Favorite Persona Game?

[SpaceySpace]

What's your favorite Persona game in the series? Spin offs included.

For me I am a bit personally divided since I feel the gameplay in Persona 5 was amazing but the story was a step down when compared to previous titles in the series.

[Failinhearts]

I always have a soft spot for 4. Mechanically, Persona 5 is superior to all of them in every way, but 4's overall story, charm and atmosphere felt more enjoyable to me.

When it comes to spin-offs, I have to give this to Dancing All Night. It's one of the most addicting and enjoyable rhythm games I've ever played.

[Wraith]

Agreed with the other posts. Persona 5 has the best gameplay but the story/character writing borders on terrible for me sometimes so it's not a clean win. 

It's hard to say. I'm tempted to say I enjoyed Persona 4 the most when I consider everything including story. I'd recommend Persona 5 to a newcomer first though. 

[SgtBloxx]

I didn’t play any Persona games before, but after the SSMB Persona livestream, I’d say 4 is my favorite. The story is really good and a lot of people can relate to some of the characters.

[KHCast]

Probably Persona 5 in terms of everything but story. (Though personally I don’t hate 5’s story as much as others do.) I like the characters of 5 more though than the other games however. 4 probably wins in that regard for me. Spinoff wise, I enjoyed Q. Crossover things like that I always enjoy, and it had a fun enough plot.

[Polkadi~☆]

Mechanically, Persona 5 is the bomb, it is actually a really well designed game that I hope other devs on the SMT franchise under ATLUS take notice of. Seeing Persona 5's combat in Shin Megami Tensei V would make the game really really good to me.

Story-wise and writing-wise, eh, Persona 5 is okay, but it has it's fair share of problems. It may be a really edgy game in Japan, and I can respect that, but criticising the state of society doesn't excuse some poor writing. Like the fact that after Makoto joins your party, she busts her ass into every single bloody conversation and takes control like it's nobody's business, and ends up overshadowing other characters who could use the screentime, and it's an absolute pain that the anime adaptation has been thankfully rectifying. And the story goes on for way too long that it chugs on while you're clocked out. Like after the final Palace, the game slows waaay down, before pulling out a new card from nowhere and speeding waaay up into the final stage of the game.

But story-wise, I'll give that to Persona 3 for now (I've yet to give the Persona 2 duology a full playthrough), as it's quite well done. It plays around the themes of death, what it's like, how it feels, etc. But it's not depressive like, “we all die, life is meaningless”, but more like, “just because death comes to us all does not mean you should reject life and all the things it offers.” It's essentially what one of the game's keywords also means (“Memento mori”). Though people may die in this game, you're fighting to give everyone a chance at life. Also, there are some really unique characters in this game you'd find yourself loving, and they're written really well (and acted really well, the game had really good English voice acting! Except a few of them *gasp* fuuka!).

[KHCast]

1 hour ago, Polkadi~♪ said:

society doesn't excuse some poor writing.

Did “pancakes” become a meme within that fandom because it’s as a clever twist, or just really fucking stupid to use as a plot device? Lol

[Polkadi~☆]

4 minutes ago, KHCast said:

Did “pancakes” become a meme within that fandom because it’s as a clever twist, or just really fucking stupid to use as a plot device? Lol

Partly because it's clever (it has a twist most won't notice until the game brings it up again), partly because it's really stupid (pancakes spoil the plot twist), and partly because Akechi seems to love them pancakes.

[Cayenne]

 

Yup, the most archaic Persona is my favorite. Why? The plot is basically a sequel and almost a remake of Shin Megami Tensei If... on Super Famicom/Playstation (which I really like), the main characters are a very goofy, fun bunch, soundtrack is awesome and, for some reason or another, i'm one of the few people in this planet who likes that annoying battle system.

[Meta77]

5 had the best mechanics that seemed fair and game world. But 3 had a much better story and characters

[Tori Himemiya]

I'm gonna have to say Persona 2 for various reasons, namely writing wise.

