Persona 4 Endurance Run

"Look at this guy! He's got the face of sales!"

"Get ready to throw the rest of your life away, because Vinny's spending the rest of his playing Persona 4, and he's inviting you to watch."

—Jeff Gerstmann

"We'll leave it there. Come back tomorrow to find out what we just did wrong."

—Vinny Caravella, after Yosuke decapitates the Mysterious Bear

The Let's Play of Persona 4, as played by Jeff Gerstmann and Vinny Caravella of GiantBomb.com.

As the story goes, Jeff bought Persona 4 while the Giant Bomb staff were on break, but soon realised he would never be able to finish it in his spare time. The tale nearly ends there, until the day Jeff decided to ask Vinny to review the game, an offer which Vinny countered with "Why don't we play the game in the office, and record it?" to which Jeff's reaction was, reportedly, "What?".

So began the legendary adventures of high-school student Charlie Tunoku, shadow-slayer and ladykiller, as he searches for the truth behind a multiple murder case taking place in the sleepy country town of Inaba. Along the way he'll get jobs, pass tests, make friends, and cast Bufu on things he shouldn't, all accompanied by the MST3K-esque commentary of Jeff and Vinny.

Here's the link to the episodes. A more user-friendly playlist is available on Youtube.

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Tropes used in Persona 4 Endurance Run include:

• Alternate Character Interpretation: In-Universe; they come from Jeff and Vinny themselves. For starters, Funky Student and Fox are drug dealers, Charlie is a Gundam model enthusiast who is afraid of cops, The girl from the band social link is Chiaotzu, Yukiko likes the Scathatch, the doctor at the Inaba Hospital is the world's most incompetent doctor, Dojima is an Ax Crazy Abusive Parent (this predating and most likely inspiring Peachi's take on the character) and Chihiro and presumably the rest of the student council drink cough syrup. Oh and the Heaven dungeon is a stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar.
• Big Yes: The response of the guys upon upgrading Charlie's Social Link status with Chie to girlfriend.
• Big No: A rather sarcastic one upon the revelation of Naoto's true gender.
• Big OMG: A rather epic one upon seeing the result of their first fusion mistake: Abaddon.
• Butt Monkey: Kanji and Nanako. However Nanako is one of the NPCs that they grow the most attached to and they later regret not being able to progress Kanji's Social Link to its conclusion.
• Catch Phrase: As far as Jeff and Vinny are concerned, "Get bent!" is Kanji's catch phrase. This is despite the fact that he only says it once in the game.
  • Although he does say it sometimes when using Atomic Press.
• Determinator: Jeff and Vinny themselves in Episode 61. Despite frequent, random power outages at their office, the guys hook up the PlayStation 2 and recording gear to a backup power supply and keep on rolling.

Jeff: "Nothing stops the Endurance Run, mother fucker!"

• • Charlie becomes one later after getting up despite just having been murdered by a Goddess
• Did You Just Punt a Tank?
• Fan Disservice/Squick: The guys' reaction to Izanami's up-skirt.
• Flat What: Their reaction upon seeing Namatame's shadow, Kunino-sagiri.
• Genre Savvy: Being video game reviewers, this comes into play.
• Harem Seeker: Charlie manages to make almost all the girls of the Investigation Squad his girlfriend and tries to do this with Sayoko the Nurse. He ends up being Just Friends with Naoto due to the somewhat Guide Dang It nature of that relationship and Sayoko's arc ended up on a completely different note.
• Hulk Speak: Whenever Charlie goes into his Hug Animation
• My Personas... and Ghoul.
• Official Couple: While Charlie builds up a small harem, Chie is considered his de-facto girlfriend.
• One True Pairing: Invoked through Jeff and Vinny, Charlie and Chie are this.
• Random Number God: Sometimes it smiles upon them, sometimes it doesn't. Still, they're actually very lucky, managing to beat notoriously difficult bosses in the first try.
• Really Gets Around: Charlie.
• The Scrappy: Invoked within the Endurance Run. The guys quickly drop Yumi's Social Link due to her Wangst and almost completely ignore Ai for being an Alpha Bitch. They do go out with Ai once later on, but that leads to them getting caught by Yukiko.
• Shout-Out: Many to various Hip-Hop songs and rappers, including, but not limited to, mentioning JJ Fad when they acquire the "Supersonic" item, mentioning Ice Cube when getting the "Ice Cube" item, and the description of Episode 93 as seen below, which is a reference to a Notorious B.I.G. line.
• Single-Stroke Battle: From episode 93's description:

"This'll be over in two hits Yosuke, me hitting the X button and you hitting the floor."

• Two Gamers on a Couch
• Unwanted Gift Plot: For their gift to Nanako from the trip to Iwatodai, Charlie chose the lamp. Regardless, she still loves it.
• Useless Useful Spell: Jeff and Vinny initially think that a couple of instant death skills are these. They learn their lesson later.
• Video Game Caring Potential: The group quickly grow attached to the characters. For example, later on in the game the guys are quite disturbed by the obvious Foreshadowing of Nanako being the next victim.
  • Especially noticeable in part 130 when Nanako dies. During a large part of it they are a lot quieter and unfocused compared to other episodes.