I'm suprised this hasn't been posted yet. I've only just recently seen it translated on siliconera from another GB member:
http://www.siliconera.com/2010/09/22/behind-the-design-of-persona-4/
Some cool tidbits:
The Shadow-personae, on the other hand, were created by Hashino singlehandedly without much outside discussion. They were specifically created with the feeling of “reality” in mind, and Hashino decided on their appearance and names on his own. However, in the case of the girls (Yukiko and Chie for the most part), he had to enlist the help of some of the female staff. Most of the personal problems that lay behind the Shadows’ creation were based off of the team’s personal experiences that they had felt during high school, or experiences that they had witnessed friends go through.
The Persona team, according to Hashino, was a very relaxed group of people. While he had only been a part of it since Persona 3, he had worked with most of the main players before while they were still working on the Dreamcast.
The team were an easy-going lot, Hashino revealed. For example, when they usually created a game, the team would compile a document with all the information about the game contained within. However, in the case of P4, they chose not to. When they idea was considered, the team figured that they had a vague sense of what was going into the game already, so they didn’t require one.
Hashino also jokingly revealed that they would never make that mistake again,
The last questions Hashino was asked dealt with the future of Persona 4. Currently, he has no intention to create a sequel, although he did mention that there was much material he wanted to explore.
In response to the inevitable, “Will there be a PSP version of Persona 4? […] I’m really interested in seeing the female main character!” Hashino responded that there weren’t any plans, but if enough fans asked for it, it was a possibility, and followed up with, “Doesn’t the female version of the protagonist already appear in the game?”
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