Writing wise has a very deep but dark story. Its pretty realistic for what it does. However despite that there's a lot of charm to it. The main cast have been pretty entertaining to watch for the most part. It can get silly like having characters sing and dance or by having the main character actually imitate an airplane engine. Yes the story is again dark and serious but it does have moments of levity, at least before shit hits the fan.

The story of Innocent Sin is about a guy named Tatsuya Suou who's getting closer to graduation and is trying to figure out what to do with his life. However he gets involved with the Joker's curse and it starts affecting other people, namely the people going to his school. So Tatsuya needs to figure out how to stop Joker with some divine help. Eternal Punishment flips this on its head by having Maya, whom was a journalist and one of the party members in IS, become the main character and try to solve the Joker murders. I think this is where I note while Tatsuya can have his name changed in IS, he gets a canonical name during the next game which is a lot sooner than Yu Narukami got his official name. Maya cannot be named at all due to being an already existing character. Yeah I suppose nothing story related but interesting. Both main characters eventually get involved with rumors and a conflict between two deities. Its rather interesting where the story does go.

One thing I do appreciate about Persona 2 is that it actually has an adult view point. The cast from Eternal Punishment are all adults except Tatsuya the protagonist/player character of Innocent Sin. There's not too many Eastern RPGs that feature adults as the heroes, they often use the tried and true high school student route. Innocent Sin does go this route yes, to the point where Eikichi hangs a lampshade about that but it does have a few older characters involved. I will note characters from Persona 1 also appear and are much older and having jobs and what not. They can even help out the party, directly or not which is something I love. Its nice to see characters grow up and what they're doing now but it does require to play past games. Still its rare for the Persona series to visit this idea; The only other time I can think of where the older cast comes and helps the newer cast is P4A/U. I just like continuity like that.

I will say I REALLY love the cast of both P2 games. They're just so memorable for me. The fact there's a dorky cop who thinks he can arrest demons and a wannabe jrocker who has to constantly change his look every day before and after school to look cool. Even the main character Tatsuya has more personality than the other Persona MCs, he has a few quirks like he constantly flips his lighter as a character tick and the aformentioned SFX imitations which I dunno how he does it. He even has a more elaborate backstory to him which ties in the main plot which is something the other MCs lack as they're only the new kids on the block and nothing more. And that's just in Innocent Sin where he was a silent protagonist, though you can make him choose a few things to say that can affect the story like...

Yeah did I mention that this is a game from 1999 where you can date a guy while being a guy? Wild I know. Its kind of minor in the grand scheme of things because Tatsuya only gains the ability to flirt with Jun in front of demons instead of Lisa but its very noteworthy. Its kind of funny looking at it during this time period but that's all I get into it. I know I like mentioning this fact a lot when the topic comes up but its an interesting fact.

I suppose at the end of the day while the story is very engaging but it might be a little weird for newer Persona fans to get into, mostly because it doesn't really resemble the games of today. It doesn't have a dating sim aspect to it, much less time management. Its a more straight forward RPG compared to them but honestly I kind of like it. I do like the part where you interact characters but I just really like the more simpler approach P2 and to a lesser extent P1 does. I don't have to worry about grinding social links that can happen on specific days but it however comes with the cost of actual grinding and getting cards for Personas. I guess I just want something I can jump into and complete on my own time, especially with a very engaging story like this one but that's just me. However I will say P2 does pave the foundation for later games at least with the contact option going into Social Links and having characters similar to this cast namely. Looking at you Chie, trying to copy Lisa without name dropping Bruce Lee!

I absolutely love these games to death so I do wish they weren't so forgotten by Atlus. I do worry if I come off too much of a hipster when I mention my love for these games but that's how I am to be honest. But these two games really clicked me so well that its actually in my top 10 video games. Ah well I might just be weird. I like to think all the Persona games are good and everyone is obviously going to have a favorite. I'm just showing love for my favorite one.

[KHCast]

Isn’t the reason they don’t touch persona 1 and 2 is because they wanna respect the creator of those two games, who isn’t working with Atlas anymore.

[Tori Himemiya]

17 minutes ago, KHCast said:

Isn’t the reason they don’t touch persona 1 and 2 is because they wanna respect the creator of those two games, who isn’t working with Atlas anymore.

