people had in fact legitimately believed it and it was not a joke, and at this point weāve gone so meta I have no idea what the truth is. If there is in fact anyone out there in existence who believes, or believed, that this was ever a possibility, I have only one thing to say to you:
Naoto was originally supposed to be male
This information is supposedly in the Japanese art book, but I canāt find a translation of Naotoās page.
Update: tumblr user @misedejemā had the images I could not find! Thank you so much!
This appears to be 100% true.
Teddie was originally female.
I can find nothing to support this. Some cite concept art, but all concept sketches of Teddie I can find depict him as male. I canāt even find any of him in his Alice costume that could have caused this misconception.
For some reason I had always heard this rumor referenced as originating in concept art- that is untrue. It apparently originates here: (credit again to @misedejemā)
Un-bear-lievable! Looks like itās true!
Yosuke was originally a romance option.
Plausible, but not technically confirmed.
Due to the way his social link is programmed (the famous āgirlfriend flagā, or what makes it possible to give him a hug in rank 8) and the rather romantic-sounding dialogue* left in the game files, it certainly seems plausible or even downright likely, but thereās no official word, and rumors that Atlus forced them to cut it donāt have sources (not that we need any you bigoted assholes).
*Of further note, in the Japanese versions of these lines he explicitly uses the wordĀ āsukiā, which is almost always used to denote liking someone in a romantic sense.
Kanji was originally a romance option.
Sorry guys, with all the ship tease you can see where the rumor comes from, and like many of you I certainly wish it were true, but I canāt find any evidence to support there ever being an actual plan for this.
(P.S: if anyone DOES have a translations for the art pages or can read what they say, please hit me up!)Ā Ā
prguitarman
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