Question about the Persona series

[Katphood]

I was watching Giantbomb's Game of the Year videos and most of the guys at GB mentioned Persona 4: Arena and Persona 4: Golden on their lists.

 

I enjoy playing Japanese games every once in awhile, mostly action adventures though, I am not a big fan of jrpg's and that's mostly because of this weird mix of turn-based combat and frequent random encounters which has always been a turn-off for me.

 

But this game looks really nifty and I am willing to give it a try regardless of the gameplay(I am mostly interested in the story). Now, how would some of you veteran jrpgers suggest I approach the series? Is it better to start with the first Persona game or should I just start with Persona 4 right away(I am limited to the PS2 version...ughh...)?

 

 

Damn, wish I had a PS Vita...

Edited December 29, 2012 by Astiaks

[Tigranes]

My only exposure is the gigantic Persona 4 LP on the Codex:

 

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/lets-reach-out-to-the-truth-in-persona-4.68074/

 

I enjoyed reading it but it didn't seem great to actually play, for me - a lot of filler. Seems there's a lot of fun stuff inside though.

[Katphood]

Thanks for the link dude. But I'm not a big fan of lp's unless it's some video lp without commentaries.

 

I also frogot to mention the Persona 4: Animated Series. Does anybody know if it's some sort of anime version of the game or is it just a side story or something like that?!

[AGX-17]

I, to my shame, haven't played Persona 1 or either chapter of 2, but I have played 3 and 4. 3&4 are half dungeon-crawler, half-social/relationship sim (what happens when the screen fades to black is up to you to decide, but there are tangible gameplay/combat benefits to every relationship, platonic and romantic, you get the best Personas by maxing out relationships,) and there are no random encounters, enemies are visible and avoidable while traversing the dungeons. You can suffer a disadvantage if attacked from behind on it, or an advantage if you strike the enemy with your sword first. It is turn based, and relies on rock-paper-scissors style elemental damage for the most part, but major bosses and endgame enemies usually have resistances or even reflection of certain elements. It's turn-based combat with some twists, if you hit an enemy with their weakness they'll lose a turn and become more vulnerable, and you can do big combo attacks where everyone rushes and does major damage to the enemies if they're all knocked down.

 

Persona 3/FES doesn't allow you to control your party members, but P3 Portable for PSP and Persona 4 (PS2)/The Golden (PSVita) do. There's more actual RPing involved than your standard JRPG, as well. The protagonist can be customized by changing/creating new "Personas," and keeping a jumble of them "on-hand" at once with the ability to change once per turn to adapt to different enemies and combat situations, while companion characters are limited to their own single persona, usually with elemental restrictions (a given character's Persona typically represents a given element or physical strength.) There's a big Tarot mysticism theme running throughout the series, with personas categorized by different tarot arcana.

 

Incidentially, from what I can tell about P:E's beginnings (player character witnesses strange supernatural event and is changed/affected in some dramatic/world-altering way,) it's almost the same as Persona 3's protagonists' backstory (P3P adds a choice of a female protagonist.)

 

One thing can be said for certain, it has some of the best music in video games, ever, bar-none. Especially the final boss themes. But hit up any track, even generic schoolday/downtime music and you're like to be impressed to some degree. If there's one word to describe the revived Persona series, in both Japan and the US, it's "stylish."

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdMhTL5bZrs

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3gEKpGD4D4

Edited December 29, 2012 by AGX-17

[Tale]

I really liked Persona 3 and 4. As I understand it, they're quite different from 1 and 2. And at least 3 and 4 aren't connected, so you can pick up just about anywhere you would like.

[HoonDing]

Japanese high school drama without hentai? What madness is this?

[Orogun01]

The Megaten series is probably one of the most underrated series ever.

I would also recommend the Digital Devil Saga, The Devil Summoner, and Nocturne(Dante from DMC makes a cameo).

[Katphood]

(Dante from DMC makes a cameo).

 

I remember playing that briefly a few years back. The setting was pretty interesting but the gameplay eventually bored me.

[Orogun01]

Nocturne is the most combat heavy of the series, Persona 3/4 focus more on the relationships and balancing them against study, grinding and the compendium.

[C2B]

Japanese high school drama without hentai? What madness is this?

 

Don't make a mistake! Megaten started out with tentacle sex. (In the books at least, having never played their original game adaptions)

 

Personally, Persona 2 is my favourite. One of the best JRPG's, imo.