That and well I only heard so don't quote me on this but they just don't know how to write these characters anymore because the writer of the games (Tadashi Satomi) left. Don't quote me on this however since I've only heard and I can't remember my source.

I guess its kind of off topic but I will at least note that Satomi is at least somewhat active despite his departure from Atlus. He wrote the story for a little game called The Caligula Effect (simply known as Caligula in Japan). I haven't played it personally but I will say its actually a pretty recent game so he's still around. Its just a random note.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Personally, I've only played two games in the entire series, and only finished one of them. My first game, for all intents and purposes, technically was 4 Golden, as I got it on sale. However, I dropped it after a few hours due to being insanely bored by the long opening. While I intended to go back to it one day or another, Persona 4 Golden somewhat left a bad taste in my mouth for awhile...

and then this beautiful thing dropped

Persona 5 was the first game that actually got me really invested in the series. Scratch that, the only game since it and 4 are the only ones I've played thus far. Having gotten it as a gift, I started it up, expecting much of the same as I got from Persona 4 Golden, a pretty drab and boring intro that could potentially hurt the game more than help it, and then I'm thrust directly into an action packed casino heist as the main protagonist of the game, getting right into action, and mystery and everything else. That, to me is what really highlighted the game quickly and drew me into it.

As I've been on SSMB, I've often heard Persona 5's story being called up as one of the weakest elements of the game, falling short of the previous games, and maybe that's the case, I don't know. But from the very start, I can tell you what I like about P5's opening a lot more in comparison to Persona 4 Golden's opening. In Persona 5, excluding obvious stuff like the mystery already being brought into the fold from the beginning and such, I just think a lot of elements are done well to keep the player invested until the main plot rears it's head. Mild spoilers for Persona 4 and 5 from here...

With Persona 4 Golden, the MC is already well-liked and already relatively normal by the beginning of the game. He and the others in the game more or less feel like a group, especially in terms of school and such where the MC already makes friends on Day 1. It's alright, but it's also kind of boring. There's no real conflict or interest at this point of the game, at least until the first real mystery pops up around an hour into the game.

However, in Persona 5, Joker doesn't start off as a particularly well-liked character. In fact, he's pretty hated because of the crime he was falsely accused of. Your parental figure (Sojiro) isn't particularly trusting of you to begin with, and the entire world around you feels like it's against you, with the likes of the principal and everyone else playing into the themes of the game by trying to make Joker's "rehabilitation" into a way of making themselves look good. Even early into the game, things play very differently as your classmates are aware of Joker's record, someone having supposedly leaked it. Suddenly things become a lot more like an underdog story as Joker is hated by a lot of the world around him for the false crimes he's been framed for. But better yet, it allows the player to relate to Joker's isolation and how unfair the situation is, and eventually try to overcome it as you keep going through social links and changing your relationships. There's aspects the game could've handled it a lot better, but for what's there, I honestly think it's done well. 

Even how the game drags the players into the main conflict I feel is a lot better done. In Persona 4 Golden, before Yukiko becomes a victim, the reason you even enter the TV World to begin with is because of a girl you meet only once before her going missing is kidnapped and threw into the shadow world, and personally, I felt like this was really weak, especially since you as a player didn't really have any strong connection to this character before. Even Yukiko doesn't have a particularly strong connection to you before she goes missing and becomes the first target for saving and that left me feeling pretty underwhelmed before even entering the palace. 

Compare that to Persona 5 for a large chunk of the opening is solely based around Joker even making his first friend during his first enter of the Metaverse. As I said before, Yu more or less makes his first few friends instantly on the first day of class while Joker isn't so lucky due to the rumors constantly surrounding him. But then they introduce the first villain of the game, Kamoshida. And unlike Yukiko and P4G, you actually get time to build up to Kamoshida's villainy and how he connects to Joker. Not only does he firstly cause you and Ryuji to end up becoming friends, due to their first entering the metaverse, but a ton of build-up goes into what he's done in reality, and how he keeps mistreating people while hiding behind a layer of kindness.

