Atlus Persona 4 Golden - out on Steam

[d1r]

I mean, if we're really talking about a good cast, then Persona 2 should be on top of the rest. Unique and interesting characters, that weren't all fucking 15 years old high schoolers or ACE detectives. 3D-Persona wise, Persona 3 takes the cake over 4 and 5, because the team dynamic was way more interesting due to party members not going along that well with each other at the start of the game, while in P4 and P5 you're best buds at the get go. P1, P2 and P3 feel way more mature than the rest of the series, and I blame P4 and all it's horrible spin-offs for the creative demise of this series.

 

[GhostCow]

I just didn't feel anything for the P3 cast. Yuki-tan and Chidori were kind of hot and Junpei was annoying as fuck. That's all I can really say about any of them. Tough choice between who I dislike more - Junpei or Ryuji

 

[InD_ImaginE]

nah Yosuke is annoying

Junpei >>> Yosuke any day of the day

 

[Valestein]

Ulala Serizawa from P2 is a top tier waifu.

Her battle quote of "Don't undestimate me you fucking bastard!" is ace (0:52)



The P2 duology has the best story of all the personas I've played (2,3 and 4) but the least enjoyable gameplay of the three.

 

[GhostCow]

nah Yosuke is annoying

Junpei >>> Yosuke any day of the day

Did you max out Yosuke's social link? I already liked him but hitting rank 10 is what made him just about unbeatable to me

Spoiler

That fight with the MC is very anime and very badass

Plus he's pretty open about his hatred of faggotry and acts more like a normal teenage boy than Junpei imo

 

[InD_ImaginE]

nah Yosuke is annoying

Junpei >>> Yosuke any day of the day

Did you max out Yosuke's social link? I already liked him but hitting rank 10 is what made him just about unbeatable to me

Spoiler

That fight with the MC is very anime and very badass

Plus he's pretty open about his hatred of faggotry and acts more like a normal teenage boy than Junpei imo

I did and I hate him still. Out of Persona 2 - 4 he is the most annoying party member for me, pretty much the lowest rank . Heck in general Persona 4 cast for most of the time is a miss than a hit to me. The only party members I really like in P4 are Kanji and Yukiko.

 

[cosmicray]

I felt main quest in P3 was better and more interesting(apocalyptic really). Also, it was more varied in terms of side-stories. Junpei's was a highlight for me. But you have other character's arcs developing more. Granted, in P4/5 it was tied to social links, but P3's were tied to story, which made them a bit more meaningful.

 

[1451]

The order I played the games is P4 P5 P3. P5 feels like an actual P3 sequel while P4 is more like a spin off. Also P4 is the worst Persona game I've played. The castles are annoying, the story is too childish and most characters are uninteresting.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

P5 is obviously the worst persona game.

 

[flyingjohn]

Persona 3 does one thing right,the cast feels like it has it own lifestyle that doesn't revolve around the MC.
4 and 5 feel like you are a messiah incarnate and everybody depends on you for growth and basic activities.

 

[Arthandas]

What I've learned from this topic:

P2 is the best Persona game, the only one better is P3 unless you take P4 into consideration which is the best out of this three but still not as good as P5 which is the worst game in the series.

 

[Duraframe300]

What I've learned from this topic:

P2 is the best Persona game, the only one better is P3 unless you take P4 into consideration which is the best out of this three but still not as good as P5 which is the worst game in the series.

To be fair this sums up every franchise in the jrpg section.

 

[Beggar]

That Marie character from the Golden version is above annoying. What a shitty addition

 

[1451]

P3 mc is a messianic figure and everyone relies on him, stop deluding yourself.

 

[karoliner]

 

[Nifft Batuff]

The only acceptable and interesting MCs are those in Persona 1-2. The MC in P3-5 is just a standard JRPG messiah/chosen-one/stokazzo/stereotypical/nondescript/boring character.

 

[MasPingon]

What I've learned from this topic:

P2 is the best Persona game, the only one better is P3 unless you take P4 into consideration which is the best out of this three but still not as good as P5 which is the worst game in the series.

This man just defined the nature of Codex.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

The only acceptable and interesting MCs are those in Persona 1-2. The MC in P3-5 is just a standard JRPG messiah/chosen-one/stokazzo/stereotypical/nondescript/boring character.