 

Random Info:. It's a game series that contains 45 entries. Not counting adaptions in other media of course.

 

Random Info 2: Applies to most Megaten games.

 

LEARN TO USE BUFFS EFFECTIVLY

Edited December 29, 2012 by C2B

[AGX-17]

Japanese high school drama without hentai? What madness is this?

 

Don't make a mistake! Megaten started out with tentacle sex. (In the books at least, having never played their original game adaptions)

 

Personally, Persona 2 is my favourite. One of the best JRPG's, imo.

 

Random Info:. It's a game series that contains 45 entries. Not counting adaptions in other media of course.

 

Random Info 2: Applies to most Megaten games.

 

LEARN TO USE BUFFS EFFECTIVLY

 

Well, the Megami Tensei games are unconnected to the Shin Megami Tensei games outside of the name. The original storyline of the Megami Tensei books has nothing to do with the SMT series or related spinoffs.

 

Random info: My own personal favorite Japanese game series, Super Robot Wars (although it's strategy/TRPG rather than JRPG,) has 62 entries. Not counting adaptations in other media of course.

 

...What? You started it.

Edited December 30, 2012 by AGX-17

[C2B]

Well, the Megami Tensei games are unconnected to the Shin Megami Tensei games outside of the name. The original storyline of the Megami Tensei books has nothing to do with the SMT series or related spinoffs.

 

Your point? SMT still spawned from it.

 

Megami Tensei already had demons, summoning and so on. Persona, Devil Survivor, Devil Kids, Devil Summoner have just as much connection to the SMT series. (And except SMT I&II the mainline SMT series doesn't even have much of a connection. Apart from gameplay and themes of course)

 

*wiseass*Also Persona isn't a SMT spinoff title anyway. *wiseass*

 

And the 45 entries thing was meant to be *random information*. Trivia. Did not have anything in mind there

Edited December 30, 2012 by C2B

[AGX-17]

Well, the Megami Tensei games are unconnected to the Shin Megami Tensei games outside of the name. The original storyline of the Megami Tensei books has nothing to do with the SMT series or related spinoffs.

 

Your point? SMT still spawned from it.

 

Megami Tensei already had demons, summoning and so on. Persona, Devil Survivor, Devil Kids, Devil Summoner have just as much connection to the SMT series. (And except SMT I&II the mainline SMT series doesn't even have much of a connection. Apart from gameplay and themes of course)

 

*wiseass*Also Persona isn't a SMT spinoff title anyway. *wiseass*

 

And the 45 entries thing was meant to be *random information*. Trivia. Did not have anything in mind there

 

Then maybe you should fix the SMT wiki since you're the expert:

 

http://megamitensei....ersona_(series)

 

Anyway, my point was that your implication that SMT and Persona contain tentacle rape is disingenuous and misleading.

Edited December 31, 2012 by AGX-17

[entrerix]

persona 2 is great, persona 3-4 are ok

 

the best persona game is persona 2: eternal punishment

 

note regarding the series: it is EXTREMELY grind heavy. if you like grind heavy games you might not get tired of the grind, but if you dont normally enjoy grinding in rpg's then just skip the series altogether

[Katphood]

note regarding the series: it is EXTREMELY grind heavy. if you like grind heavy games you might not get tired of the grind, but if you dont normally enjoy grinding in rpg's then just skip the series altogether

 

I do hate grind heavy games but the social sim parts of the game are really making me curious. That is one of the things that made me love Red Seeds Profile(Deadly Premonition in US/Europe) and while I have already played the japanese import version to death(collected every single trophy, completed every quest, I had to even use a japanese dictionary for a few of the quests and reverse engineer words from japanese to english) I am still anxiously awaiting the release of the directors cut version of the game.

 

Guys, If you like social sim in games you MUST check this game out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Seeds_Profile

Edited January 1, 2013 by Astiaks

[exodiark]

You can jump to Persona 3 and 4 directly, since they are pretty much unrelated to each other (aside from few cameos), and also unrelated to Persona 1 and 2.

 

Persona 4 are the most WRPG friendly. At the very least, your choice do determine the ending and the relationship with your friends. It's grind-heavy, but not as much as the previous titles.

 

Aside from that, I do enjoy the P3 and P4 characters, dialogues, and humors.

Also, compared to P1 and P2, P3 and P4 has less supernatural elements and more realistic contents, like school, friend-making, fishing, etc.