Things only get deeper as you begin growing closer to the likes of Ryuji, and soon enough, Ann and you realize how far his nature goes. Not only is he the one who leaks your record to the students just to fuck with Joker, but he broke Ryuji's leg, harasses Ann, and soon causes another student closely tied to Ann to try to jump off the school. Long before you begin your break-in of Kamoshida's palace, the situation keeps building and building as his destructive actions keep hurting not only you, but everyone else that you as the player soon have a reason to go after him. 

With that intro, the story never lost my attention as I continued to go through it. I found the cast of P5 extremely likeable too, each one tying different into the weight of society and their demands, but the twisted desires of those in authority. From the likes of Makoto being constantly forced with pressure from others and used for dirty work, or Haru being used to further the career of her father, I found each of them sympathetic in their own lights, and tying into the overarching story quite well. also Sojiro is fifty times better than Dojima

But with that said, I wouldn't class the story of Persona 4 Golden bad in anyway. I actually was getting interested once I entered the TV world the first time and the characters were beginning to grow on me. But then something happened that completely killed the game for me.

The. gameplay.

Now, I'll say this now, I think the gameplay in Persona 5 is absolutely excellent. I love how the palaces are all pre-determined with layouts, and have it's puzzles based around that. Until near the end of the game, when status effects begin getting too random and frustrating to my liking, I think the combat is actually really cool, and smart. While I wish the stealth mechanics had better depth, like enemies could see you if you weren't positioned into cover correctly, they could detect you. But I still found the stealth really cool. I liked how the threat levels of palaces worked, and how each palace kept building onto each other, and tying into the cognition of the real world, where if you could force a change in thinking outside of the world, it'd forced a change of thinking in the Metaverse. I actually dug all of that and found it interesting, and that's not even counting the confidant system, time management, and the like. It has it's flaws, but I honestly really enjoyed it for the most part.

But I really didn't know how good I had it with 5 til I went back and played 4. Because to be frank, I think I hate 4's gameplay. I think it's far to reliant on grinding enemies, and that kills my interest in the story entirely. When playing the first dungeon you encounter enemies who could be ten or so levels above you on the very next floor, which really isn't good because there isn't any story details tied into the dungeon to make you interested in playing through. They're all in pretty pre-determined places. Prime example in Yukiko's palace, you run through her first part, on the first floor, Shadow Chie appears, alright that's fine.

Second time through, you run through multiple floors with nothing that happens up until the pre-determined location on a specific floor when Teddie points out where Yukiko is. By that stage of the game, enemies are massively overleveled than you, and the mini-boss will one shot you easily. So you need to then run back down multiple floors and keep grinding again and again and again until you have a chance of winning the coming battle, and I find that absolutely awful. To have my interest in the game just killed as easily like that because of some terrible overpowered enemies right as things were beginning to get good. And sure, I could probably just go and level grind, it's an RPG and the like, but even grinding up those ten levels is pretty terrible, especially when RNG can screw you over just as easily and cause you to lose all of the levels gained on a given floor because your level process doesn't save til you enter another floor. 

If the previous games was like that, I honestly think nothing would end up dethroning Persona 5 for me in terms of gameplay because that first experience with 4 was so absolutely awful. The long prologue was a bore and as soon as things began getting good and I was getting excited again, the game ended up getting caught with boring level grinding that killed any momentum it had for me. Persona 5 didn't have a moment like that right til the very end when Momentos' palace began getting a bit too RNG heavy, and with save points very spread out and far between. 

Sorry if this ended up becoming more of a "Persona 4 VS Persona 5" post more than anything, but that's really just how I ended up with the hindsight of why I love Persona 5 a lot more, it was playing that to completion before going back to P4G that sort of made it clear how much I enjoyed 5 compared to 4. 

[Cayenne]

On 8/29/2018 at 1:46 AM, Crow the BOOLET said:

I'm gonna have to say Persona 2 for various reasons, namely writing wise.