Persona 1 MC literally doesn't have any character lmao. Most of P1 protagonist characterization came from side materials not from the game itself.

 

[Duraframe300]

The only acceptable and interesting MCs are those in Persona 1-2. The MC in P3-5 is just a standard JRPG messiah/chosen-one/stokazzo/stereotypical/nondescript/boring character.

Persona 1 isn't really that big when it comes to charachterization and lacks behind even the (imo, entertaining) stereotypes of 3+. That said Persona 2 is something else.

 

[Cat Dude]

I mean, if we're really talking about a good cast, then Persona 2 should be on top of the rest. Unique and interesting characters, that weren't all fucking 15 years old high schoolers or ACE detectives. 3D-Persona wise, Persona 3 takes the cake over 4 and 5, because the team dynamic was way more interesting due to party members not going along that well with each other at the start of the game, while in P4 and P5 you're best buds at the get go. P1, P2 and P3 feel way more mature than the rest of the series, and I blame P4 and all it's horrible spin-offs for the creative demise of this series.

I know it sucks and there are also too many anime with that shit but high schoolers pandering made them a lot of money tbh. Also Kiseki popularity break through started with high school themed Trails of Cold Steel.

 

[Zyondyne]

Picking up Persona 4 made me remember why I abandoned Shin Megami Tensei series several years ago.

I'm not an expert in the series nor a hardcore fan, not even by far, but I've played some of the games such as: Strange Journey, Nocturne, Devil Survivor, Persona 3 and Digital Devil Saga. And what I can tell you for sure is the following - this game series's combat has been largely the same for the past 30 years. I really do appreciate the lore and story of some of these games. Hell, even Persona 3 story was enjoyable to some degree, but let's admit one thing - after some hours, you'll soon realize that all games are bound to become extremely, extremely repetitive and grindy after some hours - to the point they become more of a chore than a pleasure.

Going back to Persona 4. It's basically Persona 3, but will less painful dungeons (though not by much). This time the story is a murder mystery, but what surprised me is that it is way more cheerful in atmosphere, even by Persona standards. The game seems to be targeted to an even younger audience, and almost all the dark, solitary and cold atmosphere of other well known games such as Nocturne is gone.

These are all debatable aspects. You might like the story or you might not. So let's go back to the gameplay.

Combat:

Exactly the same as any other Persona and most SMT games. Exploit weakness, all out attacks and that's the gist of it. The classical elemental damage types + almighty + some debuffs that you'll probably use only during some more difficult bosses.

Dungeons design is absolutely horrendous. No diversity at all. I'm going crazy only thinking about doing another one. Even more so, after torturing you with the same good ol' "weakness -> all out attack -> heal" for some goods hours (because a dungeon has 10 levels or so, which are identic), you'll be forced to redo some of the dungeons FROM THE VERY FIRST FLOOR, to gain materials for some of the most unrewarding and grindy secondary quests ever made. You could ignore them entirely if you are not a completionist, but that does not change the fact that they are extremely uninspired and grindy. At the top of the floor there is an optional boss and the reward is basically nothing.

Personas (as well a enemies) are just skill containers. Skills and skill names have been exactly the same for 30 years. Bufu, Mabufu etc. You know the drill. Some of you probably know them already by heart. Demons/Personas have no personality on their own. You can't talk with them, interact with them, nothing. Even Pokemon, to which SMT is often compared, attempts to make collecting new pokemons more interesting, to integrate them into the story, as opposed to letting the be skill containers and be done. They are only 3D models containing skill slots. The only thing you'll get to know about them is the 3-4 line description in the Compendium. Why the hell would I collect them ALL? They all feel the same anyway.

Social Links:

Some are interesting, some are not - it's largely about taste. Social Links is also a mechanic that will become a chore very fast. You'll just end up navigating the same old menus, moving in and out of the same 4-5 areas the game has to offer. And sometimes you'll inevitably come to check an online guide. There's no degree of liberty and rarely the "correct" answer makes sense. For example, answering "No, thanks" yields 2 social points. "No, thank you" yields 3. There is no difference, besides some wording. But maybe that's because of english translation and in Japanese it makes more sense. Also, bringing a persona to enhance your social link is just a mechanic meant to artificially enlarge the playtime. Going at location, going to Velvet Room, Discarding a persona, buying another one, rinse and repeat.

