Edit: I'm in the process of putting together a blog entry detailing the process behind this. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask!

I've finally finished this first episode of this bad idea. Most of the footage is pulled from the Vita version of the game, but the intro sequence and difficulty selection are from an emulated PS2 version (too much changed in the Vita version). I'm hoping to get Part 2 and 3 done sometime this week.

Note there is a minor rendering issue with this video (the original Endurance Run footage shows up for a fraction of a second, and I didn't spot it before uploading). I'll replace this video once a corrected version has exported. Uploaded, now processing. Almost finished editing Part 02 :D

Part 2 is now uploading! Should be up shortly.

YouTube Playlist [Part 1-3]

This is really cool, good work! It also seems like an insane amount of work.

Do you have any plans on how to do the battle sections and the other random stuff? That seems like it would be impossible to do (or at least insanely time consuming).

Edit: Having quickly compared this with the original one, this looks SO MUCH better! Holy crap!

@odinsmana said:

It's not that bad if you get the recorded footage to approximately match the original (characters move so little during these parts, so you can just cut a chunk or repeat a chunk of video without it being noticeable). When the Vita version diverges from the original game, it can be a bit of more of an issue - if you watch Igor closely, there are a couple of questionable animation transitions (had to cut some effects that only happen in the re-release), and the iris-out after "My car is over there" is an Adobe Premiere effect (to hide a sequence/character that doesn't appear in the original game).

My current plan is to just ignore it :p. Getting a decent chuck of the story episodes done will take ages anyway, so I plan on doing those first.

Doing a rough version of the battle episodes is one option (though Vinny has a tendency to comment on specifics), or look into a tool-assisted PS2 emulator. My PC can record P4 running at 1600x1200, and I think there is a widescreen patch/hack, so could be doable (take a while though!).

Good fucking luck with those 1 long dungeon episodes.

Wow this is going to be an incredible undertaking. Good on ya, duder; you're doing God's work. This is fantastic.

That is one insane idea. Wonder how you're going to handle dungeons.

That definitely seems like the reasonable thing to do.

Wow, this is awesome!

Awesome idea! Sticking to just the story stuff definitely seems like the best course of action. Looks like a great way to experience what is basically still Giant Bomb's best piece of content.

This is really cool, also you are a crazy person!

Battles seem impossible with how attacks run off percentages. Very coo thing to do though, honestly i would stop at the story stuff getting attacks to line up and hit the same would be insanse. I remember seeing how long it took thwm to redo that 20min quick look of shadow complex.

good job.please don't waste more of your time on this. i feel sorry for the amount of work your putting on this project. well done sir!

@mimakos said:

I want to get better at using Premiere anyway, so this isn't a complete waste of time. There are probably better ways to learn, but this is entertaining at least.

Great job! Ignoring the battles is the right move. As long as you have fun doing this, I'll be happy to watch it.

This is incredible. More power to you, my friend!

Hey man, editing videos of Persona 4 is how I learned Final Cut Pro ;)

I honestly thought about doing exactly this just last week. Glad you decided to take on the burden!

Always looking for an excuse to relive the P4 endurance run. I salute you!

Just thinking about how much effort this involves is making me irrationally angry!

I started to watch the Endurance Run for the first time, and yeah this looks great. Nice job. I was surprised to see the original highest quality version running at 640x360. I wonder if that was a thing on Giant Bomb's side or if that was the realities of the internet in early 2009 that I don't remember super well. It's still watchable, but your version and the original is night and day.

This seems like a good idea.

@clagnaught: It's worth remembering that the NTSC PS2 only output at 480i, so even if it was recording and uploaded at a higher resolution I doubt it would look all that different.

I also doubt uploading that amount of HD video in '09 would be trivial - YouTube didn't get HD support until late in '08, and that could put a decent amount of load on PC hardware/software of the era ("On my Core2Duo machine, my CPU usage [...] peaked at 70 percent").

