The Persona 4 Endurance Run Turns 10 Years Old

So this happened a decade ago:

The Persona 4 Endurance Run premiered on February 9th, 2009, ten years ago to the day.

Persona 4 / Persona 4: Golden will probably remain an all time classic game for me. Even ten years later, this still remains one of my favorite games of all-time. Likewise, the Endurance Run is still probably my personal favorite Giant Bomb series ever; even after coming to it years later and me playing through the game beginning to end four times. I can only imagine what it must have been like watching this play out live, day by day, week by week.

I was sitting on this for about two and a half years, but now seems like as good as time as any to share it. Back in 2016, I went through and made a Best Of series, featuring one highlight from all 155 episodes. While I was making that series, I ended up with an hour and half worth of "B-Sides" featuring funny moments and scenes that I couldn't fit into the main series for whatever reason. Uploading yet another Persona 4 video after 18 other videos seemed excessive, so I just held onto it. However, as this anniversary came closer, I thought sharing this would be a nice way to celebrate today.

Cheers Charlie!!

Never watched it all the way through but it was definitely GB from a different era. While it's perfectly understandable why the site split up into two offices, I do feel the chemistry from those bygone days is something we just don't see on Giant Bomb anymore, which makes the Persona 4 Endurance Run all that much more special.

Awesome work duder! Though calling something "clips that didn't make it to the Best Of" a "Best Of" is interesting :).

Still amazed they stumbled into such a gem the way they did.

I saw it in "This Day in GB History" and was shocked when I realized that it's 10. Doesn't feel like 10 years ago but at the same time it also feels even longer than 10 years.

I started rewatching it. It still holds up and is still funny. The novelty of Jeff looking stuff up on his phone is pretty neat in retrospect. Nobody would blink if someone did something like that now, but back then it was kinda nuts because so few phones had actual usable web browsers.

Wow that's crazy, I remember this coming up then not watching until about ep 11 because I wasn't interested in no anime game! But after that I was hooked, and love the game.

Still my favorite piece of content on the site. Not to throw shade, there's been a lot of good videos throughout the years, but Vinny and Jeff playing through Persona 4 was just perfect. Best commentary team, one of the best games ever made, and one which lended itself perfectly to their jokes. Back when I first found Giant Bomb, these videos weren't the first I watched, but they were the ones that made me stick around. I appreciated your Best Of back then and I'm glad you had some more in the chamber for the anniversary! Great job on all accounts.

"Some of"

Shout-out to Funky Student, Mysterious Fox, Jeff & Vinny for introducing me to a franchise I'll play forlife. ER P4 is still one of my favourite GB shows.

I didn't watch it until like 2015 so it feels crazy that it was 10 years ago lol.

Today I start my 10th time watching the Endurance Run.

This endurance run is what brought me to the site after being active on the GameFAQs Persona 4 (and 3) forums. It really started the tradition of very entertaining yet terribly frustrating content which is really a hallmark of the site (continued today by Mass Alex).

I very recently finished watching Persona 4 The Animation and came back to the Endurance Run to re-view Jeff and Vinny's reactions to the dramatic beats, especially the last 1/4 to 1/3. Worth it. Timeless.

2009 is such a different time from 2019, it's really wild. It's like, the first year riding high after the Bush Administration and just before everything started going right back down hill - the two main Endurance Runs (P4 and Deadly Premonition) exist in this weird bubble where everyone just seemed more hopeful for the future than they did otherwise.

I miss those features for multiple reasons, but time marches on. Still the best thing on the site. From a time when GB was still figuring shit out and felt like they were doing their awesome thing without getting too much attention and being under too much spotlight, which I think has made their content suffer more these days. Oh well. Enjoy the good thing for being the good thing.

A Let's Play before Let's Plays were a thing. And a great one at that. The Persona 4 Endurance Run is a defining aspect of this site to me.

Wow. Can’t believe I’ve been here for 10 years. Watched it as it was premiering. Shit I’m getting OLD.

Imagine if they had played Persona 3 instead. A man can dream, a man can dream...

I don't care what anyone one says. The main character is still named Charlie Tunoku.

@liquiddragon said:

If I remember correctly, Jeff doesn't like Persona 3, so it wouldn't have gone well.

@redhotchilimist: also they were just really different guys back then. You rewatch some of those earlier episodes and Vinny has some spicy humor you just don’t hear from Papa-Vinny of today.

Mr Young Detective Approves.

Has it been 10 years already.... Awesome video.:)

The slow, encroaching march of time continues and never ceases to terrify. 2009 might as well be another century for as removed as it feels from both my personal circumstances and the website as a whole.

That said, the P4 Endurance Run really does feel like one of those definitive moments in Giant Bomb’s history. It set the tone and style for a lot of what came after, and I think the site wouldn’t be the same without it. Heck, it got me to buy a PlayStation 2 for the purpose of playing Persona 3 and 4, which I don’t think I would’ve done otherwise.

I don't think Persona 3 would have work as well with them. The tone, the moments wouldn't match what Jeff and Vinny's bring.

It really was the perfect game at the time for this kind of series featuring them specifically.

@cerberus3dog: the Something Awful Forums would have multiple objections to that claim.

On-topic: holy crap it's really been 10 years? That was the video series that led me to actually play the series for the first time (P4G, natch) and indirectly led me to Anime Vice back when Whiskey Media still existed and was more of a wild west attitude, for better or worse. They never could quite recapture that magic of the Endurance Run in later attempts with Chrono Trigger (though the Metal Gear Solid run-throughs came close), but that was a fun series to experience for the first time.

I literally joined Giant Bomb 10 years ago because I heard from a streamer on justin.tv that they were starting a Persona 4 Endurance Run. This ER is especially meaningful to me as well because it ended on my birthday. :)

Maybe it's finally time I watched this classic. The Deadly Premonition ER was my first Endurance Run (I watched both teams) and I loved it, but I've never found time to watch the P4 one, as much as I'm sure I'd enjoy it.