At some point in time, everything you do becomes extremely repetitive and grindy. Moreover, after some hours, there's little challenge left - and if you already played another SMT game, you already know what to do and what to expect. It honestly looks like they tried to make a game as cheap as possible while experimenting how to enlarge the playtime as much as possible through forced grinding. The only redeemable quality of this series is the dark atmosphere, and in Persona 4 even that is gone.

My favorite SMT games were Strange Journey and Devil Survivor. Strange Journey because it had a more mature, larger scale scope story and Devil Survivor because with its turn based approach it tried to bring some diversity to the series - even if, at the end, the core combat is largely the same. If I remember correctly, Strange Journey was maybe the most repetitive and grindy of them all. It was a Nintendo DS game, but that's no excuse.

Speaking about platforms, looking at Persona 5 (which I haven't played) I can't help it but think - "hey, this is PS4 we're on. No more technical limitations like PS2, Vita or DS had, and yet, it still keeps it PS2 formula..."

I'm genuinely curious what exactly makes Persona 4 or SMT games in general enjoyable to you? Maybe spending 90% of the time navigating menus and grinding the same 3-4 enemy types is comfy for some people, but I just don't want to believe.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

To think that Persona 4 was my first SMT game that I have ever played. More than that, it was my first JRPG that I have ever played tout court. And I have played it for the first time only 4 years ago... It was a kind of epiphany. From then, I have played almost all other SMT games to end, and many other JRPGs. And I am not so young... I am old enough to have played Ultima7 when it came out.

Edit: my best SMT are Nocturne, Strange Journey, Persona 2, SMTIV/A. But the others are not so far.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

I'm genuinely curious what exactly makes Persona 4 or SMT games in general enjoyable to you? Maybe spending 90% of the time navigating menus and grinding the same 3-4 enemy types is comfy for some people, but I just don't want to believe.

Not the combat rcertainly.

In general I like the theme of the series. The mainline games have a strong occult theme while having a coherent narrative, something that's rare (usually occult non-horror games have a nonsensical story or just "lore" sprinkles). Starting from 3/Noctrune onwards (including non-Persona spinoffs like Strange Journey, DDS, or Devil Survivor) the plot is also more structured instead of the more "excuse plot" of trypical Japanese dungeon crawler.

Persona especially 3 onwards, I like the style of the game, combining JRPG, time management (and part SLG/Simulation Game), and visual novel (in the loosest term of the genre) through social links.

I mean in general your same argument of tired of the same shit can be applied to a lot of games you know? And yet there are people fervently playing them anyway.

 

[Zyondyne]

I'm genuinely curious what exactly makes Persona 4 or SMT games in general enjoyable to you? Maybe spending 90% of the time navigating menus and grinding the same 3-4 enemy types is comfy for some people, but I just don't want to believe.

Not the combat rcertainly.

In general I like the theme of the series. The mainline games have a strong occult theme while having a coherent narrative, something that's rare (usually occult non-horror games have a nonsensical story or just "lore" sprinkles). Starting from 3/Noctrune onwards (including non-Persona spinoffs like Strange Journey, DDS, or Devil Survivor) the plot is also more structured instead of the more "excuse plot" of trypical Japanese dungeon crawler.

Persona especially 3 onwards, I like the style of the game, combining JRPG, time management (and part SLG/Simulation Game), and visual novel (in the loosest term of the genre) through social links.

I mean in general your same argument of tired of the same shit can be applied to a lot of games you know? And yet there are people fervently playing them anyway.

I agree, the uniqueness of the atmosphere and the occult theme is why I even tried playing the series further.

Also, I've seen other game series evolving their formulas over time. Final Fantasy did it, Dragon Quest did it, Fire Emblem did it, Legend of Zelda did it.

Take Final Fantasy VI (1994) and Final Fantasy XIII (2009). Quite a difference, in both how they look and how they play, generally and in what concerns combat systems. For better or worse.

Now take Shin Megami Tensei II (1994), Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (2009). Same time gap, but the combat is fundamentally the same when speaking about SMT.

They've always been based around grind and artificial difficulty spikes.

 

[cosmicray]

Well, maybe SMT is an exception. Almost every JRPG I've played tried to change its combat from game to game.