Atlus SMT: Persona games?

[aleph]

Most of the Codex seems to like not to hate the Shin Megami Tensei series. So, whats the consensus on the Persona spin offs? Any good or avoid like the plague?

 

[Palomides]

They are unfortunately all horrendous games, and the imbecile characters will cause you endless frustration.

If you enjoy Japanese high school life mixed in with random cult rubbish, feel free to try out any of them I suppose.

 

[Nope]

SMT 1, 2 and Strange Journey are decent.
Persona on the other hand:

 

[MaroonSkein]

Warning: a wall of text.

The original game is quite dreadful. Combat, unlike most SMT games, is fought on a grid, which might sound like incline. Hold your horses, there's no Move command. Instead, you set several (4, I think) formations before combat and can only change between them. As all attacks and spells have very specific areas of effect, it's easy to end up in a situation where a character can't do anything because every potential target is out of range. It also has probably the worst plot in the history of SMT. On the brighter side, the fusion system is one of the most unique in the franchise, in that personas are fused out of demons you fight, not out of other personas. It's just as flawed as the combat is (you can't tell what skills the persona is going to inherit from the parent demons), but at least it offers an interesting change of pace. The alternate Snow Queen story branch is another good bit, in that it plays like a very old-school dungeon crawler that greatly limits your ability to save and grind. Overall, I don't think this game is worth anyone's time. Everything it does, Devil Survivor does better. If you do decide to take a look out of sheer curiosity, do yourself a favor and get the PSP version instead of the one for the original PlayStation. The translation is much better.

Persona 2 is two games: Innocent Sin (the Hitler one) and Eternal Punishment (the better one), with the latter being a sequel to the former. They play alike, so I'll cover both in this paragraph. Combat is much improved over the original: the grid is gone, fusion spells activated by several characters casting specific spells in a particular sequence are introduced. The demon negotiation system is probably the best in the series: every party member has 4 conversation options that provoke specific reactions in demons that depend on the demons' personality types. Up to 3 characters can join together to perform special actions during negotiations. The game's weakest part is complete lack of fusion. Talking to a demon gets you Tarot cards of the arcanum the demon's associated with, and these cards can be traded for personas of the same arcanum, with no skills being inherited in the process. I like these two games, although combat takes a little too long to get truly challenging and interesting. Finally, a piece of trivia: Eternal Punishment is the only Persona game that has a party composed almost entirely of adults.

Persona 3 is the edgy one. This is the game that introduced the dating sim mechanics and time management to the series. Instead of talking to demons (shadows, actually, demons aren't in this game), the main character spends time with his buddies. Each friend is associated with a certain Tarot arcanum. As you grow closer to people, personas of their arcanum get an increasingly high XP bonus when you fuse them. Fusion itself works the way it does in Nocturne and most SMT games. You trade two (or three, or more, in case of special fusions) personas for one that inherits some skills from the parents. Combat is similar to Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga, with one major difference: the extra actions a character earns by exploiting elemental weaknesses and scoring critical have to be spent by the same character. The PS2 versions of the game suffer greatly from inability to directly control your party members. Everyone except the main character is controlled by the AI, which is not very smart. Mitsuru's fondness for Marin Karin is especially legendary. There's a PSP version that introduces direct control, rebalances the game (generally for the better) and adds the ability to play a female character. Picking her changes the plot quite a bit and greatly tones down the emo. Another welcome change, in my opinion. The PSP version does lack The Answer, though. It's a sequel to the main story that was introduced in FES, a re-release of the original game for PS2. I think the PSP version is the best one, but there are those who prefer FES.

Persona 4 is mostly the same as 3, gameplay-wise, so I won't talk much about it. It's a little lighter on dungeon crawling and a little heavier on dialogue. Story is much more cheerful than in 3 and is probably my favorite in the series. There's a Vita port on the way that improves the graphics and adds new personas and some convenience features, such as being able to choose what skills are inherited during fusion, so you might want to wait for that one.

 

[tennishero]

persona games are INFINATELY greater than the peces of horse shit that are SMT faggot FAGGOT FAGGGGGGOTTT

SMT is really shit

persona 1 hadf shit combat- but so does arcanum- its still a good game

persona 2 innocent sin has one of the best stories in a JRPG ever- but the gamepllay sucks dick like most JRPGs

persona 3 has FAGGY FAGS that those stupid japanese like to have- the main character is a faggot- but he dies at the end- which is cool because everyone emos over him in the aftermath

persona 4 is one of the greatest JRPGs ever made- wouldnt make top 100 in western RPGS, but is good for a japanese product- (japan just isnt relevant anymore)

SMT games are shit- if you think otherwise you suck dick

the worse game of all time is SMT 2 for the SNES- however it does have some of the best artwork ever in a game

 

[tennishero]

buy persona 4

rent persona 3

if you are smart you just play skyrim instead and dont buy inferior products from japan

if you are really smart youll just get fallout 2 from GoG.com

 

[pipka]

Stop right there with this weeboo crap.
FF7 and FF8 > all Personas.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

P3 at least had real dungeons at the end of each phase, they are gone from P4. I'm not fond of this randomly generated BS.

The games have a lot of flaws and the teenaged characters are often obnoxious, but I liked playing them for their unique atmospheres, like someone already mentioned.

