Persona Discussion

The first Persona game I played was actually Persona 4, which I loved.

Right now I'm playing the first Persona on the PSP. I think many of the changes they've made since the first one have been good.

For example, in Persona, getting spell cards is kind of a pain in the butt. In Persona 4, it's a lot easier.

Anyway, which Persona games have you played, and what do you like about each of them?

That is my contribution to the Persona discussion.

Man, Kanji is awesome.

I've got P3, P3FES, P3P, P4, and Persona: Revelations.

Dammit Atlus. You're the only company that can make me buy the same damn game three times.

But it is so worth it. Atlus is also the only company that's managed to make me miss difficult and endless grinding, too. I haven't firgured out how they do that.

If you've played Persona 4 and not 3, then I recommend getting Persona 3 Portable. They took game mechanics (mostly) from 4 and intertwined it into 3; for example, in P3P you can issue direct commands, when before your allies were NPCs. They added other stuff, too, but that's neglible. Otherwise P3 can be quite difficult/a bit boring/a shock after the slightly refined P4.

But at the same time I would recommend P3 FES, because it includes The Answer, which is basically an epilouge.

An epilouge locked into Hard Mode. But so worth it- the final boss for the Answer is preeety epic, I thought. I also would recommend any SMT game, really =D even the non-Persona ones.

And Soldier, I highly respect that clip.

CaptainYoruichi wrote:

Right now I'm playing the first Persona on the PSP. I think many of the changes they've made since the first one have been good.

For example, in Persona, getting spell cards is kind of a pain in the butt. In Persona 4, it's a lot easier.

haha, yeah, it took Atlus a looooong time to get the demon negotiation system to work. XD I don't think they made it work until Nocturne in 2002.

That said, I have fond memories of the first game, even though the version I owned for years (PS1) got the 4kids treatment, with everyone's names being americanized, and many biblical references removed.

The PSP port was worth buying just for the more honest translation, and because it gave us the snow queen storyarc, which was never released outside of Japan beforehand.



As to the games I've played, I've played 'em all. Every single game in the Shin Megami Tensei series, including persona. 4 has been my favorite, but I love watching the story of the entire series unfold. Even after the events of P2: Innocent Sin, which stopped demons from invading the human world of the persona universe, but at the cost of giving birth to shadows, all the players who accept help from the velvet room, and all the enemies who seek to end mankind, are still puppets being controlled by the experiment/confrontation of Philemon and Nyarlathotep.


The social link system was what helped push Persona over the top. Blending control over character relationships with the traditional SMT difficulty and dungeon crawling helped create a unique and explicitly fun experience.

I picked up Persona 3 for the PSP. I decided to play as the guy, since that's how the original version was. When I beat it and play it again, I'll use the girl and see what's different.

I'm pretty sure this is probably the first time I've ever played as the guy when there was a choice to play as either a guy or a girl.

Had you not played P3 before this, Cap'n? :o

Nope, this is my first time playing Persona 3.

I think I might still start over and play as the girl though. I wasn't very far so it wouldn't be a huge loss.

It may be hard to get into 3 after playing four, since, as I said, they really improved the formula in every way, but the changes they made with the female protag really make it easier to get into (well, for me it's because this is the third time Atlus conned me into buying the game) and the Sun social link of Persona 3 is easily the most touching S.link in the history of the series.

Have I just not been paying attention to Persona this whole time? Because it really feels it's everywhere now. Persona 3 in particular seems to have blown right the fuck up.

First, there was P3P, the third version of the game. Then, I see Persona 3 Social. Then the next day, I read about Cathrine, which is an HD title that's based on Vincent, who is apparently a character from P3P.

Give Persona 3 a rest Atlus! Focus on Persona 5. I may actually play that one. Maybe.