No worries at all; I was told ahead of time that would likely be the case so I am prepared! c:
I went ahead and made a new, separate opt-out post here, and updated the info post with this link. I hope that's clearer and more detailed!
As far as the TV World thing goes, it's absolutely not a dealbreaker for me; I realize the high-tech concept might be kind of gamebreaky in a low-powered Tolkien setting, and honestly, my original concept for this sideplot would be heavily dependent on having castmates from the True Ending plotline in the game as well, which doesn't seem highly likely to happen. (Souji would need to be told that his poor life choices, i.e. murdering Namatame, were wrong and if he hadn't done this, his cousin Nanako would have miraculously revived and recovered after her death. That info would either have to come from someone in the True End line, or some kind of truth-revealing event in-game, if something like that were to come up.) I just figured it would be better to have a discussion about it upfront, like we are!
This YouTube gameplay video of Souji and his friends discovering the TV World for the first time may be more helpful than/in addition to a written description: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXB9v8ZVsVQ
Basically, the TV World is a fog-covered side/pocket universe created by the goddess Izanami (one of the game's antagonist characters), and it is informed by human thoughts and desires, mostly the negative ones. Persona 4's overarching theme is about capital-T Truth, and along with that, secrecy, lies, the voyeurism/exhibitionism that comes from technology/social media, and "facing your true self," i.e., recognizing who you are, flaws and all. The way to "face your true self" is done by battling a Shadow Self, which is a manifestation of a person's negative thoughts/traits/desires, and once the Shadow Self has been defeated in combat and accepted as part of one's true self, it morphs into a Persona, which is an entity or "facade" that can be summoned in order to face and overcome life's hardships.
An example video of one of Souji's friends encountering his Shadow Self, denying that it is part of him (which is what drives them to attack), the ensuing battle, and eventual acceptance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02I47U2p5x4
Souji is unique in that he never faced a Shadow Self - originally, his Persona powers spontaneously manifested on their own. But he basically shut down after his cousin's death, has been bottling up a lot of negative emotions, and quit searching out Truth, which is what I've written as having sealed his Personas away from use. In other words, he pretty much quit the game.
Another potential option that I have seen played out elsewhere in DWRP is that Persona users will sometimes have a re-emergence of their Shadow Selves - basically, a regression - if they've been suppressing negative thoughts/desires/etc. While Shadows stick to the TV World in most of Persona 4, only "crossing over" to the real world toward the conclusion of the Bad End, that's not necessarily the case in the previous Persona games, and I've seen the argument for this happening outside of the TV World in DWRP due to "vague hand wavey gestures and the game setting is a different reality anyway so therefore it works." If that's a more acceptable method in line with AM's setting, I could definitely work with that instead! But again, I wouldn't imagine that would happen for quite some time, and I'd obviously work with the mods to plot it out.
If the whole thing is just too much, I'm totally fine playing Souji with no Personas, because this seems like a really cool setting that he would do well in, independent of what powers he possesses.
I hope that helps clarify things! If not, please let me know what I can do to better explain and I will do my best. c:
no subject
I went ahead and made a new, separate opt-out post here, and updated the info post with this link. I hope that's clearer and more detailed!
As far as the TV World thing goes, it's absolutely not a dealbreaker for me; I realize the high-tech concept might be kind of gamebreaky in a low-powered Tolkien setting, and honestly, my original concept for this sideplot would be heavily dependent on having castmates from the True Ending plotline in the game as well, which doesn't seem highly likely to happen. (Souji would need to be told that his poor life choices, i.e. murdering Namatame, were wrong and if he hadn't done this, his cousin Nanako would have miraculously revived and recovered after her death. That info would either have to come from someone in the True End line, or some kind of truth-revealing event in-game, if something like that were to come up.) I just figured it would be better to have a discussion about it upfront, like we are!
This YouTube gameplay video of Souji and his friends discovering the TV World for the first time may be more helpful than/in addition to a written description: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXB9v8ZVsVQ
Basically, the TV World is a fog-covered side/pocket universe created by the goddess Izanami (one of the game's antagonist characters), and it is informed by human thoughts and desires, mostly the negative ones. Persona 4's overarching theme is about capital-T Truth, and along with that, secrecy, lies, the voyeurism/exhibitionism that comes from technology/social media, and "facing your true self," i.e., recognizing who you are, flaws and all. The way to "face your true self" is done by battling a Shadow Self, which is a manifestation of a person's negative thoughts/traits/desires, and once the Shadow Self has been defeated in combat and accepted as part of one's true self, it morphs into a Persona, which is an entity or "facade" that can be summoned in order to face and overcome life's hardships.
An example video of one of Souji's friends encountering his Shadow Self, denying that it is part of him (which is what drives them to attack), the ensuing battle, and eventual acceptance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02I47U2p5x4
Souji is unique in that he never faced a Shadow Self - originally, his Persona powers spontaneously manifested on their own. But he basically shut down after his cousin's death, has been bottling up a lot of negative emotions, and quit searching out Truth, which is what I've written as having sealed his Personas away from use. In other words, he pretty much quit the game.
Another potential option that I have seen played out elsewhere in DWRP is that Persona users will sometimes have a re-emergence of their Shadow Selves - basically, a regression - if they've been suppressing negative thoughts/desires/etc. While Shadows stick to the TV World in most of Persona 4, only "crossing over" to the real world toward the conclusion of the Bad End, that's not necessarily the case in the previous Persona games, and I've seen the argument for this happening outside of the TV World in DWRP due to "vague hand wavey gestures and the game setting is a different reality anyway so therefore it works." If that's a more acceptable method in line with AM's setting, I could definitely work with that instead! But again, I wouldn't imagine that would happen for quite some time, and I'd obviously work with the mods to plot it out.
If the whole thing is just too much, I'm totally fine playing Souji with no Personas, because this seems like a really cool setting that he would do well in, independent of what powers he possesses.
I hope that helps clarify things! If not, please let me know what I can do to better explain and I will do my best. c: