#pouring my finest slop into a bowl and placing it on the ground. taps my metal pot. pst pst pst eat up agent 4 fans eat up!

[rassicas]

Excerpt from a developer interview in a rare issue of Nintendo Dream from October 2017. Talks about the kind of place Agent 4 came from, and the differences in the ways of thinking between the youth of agent 3's time and agent 4's time. This is the clearest info I've seen on agent 4's background, so I figured I should share.

translation under the cut

Q: Why is the protagonist in this game's Hero Mode called "Agent 4"?

Nogami: Because this game's protagonist and the previous game's protagonist are different Inklings.

Amano: Because they're starting from somewhere unfresh (laughs). The previous game's Agent 3 has already gotten fresh, so we thought it's time for someone else to take on the role of a hero from a different location.

Inoue: Agent 3 had a very "I've finally made it to the city" feeling, with a strong desire to become fresh. 4 on the other hand, not so much. Rather than being someone from the countryside, they're more like someone who came from a commuter town within the greater metropolitan area. It's like a place where the limited express trains wouldn't stop at, but the semi-express trains would (laughs).

[[TN: Time to briefly explain Japanese train terms! Limited express train: train that makes the least number of stops, only stops at the most major stations on the line. semi-express: train that is slower and makes more stops than the limited express train. However, it doesn't stop at every station.]]

Nogami: During the tutorial at the start of the game, did you turn around and look behind the starting spawn point? There you can see ticket gates, and this is on the way towards Inkopolis Square.

Inoue: For the Inklings in the same generation as Agent 3, they were the pioneers who wanted to pave their own path, but the generation that Agent 4 is a part of has grown up watching such people, so they have more of this dry practicality to them. This is not so much the personality of the character, but rather the storm that's hit this generation. It's not that they aren't interested in idols, but they probably don't watch TV because of club activities or something.

ーーThe times have changed, haven't they?

Inoue: This time, even the girls have this tomboyish strong-minded, sporty impression, while the boys have a bit of a feminine charm. In that way there's a sense the ways of thinking have evolved. This isn't limited to the protagonist, but a change that's happened as a whole.