Writing wise has a very deep but dark story. Its pretty realistic for what it does. However despite that there's a lot of charm to it. The main cast have been pretty entertaining to watch for the most part. It can get silly like having characters sing and dance or by having the main character actually imitate an airplane engine. Yes the story is again dark and serious but it does have moments of levity, at least before shit hits the fan.

The story of Innocent Sin is about a guy named Tatsuya Suou who's getting closer to graduation and is trying to figure out what to do with his life. However he gets involved with the Joker's curse and it starts affecting other people, namely the people going to his school. So Tatsuya needs to figure out how to stop Joker with some divine help. Eternal Punishment flips this on its head by having Maya, whom was a journalist and one of the party members in IS, become the main character and try to solve the Joker murders. I think this is where I note while Tatsuya can have his name changed in IS, he gets a canonical name during the next game which is a lot sooner than Yu Narukami got his official name. Maya cannot be named at all due to being an already existing character. Yeah I suppose nothing story related but interesting. Both main characters eventually get involved with rumors and a conflict between two deities. Its rather interesting where the story does go.

One thing I do appreciate about Persona 2 is that it actually has an adult view point. The cast from Eternal Punishment are all adults except Tatsuya the protagonist/player character of Innocent Sin. There's not too many Eastern RPGs that feature adults as the heroes, they often use the tried and true high school student route. Innocent Sin does go this route yes, to the point where Eikichi hangs a lampshade about that but it does have a few older characters involved. I will note characters from Persona 1 also appear and are much older and having jobs and what not. They can even help out the party, directly or not which is something I love. Its nice to see characters grow up and what they're doing now but it does require to play past games. Still its rare for the Persona series to visit this idea; The only other time I can think of where the older cast comes and helps the newer cast is P4A/U. I just like continuity like that.

I will say I REALLY love the cast of both P2 games. They're just so memorable for me. The fact there's a dorky cop who thinks he can arrest demons and a wannabe jrocker who has to constantly change his look every day before and after school to look cool. Even the main character Tatsuya has more personality than the other Persona MCs, he has a few quirks like he constantly flips his lighter as a character tick and the aformentioned SFX imitations which I dunno how he does it. He even has a more elaborate backstory to him which ties in the main plot which is something the other MCs lack as they're only the new kids on the block and nothing more. And that's just in Innocent Sin where he was a silent protagonist, though you can make him choose a few things to say that can affect the story like...

Yeah did I mention that this is a game from 1999 where you can date a guy while being a guy? Wild I know. Its kind of minor in the grand scheme of things because Tatsuya only gains the ability to flirt with Jun in front of demons instead of Lisa but its very noteworthy. Its kind of funny looking at it during this time period but that's all I get into it. I know I like mentioning this fact a lot when the topic comes up but its an interesting fact.

I suppose at the end of the day while the story is very engaging but it might be a little weird for newer Persona fans to get into, mostly because it doesn't really resemble the games of today. It doesn't have a dating sim aspect to it, much less time management. Its a more straight forward RPG compared to them but honestly I kind of like it. I do like the part where you interact characters but I just really like the more simpler approach P2 and to a lesser extent P1 does. I don't have to worry about grinding social links that can happen on specific days but it however comes with the cost of actual grinding and getting cards for Personas. I guess I just want something I can jump into and complete on my own time, especially with a very engaging story like this one but that's just me. However I will say P2 does pave the foundation for later games at least with the contact option going into Social Links and having characters similar to this cast namely. Looking at you Chie, trying to copy Lisa without name dropping Bruce Lee!

I absolutely love these games to death so I do wish they weren't so forgotten by Atlus. I do worry if I come off too much of a hipster when I mention my love for these games but that's how I am to be honest. But these two games really clicked me so well that its actually in my top 10 video games. Ah well I might just be weird. I like to think all the Persona games are good and everyone is obviously going to have a favorite. I'm just showing love for my favorite one.

Man, I really want to give another chance to P2 for these same reasons but my hate for some areas (starting with Aoba Park, I simply can't find the exit without a guide) is big as the Sun. Imo, this isn't the hardest SMT game but is the hardest and meanest title in the Persona series.