Also The Answer is probably the worst JRPG I have ever played... God, what a piece of crap.

 

[tennishero]

final fantasy 6, 7 and 8 should be relevant to your interests

if you enjoy cock then play suikoden 2 its an obvious (hidden) fag love story
so is final fantasy tactics (oh come on- isnt it obvious, at the end he rides off with his sister, while missing his male best friend)

lost odyssey has these mini stories

they are..............read the next part slowly
better than anything avellone has ever done

shit is so majestic, i cant begin to tell you how good it is

 

[Crooked Bee]

Stop right there with this weeboo crap.
FF7 and FF8 > all Personas.

You just had to choose two of the shittiest FFs.

 

[pipka]

You just had to choose two of the shittiest FFs.

But they are so emotionally gripping. Like you didn't cry when Aerith died.

 

[MaroonSkein]

I cried manly tears of joy when I first saw the Final Fantasy V job system.

 

[Kz3r0]

Stop right there with this weeboo crap.
FF7 and FF8 > all Personas.

Because FF is Western, right?

 

[Kimagure Majo Yousei]

The alternate Snow Queen story branch is another good bit, in that it plays like a very old-school dungeon crawler that greatly limits your ability to save and grind. Overall, I don't think this game is worth anyone's time.

The Snow Queen is worth playing through at least once, and more than worth the time.

There's a PSP version that introduces direct control, rebalances the game (generally for the better) and adds the ability to play a female character. Picking her changes the plot quite a bit and greatly tones down the emo.

This. Persona 3 with the male character is daring to be awful, but with the female character it is pretty awesome and good fun.

And the answer was awful anyway.

Both games share the same combat system, and in both instances, this is bad.

The combat is not bad per se. The problem is that the combat is there to test the building phase and nothing else, and thus it is completely decided in the strategic level: Create good personas and demons and you cut through it with ease, do not pay attention to the rules and the fusions and you fail brutally. Tactics have a minimal effect most of the time.

So if you play role playing games for tactical combat, skip it. But if you play role playing games to try diferent builds, the way different skills complement each other, etc, you will be in heaven once you start getting enough of a variety in options to really suffer when picking what to get and what to lose.

 

[aleph]

@marronskein and qblowhard: thanks for the descriptions. Can the two persona 2 be played on their own, or would I have to play both to get the complete story? Is the lack of The answer in the PSP remake of P3 incline or decline? edit: thanks blackcat

btw, FF5 > all other FF games (except four heroes of light) > four heroes of light (wtf is this shit I don't even)

 

[Crooked Bee]

four heroes of light (wtf is this shit I don't even)

FFS why is there no Hate button.

Anyway, I hate u.

 

[aleph]

FFS why is there no Hate button.

Anyway, I hate u.

you're welcome

 

[Crooked Bee]

To counterbalance aleph's shitty and totally irrelevant opinion, it is my duty to say that 4HoL is the only good FF after FF5 and, to some extent, FF9.

 

[MaroonSkein]

Can the two persona 2 be played on their own, or would I have to play both to get the complete story?

Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment are two halves of one story, like Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2.

 

[Menckenstein]

I tried playing Persona 3 for PSP but I couldn't into anime melodrama. The monsters make it look like the game takes place in a haunted antiques and jewelry store. Also the little retarded high school sim bits drove me nuts. DERP DERP let's leave the Japanese history trivia game in the Western version of the game.

 

[damicore]

I tried playing Persona 3 for PSP but I couldn't into anime melodrama. The monsters make it look like the game takes place in a haunted antiques and jewelry store. Also the little retarded high school sim bits drove me nuts. DERP DERP let's leave the Japanese history trivia game in the Western version of the game.

The datesim part is pretty awful tbh.

The fact that the monsters are kind of bizarre (I asumme that's what you meant) is kind of most of the incline of the whole SMT franchise. It's not your tipycal setting nor your typical goblins, elves, dwarves and the derivations japs made out of those.

 

[Menckenstein]

The datesim part is pretty awful tbh.

The fact that the monsters are kind of bizarre (I asumme that's what you meant) is kind of most of the incline of the whole SMT franchise. It's not your tipycal setting nor your typical goblins, elves, dwarves and the derivations japs made out of those.

Bizarre is one thing, I can appreciate and handle bizarre; but fighting something that looks like a giant pair of chandelier earrings attached to a sybian with train wheels sidesteps bizarre and goes into "Now logging into deviantart.com/tryhard"

 

[Humanity has risen!]

To counterbalance aleph's shitty and totally irrelevant opinion, it is my duty to say that 4HoL is the only good FF after FF5 and, to some extent, FF9.

Why would that game be good when you can only control one character?

Also yes, part of the fun of the series is all the disturbing design of the monsters, and the disturbing events that happen. Persona is too clean and sanitized.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Why would that game be good when you can only control one character?

Um, what?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iKFiveoNE90#t=26s

Looks like a 4 character party to me. Or am I getting you wrong?

 

[damicore]

Bizarre is one thing, I can appreciate and handle bizarre; but fighting something that looks like a giant pair of chandelier earrings attached to a sybian with train wheels sidesteps bizarre and goes into "Now logging into deviantart.com/tryhard"

I don't think they try THAT hard, there are few overdone monsters designs imo. I still like many of them and the inclusion of several Gods from several religions (although it might come out as kind of absurd).