This is the type of thing a crazy person would do. You are a crazy person.

Are you really doing what I think you're doing?! It's going to be Brad playing through Shadow Complex levels of complexity times a thousand!

@stordoff: That's true. I remember there was HD material out there but I couldn't remember how widespread it was. I assume they are playing it on a fat PS3 (I haven't actually seen any signs whether or not it's on a PS2 or PS3 yet), but you're right. There's only so much you can do it make a PS2/PS2 emulated from a PS3 look nice. The only noteworthy thing about the Endurance Run for me is it is a little grainy, while the graphical issues on the original game mostly came from the blurriness (which still has this weird nostalgic quality to the game for me)

You are an insane person and I wish you the best of luck.

Thanks @drewbert, @turboman, and everyone else for your comments. I'm well aware this is what a crazy person would do, but whatever, it's fun and (marginally...) useful.

It's just occurred to me whilst recording the footage for Parts 2 and 3 that the class questions changed in The Golden re-release. Doing those episodes could be interesting...

Edit: @clagnaught: I think they are playing on a PS2 - Vinny has to recalibrate a controller in one of the episodes by disconnecting and reconnecting it, and I don't recall that being an issue with the SIXXIS/DualShock3.

Nice job, I'll definitely watch some of this.

Is anyone one else having YouTube issues ATM? I'm trying to get Part 02 uploaded, but it keeps stalling at around 50-60% (tried two browsers). I can try from another Internet connection if it doesn't work itself out, but probably not until late tomorrow :/

It was indeed a PS2 (slim)!

This seems insane and you are a crazy person. It's also incredible.

Holy crap. Not only is this something I want, but something that nobody should ever do. Since they went HD I've wanted high res versions but this is quite the project.

Part 2 is up! There are a couple of parts I'm not 100% happy with in this episode, but if I continued tweaking it I'd probably never finish! There are a lot more small changes in The Golden vs. the original game that I never really noticed before. (The biggest issue was checking the TV - turns out it doesn't show the weather at this point in the re-release)

Think it came out OK overall though - first (short) battle ended up being fairly straight-forward in the end.

Wait, how are you doing this?

Are you splicing new recorded footage from the Vita version with the GB recordings and manually sync them? This seems insane! Isn't this like 100 hours worth of footage?

You should do this as long as you're having fun with it, and stop the moment you're not. I know that this should be obvious, but I can see how a person can get sucked into these kind of projects and force them selves through it just to "please the audience".

@toastman said:

Pretty much, yeah. The bulk of the footage is from the Vita version, with occasional bits taking from an emulated PS2 version if the differences stop the commentary making sense. It's a little crazy, but enjoyable so far. TBH, syncing the game to the recording isn't that difficult most of the time (I've watched the ER a few too many times so have a decent feel for what happens next), but the changes in the re-release can be tricky to workaround at times.

I'm not really worry about the audience - I hope people enjoy these videos, but ultimately the main draw is Jeff and Vinny's playthrough which is already viewable. This is just a neat way to re-visit the series. The main reason for me doing it is to get better at using Premiere, and even two episodes in I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with the tools, so there is a little value to doing these.

This is really cool, but I have to question your sanity in undertaking this kind of endeavor.

This is awesome! I had thought of taking on this project myself but i don't have the capture equipment.

@stordoff: Are you recording this of a PS-TV?

@jedted: Yep. It's pretty much a PersonaTV at this point (I think all I've ever used it for is playing P4Golden, and using my Japanese PSN account to get DLC for Persona 4: Dancing All Night).

This is still insane! Insane! Keep it up. :)

Thank you so much! Always wanted to watch this series but it's a long one.

This is utterly crazy and you are magnificent for doing this. Well done.

This is insane and you're insane and this is beautiful.

Still doing this madness :D. Thanks everyone for your comments.

Part 3 is about done - should be online sometime tomorrow (uploads take forever on my connection).

Part 3 is up!